---

@thedman

"Hrm, we have a problem."
"Yeah I can tell, whatever they hit us with might not have torn us up, but it managed to hit something important didn't it?"
"Er... yes, they punctured a few of the transfer lines, we're venting stored energy like a sieve, and at least one struck the engine itself, we're not sure how deep the damage is yet, but it's misbehaving already."
"Great... Alright, seal the punctures, whatever way it takes, I don't care if we build up some pressure risks, we can't let it all just leak out. Start powering down nonessential modules to spare what we can, and take us in for a landing, we don't have much of a choice if we want to get things fixed up, preferably before we crash 'un'willingly. Pop off a lightning ball at minimum charge too, we should be able to manage that before we power down the cannon. I want 'some' kind of show for the shadowbolts that shows we attacked the rabid ones too."
"That's... we're discarding the veil entirely then?"
"Not much choice, their shots would've revealed us eventually anyway, and we can't hide so well from the shadowbolts, even if we escape this scenario entirely somehow... I'm sure it helps that they seem to have caught on we weren't hostile and focused on the other targets."
"Aye, looks like life is about to get 'really' exciting again."

Back in the ship, those strange creatures that had been failing to claw their way through the marine's armor tended to crack when they hit the floor and... deteriorate, before their eyes. They seemed to shrivel up and rapidly develop additional holes, quickly resembling the gray things that had been crawling through the walls, only to begin falling apart within moments.

The adjutant reacted quickly *Beep!* "Command acknowledged, priority targets shifted, acquiring targets." It blinked on a screen in it's commander's visor, sufficiently out of the way of his primary view, demonstrating what it was attacking... The sky in view was littered with small buzzing quadrupeds similar to those disintegrating on the floor at the moment, though they weren't quite as thick as a swarm of zerg tended to get *Beep!* "Primary target positions too low for full effective fire, targeting secondary threats with remaining turrets." The small ones were easily minced whenever struck by the larger turrets, though they were far smaller targets than the guns were meant to hit. Two on the correct side of the ship were unloading on a variety of much larger creatures with obvious resemblance, they were still dwarfed by an ultralisk's incredible mass, but they somehow contained enough strength to jostle the ship. Unfortunately very few were in a position to be fired upon by the upper guns.

*Beep* "It appears that several of the smaller unknown signatures are engaging our enemy." The video feed showed something not quite as large land in a blur that left it's target broken, then showed something impossibly resembling a creature from utterly 'ancient' human mythology, a griffon tearing into the next nearest behemoth, although it was well concealed by a bodysuit, mask, and armor, something that should give a clear idea of civilization of 'some' kind existing here. The air-space of the video-feed also occasionally revealed much smaller creatures zipping by too fast for a clear picture, but flying bodies tended to fall in their wake.

*beep* "Warning! Unknown ship had discharged it's weapon again." Another feed opened to show the ship itself, though there was smoke drifting out of holes in a 'wooden' hull, and it was clearly listing towards the ground... Still, there was what looked like a ball of electricity soaring away from it, and into the air-space over the ship... It didn't actually seem to be aimed 'at' the ship this time, and instead cast bolts of lightning into nearby targets, sending fried swarmers falling out of the sky... a clearly limited capacity existed though, as it dwindled in size before vanishing entirely.

Something else of note in the video feed, there was only 'one' type of creature crawling over the hull, the small fragile little monsters, there wasn't a single instance of the more horrific monstrosities that had been pouring through the walls. Alas, there wasn't long to observe this fact, as the Adjutant piped in again *Beep!* "Sergeant! Many of the large creatures are too low for the turret's Firing angles. Recommend immediate direct intervention by ground forces. The small aliens have not demonstrated the capability of damaging our armor thus far."

For Specialist Lee though, his attempt to 'vanish' might have brought a more unusual reaction than expected... Upon his disappearance every creature in the room froze in place, not a single one so much as twitched, it was a horridly creepy thing that left the bridge looking like it had been decorated with the images of horrors... Undoubtedly it creeped the fuck out of the bridge-crew that remained there...

Unfortunately that didn't last long, the adjutant chimed in for someone other than the sergeant for the first time *Bweeoop!* "Warning, Specialist Lee, Unknown Psionic wave-form nearing the bridge at high speeds." Though it sent the same warning to the sergeant as well, and provided him a third video feed of the bridge, which he might note appeared to be devoid of threats at the moment.

A moment later a beam of energy blasted through the window of the bridge and struck the deck, it appears something 'could' damage the ship here, though rather than an explosion it only left a sizzling and incredible heat wafting into the air as it melted a piece of the deck, and out of the landing point crawled... something. It was another instance of a larger version of the creatures the Sergeant had encountered, It was as tall as a human standing up, quadrupedal, but very lithe, almost sickly thin, it had a much longer horn than the others that was coated in a thick green glow and emanating psionic energy freely. It also behaved a lot less feral than the little ones did, moving it's mouth in a fashion that seemed to indicate speech, though all it produced was a horrid wasp like buzzing noise.

It was also worth noting that the alarms had exploded into activity with the presence of actual damage to the ship, and oddly the undulating red lights of the alarm seemed to cause the still frozen creatures to haze in and out of clear view.

---

---

@rune_alchemist@lugia@Ninja

It was important to remember, that there was a large volume of chasm surrounding the plateau on which the castle was stationed, though it was quite possible to find the obviously deliberately crafted ramp-surface that would lead down to the bottom of the chasm and up the other side, it would likely take far too long to make it back up without being caught in a vulnerable position... that said, going down 'would' give a chance of reaching a more suitable ground to fight, or evade, on, or perhaps a suitable place to hide.

As it turns out, blowing fire and going berzerk on something that one knows very little clear information on, isn't always the best course of action... Granted, it 'did' draw it's attention from the retreating ebon, the fire hardly seemed to do more than irritate the giant creature, though it did release an ethereal ground rumbling growl, it was quickly drowned out by the piercing screech of the 'environment', as if the forest itself raged at the continued use of 'fire' against it.

Interestingly, the thing he was attacking prevented the forest from striking out and potentially ruining the whole plateau.

"This one's fear, or was it hatred... for 'equines'?... it is a threat to my charges and will not be permitted to run loose!"

It was lucky that it was such a simple subject to work with as well, he could put forth a far more effective action without having to worry about conjuring something deific... All the easier as this rabid intruder had thrown itself 'into' the mire of darkness to claw wildly at an ethereal being with no physical body to claw apart.

Amidst the darkness would suddenly start coming flashes of color, solid 'bodies' being impacted by the flailing dragon, and more importantly, things trying to cling to him, by the dozens, colorful horrors from unreality had begun to swarm out of the shadowy mass around him, frightful rictus grins on their muzzles, they just giggled and relentlessly tried to shower him in affection... and worst of all, they didn't just cleave or burn when struck, something made them resist the ambient fires or the sharpness of claws.

Somewhere in the middle of all of this was a strange high-pitched sound that grew steadily closer
'eeeeeeEEEEEE'
Before it suddenly cut off with the sound of wind suddenly wooshing by... it wasn't particularly visible in all the shadowy mess he'd thrown himself into amidst that blind murderous rage, but something had also caused it to start raining inside the bubble of shadow to start piddling out the fires, hopefully before they could spread further.

---

@evanist

The forest around the ship was 'incredibly' thick, if anyone climbed up on the ship a bit or if they could get the sensors working well enough, it would be easy to find the other crash-sights, neverminding the smoke plumes rising above them... though, once one was in the forest itself, even with the sun rising unnaturally fast, there was very little light visible through the canopy and spotting distance objects was all but impossible without some way to move the trees, or to climb above them.

That said, sounds could still be heard, something in the distance was shooting something very rapidly, clearly evidence that something with guns still functioning was somewhere. There was also the ever present sound of angry wolves in some distant point in the forest, not entirely clear as to 'where' though.

Given the adorable size of these poor souls, the forest probably looked that much larger and more imposing... as might the creature that lumbered by in view, if far enough not to notice them yet. It was humanoid, twice their height and... appeared to be ridden by a couple of smaller creatures in odd clothing. none of them noticed the avali in the distance entering the forest.

---

@nevikr1

Alas, even for a native, the forest was a harrowing experience, difficult to see things in a distance, even with a map it could be a challege given that the forest tended to shift about every once in a while, vague directions were still manageable and that was all one needed in order to find land-marks, such as the more recently crashed ship that even he may have gotten to hear on his way to the forest, though all of the same signals could be heard for both new-comers just as well.

Something that only a native would recognize though, the sun rapidly rising to join the moon in the sky, certainly visible from that clearing, was a clear signal something serious was going on, and the princesses were preparing to act on it...

He might also spot a strange figure walking along in the distance, though in this forest 'in the distance' was a lot closer than one would normally expect, something taller than he was by quite a margin, bipedal, and dressed in red, heading off to the south somewhere, quickly likely towards one of the sources of noise.

---

@Rangingwolf@wanderingdragon

It was quite a show for some, all that fire... They maintained the repeating circular pattern a few dozen more rotations before curving up and into the sky, now that the fire had been intensified enough to last a while and push back the forest's approach, with the stone beneath it heated enough that the roots wouldn't risk pushing through...

One could certainly be forgiven for thinking they saw three in the air at the moment, the heat-distortion around the pair of them was intense enough to create blurs around them, though they hadn't been up there for more than a couple of moments before the fireball was tossed sky-ward to get their attention...

One of them quickly re-acted by aiming themselves towards it and giving a strong beat of their wings, hitting the projectile with a gust that would aim it away from the forest, before following the other towards the ground, though now with a lot less fire allover them, the pair of them landed with visible steam wafting off of them...

The actual third had actually been on the ground already, in the middle of the smokey mess leftover from the lightning bolt landing, and was soon seen stumbling drunkenly out of it, almost cartoonishly wobbling over to the other two.

They were probably an unusual sight, perhaps not 'strange' though, to such a varied collection of aliens though.

A trio of quadrupeds of somewhat varied height, though the on in the middle was the tallest, and the only visible details that weren't identical were colored tails and wing feathers poking out, and otherwise they were identical, clad in tight suits mixing black and purple gold trim, quite obviously armored in the same ways, and completed with a long aerodynamic mask not unlike ancient plague-doctor styles.

The tall one stepped forward a bit, while the one stumbling around actually flopped over onto their belly, earning a roll of the head from the lead, who quickly pretended it didn't happen "You're all quite mad aren't you? Using fire against the Everfree, though I imagine you're as ignorant as you are out of place here aren't you?" He had a feeling they couldn't understand him either way, but he seemed interested in trying anyway.

To them his musical voice almost sounded a bit jazzy, if middling in tone
"Heh, I'm not that big a fool even at my worst times."
"Heeeee... orangey... fire... farts... heeeheeee..." This one they'd heard before, yet even without recognizing their words, the sound was slurred and goofy, and shortly followed by the second one in the back using a wing to snap out and swat the other one on the head, with enough speed to create a small breeze, and only seemed to get maddened giggled out of him.

The lead seemed unphased by whatever had been said and continued on "Although throwing it over the cliff was a big unnecesary, not that it matters, it's still out of reach of the forest, and that makes it something of a bargaining chip."

---

When the group exited the ship, the first thing they noticed was the thickness of the forest and how there was little light that seem to travel down to the ground. Celina looked at the trees and look upwards. This place was thicker than the normal jungles that she used to explore. What kind of planet did they even land on anyway? She then looked at the group, before seeing the large humanoid creature at a distance with the smaller ones riding it. That seemed strange for her and she was curious, but also careful. They did not know what kind of planet they landed on, and last thing they needed was being attacked by a group of creatures suddenly that would overwhelm them. She still remembers the old time when her group was attacked by a group of what the group ended calling turbo turnips that charged at them while spinning as well as the smaller ones near those. The distance they had to run to get away from those maniacal plants things… geez. Lucky they had guns back then to strike while moving…

Anyway, back to the forest. Celina looked at the trees before looking at her small team.
“Richard” she said in a low tone, the one with a blade and shield looking at her. She looks at the one with the assault rifle. “Xavier” she says as he looks at her as she looks at the last one with the shotgun.” Zoe” she says before looking up towards the tree. “I hope you got your grappling hooks…” she says as the group nod. Celina didn’t feel like just going in the forest right now and being at risk of being pray by whatever was in that forest… so the best think she could do instead was to get the group to move high up in the trees. Each of them used their electric powered grappling hooks before going to climb up, with Celina instead going to multi jump upwards and landing on branch after branch, climbing up that way instead. She knew the group needed to have a better look at the place.

As the group climbed, Celina looked at the ship as she climbed. 5 clear holes could be seen in the ship that were about the size of the pods the crew went in. That made her think that at least those guys might have a chance to survive the impact, considering how the pods were designed to minimize how much damage was done from large impacts. She just hoped one of them didn’t break or something and that the people inside didn’t get killed by what was in this forest. Considering the emplacement of the holes, they seem to have been projected from about each direction. Great.. Just great…Considering all this, Celina figured they didn’t have a clear way to find those guys. She looked towards where the big creature was the same direction as one of the pods probably. Would it be safe to try to pass it and try to not get noticed? That was a good question here. The group just kept climbing.. If they were to be noticed, at least they could possibly swing around like monkeys from tree to tree to escape possibly if they are going to attack them. She just hoped also that there were other creatures here with feathers with similar colors as themselves and that maybe they would leave them alone, or else they might need to fight here.

Upon attempting to slice apart the creature, Trevor was thrown into what seemed to be another world. Horses, as far as the eye could see... welp, looked like he wasn't getting out of his rage anytime soon, right? Trevor started slashing at them, breathing fire on them, using his flame drill attack, using his electricity, but nothing seemed to work against these things... not that they seemed to care, or even want to attack him. GAH, there's gotta be SOME way to kill these things! Trevor thought as they continued to just... surround him, and attempt to talk to him in a language he didn't know. He just kept attacking them with everything he had in his skillset, and they just took it like champs, somehow. The rage continued until he finally wore himself out by using all of his magic against these things, and... then he just sort of waited, bored. He took a seat wherever he could, and just rested to try to regain some of his lost magic, and those things were still annoying him, even if he couldn't tell what they were saying.

After a moment of relaxation, and realization, he figured something out... these things would make the PERFECT training dummies! Trevor then smiled as he threw the things around, and practiced the attacks he doesn't use as often, occasionally resting to get his magic back when he needed to, and, of course, they never attacked... and then he started getting dumb and creative, with him setting a bunch of them up like bowling pins and throwing another at them to try to knock as many down as he can in one instance, and then lifting one up into the air, covering it in a shield of fire... only to smash it into the ground, causing the shield to explode, sending others upward, but, as previously established, still doing nothing to them, at least, he assumed, at this point. Once he got bored of the possible new attack, he started just picking one up, swinging it around him like a shot put ball, and then throwing it as far as he can, using the knocked down part of the crowd in the distance as his way of measuring how far he managed to throw his victim.

@Shoryu@Ninja

---

And suddenly fire.

"Ah!" Shael leaped out of the way of the blast of flames, doing an acrobatic leap as something obviously large seemed to attack them from nowhere. Another of Beryllius' illusions? No, this felt much to real. How did she know? Well she was quite sure her butt was on fire.

"Gah! Ouch! Nein! Nulla! Ochi!" She landed, summoning a small sphere of the twilight water and rubbing it over her backside as she fidgeted a bit on the spot. "Hee! I suppose I'll pass it off as me being extremely attractive, hee!" Shael giggled, ornaments in her hair jingling lightly as she observed the new happenings. A large beast of sorts it seemed, was engaging the nightmare. Ah, how quaint. A battle of the beasts! Oh she wish she had the scientific equipment to catalog and record everything, but alas, she had not!

More importantly - it seemed the creature had turned its attention from her to the new beast.

Well, she wasn't about to look a gift reptile in the mouth.

Fleeing into the forest, Shael donned her cloak, activating her art. It should make her fairly difficult to detect, as she perched herself in a tree to observe the fight from a hopefully safe distance.

---

---

The tired pony looked up at the sky, seeing the moon and the sun both up in the sky wasn't too odd of an occurrence if it was the normal sun reflecting off of the moon and making it slightly visible during the day. However the fact that they were both prominent in the sky was a sign that the Princesses might be trying to act and they are using their celestial powers as aids. If the princesses needed their full power, then something is obviously wrong and this made him go on high alert. "Oh dear Celestia, what in the world is going on. Well I better find it out sooner than later." Slowly he put his canteen back on the side of his saddlebag and he scanned the area for any direction. Obviously he was trying to follow the smell of smoke and what ever plums of smoke he could see in the sky during the night, but since it was becoming lighter by the minute, the goal became clear and he started to head towards the closer one.

As he stepped back into the thick forest ahead of him something caught his eye. Slowly trying to lower his body a bit, he took a look to see what that creature was. Since he was a bit far away at this point, it would be really hard to see just what it was, but bipedal wasn't a normal body structure that he has seen before. Reaching into his bag, he pulled out his spellbook and flipped to the detect magic cantrip, trying to scan the area for any abnormal magic, ignoring the forest magic the best he could, though it was an overwhelming aura to say the least. The curiosity was getting the better of him and as he let the detect magic tell him if there was any sort of magic auras that he could detect, he took out a scroll of invisibility. Curing the fact that he had to use such an expensive item right away, he casted the spell, watching as the scroll and himself vanish into the surroundings, slowly walking his way towards that figure off in the distance, trying the best he could to stay silent, which was hard to say the least.

---

Carver watched with a sort of satisfaction as the creatures disintegrated into nothing. Whatever they were, they weren't coming back. Reloading his gauss rifle, he watched as the screen in his helmet blinked on. Interestingly enough, the attackers this time seemed more similar to the things currently dying on the floor than the ones that had attacked them originally. Looks like they die the same, too, he noted, giving a slight smile as the things were shot up by the ship's guns. He frowned as he saw the larger creatures, who were out of the gun's range.

What happened next was even more interesting. He watched as, of all things, a griffon, appeared on screen, attacking the creatures. While its armor was primitive by Terran standards, it showed that there was intelligent life on this planet. That was noteworthy- the only other species they had known were the Zerg and the Protoss. Other than relics, they had never found evidence of any other forms of intelligent life. And, given that they had the same enemy, it was possible that these new beings could be made into allies of the UED, instead of enemies.

As he observed the fight happening outside the ship, he was interrupted as another video feed was opened, showing what was, apparently, the unknown ship that had killed the hostile creatures. To his surprise, it was made out of what looked like wood, with a large ring-like structure around it, presumably keeping it in the air. An airship? I was expecting something more...advanced. Must be something to do with that energy it's giving off. He watched as it sent electricity into the air, killing more of the swarming creatures. As it descended further into the ground, he couldn't help but feel guilty. Too bad we nearly shot them out of the sky...but what were we supposed to do? Under attack, and an unknown energy signature moves in...

Whatever. We'll explain it when we talk to them. As he watched the battle through his helmet, he heard the adjutant again. Right. The turrets can't hit the larger ones. Checking his rifle one last time, he looked to the men in the vehicle bay. "Alright, boys. We've got some big uglies trying to tear up our ship, and the turrets can't hit 'em. There's also some smaller creatures attacking us as well. Fortunately, someone has stepped in to help. We've got some sort of creature in a suit, looks like a griffon from the old stories. Don't shoot it. We're gonna have the goliaths hit the big one, while we get the smaller ones. Got it?"

A wave of "got it's" and "yes sir's" echoed through the room. Nodding, Carver put up his visor, and walked over to the vehicle bay doors, with the rest of the men following him. Opening the doors, they stepped outside, and quickly ran to the scene of the battle. As they approached, the Marines began to engage the smaller targets, firing in controlled bursts. The two goliaths, facing the large creatures, unleashed its anti-air missiles onto the larger targets, firing several missiles at them. It would have been quite the spectacle for anyone watching, a true demonstration of Terran firepower.

---

Meanwhile, on the bridge, Specialist Lee watched as the creatures in the room suddenly stopped moving. Fascinating, he thought. It's almost like they're machines that have malfunctioned. The four bridge crew members, however, did not share his fascination, moving towards the end of the room while aiming their rifles. They began to argue amongst themselves, wondering what the hell had happened. As the Specialist watched the creatures from behind the terminals, the bridge crew moved closer towards the windows. The adjutant chimed in, giving the Specialist just enough time to duck behind the terminals as a beam of energy burst through the window.

As Lee looked up from the terminals, he could see that they had been pierced by pieces of glass from the window. The four bridge crew were in bad shape- one seemed to be dead, another was incapacitated, with shards of glass stuck in his body, and two seemed to be more lightly wounded. Soon, something emerged from the hole. It looked like a larger version of the creatures from before, likely a leader of some kind. It also seemed capable of speech, if the buzzing noises it was giving off was supposed to be speech.

The psionic lash from earlier had taken a great deal of his energy, and he needed more time before he could do another attack. So, until then, he waited behind the terminals. He did, however, make an attempt to read the creature's mind, if only to understand what it was trying to say. Given the energy it was emanating, it was likely that the creature was psionically gifted. While this might mean that it could notice Lee's attempt to read its mind, it also meant that reading its mind would be easier- it seemed that it was always easier for psychics to read each other's minds. To read it's mind, though, he would have to remove some of the psionic protection he had put over himself. If the creature noticed him, he would have to quickly re-apply it, or risk getting his own mind read.

Meanwhile, the two lightly-injured bridge crewmen, seeing the horrifying being before them, aimed their carbines and began to fire at it. Maybe if it could cause physical damage, it could also be hurt by physical damage. At least, they hoped so. They were more acting out of panic than anything. Even if their bullets did nothing to it, it would be better than sitting there and waiting for it to kill them.

Elijah turned and gave a look at Escotto. Before shaking his head slightly. Shortly after two of the aliens landed in front of the with the third stumbling from somewhere. 'Hmmm quadrupeds. Never would've thought I'd see another one of them. Galaxy seems to prefer bipeds.' He thought to himself. "Ya know at least they don't look like the Elcor. Shama would probably go nuts over this. Probably will go nuts over this." Elijah said with a short chuckle through his squad comm system. From what Elijah could tell this aliens were flying quadrupeds. Something unheard of from his galaxy. Though they were quite honestly on the shorter end of the spectrum.

The tallest one of the group stepped forward and started speaking to them in their musical language. Elijah's omni-tool wasn't translating anything but it was recording their language. So perhaps they could use it later to help speed up the deciphering process. Though they couldn't exactly understand what it was saying but from the tone of it the alien sounded not angry but more annoyed than anything. Elijah's guess was that it was male with the the deeper voice. But he was unsure because of them being a new species.

Elijah stepped forward. "Hey guys I'm gonna do something stupid. And I want you to follow suit. These aliens don't know what we look like so it might be a good idea for them to see that we are living beings and not robots." Elijah said taking off his helmet and short hiss of the pressurized came out. For the first time on this planet and hopefully not the last Elijah's face was shown to the aliens and Escotto though he didn't really count since he was also human. Elijah took a deep breath of the planets air. Smelling the burnt plants and the fresh air. He turned toward his squad. "See guys its not bad. Well have Shama give us a boost of antibiotics once we are back on ship." The second oldest alien among his crewed shook her head. "Your fucking insane you know that. If I get some alien disease I'm gonna fucking kill you." But she also followed Elijah's lead and took off her helmet revealing her face, Jorgal and Ghalo both followed her lead by also taking off their helmets. Elijah nodded his head turning back to face the aliens his cybernetic eye shining in the dark.

To the aliens his group languages would sound very odd. Elijah's would sound very business like, fast paced. Linass's would sound musical and very drawn out. Jorgal's would sound rough and gravely. An finally Ghalos would sound very clipped and crude. Each of his squad gave a greeting to the aliens. "Once again greetings. We come in peace. Now take us to your leader. Perhaps we can work on getting the language barrier between us solved." Elijah said to the three quadrupeds.

---

@RangingWolf

Escotto watched his... Should he say new companions?

"I think we can."

But, they don't seem to like you very much.

"Aaaand, what's your point?"

Ugh. Anyway, watching Elijah and his crew reveal themselves to these masked creatures, Escotto frowned as Elijah indeed confirmed he was human...

"Wait, does this mean I won't be the first to score some alien poon?!" He gasped. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

However, when the Asari removed her helmet,

"Yep, would bang."

Then Jorgal.

"Let's see.... Hell naw! To da naw, naw, naaaaw!"

Then Ghalo.

"Damn! That's a face only a mother could love!"

Turning back to the quadrupeds, it seemed that any communication between the two sides were going absolutely nowhere. It was at this time that a most brilliant idea struck. Escotto whipped about the quadrupeds. Despite the mask, these creatures were rather stocky for their short height, and the bottom of their feet could look something like hooves, if it weren't for the suits. Or perhaps they are hooves. That could mean....

In order for this to work, Escotto took the hem of his hoody and hoisted it over his head, then sagged his pants. The next step was to cross his eyes, and hold his tongue out as if he had suddenly gone brain dead, and he waddled up to the creatures.

"Hope this works!" He thought, then pulled a carrot from behind him and held it out to the one in the middle. "Ahem.... Horsey wanna cawwot?" He cooed with a cartoonishly deep voice. "Cawwot gewd fer horsey!"

[HR]
@Evanist

As the avali party started to make their way into the forest, they may or may not notice the ship experiencing a number of vines trying to crawl up it's surface from all sides, it was quite obvious yet that it wasn't just made so from the crash, but they were definitely moving.

Otherwise, the large creature they were following, or trying to pass around in order to search for one of their pods, didn't seem to react to their presence... although, it wouldn't be too hard to hear one of the bipeds on it's back hissing irritably. "Hsssss!... This is so wrong! How did we get sap on us anyway? and the 'captain' escaped it? and something is following us, 'I'm' supposed to be the stalker!-MrrlllSSSSH!!! I can't believe i'm glued to your back, this is going to 'ruin' my fur!"

"Not. Problem. No. Attack. No. worry. Shut. up. or. be. useful." The gravely voice clearly came from the big one that was lumbering along... they didn't sound like they had a plan for where they were going, but considering they were heading towards a mountain that had clearly had a big ship crashed on it, it was likely they just weren't talking about it...

With a close look, it became apparently 'what' they were... 'one' was a huge humanoid, a titan of a 'man' that appeared to be literally sculpted from living clay, lumbering along with slow diliberate movements, and adorned only in very plain pants.

On his back was some kind of feline looking creature, guessing from what little was visible beyond it's thoroughly covering over-coat and other bits of clothing, with it's tail absolutely furiously lashing about in agitation. The other was a brassy looking humanoid made of metal, perhaps easily identified as some form of automaton, dressed in a suit.

They were both 'glued' to the big one's back it seemed, thick wads and strands of a sticky light brown substance were allover them with no clear reason 'why' or 'how' it had happened, they weren't even scraped up...

---

[@nevikr]

The creature he was following was pretty obvious, being all red, though once he got closer it was a bit more clear, buckles and belts ever-where, long sleeves, fashionable embellishments, a wide hat... whatever it was, it was 'thoroughly' covered and concealed by it's clothing, and was designed to be so.

Interestingly, there was an odd energy that only his magic sense could see, though it was 'barely' visible, as if it was just on the very edge of what the spell had been designed to detect. whatever it was, it wafted out of every open space it could, the wrists of it's sleeves and gloves, the ankles of it's boots and pants, between the buttons, but especially from the collar where it's face was concealed.

It didn't 'seem' to react to his presence there, invisibility or not, not 'directly' anyway, but it did turn around to investigate behind it as if it had heard something... firey red/orange eyes could be seen glowing under the hat and scanning the surroundings for a moment before it turned back and continued walking, of course, near the closest crash site as well, it was likely investigating the most recent craterous explosion that had been heard.

---

---

@Rune_Alchemist@Ninja@lugia

The creature didn't seem to pursue Shael any farther than the castle's grounds, seemingly having put all of it's focus on the more aggressive threat that had made itself known... At least until the shadows started to dissipate, the swirling night-mass vanishing in puffs of mist and the 'nightmares' along with it, though the Conjured Beryllius remained in and outside of the Castle itself, with the original creature still standing in it's door-ways...

More importantly, with the shadows dispelled it became apparent what was going on beyond it... It didn't become 'night' again, but rather the sun continued moving these last few moments until it was behind the moon, forming a controlled eclipse that dimmed the lighting on Equestria without making it too dark to see easily. It was an ancient signal for a 'state of emergency' and though it hadn't been seen in centuries, it was common knowledge in schooling, aside from just being an intimidating display, it ensured both princess's celestial bodies were in the sky, nearby, and able to be drawn on if needed, not to mention the strange magical synergy that accompanied it.

Case in point, now that the darkness had been expelled there were new creatures standing there, well, one was standing, the others were flying, those being strange hooved quadrupeds with long beak-like masks on, though one had feathered wings and the other leather wings, otherwise details about them were unclear, save that the feathered one appeared to be dripping water... and there were clouds and puddles scattered around the area.

Considerably more demanding was the larger one, standing nearly two feet taller than the dragon, It was a dark equine, pitch black, with a mane and tail of nebulous night-sky with firey 'dawn' on it's edges and and eclipse patterned light in it's eyes... if the original creature weren't still standing separate by the door, it might be questionable if it had just changed it's appearance, but 'it' was avoiding stepping into the sun-light for now, and in-fact had seemingly locked itself into a motionless prostration behind the new arrivals.

This one wore armor of a darker lavender, alongside an expression of calm authority... to a certain magically aware Ebon, this one may radiate a far greater volume of that familiar night-themed magical power than the Fear abusing guard-creature in the castle, "I have been informed that you have something of an 'aggression issue' when it comes to my subjects." She was aware of the probability of it being unable to understand her, and augmented her speech with simple image displays, a remarkably detailed charicature of the dragon appeared on the ground before her, a conjured image, it swung at the shadow image of several ponies that disspated harmlessly when struck, and was quickly followed by another similar image, except instead of shadow images it was images of actual ponies, complete with blood and claws in them, and imposing a grand red X over the scene. "Since you have not struck anything but imaginary clones, I will give you a chance to curb this issue."

She spoke with an intense authority, and even if he couldn't understand her words, there was a sense of uncompromising authority in the dark, orchestra like tones that emanated from her speech. "If you confirm yourself as a 'threat'." She conjured an image of him in an obviously predatory position over smaller ponies... Then proceeded to stomp the image herself, a motion that shook the ground far more intensely than her size implied it should, followed by simply narrowing her eyes as if to dare him to cross her...

Otherwise, she paid little mind to the robot or the other creature that seemed to be a source of magic nearby...

---

@Rangingwolf[@WanderingBlackDragon]

The hiss actually caused a bit of a twitch in the two quadrupeds that seemed coherent, the one in the lead raised a fore-leg a little... body language was another option for interpretation, but if they hadn't encountered anything as expressive as them that was likely to be a new field as well... similar could be said for the other side, though this world had 'sortof' bipeds, in diamond dogs and minotaurs, their physical structures were so wildly different it couldn't be assumed to translate accurately.

Either way, they calmed quickly when they realized it was just the removal of... 'armor'? It was quite a thing to see actually, they were obviously vastly different species, it wasn't hard at all to figure that out... it was an easy guess to imply they were a group of aliens working together, though they couldn't guess to what degree or why.

What they could infer was that each spoke a different language but somehow understood eachother, given the wildly different examples of speech that each one presented, leading the leader to run at the under-side of his head for a moment... He glanced back and made a motion with his head... the one half-lucid on the ground didn't react, but the still standing one nodded and reached up a hoof to raise their helmet, and the one in the lead followed suit.

... or at least, they'd been about to... then a carrot was poking at his mask... he knew, that one of his companions was staring dumbfounded through their mask at the audacity of this creature!... he however, knew something else was coming, and leapt to the side away from him in an instant, and 'why' became clear!

His half concious companion who'd been practically struck dumb by 'whatever' had zeroed in on the carrot and with speed fit for a Jet-engine fired off at Escotto's hand, his mask slipping up just enough to see a blue furred muzzle peeking under it, gaping wide almost in slow motion as it shouted "NNnnnoooommmmffff!!!!" before clamping down on the carrot with a thunderous 'clack' that vanished the entire thing, and came so close that it nipped the end of Escotto's finger-nail!

It didn't stop there, he latched onto the boy's arm and began to hungrily lick his fingers and hand in search of more carrot!... of course, 'he' wasn't aware at the moment of the effects that a couple hundred pounds of pony latching onto someone's arm mid-flight could do, like drag them into the ground and such.

Oddly, this display was only met with a dismissive roll of their eyes... or masks, from the other two, before they returned to the initial plan of reciprocating removing their masks.

They weren't nearly as fancy, and simply stretched on a fastener before sliding up to cling to the top of their heads, revealing much smaller muzzles beneath, fur, manes, and expressiveness on a level rarely seen in other species. Remarkably large eyes, flexible expressions that were quite obvious even with just two to look at, and and even evidence of gender dimorphism [I think that's the word for it XD], at least if the shorter, softer muzzle and longer eyelashes on the second one are a hint, compared to the broader thicker shape of the lead... either way, nothing had any business being that cute...

...Somewhere amidst this, Amber Wing had nearly dragged Escotto to the ground with his weight before flapping his wing to pull up while still latched onto him, instinctively dragging them back up right.

They still couldn't understand eachother yet, but... they could at least 'see' their mouths moving now. "Well, this is a step in the right direction, but we need to cross the language barrier to make sure they won't use any more fire around here." He looked pretty though for a long moment, even rubbing at his chin as he looked around... it 'might' have appeared that he might be ignoring the request to meet leadership, but he was just seeking inspiration... He actually spotted something familiar and firey dropping into the far end of the gorge that caused him to perk up, raise his hoof, and glance back to his second "I've got it, Ruby, the feather!"

"Gotcha boss!" She then proceeded to give them a rude gesture that could potentially be interpreted in any society that has apposable digits, but to then was known as 'flipping the middle feather'. Which earned her a swat in the head with his wing. "heheh-ow!-hehehehh, okay okay, hardass, heheh. I thought it was funny.""Meeee, toooo..." She stepped forward then before extending her wing and... igniting it... Or more specifically, something built up heat enough to ignite the air in contact with the largest pinion.

Amidst this Amber had continued flapping his wings, kindof dragging escotto by his arm as if trying to take off with him, but only causing himself to drop lower and flap back up again, all while still nibbling on his hand "More. more. more! gimme more! Hungry hungry hungry hungry pony!"

She then proceeded to singe doodles into the stone in-front of her while he rattled off an explanation, even if they couldn't understand, practice and experience was one of the most certain ways to permanently cross a language barrier, in time. "Alright, I dunno what you said yet, but we've got to get this through before 'anything' else. Do. not. use. fire. on the forest! or it's creatures!"

While he spoke, she quickly doodled some poor stick figure bipeds, with wolves and trees, and fire... In the first image, the bipeds used fire on the wolves, in the second the trees made big sound waves and a bigger wolf came out combined with vines and roots from the trees. In the third image it showed the bipeds breadking the core thingy that had been tossed into the gorge, and with an arrow to the next image, which she doodled much larger... It had a poor charicature of their ship and 'tiny' bipeds, along with a much 'bigger' wolf monster about to step on them... with a mountain doodled nearby for reference. And next to that she added a larger depiction of 'fire', with a bit X scorched over it. She then added one more little doodle, of the forest cowering... or perhaps bowing, and an example of the 'the sun' doodled above it.

It might not be easy to explain 'clearly', but hopefully it was clear enough that 'fire' would lead to a steadily escalating threat.

---

@thedman

The ships guns were making short work of the flying swarmers, there were just so many of them that it was only widdling down the swarm, and the fewer of them there were, the harder it would get for the guns to target the small things... still, there were pierces of them scattered allover the hull and ground in various states of disintegration. A couple of the bigger ones had managed to be eaten up by the guns before they could get below their range of motion and seemed to be holding on a bit better despite being full of holes, but were rendered impotent in terms of threat.

Some distance away the flying ship came down for it's forced landing... a glow emanated from the ring in it's center to cushion the landing so it wouldn't shatter said ring, and soon released the ship itself to rest on the stone, where the shield grew brighter in respond to the entirely predictable diversion of some of the swarm to pile onto the shield...

The marine's had something else to focus on however, and while the ship had been opening, something in the air slowed to watch as the crashed forces piled out to join the fight... information gathering was key, and it was quite a show to see how they fought. The swarming changelings were easily minced by... whatever they called those, they fired like cannons, but tiny and rapid, and the big ones... heavens, what 'was' it that they threw at those behemoths?!

Some might question firing anti-air missiles at targets that weren't flying, but as it happened they were plenty big enough to hit anyway, and it was astoundingly effect! Big and tough looking as they were, the missiles that sprayed them easily penetrated what armor they had, and the explosions dispersed huge chunks of the creatures, easily leaving the first several in pieces, or missing enough to be crippled... there were certainly more though, roughly half a dozen remained, and the arrival of a greater threat certainly deterred them from the ship, which one might note had visible caving in the armor from the behemoth's impacts.

Now though, the remaining numbers turned to charge the big metal things that had just splattered them.

Amidst this, something small from up in the air had zipped around far out of their firing angle, and using it's tiny size snuck up on the goliaths quite rapidly and... landed on one of them, right next to it's right weapon platform, staying safely out of it's line as it watched it in action... If one got a look at it, it'd look like a very large bird with four legs, far smaller than the big griffon that was fighting a behemoth, but wearing a similar beak shaped mask, and mumbling tiny flute like sounds oh. my. goodness! I can only get so wet! such marvels of weaponry! I MUST pick you apart and find out what makes you tick! oh, oh, but, nono jade, nono, no taking apart the strange alien machinery while it's fighting, that's mean and dangerous, but ohhhhh! I must find out what causes such DAMAGE! EEEEHEEEHEHEHEEEE!" It was practically prancing in place on the goliath's hull at this point, seemingly forgetting about the fighting entirely.

More importantly, the landed ship's shield changed properties, seemingly frying the swarmers attached to it, or repelling them at least as many flew off of it like a cloud of gnats, and in the next moment it dropped and re-raised, but not before launching several small green beams from it's deck towards the crashed ship...

The adjutant chimed in immediately *BWOOP!* "Warning, Sergeant, it appears that the unknown ship contains creatures visually similar to those attacking the ship! Though they appear to be under attack by the swarm as-"*BBWOOP!*"Warning! Secondary psionic wave-form detected approaching the bridge! It... has engaged the previous attacker and have already injured eachother."

---

back on the bridge!

It was quite a sight, though they had surely seen more horrifying creatures in the zerg before, being caught without armor or better weaponry with the non-combat crew had it's own issues...

Nevertheless, connecting with it's mind may not have been the best idea Specialist Lee had ever had, though he couldn't be blamed for ignorance of 'what' he was dealing with...

It was like a hurricane of psychic activity, one big one directing thousands of smaller ones of numbers he could witness dwindling even now, voices going back and forth were a constant, and above it all echoed the biggest in mid speech <-Will consume you all for the blood you have-FOOL!> It had barely been seconds before it caught on to his presence, and concealed or not it looked right at him, a noticeable snarl on it's face and an instant later a thousand voices were screaming through the connection he'd opened, it didn't seem interested in 'reading' so much as destroying the potential threat that could interact with it on that level!

With the voices every creature in the room seemed to multiply a dozen times over and flood the air while surging towards Lee, it was a sea of horrors with that big one's vicious glare at it's center, swirling around him, and flooding images of horrible mutilations rought upon him alongside the deafening screeches piling on into the connection... they didn't know who or what he was though, or if perhaps he 'had' the mental fortitude to resist something like this.

It didn't matter though, he only needed to last a couple of seconds it seemed, as the two concious crewmen opening fire distracted it considerably, without the central force behind it, while the assault continued it dimmed, slowed, became transparent in comparison, the screeching lowered enough to hear the sound of the guns...

It's shell was being rapidly cracked and broken away by the bullets pelting it, green blood could be seen leaking out, but it wasn't going to take it lying down, it's horn lit up and a sensation of intense psionic power could be felt for a moment before a visible wave surged towards to injured men...

Something interfered though, several smaller ones made themselves known, through the same hole as the big one entered, differently colored but there was no time to worry about that, two dropped down immediately on either side of the injured crewmen and light their horns, while the third soared right over with it's momentum... collectively, a counter-force pushed the psionic wave downinto the floor, though it caused their guns to be dragged to the floor with considerable force, it kept it from hitting them directly, and the third one pierced right through the wave to collide with the big one, though it hardly stumbled, it's glowing horn directed numerous shards of glass into it's wounded shell, and one 'big' one right into it's left eye.

The psionic flood directed at Specialist Lee died instantly there as it's attention was ripped violently to another threat, just intime for him to see a similar wave of force blast the attacker off of it and into a wall hard enough to leave it noticeably dented, it's strange insectoid speech had turned into furious screeching as it prowled it's way towards the seemingly downed assailant...

He'd also get to see the other two, one with pink secondary colors, and the other light blue, using their own projected force to 'carefully' keep the injured men pinned in place while they... extracted the glass shards? and covered over the wounds with some kind of goop colored similarly to themselves. The pinned men looked horridly frightened of this situation, but they didn't appear to be brutally murdering them like one would expect.

@Shoryu

The illusory ponies just sort of disappeared, leaving Trevor laughing for a little bit longer "Ah... that was a fun training session... too bad I can't really USE what I've learned in most situations, though," he said, mostly to himself as a few MORE horses showed up. Two of them were the usual tiny size, while one of them was actually a somewhat normal size for a horse, if still a bit short. The taller one seemed to try to speak to him in a calm manner, but, er, he couldn't understand a single word she (and he assumes all the horses are female) said... shortly after, she made a few doodles, depicting Trevor's training session, and then putting a giant 'X' over it, implying that she was NOT okay with it for some... reason. While Trevor was trying to figure out what he did wrong, she took an aggressive stance that told him that she wanted to fight, right here, and right now under the newly-formed eclipse. "Ah, what the heck, I'm in a surprisingly good mood, right now, sure, I'll take your challenge, we'll fight until one of us passes out, or something," he said to her, taking an aggressive stance, himself. He grinned, and then just waited for a moment... oh, right, they never decided on who goes first in this fight.

A bit of time passed, and they just stood there, waiting... Well, I guess her just waiting like this means that I get to have the first attack... very well, I'll start off with an old classic. Trevor thought as he sped towards her at literally lightning fast speeds, only to give her a powerful uppercut at the end of his dash... he was then preparing himself for whatever she might throw at him, ready to dodge or counter anything physical, and... hopefully dodge any magical attack she might toss his way. He was also planning to zap or burn her if she was too far away to punch back as a counter, or just punch her if she decided to get close to him, for some reason. It didn't seem like she WANTED to fly, yet, so he just remained on the ground, mainly to tell her that this was going to be a fair fight... even if she didn't COMPLETELY understand why he was sticking to the ground for now.

---

The Unicorn waited a moment, but his patience would only last so long. It looked like the visitors were determined to stay put, preferring to fortify themselves over venturing forward. If that was the case, then Astral would just have to investigate the Castle on his own. He wasn't afraid, especially with the Eclipse now granting more light than was normally available in the Everfree Forest. Wait... ECLIPSE?! Astral's eyes shot upward to find that the Sun had been positioned behind the moon, and that was where it remained. A state of emergency? Were the falling objects that dangerous? Then again, if the falling object Astral had investigated turned out to be a crashed vessel, then who was to say the same wasn't true for the other objects as well?

"I can't waste anymore time!" he exclaimed aloud, though he did so while simultaneously dispelling the magic circle so even then only part of the exclamation would get across. He didn't say anything and took off in a full gallop back in the direction of the Castle. As before, he occasionally teleported in short spurts to optimize his running speed as much as he could. That would effectively allow him to reach his destination in a just a minute or two.

---

Astral's arrival at the Castle was seemingly flashy. When he was most of the way there he decided to perform one longer-range teleport to get to his destination a few moments sooner. After a flash of smoke produced him just outside the courtyard, the Crystal Unicorn took a heavy step forward, his breath a little heavy as teleporting a longer distance was more taxing on his magical stamina than the short spurts he was more accustomed to doing. Still, at least he arrived and that at least was what was important. What he had originally thought was a threat turned out to be a... well still potentially a threat. A dragon, or at least Astral assumed it was a Dragon. It certainly looked like one anyway. Was it a rogue, or did it come from the Dragon Lands?

Well, when it tried to uppercut Princess Luna of all ponies, well that was all the answer Astral Gleam needed. Definitely a rogue dragon of some kind, and why in the ever-loving Tartarus did he pick a fight with a Royal Sister? Speaking of whom, Astral wasn't nearly as surprised to find Princess Luna here as he probably should have been. He already knew the Shadow Bolts had been watching everything from the skies above this whole time, so it was only a matter of time before the Princess of the Night herself would get involved. And of course, there were others, but right now the apparent battle between Princess Luna and the Dragon was more eye-catching. Still, he did make a quick mental note of the one who looked like they came from the crashed vessel nearby. Had they been scouting the area this whole time while their allies were talking to the Unicorn?

I feel like I should do something here... Astral thought to himself. It was true, he probably should try to do something, but what does one do when it involves a Dragon and one of the Princesses? If anything, the Shadow Bolts were sure to step in at some point. Or perhaps the Princess herself would give a brief demonstration of why she was one of the most powerful Ponies in Equestria? Either way, any action from Astral Gleam would be largely pointless. So all he could really do was stare on like someone unable to turn away from watching a train wreck.

---

As the group listened to their environment from the top of the trees, they saw the vines that were crawling up the ship. That was definitely not normal for them. Celina shook her head, frowning at this.“Great… just great... I am going to guess nature is going to be against us here…” she said rather calmly, looking at Zoe, Xavier and Richard right now before her ears perked up, hearing what the creature bellow was saying. Well, unfortunately they knew that the group was there and following… but the good thing is that they didn’t seem to want to attack and they seemed to be moving towards a large ship that seemed to be crashed in the mountain right now. Celina looked at the group a bit, her voice lowered.
“We might find some clues of pods.. just stay silent right n..” she said… before an eclipse happened… with Richard suddenly screeching a bit right now from the sudden change of lighting, before Zoe and Xavier rushed to shut his mouth right there before he made more sound. Celina face palmed at that.

“This is why Richard we don’t bring you to darkness planets usually… I know you don’t like darkness cause of what happen before… no need to scream.” She said in a whispering tone. To hope nothing in that forest heard that... Last thing she needed is something suddenly attacking the group. And how the heck did the moon just do that... was it sheer luck that caused it to do an eclipse... or something much more powerful here. She opened her radio to contact the ship knowing the vines might cause an issue if they spread up to the top. If they end up in the ships farm area, it might be bad.

“Ship… how is the nitrogen defense system going on.” She whispers, lowering the sound of the radio. She waited a bit. “We had a spilling in the room quarters… people are working on fixing the pipes and cleaning up the damage.” She then heard. Great… just great… their whole rooms would be covered in ice cause of this. Sure liquid nitrogen could be useful to keep the systems cool.. But when it comes to cleaning up the mess, it is rather a pain to get rid of, having to use specialized vacuums. Although that whole nitrogen system did permit them to get an ice barrier around the ship if used right, but right now…

She shook her head as she signal the group to follow that big golem thing. Maybe on the way they could find one of the pods or a hole in the trees signaling that one of the pod would have fallen there. If the group can at least bring back one of their own at least… that would probably boost moral more, considering the damage that the ship sustained and the deaths that arrive. The group just keep following, although maybe they could talk to those guys? Considering what that cat thing said, she was a bit unsure if she should though.

@Shoryu@Double

---

Things just seemed to be getting worse and worse, didn't it?

Shael clung to the tree, grabbing her side lightly. Maybe re broke something. Thought for later. She was far too focused on the castle happenings. The creature hadn't pursued it past the tree line, having seemingly decided to focus on the new threat. Whatever it even was, Shael hadn't a clue, but she'd very much like to study it, but now wasn't the time for scientific inquiry. The sun had moved behind the moon, in an image that would have caused great alarm back on Sal'Xantis. Normally such a thing wouldn't happen, considering the solar synchronous orbit of her planet, but she doubted the controlled eclipse here would be the same.

She turned her attention back to the darkness and the illusory creature, her heart calming down considerably. The darkness had lifted, and with the light, came a more thorough understanding of the situation. More of those quadrupeds were walking around, dressed in some fancy masks and costume. Were they the same as that striped one she had met earlier? Chances were likely. More attention drawing one, however, was the one standing nearly two feet taller than the dragon.

"...Night mother?" Shael mused. "He-he! Similar, but different. Not the ruler of ice and night, hee-hee!" She giggled quietly, staring into its nebulous mane. Ah, she wanted to touch it! Perhaps if she could get close enough she could figure out if that was an actual nebula or something entirely different. How did that happen? "Ah, still wary of...dangerous..." She shook her head, coming down from the tree now that things had seemed to calm down somewhat as the dark nebula quadruped spoke with the authority similar to that of the Sun Emperor.

The calmness seemed to last only for a moment, though. The large creature seemed to attack the other in a show of force. Tsk, well, that wouldn't do at all, would it? Oh well, she'd watch and observe like a good, silent, little Ebon.

"Hee! Crashed on a foreign world with no knowledge!" Shael mused to the pony she had landed next too. "Attacked by Illusions and now watching tall nebula pony and a large scaley thing fight. Ahaha, this planet is quite dangerous." She turned her head to the pony. "Ah, and shiny crystal quadruped! Hehe, quite odd life here!" Not that the pony would be able to understand anything without a translation. All he'd hear was pleasant hums, chimes, and chirps.

Elijah gave a dirty look to Escotto. "Continue talking shit about my crew. And I wont stop Jorgal from eating you. And no you won't be the first human to score some 'alien poon' because if you paid attention to what I said earlier when I said I was was a human as well. You can infer that there are other humans from where I'm from. Geez kid learn to think." The Veteran Merc said pointing towards the large Krogan who gave a very toothy grin.

Turning back to the new aliens, Elijah watched as their apparent leader gave a signal for them to remove their masks? He didn't know what to think of them. They appeared to be reminiscent of ancient earth plague doctor masks. Perhaps this group was this species version of special forces?
Before they could remove their masks Elijah watched as Escotto in all his stupidity walked forward with his shirt above his head and pants sagging. Before Elijah could stop him the kid was holding a carrot in front of the aliens face.

"Ahem.... Horsey wanna cawwot?" He cooed with a cartoonishly deep voice. "Cawwot gewd fer horsey!"

Asking if it wanted a carrot of all things. 'The FUCKING nerve of this kid.' Elijah looked back at his squad to see if they saw what he saw. Elijah looked at Ghalo who held a pistol in his hand, almost asking permission to shoot the kid. Elijah shook his head. The pistol collapsed once again and disappeared.

Elijah turned back to the aliens, from what he could tell their leader look appalled that the kid would assume he was a animal. "Stop acting like a FUCKING idiot, kid. This is a first contact situation be serious." Elijah all but shouted at Escotto. He started to move towards him till he saw the aliens leader had sidestepped out of the way as another one of the aliens attacked the carrot. The kid was practically thrown around as the winged alien greedily attempted to find more carrots.
"Serves you right dumbass. If that was me I would've just killed you for the insult." Elijah said. His squad was oddly quiet watching the train wreck of a first contact happen before their eyes.

Once they started to ignore the kid being thrown around by the winged pony. First contact continued to move on. The aliens removed their face masks. Revealing them to be if Elijah had to guess some-type of equine. Though he'd never seen a horse or pony before, probably because of him being from a colony and spending most of his time among aliens. From what he could see they had very expressive eyes and easily distinguishable sexes. Males having a larger build and a thicker facial structure. The females having shorter muzzles and a slimmer build.

A short gasp came out from Linass. "By the Goddess they are so adorable." Jorgal gave a quiet chuckle. "They look like prey species. Notice how their eyes are further back. Gives them a wider picture." Elijah nodded his head. "Yeah. Wonder how they managed to evolve. Closest thing we got to prey species is Hanar and they are still considered a predator species." Wonder evident in his voice.

Elijah watched with one eyebrow raised as the equinoid(?) or whatever you want to call them started talking to one of his subordinates who quickly lit one of her feathers on fire somehow. Perhaps some type of tech allowed them to do that. The equinoids started to draw sticks figures trying to explain something.

Several short doodles later. Elijah and his squad could finally see what they drew clearly. What appeared to be them killing the beasts with fire which apparently caused the forest (?) to send a larger wooden wolf to attack them, the next drawing showed them destroying the the wooden wolves core or in their case launching it into the canyon. The next drawing showed a much larger wolf stepping on them. If the drawing is correct the wolf would be half the size of the ship. At least 50 feet high. The next doodle was easy to understand what it meant. No fire. Apparently this place didn't like fire. The last one made no sense to him. The forest bowing to the sun. Elijah figured he'd need to asked what that one meant once they understood each other languages better.

From behind him Elijah heard Linass ask a question. "Obviously we won't be able to use any flamethrowers or incinerate attack. You think we can still use biotics?" Elijah shrugged. "Let me ask them. But its obvious nothing fire related. No incendiary ammo either. Stick with sledgehammer, cyro or shredder rounds." He then grabbed a nearby stick and crudely drew a human with a flame in his hand. Above the drawing he drew a question mark. Then to show them what he meant by his drawing Elijah demonstrated his biotics, Elijah's right arm and hand started glowing a dark blue almost blackish with the most inward of it being white. Above the palm of his hand appeared a concentrated ball of energy. Elijah then cut of his biotics and looked at the aliens.

Once they had answered his question Elijah turned to Linass. "I think I got a idea. If you are willing to meld with one of them we might be able to get them to speak our language." Linass looked at Elijah. "I mean I could but you know what that means to my people. But then again it is possible that I might be able to share some of my language with them so that we could talk to them. Though since they are a new race I don't know how they will react. But it's worth a shot." She said. Elijah nodded his head and once again started drawing. This time he drew a badly drawn picture of a Asari and one of the equinoids with a thought bubble above both of them. The next one showed the Asari and the equinoid touching forwards above them was a single thought bubble above both of their heads to show that their minds had connected. Then next one showed several stick figures and the equinoid being able to talk to one another. Once he finished his drawing Elijah took a step back and watched the equinoids to see if one of them would volunteer.

---

@lugia@double@Rune_Alchemist
[This was collaborated in PMs with Lugia]

She had been fairly certain that she made it clear with the imagery that if he continued his aggression and made himself a threat to the smaller ponies she'd crush him, but for whatever reason, whether he just wanted a fight, was utterly mad, or misinterpreted her display, it confused her enough thinking about it that his strike landed perfectly, square in the jaw, forcing her head up... a few inches before it stopped, if he was watching he could see her neck flexing to resist the force of it and turn her muzzle down a bit so that he could see...

A bit of blood made itself known leaking from her lips before her tongue, far from 'equine' in it's almost reptilian style, glowing blue even, snapped out to lick over her lips and clean it up... then her jaws parted, revealing horrifying rows of razor sharp teeth that had no business fitting in her mouth like that, giving him a horrifyingly gleeful bloody grin. Suddenly, she pivoting in place, jerking her muzzle free of his strike and letting her wing shoot out 'lightning fast' as well, albeit much closer than his charge had been, and if he dodged her spin would put her in the perfect position for a double-buck to the rear with considerably longer range than her wing had, the force of which caused a tremor in the ground and cracks in the stone where here fore-legs were supporting her weight, and a rush of wind to follow it.

"HA! Gotcha!" Trevor shouted as his uppercut worked just as 'planned'... of course, at that moment, the horselike thing revealed an absolutely draconic set of teeth and a similar tongue. Considering what he saw, before, Trevor was almost certain this was some sort of illusion, or something, and she was trying to intimidate him with that... and, just after her grin her wings shot out, and she spun around, which caused Trevor to use this time to sidestep and grapple her, tossing her to the ground... of course, what came next, Trevor didn't expect, even though he probably should have. The thing kicked him square in the face, sending him back, and even causing the loss of a couple teeth. If he hadn't already claimed ice as his mortal enemy, blunt force would have been that, due to his avian bones. "Hey... not bad," he commented, trying to make it seem like it didn't do much, though, the slight slur in his speech gave away the fact that the kick did, indeed hurt.

After being donkey-kicked by a creature much stronger than a donkey, Trevor used his lightning magic to heal him... and to save it up for a thunderstorm, which would start right after he was healed up. Trevor had absolutely NO idea whether the thing was strong to, or weak to electricity, but it was at least worth a try, given that the rain in the area quite literally dampened any fiery plans he might have had.

His reaction time was impressive, certainly, but the sensation of a connected buck and the inevitable feeling of blood on her hooves from the damage was both satisfying and gave her useful information about how durable his body was, similarly to how his demonstration of self electrocution allowed him to regenerate the damage... so clearly she was either going to have to force him into surrender, unconciousness, or a more permanent state of silence.

By the time he'd finished healing she'd righted herself and turned back, standing tall with something of an imperious glare on her muzzle, though the satisfied smirk told how unphased she was by a proper fight. She waited a moment and watched as he seemed to 'charge' something, an eyebrow raised and she simply stared as nothing happened... She did 'not' assume that it was nothing, it was never nothing unless the opponent was a 'fool'... she was proven right with the sensation of magic surging down at her, she spread her hooves and snapped her wings outs... wings that sparked lightly, something attracted the bolts to them, seeming to curve in mid-air as they struck her wings directly, visibly arcing through and into her body before dispersing into the ground, cooking the grass or water near her hooves, but aside from going stiff and a little twitch here or there she didn't seem too put out by it, her expression didn't even change from a calm smirk... "An impressive voltage..."
.
Which widened slightly, he'd escalated it from a physical confrontation to a magical one now didn't he? Her eyes flashed bright blue for a moment, and her horn lit up with that tell-tale starry aura... then the air began to grow colder, the clouds that had come both from before to put out the fires, and now to facilitate the lightning, began to freeze and dissipate before turning turning into a rain of hail... thousands of tiny ice-balls being directed at her scaley opponent in waves of varied size, each one 'just' cold enough to freeze, but warm enough to shatter on impact and spray it's impact zone with tiny cold shards... first rule of fighting dragons with magic, chill them out.

The horse smiled when the lightning bolts started hitting her... and they seemed to do nothing, with her just grounding it out with her wings and the dirt under her. She said... something that he couldn't understand and then it grew colder around him... he had to act fast if he didn't want to freeze to death, and, while he REALLY didn't want to do this in what he thought was a fair and friendly fight, Trevor flew up a little bit, and performed his flame drill attack, both to keep the hail and cold away from him, AND to damage his opponent, though, he was SPECIFICALLY aiming for a non-fatal area, and he didn't want to permanently cripple her, either, so he wasn't aiming for her wings. Once that was done, he found the entire world spinning around him... yup, that move packs a punch, but BOY does it make it hard to do things afterwards... he just started throwing punches everywhere after that, hoping that she was around here, somewhere. Of course, without his fiery shield around him, he started getting hit with hail, and the colder temperatures, though, he'd occasionally breathe fire to TRY to mitigate that.

Trevor... HATED it when he got motion sickness, and by now, he almost felt ready to puke, but there was NO way he was going to give up after that. After taking a break, and healing himself with another jolt of energizing lightning magic, he looked around to find his opponent, and then flew up to her, just to pick her up again... though, this time, he took her up into the air, only to try to slam her down... of course, he knew she had wings, so he'd have to 'aid' her decent with a gravity-aided kick to the back... of course, again, he didn't WANT to use this move, but he figured that she could take him going all out, by now, so he wasn't TOO worried.

She actually chuckled a little as he at first avoided the hail by spinning and burning, not a bad idea, but she knew from experience that she could keep this up well until he'd frozen to death... Then he launched at her from the air while he was still spinning, She wasn't sure if he could even 'see' through the fire, and counted on that as she dispersed 'herself' to mist before he landed, refforming quickly on the other side of him to watch him wobble around dizzily for a moment... She'd stopped though...

...

This was turning out dissapointingly... That first strike had made her consider that he was capable of doing damage and being an entertaining fight while she was fulfilling her duty of suppressing his threat... and yet, he appeared to be petering out quickly... she stared quietly for a moment as he shocked himself again to straighten out his dizzy state, then he came for her again... honestly, her heart wasn't in it anymore, but she 'was' kindof impressed that he'd managed to lift her into the air, that was a 'LOT' of mare to be hefty around then dragging back to the ground... thing was, this time when he went to kick her towards the ground, she burst into that purple mist again, something which clung to his out-stretched legs like glue before jerking him down as well and sending him into the ground before moving about to hove in the air...

Well, Trevor didn't think he'd ever see THAT ability... as he was trying to slam her on the ground, she just sort of... poofed. She disappeared, causing him to have to slow down before he, himself crashed into the ground without someone to soften the landing. "Aw, now that's no fun, teleporting around like that, can't you just fight normally? Hmph," Trevor then decided to try to use his thunderstorm move, again, just to try to reveal where she was, but... it didn't happen. It would appear as if Trevor has run himself out of magic in the middle of this fight, and that was NOT going to go well for him... of course, just as one last thing, he waited for her to reappear, and once he spotted her, dashed at her, full speed, grappled her, once again... and then just PUMMELED her for a while, mainly out of spite. Once he grew tired of that, he backed away, and tried to search for some sort of healing item that'll heal up his magic, once again...

Of course, him digging through his bag left him WIDE OPEN for any sort of attacks that someone might be planning, especially after taking a pummeling, not that Trevor had much of a choice... without his magic, he can't heal himself with energize, and without magic, he'd be limited to his most basic attacks of each type... of course, that pummel took up the last of his magic resources, but, it was, in his opinion, probably a 'good' parting gift.

She simply watched from... somewhere... it'd be hard to describe to one who hadn't experienced it, but he seemed to be looking for another chance to get at her... so she elected to conjured herself... or, a dummy version, somthing he went for immediately... heavens, the poor thing must have no clue what he was actually doing, he just battered it for a while before retreating to search through his bag for something... this was the perfect oppurtunity, and all she did was... 'manifest'.

She solidified in the air above him, four legs spread out and wings closed, and 'dropped'... Doesn't sound very fancy... but that was literal 'tons' of horse that crashed down ontop of him suddenly, and topping it off was that she was even heavier than she looked, likely some sort of density effect to her body... either way, it resulted in him being buried in the dirt beneath her, the ground cracking from the impact, and a sensation mixing pain and frigid chill from coming in prolonged contact with her body, not to mention the ground shaking the intense landing.

Moments later she picked herself up, used her wings to brush off the loose dust and dirt, and then in a glow like writhing night-mass peeled him out of the indention in the ground, logically removed the bag he'd been fishing through, presumably for some kind of weapon, and tossed it over her shoulder in a specific direction, where it was quickly caught in mid-air by the bat-winged quadruped... After slinging it on their shoulder they seemed to proceed to squirm comically in the air, as if gushing over the night-mare.

After a few moments more she positioned him in the ground, laid out, legs and arms bound by quickly conjured stone-cuffs, enchanted to provide 'just' enough chill to render most dragons lethargic without actually endangering their health... Then turned about to address the two closer ponies, quietly enough for none to hear it, before they nodded and zipped off into the sky.

She then proceeded to heft the dragon thing onto her back, using her wings to pin him in place, and quickly addressed the shadowy apparition in some voice tone that seemed to defy language norms for any known time-period... It receded, and she turned to-Find that there was another pony present, one who hadn't been sent here. For a moment her eyes narrowed on him... As experienced royalty she was 'expected' to know prominent figures around the nation, at the 'least' by name, but she did not keep track of any who were not permanently in canterlot, or of 'personal' interest.

"Astral Gleam? What are you doing down 'here'? Every instance I have heard of you places you in the Crystal Empire, much too far to have arrived here so quickly..." Her tone hinted at suspicion beyond just 'being where he shouldn't', perhaps she thought he was a changeling impersonating someone who couldn't possibly be here already... It wasn't inherently accusatory, but she was keeping the possibilities in mind.

---

@rune_alchemist@double
The whole display may have been quite exciting to such a foreign visitor, a display of power, speed, of sound routing of a disruptive ruffian! It was over rather quickly though.

Who knew if it would stay as interesting when the tall nebulous equine's features settled on 'her'... it's eyes widened a bit upon noticing her... this creature that had revealed itself had the look of something night-born, it could simply be assumptive of her, but the coloration... She also noted the strange bipedal machine nearby, both of which were terribly out of place here.

Regardless, she quickly looked back to the pony with a short "And 'what' are 'these' creatures?" Though to a foreign ear it merely sounded akin to a dark orchestra playing through one's voice.

---

@evanist
The sudden shriek by one of the 'following critters' caused the bundle of creatures to stop, the big one slowly turned it's body so that it could look behind itself at the noise... It's expression seemed to be permanent blank disinterest, but one could guess as to whether it was 'made' that way or if he felt that little interest.

The other two reacted a bit more noticeably, the feline thing stretching at it's sappy trappings to try and get a better view while it's eyes zeroed in right on some of the creatures hiding in the trees. While the automaton's head spun around as if on a 360 joint to stare backwards, metallic 'facial parts' clinking into a new position that appeared to suggest curiosity.

"I-say. That-sown-ded like a whip... or will."
"Stupid, it's those things I said were following us, they smell even more foreign than this forest!" He whispered something low enough not to be heard from a distance.

The clay thing's expression changed in such a minute way it would take a truly sharp eye to catch the tiniest eye-brow raise. "No. Such. thing... Will. just. ask... pussy. tactics. waste. time." As the giant was turning there was a hissy scrabbling on his back "Oh yer a nice one to be talkin about wasting time, yer slow like mud already!"

He seemed to go ignored as the big one looked in the general direction the feline thing had been looking, who still glared over that broad shoulder... Then his voice sounded out with more bass, if that was possible, as he spoke louder "Are. you. survivors? or stalkers?" Interestingly enough, he maintained a slow but steady pace towards the mountain even now, simply walking backwards.

---

@rangingwolf[@wanderingblackdragon]

It seemed to add further satisfaction to the lead quadruped's expression when the alien's leader seemed to be agitated by this strange biped's odd and mildly insulting behavior, otherwise he paid the boy no mind... though Amber's persistent lack of extracting more carrots from the strange creature's carrot dispenser was starting to cause him to spark a little here and there, not painfully, but it added an odd tingle to his contact.

They weren't aware of whether they fully interpreted the images properly, but they figured 'something' out at least as they spent a while talking amongst themselves, adding more chance for observation... on both sides actually, for one, the quadrupeds weren't even phased by the Eclipse that had manifested in the sky, something that historically would send more primitive species into a panic with how quickly it appeared.

He'd surely noted the aggressive stance of one in the back and return of what must've been a weapon when signaled by their superior. The reactions to them revealing their faces told tiny stories of their own, as it seemed the tall blue one was oddly exuberant about seeing them. He wasn't sure what to make of the big one's reaction, but their leader's 'wonder' was evident in tone, even if his words were as good as gibberish.

"Well, at the very least we can report that they aren't 'looking' for a fight, and that they can understand basic image communication." He watched closely as the leader used a stick to doodle his own bit, though at first he was considering a 'no' because the image looked like he was asking about fire, the demonstration-

At first is caused him to tense up, his wings flaring a few inches as an instinctive reaction to a potential threat, but the lack of aggression quickly cooled it down as the question became more apparently... and he simply nodded to his companion, who returned to doodling next to Elijah's image.

It was hopefully simple and clear enough, she drew a more definitive example of the ball he's formed, emphasizing it's spherical shape and darking a portion to differentiate it's coloring, with a familiar 'not equal' mathematics symbol connected to a clearer doodle of 'fire', to insinuate that it's not the same as fire. Then followed with a short arrow pointing to a similar doodle just before, with an equal symbol and a check-mark, for it being 'okay' as long as the first statement was true.

The drawings that followed from the alien's though were a bit... disconcerting, it wasn't perfectly clear what it meant, but it was undeniably involving some kind of mental connection that, one could assume, would lead to better communication. It caused an obviously worried expression in the one who'd been doing the doodling as she looked back to her superior... he seemed pensive on the matter for a few moments, before stepping forward himself, there appeared to be some protests from his companion, but he shrugged them off with some sort of reply that calmed her...

He did however, light up his own feather and add a little bit to the drawing of their connected minds, a line that passed over the the front of 'his' side of the connection, as if shielding his side of it, and drew a second short line to a hastily doodled image of the moon with an eye 'watching' the exchange... It was considerably easier than trying to draw his patron clearly, and he hoped it got the message across that 'something' was watching over them...

Perhaps quite boldly then he moved over to make himself available to the blue one that he assumed the drawing referred to.

---

@RangingWolf

"FUUUUUCK!"

With the apparent equine nearly taking Escotto's arm off, and taking him for a ride instead, it gave him a moment to wonder what went wrong.

"Let's see... I was able to put myself into the mindset of a retard, so that means I should've been able to disconnect myself from common sense enough to infer a solution based on what is known about horses, or similar creatures. But, I at least got it's attention, so what I must do now is use it's sudden lust for carrots -or maybe this thing swings that way, but I don't- to leverage my advantage in order to garner more information...."

His new vantage at least gave Escotto a look at the exchange. Apparently fire was bad. But, there was something about the last doodle that made him wonder... Perhaps the sun has an effect on the forest? Where was Antonio when he was actually needed?!

"Probably off somewhere crying about Maria, again." Escotto answered. "But, don't tell him I said that!"

Antonio can't hear me.

"Which is why you won't tell him!"

Huh....

"Anyway, for Escotto to join the conversation, he must find a way to get down!"

He pulled out a... Oh, wait. No. Where did he get another carrot?!

"From tu madre!" Escotto answered, before holding the carrot up to the pegasus -if the appearance of the others were any indication- before yanking it away and using it to point to the ground. "Heel! Heeeel!" Escotto commanded. "Down. Doooowwwwnnnnn!"

I can't let it end like this! I can't be beaten down THAT easily! Trevor thought to himself just before his death... and, eventually, he used whatever willpower he... somehow had to completely burst into flames! He didn't really know what was happening, in the handful of times that he's been revived in the past, he never had to do that... then again, it's very possible that he has only ever come back from being knocked out, rather than straight up death, like now... his entire body was ashes, by now, yet, he still FELT, and somehow, he felt... oddly comfortable. Of course, his sudden disintegration into ashes also forced the shackles and manacles to just fall off of him, and he at least hoped, the fire at least burned his captor... this... was also taking much longer than it usually did... again, in the other handful of times, he just got back up, almost instantly... but, while he was waiting, he dreamed. He dreamed of just reviving, just... getting back up, instantly breaking out of his shackles, and then running away while saying a one-liner to the moon horse. Trevor dreamed of running through the forest, making it out of there without any problems, and finding a whole village full of easy-to-kill horses... just as it should be.

Trevor, in his dreams, just smashed, bashed, slashed, burned, and zapped whatever horses DARED to enter his vision, and eventually in his dream, the moon horse reappeared, but, she was a much easier fight, this time... yes, this time, SHE would bow to his power, his overwhelming power... the fight was short, mainly just him keeping her from doing anything with a quick and continuous flurry of basic attacks, thus, leaving his MP mostly unspent, thus, the few times she DID get a hit in, he'd just heal himself. It was almost too easy to completely destroy her... and then she had the idiocy to beg for mercy, though, he found it a bit strange that she was suddenly speaking in his language, he ignored it, and just strangled her while she was trying to beg.

---

Great… just great… Richard had to go an blow our cover like that… he had to go and scream from the sudden darkness that arrived. Well.. Celina just hoped that would not happen again… Richard needed to stop being scared of the darkness like that… its not like they were underground again where there was no light at all. When she heard what the ones down there said, she sighed at this, looking down towards them as she go to jump to one branch, holding on as she look at the golem.

“Survivors… sorry.. we are trying to find some people that were launched out of our ship…” she said to the ones bellow, using her tail to hold the branch a bit more, but ready to go and jump away if needed. With how Richard screamed, this was seriously not the best first contact we could have had here. At least they can talk English, so that was a good thing. Also they didn’t seem hostile here, so there is also that.

“We are just trying to find those survivors and hope this place didn’t kill them… did you see any pods around this place?” she said calmly to the ones bellow, but staying at a good distance in case. She didn’t want to just trust blindly here, and anyway, if they were to find those pods, if a good first contact was made, maybe they could help out if they see anything, She just hoped she would not regret this.. and considering that if that guy was going to suddenly turn hostile… well… let’s just say they might not like the icicles that would arrive and plunge themselves in the body. She just look at the golem with the other creatures, not moving right now, her foot and hands on the branch to hold on, ready to jump if something were to happen here.

Meanwhile her group was in the branches, looking bellow at her, weapons ready in case. They knew Celina was taking a risk trying to talk to those guys, but she probably did know what to do here? And they never know… maybe they can be friendly or something. Only time would tell and anyway, Celina always did end up making anyone that abuse her trust regret it in the end to say the least here. When the group saw the golem move forwards towards the mountain, they moved forwards also in the trees in case as Celina just move a bit forwards to keep up also, a bit multi jumping to get to another branch closer.

---

The Princess looked, well, completely unfazed by that opening move. Honestly the Dragon really should seen this coming. If Astral didn't know any better, it was almost like this Dragon was acting based on ignorance. Sort of like... no way, what were the odds of that? The pony kept watching, the Dragon and the Princess looked like they were just trading blows. But Astral knew as well as anypony just how powerful Alicorns were. Princess Luna was not going all out. At least he was certain that was the case, anyway. He suddenly heard some familiar chirping sounds, and remembered that one of the "visitors" was present as well.

"You... had to have realized that we can't understand you by now. So why are you still... talking?" not that the Ebon would understand him any better than he could understood her. To her he sounded like he was neighing and whinnying. He paused as a thought entered his brain. She wasn't a motormouth type was she? Because quite frankly, Astral was still recovering from the time he was forced to spend with one Pinkamena Diane Pie, and he really didn't want to have to spend more time around ponies or creatures like that again anytime soon.

Of course, this "conversation" - for lack of a better word - distracted the Unicorn from seeing how the altercation ended. In fact it was the Princess addressing him by name that nearly made him jump. How, she... knew his name? But he'd never been anywhere near Canterlot before, so why...? That wasn't important right now, answering the Princess's question was the important thing at the moment. As much a cynic as the Unicorn was, even he wouldn't dare say anything stupid to one of the royals, especially not either of two Sisters, "Er, Your Majesty..." he offered a bow, though he only lowered his head a bit rather than go into a full kneel like most ponies would do. It seemed like a more timely and efficient way to affirm one's fealty, "...I was in Ponyville acting as a guest professor at Princess Twilight's school. I was stargazing from my quarters when I saw the falling the objects. I investigated the one nearby to this Castle." hopefully that would be a sufficient explanation for his presence here, but there was a bit more to report on following that.

"I thought the object was a meteorite. I'm an Astronomer, and thought to study it up close, but... well it turned out to be some sort of vessel carrying passengers. I believe that..." he gestured to the nearby Ebon, "...is one of them. I encountered more at the crashed vessel. I was able to establish basic communication but returned here when I saw the Eclipse. I believe an Arcane Language Circle will allow you to communicate with them, but it's not a perfect translation so please bear that in mind." it wasn't like him to practically spill his guts like this. But maybe the Two Sisters just had that effect on ponies.

And then the Dragon burst into flame! Astral shielded his eyes from the brief flash of fire. He stared at the newfound pile of ash, dumbfounded. Then he narrowed his eyes into an incredulous expression, "I... don't think that was actually a Dragon. At least, not from here anyway."

@Shoryu@Double

---

That was a spectacle for the ages! Ah, she watched the fight intently, burning every single sight of it into her mind, so she could give an ever so delightful tale to the president when she returned. A four legged night-beast, battling a fierce beast of the scorching suns! That's what Shael had deemed both of these creatures. A beautifully intimidating beast of night and a scorching, violent beast of the day. It was quite funny how even off planet, a similar dichotomy as to her home world was being displayed here.

Giggling happily, Shael simply ignored Astral as he was questioning her. He didn't seem to realize she hadn't been present at the crash site earlier. She however, took a pretty good few assumptions to realize he had already met Jessiel and the others. Good good! Peaceful dialogue had been opened! Which means she didn't have too! Which meant...

The dark creature of the night with a flowing mane settled its vision on her, before turning her gaze and voice towards the small quadruped next to her. So they knew each other then! Ooh, wonderful! They shall all be friends here soon! Shael quietly listened as the two seemingly conversed. The odd sounds coming from the quadruped was difficult to listen to though. So very rough, coarse, and non melodic. Not unlike those of the Sel'Chroma. The night one though - oh what a sweet, dark, beautiful orchestra her voice painted. Perhaps a bit of loneliness she picked up as well. Regardless, it made the Ebon giggle, eyes making a clearly happy expression.

As the smaller creature bowed, Shale took a few tentative steps forward, tilting her head in a curious, mildly off putting 90-degree angle. Ignoring the fire like fire creature, she observed the being of night curiously. Her side still hurt, a clear indication that she did indeed, still have something broken, but she pushed it out of her mind in favor of not letting obvious fear show on her features. As curious as she was, something as so clearly night aligned made her shiver.

The Ebon were the weakest on their planet, after all. The Chroma and Beryl were truly the strongest. The Ebon of the twilight just happened to be more clever than they. In a direct fight, they would almost always lose. Standing face to face with something like this was not a good idea. It wouldn't be the first, but a cute little Ebon like her could only take so much fear! And of course, the proper way to deal with fear and to study something was to irreverently touch it. Shael promptly planted her face in it, rubbing it with her mask and hands.

"So curious! An entire galaxy in such a small space! Tee-heh!" She moved her hand around, letting the cool, wispy mane flow through her hands as she tried to study it.