Rainbow stretched her legs in all directions, slowly rotating in the gravity-free confines of the ship. "I am dying." She slapped a button. "Flutters! For the love of everything, tell me we have an update from AJ."
Fluttershy glanced up from her monitoring, flicking through her feed for anything related to Applejack. "Um, it's in your queue. And I think she's still talking to that, um, human, um, Cindy."
Rainbow used her wings to manipulate several monitors at once. "I am so jealous right now. The humans haven't killed AJ or nothin'. I wanna be down there! I want to be in gravity. I want to have special friends." She folded her arms over her chest. "Why's AJ get to have one?"
Fluttershy stared at the back of Rainbow's head as the other mare whined and complained about things, bringing up all sorts of good points to moan about. "Um, we're all special friends?" She drifted in place, looking over the ever-so-slightly swaying cables that connected her to the ship itself. The navigation feed, the power feeds, a multitude of options, each needed for the safety of their crew.
Rainbow drifted up next to Fluttershy, spinning upside down and tilting her head back to see what she was doing. "What's that?"
Fluttershy leaned over and touched her snout to Rainbow's as her fellow pony drifted past. "Humans have a multitude of languages. While most of our database is that of 'English', we have some of other dialects. I'm working on improving the translator. With a little magic, I think I can home in on the core source of their words, so it can work on all their languages at once."
"Is that why you're plugged into the ship?" Rainbow propped herself against the other mare's frame, taking a look at what Fluttershy was doing with her eyes. There was a whole lot of text that meant nothing to her, and most of it was flying by too fast to even begin to grasp, but she watched it anyway, appreciating the complexity. "You are a miracle-worker, you know that." She thrust a hoof towards the front of the ship. "Ugh, stuck in orbit, I can't fly!"
Fluttershy stirred softly, pressing back into Rainbow gently. "You just want to play games, or visit their world." She gently smacked her tail against Rainbow's back. "We're supposed to be here for support."
Rainbow poked her in the cheek, stopping the process of receiving data. "Come on! We need to go check this place out. Have you seen all the sights down there?"
Fluttershy grinned down at Rainbow, but gently pressed her away. "I'll let Applejack know how you're feeling. In the meanwhile, why not play with Pinkie Pie? She loves playing. And you can always see about making some games from our world to show off to them."
Rainbow pumped her foreleg as she twisted in the air. "Sweet! You are the best, Flutters!" She blew a kiss towards her, fluttering her lashes as she moved towards the back of the ship where Pinkie had commandeered a sizable room all to herself. "Pinkie!"
The hyperactive pony floated in place, legs waving about with a carefree smile on her face, a single tooth showing as she opened her mouth in an excited cry of delight. "Rainbow Dash! I have so many ideas for games to play!"
Rainbow blinked. "Woah, I didn't even mention that yet."
Pinkie tapped at her head. "One of many improvements I signed up for when we got on this mission."
Rainbow squinted at Pinkie, gently crashing into her as momentum carried them together. "You're joking." She poked at Pinkie's forehead with a hoof. "You do not have some sort of—" She tried to think of a good name for it. "PSI powers! You'd be shouting about it."
Pinkie giggled as she grabbed Rainbow's head, holding it in her hooves as she stared into Rainbow's eyes. "Rainbow Dash. When we started, I became the ultimate pony for an ultimate mission." She spun them around, giggling all the while.
Rainbow laughed, shaking her head. "I swear, Pinks. I'm never sure exactly where your jokes end or not. Alright, so, game. You said you had one in mind?"
"Foals!" Pinkie threw apart her forelegs, streamers exploding from her in all directions.
Rainbow blinked with confusion. "Foals? What about them? We don't have any. Can you imagine them being okay with dragging foals lightyears away!" She slowly waved a hoof about the ship. "Can you imagine having five of us being trapped on this tiny thing?!"
Pinkie gently pulled Rainbow into her side, crushing her against her barrel. "Silly, I meant making some."
Rainbow hiked a brow at that. "Uh, Pinks? Hate to break this to you, but the whole crew, all of us? We're girls, mares. It's gonna be hard to get with foals with only ladies around." She rolled a hoof with a snort. "Besides, zero gravity foals? Not how I'd want to raise any kiddo of mine if I was gonna have one."
Pinkie poked at Rainbow's side, teasing her gently. "Heeey! Maybe there's ways we could figure it out! Have fun at the same time!" She leaned in close, whispering something to Rainbow as she glanced up towards the camera mounted near them.
Those unheard words made Rainbow tremble powerfully. "What? No way."
"Yes way," sang Pinkie, bouncing off a wall with a grin. "If we turned around right now and went home, we'd be super dead before we got there. That'd be sad. Princes Celestia gave me a secret super duper secret order. Shhh!" She pressed a hoof to her muzzle with a wink and a click of her tongue. "She told me to enjoy the mission to the best of my ability, and even if it takes a little while, the world below us has everything we need to make some more ponies! Well, she hoped it would, and it does!" She hopped from wall to wall as she spoke, flipping around in an unending loop of energy as she jumped between topics without warning. "I read everything about them. They're cute. And they want friends too!"
She excitedly clapped her hooves. "So! When we go down there, and we will all go down there, we get to play the foal game, and ponies and humans get to be friends forever." She snorted into renewed laughter. "Won't that be fun?!"
Rainbow grinned, pushing away from Pinkie as she spread her wings, floating around the hyperactive mare. "Yeah! And I'll get to race! It'll be great! But how are you going to make some foals? Again, all mares. Usually, you know, you need a mare and a stallion. We didn't bring any stallions with us, so, you know, no foals?"
Pinkie clicked her tongue, shaking her head from side to side. "Not true! We can do it!" She patted her belly with a smile. "I'll just need a few special things to make some! Princess Celestia is fine with it. Twilight had the secret." She grabbed at Rainbow, pulling them together snout to snout. "Remember what she likes to say, Friendship is Magic. In this case, Friendship is Foals." She spread her hooves wide, spinning through the air, watching the lines of streamers explode from her form, dancing along in the endless twirl as they cascaded down and off to vanish against the walls around them, wrapping the two ponies in their own colorful cocoon, safe and happy inside the ship, ignoring the vast cold emptiness beyond their hull, along with the dangerous journey behind them and ahead of them.
Rainbow relaxed in her Pinkie-hug of streamers. "Well, you haven't changed. Seriously though, we've been friends forever, Pinkie. I don't have any foals. Neither do you. How do you plan to change that?"
Pinkie exploded free of her wrapping. "Oh, that's easy!" She floated to a window and pointed through, to the planet below. "Twilight figured, if we were alone, it'd just be too sad to bring foals into things, so she set it up so we needed not-ponies. Not-ponies and friendship! Those are the two things. Get a friend and hug them tight!" She hugged herself with a squeak. "Love them very much, and if they love you back, then we get foals."
Rainbow's brow drew in, trying to parse what she was hearing. "Uh. So you're saying that Twilight made a spell for humans that will make them able to have foals? That's, um, wow."
Pinkie pushed off a wall to grab Rainbow in a hug. "Humans, ponies, any two of us that are for-real friends. Won't matter if we're mares, of if they're a mare." She inclined her head. "I mean, we mighta made friends with aliens that didn't have mares! What would we do then? Nope! Her spell doesn't care. Two bosom buddies, one's not a pony. Foals. Easy as that." She pulled away from Rainbow with a giggle, pinching at her cheek. "All you have to do is find a human that you really like. I can't wait to start looking, but we have to get down there." She waved a hoof at Earth so far away. "Just don't be too surprised if someone wants to make foals with me first!" She poked Rainbow's chest with a laugh and spun away. "Gotta check my stuff."
Rainbow grabbed Pinkie's tail to stop her fleeing. "So, uh, who have you told about this?"
"Just you, so far." Pinkie inclined her head left and right. "I figured I'd let everypony in on it once we were all on the ground."
Rainbow booped Pinkie on the nose. "Applejack made a friend, Pinkie." She rolled her eyes. "A human friend. I hear they're getting along pretty well."
Pinkie straightened in place, going stiff as she seemed to process that, and she very slowly turned her head towards Rainbow, a strange smile forming on her face as she stared at the other mare with wide eyes. "Well now. Hopefully nothing happens before we get down there?"
Rainbow pressed a hoof to her face, pinching the bridge of her snout. "Pinkie! She, or the human, or maybe both? They could be doing the foal thing, right now! And neither of them know it's coming! This is bad. We need to tell her, right now!"
Pinkie reached out to stop Rainbow from running off to do something so rash. "Don't." She patted at Rainbow's shoulders gently, letting her streamers dissipate, setting them adrift in the small room. "We need to have faith in her, and the human."
"Faith?! This isn't a faith thing, Pinks." Rainbow set her hooves on her hips. "Even if we assume they are super friends, it's just rude to not tell somepony there's a foal on the way."
Pinkie rolled one shoulder gently as she moved over to a crate, giving it a nudge to open it. Inside were all sorts of wrapped up sweets and other things. "If they are, then they'll figure it out, won't they?"
Rainbow massaged at her temples, unable to grasp the way Pinkie thought things through. At least that hadn't changed.
Pinkie Pie seemed off the rails a bit, even by her own standards.
She's really going to put her friend through life-changing stuff, and treat it like a game ?
Aside, I hope you're having fun with the updates.
11896385
Turns out Applejack was allergic to that particular adhesive, goes into anaphylactic shock.
Applejack is such a silly pony!
...Um.
This is...concerning.
11896428
If she pulls Applejack aside(before going down) and warns her about this, her guard will be up, and friends become far less likely to happen.
But would the foals be completely Pony for the Pony one of the couple, and completely human for the human one? Or would any foals be human-Pony satyrs, or human-Pony centaurs?
I'm starting to get a bit weirded out now.
11896457
This is the first odd thing that struck you?
Wait, was Pinkie's choice of upgrade a pair of wings?
Yikes.
Edit: Aw.
11896491
(fixfix)
Wait a sec, these ponies can make foals by hugging? This story just got 20% weirder.
11896494
When you fixed that, you made it into another typo, "poniesin."
11896432
this......this SCREAMS conversion burau .......I sincerely hope not.....would not mind a bit of human and pony romance though either way.
also, what does Pinkie mean they cant go back I fail to see how or understand it's a one-way trip if it is I was hoping for more ponies or maybe griffons to show up. I mean how did the ponies get to Earth without some sort of faster-than-light travel
Oh no! It's the human's worst nightmare. The ponies are going to conquer Earth by using magic and friendship to get all the human females pregnant with pony foals. Why have a baby when you can have a foal!
Well this went and jumped tracks like a Mexican jumping train...
11896465
Yes
Wtf?
Oh.
One way FTL portal.
I really hope they didnt have to power it by detonating the planet or such.
As for this entity called Pinkie? She seems to be doing the Hard Light Hologram thing? As for the Foals thing, oh boy, thats going to take a long, long while mining in the Archive Vaults for the theoretic tech.
TL:DR Holograms are Magic.
"There are literally no possible ways this could go wrong. It's foal-proof!"
Someone could aim a thermonuclear warhead at the Equestrian ship. The ponies didn't seem to include any defenses in their ship design. Not including an FTL return spell was pretty stupid as well. They got magic, they got friendship, but their Wisdom ability score really sucks. Things will really get ugly when humans start getting pregnant with pony foals without even having sex. Is a simple hoof bump enough to conceive or is an actual hug required?
11896758
They said sincere friendship has to be given and received.
The Secret Service is pretty safe. This is a job for them. None of them regard Apple Jack as a true blue friend.
It's interesting to see a scientific explanation in this universe for Pinkie having psychic powers, since I'm used to just assuming she has them by default.
The idea of pony/human reproduction is interesting, especially since it reminds me of the two unconventional ways of making foals that I know of. G1 had a foal making mirror, and G3 had rainbows making foals when they crossed together.
This is the biggest surprise in the story so far, for me, and though my mind is racing in terms of possibilities for how the process would work, or how the foals might look, I'm very excited to see how things will end up shaking out.
As in ending-with-foals?
Also, do we even need stallions anymore?
this came through like a freight train