Chapters
REBOOT COMPLETE
DIAGNOSTIC: INITIATED
INTERNAL FUNCTI
Short version, please.
INTERNAL FUNCTIONS: NOMINAL
EXTERNAL FUNCTIONS: DAMAGE DETECTED
Sigh. How much is broken?
SHIELDS: PROJECTORS BURNED OUT
OPTICS: CAMERAS 3, 7, 28, 30 NON-RESPONSIVE
ARMOR PLATIN
Never mind...
...
Am I able to move without risk of further damage?
CALCULATING...
AFFIRMATIVE
Good. Begin start up of external systems.
ACKNOWLEDGED
OPTICS: ONLINE
With a crackle of static, the outside world came into focus. All the drone could see was darkness, till the automatic optic filter turned everything green. The inside of the escape pod was trashed. The seats once meant for escaping crew, were now bent, or just plain missing. The console at the far end was destroyed, the screen above it cracked.
AUDIO RECEPTORS: ONLINE
You can just call them microphones you know.
MICROPHONES: ONLINE
Another burst of static, and the world filled with sound. The groaning of cooling metal, and the distance howl of the wind filled the drone's audio processor.
ANTIGRAVITATIONAL ENGINE: ONLINE
With a small hum, the world shook, then the drone started to float upwards.
SPEAKERS: ONLINE
"Testing. Ah, good."
SCANNERS: ONLINE
With a small click, red bars of light began to move about the interior of the escape pod, as a fast scrolling read out scrolled through the drone's main processor.
"Hmm... it seems that all of the pods functions are inoperable. Well, more inoperable than they appear... There doesn't even appear to be any power left."
EXTERNAL ARMS: ONLINE
"Very good. Now that all the important stuff is operational, lets find a way out of this wreckage."
With another small hum, the drone turned, and floated to the back of the escape pod. As it moved closer to the back of the pod, its optics made out the outline of a bulkhead door.
"With the power out, this door isn't going to open easily. Guess i'm going to have to cut my way out."
PLASMA CUTTER: OFFLINE
"Crud." The drone whispered, as best as a drone could, stopping a short distance before the door."What about weapons?"
MISSILES: 24
LASER: OFFLINE
ENERGY CANNON: OPERATIONAL
"The laser would have been perfect, missiles would destroy me as well... Energy cannon it is then..."
CHARGING...
From the drones optics, small flares of electricity could be seen arching across its shell. Its front began to open up, and a small antenna extended out. A high pitched whine began to fill its audio receptors, as small ball of light formed at the tip of the antenna.
CHARGE COMPLETE
All sound disappeared for a few seconds, and the drone's optics were filled with a bright, white light. Then, just as suddenly as it had happened, all sound at sight returned to the drone. As the antenna retracted back into it, it saw that a large hole had been created in the door, dripping hot slag, as snow blew in from the outside.
"Snow! I love snow!" The drone exclaimed as it speed outside.
After exiting the escape pod, the drone came to a full stop. In front of it was a jagged cut in the earth from the landing. All around it, snow drifted lazily down to the ground. As the optics switched to regualr setting, it took in its peaceful surroundings.
"I'm going to make so many snowbots!" It exclaimed.
A hole on either side of the drone opened up, and metal arms extended out fromt eh holes. It floated down to the ground, and began rolling the snow into a pile.
Luna's wings beat hard as she raced towards where the meteor had landed. She would have liked to have gotten there sooner, but her Guard Captain had talked her into taking a small detail of her night guards, while he gathered the experts that would be needed. Behind her, the guards struggled to keep up, and more than once she had to stop and let them catch up. Looking behind her again, she saw that her guards were no longer within her sight. Again. With a sigh, she slowed herself down to a stop.
"At this rate, it will be time to lower the moon by the time I get there!"
Turning her gaze towards the moon, she waited.
'An asteroid survives entry into our atmosphere for the first time in centuries, a wealth of knowledge in rock form, just waiting for me to study it!' The Princess had to resist the urge to squee at the thought, 'And I'm stuck waiting for a group of guards I did not even want to bring with me... curse that Steel wing and his silver tongue.'
Just as the sound of her guards wing beats reached her ears, she also felt a tingling sensation in her horn. Before she could even ponder the reason behind it, a bright flash erupted from the field from where the meteor had landed. Looking towards the area, her eyes were meet with a bright beam of light shooting into the sky, dispersing the clouds.
Just as soon as it had appeared, it disappeared.
"YOUR MAJESTY!" One of the guards yelled, as they neared.
As she turned her head to address them, a small blast of wind blew past her, making her drop a few feet out of the air. Once she righted herself, she turned her attention to her guards, who were recovering from the surprising ordeal. One of her guards, Aegis is she remembered correctly, approached her flustered.
"Your highness! Are you alright!?" He asked, concern written across his face.
"I am fine." She replied, then turned her attention towards the area where the light had come from, "see to your fellow guards, I will go ahead."
"But your highness-!"
"This is no simple meteor." She interrupted.
Turning her head back towards Aegis, her eyes locking onto his.
"You will wait in this area till Guard Captain Steel Wing arrives, then you inform him that I have gone on alone. I will take no argument on this."
"Y-yes, your highness..." Aegis responded weakly.
Nodding, Luna gave a strong downbeat of her wings, and was off. Soon reaching top speed, without the need to stop, she arrived at the crash site in seconds. Slowing herself down greatly, she then landed. A bit harder than she meant to, but when thoughts of scientific study, and high energy discharges are on the mind, who wouldn't miss judge the landing?
After the displaced snow had cleared, the trail of destruction from the objects landing laid before her. A few hundred feet away from her, laid the object. Jumping into a most undignified galop for a princess, with an even more undignified gleeful smile on her lips, she bolted towards the object. When she was a few feet from the object, the princess seemed to remember herself, and slowed to a canter. The smile lessened, but was still present.
Looking at the object up close, her theories of the object not being a meteor were all but confirmed.
"The outside seems to be some kind of metal," She spoke out loud to herself, "It appears to be highly damaged, most likely from impact, or other unknown instances." As she looked over the object, she couldn't help but notice a persistent humming. Dismissing it as snow melting against the obviously still hot metal. "I wonder, what kind of metal could withstand not only entering the atmosphere, but the impact as well..."
"Well, its not meant to withstand either of those, but its a very strong titanium alloy." A voice responded in a chipper tone from her right.
"Titanium, hmm... I guess that would work for impacts, but it still doesn't explain how it made it through the atmosphere."
"As I said, its not meant to. Your guess is as good as mine on that one." The voice replied.
'Hmm'ing in agreement, Luna began to fire up her horn... then she realized that somepony was talking with her. Whipping her head to the right, the sight of a floating sphere greeted her.
"Hi!"
The princess of the night screamed like a little filly.
WARNING: UNIDENTIFIED ORGANISM APPROACHING AS HIGH SPEEDS
Hmm...?
Turning away from the pile of cube shaped snow pile, the drone looked back in the direction of the trench the escape pod dug with its landing. Its sensors automatically locked onto a rapidly approaching dark blue dot. Time seemed to slow, as the scanners did their job.
CARBON LIFEFORM
FEMALE
EQUINE IN APPEARANCE
HORN
INFORMATION INSUFFICIENT
WINGS
FUNCTIONAL
ENERGY SIGNATURE DETECTED
SCANNING...
THREAT LEVEL: 7
BRAIN SCAN
BRAIN FUNCTIONS SUGGEST HIGH INTELLIGENCE
Oh! Can it talk?
AFFIRMATIVE
Yay! Social activity!
As time sped back up for the drone, the blur quickly landed a small distance away. Zooming in where the creature landed, the drone was surprised at what it saw. A creature resembling a pony from the records stored in its memory, stood just a few hundred feet away. Surprisingly, it shared the same basic shape, but looked nothing like the picture it had on file. Its mane and tail waved in a constant outward flow from her head and dock. Its body had curves resembling that of what would be considered an attractive female of the creator's species. She also appeared to be wearing jewelry of some sort, a tiara, a highly decorated yoke, and... metal slippers?
What...?
As the drone stared at the creature, it suddenly broke into a run towards the crash site.
Well, at least she can run like a pony, not just look like one.
As the creature neared the escape pod, she slowed down considerably, then began to circle the object. As she did, the drone hovered over, and floated behind her as she observed the pod. As she walked, she began to talk to herself.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE DETECTED: TRANSLATING
"-nder, what kind of metal could withstand not only entering the atmosphere, but the impact as well..."
Gasp! Intelligent social activity!
"Well, its not meant to withstand either of those, but its a very strong titanium alloy." The drone responded in a happily eager voice.
"Titanium, hmm... I guess that would work for impacts, but it still doesn't explain how it made it through the atmosphere." She responded.
Sniff... Idle scientific conversation... Oh, how I've missed you...
"As I said, its not meant to. Your guess is as good as mine on that one." The drone replied in a happy tone.
The creature 'Hmm'ed' in agreement, as its horn lit up.
SCANNING
HORN
NATURAL ENERGY MANIPULATION DEVICE
Really? Neat!
The creature's head suddenly turned towards the drone, with a slightly surprised look on its muzzle.
"Hi!"
The creature began to scream in a high pitch voice, in response, the drone screamed back. In response to the drone screaming in response to her screaming, she began to backpedal away from the drone. As she backed away, the creature tripped over a small piece of metal from the wreckage. As it fell with, by the drone standards, an adorable 'eep', the energy gathered in its horn shot off, slamming into the drone. When the bolt of energy hit the drone, the energy arched across its surface for a few seconds.
MASSIVE ENERGY SURGE DETECTED
BATTERY FULL
Besides that, this isn't going very well...
"You know, this is not how I imagined my first conversation after getting out of that infernal pod proceeding." The drone stated as it turned around, and started to float in the direction of its cube shaped snow pile, "When you're ready to have an intelligent conversation, I'll be over here. Making snowbots."