"The wise ones fashioned speech with their thought, sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve."- Buddha

Before Shadow could react to Twilight's joke, X-ray immediately changed the subject. He didn't need the dragon to go insane.

"So Spike, is it true that the fire breath of a purple dragon is so powerful, it can rip through space time and teleport objects?"

"Is it also true Dragons eat gems since their stomachs are so strong?" added Scorch.

"And is it true that Dragons live on forever?" asked Scarecrow.

"Yes, yes and we only live up to 600 years, but a dragon can let go of his life after a hundred." answered Spike.

"Do you intend on living that long?" he questioned Spike.

The young dragon's eyes shot up. "Huh, I never really thought about that. I mean on one hoof I get to eat all the gems I want, but on the the other hoof I'd see everypony I know and love die." The dragon lost himself in thought.

"So how are the books Shadow?" asked Twilight. The alicorn could hardly remember a time when somepony just walked up to her and asked for a good book. Whenever ponies did ask her for a piece of literature it was always related to some scheme. Now that she was an Alicorn, nopony would step in her home unless asked to.

X-ray slowly brought up his masked face to Twilight and gave a small sigh of annoyance. Twilight's ears dropped in response.

"How do I put this nicely? The books we're reading are basically the same Greek Myths we grew up reading as children. No seriously, it's the exact same story, only with ponies."

Twilight's mouth hung open before she gave a small chuckle. "There's no way we've written the same stories as, I mean come on, those old pony tales have to be passed-"

"Twilight we're serious." interrupted Scarecrow. "There's Helen of Troy, The Odyssey and the story of Heracles. But instead of Aristotle, it's ArisTROTle."

"Wow, that's kind of of interesting." smiled the purple alicorn.

"KIND OF INTERESTING?" panned Scorch. "Stories written by ancient humans that have existed for thousands of years is kind of interesting?"

"Where did you ponies find these stories from in the first place?" asked Overwatch, his mask still glued on his book.

"Well obviously we couldn't just steal them from you. When we wrote those stories, the pony tribes weren't even unified as one." defended Twilight.

"Well, not only is the fact that ponies have books on Greek mythology uncanny..." stated Scorch. The demo man got up and started looking at the titles of the books that surrounded him. "Ponies seem to have written EVERY book humans wrote that predated the enlightenment era. But once again, from a pony's perspective."

X-ray started to look around as well. "It's as if you went through the same time periods as western Europe, with only a few subtle differences."

"We couldn't have possibly gone over the same history as your species." defended Twilight. "You don't have a solar princess, nor do humans have magic. Those are big differences and can effect the progress of society."

"You should be right Twilight." nodded Scarecrow as he read the back cover of a book. "But from what I'm getting, it seems ponies feel obliged to follow the foot steps of humanity. Although judging by the dates on these books, it seems that your society has been stuck within a renaissance period for thousands of years without mention of a neolithic or paleolithic time period. It's as if you started from a; let say ancient Greek era."

Twilight puffed. "I hope your not implying that ponies are related to half wits because we have always been intelligent-"

"Oh yeah, ponies believe in creationism." remembered Overwatch.

"Anyway, why should ponies have to change what's good? We've had thousands of years of peace and-"

"Thousands of years that could have been used to advance your species further. Based on the fact that these books, especially ones that are revolutionary, are published at time intervals far more apart than humanity's counterparts, I get the feeling that ponies don't like knew ideas." noted X-ray.

"That's because we ponies have a belief of 'better safe than sorry'." defended Twilight.

"As for echoing our race step by step," began Scorch "I say at the rate your species is going, you're going to inevitably evolve to follow the footsteps of humanity, but at a rate much, much slower than ours. Books published by a pony counterpart of figures such as John Locke and Thomas Hobbes have yet to exist apparently."

"So, what you're saying is one day......our species will end up like yours?" questioned the alicorn.

"Well your town does resemble England in the late renaissance." muttered X-ray.

"Seriously though, how is that possible!" raged Scarecrow. "Not only does Epona have human culture, human language and human architecture, but human history as well. That last part can not be a coincidence at all!"

"Well ponies started where we were and we moved on-"

"But you didn't start out from ancient Greek-like city states. You'd have to start out from being a dirty animal, to cave ponies and so and so forth. The only way for ponies to progress the same ways as us is to have either been instructed by humans step by step on how to evolve and I know for a fact that we haven't been advanced enough to guide a species that has existed for thousands of years."

"Doesn't this bother you?" asked X-ray.

"It does actually." nodded Twilight. "But I think it's purely a coincidence since there seems to be no logical explanation for the sameness between our races."

"EVERYTHING has an explanation." beamed Overwatch.

"But if influence isn't a valid reason for our similarities, than how can ponies have numerous historical human counter parts?" wondered Scarecrow.

"Early humans progressed through influence of their environment." remarked X-ray. "Since Epona's environment is different than Earth's, then surely they should have adopted a completely separate culture."

"I am telling you, ponies have always been intelligent. Our earliest influences came from our goddess. Not, plants, rocks or dirt!" gritted Twilight

Scorch crossed his arms. "Fine. Let's assume you were created intelligently. Still, the fact that human historical counterparts exist on your planet would assume that everypony had the mind of a western European."

The 4 humans looked at Twilight's skull.

"Oh no. You are not lobotomizing anypony." beamed the purple alicorn.

The thought that ponies would be following humanity's food steps sent shivers down the alicorn's spine. She was less focused on the fact that being humanity's echo could mean space travel in the near future and was more worried about how it could mean ponies would resort to creating harsh killing machines like Shadow.

"You know," remarked Scorch. "While I don't think your species is a literal copy of ours, you get the feeling that ponies have been through everything western Europe has, with the notable exception of wars. Similar to how Zebras are like Africans and Griffins resemble Persians."

"But to suggest a theory like that would mean you'd have to look at every aspect of pony history." noted Twilight.

"Well looks like there's only one way to be certain." sighed Scarecrow.

Twilight laughed. "There's no way you could read all these book right now, you have a gathering to attend to in a few minutes."

"Who said anything about physically reading?" questioned X-ray.

The 4 members of Shadow each grabbed a book. The next thing Twilight knew, their shades started to emit a red flash, followed by Shadow immediately flipping over the all the pages of book in a second and closing it.

Shadow repeated the process book after book to Twilight's confusion.

"What are you doing?" questioned the alicorn princess.

"We're scanning these books onto our cloud storage." explained Scorch.

That didn't help the mare's situation. "What exactly is cloud stor-"

"Your species is too primitive for me to give an explanation."

All of a sudden there was a knock at the door.

Twilight flew over to the entrance in a rush. Before she opened the door she immediately turned to Shadow; "What are you 4 doing? Hide?"

"Relax it's just Pinkie, Applejack and the rest of the ponies we already know." muttered Scarecow.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "How did you know-"

"Magnetic Vision."

Twilight opened the door and let in her friends quickly before anypony could notice.

Pinkie Pie skipped over to X-ray who was scanning books onto his data banks like wildfire.

"Hey there...." Pinkie checked the notes on her hooves:

"....X-ray, how are you doing?"

"Oh we're just great!" sarcastically remarked Scarecrow before X-ray could speak. "Not only did we find out ponies rip off our language and architecture but our history too!"

"My, what a lovely coincidence." nodded Fluttershy.

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Anyway the ponies outside-"

"Who cares what the ponies outside think?" beamed Scorch. "We just discovered that Equestria has pony counterparts of humans. Is that not strange?"

"Not really." said Applejack. "Great minds think alike."

Scorch crossed his arms and turned around. "Wow, we point out something worth an inter-species crisis and you just dismiss it. You're fucking pathetic."

Suddenly, everypony gasped. Not because of the swear, but because Scorch broke his Pinkie promise to be nice.

Pinkie was far less than pleased. The pink mare's eyes were on fire and the party pony was gritting her teeth hard. Scorch just stood in place.

"You. Broke. A. Pinkie promise." snarled the party pony.

"I'll destroy you!"

"Scorch run! for your life" warned Rarity. The demo man stood still.

The pink mare charged at the counter terrorist unleashed her wrath on him while muttering inoffensive curses all the while.
Unfortunately for Pinkie, her 'wrath' failed to penetrate Scorch's overshield.

After a minute of standing still and ignoring Pinkie's anger. Scorch sighed and picked up the party pony.

"YOU JERK. I CAN'T BELIEVE-"

"Pinkie."

"YOU BROKE YOUR PROMISE."

"Calm down."

"YOU'RE A LIAR"

"How about I make it up with another Pinkie Promise?"

"YOU'RE A MEANIE!"

"I Pinkie promise to break this Pinkie Promise."

"I'LL SEE TO IT-"

"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

"THAT YOU'LL.....wait did you Pinkie promise to break a pinkie promise?"

Scorch nodded.

"But how does that work and........." suddenly the pink mare shut down.

X-ray groaned and picked her up.

"Like I was saying." spoke up Rainbow Dash. "The ponies outside are ready for the reveal."

"I'll be the one to introduce us." proposed X-ray.

"You don't sound enthusiastic." noticed Rarity.

"I'm a nearly psychotic commando who shouldn't be exposed to the public that is going to be addressing a crowd of multi colored ponies with utmost formality. That doesn't sound ridiculous at all." shrugged the rifleman.

"You don't have to act too serious if it would make you feel comfortable." suggested Fluttershy.

"Actually, I think I should handle the introductions." said Scarecrow. "At least I have a chance of not breaking down laughing the embarrassing nature of the situation."

"We're not even meant to be a first contact team." noted Scorch. "We were just meant to scout ahead until a proper team would touch down. Then dragons came."

"Ah think y'all do fine. Ponies are a fun lovin' bunch anyway. Just be nice." insisted Applejack.

"Right. Nice. I can probably do that." sighed Scarecrow. "Let's just hope these ponies will cooperate in turn. We'll need a pretty good excuse for revealing ourselves to our officers."

"By the way. I want you to get rid of those weapons right now." ordered Twilight.

"Disarming us will be viewed as threat." glared Scorch.

Twilight rolled her eyes in annoyance. These humans were the stubbornness group she had met.

"All right Shadow form up on me." ordered Scarecrow. The 3 other members approached their CO and cloaked before heading outside. "The moment we're done meeting with the princesse's we're getting to the bottom of this planet right away."

"I'll wait here!" called Spike from behind. The dragon had some napping to catch up on.

The cloaked humans easily dodged the oblivious ponies as the approached the gathering site. Twilight on the other hoof, had to deal with ponies worshiping her on the way.

Celestia's sun had begun to set. Time had flied by so quickly.

Finally the Mane 6 and Shadow made made it to the town center. Everypony in the town had flocked to the event, awaiting what their princess would reveal to them. There was a magnificent stage centered in the town

Twilight and the mane 6 ascended the stair case followed by the invisible counter terrorists. The mummers of ponies died down the moment they laid eyes on their heroes.

Twilight approached the microphone and the everypony within the vicinity bowed down. Twilight rolled her eyes and gave a small cry of annoyance in response.

Shadow noticed this. Apparently Twilight didn't seem to enjoy the worship and praise. Didn't matter though, it was second to their objective of gaining information from the ponies. Scratch that, demanding information.

"Good day Everypony. You may rise."

The citizens of ponies did so and admired the glow of their princess in the sunset all the while.

"Good afternoon my humble subjects. It is with a great honor that I announce that a remarkable discovery had been made a few days ago.". Twilight paused. That sounded like her dream.

The ponies didn't cheer like they did in her vision but rather gave whispers of excitement.

"For a long time, we the ponies of Epona believed that the vast and infinite cosmos were a lifeless void with our planet being a tiny beacon of life. Now I am pleased to say, that we have been proved wrong." continued Twilight. Once again, she realized she was copying the speech of her vision.

Ponies in the crowd were not oblivious to their princesse's uneasiness.

"A few days ago, my and friends and I made a history defining discovery. At night time, an extraequestrian ship descended from the stars and landed on our planet. Today marks the day that Epona will make contact with the human race!" As the crowd cheered. Twilight lost herself in thought. Everything had been going like her vision pre mentioned.

Suddenly the microphone levitated up in the air from an unknown source. This would have been a normal sight in ponyville, but there was no magical aura to represent a telekinetic grab.

Just as the cries of the ponies died down, Scarecrow's mechanical voice spoke into the microphone;

"Everypony, prepare to meet a species like no other."

Suddenly, Scarecrow and his 3 allies uncloaked and revealed themselves to the ponies-

and the town got flash banged. Immediately after laying sights on the humans, the head everypony that had never seen Shadow before immediately exploded with pain, vision started blurring and ear piercing frequencies were heard.

The adults were the least disturbed, fillies and colts were almost fainting and all the foals began crying upon gazing and the 4 masked humans.

All the while, Scarecrow and the other humans simply stood there, disturbed and confused by the whole ordeal. All they had done was reveal themselves and ponies looked like they had been bombarded with a sonic boom.

The Mane 6 however, kind of expected it. When they first looked at Shadow, there was something about their form and presence that made them loose their minds and the sheer complexity of their structure somehow hurt them.

After a few minutes of adjusting to the humans, the ponies in the crowds started conversing about mindfuck they just received.

Scarecrow hoped he hadn't done some thing wrong. No one in his squad had scramblers turned on, no one was equipped with a flash bang and nobody emitted a sonic pulse.

"Um...if everything is alright, may I continue speaking?"

The ponies started to give mutters of approval to signal Scarecrow. The squad didn't want to go through this. 23rd soldiers making a public appearance was to a species was a big no and violated protocol. But if they wanted to get out of the situation, they would need to put on a show. Their focus was strictly finding out why Equestria was like Earth, but to do that, they needed the ponies to not be running around everywhere.

"I like to remind everypony that we are not the true first contact team, while me and the rest of Shadow are fiercely educated, we may not be able to answer all of your questions you may have considering there is a large number of you and we can not lawfully go into detail about ourselves. We were merely sent to observe this planet until we could reestablish contact with out starship orbiting Epona. Unfortunately, we were stranded by a dragon attack and we have to remain here. Until then, try to ask us questions that won't need too much of an explanation. Try to lay off questions of humanity as a whole and stick to questions about us. Although even then there isn't much we can answer, so yeah......"

The ponies looked at the commando with confused expressions. It was as if they were interviewing a member of some sort of secret government conspiracy.

A pegasus mare mustered the courage to raise her hoof. Scarecrow pointed at her to talk.

"Why do you where those clothes?" asked the shy blue pegasus. "We can't see what you look like underneath that."

Scarecrow looked down at his armor and gave a laugh. "Well you see, humans don't walk around naked like ponies do, we are clothed all the time."

The ponies in the crowd gave Shadow's leader a confused look.

"I also apologize for having to meet ponykind with my current, uninviting apparel. What we wear is called recon armor. The reason why it is pitch black is to help me and my squad hide in the....shadows." The ponies laughed a bit at the pun.

"And further more it helps us keep warm. Although you ponies might not feel it due to fur, humans are used to warmer temperatures. As for out masks," Scarecrow stroked his bandanna with his signers. "This cloth is meant to prevent us from inhaling bacteria or viruses or bodies can not fight. These shades aren't meant for blocking out the sun, but rather give us information stored on...how should I say it? Data drives. Recon armor is the standard battle wear for the 23rd."

"If you're disappointed by this unrevealing armor, we have diagrams of human bodies if you wish to know what we look like underneath."

Twilight knew what she was going to ask for once this meeting was done. The purple mare absolutely loved biology.

Another pony, this time an Earth Pony stallion raised his hoof. X-ray remembered him as the one he almost exposed himself to a dew hours ago.

"What kind of magic do humans have other than disappearing?"

This time it was X-ray's turn to speak, grabbing the mic from Scarecrow's gloved hands he spoke into the mic;

"Humans are incapable of utilizing magic. Our-"

Before X-ray could continue speaking, the crowd of ponies gave a large cry of disbelief there were mummers of;

"They can't use magic, how is that possible?"

"How do they live?"

"How could have they gotten to space?"

X-ray exhaled with annoyance and continued speaking. "I know it sounds confusing, but humans can not perform what you call 'magic' naturally so instead we have to use technological innovation. The same applies for flight."

The crowd began to look even more confused.

"I know it may confuse everypony, but magic and reasoning are not separate. What you call magic is just the utilization of technological or biological concepts done through a natural medium. (The crowd was getting more and more perplexed) After all is highly advanced technology not similar to biological magic? I don't want to go into too much detail, but the so called magic of ponies produces the same effects of human technology. The reasoning is there, the only difference is the method. As for what other 'magic' we can do, we're limited our suit's functions. Let's just say we can see through the wall, look far distances and hear what is happening, keep track of equipment and protect ourselves an energy barrier."

"What are those things on your back?" asked a blue colored unicorn whose mane looked like toothpaste.

Scorch grabbed the mic from X-ray. "These things hanging on our magnetic plates are called guns. Since we're soldiers, we obviously have to be armed with weapons. Guns fire a projectile that is propelled with the use of magnetics."

"Allow me to give you a demonstration." Scorch drew his sidearm, aimed at Overwatch and pulled the trigger. The loud noise emitted by the firearm caused some ponies to stumble back.

To the ponies' amazement, the bullet did not strike Overwatch but instead deflected off a forcefield that emitted a series of transparent purple hexagons to signal where he shot at.

"Just be glad I didn't aim at flesh." This caused the crowd to start panicking a small bit.

Twilight quickly approached the microphone. "Thank you Shadow for your introduction. I'm sorry ladies and gentlecolts, but this concludes our event."

The crowd gave cries of complaints. So many questions were left unanswered. Shadow really couldn't answer as to what the ponies wanted to know about them. They weren't fully fledged diplomats no thanks to their mental condition.

"Don't worry everypony. Shadow isn't done yet, they're due for a tour and I'm sure-"

"Actually, we're free now. May we delay the tour until tomorrow?" requested Scarecrow. The sooner he inspected everything, the sooner he could get to solving the cosmic anomaly.

Twilight nodded. "Change of plans everypony, Shadow will be around town for the rest of the day. You'll be free to ask them questions if you run into them. Dismissed."

The ponies applauded and gave their princess a bow.

Shadow and the Mane 6 made their way down stage.

"Well that went better than what I expected." remarked Rarity.

"Yeah, I was pushing myself hard not to laugh." muttered X-ray.

"Why would you be laughing? There were no jokes. I know every joke that has been told in ponyville." pointed Pinkie Pie.

"Come on, we were addressing a crowd of technicolor ponies, what's not ridiculous about that?" questioned Scorch.

"I still think we did a good job with the introductions though." stated Scarecrow.

"Yeah, I think you gave the town a great first impression." noted Rainbow Dash. "Still, you had to show them how that gun worked?"

"They were asking for it." reminded Scorch.

"Well Ah'm off to the farm well 'em ponies keep you busy." said Applejack. "Could use some quiet."

Quiet was not an option however. The moment Shadow stepped down from the stage and into the crowd, ponies from all over swarmed them.

Shadow tried really hard to keep it together. They were trained to dismantle and secure crowds, not interact with them. A simple bid for information from the ponies was turning into a publicity nightmare.

The 4 humans would have no problem answering questions if ponies weren't yelling their questions all at once. Seriously, the entire town was practically up their throats. Shadow was having a lot of trouble traversing the crowd since they're huge size meant they could easily crush a foal if they weren't careful.

"Settle down everypony!" yelled Scorch desperately to contain the curious crowd.

The Mane 6 weren't faring any better. Ponies were crowding them too in order to get answers about the humans they met. The former elements bearers tried to gently push themselves away but the crowd was too big.

Eventually, Overwatch had enough. The Marksman drew his sniper, removed the suppressor and shot a round in the air.

The loud noise was enough to silence the crowd.

"One at a time." muttered Scarecrow, turning up his speakers so everypony could hear.

Two colts by the names of Snips and Snails galloped to the humans. Each of them were holding a notebook with their mouths and holding a pen with their telekinesis.

"Can we get your autographs?" asked Snips, with his mouth full of paper. "It's always been my dram to meet cool alien ninja commandos."

Scarecrow rolled his eyes underneath his bandanna, crouched, and grabbed the animated paper and pencils from the colts mouth. He wasn't going to sign his real name however so he just printed the symbol of the 23rd.

Sure enough more and more ponies asked for autographs. Some ponies asked for autographs on body parts rather than on paper. One mare asked for a tattoo on her flank.

Just when Shadow thought they were done signing autographs-

"Can I get a picture for the Foal Free Express." yelled a small filly with a reporter hat.

Scorch dropped his pencil. "Ponies have camer-"

FLASH!

More and more cameras swarmed the hooded humans and began taking Shadow's picture.

Shadow ignored the onslaught of pictures and used neural controls to switch their radio to local.

"How do ponies have cameras?" questioned X-ray.

"I thought their society was supposed to be medieval." pointed Scorch.

"You know, I could have sworn seeing stores selling 21st century era appliances as well like microwaves and ovens." remembered Scarecrow.

"Yet they lack the literature and reform of the enlightenment and industrial revolution." noted Overwatch.

Suddenly the crowd got bigger than ever and swarmed Shadow one by one.

"What do you think of Epona?"

"Is this the first time you've visited an alien world?"

"Do stars out there really move on there own?"

"How fast do your spaceships go?"

"Are any of you in a relationship with each other?"

Shadow's already patience was getting smaller and smaller. They were used to operating in solitude and secrecy. Being a well known celebrity was not the one thing the 23rd was not supposed to do. But they weren't really on a colony were they? It was a miracle their riot control instincts had taken over earlier.

"Do you always have to wear black, why not go with blue?"

Suddenly, Scarecrow, Scorch and X-ray snapped. The 4 humans started running away from the crowd but the ponies were relentless.

Using their parkour skills and superior speed the humans managed to speed away through town and hoped to find some solitude. Their escape did not help Shadow's situation as even though ponies were mesmerized by their ability to leap over tall obstacles and jump from building to building, it only made ponies more curious and desperate for answers.

After crossing half of town, Twilight's home was in view. To Shadow's dismay, many speeding pegasai were catching up to them and still harassing them with questions.

To Shadow's horror, the front of Twilight's home awaiting another crowd of pony interviewers.

Gaining speed, X-ray managed to jump over the entire crowd and rolled skillfully into Twilight's door.

All the while, the Mane 6 was having a conversation about where Shadow would be staying. X-ray's sudden appearance was most unexpected.

"X-ray?" questioned Rainbow Dash. "What are you-"

Suddenly Overwatch power slid into the library followed by Scorch who flipped in and nearly knocked over Rarity.

Fluttershy raised whimpered back. "Is there something wrong?"

Scarecrow finally dashed into the home after shaking off a crowd. Before he could close the door;

"Could you tell me what your favorite color is?" asked an Earth Pony mare taking notes.

Scarecrow's tolerance sunk to new lows. "NO FUCK YOU!" The commando proceeded to slam the door tight.

The entire pony crowd gave a loud gasp and covered the ears of their young ones, hoping the fillies and colts hadn't heard the swear.

Scarecrow opened the door. "My favorite color is red by the way." He closed the door once more.

The red colored mares gave a moan of flattery while the red colored stallions shook their heads up in victory.

Author's Notes:

*No I am not against those who have religion. I am not an atheist.

Sorry if the part about Epona's history being similar to humanity's is boring. :(