David was letting out a litany of curses that would have made a sixteenth century pirate proud as he and Anya raced through the dense undergrowth, their light-bending exosuits making them only a blur to observers. Anya had a firm hand on David's back, small pressure changes with her fingers telling exactly when and where to change directions or to duck. It was a system they had made together during their field trials; they truly worked best as a team. David was thankful for the assistance, as he was also doing his absolute damnest to keep the fast little alien in his sensor-sights.

The creature was definitely an equine of some kind, and was as fast, maybe faster, than its kind back on Earth. But no equine known to science ever had wings. As far as David could tell, they were vestigial- the alien had yet to take flight, and they seemed far too puny to get its body into the sky for anything more than a glide, at best. But it knew the forest far better than the clumsier humans, who tended to just smash through the briars and branches in their path.

"I really hope we're not being led into an ambush!" Anya muttered nervously, a few probes flying from her backpack as she twitched her eyes on the controls.

David grinned shakily and chuckled, his hand clenching tightly on his rifle. He hoped not either, but he dared not voice that again. This WAS his idea. The forest gave way to a clearing rather abruptly, and the equine put on a frantic burst of speed, heading for the relative shelter of a nearby cave. It was a small entrance, carved into the side of a low, loamy-looking hill. But it was the object about a hundred yards away from the hill that had drawn the attention of the humans. It was a single massive crystal, its color shimmering between blue, red, and orange, spinning inside a large black ring. Completely ignoring gravity as it sat several feet in the air, seemingly watching over the cave like a protector. ...or a predator.

"That looks alot different than the other ruins," Anya whispered, voice holding a small degree of awe, "My god, how is it... floating... some kind of antigravity..."

"Uh, Anya..."

"I have to get more probes, a field lab. If we could find a way to reverse-engineer that technology..."

"Anyaaaa..."

"This could be one of the biggest scientific dis-"

"ANYAAAA!"

"WHAT?!"

David moved his head to one side so his partner could see, "We have guests."

About two dozen other equines had slowly stepped out from the cave, their stance unmistakeably wary. Larger, broader equines stood in the center of the mass of aliens, their chests puffed out and large, expressive eyes locked on the humans. On the flanks stood more of the winged ones; they walked stiff-legged, wings stretched out wide to make themselves appear bigger. Here and there, David spotted a few hulking brutes of their subtype, though these sported odd, bat-like wings and large fangs curving out of their mouths. Bringing up the rear were a dozen or so tall, thin equines with long, sharp horns gracing their foreheads. These, out of all of the aliens, struck David as something being wrong with them. They were walking slowly, heads hanging, their grayness seeming more ashy, while those of the others, minus the rainbow-colored one, were simply dark.

"What should we do?" David asked Anya quietly, grateful for the fact that he could turn off his external audio.

"It's a threat display," Anya hissed quietly, "We need to back off. We can get the Rangers and biologists to come back to this place, paddock it off. This is their home, and I'm willing to bet they'll defend it. They probably have young inside."

David nodded slowly, "Right. So, we slowly walk back and-"

A flash of color in the corner of his vision; David spun, leveling his rifle- right at a trio of small equines that barely came up to his knee. They had frozen in place, trembling- each one a different subtype of the equines and each having just a bit of color to their bodies, unlike the others. The winged equine had a small tinge of purple to her mane, while the horned creature had a little pink to hers. The "unadorned" equine had some yellow to her fur, and a few streaks of red in her mane. ...David wasn't sure how he knew they were female, but...

Back in the herd of equines, one of the broader equines gave a startled whinny and jerked in the line, stomping its hooves, making the small, yellow furred one wince. The mother, perhaps? David struggled to remember horse herd dynamics, and if they might work with weird, small alien... ponies. Letting out a tense breath, David slowly lowered the weapon to the grass, kneeling down and slowly holding his hand.

"What are you doing?!" Anya hissed.

"Hopefully something soothing," he replied quietly, "Now hush."

Very slowly, careful not to put too much pressure on the head, David trailed his suited fingers over the alien's furred ears. The fur was quite thick, he found, and he imagined it was soft. The already wide eyes of the alien widened even more for a moment... then closed, a deep rumbling rushing through her, followed by a soft noise.

"It's... purring!"

With each pet, the little equine leaned more and more into David's hand, a smile stretching over her rounded muzzle. He could feel the purrs through his fingers. It was easily the most adorable thing David had ever witnessed, bar none. And he had been to Tokyo at night. Peering up, David tensed, his hand freezing for a moment. The herd of equines had edged closer, though the hostile body language had slowly bled out of them. They seemed hesitant. but curious. A somewhat pink maned pony poked her head out of the main herd, staring curiously up at Anya before edging out to nudge at her legs.

"Oh, no, don't... oh... oh god, you're so cute..."

David grinned back at his partner, suppressing a chuckle as he watched her pet the surprisingly perky, compared to her fellows, equine. After a moment's thought, his eyes flicked up to connect his body camera directly to the feed on the colony lander, and attach his audio sensors.

"Director, sir? You have to see this."

*************************

Aurelias sighed heavily as he stood in front of the three parties, doing his best to keep from looking as fed up as he felt. Each of the three groups represented the various scientific teams on the colony- the xenobiologists, the manufactoring teams, and the geneticists. All of them incredibly intelligent. And all of them just as incredibly impatient, more than likely escalated by the cocktail of cryo drugs still working out of their systems, and the stress of the most recent discovery by the explorers. Hell, he was stressed out by the recent discovery! Alien life! Not just microbes, or tiny insects, but mammals! Honest to god mammalian life with, from initial reports, dog-like temperaments. The only way it could be better is if the aliens laid golden eggs and puked biofuel!

One would think that, like the rest of the crew, the cadre of scientists before him would be more focused on the single largest discovery in mankind's existence, besides the Inflection Point that sent them here. But...

"I have to insist, Director Michaels," one of the geneticists spoke up, tone tense and highly irritable, "My team needs to have all of our scientific resources focused on Project Promethean. Upgrading our people-"

"Takes too long!" One of the manufactors snapped instantly; the younger woman shot a glare at the male rival, "You're talking gene research! Genetic therapy! We don't have that kind of time; if we want to survive on this world-"

"We need to focus on it."

Michaels blinked and exchanged a surprised glance between himself and a scientist who had said the exact same sentence; he was the youngest present, in his late twenties, with the jumpsuit and silver ball insignia of the Xenobiologist department.

Clearing his throat, the young man rather sheepishly went on, "This ecosystem, while similar to our own on Earth, it still vastly different. We can't adapt to it until we understand it better. My teams have been studying the ponies for the past few days. For animals, they are incredibly intelligent. They have a highly developed frontal lobe, problem-solving skills, a strong herd mentality... we believe they could be domesticated quite easily. Another labor force to add to the robots, or a way to keep morale up over the colony. Either way..."

"They're our sole focus, scientifically, for now," Aurelias finished for him, grateful for the help, "I need the manufactory teams working with the ag teams to get the farms up, and to find a mine site. The Genetic teams, I need you to focus on all the virus and bacteria samples we've collected and prepare any kind of gene therapy you need to make us immune to them. Do I make myself clear?"

For a moment, judging from the stern faces turned towards him, Director Michaels was afraid they would disagree, and he would need to call security... but the department heads nodded in acquiescence and turned to rush back for the colony proper. All but the young xenobiologist. He turned back to the Director, and Michaels tilted his head slightly as he looked him over. He was supposed to know all the big scientists on the colony, he had been apart of the vetting process. Messy brown hair, green eyes half-hidden behind thick glasses, lanky, tall body... wait a minute...

"Cole Adams?" Aurelias ventured slowly, grinning at the spark in the man's eyes, "It's good to see you again! Thanks for the back-up there."

Cole chuckled quietly and rubbed the back of his head, "It was no problem, sir. I'm sorry about all that, the heads have been fighting over their agendas since we woke up. Once they thaw some more..."

Aurelias chuckled softly, "I'm hoping so. You were right; we have to focus on learning more about this planet before we turn the focus back to ourselves."

"I actually wanted to speak with you about that, sir," Cole replied quickly, motioning Aurelias to walk with him back towards the pony paddock.

It had been fairly easy to corral the ponies; they seemed to be using the cave as a home, and only ventured out to fetch fruits from a nearby orchard, or nibble on grass. An ultrasonic fence easily kept them from leaving the area immediately outside the cave, and the science teams had been fetching fruits to bring to the ponies, which seemed to cut down mightily on the stress on the animals. Cole led Aurelias over to a small knot of scientists, kneeling around one of the horned ponies, who was lying on the grass, eyes closed.

"Is it dead?" Aurelias asked quietly, frowning.

But Cole quickly shook his head and smiled softly, reaching down to run his fingers through the thick mane on the pony's head, "No, sir, just under some anesthetic. There was a thick thorn lodged in her hoof, and we removed it. Took the opportunity to scan her. These creatures are incredibly... heh, we've taken to calling the horned ones unicorns, after that Earth myth."

Aurelias blinked and grinned, chuckling warmly, "I like that. And pegasuses for the winged ones, then?"

"Pegasi, sir, but yes."

One of the scientists, a young Caucasian woman, cleared her throat and lifted an eyebrow, making Cole flush immediately.

"Right, right, got side-tracked. Anyway, sir, we took the chance to take some samples, and do a full body and brain scan," Cole went on, smiling faintly, "I... believe these creatures have recently undergone an evolutionary, mental shift."

Aurelias blinked slowly, and the team nudged and poked at Cole irritably.

"Err, what I mean, sir, is that the ponies' all seem to have highly developed brains. The pegasi and 'normal' ponies have brains quite similar to ours, in fact. And the unicorns here seem to have larger than average brains for their kind. All of them are highly developed... I do believe that, quite possibly, we're looking at a race on the verge of sentience."

That stopped Aurelias cold, and he gazed down at the unconscious pony in undisguised awe. That could change everything. Back on Old Earth, genetic experiments on dolphins and whales had led to several being legally declared sentient beings, before the seas were poisoned and many of their species disappeared. Before that point, they had been incredibly useful in mapping the seas and the species within. Aurelias slowly rubbed his chin, frowning slightly at the thick stubble he found there.

"I don't think we should force it, sir," Cole went on softly, "Not yet, at least. But perhaps if we keep interacting with the ponies, adding to their diet, test their intelligence... well, we may see it in our life-time."

"Do it, Adams," Aurelias replied in an instant, nodding at the relieved smiles on all the scientists' faces, "Do whatever you feel like you need to do, within reason. Their presence is helping morale as it is, and if we can have them take the place of pets, or even helpers, then it's worth the time."

Cole smiled and stood up, reaching out to shake Aurelias' hand firmly. Both were relieved and giddy. Maybe, just maybe, the colony would work on this planet. Neither noticed the subtle pulse of the towering pylon several hundred yards away, or the faint wince on the face of the unconscious pony...

Author's Notes:

Sorry about the wait, folks! Rewrite, go!