Chapter 2: Strangers in a Strange Land.

It was a bit of a hike to Sweet Apple Acres; a huge farm, where the main crop was apples. There were trees and trees of every kind of apple imaginable and even some neither Samus nor Recsigh had ever dreamed of. The farmhouse was old fashioned and quaint, fitting perfectly with the farm's architecture.

As the group approached the house, an elderly pony with an apple-green coat came out onto the porch and rang an old fashioned iron triangle, then called out, "Soup's on, everypony!" before heading back inside.

Applejack turned to Samus and Recsigh. "That's Granny Smith. She's the best apple pie baker and zap apple jam maker in all of Ponyville if not all Equestria," she said, the familial pride evident in her voice and posture.

They entered the farmhouse kitchen to find the long wooden table loaded with food. Anything and everything that could be made with or from apples was there and the smell was mouthwatering. Samus and Recsigh both started drooling and their stomachs rumbled hungrily. Applejack gently pushed them towards the table.

"Come on. Don't be shy. There's plenty to go 'round," she said, sitting between Granny Smith and a big red stallion with a yoke around his neck, who looked at them with mild, almost sleepy eyes. A young filly with a yellow coat, red mane and tail, and a big pink bow in her hair sat on the stallion's other side, looking at the two strange creatures with wide-eyed wonder.

Applejack turned to the stallion and filly and introduced them. "Samus, Recsigh, this is mah big brother Big McIntosh, we all call 'im Big Mac, and that's mah little sister Apple Bloom. I already told you 'bout Granny Smith. Everypony, this is Recsigh Ludren and Samus Aran."

The Apples all greeted their guests and everyone soon dug in. Recsigh and Samus ate ravenously. It had been quite a while since their last meal and they were both famished. Plus, the Apple family's cooking was delicious! Afterwards, they both sat back with contented sighs, feeling considerably better.

"Thank you. I can't remember that last time I ate so well," Samus said, slightly surprising Recsigh, who was usually the first to speak.

"Yes. Everything was delicious. I honestly had no idea you could make so many tasty things from apples," Recsigh added.

"Aw, don't mention it. It was our pleasure," Applejack said.

"Applejack's right. It does my heart good to see folks enjoy my cooking," Granny Smith said, a pleased smile on her face.

"So, what are you, exactly?" Apple Bloom asked.

"I'll tell ya later, Apple Bloom. Right now, I think our guests would like to git some shut-eye," Applejack said, noticing the tired, but contented looks on Samus and Recsigh's faces.

Recsigh yawned, revealing her fangs to good effect, and stretched. "Yes. We could both use some rest. Come on, Samus. Let's head back to the ship. We can assess the damage in the morning."

Samus nodded, feeling too delightfully drowsy to respond verbally. The Apple family, Twilight, and Spike all bid them goodbye and goodnight, promising to call on them in the morning with the rest of their friends. Recsigh and Samus let for their ship and bed.


As soon as the aliens were gone, conversation about them began. Apple Bloom at once turned to Applejack for the promised explanation.

"Well, Samus is somethin' called a human and Recsigh is somethin' called a Kazoden. They're from someplace far away, beyond the stars and they crashed here in a spaceship," Applejack explained.

"Will wonders never cease. Travelin' beyond the stars! What would they wanna do that fer?" Granny Smith asked.

Applejack shrugged. "I dunno, Granny. Maybe there's interestin' places to see out there."

"Oh, I'm sure there is! I would love to travel to other worlds! What fascinating new discoveries are out there?" Twilight said with starry eyes.

"Not me. I'm perfectly happy here in Ponyville, thanks," Spike said.

Twilight smiled at him. "Good. Because I'd get awful lonely without you around the castle, Spike."

Spike got bashful, which caused the ponies to chuckle.

"Any who, I think we all better git some sleep. Tomarrah's gonna be a busy day," Applejack said.

"Yes. I'd better get back to the castle. Starlight Glimmer is probably wondering what's keeping me and I'm sure the Princesses will want to hear about the aliens," Twilight said, standing to leave.

"I'm sure they will. Goodbye, Twilight, Spike. See y'all in the mornin'," Applejack said, walking her friends out and watching them disappear into the night.


Later that night in Canterlot Castle, Princess Luna woke her sister with news of a letter from Twilight. Princess Celestia at once rose and took it, fearing something may be amiss. When she had read the letter, Luna saw her visibly relax, but not quite all of the tension left her body.

"What is it, sister? Has a new threat emerged in Equestria?" the Princess of the Night asked.

Celetsia answered by levitating the letter back to Luna, who took it and read. She looked up at her sister again a moment later. Celestia sighed. "I do not know if these creatures, these 'aliens,' pose a threat to Equestria or not. They will have to be observed and studied to be certain of their intentions. However, from Twilight's account of the first contact, it seems they are not particularly aggressive as long as they are not provoked," the Princess of the Sun answered.

"But what of the human's attempted attack upon Spike?" Luna asked.

"It seems the Kazoden with her stopped her and Twilight seems to think it was a case of mistaken identity. Whoever or whatever this 'Ridley' is, he must have deeply wronged the human Samus to cause her to act so."

Luna nodded in agreement with her sister's judgement. "So, we wait?"

Celestia nodded. "We wait."


The next morning, the Mane Six met up at the Castle of Friendship. Starlight Glimmer was there as well, having been brought up to speed by Twilight the night before, and was most eager to meet these strange creatures from beyond the stars. Twilight called the meeting to order.

"Ok, so Applejack, Spike, and myself have already met the aliens and I'm fairly certain they aren't hostile."

"But, I thought you said one of them tried to attack Spike?" Rarity said. "That sounds pretty hostile to me."

"Yeah, but the other one jumped on her and wouldn't let her hurt me. Plus, she screamed some weird name. Ridley, I think," Spike added.

"Yes. It seems that Samus mistook Spike for an enemy from her past; one that gave her a lot of trouble no doubt. I don't think that will happen again, as she seems fine with Spike now," Twilight said.

"I have ta agree with Twilight. I don't think Samus and Recsigh wanna hurt us. I think they just wanna fix their ship and go home," Applejack said.

"Well, if you're sure they're not dangerous," Fluttershy said softly, hiding behind her mane.

"If they are dangerous, I'll kick their flanks," Rainbow Dash said, punching at an invisible enemy.

"Oo! Oo! Oo! Do you think they like parties? I could throw them a 'Welcome To Ponyville Party!' It'll be so great! Do you think aliens like cake?" Pinkie Pie asked, but then a moment later phshawed. "Of course they like cake. Everypony likes cake!" she exclaimed.

"It's settled then. We set out for the aliens' ship immediately," Twilight said.

"What about me?" Starlight Glimmer asked.

Twilight smiled at her budding student. "You're coming with us of course. I wouldn't want you to miss this opportunity to make some interstellar friends."

With that, the whole party set out en mass to the crash-site.


As the predawn light peeked into the cockpit of the Hunter IV, Samus stirred and woke. It had been a very restful sleep in her comfy chair and she stretched luxuriously. Recsigh emerged from her cabin a moment later looking well rested and refreshed and ready to take on the day. Samus smirked and stood up, heading for the bathroom to freshen up a little before getting to work on the engines.

When she came out, she found Recsigh already in her Battle Armor, working on pulling the reactor core out of the hyper-drive. When it came out, what she saw made her heart sink. The core was burned black, completely fried. Recsigh sighed and held the reactor core out to Samus.

"Burnt toast. Hyper-drive is down until I can scavenge enough materials to build a new core. Hopefully this planet has the materials I need. The good news is, the engines themselves are not as bad as I thought. Auto-repair should have them fixed in two or three days, then we'll be able to fly anywhere we want on the planet or in orbit," she said.

Samus grunted. "Humph. Oh, well. No use crying over burnt reactor cores. I'll fire up the auto-repair sequence," she said, heading back inside.

Once the ship was starting to repair itself, Samus came back outside and found Recsigh going through her usual morning martial arts routine in her Morph Suit, which was a solid black bodysuit similar to Samus' Zero Suit, which she was currently wearing. The main difference between the two was that the Morph Suit, like its name implied, could morph into different shapes and forms at a thought command from Recsigh. However, Recsigh for the most part preferred to keep her Morph Suit in its default bodysuit form, only occasionally changing it to more casual civvies.

Samus walked over to her friend and suddenly swung her right fist at her. Recsigh ducked under the attack and rolled to the side in an overly exaggerated escape. Samus swung her right leg up into an axe kick and brought it down on the spot Recsigh occupied. Two seconds ago. Recsigh bounced up onto her feet and delivered a punch to Samus' left shoulder from behind. Samus spun out of the way and, using her momentum, swung her own fist towards Recsigh. Recsigh easily caught her fist and twisted it. Samus jabbed two fingers on her freehand into a pressure point on Recsigh's neck, making her let go.

The two hunters backed away from each other and began to circle, each evaluating the other, trying to read their next move. Suddenly, both let out a war cry and charged. Fists reared back, then flew towards their targets, only to be stopped by the opponent's open hand. Samus and Recsigh locked up, each trying to overpower the other, but only for a few moments. Suddenly both fighters spun away from each other and engaged in a high energy, high speed martial arts sparring match, limbs flying in graceful movements almost faster than the eye could track, bodies leaping, arcing, ducking, and rolling in a sort of dance. The dance of combat. Recsigh leapt high into the air, followed by Samus. Time seemed to slow down and the two hung there for a few moments, Recsigh's leg swinging up towards Samus' head, Samus' body twisting into a position almost parallel with the ground, her legs spinning towards Recsigh's head and shoulders, and suddenly the pair broke off their attacks and landed gracefully with perfect balance facing away from each other.

Looking up, Samus and Recsigh were surprised to find they had an audience. Twilight, Spike, and Applejack were standing at the edge of the crater with a group of wide-eyed ponies the hunters didn't recognize. After a few moments of staring, one of the new ponies, a cyan pegasus, cried out, "That was awesome! You've got to teach me how to do that!"

Then, like a dam bursting asunder, the voices of the other ponies came loud and fast in a babble that seemed to be praise of some sort. In a moment Recsigh held up her hand for silence. Oddly enough, the ponies all shut up, their eyes locked on Recsigh. Smiling and lowering her hand, Recsigh greeted the ponies.

"Hello. As I'm sure Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, and Spike have told you, I am Recsigh and this is Samus. What might your names be?"

Twilight snapped out of her wide-eyed expression and cleared her throat. "Allow me to introduce my friends, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Starlight Glimmer. Everypony, meet Samus and Recsigh."

Most of the ponies said 'hi' or waved, but the yellow pegasus with the light-pink mane and tail, Fluttershy as Samus and Recsigh recalled, kinda hid behind everyone else. Rainbow Dash, the cyan pegasus with the rainbow mane and tail who had said their sparring match was awesome, came a few steps closer and cocked her head to one side, like she was trying to figure them out.

Finally she spoke. "Why were you two fighting anyway? I thought you were friends."

Recsigh and Samus both burst out laughing. This took all the ponies by surprise, except Pinkie Pie, a bright pink mare with a darker pink and profusely curly mane and tail. She started laughing as well, rolling onto her back and around on the ground. Samus and Recsigh both doubled over laughing, Recsigh slapping her knee. After a few moments though, they managed to regain their composure.

"We weren't fighting. We were sparring," Recsigh explained.

"Ooooh. I get it. You were just practicing for when you need to kick flank!" Rainbow Dash did a midair kick for emphasis. She grinned when she came back down to the ground. "I totally get that."

Samus raised an eyebrow at the pegasus' antics. Rainbow Dash was cocky and reckless, that was for sure. She'd make it a point to avoid her if possible. Recsigh also picked up on Rainbow's attitude. However, she made a mental note to keep an eye on her, just in case. Once Recsigh and Samus had stopped laughing, Pinkie Pie had bounced up from the ground and over to them. She stopped only a few inches away.

"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie, Ponyville's resident party pony! You need a party, I'm your pony!" she said, whipping out a cannon from out of nowhere and pulling the fuse before either hunter could react.

However, instead of a big boom and a cannon ball, the only thing that shot out of the cannon was a bunch of confetti and streamers, which confused Samus and Recsigh to no end.

"Do ya like my party cannon? I built it myself!" Pinkie Pie said, oblivious to the shocked expressions on Samus and Recsigh's faces.

Before either of them fully recovered, the white unicorn in the group, with the dark purple mane and tail, walked up to them, looking them over with a critical eye. "I must say, you are a pair of the strangest looking creatures I've ever seen. I'd love to make you some outfits. It would certainly be a challenge," Rarity said, smiling a pleasant smile.

Recsigh at once got an uncomfortable look on her face. "Um, you're not wearing clothes. How is it you make them?"

Rarity tossed her head with a little laugh. "Don't be silly! Of course most ponies don't wear clothes all the time, but on special occasions it's nice to dress up. Why? Don't your kind ever wear clothes?"

Recsigh's jaw dropped for a second, then she said in a voice that clearly showed discomfort, "Um, we are wearing clothes now. Humans and Kazoden and most sapient species we know of wear clothes all the time in public."

The ponies all gasped in astonishment. "You mean your skin isn't black and yours isn't blue?" the unicorn Twilight had introduced as Starlight Glimmer asked incredulously.

Recsigh chuckled. "Actually, my skin is black, but it is also covered with red markings like the ones on my face. Samus on the other hand, does not have blue skin. Her skin is the same pale color as her face."

"Oh. How fascinating! I am most interested in your markings. Perhaps I could get some sketches sometime…" Twilight trailed off when she saw the unamused look on Recsigh's face. She had the decency to blush. "I'm sorry. I didn't know that would offend you."

Recsigh smiled slightly. "It's ok, Twilight. For my people, it is considered highly improper to undress before anyone other than one's mate and a few other special circumstances."

"Excuse me," said a shy soft voice, so soft that it was almost inaudible.

All the ponies gasped to see Fluttershy, the shyest pony in Equestria, cautiously making her way towards the aliens, Recsigh in particular. Recsigh smiled warmly and bent down slightly, for even though the ponies' heads were roughly on a level her and Samus', they were still a little taller than the ponies.

"Yes? What is it, Fluttershy?" Recsigh asked in an encouraging tone.

"Well, um… I was wondering… I don't mean to be rude, but… are you a predator?" she asked, looking Recsigh right in the eyes.

Recsigh's eyes were soft and gentle with a hint of regret in them. "Yes. Yes I am. My species is technically omnivorous, but we are often classified as carnivores because of the high protein requirements in our diet. Humans like Samus don't need as much meat in their diet, but they do need some to be happy and healthy and I know my girl likes her meat." Recsigh cast a playful glance at Samus, who scowled as she stood with her arms crossed.

The ponies gathered all got a little nervous upon learning the aliens needed meat in their diet. All except Fluttershy. In a bizarre turn of events, Fluttershy was now the brave one, standing unafraid before the aliens, her head held high and a smile on her face.

"Well, I think I might be able to help. When you need meat, come to my cottage and I'll take care of you," she said, looking expectantly into Recsigh's eyes.

Recsigh nodded, feeling that this yellow pegasus pony would prove to be an invaluable friend. "We'll take you up on that offer. Thank you, Fluttershy."

Fluttershy's smile widened ever so slightly and she walked back to the group, but no longer cowered behind the others. Twilight was the next to speak.

"I think we should take you to meet the Ruling Princesses," she said, a look that was half-concerned, half-puzzled on her face.

"Who are these Ruling Princesses anyway?" Samus asked.

"The Princesses of the Sun and Moon. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna," Twilight answered.

The hunters shared a glance and nodded simultaneously before looking back at the group of ponies. "Very well. Take us to your Princesses," Samus said.