Chapter Eight

Darkness blanketed the small town of Ponyville, only pierced by the rare streetlight with a lit candle inside. All it’s populace sleeping peacefully in their homes, some, if not most, still saddened by the loss of six of the towns beloved occupants. No-pony was awake at such an hour, with Luna’s moon high in the sky, but that didn’t mean everything was asleep.

From the edge of the town a dark figure darted from alley to alley, staying quiet and hidden from any possible onlookers. Another dark figure could be seen skirting the towns edges towards the apple orchard known as Sweet Apple Acres. A third going the opposite way of the second and skirting the Everfree forest towards Ponyville’s dam, Hoover Dam.

Peeking out from the side of a ridiculous looking gingerbread house, Leon saw his target in sight. He opened the teams comm channel, “Ghost One reporting, I have visual on my target. Report progress.”

Alfred’s voice came in next, “Ghost Two reporting, I have visual on my target and I’m making good time.”

Josh’s voice came last, “You know, I’m pretty sure we don’t gotta worry about anyone monitoring the comm channels. I’d be surprised if the ponies-”

Leon’s voice interrupted him, “Ghost Four, we don’t know a lot about these ponies, so we will not underestimate them. Now give me your report.”

Josh’s voice came back in with a bored tone to it, “Ghost Four reporting, I’m closing in on my target and wish to say something freely.”

“Go ahead, Ghost Four.” Leon said darting towards his target.

“The whole ‘Ghost’ then a number thing is fucking stupid.”

“Noted Ghost Four, get back to it.” Leon allowed himself a small chuckle as he finished the same song and dance he and Josh got into on missions such as this. As he reached his target in the middle of the small clearing in the town, Leon pressed his back against the bark of the tree. He looked around to see if there was anything that had spotted him, his night vision piecing the dark shadows that he had just left, but only a street lamp down the road by the gingerbread house greeted him.

Turning around, Leon activated his Promethean Vision and looked at the interior of the tree house. It was big, with a basement, a balcony on top, and what looked like three more rooms spaced out in a circular pattern around the second floor. The main room had stairs to the second floor and a few doorways that led to the basement, kitchen, and a bedroom. Stairs went from the main room to the second floor and then spiraled up to the balcony on top of the tree. With the Promethean Vision he could see the bedroom showed no signs of life inside.

With the last few seconds of his armor ability, Leon scanned his surroundings for anything that might be lurking about. As suspected, nothing was watching him, but something did catch his eye. Moving quickly around the sign in front of the tree, Leon moved the ‘Welcome’ mat out of the way to reveal a key lying in the dirt. Now with the key in hand, Leon abandoned his previous plan of breaking the lock on the back door and unlocked the front door to the ‘Golden Oaks Library’ as the sign called it.

As Leon began to open the door, Alfred’s voice came in through the comm, “Ghost One, be aware you have a purple bat flying over your position.”

Leon moved into the library and left the door the tiniest bit open and watched the lunar guard fly over, “I see’em, Ghost Two. Be aware, he appears to be heading towards your position.”

“Ghost Two, going radio silent.” Alfred finished as the guard soared ever closer to the apple orchard.

Leon watched and waited for the guard to get well out of range before closing to the door completely. Leon turned to see the main room was exactly what he wanted, a big friggin library. After tossing the key aside, Leon looked around and began grabbing books of interest such as, ‘Equestrian History 101’ and ‘The Three Pony Races: An In Depth Analysis' plus a few others.

Leon opened the comm channel while stuffing the books into Josh’s backpack, “Ghost One reporting, I’ve completed my objective and I’m-”

Leon was cut off as a siren began to sound throughout the small town. Soon Josh’s voice came in over the radio, “Hijo de perra, Ghost Four mission complete, but I tripped something on the way out.”

“The town’s going to be in an uproar soon. I’m making my way out now, stick to the plan.” Leon stuffed the last of the books into the backpack as he was taking and started out the door. There were already a few lights turning on inside the buildings sending a red flag up in Leon’s mind. Quickly Leon moved to the opposite side of the street and in between two buildings. He began silently moving from alley to alley once more as ponies wandered out of their homes to see what was causing all the noise.

Silently, Leon moved around the crowds as they began to converge towards town hall where a mare was speaking to the populace to try and calm them down. It worked out fine for Leon as not a single pony saw him slip into the shadows and out of the town. As Leon began moving along the side of the town towards the Everfree Forest he began to wonder just what the technology level of the ponies was. From the speed the lights turned on, they had electrical lighting, but the homes betrayed the thought that they were advanced at all, ‘Maybe it’s just to give the whole place a look like it’s from a simpler time.’

Another question that refused to leave his mind as he neared his safety, ‘How the hell do ponies use a key, or a doorknob?’

Leon’s thoughts were interrupted by Alfred talking over the comms, “Ghost Two reporting, I have my mission objective and am returning to base. I’ve also picked up a bit of information. The guard that came here and told the owner that a pony named Applejack has just woken from the coma she’s been in. The farmer asked if the others had woken too and the guard said yes, so I think whatever the portal collapse did, it’s starting to wear off.”

“Good catch Ghost Two, Ghost One out.” Leon let out a heavy sigh after he turned off his comm. As Leon got ever closer to the edge of the Everfree he could hear the town arguing on what to do. The voice of reason said something about already alerting the guard, but Leon had no fear of them as he would already be in the forest by the time they arrived. As Leon was about to cross the stream and move into the woods, a blip appeared on his motions sensor. He ducked behind a tree and watched as a Lunar guard take off from the side of the forest.

After a few moments for the guard to fly off, Leon looked out from behind the tree and watched the guard fly towards the dam at the far west edge of the forest. Slowly moving from his spot, Leon waded through the creek and entered the forest, opening his comm as he did so, “Ghost Four, the purple bat is flying towards your area.” Instead of a vocal response a green acknowledgment light popped on to the side of Leon’s HUD, “Ghost Two, can you tell me when that guard left the orchard house?”

“He left about two minutes before Ghost Four tripped the alarm at the dam, Ghost One.” Alfred’s voice came in clear over the radio.

‘What were you doing this whole time?’ Leon wondered as he made his way to the cave. Even while in the jungle like environment these ponies called a forest he maintained as much stealth as he could, just in case the mare from earlier was watching him still. The thought alone sent a chill up his spine.

“Ghost Four, reporting. I stuck around the Dam long enough to see they didn’t even check where I was at. They were more concerned about the all the footage from their cameras being mysteriously gone.” Josh said. Even without physically seeing it, a hint in his voice gave the thought that he was smirking.

“Ghost Four, just what did you do?” Leon asked as he carefully skirted a small clearing.

“Get this, they have wireless access, but there was no security at all. I might not be a grand master hacker like Ethan, but anyone can get into something that has no security around it. All I had to do was delete the files of tonight and boom, not a single shred of evidence.” Josh replied, sounding a bit too cocky.

“Good job Ghost Four, soon we’re going to have to check on just how technologically advanced theses ponies are. We’ll discuss what we’ve all seen back at base, Ghost One out.” Leon finished as he made his way through the Everfree. As he pressed on through the unforgiving forest, he began to wonder why he had yet to encounter any wildlife that made the forest so dangerous. Soon his thoughts were put at the back of his mind as Leon arrived at the clearing that held their base.

Despite the tree cover that made the clearing all but impossible to see from above, Leon stayed cautious and stuck to the side of the clearing. He would move into the base when the others got there, making it less likely to be seen by anyone, or thing, watching. Using the two-dimensional map they had made of the area, Leon tracked his teams progress as he waited. Josh was only barely into the forest on the east side and Alfred was moving slower, but was already halfway to him coming from the south-west.

After a few minutes the sound of the alarm stopped and the forest grew eerily quiet all around. Ten or so minutes later Josh and Alfred arrived just a few seconds from each other. In Alfred’s arms was a large basket full of apples, their main food for the next week or two. As they moved towards the boulder that covered their base, Leon got on one side of the boulder and motioned for Josh to get the other.

“What?” Josh asked, not understanding Leon’s gesture towards the boulder.

“Get the other side.” Leon stated.

“Why?”

“Just do it.” Leon said with a heavy sigh.

Rolling his eyes, Josh picked up his side of the boulder as Leon did his and together they easily lifted it up over their heads. Alfred, arms filled with a basket of apples, walked down the slope and into their base. “Ladies first.” Josh said as he passed under the boulder.

“You’re fondling a boulder right now, so the gentlemen will go first.” Alfred stated with a matter-of-fact tone to his voice.

“Okay, we step inside and lower it slowly.” Leon said stopping Josh’s comeback before he could say anything.

Josh was about to ask ‘Why?’ again but decided against it, “Fine, let’s just hurry this up. I hate the blue fog around here, gives me the creeps.”

“You and me both.” Leon said, copying Josh and taking a step into the hole. Out of the corner of his eye Leon thought he saw a pair of light blue eyes staring at him through the mist, but they were gone when he turned his head to look.

“What’s up? You see something?” Josh asked looked towards where Leon had been focused before.

Leon continued looking for a moment before continuing to lower the boulder with Josh, “No, just the stupid fog playing tricks on my eyes.”

“I hear that. I hate that stupid crap, I keep getting a signal on my motion sensor every now and then, but I can never find it.” Josh said as they descended into the cave.

Leon was thinking so hard about the eyes he thought he saw that what Josh said didn’t even register to him till he got to the bottom of the decline, “Wait, how long has that been going on?”

“Well, it happened once before we met the Princesses, then twice tonight. I tried following it the first time it happened, but I couldn’t pick up any traces of it anywhere.” Josh said walking over to the basket of apples. Alfred already had his helmet off and was eating one while sitting at the edge of the little pond.

“Could it of been at a higher elevation than you?” Leon asked placing the backpack full of books next to the basket as Josh grabbed an green apple.

“Nah, every time I get the reading it’s on the same elevation as me and it goes straight across my radar. Can’t find any signs, no sounds, and I never actually see it. I’m giving up and saying it’s magic since that’s a legit answer in this world.” Josh said taking a seat by the water like Alfred.

“What’s going on?” Alfred asked before taking the last bite of his apple and pulling a comb out of one of the pockets on his belt.

“Josh has been getting readings on his radar, but could never find out what was causing them.” Leon took a seat between the two of them, a little ways away from the water, and took his helmet off.

Leon shook his head, hating how clumped his black hair could get in his helmet, as Josh began to talk, “Yeah, it would just zoom across the radar and then nothing... What the hell are you doing?”

Alfred was looking into the water at his reflection, combing his slightly-long blond hair backwards, “Combing my hair.”

“I can see that, but why are you?” Josh said taking off his own helmet.

“So my hair stays out of my eyes.” Alfred stated as if it was obvious.

“Dude, if you won't cut your damn hair then corn row it like mine.” Josh said bringing his right armored hand over his brow scalp and black cornrowed hair, “Or be a girl and at least cut the bangs like Leon.” he gestured to Leon with his left hand, accidentally letting go of the apple he had been holding.

Leon’s right hand, which had been scratching the five o'clock shadow on his chin, caught the apple before it hit him, “Guys we got a real problem here and talking about hairstyles isn’t helping. Now when you saw that motion tracker reading was there any smoke around, or any wind maybe.”

“You’re thinking it could of been that one mare, aren’t you?” Josh asked, leaning over and grabbing another apple out of the basket.

“No, we looked at the video with thermal, it showed her just turning and running into the forest and that’s why she couldn’t of been doing whatever Josh was seeing. What I’m saying is she was able to use smoke to project the image she wanted me to see.”

“I think I know what you’re thinking and it’s impossible. Nothing could affect our systems without our knowing.” Alfred said putting his comb away and taking a bite of his apple.

“That’s not what I’m thinking. I’m thinking that something has been watching us without us wanting to see it.” Leon tossed the apple back onto the pile and grabbed his helmet, “And I think I caught a glimpse of it before I lowered the boulder earlier.”

“Sure it’s not just sleep deprivation?” Josh asked with a chuckle as Leon slipped his helmet on, “Cause, I can’t remember the last time I saw you get any sleep.”

“This is serious.” Leon stated as he pulled a chip out of the back of his helmet and placed it on the ground in between all of them. A few seconds later a hologram projected out of the top of the chip showing a cube.

“I forgot that the AI chips could do that.” Josh took a bite of his apple as a video began playing on all sides of the cube.

The video played from when Josh and Leon took a step into the hole and stopped whenever Leon caught sight of the eyes, “See, they’re different from the rhyming mare’s. They almost seem demonic with the slits for pupils.”

“Switch it to thermal, maybe it’s just that one pony again.” Josh suggested taking another bite of his apple. Leon did as suggested and the results where not as simple.

“What the hell?” Leon muttered.

“That shouldn’t be possible.” Alfred said quietly.

“Ghost Hunters would love this shit.” Josh said looking at the picture. The picture showed normal heat signatures till you reached the area around where the eyes had been floating. The whole area had temperatures that reached into the negatives and the front half of a figure was visible, “First magic, now ghosts. What’s next?”

The hologram faded and Leon picked up the chip, “I’m sure if we looked at Josh’s video log we would see that thing.”

“Leon, we’re in way over our heads in this. We don’t know what our enemy is capable of and our base location is now known by two things.” Alfred said.

“I know, I know... We need more information in almost every area and the books won’t cover everything we need to know.”

“What are saying Leon?”

Leon let out a heavy sigh, “I think we should trust the rhyming mare.”

“I got five bucks this blows up in our face.” Josh said taking the last bite of his apple and tossing the core over his shoulder.

“Just in case it’s an ambush, I think we should leave our weapons here.” Alfred said grabbing both his DMR and his sniper rifle. He laid them on the ground in front of them, “If it is an ambush we can use it to our advantage.”

“Fuck no man, I’m not about to go into an ambush without my weapons, Leon back me up here.” Josh said crossing his arms.

“...” Leon reached back and grabbed both his DMR and battle rifle and placed them on top of Alfred’s weapons, “I know what your thinking Alfred and it's dangerous, but I'm in."

Leon and Alfred stared at Josh waiting for his response, “... You white boys are fucking crazy.” he then grabbed and placed both his weapons on the pile, followed by three full cans of C-7 that he had emptied out of the backpack earlier that evening, “When this blows up in our face I will say ‘I told you so’ and there ain't shit you can say to stop me.”

“Noted, now you two get some sleep we got a meeting tomorrow we want to be our best for.” Leon said standing and grabbing the backpack from next to the pile.

“While you do what?” Alfred asked.

“I’m going to do some research into just what we’ll be going up against in case this is an ambush.”

“Oh no you aren’t.” Josh said standing and taking the pack from Leon.

“What?”

“You’re going to sleep, like you said we need to be our best for that meeting.” Josh finished with air quotes as he said meeting.

Leon looked from Josh to Alfred, who had also stood up at this point. Knowing when to pick his battles Leon let out a sigh, “Fine, fine, I’ll get a few hours of rest after I’m done with first watch.”

“Alfred’s got first watch tonight, you got third.” Josh stated tossing the pack to Alfred.

“I’ll start reading them, you get some rest Leon.” Alfred said.

Looking between the two of them Leon let out a weak, “Fine.” and walked towards the wall. Josh and Alfred exchanged a glance and nodded. They were going to let Leon get his rest now and let him be mad at them later.

****The next morning, Canterlot****

The city of Canterlot was beginning it’s day like any other. Nobles yelling at their servants for breakfast and shops beginning to open up. At one shop we find our six heroines sitting down for some coffee and doughnuts at Doughnut Joes.

“Here ya are girls, Donut Joe’s house special for all of ya, on the house.” the tan unicorn said with a smile, putting down a full box of delicious smelling doughnuts and six cups of hot coffee.

“Thanks Joe, what’s the occasion?” Twilight asked after they all had said their thanks.

“The occasions that one of my best customers and all her friends just woke up out of their commas. If that ain’t a happy occasion to give you all some free drinks and doughnuts then I don’t know what is.” Joe said laughing and walking away to tend to the other customers.

“Well that was mighty nice of him.” Applejack said taking a drink of the coffee.

“Wow, noponys ever let me drink coffee before!” Pinkie said with excitement. Rarity and Fluttershy scooted a little bit away from her as she picked up the cup. Dropping whatever conversation they had been having before the mares all had their eyes glued to Pinkie as she took her first drink.

Rainbow Dash leaned over and asked quietly, “Twilight, if Pinkies never had coffee what would she be like with it?”

“Yuck!” Pinkie exclaimed putting down her cup, “Why would anypony drink that?”

There were a few sighs of relief that nothing had happened before Rainbow spoke up, “Pinkie, you’re so random.” she finished laughing.

“Um, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked quietly getting the unicorns attention, “Why did you call us here?”

“Right.” Twilight’s horn flashed and a purple dome encased the group, shimmered, and disappeared, “I was hoping to talk to you all about what we saw last week.”

“What was with the shield thing?” Rainbow asked grabbing a doughnut and taking a bite.

“It’s just a soundproofing spell so nopony can hear us.”

Rainbow audibly swallowed before asking “Why? They’re not exactly a secret. I saw three wanted posters on the way here.”

“Because of something else I have to say after I hear what you girls have to say.” Twilight answered as Rainbow Dash took another bite of her doughnut.

“Twilight, we really didn’t get a chance to meet them. Only a chance to see them in their awful armor before the portal collapsed.” Rarity said using her magic to tear off a small piece of her doughnut and eat it.

“Wait, they weren’t robots from another universe?” Pinkie asked before eating a whole sprinkle covered doughnut in one bite.

“No, when the last one that came through looked back at the portal after that loud lightning strike it looked like all the hope in it was just sucked away. I feel sorry for them.” Rarity finished as she poured some sweetener into her coffee.

“Rares, they put us all in commas. Took me an hour ta get Applebloom ta stay at the castle with Granny.” Applejack said wiping some coffee off her mouth with her foreleg.

“I know what you mean. Poor little Sweetie didn’t want to leave my side, but we finally reached a compromise that even my parents liked.”

“How’d ya manage that?” Applejack asked dunking her doughnut in her coffee.

“Oh, they’re over there.” Rarity said motioning to a waving Sweetie Bell and her parents at a table on the other side of the restaurant.

Rarity gave a small wave to them before Applejack continued, “How can ya feel sorry for ‘em? All I want ta do is help find those things and put ‘em behind bars.”

“Well I think that all they need is a party!” Pinkie exclaimed, a little confetti bursting out of her mane as she raised her forehooves.

“Darling, not everything can be solved with a party. Now I doubt that they would actually hurt anypony, but I agree that we need to find them before something awful happens.” Rarity said using her magic to stir her coffee.

“Well I think it would be super-duper cool to find them and throw them a party and be some of the aliens first friends here.” Pinkie then grabbed the can of sweetener that Rarity had used on her coffee and drank the rest of the small can, “That hit the spot.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow at pinkie, “Yeah, I’m with Pinks that it would be cool to find them and be their friends, but they did kida destroy part of the castle.”

“Wha’s the matter RD, ya scared?” Applejack teased as before she took another drink of her coffee.

“What? No. I could of kicked their flanks all around the Throne Room. I’m saying we should be prepared for if these things don’t want to be our friends.” Rainbow finished.

Twilight nodded her head, her right forehoof on her chin in thought, “Alright, what about you Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy put down her cup of coffee, “Well... after that explosion I’m kinda worried they might be injured. T-that’s just me though, what about you Twilight?”

“Well I think we need to find them, but what I’m about to say may change some of your minds.” Twilight said getting everypony’s attention, “Four days ago, the Princesses actually confronted them in a field in the Everfree Forest.”

“Whoa, so they’re already captured?” Rainbow interrupted.

Taking a sip of her own coffee Twilight shook her head, “No, the aliens actually escaped them.”

There was a small collection of gasps before Fluttershy asked, “Was anypony hurt?”

“They killed a manticore and apparently, the aliens were able to break Princess Celestia’s horn in two.” this time everypony gasped as Twilight continued, “Thankfully Princess Luna was able to reattach it, but it was the conversation that Celestia had with them that I’ve been trying to make sense of.”

“They attacked the Princesses and you’re worried about what it was saying?” Rainbow asked, the shock in her voice very noticeable.

“Yes, because they said they never attacked, stated that they hadn’t intended for anypony hurt, and when Princess Celestia landed they asked who she was. They didn’t know who Princess Celestia was! Everypony knows who the Princesses are, but they didn’t, so they knew next to nothing about our world before they came here.” Twilight finished taking another sip of her coffee.

“So them getting here must of been one big surprise! Wow, they really know how to end a party with a bang.” Pinkie said laughing her flank off at her own joke.

“Pinkie darling, don’t roll on the floor laughing. It’s unbecoming of a proper lady and the floor is probably filthy.” Rarity said sipping her coffee.

“Twilight, I still don’t see how them not knowing something is bigger than the fact they hurt the Princesses.” Rainbow stated.

“Ah agree with RD, we should be trackin down these varment.” Applejack said with a firm nod of her head.

“Girls we have to look at this from their point of view. They went through a portal that landed them in a room surrounded by guards and weapons. Then their way back exploded and made them public enemy number one. After that they snuck past the dozens of patrols placed around the castle and the mountain and have been living in the Everfree till the Princess confronted them.” Twilight took a small sip of her coffee, “Only then, when they were cornered and threatened, did they resort to violence.”

All the mares seemed to take in the small speech twilight gave when Fluttershy spoke up, “Then at the portal, the guards and them where getting ready to fight something.”

Everypony present stared at Fluttershy making the mare shrink in her seat as Twilight continued, “Good point Fluttershy. The aliens and the Royal Guard were about to fight whatever was on the other side of that portal meaning they could of been chased through it.”

“Alright Twi, we getcha. Not everythin here is as simple as it seems. What’re we gonna do ‘bout that?” Applejack asked eating the last of her doughnut.

“Well, after things settle down with our families, we’re going to get go after them and get some answers. Who’s with me?” Twilight asked, standing and looking at her five best friends.

“Well, I’m in. When do we leave?” Rainbow answered immediately, also standing.

“You can count me in two Sugarcube. Just gotta make sure Applebloom will be alright.” Applejack said standing up.

“Yay! We’re going alien hunting just like in the comic books Dash gave me.” Pinkie said standing with them, “I hope it doesn’t end the same way though.”

“I’ll have to take care of things with Sweetie Bell and my parents first and I’ll be right there with you darling.” Rarity said having stood up when Pinkie did.

“We’ll always be there for you Twilight.” Fluttershy said, her voice having actual confidence in it.

Twilight smiled as she looked at all of her friends, “Thanks girls, you’re the best friends anypony could ask for.”

One group hug later and the six all left Doughnut Joe’s and went their separate ways to do what they needed to do before they went off searching for the aliens. Rarity walked with her family and Applejack back to the castle, Rainbow Dash took off into the sky, Pinkie Pie just disappeared, and Twilight and Fluttershy were walking down a road to Twilight’s home.

“Fluttershy, just why do you want to go?” Twilight asked as they walked through the crowded street.

Fluttershy looked away for a moment before returning her gaze to Twilight, “Well, I-I just want to make sure everypony stays safe.”

Twilight barely heard her, but still heard her, “Fluttershy, you don’t have to do anything. When we go looking for them we’ll be fine and if you want to you can stay in Ponyville.”

“Oh no, I could never let any of you put yourselves in more danger just for my cowardice. What if you ran into another Cockatrice? Or a Manticore?” Fluttershy said, her voice once again gaining that confidence from earlier.

“But doesn’t it scare you that they killed a Manticore or who they were able to drive off?” Twilight asked, being careful of what she said.

“Yes, but any animal fights if it’s backed into a corner.” Fluttershy countered.

“But doesn’t the fact that they killed scare you?”

“I don’t like it when my animal friends are taken, but I understand the need for it to happen.” As Fluttershy finished Twilight stopped and looked at her with shock written across her own face, “What?”

“Fluttershy, I never knew you took death so... casually.” Twilight said starting to walk again.

“I-I don’t mean to, b-but if I cried every time one of my animal friends were taken by a predator, I would never stop crying. I try not to discriminate, that’s how I became friends with Mr. Bear.”

Twilight thought about how to respond to that, but couldn’t think of anything. It didn’t matter anyway as her home came into view and a few moments later they hugged and parted ways. Fluttershy was on her way to the post office to send off an update to her Pen Pal, Twilight didn’t ask who it was. Her mind was already focused on how to deal with her parents. With a deep breath Twilight knocked on the door.

****Location Unknown****

Red thorns everywhere, a yellow like fog blanketing the area, thick trees taking up any ground possible outside the water and making a thin, but depression inspiring canopy, and in the middle of a small shallow pond was a crashed D79H-TC Pelican. The water only made it up a few inches on the Pelican and thankfully most items in today's age were water proof. Nearby a M831 Troop Transport Warthog was still attached to the back half of the Pelican.

Despite the foreign invader the surrounding wildlife could still easily be heard, bugs buzzed and frogs croaked. Not a lot happened in the middle of no where, or at least nothing of interest when an alien spaceship just crashed a day earlier. Two gryphon onlookers stared at the ship with wonder and fascination on their faces despite one of them being badly injured.

One of the gryphons, the male with a grey furred body, dark grey wings, and light grey feathered head, had a long cut along his left side that was bleeding on to the other gryphon. The other gryphon, a much younger female with a dark tan coat, dark brown wings, and a white feathered head with purple around her eyes, didn’t seem to mind that a little more blood was getting on to her as she helped hold the gryphon up.

“We need... to keep moving.” The elder gryphon wheezed out.

“If that’s something the Deerlings created then it could have a medical pack on board.” The female gryphon stated, “You take a seat and I’ll look around for anything useful.”

After getting laid down in front of the thick trunk of a black tree the Elder gryphon watched as his daughter spread her wings and took off towards the ship, “Please... be careful Gilda.”

Little did either of them know just what was beginning to wake up on that ship.

Author's Note

Alright everyone and everypony, another chapter up just before midnight. I only skimmed this one for errors so if you see some please point them out for me.

Community Question: What is one crossover you always wanted to read, but couldn't find?