Chapter One – Arrivals and Acquaintances
It was a casual morning on Babylon 5, nothing in particular had happened since the Shadows and Vorlons ventured off the Rim. Commander Ivanova had recently finished working out the transport schedule for the day, and was nonchalantly pacing C&C. "Jump point opening in sector fourteen" she was alerted. "When?" asked Ivanova, stopping her pacing and walking rather quickly over to the large enforced window that oversaw the nearby jump gate in sector 14. "Now."
Sure enough, a jump point opened, and out came a small purple pod, just about large enough to hold two or three humans, with a pink and white star-like decoration on either side. Then came a transmission from the tiny ship, "We've brought a new ambassador," said a voice sounding vaguely human, "and we request permission to dock." "Babylon Control to unknown ship," voiced Ivanova into the microphone, "scan is complete. Please proceed to docking bay sixteen."
The ship looked infinitesimal compared to the ships that B5 would normally take on a day to day basis. Nonetheless, the ship docked, and when the doors closed Ivanova was already in the docking bay, waiting to greet the new ambassador who obviously was not of any race they'd encountered before. A door opened on the side of the ship, and a reddish purple, shining bridge stretched itself from its entrance. "I'd really like to see this new race; curious they didn't tell us who they were before. But they have no weapons as far as our scanners can pick up, so it should be safe…" Ivanova muttered to herself.
With no drama whatsoever, a small purple horse walked out from the ship. Instantly recognizing Ivanova, it walked over to the Commander and held out one of its front hooves, and announced, "Hello. My name is Princess and now, more formally, Ambassador Twilight Sparkle of Equestria. I hope you do not mind that I have brought a few friends along," at this she gestured with her hoof, "and they as well as I are pleased to meet your acquaintance."
Almost immediately after Twilight had finished her sentence, her 'friends' walked, flew, and bounced out of the tiny ship, walking over the shiny bridge that seemed to be the same color as the glow of the object on the pony's forehead. Upon reaching Commander Ivanova, one pony who was two different shades of pink with a mane and tail that seemed to signify her personality halted mid-bounce with an utter disregard for gravity and said, "Hi Susie! You know, I know you must be wondering why I know your name, well it's because Twilight told me on the way here that your name was Commander Susan Ivanova but I shortened that to Susie because it's easier to say, and you know, if we were back in Ponyville I'd throw you a welcome party but since I'm the one who's new here, I should throw myself a welcome party! Yay me!" Before she could start babbling again, another pony that seemed to never touch the ground clamped a hoof over her muzzle and said, "Yeah, that's Pinkie Pie for ya…"
"These are my friends," said Twilight, "Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack and Rarity. We've all come from Equestria, and I have read a good bit about this station. I can tell from your body language that you are shocked, and that is a respectable way to react to an alien species you've never seen, read about, or even heard about before. So here are a few books on my world." At this a large stack of books flew out of the pod, and arranged themselves neatly into a sack. "I hope you will find these to be adequately useful sources of respectably reliable materials," said Twilight, "Now, where may I get a place to stay for myself and my friends? We are quite weary from our long journey, well, all except Pinkie. I doubt she could be weary from anything."
"Well, you could stay in the VIP room until we arrange to get you permanent ambassadorial quarters, but I have one question," said Ivanova, "are your friends staying here on a permanent basis as well?" Seemingly insulted by this question, a sky blue pony with a rainbow colored mane and tail barged in front of Twilight and half-yelled, "of COURSE we're staying as long as she is! I'd NEVER abandon my friends, and they wouldn't either!" at this she gestured with her hoof to the other ponies. "I meant no offense to you or your friends by asking," Stated Ivanova calmly, "I was simply asking to make sure. And in that case, I shall start on the preparations for the ambassadorial quarters right away. Meanwhile, our security shall escort you to the VIP room. Zach?" she gestured at the new ambassador and her friends, "Please escort these six to the VIP room."
Once they arrived in the VIP room, Twilight set up her books along the wall, magically creating a wooden bookshelf to hold all of them. There were three beds, a large bathroom, an adjoining dining room, and now a bookshelf and a desk that Twilight had created. Zach had orders to stay with the new guests until they were completely settled, and simply stood in the doorway. "I'd expected there to not be enough beds for all of us," said the rainbow colored pony, "and that's why I brought some clouds from Equestria to sleep on." At this she pulled a small cloud roughly the length of herself out of a large sack. She flipped over on it and closed her eyes, letting out a deep sigh. "Pulling clouds out of sacks and making desks just appear out of nowhere? Not exactly the weirdest things I've seen around here, but on the scale it's still pretty weird…" thought Zach, not saying a thing aloud for fear of upsetting them.
"I… I guess I can sleep on the floor," said a yellow pony with a long pink mane and tail standing on the other side of the room, with a voice barely audible, "that's fine with me." "Nonsense, Fluttershy, you cannot possibly sleep on this dirty, dusty old floor. I managed to share a bed with… Applejack… and I shall be more than happy to share a bed with you," insisted a white unicorn with a curly mane and even curlier tail which seemed to be made of purple silk. "But… Rarity… You don't have to…" said Fluttershy. "I insist!" announced Rarity.
"Would you two hush it? I can normally catch Zs faster than anypony, but it's near impossible with you two chattering the whole time!" said the now extremely agitated rainbow pony. "Oh… I'm sorry Rainbow Dash…" said Fluttershy. "It's no problem, 'Shy. Just please be a little quieter so I can get some shut-eye. Unlike Pinkie, I don't have a constant stream of energy. By the way… where is Pinkie anyways?"
Meanwhile, Pinkie had just turned the corner and was bouncing down the ambassadorial wing, but since she was looking around too much she didn't pay much attention to what was in front of her, and bumped directly head-on into G'Kar. "Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't see you there!" said Pinkie. G'Kar stopped before looking up from his book to realize who was talking to him. He was moderately impressed with what he saw.
A bright pink quadruped that vaguely reminded him of a phlarl from his home world, walking (or in her case bouncing) down the ambassadorial wing. But he wasn't one to judge by appearances, and said, "My apologies, I didn't see you there, I was a bit preoccupied," gesturing to his book, "I'm not sure HOW I failed to see you, I must have been especially focused." "It's fine!" said Pinkie, not going off on one of her usual rambling tangents, "We just got here a little while ago, and we are waiting for some ambassador-whatever quarters in the VIP room. Speaking of which, I should probably get back there, I kinda didn't tell the others I was leaving…" And with that, the pink pony bounced right back the way she came, looking in front of her now since she knew the way.
About two hours later, a meeting was called for the League of Non-Aligned Worlds. There was a moderate amount of idle chatter, wondering why they were there, before Ivanova walked in. "As you all may or may not know, a new ambassador arrived around three standard hours ago. This meeting has been called to introduce you all to our newest ambassador. As our Ambassador from Equestria," she announced, looking down at her notes to make sure she pronounced the names correctly, "may I present Twilight Sparkle."
The others reacted in various degrees of astonishment as the purple pony slowly trotted in, with her wings fully extended as Ivanova knew was customary of royalty in Equestria. With manners that seemed to be memorized straight out of a book, she stopped in the middle of the room, turned to face everyone, and announced, "Hello everyone, my name is Ambassador Twilight Sparkle, and I come from the land of Equestria. My friends and I have chosen to take up a permanent residence here, and I can speak for all of us when I say that we are all pleased to make your acquaintances."
After the meeting, which was actually much less hectic than had previously been expected, there was the subject of transferring all their belongings to the new ambassadorial quarters. Ivanova, having only gotten through about a quarter of the books Twilight had given her, suggested they get some members of the security team to carry everything. Rainbow Dash and Applejack immediately vetoed that idea, for the fact that they knew quite well they were stronger than anyone on security. Twilight then suggested she simply teleport everything there. Rainbow Dash gave the okay to that, as long as SHE got to move her cloud to the other room. She said she didn't want Twilight messing up the cloud with her magic, and that only pegasi could manipulate clouds properly. Rarity shuddered at this, but nobody said anything about it.
"Okay, everypony stand back. I'll have to concentrate. Rainbow, get your cloud out of this room if you don't want it moved by my magic," warned Twilight, before closing her eyes tightly and creating a red-purple aura-type thing around what, by now everyone knew was her horn. With her eyes still glued tight shut, Twilight asked if everyone would like to be teleported along with their stuff. They all said yes, and then she put about ten more layers upon her horn which was already glowing like a tiny star. Shielding their eyes with various assortments of hands and hooves, nobody in the room could even see Twilight behind the blinding red-purple light being emitted from her horn. Then everyone felt an odd stretching sensation as they were teleported, and then there was nothing.
Once the fog faded from her vision, Commander Ivanova found herself sitting in a chair in the corner of the ambassadorial room, and all the others were in various places also. Twilight was laying on the bed, rubbing her forehead and muttering various things to herself as she propped her head up just enough to read a rather thick book. Rainbow Dash was laying on a cloud, snoring softly. Fluttershy and Rarity were sitting on the couch, chatting quietly about things that sounded to Ivanova like sewing, dresses and fashions, and also something about a city she'd read about called Canterlot. The orange pony with the blond mane and tail that Ivanova could only assume was called Applejack was unpacking her things, muttering about what goes where in her heavy southern accent. Ivanova had one thing to say, "Wow."
Rarity looked over to her and asked, "Wow to what, dear? Twilight's magic?" At this Ivanova nodded, and Rarity continued, "Yes, that was quite impressive, but Twilight is awfully good with magic." Twilight looked up from her book and nodded, bashfully. "My magic would be nothing if you all hadn't been my friends," she said, "and I wouldn't even HAVE my wings if it weren't for you all." "You're telling me that you didn't always have wings?" asked Ivanova, "Wait a minute. Did this involve a cocoon?" All the ponies looked at her strangely, and Applejack asked, "What did y'all just say?" Assuming that it wasn't the case, Ivanova quickly rebounded and said, "oh, nothing."
"Well, if you're all settled, I guess I'll be leaving now…" said Ivanova. "Oh, nonsense. Please, sit, we'll tell you how we got here. You should, at the very least, know that much," said Rarity, motioning with one of her front hooves toward the couch beside her. "All right…" said Ivanova, walking over to sit down beside the alabaster unicorn. "Well, it started after we'd driven those… creatures away from Equestria. We got a mission from my mentor, Princess Celestia, to study how our magic would work on those of other races. And we thought it best to go here, where you house nearly every alien species that you know of," said Twilight, levitating a blue trunk encrusted with gems over to them. She placed it on the table in front of them with her magic before trotting over to sit on the chair opposite the couch. "These," she said while opening the trunk with her magic, "are the Elements of Harmony."