Destination

Chapters

Chapter 1: Arrival
Chapter 2: First Contact
Chapter 3: Lock 'n Load
Chapter 4: Warning

Chapter 1: Arrival

A lone man sat on his desk, typing on his touch screen keyboard on his desk while a transparent screen hovered in front of him. His office lit from long, rod like Light Bulbs embedded on the edges of the ceiling. A small muddle of planet Earth, slowing rotating on his desk, and framed photo standing on its one leg, him and his wife smiling at the camera.

Entry#: 546

  It seems we’re in our new solar system. The star’s a little bigger then our own and we’re closing in on the planet that is resting on its Goldilocks zone.

  To be honest, I thought we would never ever reach this system, but thankfully, we kept everything together, ship and human’s alike. All that hardship on Earth, blood, sweat and tears had paid off. I am forever thankful for those who did their job to create such a masterpiece of engineering.

  May those we left behind, rest in eternal peace.

He finished typing and pressed ‘Enter’. He then cracked his knuckles and sat back, tilting the chair back so he could look up at the white ceiling with a sigh.

The intercom beeped a couple of times before a feminine voice spoke out, “Captain West, we have arrived and now starting to orbit the planet. We now wait for your command.”

He leaned in and pressed the glowing, blue button on the screen of his desk, “I will be at the deck shortly.” He replied kindly with a rustic voice, than the chair started moving back and twisted to the right so he could stand up. He walked over to a full body mirror to check himself for any imperfections.

In front of him stood a tall, proud man, wearing a white and grey uniform hugging his body neatly. His name tag shined in the light; his name and title painted in blue. His skin a pale white and a small scar permanently imprinted on his right, dark grey eyebrow. His hair grey of age and stress, with white streaks as he smoothed it out with his hands. He grabbed the captain’s hat hanging beside the mirror and puts it on with a smile. His emerald green eyes staring back at him in kind.

He went through the sliding, hatch door and out into the hall. People walking and rushing by him, nodding and saluting him in greetings, and he nodded in return with a smile everyone seen countless times. He turned to his left and started walking down. As he looked ahead, he could never see what was always ahead of him past fifty feet or so, as the halls parallel to the structure curved up.

He looked to his right and out the windows. From his end to the other was three kilometers of homes, grass, dirt, trees and most importantly, his people, living and playing happily on the streets and gardens. All pinned to the outer wall of the large cigar shaped ship, ever slowly spinning to keep everyone on their feet. In the middle was an impossibly long, thick rod, imitating as their once, beautiful sun. Three thousand strong, enough to repopulate what was lost. They were no one race, his kind people came from every parts of Earth to keep diversity. It took time for everyone to warm up to one another, and to him, but time was all they all had at the time. Now, everyone practically knows everyone in this ship.

He reached his destination shortly after he returned his gaze at the curving hall and stepped into one of three elevators on the bow of the ship. As it closed, he felt gravity pulling down on his stomach, he never did get used to the feeling. The doors opened to him, showing him a short, spinning tube leading to another hatch, but rounded this time.

He stepped out of the elevator and spun a couple of times before he stopped himself by reaching out to a handle bar. His body felt weightless here, as it was one of the only places in the ship that didn’t spin. He looked back at the trio of closed, spinning doors and then moved his gaze back at the hatch. He pushed himself towards it with a light grunt and stopped as he planted his hands on the cool surface of the entrance. He dragged himself over to a small screen and pressed his left hand onto it. After it scanned his hand, a ring of blue light on the face of the hatch turned green and opened for him with a hiss.

As he entered, he was surrounded by pilots and co-pilots alike, wearing tight full body suites with headsets floating around or sitting in chairs. The deck was filled with levers, nubs, buttons and touch screens in various colors, shapes and sizes in every direction. This one room alone made him think he was inside a large computer.

“Captain on deck!” a woman yelled to his right. Everyone halted what they were doing and saluted at him for a brief moment before they went right back to work to keep the ship in stable condition.

“Privet.” He looked at the women, “A little push please.” He asked nicely. She nodded, grabbed his right foot and pushed him towards the front. He stopped himself by grabbing onto the chair of one of the pilots was sitting on. “How is the diagnostics of Child of Earth, Pilot?” he asked.

“Child of Earth’s main engines are off.” The male pilot spoke as he worked the instruments in front of him. Suddenly, a holographic image of the ship flickered to life in front of them. “The stabilizers are working on making the correct orbit around the planet’s gravitational pull. The fusion reactor is working at sixty percent power. Day and night cycle is still normal. Oxygen and carbon dioxide levels are at normal. The cycling barrel is still spinning, Captain.” He answered.

The captain chuckled, “How about the planet?” he asked once more.

The ship then changed into an almost featureless globe, “Planet is at least five percent larger than Earth. Oxygen levels twenty percent higher. Twenty six hour day and night cycle. Sixty percent covered in water. It has its own magnetic field on the outer edges and an ozone layer to protect it from the star’s corona mass ejections. It has mountainous areas, meaning it also has tectonic activity below the surface of the planet, sir.”

“A big sister of mother Earth…” he whispered. He looked at the blocked windows, “Split the blast shield, pilot, and uncover all the windows.” He said, and the pilot nodded. He reached over to a dome shaped glass, glowing green. He planted his hand on it and it flashed cyan blue.

The cigar shaped ship’s thick sheet of metal, dented from years of meteor collisions started slowly splitting along the middle, a thin layer of ice breaking off was it finally moved. As it fully opened up, large, thick windows circling the front and sides of the spinning barrel opened up to show the new solar system, as well as the planet itself.

Everyone stopped, now just looking down at the windows and screens, staring in awe at the planet and its one moon.

The planet was a display of colors, full of greens, browns, greys, and blues and even white at the poles. One land mass even reached from the very top to bottom, no ocean of water cutting through the middle but small lakes and rivers.

As everyone stared in awe, the captain himself was a little worried for the patches of grey that littered some of the land. He turned to another pilot, “You.” He pointed at the woman. She looked at him, as he floated over to her, “Zoom in on one of the grey spots on the planet.” He said to her and she nodded.

She quickly tapped and ran her fingers on the screen in front of her as a picture of the planet came to life. She tapped a spot on the planet, a little target sign now displaying. She put both her hands on either side of the target and started spreading them apart, causing the screen to zoom in. After a moment, he and everyone in the room were shocked to see architectural buildings standing on the side of a mountain. Buildings and roads littered the streets, and even some kind of castle resting near the northern part of the odd, alien city. The co-pilot zoomed out just a bit and saw the whole picture of the city.

Captain West blinked and rubbed his eyes a few times, trying to see if he was hallucinating or not, and again, the structures were still there, plain as day.

“Captain?” he looked back and saw everyone was looking at him, “What now?” the co-pilot asked.

He looked back at the screen, reached out and started looking through the streets, trying to see if anything or anyone would show up… nothing. Where in the world are they? He thought to himself. After a moment of searching, he noticed some buildings and part of the castle were crumbled down. He leaned back and looked at everyone once more. “Now we investigate what happened to the locals.” He said to everyone in the room.

On the planet itself, in the crumbled city of Canterlot, a bipedal, lone Princess stood on her tower’s balcony, looking up at the sky in confusion. She wore an armor covering her whole body in gold and silvery colors, as well as a chainmail hiding under the sheets of metal. Her white horn erecting from her forehead, sprouting out to the sky as she had her light rainbow hair in a ponytail. Her holster strapped to her hip, holding her sword in place. Her tail braded to keep it from going everywhere when she fought. Her large wings folded on her back with bits and pieces of metal covering them as well. Alas, her armor was not perfect. It was littered with scratches, dents and scares of battle. Some old, and some recent.

She squinted her gaze at the small, strange object in the sky, reflecting some of the light from her sun. To her, it looked like a long barrel of some sort, just hovering well away from the day moon. It was strange to her to see the rounded, plate like head of the thing to split and slowly moved back to reveal a little nub.

“Princess?” she looked back and smiled at the smaller, purple Alicorn standing in front of her, holding onto a telescope in her arms. She wore her own set of armor to protect her form, having a few scars and dents just like Celestia herself.

“Twilight, no need to be so formal with me.” He waved her over with a motherly smile. Twilight quickly walked over, looking up at her fellow Princess. “We’re friends, and friends don’t treat each other like royalty.”

“I-I know Pri-Celestia. Habits die hard, I guess.” she answered, and looked down at the telescope, and back up at her, “So why do you need this? Did you see them coming?” her tone and expression began to turn into fear.

“No, Twilight. I haven’t seen them yet, don’t worry. I just need to use it at the moment.” She answered, calming Twilight down and ran her three fingers on the younger one’s cheek.

She made a sigh of relief and started setting up the contraption, “Where do you want it pointing at? The North? South? Maybe West?” she questioned happily as she adjusted the scope and looking through it, to make sure it was clear and clean.

“The sky.” Celestia answered.

Twilight looked at her strangely, “What? In the middle of the day? What are you looking at?” she began to search the sky herself.

Celestia pointed, “Towards that thing, near the moon.”

Twilight moved her gaze and lightly gasped, “What in the world, is that!?” she moved closer to the railing of the balcony, raising a hand to cover her eyes from the light of day.

“That’s what I want to find out, Twilight. Now go and instruct the Stargazers in the observatory. I will be here if anyone needs me.” She said to Twilight. She eagerly nodded her head and rushed down the spiraling staircase as instructed, her armor clicking and clanging as she moved.

Back in the Child of Earth, a lone woman sits under a large sphere, a holographic muddle of their beloved, once home planet. The location brought various people to see it, in a middle of a cross section, the elderly adults showing the kids on the sphere where they once lived on their home planet. The sphere, however, never showed where she must have lived on the planet. All it shows was a slowly spinning planet.

She wore a full body suite, much thicker and advanced then anyone had in the ship. Her fellow Peace Keepers wore the same suite as her, but her left arm was bare, not that she had a flesh and blood arm anyways. To replace that was mechanical one, ‘much more useful than a normal one’, she always amused. But getting it was a painful experience; she hopped to never go through, ever again. And like the rest of Peace Keepers in the ship, she had to go through augmentation to set up her body to do their tasks. They had their muscles strengthen to make them fast and agile, their bones reinforced to withstand stronger impacts, and their minds and senses doubled so they would be two steps ahead then their opponents. Basically, they were superheroes to the young ones eyes. But the first week, her and her fellow team had to stay on Hospital beds to be monitored closely, not that she complained, she actually embraced it as her whole body at the time, felt like she went through a hail storm with nothing on.

She had her tools out and adjusting her other, ‘lucky’ arm on her laps. It wasn’t exactly ‘new’ anymore, more of an antique now, but she couldn’t let it go, after everything she went through to get to her position.

She looked down to her right and saw her own reflection on the dark, shinning floor. Her skin was tanned from staying out so many times to do her duty and who she was related to. She’s also what you could call, ‘a red head’ as it showed her red, ginger hair put to a ponytail to keep it from getting in the way to do her job, which was patrolling the streets and halls for any danger, guarding secure areas and investigating possible dangerous areas. On her graduation day, she got the top marks, thus became one of the leaders of the Peace Keepers.

She smiled at her own reflection as her own green eyes smiled back at her, before she continued to work on the mechanical arm.

“Kelly?” her ear piece called to her.

“Yes, Captain?” he answered as she started to put her tools away in a small, black tool box and closed it with a twisting crank of a nub.

“I have a job for you. Meet me in my office.” He said to her.

“Will be there in a jiffy, sir. Over.” He answered, bent her lucky arm close with an audible ‘Click!’, picked up her small tool box and started walking to the nearest hatch door. It opened up for her, walked into the hall and looked to her side on a bench like seat attached to the wall. She sat down onto to it and it wrapped a belt around her waist. She tucked her things under her arms just before the bench rocketed off to the direction of the ship’s bow.

After a few moments of greeting a few familiar faces while going twenty miles per hour on a bench, she hopped off the seat and started walking towards the office of their leader.

She knocked on the hatch and was quickly followed by a call from inside, “Come in!”

The hatch slides open and she walked in. She moved her tool box over to her other mechanical hand and saluted with her free hand, “Reporting for duty, sir!” she called out and stood at attention with one of the best poker faces the ship ever seen.

The chair spins around as the Captain smiled at her, “Good to see you too, Kelly.” He said back and leaned on his desk, “At ease.” She relaxed and looked at him in the eyes, “I’m sorry to call you in on your few break times, but I have an important mission for you.”

“Of course, sir.”

“I need you to go down with someone and investigate what have happened to the local alien life down on the planet.” He pressed a spot on his desk, activating a screen to show up in the middle of the air. The images showed broken buildings and streets in some sort of alien city. There were few scorch marks and what looked like to her, potholes from explosions. “If we’re going to make a home on this planet, we might as well make peace first with the local natives. I need you and your partner to go and see if they’re still there and search the area with caution. We must see if they’re willing to make diplomatic decision with us, and maybe help them with whatever they need.”

“Of course, sir. Do I need to bring any weapons for this mission?” she asked.

“Might as well, Kelly. We don’t want one of our best to be defenceless on an alien planet.” He answered.

“Okay, sir. When will I go?”

“Sooner, the better.” He sat back, “Now go and get ready, I’ll meet you at the Docking Bay One with your charge.” He waved her off with a smile.

She saluted at him one more time before she spun around on one heel and went off as instructed.

Chapter 2: First Contact

Kelly’s suite now had dark and light grey, advanced armory attached and protecting her chest, back, shoulder, thighs, shins and her toes and heels. On the face of the armor, protruding out to partly covering her neck, had her rank emblem stamped on; silver star with three bars at the bottom. But her left arm was bare of protective, metal covering. Why waist good armor plating, when there’s a good chance that same arm might get blow off?

She shook and moved around her body in the locker room to see if they were loose or restricting her movements. With a smirk, she walked over to a wall, a clear space between the lockers and it. She pressed her right hand onto it, causing glowing spots on the surface where her fingertips were placed.

The whole, twenty foot long wall suddenly jerks inwards and swiftly slides up, revealing many, different set of equipments and weapons. First, she walked over to the far right to grab one of ten, armored packs. She unhooked it from its resting place, swung it over her shoulder and attached itself onto her back with a few, audible ‘Clicks!’ onto her shoulders and under her arms. She stepped to her left, grabbed two army knives in her small holsters and clicked them both on her lower back. She then grabbed four grenades and set two on each thigh. She moved a little further down. Looking at all the firearms, searching for the right ones, and stops with a smile.

“Thought, I never get to see you, ever again.” She reached out and unhinged the DMR from the wall and inspected the weapon like every good warrior should. She grunted in approval, swung the weapon over her back and attached itself onto the pack. She grabbed two Magnums with both living and mechanical hands, and put them in their rightful holsters onto her thighs. She stepped back to let the wall close itself and turned back to her locker a few paces away from her. She reached up and looked at her reflection on the large fishbowl like visor, tinted grey.

She smiled, crammed the helmet in the crook of her left arm and started walking out, the lights turning themselves out in her wake.

Once she reached the Docking Bay, she scanned the large hanger, filled with different kinds of ships, in rows upon rows of either sides of the walls. She spots her Captain and a young woman standing beside him. She quickly ran over to him, stopped dead in her tracks a few paces away from him and gave him a swift salute. He smiled at her, “Ah! Good timing, Commander. Let me introduce you to Miss Snowlet. She will be accompanying you, down on the planet. Your job is to protect her and keep an eye out for any danger or object of interest.” He said to her.

The white suited woman steps forward, bringing out her hand towards her with a small smile. She was few inches shorter then Kelly, her hair blond and bright in the light and her skin brighter then the Captain himself. Her baby blue eyes staring at her in kind.

Kelly firmly shook her hand for a brief moment. The woman smiled a little wider, “Nice to meet you, Commander.” She spoke. Kelly nodded in reply and looked back at the Captain.

“Okay you two. You will land on the southern part of the alien city and move up north towards the castle. We would be your eyes from above, but it looked like some cloud cover will be down there. But we will keep radio contact and the cameras on your helmets will be our eyes.” he stepped aside and gestured to the hatch of the small ship opening down, making a short ramp for them to step in. “Stay safe you two.” He said to them both. Kelly put her helmet on, Snowlet doing the same with a more delicate looking one and both nodded to him.

They both saluted at him, “Sir! Yes, sir!” they both said in unison and turned to the ship. The short woman stepped in first and quickly sat down on the co-pilot’s seat. Kelly followed soon after, the hatch closing behind her and sat herself down. They strapped themselves onto their seats and both felt a sudden jolt of motion, the small ship being lifted up in the air by a large, mechanical arm protruding out from the ceiling of the hanger. They both saw the Captain walking away from them as a large hatch split open from under them, a wall of transparent, flickering wall of sparking energy, being produced to stop the vacuum of space.

The Captain turned around and waved at them right before they were dropped down into space. Kelly grabbed the joysticks and the rockets to the sides and two at the back erupted to life, stopping them from falling down to the planet. She stabilized the ship and waited for her co-pilot to calm down for a few moments.

She looked at her passenger with a straight face, “Ready?” she asked flatly. Snowlet nodded, holding a hand onto her chest. With her approval, she looked ahead and let the ship move forward, towards the planet. A target lighted up on the screen, showing a series of rings to show her where to fly through and land. After a few moments, the ships started shaking and deafening noise rattled their minds. Snowlet clenched the arm rails of her seat, closing her eyes shot, praying for both their lives.

Kelly ignored the violent shaking, years of practice doing their work as she decent down and past the layers of clouds, still following the path of red rings carefully. As they broke through the last clouds, she quickly activated the cloaking of the ship. Slowing disappearing from head to back, they became part of the sky, the only thing showing were four, blue after burners of the engines. The violent shaking died down, and Snowlet sighed in relief with a small chuckle.

“Everyone, doing okay?” they both heard their Captain in their ear pieces.

“Yes, sir. Entry a little shaky, but everything’s still working.” Kelly answered, checking the ship’s systems for a moment before looking back at the path. “Landing in T-minus thirty seconds.” She spoke once more.

She guided the ship closer to the ground to try and hide the after burners from view of the city, just in case. She then guided the ship under the city itself and slowed down to a stop behind a small water fall. She slowly landed it down and killed the engines as the landing gear was set firmly on the wet, gravel ground. They both unstrapped themselves from their seats and Kelly was first at the door.

As the hatch started lowering itself down, she grabbed onto her DMR from her back and pointed it outside. She looked at her charge, “Stay until I say so.” She said to her, and Snowlet nodded in agreement.

Kelly looked back out and slowly went down the steps, pointing her gun in every direction, trying to search for anything suspicious. To her, every single thing she saw was alien to her. The rocks, wet gravel, the wall of rock and even the stunning waterfall. Living her whole life in a ship and the strict restrictions alienated her mind on what was normal and what was alien, and at the moment, the whole planet was one, huge, strange ball of dirt. She felt a little heavier, but nothing too taxing with her augmented body. Even just being able to see for miles, confused and dazed her in awe, but still true to her training, she continued to search the area for any danger. After a minute or two, she finally called out.

“Clear!”

The woman stepped out and her eyes bulged out in awe and shock. She stayed at the entrance for a few more moments, just staring at her surroundings until she saw her bodyguard standing around, searching the area with her gun lowered and her visor cleared to show her face. She quickly went down the steps and planted her feet on gravel ground. She stopped and looked down at the wet ground in awe. She walked around for a few moments giddily until Kelly cleared her throat, she looked up at her with a smile.

“We’re going to have to send the ship in the clouds, Miss Snowlet. Please step back from the ship.” She said as she walked past her and went up near the opened hatch. A display lights up in front of her and started typing out a few things with her left hand, and when she was finished, she quickly stepped back as the engines started up and the hatch closed itself. When it hovered in the air, its clocking activated itself and rocketed towards the sky and into the clouds.

Kelly looked back at her, “If we get into trouble, it’ll go right to you, and if I’m gone or passed on, go right in and it’ll take you back on the Child of Earth. Understood?” she said in a commanding tone, and the short woman nodded, in both fear and understanding. “Good, now get to work. We only have so much daylight to spend.” She said and turned away from her, “I’ll be searching the area.” She said before walking off to see if there was an easier way to get into the city right above them.

Twilight stood beside her old teacher at the gates, looking out towards their crumbled city of Canterlot. A Pegasus mare with rainbow hair and tail landed right in front of them with a thud, small bits of dust flying off. Her body was also cover in armor, but the chainmail was left out and the armor plating itself looked smooth and elegant to make her look aerodynamic. She had two, short holsters strapped to her sides where her two short swords rested.

She smiled at the lavender friend, “Ready to go, Twi?” she asked and planted her hands onto her hips.

Twilight nodded, with a small smile, “Yes, Rainbow. You?” she spoke back, earning a nod.

A gentle hand rested on her shoulder, Twilight looked up at Celestia, “Stay safe you two. I’ll be at the balcony shortly to keep an eye you both.” She assured them.

“Don’t worry, Princess. I got her back.” Rainbow dash gestured to herself, “Whatever that came out of the clouds won’t hurt, my best friend.” She pulled in Twilight and bear hugged her.

“Still, travel the Canterlot grounds with caution. We don’t know if the thing is dangerous or not.” She warned.

“Of course, Celestia.” Twilight answered with a smile.

Celestia smiled at them, “I’ll see you both soon and stay safe.” She said to them both before they ran off. Twilight turned around, lifted both arms up to her sides and closed the doors with her magical grip. She took her breath as Rainbow patted her back.

“Where should we start first?” she asked.

Twilight straightened out as she turned to look at the once, lively, bustling city, “We start here and head south as we go.”

Kelly walked in, in what looked like some kind of store. She inspected the surroundings with her charge at her tow. As she walked ahead, Snowlet looked at a piece of item on top of a high counter and walked towards it in interest. She gently reached up, and grabbed a plushy looking dull from its resting place. It was fluffy to touch, colored a dull green and one of its left black button eye was missing. The doll’s shape itself was a little strange; almost like a teddy bear with stubby limbs, but it had heart shaped markings on its thighs and its muzzled a little longer. It had blue stringy tail and hair and that was about it.

She looked around a little more and saw similar items scattered around the shop. She looked loser and the whole place was littered with layers of dust. When she saw her guardian walk out of a room, she smiled at her and waved the plushy to her.

“I guess we’re in a toy store, Commander.” She spoke and quickly walked over to her, showing her the toy. Kelly grabbed it with her left hand and showed it back to her charge. Snowlet accepted it and reached up to her helmet, “Captain, are we allowed to take samples?”

“Of course, Miss Snowlet. Carry on.” they both heard.

She took off her backpack and kneeled down. She opened it up, dusted the doll first, stuffed the plushy in and closed it back up.

“Come on,” Kelly said as she walked back in the room she was just in before, “there’s a hole to the other building in here.” She spoke and waited for her. Snowlet quickly followed her in and both jumped across an alley to get to the other building. After they searched the empty building, they went back into the streets and walked into a cross section. Snowlet tapped Kelly on the shoulder and showed her a ball full of small glass eyes.

“We need to take images, so can you throw this up?” she asked.

Kelly rested her gun on her pack and accepted the ball from her, “How high?” she asked, handling the ball with her right hand.

“Ten feet first, then forty, if possible.” She answered.

Kelly nodded and tossed the ball at the said height, with a small flash, it dropped back down and Kelly caught it. She swung her arm around and tossed the ball even higher in the air. She caught the ball once more and showed it to her charge. Snowlet smiled and took the ball back and put it back into her pack. “Thank you.”

As Snowlet started looking around, she looked at the castle’s tower and saw something interesting. She pointed her gun at it and looked through the camera scope. To her surprise, she saw something looking back at her with a scope of its own. It stood up straighter and it looked like it had armor on.

“Captain?” she asked as she continued to look through her scope and activating her visor to polarize it.

“I see we finally found them. Advance to the castle with caution.” He spoke to her.

She lowered her gun and looked back at her charge near a building entrance, “Hurry up! We’re heading to the castle!” She yelled, and right after she said that, a fast and swift shadow went across the street and landed on top of the building Snowlet was inspecting. Kelly quickly ran over to her and pointed her gun in the air, “Inside! Now!” she whispered.

They both quickly went in and Kelly shut the door. She looked up and saw a large hole on the ceiling to her left and ushered Snowlet to go a little further in. When they reach a corner wall, they heard something moving around the roof and a glimpse of something in the street.

Suddenly, a mass of armor and feather’s fell down from the ceiling and drew out its swords from its sides, pointing them both at them. The door smashes open to show another intruder wearing a set of armor as well, its hands raised to them, emitting a faint purple glow. Snowlet whimpered and started shaking at the aliens. Kelly activated a lazar pointer on the gun and aimed it at the head of the winged creature when it stepped forward, daring it to take another step. The thing crossed its eyes to look at the small dot on its forehead.

“Captain, what should we do?” she whispered, still aiming the gun at the sword, wielding creature.

In a long moment of silence, she noticed the purple one looking at her charge, in what looked like concern. The thing looked at its partner and spoke in gibberish to the other. The blue one seemed conflicted and spoke back to the other. The purple one spoke again and pointed at her shaking charge. The purple one seemed to convince the blue one, as it growled and took away its swords. She looked at the purple one as it seemed to try to calm her down. The only person that needed calming down was her charge and she felt her flinch behind her when the purple one took a few steps forward. She quickly aimed the gun at it, causing her partner to rest its hands on its sword handles till the purple one hissed at her to back off.

“I advise you, to lower your gun, Kelly. The purple one seemed concerned about Miss Snowlet. And remember, we’re here to make a new home.” Her Captain spoke to her.

She didn’t respond, just threw her gun over her back and onto her pack, causing both aliens to jump in surprise at her sudden movement and her visor depolarized to show her poker face.

Twilight was most intrigued about the two visitor’s, they were a tad shorter then her and Rainbow Dash, but the left arm of the first one looked mechanical, and moved like a real arm.

“Can you understand me?” she asked, hopefully, but only received blank stares from them both.

“Did you think they would understand you, right off the bat?” Rainbow commented with a small chuckle.

“Shush, you! Your brash actions nearly caused us to make another enemy! We’re doing bad it is, but do you really think we would survival if we made another!?” she spoke back with a light glare. Rainbow lowered her gaze down to the ground.

“Sorry, Twilight.” Her friend apologized in shame.

She nodded at her and looked back at the two visitors, “Um… home?” she asked, yet again, receiving blank stares. She looked around for a moment, and when she found a piece of paper, she levitated it over, earning surprised looks from them both. She carefully started ripping it apart, and went she was done, she showed house shaped, torn paper to the two visitors and tapped it a couple times.

The front one then pointed out the door and into the street of Canterlot. She looked back at the two and right back at the streets. She pointed outside and looked at the armored alien, “Outside?” she asked. She didn’t know if it understood her or not, but it nodded its head nonetheless. She looked at Rainbow and gestured to the smashed entrance, “Maybe they’re trying to show us outside?” her friend shrugged and went out. Twilight looked back at the two and waved for them to follow.

When they all got out, the shorter one shakily pointed a digit at the new object in the clearing sky. “Whoa! Is it saying, they came from that thing, in the sky!?” Rainbow said in awe and gestured to the ship before shielding her eyes to see more clearly at the object.

Twilight glanced at the two, their advanced clothing or suites and equipment seem to say they did. Then a thought came and looked at the armored alien in nervousness. She pointed at the thing it pointed at her moments ago and gestured to herself and her friend in fear.

The alien reached back and inspected the thing closely, looked at its companion and shook their heads at them both, while putting the thing back on its backpack-like-thing. They both inwardly sided in relief, Maybe they came in peace, after all. Twilight thought to herself, then turned her gaze at the distant castle. She then looked at her friend, “You think Celestia and Luna would want to see them?”

“I think so.” She answered.

Twilight looked back at the two, pointed towards the castle and waved for them to follow her with a gentle smile.

“Captain, we might need a Crawler to communicate with them. Holographic images might do much better, then simple gestures.” Kelly spoke as she followed their purple, alien, tour guide.

“We were thinking the same thing. We will send down a few if you give us, the green light.” He finished.

As they closed in on the great walls and gates, the grounds, roads and buildings looked even worse than any other they saw earlier. Even the wall itself; scorch marks, crumbled potholes and even a few green and red splatter marks painted onto the wall and a few buildings around them.

Her charge stopped and slowly walked over to a green splatter on the road, nearby. She crouched down to it and took off her pack to take a sample. Just as she opened up her pack, a loud, ear piercing screech sounded out in one of the buildings. Kelly’s augmented senses swiftly turned her gaze towards the building, seeing a dark, bug like creature jumping out of its hiding place and blasting out a glowing green projectile towards her charge from its arm.

Just as Snowlet started to turn her head towards the building, Kelly leaped towards her, reaching out to block her charge with her left arm. Just when the green, flaring ball was about to hit her, a blinding, green, flash of light hit them both and their ears started ringing.

When she recovered, she founder herself staring at the somewhat cloudy sky and being dragged along the ground by her right arm, a scraping sound obviously being made by her armor. After a closer inspection, she saw part of her helmet was cracked, webbing out like a spider’s web. Then she saw she was dragged past the gate and everything darkened a little by its looming shadow.

When she stopped, she groaned, and something started speaking to each other frantically, a hint of fear and confusion sounding out between them. Many more started shouting, and sounds of running and fighting filled the air.

She rolled her head to her left and saw her charge crawling towards her, part of her own helmet cracked and ash covering part of her helmet and chest. She lifted her left arm, but to her surprised, half of it was missing; sparks arching out as she moved it around and wires wobbling about. She sat herself up with the help of her fellow human and looked at her, “We stumbled ourselves into a war.” She whispered to both her ear piece and Snowlet.

Chapter 3: Lock 'n Load

As the armored aliens run about to defend the castle, Kelly slowly got up with the help of her human companion and reached up to her cracked helmet with her own remaining intact arm.

“Captain, we might need backup on this.” She looked around, seeing some technicolor creatures limping away from the wall with bandaged limbs and bodies, some being carried away entirely. She looked up at the wall itself and saw some of them running around, shooting out arrows, spears and even bolts of colored energy coming out of their hands. There were also green balls of light streaking over head, either hitting the castle or flying into the clouds with a burst. “Their numbers are declining, and by the looks of it, sir, they won’t last too long.”

“Back up will arrive in a few minutes, Kelly. Just h-hold out a little longer.” His voice cracked.

Kelly looked at her charge beside her, and then looked around for the purple alien they met. When she spotted it talking to the blue winged alien, and also a heavily armored orange one, she walked to them with Snowlet right behind her. As she walked, she noticed the purple one had a pair of wings as well, neatly tucked away behind its hair.

“Hey!” it jumped in surprised and looked back at them both, a surprised expression written on its face. Kelly gently brought Snowlet up front; pointed a finger at it and to Snowlet. Kelly gently pushed the woman towards it; brought up a thumb to herself and pointed back towards the wall. She reached down and brought out one of her Magnums.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash stared at their visitor in awe and shock. One moment ago, they saw it being blasted away and losing its left arm in the process, but now its standing right in front of them, with its smaller device drawn out with its remaining arm.

Twilight pointed at its torn, sparking arm, “Aren’t you in pain?” she asked. It looked at its arm for a brief moment, and then simply shook its head ‘no’. This confused her even more, but mentally shook her head and looked at Rainbow Dash to her right, “Rainbow, can you bring it up to the wall with the others? I think it wants to help.” She said.

Dash felt a little uneasy, but stepped forward and glared at the alien visitor, “Do any funny business, I’m dropping you.” She spoke to it sternly, but all it did was turned around, and waited. She growled, but lifted up the somewhat heavy creature and flew off.

“What… in tarnation… are those thin’s?” Applejack spoke up. Twilight turned around and looked down at the shorter visitor, only managing to reach the height of her shoulders.

“They came from the thing in the sky, right over there.” She point.

AJ looked up and her eyes shot open, “What in the hay!? When did that thing show up!?” she adjust her hat.

“Just today, Applejack. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think our visitor wanted to keep an eye this one. I’ll be with Princess Celestia if you need me.” She finished and gently started nudging the alien towards the castle.

Kelly dropped down onto the roof of the wall and her carrier started informing the others and pointing at her. She moved over to the edge and saw what creature caused her to lose part of her arm.

The horrid creatures varied from the four winged fliers with thin, stick like bodies, the ones with horns were a little more taller than the fliers, they also had wings, but didn’t seem to use them for flight, more like a cape and lastly the ground troopers. They were a head taller than their brethren, about the same size as her armored, alien companions and looked more robust. And every single one she saw had one thing in common; all their left forearms looked like little canons, shooting at their enemies. But the canons varied as well, the fliers had more thin, long and sleek looking ones, the horned bugs looked a little plain and normal, but the big ones canons, like their bodies, looked robust with small holes covering near the tip with a sharp, axe like blade at the bottom. All in all, to her, they were huge bugs with weapons of their own.

She looked back towards the castle and saw her charge was being led to the castle doors, and the orange one going towards the gates with a shield and a sword on hand. It went out the gates and started shouting out orders with the blue winged alien as the gates closed behind them.

A green bolt suddenly flew right over her head, causing her to duck in surprise. She calmed herself and her helmet spoke to her while she turned towards the city, “Activating Shields.” Her whole body glowed from head to toe for a moment, revealing plates of small hexagons all over her body, and some on her left shoulder and arm, but faded as it got close to the torn forearm. She looked back down the wall and saw her new allies battling it out, both sides going an all out war, but the bugs seemed to be winning by sheer numbers.

“T-minus, ninety seconds till arrival, Commander.” A feminine voice said to her through her earpiece.

“Better hurry up.” She said, drew up her arm and started shooting the fliers right out of the air, off the walls and roofs of the building.

She then noticed a horned bug starting to levitate a piece of concrete boulder the size of her head in shock and tossed it out when it spun around with a yell. Before she could recover and react, the boulder shattered on impact, square on her chest, shattering part of her shield and causing her to stumble back. She shook her head, dazed from the attack and slowly got back up to her feet.

“Shield recharging.” Her helmet spoke to her again and started repairing the hexagons on her chest, one piece at a time.

“T-minus, sixty seconds.” The voice said once more. Kelly looked ahead and saw four, tiny drop ships coming out of the clouds in the distance.

Suddenly a loud, thunderous roar sounded out right in front of her. She looked down the wall and saw a large, armored, hulk’ish creature rising out of the concrete ground. The orange alien shouted out and its teammates scattered out to try and get away from the large creature. To her, it looked more like a giant crab with a small head and a large cannon attached to its right arm instead, while its left looked like a cross between a large claw and a shield.

As it started ramming the gates, her alien allies started firing at with everything they got. Kelly quickly jogged over so she could be right over the gates and pushed aside her teammates.

The two aliens glared at her, but then looked intrigued as she grabbed one of her grenades, pulled out the pin and dropped it down.

“T-minus, twenty sec-”

BOOM!!!

The explosion cause the large creature to fall back as it cried out in pain, its stubby legs blown off and part of its lower section splattered all over the gates, walls and ground. She smirked, grabbed another grenade and tossed it over to a platoon of dark creatures. A few seconds later, they flew in the air, crying out in pain as well, some loosing limbs, and a few blowing up entirely, limbs scattering all around.

The drop ships flew over head and hovered over the courtyard of the castle. The back hatches flew open as her team ran out and jumped down all of thirty feet and onto the yard with their guns drawn out, a few leaped from their ship and landed down onto the wall beside her.

At least fifty Peace Keepers were now at ground zero with her and started assisting their alien allies with the current threat. The ships themselves drew out their Pulse Canons from the bottom part of the head of the ships and started firing at the bugs with large, invisible fists down at them, causing them to be either knocked down or fly off like a ragdoll.

With the extra firepower, Kelly’s human companions and their new alien allies, they started driving the screeching bugs back. But the things were content of taking over the castle, making it hard for them to keep them at bay.

A fellow human ran up to Kelly and brought out a new arm to her, “You might need this, Commander.” He said.

Kelly grabbed the base of her left arm; twisted it with a ‘Click!’ and pulled it out. She handed it to the Medic and grabbed the new one. She jammed it in her shoulder as it powered up and moved it around to make sure it was fully functional. She smiled and thanked the man. He saluted at her, put the damaged arm under his arms and went off to do his duty.

“Commander Kelly?” her earpiece said.

“Speak.” She said, drew out her DMR and aimed it at the distant creatures, firing three burst rounds.

“Um… I think the leader wants to speak with you.” Snowlet spoke.

Kelly stopped her shooting and looked back at the castle entrance to see her charge, the purple alien and a taller, white one right behind her she saw in her scope back in the streets. “Everyone, keep the bugs at bay. I won’t be long.” She said, earning a collective ‘Yes, Commander!’ through her earpiece. She swung her gun back onto the side of her pack, hopped down from the ledge and landed with a roll to lessen the impact. She ran up to the trio, and stopped, looking up at the tall monarch. It spoke to her with a soothing voice and held onto, what looked like a gentle smile. Kelly looked at Snowlet, but she just shrugged in response. She rested up to her helmet and looked to her side, “Captain, did you send in a Crawler as well?” she asked.

“Green light?” he questioned.

“Green light.” She answered.

One of the four drop ships then flew over to them, opening up its back hatch, spun around and a dog like, mechanical robot hopped out. As it landed down, it started rolling like a wheel going towards them, swerving around the legs of alien and humans alike, but the tall creatures jumped away in surprise as it passed by. Suddenly, the mechanical dog started galloping on its four legs and halted right in front of them, sitting down like a dog, dead still.

Its head basically looked like a large camera with one, big eye right at the front and the whole body itself looked like a metallic skeleton with a few markings to address where things were.

Kelly looked back at the tall monarch as it and the purple one, looked at the crawler in awe. The moment she nodded her head, four tiny projectors flared to life on its head, making a holography screen in the air beside Kelly’s head. The two aliens; and a few others around them, took a step back in shock and awe. Just then, a little blue, human stick figure showed up on the monitor, waving at them with a smiley face. The monarch’s smile grew and waved back in kind.

“That’s better.” Kelly muttered.

Just as she was about to ‘communicate’ a little more, a pained yelled caught her attention. She quickly looked back and saw one of her men fall off the ledge and landed down with a loud grunt. She quickly ran over and dragged him away from the wall. The medic quickly went over to her and lifted off his pack from his back and kneeled down beside the injured Keeper. They removed his hand from his left shoulder and saw a nasty burn mark and a part of his armor blown off, its ragged edges red from heat.

The medic opened up his pack and took out a gun like device and popped in a small glass of yellow liquid. He then pressed the tip onto his fellow man’s shoulder and the liquid quickly drains into him with a ‘kssss!’. He then took a round, white patch with a red ring outlining the edges and sealed up the Keeper’s suite. “You’ll be okay for now, but take it easy with the shoulder. You’ll also go to have to be checked in the Medical Ward for any alien virus or dieses.” The medic said to him. The injured man nodded, got up with a grunt and grabbed his gun from the ground.

“Will do, Doc. Thanks.” He replied and started going back up the wall with the others, his shielding coming back to life.

Kelly then felt light tapping on her shoulder. She turned around and saw the tall monarch with the purple one beside her, and Snowlet beside the purple one. The Monarch then pointed at the Medic with his equipment and pointed at an injured alien nearby, being cared for by one of its kind. The tall alien’s face took on a hopeful expression.

Kelly lightly shook her head ‘No’ as the robotic canine quickly sat down beside her and projected out its display.

Twilight was beyond thankful the visitors had this dog-like machine with them, and that they practically saved their very lives from those monsters behind the wall. The devices they use to kill and drive the Changelings away were a little loud, but bearable, but the balls they threw shook the ground with a tiny tremors and near deafening when closer.

As she watched the display make two figures, one was short and other taller one, one of her own kind she guessed. The device thing, she guessed their Field Medic used popped up in between the two and injected it to their visitor. They zoomed in and a cut was healed with a flashing green lights. But when it injected into one of her kind, it started flashing red.

She looked up at Celestia, “I think they’re trying to tell us, their medicine won’t work with us.” She said and Celestia nodded with a sad sigh.

Celestia looked down at the short, armored creature and nodded in acknowledgement. With that, it drew out its weapon from its back and quickly started running back up the wall to help fight back.

Suddenly, the little dog-thing’s single eye started flashing red and projected out, to her, an aerial view of Canterlot, the fighting happening in the map, happening around them in perfect time. The map then zoomed out, and in it showed a hoard of Changelings going towards Canterlot from the north of the barren Waist Land. Both Princesses eyes got wide in horror.

“Invasion…” Twilight whispered, covering her mouth in terror.

Their visitor then quickly came back, and the shorter one started frantically speaking to the other. The armored visitor looked up at Celestia for a moment then turned away and pressed a finger on its cracked helmet. After a moment, it turned back to them and drew out her hand, causing the whole map to be from being vertical, and flipped down to horizontal. Then a short rod like object, with a large head showed up, floating over the map, split into three, pointed towards the hoard and hit the map, pixels exploding out as it did. It then looked up at Celestia and a button materialized in front of her, resting right on the map with a big red button flashing on and off.

A royal guard then went up to them, “Princess Celestia! A hoard of Changelings from the north is coming this way!” he spoke frantically, the fear in his tone clear as day.

Celestia took a moment to look at the two visitors, a frightened Twilight and at the Guard. She then looked down at the map once more to see the hoard slowly getting closer. She closed her eyes and looked at the armored visitor, “You do it.” She point at it and then down at the holographic, flashing button. It shook its head firmly, pointed at her and down at the ground. Then gestured to itself and its alien companion, and pointed up towards the sky.

“Celestia, it’s saying this is your world, not theirs.” Twilight spoke up, now clearly shaking.

She took a few deep breaths to calm herself and then looked down at the button. A second later, she pressed down right through it, but then a red warning sign lighted up on the map’s face and zoomed out. They then noticed three small arrows rocketing towards their city, but three large target signs lighted up on the ever closing hoard of bugs. When the arrows got close to their city, they all looked up at the sky and three rockets zooming over head and past the castle with blue afterburners. They looked back down at the map, and the moment they did, the ground shook three times as the arrows hit their target, companied by deafening explosions and the air pushing them.

Then they waited. The map showed a large dust cloud covering the area, obscuring their sight from their enemy.

Celestia quickly unfurled her large wings, jumped up and with a massive wing beat, started flying up to her watchtower.

“Celestia!” Twilight cried out for her former teacher as she flew up to her tower, her own wings started to spread, but didn’t seemed too confident on using them. She looked at the castle entrance started running in to go to their Princess.

Celestia landed down with a thud; ran around the ring of ledge with guardrails. She stopped as she saw the dust cloud, just half a kilometer away from her city. The Changelings had… It then clicked. She quickly looked to her city and saw all the Changelings that were attacking stopped. Everything was quiet for the longest of time, the wind and the engines of hovering ships the only sound entering her ears. Then the monstrous creatures started moving, not towards her, but away. She quickly looked back at the dust cloud, as it started clearing from the east wind. A moment later, tiny, black bodies of countless changelings covered the Waist Land, with three large craters, forming a triangular shape.

“Prince-” Twilight suddenly stopped as she saw the craters. She slowly walked over and stood beside her as she looked at the craters and laying bodies in shock. “How… wha…” she tried to speak.

“For such short creatures… they have powerful weapons…” Celestia quietly said.

Kelly and Snowlet walked up the steps of the wall and looked out into the battle-damaged city. As one of her Lieutenants informed, the bugs were retreating and long gone.

“D-did we win?” Snowlet asked.

“It seems like it…” the lieutenants said, raised up his Assault Rifle and looked through the scope. “Can’t… see… any of them…” he said, than lowered his gun.

“Still. Stand guard. Never know if they come back by surprise.” Kelly reached up to her helmet and looked at hovering ships with their canons ready, “Pilots, make a sweep of the city. Try to find any of those things lingering around.” She said and the ships started slowly floating around the city.

“What if we find them, Commander?” a pilot spoke to her.

“Fire warning shots, drive them away from here. If they stay put and fire back… well, you’re the boot.” Kelly answered, earning four ‘Yes, Commander!’.

Celestia and Twilight watch as one of their flying ships started shooting around a pack of Changelings, driving them out into the street. They continued shooting around them, but the black creatures started shooting at the ship with screeching battle cries. Celestia squint her eyes to see the device under the head of the ship changing from wide to a narrow barrel. It then started shooting them with deadly accuracy, splitting the shells of the creature’s chest and shredding them apart. She winced at the sight and then looked down at the ground with Twilight.

“So… what do we do with them?” Twilight asked nervously, as she looked down at the courtyard, gripping the rail tightly.

“We establish a Peace Treaty.” Celestia answered, looking down as well.

“What!?” Twilight stepped back from her in shock, “You saw what they can do! The shooting, the explosions, and their ships!” she gestured to the patrolling ships hovering around their city.

Celestia looked at her, “They had no other choice, Twilight. You need to be a little more observant, they were trying to drive them away the city, shooting at the ground around them with their invisible force canons, but the Changelings stayed.” She then pointed at the large craters, “As you said, I’m in charge of this kingdom. They could have done this by themselves, but they turned to me for the order to launch their fast, explosive rods.” She looked back down at the courtyard and at the mechanical armed visitor, calling out orders and pointing out to its own kind, “They came here for a reason, Twilight Sparkle. They haven’t come all this way to fight. Traveling between the distances of the stars takes years.” She looked at her former student, “Before you were even born, I witnessed a tiny, barely noticeable moving star connect with another brighter one. Ever since then, the once bright star was out a few days before Nightmare Moon returned.”

“So… you think they came from that star?” Twilight asked, now feeling a little sorry for their visitors and her outburst.

“We will find out soon once we establish a trust between our species.” She answered, turned away from her capital and started going down the spiraling stairs with Twilight at her tow. She would be lying if she didn’t feel a little threatened by their new friends.

Chapter 4: Warning

Snowlet looked down at the open gates from the top, sitting down and watching both humans and aliens dragging in their alien allies, both injured and passed on. She then looked out into the city, watching their drop ships hovering around, looking for their new enemy hiding within the buildings and alleys.

She carefully got herself down and started walking down the staircase. As she got down and casually got down from the wall. She looked around her surroundings and decided to do what she was here for. She got down to the ground on one knee with her pack open and took out the spherical camera. She looked around as she stood up and waved over a Peace Keeper. He got up to her and saluted at attention, “Yes, ma’am?” he said.

She showed him the ball, “Can you toss this up thirty feet?” she asked. He nodded and tossed the ball into the sky and came back down. He showed the device to her, “Thank you. You may go back to work.” She said as he nodded and went off.

She put it back into her pack beside the plushy, closed it with a ‘Click!’ and puts it back on and looked at the castle, up and down, admiring the architecture. She reached up to her helmet, “Captain. How many Crawlers have you brought down?” she asked hopefully.

“Plenty. Stand by.” He answered as a ship stopped in the distance and glided over the courtyard, where Snowlet was standing. Its hatch opened up and lowered down ten feet above ground. As it did, ten dog like machines jumped out with different colored stripping covering their heads and bodies and started going out to their respective leaders. Last one jumped out and quickly went up to her, covered in cyan blue stripes. She petted it with a smile and started walking in the castle with her personal Crawler close behind.

The castle halls, as her Crawler measured, were thirty feet high with columns supporting the rounded roofs above and each window she passed were ten feet high and five feet wide. She was at awe of how beautiful the designs were etched into the white stones on the walls, floor and columns. The large, long, red carpets were either stitched expertly to another to connect them, or the whole thing it one huge carpet in itself.

Sadly, everything she saw weren’t in perfect condition. The stone halls were filled with gash and scorch marks, and a few crumbled pieces of wall laid around. She could only imagine what it might have looked like when every, single inch of this world be intact.

“Mm… maybe someday…” she said with a small smile and stopped. She looked down at her Crawler. “Cyan.” She said as it straightened out its stance and stared blankly ahead. “Map out the current floor and return when finished.” She spoke clearly.

The Crawler’s back opened up a small circular hatch and a crystal ball like object started flashing red at near impossible speeds. With that, it started galloping ahead without looking back. With a nod and a smile, Snowlet took out a small pen-like device from her pack and a ring of green light lighted up on the back end. She walked over to the wall to her left and pressed the sharp point, digging in to the hard wall a small bit with some difficulty. A tiny screen flared up in her helmet, spelling out the word, ‘Granit’. She pressed the pen on the floor, the columns, windows and everything else she saw, gaining different answers within her helmet.

As she passed by a slightly open door, the whining and yelps of creatures caught her attention. She looked at the door in interest and gently opened it a little more to peek inside. Her eyes widen at the sight of small, fluffy puppies crawling about, either play flight with each other or just snoozing away with others in a smile pile.

One of them spots her at her doorway and started stumbling towards her. It started yelping at her as it reached her and sniffed her feet. Snowlet opened the door a little more; crouched down and started petting the puppy with a giddy smile. “Oh, you’re so Adorable and Cute!” she baby talked, sat down on the floor, picked up the fluff ball up to her face. It started licking her cracked visor greedily as it rested its paws on it as well.

She giggled, rested the pup down onto her crossed legs and gently started caressing it. As she did, other pups noticed their new visitor and started going to her in curiosity. Snowlet noticed nearly all the puppies going towards her as she stopped petting the one in her laps. “Oh dear.” She looked around a little more to see if someone else was hear, but all she saw were open, wooden pens and a few large female dogs feeding their pups in them.

Then right ahead, she saw a large, brown and white dog come into view and stared at her with the pups sniffing, licking and pawing at her with little whines, barks and yelps to gain her attention. The dog started going towards her and slowed down as it got closer. Snowlet leaned her head back in fear as she hugged the puppy against her chest, fearing the worst from the large dog. It started sniffing her helmet, but a bark stopped it and looked back at a laying dog. It started looking through and piling pups and looked at the one pressed against her chest. It started pawing at her arm with a whine. Snowlet quickly, but gently put the pup down as it gently picked it up by the scruff by the back of its neck and started prancing back over to its fellow dog.

“Strange… Aren’t we on an alien planet?” A female voice said through her helmet’s com.

“W-what?” Snowlet said, now getting back to reality as she was being swarmed by fluffy and whining puppies.

“The dogs, why are there dog like creatures on this planet?” she said again.

“I-I don’t know.” Snowlet replied and started petting the whining puppies to calm them down.

As she looked ahead, she saw one of the aliens round a corner saying something quietly and gently with a soothing voice, but when it spotted all the puppies piling on Snowlet, it “Eeep!” and hid itself within one of the empty pens.

Snowlet just stared as she petted the puppies. The dog quickly went over and stared within the pen the alien was hiding behind. It barked and whined a few times, the alien spoke back, but then the dog went in and started pulling on its clothing, bidding it to come out, lightly growling.

“Um… hello!?” she spoke out.

The dog stopped pulling as the alien started slowly peeking out, its hands resting on the edge as it stared at her with wide, teal eyes.

“Um… uh…” Snowlet started looking around, looked down at the puppies, picked one up and held it out to the alien with a smile.

Just as the shy alien started slowly coming out of hiding, metal click-clacking on the stone floor stopped it and with a yelp, hid itself back in. Snowlet looked over her shoulders to see the lens of her Crawler looking back at her, its crystal ball like object going back in its little compartment in its body. The machine then looked down at the little creatures and started scanning the little pups with its little red scanner from its chest.

A loud screech echoed into the room and through the hall. Snowlet looked back to see a tall white alien with a horn and a fashionable clothing covering its body as it back away from her and her Crawler. Its hands rose up to its chest height and started glowing a blue aura. Snowlet’s radiation warning started flashing within her helmet. Her eyes widen and started slowly crawling behind the other closed door, but when she was fully hidden, the door was swung open, surprising her with a short scream and started shacking in fear.

“C-Commander K-Kelly…” she said to her radio with a shaky voice.

“Yes?” she heard.

“I… I’m…” she tried to say, but quickly started sending her camera feed instead.

“Keep calm, I’m coming.” Kelly assured her.

The alien shouted at her and took a step forward; its hands started glowing a little brighter. She whimpered and stumbled back as the little pups started scrambling away from her with little whimpers and yelps. Her Crawler blocked the alien’s firing range from her and its shield activated.

Just when she thought the alien was going to fire, a gunshot rang out and the stone floor near the alien’s hooves exploded. It jumped in surprise with a short scream of its own. A few more gunshots rang out as the bullets made the alien dance and back away with yelps. Snowlet’s guardian came into view as she brought out her hand for her. Snowlet took the hand as Kelly helped her up to her feet, but kept her magnum pointed at the alien.

Snowlet quickly hid herself behind her protector and both started backing away from the open doors and the white alien. As they backed away, a group of alien guards blocked there way and pointed their spears and glowing hands at them.

“Crawler.” Kelly spoke up, causing the machine to stances from being defensive to just sitting down and projected out a video from Snowlet’s point of view. It showed when she peeked into the room, petting the puppies, trying to greet the shy alien and when the white one screamed and raised its glowing hands at her.

I and Celestia quickly went through the halls when we heard the devices shoot out, followed by the voice of Rarity’s short yelps. When we arrived we saw the Royal Guards pointing their spears and hands at ready at the two visitors. I looked up to see Celestia lightly frowning in a questioning expression.

Suddenly our visitor’s companions burst through the windows and pointed their devices at our guards and us. The rest got through the halls and blocked our exits. She started pulling through the guards, much to my concern.

“What is the meaning of this?” she questioned, then nearly all of their lazar sights pointed at her.

The different dog like machine went up to her and projected out a video from the shorter one’s point of view. As it finished, I was pretty certain Rarity almost crushed our trust between our species. Just when Celestia was about to speak, a few stick figures showed up on the screen, one tall and white, while the other two short and one green while the other black. When the tall one raised a sword at the green figure, the black one raised a firearm at the attacker and the green one quickly hid itself behind it. The figures disappeared and replaced by a globe of a world and a small ship beside it. Two figures came out of the two objects and one from the planet multiplied into countless figures, while the other only managed to make a small bundle, being dwarfed by the other.

The monarch started ordering out commands to its guards as they hesitantly lowered their arms.

“Lower your guns.” SKelly spoke up and everyone of her fellow human did as commanded.

“Another close call.” Their Captain said to her com.

“Agreed.” Kelly replied and looked at Snowlet behind her, “Keep close. Our ships are going to sweep the city one more time before we get ready to go.” She said and Snowlet nodded.

When every human and alien calmed down, they all went back to what they were doing. When they were out, her Captain’s voice called out through her com, “Okay, time to get ready. Kelly, you know what to do” he said.

“Single row! Now!” she shouted and waited. All of her Peace Keepers ran into a single row and stood at attention, their firearm lowered. Kelly walked over to the far left, looked at the person and down the row, “Count Down!” she ordered and started walking along the row as they shouted out their respective number when she reached them.

When she reached the very end, she noticed the orange alien was having trouble keeping its large dog at bay as it barked and snarled at her last Keeper, but the only thing she noticed was he didn’t shout his number. She looked at him with a slight glare, “Count Down!” she ordered once more. As she waited for her team to reach the very end, the dog continued to bark at the silent man and she continued to glare at his polarized visor.

The second last sounded out, “Fifty!” with a feminine voice.

Kelly’s glare hardened, “What is the meaning of this, privet!?” she barked. He knocked on his helmet and shrugged.

“Um… Commander?” She looked at Snowlet a few paces away from her, her Crawler projecting out a small screen in front of her, “The Captain only sent out fifty Keepers.” She said with a nervous tone.

She looked back at the short man, “Captain… is she correct?” she narrowed her eyes at the man.

“Ye-” before he could answered properly, she launched her right fist skyward, the Keeper’s body following along and landed down in a heap. His body started flickering with static and flicked off completely to reveal a flier, bleeding out its green blood from its broken mouth. As it started getting up on its hands and knees and flutter its four wings, Kelly sprinted and kicked it from the side of its head, once again, sending it down on the dry ground a few feet away.

Kelly cracked her knuckled and turned away from the unconscious bug, “That’s new.” She muttered to herself as the dog stopped barking and started wagging her tail at her, its tongue hanging out happily, “Captain, send down heavy duty container. We got ourselves a specimen.” She said stood back in front of her fellow humans.

“Noted.” He replied.

“Four Rows!” she shouted out as the drop ships started hovering back over to the courtyard.

Twilight was lost for words. She thought Winona was just acting up on their visitors, but just out of nowhere, their leader threw a punch at one of the changelings impersonating one of them. She guessed their leader suspected something was out of place. When she saw their flying ships getting closer and their leader shouting out orders, she feared they were getting ready to go back to their space ship.

“Pri… Celestia, what are we going to do?” she asked fearfully and looked up at her former teacher.

Celestia clears her throat, gaining the visitor’s attention. It then looked at a ship landing down and the first row started going into the open hatch. It reached up to its helmet and spoke. A moment later, all ten mechanical dogs lined up in a single row. A cyan striped machine went beside Celestia and projected out a blank screen in front of them. One by one, little red lights turned on the machines’ backs and produced a live feed on the once blank screen.

The armored visitor snaps her fingers and gave out order to the machines. After it spoke, two on the sides split to the sides and rest started galloping out the gates. As they did, they all noticed their bodies started disappearing, turning invisible right before their eyes.

When all of their visitors went into their four ships and flew off, that remained two. The short alien and her protector. Celestia and Twilight were a little confused to why they were left behind, but the sound of erupting engines right above them caught their attention. As they looked up, they saw a cloaked, smaller ship slowly descending down. With a gust of wind, they covered their eyes from the wall of dust. They looked up once the air around them calmed down, and looked in awe at the small ship opening up a little stairway for their visitors and the whole object became visible. They looked at the windshield, expecting a visitor to be driving the small ship, but no one could see the alien pilot, just an empty cockpit.

Celestia looked at their mechanical armed visitor as it strolled over to the still unconscious changeling, grabbed its hind leg and started dragging it closer to its ship and its charge. It dropped its leg as they all heard erupting engines above.

As another ship started its slow descend, Celestia started walking over to the couple, Twilight scurried up in her tow. The short one looked up at her and tapped her guardian on the shoulder. It looked back at its charge, then up at Celesita and Twilight. Celestia drew out her hand with a gentle smile.

Kelly looked at the alien’s hand for a second before she shook it, her hand nearly engulfed by the other, as it spoke to her kindly.

When the ramp touched down with a locking sound, Kelly turned away from the monarch and walked over to unconscious bug, grabbed its arm and started dragging it over to ship as a heavy looking, metal crate opened up, two Keepers standing by its side within the ship. She tossed the body in the crate with a thud and nodded to her Privets. They both saluted as the crate closed itself up and locked, a small green light lighting up with a ‘Beep!’.

She walked back out and reached up to her helmet, staring at the ship as it closed up. “Package is secure. Taker ‘er home.”

The engines erupted once more; the aliens around the area covered their faces as a wall of dust was thrown up by the rising ship.

Kelly walked back over to the small drop ship and nodded at her charge. Snowlet nodded back and quickly walked in and took her place at the co-pilot’s seat. Kelly looked at the monarch and the purple alien; nodded once and walked herself in the ship. When she seated herself, the small hatch closed itself with an audible hiss.

She held of the joysticks and slowly rose the ship into the air, circled the alien city once, spotting the aliens waving away before she rocketed into the sky. “Entering orbit, Child of Earth. ETA five minutes.” She spoke as the whole ship rattled and gravity working against her and her charge.

“Acknowledged. We’ll see you home, Commander.” A feminine voice spoke back.

Celestia silently walked through the halls of her once, scratch free castle. Accompanying her was a small, mechanical dog; each step it took made metallic clicks on the stone floor. She looked down at her little companion, bringing a sly smile to her face as it reminded her of little Twilight when she was young; always clingy.

She came up to a pair of double doors, painted in black, purple, blue and navy blue in decorative patterns to indicate her sisters beautiful night. She smiled and just when she was about to run her hand across the surface, her little friend’s head lighted up with lazars, quickly followed by a flash of light.

She looked at her little friend and saw it looking at the double doors with interest. She lightly giggled and waited for it to finish.

A moment later, she opened the door and walked in the dim room and walked over to the circular bed that held a resting mare. Celestia slowly sat down beside the body, “How are you feeling, sister?” she asked.

“Are thou serious, dear sister?” Luna brought up a hand and covered her forehead with a light groan.

“Mm… I see…” she said, as the sound of clicking entered the room.

Luna opened her eyes in surprise and stated looking around, only to find her empty room, “Show yourself!” she called out.

“Luna, calmed down.” Celestia gently pushed her back down with a motherly voice. “It’s nothing to be afraid of… we had visitors today.” She smiled at her sister’s confused look.

“Are these ‘visitors’ the cause of the explosion?” Luna said as she continued to look around her room. “Where is it?”

“Yes, Luna. They caused the explosion, savings us from the Changelings that were quite ready to invade the castle.” Celestia looked back down at the floor and saw her friend just looking at her, “They all went back to their home, but they left these little dog like machines to keep an eye on the city.” She scooted out of the way and gestured to it with a small smile.

Luna pulled herself closer to the edge and froze as she looked at the eyeglass of the machine. Its lenses adjusted itself and leaned its head closer to her. After a moment of intense staring, the machine looked away from her and started exploring her room, looking at all the items with great interest.

“These little machines they created were used to communicate between our ponies and the visitors. The visitors are fairly short, but their technological skills on making machines is phenomenal, to say the least. And… I think… they’re looking for a new home to live in, judging by their vast spaceship that’s floating in the sky at the moment.”

“Really!? Is it there now!?” Luna asked excitedly with a big smile.

“Yes, but-” Celestia answered with a hint of concern.

“No ‘but’, dear sister. I like to see it.” Luna pulled off her blanket to reveal her whole body wrapped in bandages, only revealing small patches of fur that stuck out and no clothing to cover her body with.

“Luna, please. You’re in no condition to be moving right now.” Celestia pleaded.

“Tia, please, just single look. Single look and we will never ask, thou again.” She squeezed her hand with begging eyes.

Celestia looked down at her lap for a few moments before she slowly nodded, “Okay, b-but please, slowly.” She got up to her hooves and hold onto Luna’s hand for support. Luna smiled gratefully at her and slowly inched over to the edge of her bed. She drew out her hooves and gently set them down onto her floor for the first time in months. She slowly unfurled her wings as well, but her flight feathers were nothing more then burnt little stubs. What remained of her tail was wrapped in bandages as she sat on her bed.

With the help of Celestia’s magic, she slowly rose on her own two hooves with a small whimper and a wince. As she stood, her smile alone was endangering to split her head in half.

“We… I…” Luna’s eyes developed little drops of tears with a single sniffle.

Celestia leaned in and nuzzled her nose lovingly, “You’re getting there, sister. Now, slowly, let’s go over to your balcony.” Celestia took a step back, while Luna took a slow step forward with a happy chuckle. As they continued, Celestia noticed her little friend was following them from right behind Luna.

When they reached the closed, glass doors, Celestia slowly opened them up with a nudge of her wings, a light breeze starting to come in. Luna basked in the cool air, her aches and pains slowly melting away from her. As they got out, they saw the sun was halfway submerged in the horizon.

“Where is it, sister?” Luna asked as she started looking at the sky with searching eyes.

Celestia pointed, “Right there, Luna. Right above the clouds.” She answered with a raised arm.

The Captain watched in amusement at the alien monarch and its darker, bandaged counterpart in his office. The smile and look of awe on the bandaged alien was enough to bring a smile on his aged face. It was strange how everything on that world was similar to their own world; animals, the architectures, and etcetera. That’s something they’re going to try and find out if the alien’s leader was okay with his kind living here as well.

When he looked back at the monitor, he jumped in surprise to see the bandaged alien’s face took up to whole screen, staring at the camera curiously. He sighed with a chuckle. “I hope I can convince them to let us stay.” He said to himself and leaned back on his chair, continuing to watch the alien’s, adorable curiosity of their Crawler. He then looked down at Kelly’s broken helmet and ran a thumb across the cracked visor with a sigh, “Stay safe, my little angel…” he whispered and looked back at the screen to witness the two aliens hugging one another.