Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe, or we are not. Both are equally terrifying. - Arthur C. Clarke

*POV 1st person Nova*

For the few weeks spent travelling to the nearest planet, things went peacefully. Sunny, Polaris and Sandstorm had started learning at a school that had been set up. Ruby and Breezy were working as mechanics, helping to update the absolutely massive fleet of tanks we had. I even pitched in where I could, and I found myself growing to admire the engineering and design process behind the German tanks, in fact, most of the MBTs didn’t need many modifications beyond a simple re-armour and refit of weapons, engines and radio equipment, although some clearly had their problems. For instance, with the Maus, you physically could not enter or exit the vehicle mid-battle, and you were screwed if one of the tracks broke, as they were essentially a massive upside down skip with a gun bolted to the top, so you had to lift all 188+ tons of hull in order to fix a mere track link. With this in mind, a totally new hull and turret was made out of 5 inch think Protosteel armour all-round, reducing the weight to about 100 tons, and the same type of 70 pounder gun being used in large numbers on the Defiance was fitted to the turret. One thing that surprised us was tucked away in one of the corners. A massive piece of mobile artillery, known as a Karl-Gerät siege artillery-gun, this thing was beyond big; when in combat, it had to be accompanied by a crane for loading the 60cm diameter shells and several modified tanks to carry said shells. I doubted we’d need to use it anytime soon, but I wasn’t going to

In other events, Garnet and the other teenaged individuals of our company, were shifting from standard combat, to preparation for roles as Neu-Toa, according to my Mother, I now had the ability to make anyone a Neu-Toa, if their destiny allowed for it. Nightmare Moon was also undergoing the same training, but that was only out of necessity and the sake of socialisation at my request, rather than actually becoming a Neu-Toa. Garnet’s entire group had received new armour, which was more advanced than my team’s armour and was partly holographic, giving greater mobility for the arms and lower legs, but offered less protection. However, the upper legs, head and body were armoured as usual. Unlike my group, who utilised a general fighting style that emphasised all-out assault and open combat, Garnet’s team were being trained for scouting and low profile missions, due to their smaller stature, a trait that I intended for them to keep when I eventually felt they were ready to become Neu-Toa.

We exited slipspace near an earth-like planet, after sending out probes, we discovered the planet to be habitable, and civilised to boot, all that remained was to find out how civilised it was. We soon entered the atmosphere and found the surface to be covered in snow-laden forests.

“Must be in the middle of winter” I thought out loud as I looked over the railing of the ship. I heard light hoofsteps approaching and I turned to see Polaris “shouldn’t you be in school?” I lifted her onto my back all the same.

“The teacher gave us the day off” she said “but we have to write about what we learn about this world”

“Well, If you stick with me then you and Sunny are guaranteed to get the best marks” I said, before frowning in thought “although, we’re probably going to end up in political talks…so that might not be the best idea”

“Actually, we were going to see if we could get cutie marks in tank driving” she said, my eyes bugged out in response.

“Serio…actually, I shouldn’t be surprised” I said, rolling my eyes “Which tank were you going to pick?” Polaris shied away slightly and rubbed a foreleg shyly.

“We haven’t picked one yet” she admitted.

“Let me know how that goes for you” I said, before adding with a frown “but if I catch any of you three in combat, there will be serious consequences, I’m not joking here, it’s alright for you to have a bit of fun, but the moment you think there’s going to be trouble, you head right back to the ship or you hide in the tank and let him or her do the fighting for you” Polaris nodded before hopping down.

“I’ll see you later” she called.

…

Sometime later, the ship had landed in a large clearing surrounded by forests and we were getting ready to take our first steps onto a totally alien planet. The bulkhead door opened with a hiss and a metal ramp slid down to the ground, a brisk chill rushed up to meet us as I slowly began to make my way down the ramp, a camera crew watched my every move as my hoof hovered above the snow covered ground.

“One small step for ponies” I said, before placing my hoof down in the snow “One giant leap for…whoa!” only to slip and end up face first in the snow.

…

“FUCKING SNOW!!!”

Most of the nearby crew dissolved into all out laughter, Vinyl didn’t even try to suppress her mirth and was literally rolling on the floor in a fit of giggles.

“Right” I said, standing up and incinerating the snow covering my face “can I just be the first to say that winter is the bane of my existence; winter’s fucked up”

“What’s this?” Sombra said, smirking as he trotted past “the mighty, all powerful ‘shepherd of Fire’, brought down by a little snow? If I knew this when we were still enemies, I would have merely summoned a blizzard whenever we met in combat” Teridax snorted in amusement as he stomped past, followed by Tirek and Brutaka. I shot a glare at all four of them as they went to search the perimeter.

“Fucking titans” I muttered. Aurora walked over.

“I’m going to go have a look around in the forest” she said.

“Alright, but the moment you come across anything sapient or dangerous, you come straight back here”

“Will do” she said, before taking off and flying into the forest.

*POV 3rd Person*

Aurora landed in the forest, kicking up a cloud of snow, she shivered before walking through the forest, she didn’t have any particular goal, she just wanted to explore for the hell of it. The trees were different to trees back on Terra, but there were certain similarities. Her attention was drawn to a low hanging branch, with a strange, four winged, four legged white lizard, about a foot in length. The reptile looked at Aurora before quickly flying off. Aurora smiled softly before something cold and made of metal was pressed against her neck.

“Waeg ere sien?” a male voice said, whilst it obviously spoke some form of language, it was nothing she could understand. Aurora slowely turned around and found herself face to face with a five foot tall, reptilian, four armed centaur brandishing some form of blade.

“I’m Aurora” she said, the creature liked at her in confusion and she rolled her eyes, she then pointed to a tree “Tree” she repeated the word until he nodded and placed a hand on the bark.

“Staunde” he said, Aurora then pointed to herself.

“Aurora” she said, before gesturing to the creature as a way of questioning.

“Dazaethuer” the creature said. Aurora then began to sketch out shapes, such as stars and a basic sketch of the ship.

“Ship, stars” she said, she then pointed at the sketch of the ship and back in the direction of the clearing “ship, over there” Dazäðür nodded and put his blade away. Aurora then began walking back to the clearing, when they got to the edge, the native creature’s eyes went wide at the sight of the ship. Aurora made a motion to ‘stay here’ before flying towards the ship.

*POV 1st person Nova*

I was helping to set up a camp when Aurora came flying over at an incredible pace, she also had a massive grin.

“You seem happy” I noted.

“No time” she said, hovering “I’ve initiated first contact with an alien species, and we managed to understand each other on a basic level”

“Where are they?” I asked, changing into my Alicorn form.

“He’s just inside the forest” she said.

“Show me” I said, before calling other to my Mother and she trotted over “we might need your help, Aurora has discovered an alien species” my mother’s eyes widened.

“Sapient?” she asked.

“Very” Aurora responded “he speaks a language I’ve never heard before, but it seems to share some similarities with Germane, among other languages”

“Excellent” I said, we began to make our way toward the edge of the clearing and Aurora stopped before calling out a word that I didn’t understand, soon a creature unlike anything I’d ever seen before stepped out of the woods, he was about a foot shorter than I was, covered in green scales, had a reptilian head, a centaur-like body and four arms. To my eyes he also looked to be still in his teen yearsm though that as just assuming based on the growth rates of Saurians back on Terra.

“This is Dazaethuer” Aurora said.

“Waeg ere diren hainen?”  Dazaethuer asked, Fantasia blinked in surprise.

“He just went through multiple Terran languages in a single sentence” she said “the words are slightly different, but I think I understand him…barely” her horn began to glow and the same glow surrounded her throat “can you understand me now?” Dazaethuer nodded

“Dach” he said.

“Would you care to repeat the question?” my mother asked, he asked as before and my mother nodded “I am Fantasia, this is my son, Prince Nova, and his niece, Aurora. We are from another world, far from here, we come seeking an alliance with your world, would you be willing to escort us your nearest political leader, so that we may begin negotiations?” he looked at my mother in surprise before nodding.

“Ick Woold baarn Zescluzhe” he said, before giving a quick bow

…

A short while later I along with my mother and my team of Neu-Toa were getting ready for a week long trek, we were also being accompanied by my honour guard, Nightmare and Aurora. Dazaethuer’s species frowned upon using transport. In fact, royal messengers and soldiers were the only individuals to use transports with any frequency. We didn’t qualify as either, so we would be traveling by hoof in our organic forms, as they were better for long distance running, despite their small size, equines and other similarly sized quadrupeds are really good at running hard, running fast, and running far; an athletic pony such as Applejack could easily cruise at 70mph and maintain it for hours, if not days at a time. I was walking through the armoury when I noticed Raz fitting a par of mechanical leg braces, designed to help him run faster and longer, next to him was Thunder Bolt, the leader of the honour guard, putting on a pair of electrified hoof claws.

“Third time doing diplomatic missions and I’ve never seen weapons help much” I said.

“I don’t plan on using them” he said in a Stalliongrad accent.

“Then why bring them?” I asked.

“Same principle as a condom” he said, flicking his wrists, causing the claws to swing up and out of the way “I’d rather have one, not need it, than need it, and not have one”

“I have to agree with Bolt on this one, Nova” Raz said, checking his sniper rifle “we don’t know what could possibly be out there, whilst a local to act as a guide is useful, I’d rather put my trust in something that can actively protect you, unless you can speak space-reptilian” I snorted at the pure irony of a Sangheili, the definition of a space reptile, using the term to describe another species.

“I might not” I said “but this can” I then levitated a headset over, Raz grabbed hold of it before examining it.

“It’s just a headset” he said “I don’t see how this can help”

“It has a two way translation matrix” I said “put it on and speak in sangheili” he did as I asked and began speaking into the microphone.

“I don’t believe you…” he said, before his eyes widened, he took it off before I gestured for him to keep it.

“Keep it, all of us will be receiving one” I said. Sometime later all of us were ready to set off, we had about 700 miles to go, so every day it would be eat-sleep-run-repeat until we reached the capital.

“Think you can keep up, Mother?” I asked. we were at the side of what would qualify as a main road back in England, or a large side street in America.

“Oh please” she said rolling her eyes “I can run for days at a time, the question is: can you keep up, young one?”

“If you are quite done” Dazaethuer said, his accent a weird cross between British, German, Swedish and Russian, he also sounded quite young, about Aurora’s age “we should probably depart, the road is long, and we have a mountain range to cross” and with that, we set off on our journey. Next Chapter: Chapter 10 Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 37 Minutes