I waited outside my ship just before dawn, my RIG was still on me and I constantly ran diagnostics around me out of boredom. The first thing I scanned was the small river near the landing zone, it showed no peculiar or unfamiliar bacteria or any kind of viruses that could prove fatal to me. Then I scanned the air once more, oxygen. Pure, untainted oxygen with minor pollution, meaning no serious industry, I toyed with the idea of removing my helmet but I preferred to take my findings to the lab and investigate this planet's air components more closely.

I walked back to my ship and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw them… these ponies. These were the six female ponies that brought me food every day, and boy were they a sight to be seen…

Two of each species, and each as unique, two pegasi, two earth and two unicorns; the first winged pony was yellow and had a pink mane and tail, the second winged pony was blue and – to my amazement – rainbow colored mane and tail!

The second pair were the regular ones; the first one had a nice orange coat (I confirmed via referring animals from Earth and cross matched them to horses that they indeed possess thin layers of fur that envelops their bodies) and a blond mane and tail that were tied with small ribbons and hidden under a cowboy hat, or is it a cowpony hat? Never mind! The second earth pony was just as weird, pink coat and darker shade of pink for the mane and tail.

Last but not least were the unicorns; the first one was lavender color with dark purple mane and tail (she had stripes of color running down her mane, I wondered if it was some kind of fashion statement or she simply born that way.) the other unicorn had white coat and purple mane and tails arranged as curls (I bet my money that this was a fashion statement!)

They stopped when they saw my form near the ship, neither of us moved, all held their mouths open and the yellow one let a basket of yet more baked goods to fall from her mouth. I don't know for how long we stood there, deep down I was both excited and terrified. Even more so when the lavender one approached me slowly, the rest started to come closer as well but stopped when the lavender one told them something in a language unknown to me.

The 'mare' approached me once more and I found myself doing the same, we met somewhere in the middle, between the ship and the other mares, she looked up at me (they were really small) and started talking, I couldn't understand a word she said, once she finished talking nonsense I tilted my head to the side, a gesture I hoped she understood, she mimicked my actions before mumbling more incoherent stuff.

She 'levitated' a clipboard (carpentry and basic industrialism) with her natural telekinetic abilities and scribbled something with a pencil. Then I thought of an idea to try and break the miscommunication between us. I tapped once at her clipboard, she flinched from my act but relaxed quickly. I pointed at my wrist or more precisely, at my kinetic module and then pointed towards a large boulder that idly stood undisturbed, during my five days I relayed on calling it Tom.

She tilted her head to the side and I took a few steps towards Tom, I lifted my arm and activated kinetic procedures using my synthesized brain cells…

Oh you don't know what synthesized cells are, are you? They are basically Nano-cells injected straight to the blood stream, they travel the body that way and replace appropriate dead cells and copy their role in the body, humanity even managed to make Nano-cells compatible with brain cells, and since each and every cell is synched to the RIG, it means I can control more than humans ever could over their body, I could even activate, deactivate and even hack other machines and Nano-cells using my own, not to mention the extended life span I have thanks to a very potent immune system and renewable brain cells.

Where I was? Ohh Tom, right…

I activated my kinetic module and pointed it at the boulder, a second later and the boulder floated weightlessly in front of me, I flung him upwards and caught it just before flattening me like the wicked witch of the east (man I loved that old movie).

I placed Tom gently where it stood before and turned to look at the mares, all of which had their mouths open again, they hadn't moved for the last couple of minutes so I tried snapping them back reality.

First I tried the obvious hand wave in front of their faces, nothing… then I tried to stack them on each other (they were surprisingly light) in a pyramid shape, stylish, but not helpful.

I stepped back in defeat, their eyes were fixed and their mouths agape, nothing seemed to work, a warm feeling on my shoulder snapped me back to my senses, it was some sort of liquid, I used my scanners on the foreign substance and waited for results… that's weird, it's… saliva…

But surely that's not one of those movie clichés were there's. A monster. Behind. *gulp* me?

Don't look up! Don't look up! For the love of fucking god do NOT look up!... I looked up…

Jaws open that revealed nasty looking teeth, mane as red as blood and paws! Did I mention the paws?!

I turned my body slowly and took a few steps backwards, it was a fucking lion! And not just any lion, a fucking alien lion with wings and scorpion tail! I had Ailurophobia ever since I fell into the tiger's cage in a zoo when I was a kid during feeding hours!

I quivered like a leaf in the wind when the alien lion monstrosity took his first steps towards me; he was by far a lot bigger than a lion.

He was right in front of me and sniffed my RIG, I was so petrified that I ignored all warning signs that dotted my HUD of an unknown anomaly, the lion then backed off and passed me towards the mares, they were still petrified! Good, eating them meaning I could probably slip back to the ship without being noticed, I mustered all my courage to move my legs and silently making my way to the ship.

I wanted to get the fuck out of there but something stopped me, I can't let innocent life die, can I? I mean, it's simply nature taking its course, right? Then why I feel like such a selfish bastard, I dared to glace back to see that the lion was half way toward the mares, I silently cursed myself and pulled my gun.

"Hey fuck face!" I shouted, the lion turned his head at me and I could swear I heard my teeth clattering.

I pulled out my gun and shot once upwards to try and intimidate it, it failed miserably. Instead of frightening the lion it startled him for a millisecond before roaring in anger and charging in my direction.

I already pointed my gun at him but couldn't pull the trigger, am I tempering with nature? Who gave me the right to take life of another species? Earth was a striking proof that men should not play God. In quick decision I switched to Cryo bullets and shot four times, each shot found its target at the paws of the lion, ice formed around his legs, effectively pinning him in place.

It roared at me a few times while flapping his wings and flailing his tail, an idea struck me and I activated my recorder. After a few seconds of furious roaring I stopped the recording, pumped the speakers to the max and played the latest recorded file. What followed was the mother of all roars, ten times than the one the lion was making.

The lion was quick to cower under my helmet covered gaze. I used my boots to crush the ice beneath him and replayed the roar, the lion ran away so fast he left a cloud of dust in his shape where he was just seconds ago, I laughed, partially because I was genuine relived and partially because I couldn't believe I stood up against my worst fear to save a bunch of aliens I knew nothing about, I was truly a madman.

As sweet relief greeted me I discovered  myself dazed and unable to move, I looked down and saw that my legs were visibly shaking, I fell backwards with a thud and laid there, I closed my eyes for a moment and when I opened them I saw the six mares formed a half circle around me.

In my stupid mind I thought it was fine to stand up… apparently not. The lavender unicorn in the middle got startled and fired something out of her horn straight towards my face, my entire suit got haywire and I collapsed, the suit is largely one piece with the exceptions of my helmet, my gloves and my boots so when the suit collapsed I was trapped inside.

Then the screen flicked and I saw the command prompt starting a reboot sequence, a few moments later and the HUD became visible once again, I rose to a sitting position while rubbing my aching head, that shortcut messed with my Nano-cells as well.

"Is it alive?"

"I don't know, I think it's- *gasp* it's standing…"

I heard voices I didn't recognized. I stood up, this time slowly and scanned my surroundings, not another soul for miles except for the six mares I encountered before, they all looked at me with wide eyes and I decided it was best to slowly make my way to the ship, it was obvious I wasn't welcomed in this planet.

"I think you scared him Twilight…"

"I-I didn't mean to-" more voices, but these ones came from the very mares who spoke their own language moments before.

"Ahhhhh… hello?" I said quietly, the mares turned their attention to me, ears perked up and eyes wider than before.

"It spoke…" said the lavender unicorn, something wasn't right here. How could they speak English all of a sudden? And why now? I was probably delirious, or becoming mad, or both.

My head started pounding again, this time more viciously, I grabbed my head and tried to suppress a yell of pain, the Nano-cells were going crazy. Something was interfering with their functions. I had to deactivate them all so none of the Nano-cells in my brain would harm me.

The pain subsided almost immediately and I found myself surrounded by the aliens once more.

"Are you okay?" the lavender one asked me worryingly.

I gave her a soft nod "Yeah I think so- wait a second! How I can understand you?!"

The mare blinked for a second and then her overly pupils became small "Holy Celestia! I can understand you too! Did is so exciting!" she clapped her front hooves together.

One of the other mare – the white unicorn to be exact – trotted straight in front of my face, I jumped back but she trotted closer in response "Your face is weird" she finally said.

I facepalmed before I spoke "It's not my face, it's a helmet, and I'm inside a full body armor." I said as I spread my arms to the sides, she got uncomfortably close once more and sniffed me, first my helmet, then my hands and finally… my groin "Whoa! Back off!" I took a few good steps backwards, gaining a good distance between us.

"Rarity! You should be more careful, we can't know if it's friendly or not!" the lavender mare scolded her white friend.

I still couldn't grasp around the fact that I could understand them all of a sudden but I couldn't let an opportunity like this to slip away. I took a few hesitant steps forward until I was within arm's reach of these horse-like creatures.

"I don't know what's going on but I'm friendly, trust me. All I want is to ask a few questions if I may?"

Without a moment to spare I activated my scanners and the blue rays darted from pony to pony, a quick blue blur tackled me and I found myself pinned to the ground by the blue pegasus "What was this!" she demanded.

"N-Nothing, it was a scanning ray, I simply scanned your body structure I swear!" I said frantically.

"I don't believe you!" roared the pegasus.

"Please believe me" I begged "I was just as curious about you as you were about me. I just wanted to know more, is it a crime?"

My words held nothing but truth and she knew it. With a huff, she got off me and back to the group of mares, I dusted myself from any dirt I had on my suit and turned my attention to the lavender mare. Seeing how she was the least scared and mostly intrigued by me, I decided it would be best to speak to her first rather than her less than hospitable friends.

"Would you be so kind as to let me scan you? I'm sorry I spooked you before and I promise you it won't be painful."

The lavender pony nodded hesitantly so when the blue rays danced across her form, I wasn't surprised when she jumped a little. Now you might ask me why the first thing I do when I meet new sapient beings is to scan them instead of talking or any kind of that bullshit. The answer is quite simple… because fuck you, that's why!

After the initial scanning I approached the lavender mare as slowly as I can and knelt to her eye level "Can I measure your…" I pointed at her horn.

"Sure, I guess."

I clicked my index finger and my thumb together and a small holographic ruler appeared between them. I measured the length of the horn (about three and a half inches = 8.89 centimeters) and added my findings to the overall scan. Once I was finished I moved to the yellow pegasus, she yelped and cowered behind her blue companion "Don't worry, I just want to measure your wings if that's okay."

The yellow mare still cowered behind the blue one. Thankfully, her friend sprawled her wings to the side, I raised my eyebrow at the gesture. One moment she tackles me to the ground and in the next, she willingly helps me. I could only guess it was because she didn't want me anywhere near her timid friend.

Needless to say, I took the opportunity. I took one wing gently with my hands and started the scanning once again. The wings were nothing as I expected, extremely light with a dense amount of feathers that didn't match any kind of wings on birds from earth, the superb structure gave those pegasi exquisite performance, and that's only from the feathers themselves. A small scan on the blue pegasus revealed to me that instead of having hollow bones to minimize weight to support flying, her bones instead were slightly less denser than her fellow unicorns and probably the earth ponies as well, different bones had different density in different parts of the skeleton, the skull and pelvis were the densest bones whilst the wings were the lightest. Now I may not be a scientist, but this is freaking awesome.

I let the pegasus have her wing back and turned to the final specimen I wanted to scan, the pink mare "Can I?" I asked. She nodded feverishly and grinned widely, I liked her. She wasn't scared of me and had this happy if slightly childish behavior. The scan revealed something interesting; the muscle structure was similar to animals except for one particular muscle type; the fast twitch muscle. The fast twitch muscle was what we use for short bursts of energy, because of that, the muscles fatigue very rapidly. But earth ponies possess very powerful fast twitch muscles.

Once I was finished I organized my findings in my built-in archive and faced the lavender unicorn "Thank you so much for this, if there's anything you want, please just ask."

   "Not a problem. Say… would you mind coming to my place and answer some of my questions?"

I nodded "Sure, just wait here for a few moments while I organize my stuff back in my ship." I started running back to the 'UNA new hope' and straight towards the computer, not minding one bit about the decontamination process.

I turned on the computer and started writing…

ENTRY LOG # 3

I finally managed to properly scan the ponies and my findings are beyond amazing! The three subspecies of ponies on this planet possess distinctive qualities then what one might expect, for instance;

The earth ponies have extremely high muscle tolerance that, in turn, helps them to run away from predators or even matching their brutality with extreme force, thus making sense them being dominant species.

The pegasi have clear advantage over predators as well. Having wings that can endure any scenario, the pegasi can reach amazing speeds, and I'm only guessing from my findings.

The unicorns though, are a bit of a mystery. At first, my physical scan showed nothing of interest in their horns. They were just useless body parts made out of an extremely dense form of keratin, or are they…

Although the physical scan showed nothing of value about the unicorns' horns, other scans depicted a whole different picture. All the other scans were off the charts near the horn, even seismic charts! It seems that every indicator no matter what is it, is able to pick a reading around the horn. This discovery led me to believe that there's something else about the horn, a new type of energy that humanity never discovered before. This could well explain their use of 'magic', maybe I could find out exactly how they use their horns and develop my own technology.

Today I also learned that although their adventages over feral animals, ponies can still be afraid as I saw today. A feral beast came today and tried to attack me. Luckily I drove it away, it seems that fear is a universal feeling.

Please excuse me for the shortness of this log but I must go now, I promised I'll answer some of the ponies' questions as well…

ENTRY LOG # 3 END

Ten minutes later

I sat on a wooden chair gazing towards the purple 'pony' that sat across me, she led me to her house that was located inconveniently in the middle of the settlement, countless pairs of eyes turned to see me as I walked by,  she checked her pencil and cleared her throat before speaking.  

"So what is your name?"

Basic concept of the RIG (taken from 'Dead Space'):

EDIT - Another inspiration for the RIG in the story, forgot to mention that before...

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