Ponies Unexpected: Chapter Three

Chapter 3:  An Unexpected newscast

After one day of travel, the massive airship flew over the Yanhoover lighthouse.  The lighthouse keeper mare and her family had put a huge banner on the tall lighthouse that flowed from the bottom of the lantern room to the top of the front door.  The sign read “Have a fun and safe journey!”

Then, the airship flew over a dozen, nearby archipelago islands.  The ponies of these remote settlements cheering as the airship flew overhead.

A few minutes after nightfall, Twilight, her friends, and the airship crew saw lights on some more distant and uncharted islands.  But, with their assignment to complete, they didn’t take the time to investigate these lights at this time.

Eight days passed without anypony seeing anything else that was unusual.  And then, their airship was flying over the shore of the continent where Dream Valley is located.

In the ship’s forward observation lounge, Twilight and her friends are reading books on Dream Valley written by the first immigrants to Equestria, or their children, or their grandchildren.  These friends also read books written by dragons, griffons, one Minotaur, and one sea serpent.  They are explorers who claimed to have visited Dream Valley.  But, with the descriptions being so different from each other that the pony friends concluded that all their descriptions are made-up fictional tales.

After closing one of these explorer books, and setting it aside with her magic, Twilight said with frustration etched on her face and in a frustrated voice, “I’ve had it with reading all these fibs passed off as facts.  These books about Dream Valley are filled with wild speculation, unsupported by much evidence.  What is worse, most of these written descriptions and maps were written by ponies that were born decades or centuries after the “Great Pony Migration” to Equestria.  After an eight day voyage to get here, I’m not sure how many additional weeks we and our airship can spend wandering along this coast looking for the empty valley with the tumbled down ruins.

With everypony reading, Spike is the only one who notices that the airship is descending.  As the airship sails below the clouds, Spike looks out the room’s large windows using binoculars.  Spike sees a green valley, then structures in the valley, and then shiny, metallic ponies.  Now, Spike has been to the Crystal Empire and met the Crystal ponies.  But, Spike had never before seen metallic ponies.  Spike has a puzzled look on his face as he puts down the binoculars that hang from his neck on a strap.  Spike scratches the tip of his nose with his index finger and then turns around to talk to Twilight.

Spike asked, “Twilight, do you remember saying that nopony lives in Dream Valley anymore?  Well, you might want to tell the ponies that live here that.”

Wearing skeptical faces, the pony friends ambled to the floor to ceiling windows.  They saw a green valley, with farms and forests.  The asymmetrical structures are made of concrete and steel, much like Manehattan rather than Ponyville.  They see canals, roads, and metal towers that to their eyes had no apparent purpose.

While the landscape is beautiful and the structures are intriguing, what the pony friends pay the most attention to are the native ponies that have a distinctive metallic sheen in their coats and manes.  Some ponies had silver and gold coats, while others had more bronze and copper coats.

As the airship passes overhead, a pony pedal powered van stops.  Two mares jump out of the van, the first mare is a Unicorn named Newsie who has a silver coat, mane, and tail.  Newsie is dressed in a stylish blue sports coat, a white shirt, and a red bow tie while a wireless microphone headset sits on her head.

The second mare is an Earth pony named Panorama who has a polished brass-colored coat, mane, and tail.  Panorama is wearing work overalls over a plaid shirt.  On Panorama’s head is a plastic helmet.  A portal television camera is mounted on the side of her helmet, with a helmet mounted display in front of her right eye.

Newsie used her magic to tidy up her mane.  Panorama told Newsie, “We go live in three, two, and one, now.”  The bewildered Newsie then said in a calm voice as if she was ordering a cup of tea, “Mare on the street reporter Newsie Newsworthy reporting on what appears to be an alien airship that has appeared in the skies above Dream Valley.  Panorama, pan up!”

Newsie, with a frantic wave of her foreleg, points up.  Panorama pans her camera up seconds before the shadow of the huge airship darkens for several seconds the two mares, their van, and the ground the two mares are standing on.

After an audible gulp, Newsie continued her commentary by saying, “Panorama and I will follow that airship the best we can and interview whoever is controlling it when it lands.  For Dream Valley Television, this is Newsie Newsworthy and my camera operator Panorama signing off.”

As Twilight’s airship approaches a grassy sports field, ponies wearing sports jerseys and playing a game of soccer see the airship.  They then run and hide under a sports grandstand with a canopy.  Panorama pedaling their van stops it before the descending airship.

By this time, Twilight and her friends had trotted their way to the bow deck, to stand on their hind legs, looking over the sturdy wooden railing.  Rarity had the same over the top, happy facial expression she wore when first told about the crystal ponies.  Rarity exclaimed, “Have any of you even seen such beautiful ponies in all your life?  Pony watching opportunities here is going to be a dream!”

Spike standing beside Rarity said, “Maybe, maybe I should get my scales gilded?”

My Little Pony:  Friendship is Magic, Copyright © 2010 Lauren Faust, Hasbro Studios, and DHX Media