For the first time in ages, I was having a pleasant walk through a forest. In the UTN, most planetside stops were at military bases or environment domes. So, it was probably before I left Earth for training when I did it last. The soft, pleasant breeze was nice, despite knowing I’d have an extended date with the decon shower later. The morning sun through the leaves gave the path a great mix of shadows and color that only deepened as we walked.

Along the way, Rose managed to at least partially get the thought of foil packaging across to the princesses. They were strangely curious about it, but couldn’t grasp how it was made. Eventually, it was just settled on something artificially made by humans to keep air away from food. Somehow I get a feeling that Princess Twilight Sparkle is going to ask more technical questions now that the translator software is working a bit better.

“By the way, Princesses, I have to ask. What is with the naming traditions here? The both of you have one name, but apparently Princess Cadance has three, and Princess Sparkle has two. It just seems odd.”

I honestly didn’t expect Celestia to snort and start pounding the ground with a hoof while laughing. A moment later, her sister joined her while Rose and I looked on confused as hell.

“He… He called her Princess Sparkle. I wish she were here to hear that. She’d get so mad…”

Somehow I think we are missing a huge part of the story here.

“Sorry… Sorry about that. It’s just that after Twilight and friends being members of royalty for almost fifty years now, my dear Twilight absolutely hates to be called ‘Princess Sparkle.’ It’s just so formal. I think she threw a book at the last ambassador that did it to annoy her at every opportunity. Oh, that was worth the apology letter to see. Ahem… My apologies about that. I’ll admit the mental image of her hurling books at somebeing was just too much. Just so you know, she prefers Twilight, or Princess Twilight if you must be formal. I think the only one that actually insists on it would be Lady Rarity. That does remind me though, once you are settled, we really should have you come by the capitol and introduce you to the city and royals.”

Yup. That would be a feeling of dread. At least the princesses were done laughing so we could keep walking the trail. It was such an odd feeling to be alone with the rulers of an apparent empire though. If it were the UTE, a swarm of guards would surround the Emperor and ourselves. This is interesting though. Just weird.

“But enough of that. Since this is my sister’s home province, I’ll let her tell you about it. After all, she is the rule of law here, as am I in my home province.”

The nearer we got to the town, the canopy became thicker and thicker until we were walking in an eternal dusk. Celestia had lit her horn to provide some light, but it didn’t seem to bother Luna much.

“Silly sister, we’re about there so I’d much rather show them the village and visit my ponies at the same time.”

Rounding a corner in the path, our trail merged with a larger road of stone pavers. What looked like oil lamps dotted the edges to light the gloom. More impressively though was the large stone wall and gatehouse ahead. The dark stone blended far too well into the dim lighting. If it weren’t for the lamps, it would be near impossible to see the wall until you were hitting it. What really grabbed my attention as we neared were the open thick wooden doors for entry to the town. Deeply patinaed with age, the color of the wood was contrasted with bright silver in swirls and patterns I could make no sense of.

“Enjoying the gates to Hollow Shades, Alex? These doors and walls were built in long, long ago when Equestria was a much more dangerous place. I was one of the ponies working on the wall almost what, fifteen hundredish years ago I think. Every hoof length of both are protected by powerful magics to be practically impenetrable. You’ll find many things like this across our lands, some still in use like the great ward for weather control, others are in a state of disuse but still sitting pristine where they were lain. If you are on our planet long enough, perhaps you’ll see more wonders like this. Enough gawking though, let us show you the city.”

The only thing I could do was turn to Rose and meet her eyes while she mouthed “fifteen hundred years ago?!”

Without any further conversation, both Princesses headed through the looming gates into the shadowed town beyond. Strangely enough, there was minimal fanfare by the locals. Then again, the ponies of the Hollows and outlying areas were always a pragmatic sort. Of course, they showed deference to the princesses as they’d earned it and Luna was one of the founders. For their guests, the strange creatures were little more than a passing curiosity. Little did they know that part of the alien duo was recording everything, and matching it up to her limited satellite imagery of the town.

Stepping through the gatehouse, the stonework was beyond impressive to see first hand. The carved rocks were set so precisely together that the walls were practically seamless when fit together. Every now and again at even spacing, a glittering gem surrounded by intricate carvings in the stone were the only interruptions in an otherwise smooth surface. It was certainly something that had taken humanity computer controlled machines to do, while magical aliens did it over a thousand years prior. Awe inspiring really.

A trio of figures were already waiting for us, illuminated only by the soft glow of a lantern. The odd reflection here and there definitely implied armor two of the ponies, so at the least it was shaping up to be interesting. Although I didn’t anticipate “interesting” as Princess Luna bolting forward and hugging one of the armored figures. From the flailing of hooves, it was safe to assume it was a nearly bone crushing one.

“Warrant Officer Song! When did you get back? We, I missed your presence in our courts.”

It was entirely way too hard not to laugh from the muffled reply the pony made while it was squashed by an overenthusiastic princess. Finally, Luna let the pony down to reveal a sleek black pony wearing set of heavily patinaed and engraved armor. Their deep brown mane practically blended into the armor in the shade. Most importantly though, she was one of the rarely spotted ponies that appeared to be a different subspecies. In this case, she had a pair of bat like wings instead of the usual feathered ones. A curious set of amber eyes watched our every movement though. As one, the remaining duo stepped forward slightly and bowed deeply to both princesses.

“Welcome back to Hollow Shades, highness. The shade hasn’t been the same since yourself and your sister left after your last visit. I believe it is safe to presume that this pair is the strange guests you gave us advance warning about?”

A soft ‘yes’ and thanks were the acknowledgement from Celestia, the pale unicorn bedecked in yet again engraved golden armor, continued speaking.

“I am Warrant Officer Visor, but outside of official capacity, you can just call me Frosted. My rather strict partner here is Constable Quake, and the squealing mare being smothered by Princess Luna would be the already named Officer Song. Song and myself are the guard liaisons for the town, while Quake runs the law enforcement side of things. She’ll have a copy of the relevant laws for you at her office by the way. Refugee status grants you certain boons, but you’ll also be watched and judged harshly on other infractions. But, that’s a speech for Quake, since that is her field after all.”

This was certainly turning out to be more interesting than I imagined it would be.

<recording audio and transcribing>
CMDR. Alex Rodriguez
U.T.E. Corvus
2319hrs 17 June, 2463 Local

Formal first contact with the assorted Equestrians and their government has gone off to a decent start. Earlier today, we joined Princesses Luna and Celestia to visit the nearby town of Hollow Shades, or just ‘the Shades or ‘Shade,’ as the locals call it. Apparently this is going to be our home base until we manage to find a way to get home or are rescued by the UTE.

As a whole, the locals seem wary but welcoming. Getting almost the same feeling visiting a magical horse town as you’d get on a backwater asteroid trading base is certainly strange though. Our points of contact if Princess Luna isn’t around are WO1 Frosted Visor of the Royal Guard, or her compatriot WO2 River Song of the Night Guard. I’d like it noted, that Officer Song and Constable Quake are two of the rarer subspecies of ponies. We are unsure of the significance of this at this time, but it appears that a significant percentage of this town are in this minority. Rose and I have decided to wait for more information, so we don’t accidentally offend our hosts.

Speaking of the town though, it is like we saw on the satellite view, only more impressive to be honest. Where we thought it was a hive under dense canopy, the thought was completely wrong. The thick forest appears to be a mix of defense, farming, and lifestyle, as odd as that sounds. Large trees cross throughout the town, some even having their branches intertwined in the air to create almost natural bridges. Others are even more complex and are used for a hanging garden of sorts. Apparently other than the odd ground based farm for commodities, the vast percentage of their food supply is grown this way.

That also makes me wonder. The town is surrounded by a very large and well maintained wall. Adding to this that the variety of houses are either all of the same impressive stonework or up in the trees, it does imply a few unsettling things about their state of defense currently or in the past. We were introduced to a variety of ponies today, which per Rose included a significant percentage of those associated with their military. It is possible that the ponies are a highly militarized race, or there is something we are missing so far. Any information we discover will be uploaded to the logs and sent to the constellation for transmission. Princess Luna has stated that we’d converse about the oddities of this town at a further date, so there is that. Constable Quake has provided a shortened copy of the local laws for our review. Rose is currently scanning it into the database. That way it'll be on tap for us, and included in the data dump tonight.

Finally, and speaking of the royals, I believe we found an interesting compromise. Per their laws, apparently refugees must apply for gainful employment. Seeking to capitalize on this, the royals attempted to bring both Rose, myself, and the Corvus on as their employees. Both Princesses seemed dismayed when I had to dismiss this offer without consideration. UTE law is very clear in regards to becoming an employee of an unaffiliated nation. However, I did point out that we could be hired on a non-military contractor capacity. So while we cannot perform any duties that could conflict with our oaths to the UTE, we could hire out our ship on a case by case basis on our prerogative. That is something else that Princess Luna wished to discuss with us at a further date.

Considering we might be here a while, and leaving the repair enclosure to the elements would be bad, it appears that we may need to take one or more of these contracts. The current thought is to use our limited refugee stipend for foodstuffs and the odd materials that we may need. Any income brought in from contracts will be used to build a shelter around the repair enclosure, and eventually if we are here long enough, a generalized hangar for the Corvus. That way, only the top of the enclosure would be exposed to the weather and easy to maintain. We'll likely need to salvage some parts from the Bellerophon though. I don't like that option, but it's the only one we have at the moment. The plan is to go up the day after tomorrow and do some more poking, including trying to access the AI cores. I'm sure as hell not connecting those to the Corvus, just in case.

On an unrelated note to the prior content, it appears that Rose and I may be pursuing a relationship. After significant review of the laws, it doesn’t appear that our doing so is against any regulations now that we are not part of the UTN fleet. I’m not sure about being intimate with someone who can warm my bed and destroy hostile ships, but we have known each other for almost a decade and a half at this point. Rose and I fit well together, if you know what I mean.

Plus, I’ll be damned if I’m going to be the first human to bang an alien horse. I’ll leave that to the ground pounders, thank you very much.

<end recording> Next Chapter: 26. Guns, Guns, Guns... <unedited> Estimated time remaining: 35 Minutes