Rainbow Dash sat on the kitchen floor next to the sink, confused. Were they really planning to eat her? Mental images of herself being ground up felt too real to ignore. But... they had been so kind thus far. They had fed her and kept her warm when they could have chosen not to. She felt like the uncertainty weakened her more than the fact that she had just thrown up. Where would she go if she ran? Unable to fly, she wouldn't be able to get that far away from these creatures anyway. She cast her gaze through the nearest window, seeing a few scattered clouds over the mountains on the horizon. She stared at them with longing. Up there, she would've been safe no matter what happened on the ground. Up there was where she belonged - where she was in control. Stuck on the ground, she wasn't. Here, she was subject to the whims of the doctors. Subject to the whims of predators.
Even so, she didn't want to flee. They didn't really look that scary, and if Fluttershy could handle carnivores on a regular basis, then Rainbow Dash wasn't about to be one-upped in bravery - she, too, had stood up to far more dangerous creatures than these! Had she just been in proper health, she would easily have taken any of them on! She ground her teeth.
If they try to mess with me, I'll show them who the best pony is!
With that, she pushed herself to stand up again. She doubted she would ever not find meat-eating disgusting, but she could try to ignore it as long as it was kept out of sight. To make sure of that, she slammed the white metal door shut before proceeding to fetch herself a cup of water to cleanse the taste of vomit from her mouth.
Daniel had to pace himself to keep a good grip on his laptop, as the harness wasn't exactly designed for sprinting, not even for short distances. Tarry had run off as soon as Daniel informed him about seeing it outside, saying to follow suit to see to the "pegasus". Assuming he hadn't somehow stolen one of NASA's Pegasus rockets, that would imply they had decided to classify the alien that way. Not exactly what Daniel had thought of when he saw it, but he was far too excited to relax and think deeply about it - he was about to see an actual alien close-up!
Since he had lost track of Tarry's movement once he disappeared through the entrance of a nearby building, he followed the slightly slower woman to whom he had been briefly introduced. She seemed to know the way as well, and they caught up after ascending to the second floor. There, Tarry stood in the doorway, silent and staring. Not one to ask before entering, Daniel rushed past him and was greeted by a clearly suspicious scowl. Not from Tarry, but from the alien sitting on the floor.
Apart from the initial surprise, he didn't think much of it - after all, it'd be arrogant to assume human facial expressions were universal, so it could mean anything from despair to arousal. Just in case, though, he quickly knelt and bowed his head. Hopefully, putting himself in a vulnerable position by focusing his eyesight on the floor and making himself seem smaller would convey that he didn't intend harm, as it would be very practical if they were able to trust one-another.
Tarry and Flora stood back and quietly talked among themselves, but Daniel was far more interested in getting a reaction out of the alien. He could obviously use mathematics, but that wouldn't answer anything without a mutually agreed-upon contextualization. He unpacked his laptop once more.
"Have you established a means of communication yet?"
It took a moment for anyone to speak. Finally Tarry, looking uncomfortable and perhaps a little embarrassed, took it upon himself to respond.
"No, we actually didn't think it was intelligent until earlier today. In fact, I didn't really believe it until I saw it drinking directly from that cup just now." He took a deep breath. "Tool use... actually raises more questions than it answers."
Somehow, Daniel was sure it wasn't limited to simple tool use. After all, if it had come to the Earth, it must have both means and reasons for being there, and considering the problems humankind faced just jumping to the next planet in the solar system, he had no reason to believe the trip was anything short of daunting.
Turning back around with the intent of conducting his own investigation, he calmed himself and started observing. He took note of the cup that stood next to the 'pegasus', as well as the fact that it did not have any fingers at the end of its limbs. If it was a pegasus, he supposed he should call them hooves, but the tips of its legs didn't look that much like hooves at all, at least not from a distance. The rest fit, though - it did seem to be a winged quadruped. He figured he should leave biological nomenclature to the biologists - to him, the important part was that it lacked a practical way to grip objects and didn't wield any technological accessories, not even ones that would assist in such a simple task, yet somehow it had managed. He thought of his own deferring position, and came to a natural realization.
Perhaps it intentionally beamed down defenseless and without any technology in order to not intimidate us primitive humans, he thought. Then... maybe it's also intentional that it interrupted a great scientific experiment, making sure that it was noticed, allowing the pegasi to observe how we treat it...
That seemed like a rather cruel and potentially dangerous thing to do, especially for a highly-advanced civilization capable of exploring space. Then again, interstellar travel would likely require generational ships, meaning it might not even be visiting of its own volition - it just happened to be born on a spaceship which was on route to Earth. That could mean there were more pegasi beamed down other places on Earth as well. He should probably pay closer attention to international news from now on - there might be more than war for once.
Staring intensely, he tried to catch on to any piece of information the pegasus' visuals might offer, eventually concluding that it wasn't at all what he had expected to make first contact with. Granted, cheap science fiction had colored his expectations somewhat, but a small, winged horse without feathers or hair was rather far down on his list. Not only was it bared of technology, it was completely naked, though it didn't appear ashamed about it since it didn't try to cover itself. Even at a distance he could see the mammalian traits on her - assuming sexual reproduction, he was now relatively sure it was a 'her' - which also was somewhat unexpected, though it did raise the hope that some aspects of their society were structured similarly to humankind's. He was sure there was more information to be harvested, but he was unable to induce anything more specific than he already had, so he finally blinked, breaking his stare. For some reason, the pegasus seemed to smile at his doing so. It was a little strange, but not very pressing, so he thought nothing more of it and instead continued along his old train of thought.
No doubt the pegasi already gathered information on humans before making contact, he thought. He wondered how long they had been watching for - if the Greeks were right, they could have been investigating Earth for thousands of years. The thought induced a little shame on humanity's behalf - the pegasi would have observed millenia of meaningless bloodshed. Only during the last couple of centuries had any progress truly been made, and humans were still murdering one-another. He wondered if the history of the pegasi was equally violent, and why they finally had decided to make contact now.
"I would like access to all the information you've gathered about her so far," the synthetic voice demanded, perhaps a bit more bluntly than intended.
MSL (Mars project) total price tag: $2.5 billion.
London 2012 Olympics budget price tag: £11.5 billion.
Cancel the Olympics for a decade, and you'd have a manned base on Mars.
1073938
We can even sell the TV rights to NBC! All we need to do is make up some "human interest" crap about the pioneers.
Also, nice chapter! Looking forward to see how you tackle the language barrier. Great job with letting the human imagination run away with its self as well, it's good characterization.
1073938nice video 0_0
1073938
When you put the numbers that way, it's really friggin' depressing.
Yay! More science-y wience-y Fanfiction!
Short chapter was short!
Well it's better than nothing. I can't tell you have many orphaned fanfics I've been holding out for completion on...
1073938
Yearly US DoD spendings: ~$700 billion
I think RD was having a staring contest with him, lol.
Heh. The thought processes he's come up with in explaining Dash's existence are really interesting; it would make sense that Pegasi would be aliens, watching since ancient times.
Of course, little does he know that's entirely not the case.
I can't wait for them to find out she got there by accident. Awesome chapter, keep up the good work.
I suggest making the chapters twice as long, even if it will cost the updates to be twice as rare.
How underfunded the sciences have become is so depressing.
1074753 Clearly we need to take a bunch of elvis impersonators and give them lab coats.
1075271
Your comment fills me with confusion. Clearly, I am missing a joke. I hate it when that happens.
Your avatar fills me with joy! Hello, fellow Otter!
1075325 Civ 1 entertainment specialists vs science specialists.
1075375
I should have known that given I put thousands of hours into Civ 1.
Can't wait for Chapter 14.
The chapter seemed to linger on a bit near the end with all the speculation. Overall though it was good.
I'm just glad you didn't make Dash completely freak out. I mean she had been best friends with a griffin growing up, and you don't get much more predator than an eagle/lion hybrid.
MORE
I like this chapter. Focus goes more toward Dash, setting up hilarious misunderstanding, and ponies using cups. Seriously, how do they do it?
My only complaint is Dash's opinion on carnivory. She was best friends with a griffin, after all.
Other than that, an entertaining chapter, if a short one. Definitely looking forward to more.
i am totally endorsed, please give me moar!
dashie must show them how totally awesome she is! and her cutie mark! and her awesome rainbow mane
1073938
That's politics and world economy for you:
Scientific explorations that will give us a better understanding of the universe and how it functions. Budget cuts.
Building the buildings for the Olympics as well as other expensive things only to tear it down after the Olympics? ALL THE MONEY! ALL OF IT!
Once again, we prove why nations rise and fall: we fund 'extra-curricular' projects and baseless (hey, I like sports, and it's nice watching my country beat up on everyone else, but seriously, for all the revenue you make from tourism and stuff from the Olympics, I doubt it covers that money you spent to build the structures.) ideas, yet when it comes to expanding our understanding of the enigmatic universe-- heck, we don't even understand our planet entirely either-- we just roll our eyes and call it 'not worthy of our tax money,' despite the benefits outweighing the cons in a massive landslide. Granted, I am but a high-school student with a penchant for Science; what do I know of the workings of governments and the economy?
America will never fall, 'MERICA! Rainbow Dash is smarter than the OOMONS!
Straying into the obligitory "humans are bastards" statement that every human meets pony story has.
*Sigh*
1074484 That's what I figured too. Which means, of course, she won.
1076633 dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/lolface_Celestia.png
Wait till Daniel freaks when he finds out that the pegasus is protected by a seemingly sufficiently advanced energy field.
Next part? wiki.teamfortress.com/w/images/thumb/5/55/Pyro_Director1.png/104px-Pyro_Director1.png
This story is awesome, it can't just die yet!
I actually have a slightly-longer-than-usual chapter written up, but my brand new laptop on which I have written it refuses to connect to the brand new internet I finally got in my apartment. It's an issue, but I'll probably upload it when I get to uni tomorrow.