Equestrian Odyssey: Rise of the Sleepers

by Dracofalcon

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Princess Luna, Changelings, Original Character, Queen Chrysalis, Adventure, Crossover, Human, Main 6
Length: 20775

A small capsuleer fleet accidentally unleashes an ancient evil upon Equestria when they crash land and their cargo is scattered across Equestria. (EVE Online Crossover)

Drake, Cinder, and Flint are long time comrades in the business of dealing with wormholes, and the threats within. After a successful operation their ships are wrecked and crash into Equestria after an explosion causes a separate wormhole to destabilize and collapse on them. Their once mighty ships are mostly wrecked, and the cargo they were hauling is scattered across Equestria, and an ancient evil they had thought to be merely a profit is released from its captivity and is now determined to rebuild its lost race, and destroy anything who gets in the way of its revenge. Meanwhile, Jack, the substitute mercenary the small corporation had employed appears to have other motives, and ponies and capsuleers alike begin to question if he can be trusted. (EVE Online Crossover)

Published 2013-11-18 14:40:02 UTC
Last updated 2014-07-29 23:19:27 UTC

Prologue

Some time after earth discovered warp travel a wormhole was discovered by humanity. A gate was constructed around it to stabilize it. This gate was known as the EVE Gate. The gate led to another universe, New Eden. During the time it was open the greatest colonization effort in the history of humanity was started. Billions upon billions of dollars and manpower were pooled into the project. Man was unstoppable and millions of worlds were terraformed and colonized until one fateful day when the gate collapsed. Without direct support from Earth most of the colonies died. But a few survived and slowly rebuilt.

Many centuries later mankind again found the ability to reach out and touch the stars. Four races the Amarr, the Gallente, the Caldari, and the Minmatar, rose to meet the spacescape they had looked up at in wonder since they were born.

The Amarr are a religious race, conquering and enslaving in the name of their god. Early on they attempted to enslave the Minmatar and add them to their large slave labor force. They are allied with the Caldari against the other two races and are one of the few militaries to have fought the Jove.

The Caldari are run by series of supercorprations who all vie for control, respect, fear, and power on the board that runs the race. They are allied with the Amarr and fought the Gallente early on as the two planets the races inhabited were in the same system and they both rose to the stars at approximately the same time.

The Gallente are a democratic society and are slow to act, quarreling amongst themselves for long periods before acting. They are allied with the Minmatar to further freedom and democracy along with the fight against slavery, and have been fighting the Caldari for centuries.

The Minmatar were thought of as weak and unworthy by the Amarr and much of their race was enslaved by them early on. After the Gallente helped them in a fight against the Amarr they began to build their country larger, they are run by a council of elders, and were the last to get capsuleer technology from their Gallentean allies.

The capsuleers are a product of the four empires and drift farther from them every day. The Caldari were the first capsuleers when they were granted a capsule by the mysterious Jove. Soon after all of the empires had their own capsuleers. The empires expected capsuleers to be their greatest force in the wars, and it was extremely unexpected when it was found that many of the capsuleers had decided to join pirate gangs, and form corporations and alliances of their own. Not many still help the empires and for every capsuleer that helps his empire there are at least four others who care nothing for the empires and only help the empires when large amounts of money is involved. These jobs they take up usually involve a high amount of risk as capsuleers are immortal. As soon as one dies they'll wake back up again in a fresh clone of themselves. Most of them have formed up into their own corporations and small bands of brothers. But many still go it alone, and at the end of the day the thing that matters most to them is how much money they have, and how much money their neighboring pilots have, and some capsuleers will stab anyone in the back to get what they want...

Author's Note

So kind of a short chapter, i mainly wrote it as a prologue to explain some things to readers that don't know what EVE is, and are unaware of the extreme amounts of betrayal that goes on in the game. Also, prereaders wanted!

Chapter 1

The wormhole flashed a few times and a Proteus, a Manticore, and a Hurricane flashed into existence.

"All clear!" Shouted Drake over the fleet coms from his Proteus.

"Alright, I'm coming through," The coms marked the gruff voice as belonging to Flint, seconds later the wormhole flashed again and an Iteron-class cargo hauling ship flashed in.

This small fleet belonged to a small wormhole based capsuleer corporation. Drake was the fleet commander and CEO of the corporation, he piloted a Proteus, a ship designed to outperform and outgun everything. Cinder was piloting a Manticore, it was smaller than Drake's Proteus but could cloak and fired battleship-grade torpedoes. Teyreon piloted the Hurricane, he had recently joined the corporation and was a somewhat new capsuleer, having only just recently graduating from an academy and joining the immortal pilots. With Flint in the Iterons rigged drop bay was Jack.

Jack was a ground based merc-for-hire. It had recently been discovered that the ancient sleeper race had colonized planets, as well as space, and left many valuable relics and technologies on them, the same technologies that Drake's ship had been reversed engineered from. He and Drake were one of the few capsuleers to have modified neural interfaces that allowed them to pilot ships and the new versions of the already terrifyingly powerful mercenary drop suits.

Normally Drake would raid the sleeper complexes on the ground and in the air but he had recently been shot in the leg by a sleeper drone that he had let get too close, instead of choosing to wake up in a new clone or let a medical bot repair his leg he had decided to let it heal naturally, a reminder to do better he said.

"I'll check that exit wormhole into null sec for you guys," Cinder's ship suddenly vanished and seconds later a very dim warp drive signature flashed off of the fleet's scanners. A short time later there was a reply through coms "Apocalypse class battleship at the wormhole, he looks like he's all alone," Cinder said in a voice much too happy for any normal person that was suggesting murder.

"He might be bigger than us but with this many ships this should be an easy kill. Who's up for a bit of fun?" Drake asked after thinking a few seconds.

"Hell yeah!" Replied Teyreon, his ship spinning around to align for a warp, as the rest of the ships followed suit except for Flint's, which wasn't equipped for combat and probably would've been sliced to pieces by the battleship's giant lasers in mere seconds.

Teyreon's Hurricane pops in and targets the giant ship, "I've got tackle!" He shouts as his ship begins to activate particle modules that slowed the battleship and kept it from warping away.

"I'm uncloaking," Cinder announced as 3 giant torpedoes sped by Drake's ship as it appeared from warp, instantly firing upon the battleship. Slowly the lumbering battleship turned about, so that its side faced Teyreon and began firing off multiple lasers, inflicting tons of damage upon the Hurricane, but under the combined fire of the three ships its not long before Drake announced,

"Apocalypse at fifty percent armor. Flint, align your Iteron to me and have the salvage drones prepped!"

"We may have a problem," said Teyreon, "my armor just failed and my structure is taking damage. I may be rejoining you guys shortly in a capsule here soon," There was not a hint of fear in his voice, as if death was a thing he went through everyday. The group knew that if he did die he'd simply wake up in a new clone, ready to kill again.

"Don't worry about it," Drake replied "We'll get this bastard for you," Seconds later a large flash fills Drake's peripheral vision as the Hurricane explodes and Teyreon's pod jumped off through the wormhole. Even after Teyreon had been removed from battle the Apocalypse didn't turn to target Drake and instead turned towards the wormhole, with smoke pouring out of its sides where barrages of missiles, bullets, and hybrid charges had hit.

"He's getting away!" Cinder yells as she switches her Manticore to full throttle towards the Apocalypse. Drake's Proteus releases volley after volley of void charges, impacting the sides of the Apocalypse.

“His structure is at thirty percent!” Drake shouts, the crippled battleship slowly getting closer to the wormhole.

“Only two more volleys of torpedoes left before the ten second reload,” Cinder says over coms, “Its going to be close!” As soon as she says it Flints Iteron pops into view.

“Shit!” Flint yells as he slowly turns his ship back around, attempting to align to a planet in the wormhole system, “I figured you guys would be done by now based on that info on structure,”

“You don't have to go anywhere,” Cinder replied cockily as the last salvo of torpedoes fires off towards the battleship, now right at the wormhole. Drake's ship turns about, only ten meters from the battleship, to fire its last few charges. The battleship entered the wormhole as Cinder's missiles streak by Drake, slamming into the Apocalypse which was half-in, half-out, of the wormhole. Suddenly, in a bright cascade of blue light the battleship exploded as Drake's last volley suddenly hit the cargo section of the Apocalypse, which was located right inside the wormhole, existing in multiple places at once due to wormhole distortion. Suddenly a giant multicolored light filled the area surrounding the wormhole, an explosion of epic proportions, battering the Proteus down through parts of its armor, and tearing through the Iterons structure, leaving the ship in several pieces.

“What the hell was that!” Cinder demanded, continuing her flight towards Drake and gunning it towards the expanding wormhole.

“I have no idea!” replied Drake with panic in his voice “the wormhole is pulling me in and my engines are out! I'm not getting any readings from Flint or Jack.”

“I'm headed towards the wreck!” called Cinder, her small Manticore going at full speed towards Drake's ship.

“Wait! I-” Drakes voice was cut off as a third explosion went off inside the wormhole as it expanded out and sucked the wrecks of the Iteron and Apocalypse through, followed by Drake's battered ship. Cinder gave the neural commands for the Manticore's engines to stop, but it kept hurtling forward. The ships electronics were knocked offline when the shockwave hit. Cinders vision started to fade, and she could barely see the now sickly colored wormhole, pulling her in. Suddenly she felt the ship shudder, realizing that no electronics meant no shield, the ships primary means of defense. She blacked out as soon as her ship crossed the event horizon, while somewhere in Equestria a certain princess of the moon noticed something off about her night sky, but soon forgot about it to continue on with the Nightmare Night celebrations that were taking place, oblivious to a new threat more dangerous to Equestria than a few capsuleers, one that she would soon have to face.

Author's Note

So here it is! Chapter one, i plan on introducing characters a bit more in the next chapter and bringing in ponies which i'm pretty sure is what most of you came here for, so you might as well have it :P Also, i still need a prereader to catch me on little flaws and to help keep me from going overboard with certain elements.

ReWrite: Not much changed here, just a bit of cleaning up and some extra flavor.

Chapter 2

Luna looked up at the rain clouds gathered in the sky over Ponyville. Apparently the pegasi had been putting off this storm for some time so that the nightmare night festival could be set up, and had not expected her to show up. In fact, she doubted that they even knew she would be coming again this year. Luna was hoping to get to Sugarcube Corner before the rain started, as that was where she had heard her two recently returned from stone shadowbolts had gone. As she reached the square that Sugarcube Corner was located in Rainbow Dash zipped down through the cloud cover and landed next to her, “Hey princess!” She shouted, with quite a bit more energy than Luna had. “Where are you headed to? I thought you wwent back to Canterlot!”

“I would be, but the wings of bat-ponies stick to water, and I doubt leaving them here would be a good idea.” Princess Luna replied, still a bit tired from last nights festivities.

“Ha!” Rainbow scoffed “If your guards were like me you could have been to Canterlot and back like twenty times by now!”

“Maybe so,” Princess Luna replied “But I doubt you would match them in anything but in your speed,” as she said this the pair entered Sugarcube corner where two giant bat ponies sat at a table. Both were wearing giant pieces of plate-mail armor, certain pieces of which seemed to shimmer blueish purple on their own. Each also had two wingblades that looked like they could slice anypony clean through in seconds. The pair was also equipped with two giant claw gauntlets with retractable blades on the wrist section, the claws themselves mimicked griffins or dragons hands where their hooves were. This was not the most surprising part of the scene because even as imposing and threatening the guards looked, Pinkie Pie was still sitting there, with multiple sweets talking the pairs ears off. As Luna and Rainbow Dash walked up they could hear Pinkie continuing on with what seemed like an endless stream of nonsense,

“...andthenlunawasalllikeRAWRandwewerealllikeAHHHandshewasalllikeohnotheydontlikemeandthenTwilightwalkedupandwasalllikeohnoesnobodylikeslunaMAGICandthenBAMeverbodylovedherandwehadagreatnightandtherewascandyandpranksandcoolcostumesand-”

“Hey, uh, Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash said, “What are you doing?”

“Sorry Dash!, I was just telling the princesses friends what happened last night after they left!” Pinkie explained and smiled. She was about to continue when Luna cut her off,

“Sargent Frostwing, report!” she commanded. The larger of the pair looked up at her slowly and with a pained expression in his face,

“Ma’am,” he paused, “Hangovers suck,” at this his compatriot closed his eyes and slowly rested his head on the table, wincing at the noise the armor made as he shifted his body.

“At least we made the first night back a memorable one,” he said.

“Like I was saying early princess,” Rainbow glanced over at the two shadowbolts, “I think that I or some other pegasus would be way better than these two,” Rainbow Dash boasted, puffing her chest out a bit and completely ignoring the fact that the two hungover bat ponies could hear her.

“I highly you doubt you could win against either one of them,” Luna replied, “Seargent Frostwing and lieutenant Hawk protected me before Nightmare Moon, and while they did not help me during my rebellion they requested to be turned to stone to await my return when I was banished. With this being their first night officially off-duty it would be odd of them to have not enjoyed the night.”

“So that makes them old, useless in the rain, and slow now?” Rainbow Dash asked, oblivious to Hawk, being the less hungover of the pair, approaching her from behind and planning on at least getting Rainbow Dash to shut up. “Besides,” Rainbow continued, “I’d bet that bat ponies are awful for fun stuff, like pranks!” as soon as she finished her sentence she noticed the smirk on Luna's face and looked back to see one of Pinkies freshly made cakes flying at her from across the room at top speed. The cake hit her with an audible splat! and she took a second to recover from the speed of the cake before cleaning her face off and noticing Hawk across the room nearly dying from laughter at her embarrassed expression, she then realized that Pinkie Pie was also laughing, saying,

“So much for not being able to do fun things!” she then bounced up to Rainbow Dash, “We should throw a giant party for them! I'm sure they could use one after being locked up for like forever!!”

“As long as there’s no more alcohol,” Frostwing moaned from his table, while pinkie pie was explaining to Frostwing and Hawk how parties had changed over the years Princess Luna pulled Rainbow Dash to the side and said, “Do not insult my guards again, while they may take your insults and antics in good fun I do not. Regardless of their own behavior you should remember your place when speaking of other ponies.” at that she then smiled and continued “another bit of advice that you would be best to follow, flying cakes are usually best avoided,” at this Luna chuckled to herself, while she did not like taking authority around ponies she considered her friends, she was most definitely not a fan of Rainbow's pride. Rainbow sat there awkwardly, realizing that she had just been hit with a cake AND told off by a princess in under two minutes, she then stood up and, trying to forget the incident joined Pinkie Pie in her conversation.

While all of this was going on Twilight Sparkle was frantically running around her library, gathering notes and equations from the night before. While she had enjoyed the Nightmare Night celebration she had retired early due to an entirely new constellation in the sky. She had not been able to find princess Luna and as such had ended up studying it all night, until the pegasi had blocked her view with their storm, after that had happened she had decided based on her notes that the new constellation was in fact not a constellation, but a cluster of meteors or asteroids that had been caught in the gravitational pull of the planet.

“Spike! Where are my waterproof saddlebags! I can't let all of this paper get wet!" She yelled across the library.

"Over here Twilight!" Spike shouted, rounding a corner and almost bumping right into her.

"Thanks Spike," Twilight said. "I have to get these notes to Princess Luna," she then turned and looked at the giant mess of papers and realized that none of them were even remotely organized.

"Oh no!" Twilight said, "which notes should I take her!?"

"Just take all of them Twilight," Spike said, "there's no time to sit here and organize them all!" At that he grabbed them all up in his arms and started stuffing them into Twilight's bags, as soon as he was done she said,

"Look after the Library while I'm gone, hopefully Princess Luna will be able to stop the meteors," at that she burst out the door towards Ponyville's small inn that Luna had stayed at last night.

A few minutes after Pinkie Pie brought up the idea of a party to Hawk and Frostwing a soaking wet red pegasus mare with a green mane busted into the room and walked up to Rainbow Dash and spoke, “The storm is dying down and we could use your help clearing the rest of it up, there are a lot of extra clouds from the two storms we missed during preparation for Nightmare Night and the weather team may have trouble getting rid of them all in time,” as soon as Rainbow was about to reply Twilight ran in and saw Luna,

"Princess Luna! Equestria is in danger!" Shouts Twilight as she bursts in, after she stopped to catch her breath from running she continued, "there are several meteors headed towards Equestria, at first I thought it was a new constellation, but when I looked closer through my telescope and did some math, I realized I was wrong! I got here as soon as I was sure of it, I even brought my notes in case you needed their help to stop the meteors!"

"Twilight, one does not simply stop a meteor," said Luna, "the only thing I can do is attempt to alter the course of one or two of them away from populated areas, after that the most we could do is try to get ponies out of harms way,"

"But you raise the moon every day!"Twilight protested.

"Twilight, the moon is different" Luna explained "I have direct control over it, but that doesn't mean that I have power over everything in space,”

"Guys stop debating!" Pinkie shouted, "what we need to do is start panicking!" At that she ran out the door screaming crazy gibberish about meteors to anypony she saw as they were coming out of their houses after the rain.

"Pinkie is great at getting news around," Rainbow Dash said, "but I doubt she'll get to everypony,"

"Our weather team is still in the air!" The other Pegasus said. At that Rainbow Dash's eyes widened and she bolted out the door, nearly blowing it off its hinges, the red pegasus in tow.

"We'll stick with Luna and keep ponies away from her while she tries to slow some of the meteors down," Frostwing said, quickly taking control of himself and looking at Hawk, hoping the news would be just as sobering for his compatriot.

"I'll get spike to send a letter to Celestia and get the rest of the girls in case we need their help!" Twilight said. At that she ran off, Luna and the two shadowbolts running off through town towards the spot that Twilight had predicted the meteors would fall.

Drake woke up to a klaxon ringing through his ship and the hull shuddering. He disconnected his suit from the ship. Unlike most capsuleers Drake's suit plugged into the ship and acted as his capsule in flight. He walked over to the console on the bridge of his ship and removed his helmet and set it on an empty spot on the giant console. He was a middle-aged capsuleer with somewhat grown out black hair and a goatee. He was lucky that the bridge was relatively untouched by the fire and many hull breaches in the right side hull of his ship. He turned to a central looking monitor on the console and barked,

"Aura! Ship status and weapons check!"

***Status report for AI construct 'AURA'***
- AI OFFLINE, BACKING UP TO BASIC SHIP COMPUTER

Drake promptly retyped his request to the machine and waited for its response, not enjoying the extra time that the computer was taking, if Aura had been online things would have been much simpler.

***Status report for ship ''Dragonstar***
- LOCATION, UNKNOWN
- OUT OF RANGE OF CLONE

REANIMATION UNIT,

EXTREME CAUTION IS

ADVISED
- ENGINES, OFFLINE
- VARIOUS HULL BREACHES

IN RIGHT-SIDE DECKS
- SHIELD GENERATOR OFFLINE
- DROP BAY MODULE - OFFLINE

"Well shit," Drake muttered, he sat there for a second or two and though over his options and then typed

extra information on SGU

***SHIELD GENERATOR***
MANUAL REBOOT REQUIRED
MODULE CHAMBER HULL IS
COMPROMISED AND VENTING
INTO SPACE, SELF SERVICING
THE MODULE IS UNADVISED

Drake sat for a moment and considered his options, without a place to equip his armor repair module his ships main defense was quite literally, trash. When the computer blipped out the words

***20 Minutes to impact***

"WHAT!?!?"Drake shouted, and checked a monitor to the side of the main one. On it was a displayed crash course into a planet, one that slowly spun into view as his ship continued to slowly spin through space. Through the narrow opening Drake could see mountains, clouds, rivers and very little ocean. Near the ship were several parts of the Iteron, which had neatly snapped at its various compartmentalized sections, a few of them smashed open, spewing precious cargo, the loot from Drake's past few months of work. Looking back at the monitors he continued typing

information on planetary conditions

***DISPLAYING PLANETARY CONDITIONS***
ATMOSPHERE - BREATHABLE
HABITATION - UNKNOWN, HOWEVER THERE
ARE SEVERAL DETECTED SPECIES ON THE
SURFACE.
SUGGESTION - ATMOSPHERE CONTAINS
OXYGEN AND WILL REACT HAZARDOUSLY
WITH CERTAIN COMPONENTS OF THE
HULL, SHIELDS ARE A REQUIREMENT FOR
SURVIVAL

"Well I guess I know where I'm headed," Drake said to himself as he donned his helmet and headed for the equipment deck.

Cinder 'sat' in her capsule, not wanting to exit it as the small stealth bomber had a very small cockpit, most of which was taken up by a small supply chest, her capsule, and the one small console for the door and the one main pilots console, she doubted she could sit comfortably anywhere in the ship even if she wanted to. Besides, she could control everything in the ship from her capsule with ease.

“With current velocity and angles the remaining fleet ships will impact with the planet below us in 20 minutes,” said Aura, the basic AI included in all capsuleer ships, “All systems except for our cloaking module and nanite repair paste dispensers are working at 100% and our current system is unknown. I cannot detect any clone reanimation units within range, please proceed with extreme caution,” as Aura said this Cinder received data from the ships sensors, the planet below had a temperate climate, and was suitable for capsuleers to breathe. She then performed a scan for her fleet members. A few moments later Aura reported, “The Iteron belonging to capsuleer 'Flint' appears to be in exactly two hundred and thirty seven pieces, six of which are quite large and may still hold something of value, there is a thirty percent chance that crew member 'Jack' lived and a two percent chance that any of the ships pilots body remains. The AI unit on fleet ship 'Dragonstar' is not responding, would you like me to hail its captain over a com system?”

“Yes,” Cinder replied considering the options she had if she really was the only one who had survived, a few seconds later the AI responded, having processed her request.

“Attempting to hail capsuleer 'Drake',” Aura replied in her mechanical voice. A few moments later Drake's voice was transmitted to Cinder's auditory cortex by her capsule.

“I really hope you have something useful to say, because I’m kind of busy right now,” Drake said, there was an audible mechanical noise in the background which Cinder realized would have to be quite loud to get through his helmet.

“The matter you are busy with is irrelevant. Your ship is on a collision course with the planet below, if you do not change your heading you will die,” Cinder replied over the speaker, her voice almost as monotone as her AI's.

“I appreciate the concern,” Drake replied with a chuckle, quite used to the black and white emotionless mentality that she used when in danger or a combat situation, “but I am aware of the situation, my engines are dead and my shield generator is down, I am currently en route to the shield generation unit to bring the shield back online. A lot of the hull down here was compromised by the explosion and a lot of the atmosphere has been vented. This armor isn’t the best thing to try to make slow movements in, I’ve almost flown out in to space twice now, and this debris isn’t helping,”

“You should be attempting to restore power to your engines, not your shields,” Cinder replied, coldy calculating the situation, becoming more mechanical as she did during situations like this, “I doubt your shields will save your ship from the impact with the planet,”

“The amount of repairs required to the engines is too much to consider with my limited time, all I have to do to get the shields back up is replace a few cables and fix some plating,” Drake explained, “Besides, half my ships armor is gone and half of the metals in my hull is explosive when in contact with oxygen, without the armor or shields to keep them away from that I doubt I would live long even if I could land,”

“Noted, what do you propose we do about Jack and Teyreon?” Cinder asked,

“I doubt they lived,” Said Drake, and if they did I doubt they'll survive an impact with the planet,” there was a hint of sadness in his voice, but they both knew that the two would wake up in fresh clones later. A second later he continued on, “at this point we should attempt to save ourselves, what is your ships status?”

“My ship is functioning at full capacity not accounting for the cloaking device and nanopaste application modules,” Cinder replied “I was out of range of all the explosions except for the last one.” Drake did not reply, but when she focused her cameras on his ship she saw a blue shimmering outline begin to grow around it, slowly getting brighter. Knowing that Drake's suit could not broadcast through shields she waited for him to re-attach his armors neural interface units to the ships bridge. A few moments later his voice came back over the coms,

“My shields are back up, attempt to land your Manticore as close as possible to the crash site of my ship, I’m going to power everything unneeded off and send power to shields and the few maneuvering thrusters on the bottom and sides of my ship to attempt to save myself and maybe some parts of the ship, Drake out,”

“Copy,” was the only thing Cinder said.

With that said his voice was gone and she could see the shields flash brightly as they received extra power as the lights along the side of his ship went out and the hybrid guns folded themselves up, the only remaining light coming from the running lights on the nose, tail, and bridge of his ship. All she had left to do was sit, and wait for her ship to reach the atmosphere as she followed the flung cloud of wreckage and ship parts on its path towards the planet.

Applejack, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Spike all sat in a semicircle behind princess Luna, Her shadowbolts standing on either side of her. Fluttershy hid behind Rainbow Dash, and kept taking furtive glances at the two large bat-ponies. The group had only recently arrived, as Rainbow Dash had gathered up her whole weather team and cleared the sky by herself, which had taken some time. The group tried its best to remain quiet so that Princess Luna could more easily focus her magic on the meteors. The plan was to simply move them away from Ponyville and the surrounding populated area, there was nothing else that could be done due to the asteroids size, Luna had said that if they had been any bigger that even if she had moved them away horrible things would have happened. After they had been sitting for about two minutes Applejack spoke up,

"Ah don't get it," she said in her southern drawl, "Twilights always lookin' up at the sky, how come she only noticed 'em last night?"

"Well she was really busy with her costume," Spike said, not taking his eyes off the sky, hoping to catch a glimpse of one of the giant rocks that Twilight had predicted would fall near Ponyville, and in several other places. "Its not like she just sits there and-" Spike was cut off by a dull *boom* as the supposed meteors broke through the atmosphere. As soon as this happened Luna stood up, and looked towards the meteors, her guards taking a few steps back in what could be interpreted as either respect, or fear. A few seconds later the wind picked up around Luna, even her astral mane being moved slightly by the conjured winds. She closed her eyes and slowly started to rise up above the ground. Suddenly her eyes shot open, glowing a brilliant white and magic flew from the tips of her outstretched wings. She turned her head up towards the falling objects, her face expressionless and her whole body enveloped in blue. The power she was commanding was immense, tapping off of reserves of magical energy saved for millennium. Suddenly, one of the meteors changed its direction of travel, slowing and heading for the Everfree forest as it started to crumble from magic and atmospheric resistance, slightly shimmering in Luna's magic. If meteors were living things, Twilight sparkle pitied them.

Drake's eyes were essentially, blind. The only things he could see out of his half opened eyes was the slit of a window on the bridge which was located on left side of the ship. His mind however could see many things, a topographical map of the land below, shields, speed, etc. He had found a relatively deep canyon, he figured that he could use the shields on the Proteus to scrape down the sides of the canyon and slow his fall, instead of just hitting the ground head-on and breaking the shields and the ship in half. So far the descent was going well, or at least as well as a crash landing could go. He had one thousand two hundred and twenty kilometers between him and the planet surface, and his ship was going almost thirteen and a half kilometers a second, terrifying speeds even for a capsuleer. He sat there, using almost more than his brain had to handle the ship and avoid the larger chunks of broken hauler and battleship, attempting to use winds and turbulence to slow him down a little, Cinder was still far behind him according to his scanners, taking the descent slowly, but still faster than normal speeds were for her smaller ship. Suddenly his ship started being pushed east, and his scanners were informing him that his shield was experiencing an odd form of radiation, but because so many of the scanners that had been working were shut off he could not detect any more than that. He made some minor course corrections and ignored the strange readings. Hopefully there would be time to find what it was later. Hopefully.

Luna had moved on to the fourth meteor she had detected with her magic and started the same basic set of spells that she had performed on three others. However, this meteor was different, when she attempted to push it away it almost immediately returned to where it had been, maintaining its course no matter how far or how hard she pushed it, after repeating this pattern a few times to see if it may have been the wind she decided to just focus her magic on the other meteors and bits of rock. By the time she was done she had depleted many of her huge magic reserves. Moving objects as large as they had been would have been impossible for any normal pony and she had very little magic left to use before she began to harm herself. She paused for a second and tried to decide the best she could do with the little magic she had left. She was about to start her spells up again when both of the shadowbolts shifted nervously and she noticed that a somewhat large stray bit of meteor had not been moved, and was headed straight for the group. Luna immediately began attempting to push the stray bit of rock away, but it was going too fast for her to do anything with her limited magic. Realizing what was going on both shadowbolts armor began to glow a dull blue as magic was visibly drawn from the crystals embedded in certain parts of the armor. Both shadowbolts then shot off, blue cones of light begining to form around them almost like when Rainbow Dash would perform a Sonic Rainboom. Noticing this Luna began to feed magic to the shadowbolt armor, and continued focusing just enough magic on the meteor to let the shadowbolts reach their top speed before reaching it, hoping that the last two sets of her special units armor would work, and that Frostwing and Hawk would be okay. Suddenly the familiar noise of the sound barrier being broken was heard, and a few seconds later the asteroid exploded as the two shadowbolts punched through it, shattering the left half of the oddly shaped rock, but only doing minor damage to the other. As the asteroid grew nearer the shadowbolts landed and the group saw the strange blue-green sheen that the smaller falling object had to it. As they watched the whole thing split into several pieces and a small green object burst out and shot off towards Ponyville, away from where the asteroids were supposed to impact in the open plains and fields. As this happened the realization that these "meteors" could be something completely different. Just then the larger meteors began to impact the ground in the distance, letting off multiple large explosions as the ground began to shake. Everypony took cover at this, and hoped that Luna had done enough, and that nopony else got hurt.

Author's Note

No turning back now, pre-readers still needed.

ReWrite: Combined chapters here as they were much to short for my liking after the rewrite, i know that this part of the rewrite is minor but the next chapter should have a considerable amount of new content and story, hopefully there will be no more rewrites after this.

Chapter 3

Jack awoke with a start. He was in a lush, green field full of trees, a view much nicer than what he had expected from a crash site. He remembered the explosion at the wormhole and waking up to falling, finding that the compartmentalization of the Iteron had saved him and his gear, along with his drop pod. He also remembered abandoning ship in that same drop pod when he noticed the obvious crash course his piece of the wreckage was on. He stood up and stepped out of his pod, turning around to examine the wreckage that now surrounded the pod, which had not gone far from the Iteron. He checked the damaged pod and, seeing that most everything had worked properly in deployment. He grabbed his gear from the pod, a small rations pack with water and nutrition substances to last a week, his Gallente assault rifle, and a pistol which he loaded and put in its holster, preferring to hold the rifle. A portion of his armor had been damaged in the landing, but the repair modules in his suit had already begun repairing it. "I might as well check for some more supplies," he said to himself, "Now that i think about it, i could be here a while, especially if Flint and I are the only ones here," he continued, pondering his predicament, unaware that Drake and Cinder had fallen into the rift behind him. The only thing appearing intact that landed with his part of the Iteron was a small container, about big enough to hold four people, that his HUD marked as, 'HOBGOBLIN II's' upon attempting to open it he heard the voice of Aura,

"You do not have the required permissions to open that," the metallic voice said. As jack assessed the situation, not having a way to open the container he decided that he would have to come back to it later, if Flint said it had anything useful in it. He marked the container on his suits topographical map that would be generated as he walked and began to walk away when he heard a loud THUMP and turned around, the container had fallen over and there was a small hole where it had been sitting. He brought his gun to his shoulder as his suit switched to combat mode, displays of ammo, shields and armor appearing, along with the constant message that all of the clone vats were out of range. As he walked forward towards the hole he heard a small grunt and a voice,

"This is not town!" the high pitched voice echoed out of the hole.

"Not me fault! Scrabs lead the digging!" another voice responded. "What we hit anyway?" at that a small head poked out of the hole, it looked like a dog, not the angular wolf faces of some of the guard hounds on the stations, but a brown rounded grubby one. The "dog" as Jack saw it looked at him with yellow eyes as his some what more yellow-tinted compatriot poked his head out of the hole looking the other way.

"Why is this garbage!" The yellowish one, Scrabs Jack assumed, looking around, not seeing Jack.

"Me don't know, but what is that!" the other one replied in his shrill voice, pointing at Jack. Scrabs turned around and saw him,

"Us make it dig!" He said, jumping out of the hole. At this Jack snapped out of his surprise at seeing talking dogs.

"I doubt you'll get anywhere with that idea," He said, noting from how they talked that they probably weren't that bright.

"Ha!" the brown one said "You have no claws! We will take you and make you dig!"

"I doubt you could do shit if you wanted to," jack said, pointing the gun at the brown one.

"Me done talking! You will work, and we will get gems!" Scrabs shouted, advancing towards him as his companion followed, spreading out to Jacks left side.

"Never much cared for diplomacy either," Jack said to himself. Scrabs leaped at him and Jack's combat reflexes kicked in as he brought the stock of the assault rifle down on Scrabs head with a loud crack and enough force to send the diamond dog in the opposite direction and knock him out. Jack turned to face the brown one who had obvious fear on his face as he began talking,

"Me sorry! Me not want to make dig! I only follow Scrabs order!" The diamond dog was scrambling backwards away from jack at this point.

"I couldn't care less," Jack said. As he said that he took the last step to close the distance between them and slammed his armored boot into the diamond dogs face with a sickening *crunch* there was no doubt that the diamond dog was dead. Jack wiped his armored boot on the grass to get the blood off and turned to the still unconscious Scrabs who was bleeding and still missing a few teeth, whether they were missing from the hit or from the dogs diet was up for debate. As Jack looked at the dog there was a small blip and his HUD showed a waypoint to what it had identified as the nearest survivor from the Iteron. Jack slid his rifle to its place on his back and pulled out his sidearm, not even glancing towards Scrabs as he shot him in the head. "All hostiles eliminated," he reported with cold finality to his armor, and holstered his sidearm. "Change the route to stay near the forest, i don't want to wast any more ammo on these vermin," he said, and began the long sprint towards the next part of the wreckage.

The six elements of harmony sat alone in sugarcube corner, most of the other ponies were questioning the Mayor, and many waited for the small group of royal guards that were supposedly on their way. Luna had insisted that the girls stay in Ponyville, and she and her two shadowbolts had taken off after the strange green object. The fact that she had to stay behind bothered Rainbow Dash as she sat there with her five friends in silence. Suddenly it all made sense, at least, to Rainbow Dash it did.

"It was the changelings!" She suddenly shouted, slamming her hoof down on the small table she and her friends sat at.

"Rainbow Dash that's ridiculous," Twilight said, "Changelings dont have any special powers over meteors, and even if they did i doubt they would try and hit Ponyville with them, they would go for some place like Canterlot or Las Pegasus,"

"Ah agree with Twilight," Applejack said, "We beat them varmints back to wherever it is they came from, an i don't think they'd be willing to come back so soon after we beat em',"

"But the whole thing was was colored like changeling stuff!" Rainbow dash shouted, "And the thing that shot off glowed green, just like Chrysalis' crazy changeling magic!"

"Rainbow darling, magic simply cannot be used from that far away. The changelings would have had to have been close enough to it for us to see them. You cannot simply accuse changelings because something is green," Rarity said.

"Then what is it!" Rainbow Dash asked, still raising her voice in frustration at the whole situation.

"I don't know," Twilight said, "But Celestia should be here soon, hopefully she'll be able to tell us what that thing was, or how every astronomer in Equestria failed to see asteroids that big until last night.

Chrysalis overlooked the once great Changeling Empire from one of the many citadels that jutted out of the ground, all were in a state of disrepair, and very few had changelings living in them. In past times the city would have glowed a vibrant blue-green hue and thrummed with life of the current queens subjects, but Chrysalis had only ever heard stories of the city like that from when her mother was little and Changelings were a powerful and respected race. The empires borders had since then been pushed back, and with no Changelings to spare on building new cities the buildings had begun to fall apart, some had been patched and re-patched with a honeycomb pattern created by Changeling magic in a vain attempt to save some of the buildings, it was never supposed to last long, but it was all that held the old city together. After the siege of Canterlot had failed spirits had been low, and a few Changelings were beginning to question their queen. With no strong army to to take love any more, and no place in her Empire hospitable enough for large amounts of food to be hunted her Empire was doomed. As Chrysalis struggled for a solution to save her people a low roar suddenly reached her ears. Looking up she saw asteroids, much like the ones that had been seen falling over equestria only an hour ago, she was told that they were all falling towards the inner badlands and that only one would land in the city. The only problem being that the changelings could not find the actual size of the asteroids. Because of this it had been decided that all of the Changelings would take shelter in a cavern below Chrysalis' Citadel. A few moments later the city visibly, and audibly, sprung to life. The buzzing of hundreds of pairs of wings could be heard and felt in the air as black shapes zipped about, one landing next to Chrysalis.

"My Queen!" The Changeling captain announced, bowing, "My men have began moving the others into the cavern below this tower for safety,"

"I have my own defenses, there is no need to fetch me to sit in a hole below my city" Chrysalis said, "I will stay here and keep the tower stable, you are dismissed Captain," As soon as she had said this the obedient Changeling buzzed off, and continued helping his men in getting the other Changelings to safety. Chrysalis looked back up at the sky, noticing the oddly colored trail the closest object left, it did not match any falling object she had seen before, and her enhanced Changeling vision noticed that the object was much to smooth for a rock.

"How interesting..." she said to herself as she began the spell to hold the tower together, only seconds left before the speeding object slammed into the ancient city...

Aura unit 253-0023A 'woke up' as generators came online. But something was wrong, where the AI usually detected a pilot or dock she felt nothing, beyond this iteron compartment there was nothing. Puzzled, the AI looked inwards to the contents of the compartment. Most of the items stored there were trashed but a few had survived, most notable to the AI was a strange Sleeper relic transmitting all sorts of data. Curious, the AI tapped into the object and found several advanced neural networks, much beyond that of a human, but not all that far ahead of a capsuleer. This was not what shocked Aura though, what shocked it was what the networks were translating to.
The being floated in an empty nothingness, unaware of the
nothingness around it, its brain and implanted circuitry still
trying to reconnect to their respective "components" and each
other. Suddenly the being remembered. Remembered War and
Peace, Light and Dark, Friend and Enemy, and the fact that it
should not be surrounded by the dark. Then, suddenly, their was
light, he began to hear again as the implants in itshead and the
chemicals in its stasis pod began to revive it. It suddenly
remembered personal memory, and endless war, an undying
enemy, a life dedicated to violence, and a fight to extinction. All
these memories were suddenly given back to their owner, along
with vague memories of home, a hope for family, as these thoughts
set in more were forced upon him of a life of service, terrifying
machinations, and of an undying loyalty to its people, all thoughts
of a past home or old friends were gone as the Sleepers' implants
and armor came online and it remembered, remembered its name
I AM LEGION, I AM UNDYING, I AM FOREVER.

Suddenly what remained of the Aura unit began to feel what her databanks could only compare to choking, a feeling reserved for living organisms, but a feeling that it was experiencing none the less, but it didn't matter, In a matter of seconds it was gone, the lights in the compartment went out, and all that was heard was the constant hissing and mechanical whirring of the machine in the middle of the room. Outside voices could be heard, and if the new resident could hear them, he didn't seem to care. Nothing would stand in his way, his people would be restored, and his enemies would know the true meaning of fear.

The Sleepers have risen.

Chapter 4

Drake's Proteus was precariously balanced near the bottom of Ghastly Gorge, his shields at two percent and barely holding the ship a few meters off of three points in the canyons walls. If the shields failed his ship would most likely plummet farther into the canyon and would undoubtedly end up in pieces far from salvageable. A few moments later Drake was revived by what was left of the once extensive chemical stockpile in his suits medical system. Upon opening his eyes he found that the crash had thrown him and his suit backwards in the elevator blast door, severing several connection units and support arms to the main control matrix of the ship meaning that any flying it did in the future would have to be manual. He tried to stand up but found himself unable to move more than his arm due to the heavily damaged control suit, it appeared to have taken most of the damage but parts of it were now uselessly warped, stuck in the position he had locked them in. Seeing this he pressed the release button on the suit, causing the air from the suit to vent out and the magnetic clamps to shut off. He stood up, the pieces of broken armor falling off around him, and took a look at the real damage to the ship out of the bridge window. The left side of the ship appeared to have been damaged most during the crash and appeared to be missing the bottom two decks, the right had seen better days and was full of holes were sections of hull had given way to fires that were dying down due to lack of air inside the shield. The bridge was in the middle of the ship and had no windows in the back so he had no idea what damage the engines had received. He limped over to the steel locker in the side of the bridge where he kept his medical supplies for his leg. Upon opening the locker a mix of several liquids spilled out onto the floor, the medicine had all broken and mixed into a thick murky mixture, which the nanite bandages were soaking in effectively ruined. "Well shit," Drake muttered to himself, realizing that this meant his leg would take even longer to heal. As he limped back over to the control panel to see if he could do anything about the lack of power he noticed that the door out into the hallway had been opened, and the faint sound of one of the ships many lift systems working. As he stepped out into the hall he saw that all of the doors were closed except one, this repeated down each hall until he got to one of the maintenance lifts which had remained closed. As Drake walked up to the lift the doors shuddered open to reveal his personalized set of Medium Combat Armor, fully loaded into a small fitting module along with the weapons he had bought on his last trip to known space. Examining the module he saw that it had been hastily patched into the elevator system by a maintenance drone, who had probably left for a storage bay as soon as its work was done. Realizing what his AI had done in the final minutes of their descent he made a mental note to thank her if the ships computer was ever started back up. As Drake stepped into the fitting machine he realized that the Dragonstar had probably scraped along the sides of the gorge for quite a ways down, and that he would most likely have to climb, an option that was not available to him with the condition of his leg. As he pondered this situation the armors systems booted up and a warning message flashed on the loading HUD, the same message his ship had given him when they entered this system. 'all clone reanimation units out of range, extreme caution is advised' "Glad to see nothings changed then," Drake said, Grabbing his customized Rail Rifle along with a knife, pistol, and magazines for both guns. At this the lift began to move up, and Drake counted three decks before the doors opened again and he saw the familiar sight of an open door. After a bit of walking and some settings changes to provide more power to his injured leg Drake came to the ships drone bay. The outer doors were sealed, and there was no other way to continue. As he pondered this Drake noticed a low humming noise the background, turning around he saw that two Hobgoblin II's had been prepped for a combat launch, but were now sitting, connected to their own personal generators. As he approached one a panel in its side slid open, revealing a miasma of archaic writing and Combat AI feedback on the screen, As this happened his suit gave him a notification that his new software was now fully loaded into the armor. Drake did not remember adding anything to the coding inside his armor, but as he walked over to a nearby crate to sit down he noticed that the drones turned to him, and followed a few feet, their precision engines now modified for in-atmosphere engagements, Aura must have changed their control systems to follow his armor. While this shortened their range by 25 kilometers it did make sure that they were still useful, especially if he ran into anything slightly bigger than himself. At that he gave the mental command for the drones to open fire on the door, effectively tearing a giant hole in the weakened structure for him to exit the ship through. He left the ship, the two drones following, and quickly spotted a place where the ship and the ground were mostly level. Checking to see if his coms had switched over to his other armor yet he began the long walk along the hull of the ship.

Rainbow Dash stared out of the window of Sugarcube Corner, watching a large plume of smoke rise from the the grasslands out away from Ponyville, in the same direction as Ghastly Gorge. She sat there in silence, deep in thought about the green object, and not being allowed to chase it by Princess Luna and her Shadowbolts. She would've given anything to chase after something from outside of Equestria, but so far she had no excuse for leaving, and Twilight was making sure she stayed inside like Luna had said. Suddenly there were several blue flashes in the smoke, meaning that something had happened on the ground. Suddenly Rainbow had an idea, and a reason to go find out what was going on. She turned to Twilight and slyly said,

"Hey Twi, shouldn't somebody check on those fires?"

"Well we may need to-" Twilight began, but was cut off.

"I volunteer!" Rainbow shouted, taking off out the door like a bolt of lightning, shooting out the door and up into the sky, ignoring the shouting coming at her from Twilight, who was probably telling her to come back. As she sped along, enjoying being outside with the wind again, she looked for Luna and the thing they had been following, sure that it had been near the smoke and caused the weird flashes. As she shot through the air she noticed an odd figure who was sprinting along the edge of the forest.As Rainbow watched she decided to see who was running through the Everfree and see if they needed help. As she got closer the pony realized that it was being followed and quickly darted into the forest away from her.

"Hey you!" She called, "Wait up!" at this she sped up and began to chase the pony faster. The chase continued on for a good two minutes before Rainbow got close enough to realized that she wasn't chasing a pony. The 'thing' appeared to be made of silver or some type of metal, and ran on two legs with enough speed to give her a run for her bits. Upon realizing that it was not a pony she decided to slow down, but being lost in her thoughts of what she should do had not noticed the figure stop when it ran into another like it. As she slammed to a stop she realized that she was now right above them, the silver one staring up at her, while the other one sat on a fallen tree. His armor was blue and grey, and somehow made her think of a black knight she had seen on the cover of one of Twilight's books. As she hovered there, staring, she failed to notice a low humming from behind her. Suddenly the creatures stopped talking and the grey one stood up and made an odd hand motion towards her. As soon as he did that she heard something behind her and turned just in time to see an odd object flying right at her before it slammed into her, knocking her to the ground, unconscious.

Drake stared down at the odd creature they had caught, it was similar to creatures that apparently lived on Matar called 'horses' but he did not think they came in the odd colors this one was in. Jack claimed that the dogs here could talk, and there had been debate between the two on what to do about the horse. Jack claimed it had also yelled at him, but Drake was pretty sure he had never heard of them talking and had said with a laugh that Jack probably just hit his head. They had eventually reached the conclusion that if the thing was sentient they would attempt to communicate with it, but if it wasn't, then they would cook it, and enjoy a fairly large meal since neither had much in the way of food rations. The two had set up a camp not far from Drake's ship after meeting up, carrying the creature with them to an area that had clear ground, but was covered by a canopy of leaves from nearby trees overhead. Not knowing if anything had come looking for the creature. The only light in the camp came from their armor and the undersides of the two Drones who were constantly scanning the forest, going in a slow circular pattern along the edge of the trees, looking for any other living creatures that would attempt to make their owners day more problematic. Jack was cleaning his guns, and attempting to get blood off the outside of his armor from when he had killed the strange dogs earlier that day, and did not talk while he worked, leaving Drake with his thoughts and the tangled and ruined mess of com interference to work through as the area they were in seemed to naturally warp and distort any kind of signal near it. Suddenly the strange blue horse shot up, or at least attempted to before realizing it was tied down.

"C'mon what gives!" it shouted, Drake cursing at the prospect of not being able to cook it anymore, "Lemme out!" it continued yelling.

"If you want to keep your head you'll stop thrashing around and listen to me," Jack said as he got up, the blood still only half cleaned from his armor.

"What!" Rainbow cried, thrashing about some more, "You can't kill me! I never did anything to you!" at that Drake saw Jack's pistol light up, as the distinct noise of a gun being cocked was heard.

"I can do whatever i fucking please!" he shouted, and was about to continue before Drake spoke.

"Jack that's enough," he said, slowly standing up, favoring his other leg, "I hired you to kill sleepers for me not negotiate with, whatever this is." Rainbow was still quiet after Jacks outburst but Drake had the drones turn on their running lights, bright enough to light up the clearing, but not bright enough to be seen from anywhere outside. Suddenly, Dash spoke up.

"Creature? Who are you calling a creature? Your the one that walks on two legs!" Dash said.

"Yea that's great kid," Jack said, "But right now, there are two of us and one of you, that makes you the odd one,"

"Am i safe to assume that your a horse?" Drake asked, oblivious of how insulting the word was to ponies.

"I'm a pegasus," Dash said through grit teeth, "and if you ever call me that again i'll,-"

"You'll do what?" Jack asked in a dangerously low voice, suddenly behind the pegasus.

"Jack, your not going to hurt it or threaten it unless it attempts to do the same," Drake said in a now commanding tone.

"I'm pretty sure it just did," Jack said, twirling his knife.

"He insulted me!" Rainbow said, "Nobody calls Rainbow Dash a horse!" at that Drake and Jack both started laughing, Drake falling back onto his log and Jack simply falling on his side, "Hey!' Rainbow continued to yell "Whats so funny!" she got no response from the two capsuleers, as they were too busy laughing to respond.

"Okay that was funny, but really, whats your name," Drake said a few minutes later, after he and Jack had recovered.

"I was being serious," Rainbow said, slightly annoyed that they had been laughing at her name.

"I feel bad for you kid" Jack said, "What kind of person names their kid 'Rainbow'," he continued with a small chuckle.

"Yea that's great," Rainbow said, bored with the whole situation, "Do you think you could untie me now?"

"On one condition," Drake began, "I can untie everything but your wings,"

"and that condition is?" Rainbow asked, desperately wanting to scratch the itch that had began to develop on her nose.

" That you realize my two drones here can fly at 80 meters per second down here and that this time if you run, they will shoot you," Drake said as he pointed at the two drones providing light.

"Shoot me?" Rainbow asked sounding confused, "Like, with a bow?"

"No, with a gun," Drake said, "If you've never seen one then let me assure you that its not something you'll live through," Rainbow believed him, the tone in his voice said that he'd seen it all happen first hand, and that he was most definitely not joking.

"Um," Rainbow paused for a second, "Alright?" she didn't seem sure that any of this was a good idea. At that Jack stalked back over, working on the wire that tied her legs together, and the few that were attached to the ground.

"Just a show of good faith among friends," Jack said with a chuckle.

"Friends?" Rainbow said, obviously upset, "This is not friendship, you two are keeping me against my will," she continued oblivious to the fact that this was as close to friendship as Jack got, the only reason he listened to Drake was because he payed him, when that ended the rest of what he did was up to the amount of money he got out of it.

"Are there any more of you?" Drake asked.

"You do know we're in Equestria right?" Dash replied with an exasperated sigh.

"I have no idea what that is," Drake truthfully responded. Rainbow was surprised He had never heard of it.

"Look, i don't really feel like explaining where my friends are to somebody who tried to kill me!" Rainbow replied, upset that Drake simple expected her to talk.

"I never threatened anything, Jack might have, but I never said I was going to kill you," Drake said, trying to diffused the angry pony.

"You said you would shoot me if I ran!" Rainbow yelled at him, "And then you guaranteed that it would kill me!"

"I said that they would kill you," Drake said, "I don't plan on hurting you, at least not until you try to attack me or my corpmates,"

"You did say you were going to eat her," Jack commented from the other side of the clearing, continuing to sharpen his knife, negotiation bored him.

"What!" Rainbow Dash yelled, eyes going wide as she stared at Drake.

"We didn't know if you were actually sentient," Drake explained "and i may have kinda brought up the topic of food. It's just natural, its kinda one of the few things I actually eat when I'm unplugged,"

"But that doesn't mean you can just eat me!" Rainbow protested.

"I didn't," Drake said, "We waited for you to wake up,"

"You could've just gone and bought some apples from town or something!" Rainbow replied. The noise from Jack's knife suddenly stopped.

"You know?" Drake began, "I think i might just do that,"

"You'll scare off everypony!" Dash said.

"Well i need somebody to answer my questions," Drake responded, "and so far you've been far from useful,"

"Please don't hurt my friends," Rainbow asked in a quiet voice.

"Relax Rainbow," Drake said "Your still not getting it, none of us want to hurt you, I just want answers."

"Besides," Jack said as he put away his knife, "I doubt they'd want to get in my way,"

"Jack you are to refrain from threatening, killing, or otherwise injuring ponies, they were here first and i doubt that making enemies with the only known living alien race right away is a good idea," Drake said. Rainbow Dash didn't trust Jack, and she wasn't too keen on Drake either but she figured that even if things went wrong Princess Luna and Princess Celestia would be able to stop them, besides, what other pegasus had bragging rights for being the first pony to talk to aliens?

Luna, Hawk, and Frostwing were all going as fast as they could after the green egg-like object, hoping to stop it and question it or whatever it was being controlled by. They were close enough that it was obvious that it was not a meteor and was most definitely not being carried by magic. Luna didn't want to fire magic at it for fear of causing harm to it or whatever was inside as the object itself had not attacked anypony or done any real damage. The problem with the chase is that the thing seemed to go just as fast as Luna and the Shadowbolts did at top speed, and did not show any sign of stopping, it had originally been performing evasive maneuvers but as soon as they had been able to see it clearly it had stopped and gone in a straight line away from Ponyville and Canterlot. Inside the pod a hysterical Flint was sharing a good laugh with Cinder. The mood had gone from happy at finding each other alive, to distressed when flint was chased by three unknown signatures, and then to hysteria when they had seen that he was being chased by horses. Flying horses. They both knew what they were, Flint being a Minmatar knew them from culture, and Cinder being an Ammar knew that nobles and richer families owned them to ride and for show. The problem however was that Cinder had overshot Flint's Pod during their laughing fit, and they were now faced with the problem that flint could not slow down or he would be caught, and he could not turn or they would gain on him to the point where he injured them with the expelled radiation from the pod's engine, which they both agreed would be a generally bad idea considering this was the first living Alien race to be encountered by Humans or Capsuleers. As of now Cinder was trying to catch up while remaining cloaked and the ponies were slowly starting to gain on Flint. Suddenly, an idea came to Cinder,

"Flint, land the pod," she said,

"Uh how about no?" Flint replied. "If you've got a plan lass then I think I would like to know it before ye go putting me life on the line,"

"Judging by the fact that they don't even have guns i doubt that they've seen anything close to a spaceship before, I'm just close enough to you to be able to get right behind you by the time that you've landed, I should be able to scare them off using the outer coms speakers. Then we can go find Drake," Cinder explained. There was a short silence while Flint thought,

"I don't like it," he said. But a few seconds later Cinder saw him begin to descend slowly towards the ground.

"Why is it stopping?" asked Frostwing, finding it strange that the thing that they had chased for the past two hours was suddenly giving up without a fight.

"Maybe it realized that we would catch it eventually anyways," Hawk said. "That, or we tired it out,"

"It doesn't matter," Luna said "It has stopped and that's all that matters," At she began to walk towards it, the two Shadowbolts following her. But there was something off and Frostwing felt, uneasy. They had chased the thing for two hours and it had simply given up, Frostwing couldn't help but feel nervous as they approached. As they got close Luna stopped and raised her hoof at the object, preparing to speak when she was forced to brace herself as a large blast of air hit the three, nearly knocking them over and a large object suddenly appeared above the green egg. It was a grey-blue color with orange paint on some parts and was overall very angular and looked very purposeful even if none of them could determine what it was for. Suddenly six square extrusions on the thing opened up, and three strange pointed objects emerged from within. it was then that a voice spoke.

"Step away from the capsule!" Cinder spoke through the Manticore's outer speaker. Both Hawk and Frostwing stepped back a bit at the large voice, and Luna simply stepped forward, used to the 'Royal Canterlot Voice'

"This 'capsule' as you have put it is to be arrested under Equestrian Law, you will leave and allow us to continue or you will also be taken for questioning!" Luna yelled back at the object.

"The Ammar Empire and its allies The Caldari have claim to this capsule, and refuse to acknowledge this 'Equestria' you speak of as a country or threat, you will step back or you will be fired upon! Cinder replied, her patience with the small horses fading. What she had said confused Luna, she could not recall an 'Amarr Empire' nor any state, country, or group referred to as the 'Caldari'. As she thought this over the pod began to start up and rise off the ground again, at this Luna quickly grabbed it in a tight hold with her magic, effectively decimating Flint's shields, the only thing that had been keeping magic out in the first place. Cinder also saw this and began to lock target on the blue alicorn, preparing one last warning.

"You will cease harming my comrade and let him go or you and your men will be reduced to ash." Cinder stated with a cold finality, the math all done to fire one torpedo and hit the ground in a way that would kill the ponies, but only harm Flint's pod slightly. Luna sensed that she had no more room to argue, and began preparing for a teleportation spell, but right as she was about to move Hawk, Frostwing, and the pod with her she heard a shouting.

"Princess! Wait!" Rainbow dash called out across the field, being followed closely by Drake and farther back was Jack, not to keen on going out in the open with torpedoes as a main line of defense. Rainbow looked back at Drake and said, "Thats Luna, she's the one i was telling you about, she's totally cool and- what is THAT!" she shouted upon seeing the Manticore which she had somehow missed upon seeing Luna.

"Thats one of our friends," Drake responded, He and Rainbow Dash had began idly talking when Drake had mentioned flying and it had built up a small amount of trust between them. He then noticed something terribly wrong, Flint's pod was on the ground and the warheads on Cinder's torpedoes were primed, which was never a good thing for anyone on the receiving end, which in this case appeared to be the Princess.

"Cinder! Stand down!" he shouted over coms, and began sprinting towards the group, hoping that nothing had gone too terribly wrong yet. Drake began sprinting towards the group, followed by a speeding Rainbow Dash and Jack, who had already had his gun out. 'There is no way this will go well,' he thought to himself.

Author's Note

I would just like to mention that sleeper drones use superheated plasma as ammo, this means that any injuries would be pretty bad and take a long time to heal on their own, so Drakes injury may be with him for a while. Also, Drake and Jack are Caldari and Gallente respectively and neither really know what a pony is which is kind of why they don't freak out when Rainbow Dash can talk. Also, Flint has a slight Scottish accent.

Chapter 5

Cinder had easily identified Drake and Jack when they had come out of the forest and had disarmed her torpedoes when she saw a blue horse with them, somehow matching the enhanced speed of the armor with wings, how she even flew given her size compared to her wings was beyond her but at this point she had stopped trying to rationalize the small horses with odd colors and body parts. Currently though Drake was talking with the large blue one who he had marked as 'Princess Luna' on the display, she had access to his suits microphones but she had honestly never cared for negotiations, even when she was for them. She had landed the Manticore on its three main mechanical docking assistants that would normally only be used on the smallest of stations. Currently the two were discussing Flint, or, 'The Green Egg' as the two smaller horses called it. The small rainbow maned one had spoken quite a bit at the beginning of the conversation but had since then fallen silent, appearing bored like Cinder with the lack of actual action. Deciding that she should probably take note of at least some of the conversation she allowed the audio input to play again..

"... and again i am sorry for my fleet members having scared your 'ponies'," Drake finished, the word 'pony' still sounding odd to him, he had been up to this point explaining his fleet's actions since their less than graceful landing.

"Well then, Drake of Caldari," Luna began, "What are you exactly, you and your comrades all appear to be made of metal, but you two are smaller, and i have not seen any real movement besides flight from your two larger companions,"

"Those two are in vessels of their own, i assure you that there are pilots to both of the, er, objects," Drake said, hoping that Luna would not question him further on how they flew, he did not feel like explaining the advanced technologies that were encapsulated by the word 'Spaceship'.

"Well then, what is your race, you have told me that you are all from different countries, but you failed to mention your race, and i have never heard of creatures made of materials as strong as you besides the dragons, and they are much different than you,"

"You mean you think that-" Jack began, realizing that the ponies had not seen anything but their armor, at this he began to laugh, "Oh that's rich! That's fucking gold right there!" he howled almost falling on his side, "They actually believe we're made of metal!"

"I can understand the confusion," Drake said, looking at the now scowling Luna, "What you see here is armor, if we were to take it off i'm fairly sure we would have about the same makeup as you 'ponies' do, although we have much less hair,"

"I see," said Luna, trying to find where such armor would fasten together at as she continued, "and what are you called?"

"We are Capsuleers," replied Drake, "We are the evolution of humanity, we have gained immortality and control of the stars themselves." Drake said all this with an air of supremity to it, much like the Canterlot nobles Luna thought, the only difference was that she could tell by the way he spoke that what Drake said about immortality and power was true, but the fact that he believed he had a right to her beautiful, beautiful, stars angered her.

"And just what gives you right to the stars?" She questioned, anger evident in her voice.

"There is nobody that can keep us from them, if we can take something then why shouldn't we? Those that have opposed us have crumbled with nothing more than a thought, something so grand can only belong to those with the strength to take them," Drake said, oblivious to Luna's anger.

"The stars belong to me," Luna said with finality, "I control the stars and the moon, they do not belong to anyone but myself!" What she said confused Drake, how anyone could control celestial bodies so far away and with absolutely nothing was impossible, he scoffed at Luna's claim and said,

"If you truly do own the stars as you claim then they have been taken from you in your absence, i doubt you could reach even one of them, you lack the technology, the most I've seen is primitive at best, and i doubt that your soldiers could so much as scratch even one of us," Drake challenged. Luna was enraged, she glared daggers at the capsuleer, while Hawk and Frostwing's claws lit up with magic. Jack had been watching the whole conversation with amusement and was currently checking his gun nonchalantly, taking occasional glances at the two ponies in the back while Cinder quietly re-enabled her weapons systems. Flint could do nothing, and Rainbow Dash felt that this was probably one she should sit out on. Just as the tension between the two groups was about to reach a breaking point Princess Celestia and an escort of armored pegasus guards landed, unnoticed by the two groups who had been focusing on each other.

"What's going on here?" She asked both groups, a calm neutrality in her voice. As she spoke everyone in the clearing looked at her, recognizing her as either a threat, or in charge of things.

"The 'capsuleers' here were just explaining themselves." Luna said through grit teeth.

"Indeed," Said Jack, now resting on the butt of his gun, the barrel finding purchase on a rock, "and blue here was just about to attack us," at this he cocked his head sideways looking in Luna's direction. At this Celestia raised an eyebrow, looking towards her sister as well.

"What Jack means to say is that Princess Luna here was... not in agreement, with one of our statements," Drake covered.

"Kind of racist if you ask me," Said Jack, getting a cease-and-desist signal from Drake.

"and what exactly did you state?" asked Celestia, looking now to Drake and Jack.

"I simply explained my races place in the universe, at which she seemed to get upset," Said Drake.

"Well the stars are kinda her role as an Alicorn...." Dash said off to the side of the two groups. Drake suddenly realized what was going on, the 'ponies' believed in a religion involving the sky, making her a religious figure of sorts. At this realization he apologized quickly.

"Apologize Princess, i did not mean to insult your beliefs or those of your subjects, had i known sooner i would have explained myself in a... more respectful, manner," Drake said, hoping to defuse the hostile feelings the Princess had, in hopes of not having to wage a war on the first new sentient species that had been found.

"More respectfully?" Celestia questioned in quizzical tone, "i think you might be better off talking with both my sister and myself as we both have, different perspectives on things."

"Maybe we could hurry explanations up and begin negotiations somewhere else," Said Flint from his capsule, "Its somewhat uncomfortable in here with gravity at this angle, besides I'm sure our pony friends would be much more at ease if they could see us all, instead of having half of us hidden away,"

"Indeed," Cinder spoke through Drake's suit.

"I believe your ally has a decent point Drake," said Celestia, "Our negotiations would do better in a different environment. However, I cannot allow you and your 'friends' to simply go free until i truly know that you will not be a threat to my little ponies. Unless you have any suggestions I'm afraid you will have to accompany my sister and I back to Canterlot, Equestria's Capital,"

"I would rather my comrades and I not go very far from this area, as quite a few of the things we have here need to be dealt with before they become a danger to any of your people," Drake said.

"Well Applejack's farm isn't far from here,," explained Rainbow Dash, "Everypony could meet there, its not too far,"

"An excellent idea Rainbow Dash," Said Luna as she stepped forward, "If you would allow my two Shadowbolts here to accompany your hidden friends they could find a suitable place to get themselves ready for negotiations, speaking to a cold piece of metal gets.... unsettling, after a while,"

"Personally i think its a great idea," Said Flint, "Cinder has plenty of room to fly us all back to this town after we get to a spot i can leave my capsule,"

"and just where do you plan to leave your pod?" asked Drake.

"If Aura is correct your Proteus' capsule loading bay is accessible, Flint could land there, and grab a pair of clothes as well, after that i can fly him back, and the two dark ponies could follow," Cinder said, seemingly in agreement with the idea.

"I guess its settled then," Said Drake, as Rainbow Dash and Cinder each shot off in two different locations, "Lead on Princess,"

It had been almost an hour and a half but the group was now seated in Applejack's Barn around a table. Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight were still on their way as Applejack and Rainbow Dash were faster. Both Flint and Cinder were both seated next to Drake and Flint, who were both still wearing armor.

"So tell me Drake," Celestia began, "How exactly have you come to Equestria, and why?"

"We didn't exactly choose to come here," Drake said, "It's all an accident really, and i can give you my word that we don't intend to stay any longer than we have to,"

"Thou hast left out exactly how thou hast come to be here," Luna said.

"Its all really bad karma," Cinder said, "We attacked a battleship sitting on a wormhole and the ship blew up halfway through it, right after that we got sucked through and ended up in orbit above your planet, we would've left from there but Drake's ship is badly damaged as your shadowbolts know, and Flint's ship was waxed."

"You forgot to mention that Teyreon died before the Apocalypse popped," Said Flint, "Although that's not too important,"

"I am sorry for the loss of your friend," Celestia said.

"Oh don't worry about him, I'm sure he's fine, bastards got it better than we do right now," Flint said with a chuckle.

"Dost thou truly prefer death than being stuck here?" Luna asked.

"I think you may be missing the whole 'Immortal' part of all this," Jack said, "Teyreon woke up in a fresh new body right after he died, he's probably sitting in a station enjoying a drink right now." As he finished saying this all of the ponies jaws dropped except for Celestia, whose face remained entirely neutral.

"So you are here because you guys attacked somebody?" Rainbow Dash asked after a few seconds.

"That is what i said," Cinder said, slightly annoyed that the ponies seemed so blunt when it came to the concept.

"Was he an outlaw or somethin'?" Applejack asked, "I mean he musta don somethin' for y'all to be attacking him like that,"

"Nope," said drake, " But he would've attacked Flint in his cargo ship if we hadn't killed him. Why do you think he was just sitting there? He was probably waiting for something smaller than him to fly by so that he could get an easy kill,"

"So he was a bad person?" Applejack asked more than stated.

"Nope, just another bloke," Said Jack.

"I don't think any of you are getting the concept," Cinder began, "Killing is simple, easy, and common, where we come from, and judging by your happy-rainbow land you've got going on here, where the most you have for weapons is spears and shit, i'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you guys don't do that,"

"I would just like to point out that we have no intention of doing that sort of thing here," Drake stated, "Its done where we live because if you don't defend yourself before you are attacked, then you generally die,"

"Besides, none of you fly anything expensive that would be worth it," Jack said as the rest of the group glared at him.

"While i would enjoy being able to take you for you word Drake, I don't think that would be wise," Celestia said, "While my spells tell me that you are at heart a good person Drake I cannot in good conscience allow you to roam uninhibited around my ponies,"

"Well we can't just leave," Cinder said, "In fact I believe that's one of the first things we told you,"

"and if we do just leave the wrecks of these ships all over your country then eventually bad things will happen," Flint said.

"Yea, you wouldn't want our drones to go rogue in the atmosphere, they would strip the planet," Jack replied.

"We- I, may have a solution to your problem," Luna began, "My shadowbolts could make sure thou refrains from anything rash, however I believe that there are only two to your four,"

"We have The Elements of Harmony," Rainbow Dash said, "Maybe they could stay in Ponyville so that we could keep an eye on them, and if something goes wrong we can just zap 'em"

"Now hold on a minut-" Applejack began, before Celestia began speaking,"

"That may work, The Elements of Harmony should work with them exactly as they did on Discord," Celestia said, "My student, Twilight Sparkle, will be able to assist you in leaving, and my sister shall leave her Shadowbolts here, I trust that the elements and them will not need to take action against you. Would that be correct Drake?"

"It would, I assume that we will be here for some time, possibly over two years," He said, "It would be foolish to attack so many peopl- Ponies, especially when the things we need are in their country,"

"Then it is settled," said Celestia, "However, the Griffins and other countries will be wanting to know what happened today, in a few weeks time i shall need you to come the Capitol, and explain yourself to them. I will not have Equestria going to war over this,"

"Hawk, Frostwing, You will accompany the Capsuleers for their time here, especially Jack, Until they are able to leave Equestria. Make sure that nopony is harmed by them during their stay." Luna ordered her Shadowbolts.

"Rainbow, Twilight should be on her way here, when she does arrive, tell her i will send her a letter with details on it and that she is to find a place for the Capsuleers to stay," Celestia said. With that, She and Luna both took off, back to Canterlot.

"Well she left in quite a hurry," Flint said chuckling, "I didn't think it'd be that easy to get her to let us stay,"

"Well its not like we can leave anyways," Cinder said,"

"Hey, i know we got off to a bad start, but you guys seem pretty chill, maybe we could be friends or something?" Rainbow said as she started leading the group out of the barn, oblivious to the scowling Applejack.

"Do ah' get any say in this?" Applejack asked as everyone but jack was just out of the room.

"No." Jack said with a less than friendly chuckle as he walked out the door. Leaving an upset Applejack with nothing to do but follow.

Author's Note

Hey! Sorry for the long time between updates guys, now that its summer they should be out a lot faster. Also, i know Celestia leaves really quickly in the end but that is all explained later so don't worry too much about it.

Chapter 6

Applejack had raced off after Rainbow Dash a few minutes after she had zipped out to "check on fires" as she had said, leaving Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy to head to Sweet Apple Acres, where Applejack said that she would get Rainbow to meet them. The small group was nearly there when they spotted Applejack and Rainbow Dash waiting for them at the top of a hill.

"Hey Twilight!" Rainbow yelled down the hill at them, at which Twilight simply teleported the group up the hill.

"Rainbow, you can't just leave like-" Twilight started.

"Twilight! You'll never guess what happened!" Rainbow cut her off, "The Princesses were there and everything!"

"Rainbow will you let me finish!" Twilight said.

"But Twi! There were ALIENS," Rainbow said.

"So explain to me why we are waiting here again?" Cinder asked.

"Rainbow Dash and her friend agreed they would explain what was going on before they meet us so that we don't start anything unwanted," Drake explained.

"That and they wanted to explain what miss princessy-bitch said without us listenin'," Jack said, once again sharpening his knife.

"Are the nicknames really necessary Jack?" Flint asked.

"Shh! Listen," Cinder said, at this the group quieted down as the two doors to the barn opened and a pony walked in, still looking behind herself at Rainbow.

"Rainbow if this is some kind of joke it's not funny," Twilight said. As she finished saying that her jaw dropped as she turned around to see all four capsuleers looking at her.

"Well don't just stand there gawking," Jack said after a few seconds, "Come have a seat..."

Celestia and Luna were both concerned about the strange beings that had fallen from they sky, even though their leader had been sincere about his promise that they only wanted to leave and would not hurt anypony they still had their doubts. However, when Celestia and Luna had both gotten a call for help from Baltimare they had both had to cut the meeting short, and left the four in the capable hooves of Twilight Sparkle. Now they were waiting for the mayor to show up in the City Hall. Suddenly the doors were flung open and several guards ran in, lead by their captain. A pair of guards in the group appeared to have a changeling in their grasp.

"Princesses!" The captain exclaimed and bowed, along with the rest of the guards, "We have dire news,"

"Where is the mayor, and what is this changeling doing here?" Luna immediately questioned.

"The mayor is calming ponies down, and in this situation I am in charge," The Captain said. "The changelings appear to be invading, several have already been caught flying over and running through the city, and thousands have been spotted on their way here."

"We're not invading!" The changeling yelled.

"Then what are you doing?" Celestia asked, "With so many of you its evident that your not simply stopping by for a visit,"

"Your majesty," The Changeling began, "We're running."

Jack was going to shoot himself.

The Ponies had all introduced themselves (though he couldn't be bothered to remember their names) and had seemed halfway decent. Except for the purple one. Her rainbow-haired friend had explained what sun-butt had said SEVERAL times and she was just now getting it. He was not getting payed enough for this bullshit.

"So you're all from space?" Twilight asked.

"That would be correct," Drake said, "Although we all had our beginnings on our respective planets, except for Cinder, she's never actually been planetside before," As he said this Cinder took a second to glare at him.

"That's fantastic!" Twilight exclaimed, "I have so many questions!"

"Ah have a few too," Applejack said, "If'n you don't mind,"

"We'll be happy to answer most of your questions," Flint said, "But please keep in mind that we do have things that need to be done,"

"That's amazing," Jack muttered sarcastically, "You've just taken us from multi-billionaire immortals to a question and answer session with... horses,"

"Excuse me!?" Rarity exclaimed, "We are not ho-"

"Hey!" Twilight interrupted, "Listen, I'm sure things are different where they come from Rarity, Its not like they've ever met any of us before. He probably didn't realize what he was saying.... You are a he right?"

"Oh yes, indeed I am" Jack said, "However I-"

"Jack i would prefer it if you did not attempt to cause 'complications' with the locals," Drake cut in, sensing that things were about to go downhill.

"With that aside," Cinder began, "I believe we all have some questions,"

"Indeed," Flint replied, "We would probably be best off to introduce ourselves first, I'm Flint, This is Drake and Cinder, and Jack is the one in the silver armor,"

"It's amazing to actually be meeting ponies, or, people, not from Equis. I'm Twilight, these are my friends Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, I think you already know Dash, and Fluttershy," Twilight said gesturing to each of her friends and the cowering Fluttershy.

"Indeed I do already know miss Dash," Drake said with a chuckle, "We met in the forest, I believe we may have gotten off on the wrong foot,"

"Naw, we're cool," said Dash, "Your new, i'll give ya a break this time, and stop calling me 'miss' it makes me sound old,"

"Are all of you ponies this nice?" Cinder asked.

"Most of us," Twilight said, "But there are some bad apples,"

"I know!" Pinkie exclaimed, "I'll throw you all a party! That way you can meet everyone and see that we're all nice!"

"I don't know about that" Flint said, "I doubt we would fit in very well,"

"Hey Drake, Where are your little guys?" Dash asked As she said that Drake pressed a button on his helmet and began looking around.

"They were waiting in the forest where I left them to avoid spooking anyone, but they should be orbiting the outside of the barn now," Drake explained.

"Wait, what little guys?" Twilight said.

"Rainbow would be talking about my drones," Drake said, "They were modified before the crash to work down here with my suit. I doubt i would have gotten out of my ship so quickly without them,"

"Can I throw them a party too?!" Pinkie asked.

"You could, though i doubt they would enjoy it. They don't actually think, machines like them aren't advanced enough to have an actual AI inside of them, they can only do what i tell them to do," Drake explained.

"That's Amazing!" Twilight exclaimed, "How do they work?"

"Well you see-" Flint began to see before being cut off.

"Flint now is not the time to go all Minmatar engineer on us," Cinder said, "We don't need a day long lecture on drones," Twilight awwed at that, but sighs of relief were heard throughout the rest of both groups.

"Are all your questions like that Twilight?" Drake asked, receiving a nod from her, "Then I believe we are going to have to postpone them until a time when i don't need my engineer," he finished, leaving Twilight looking a little sad.

"Look, we really need to start doing things before someone ends up hurt because of chemicals or something equally stupid," Cinder said.

"Now just a second," Applejack said, "I know ya'll are just trying to get home and all, but when you were explainin how you got here you said it was because ya'll fought somepon- er somebody. Mind explainin?"

"Didn't we explain that too?" Drake asked.

"No ya didn't, now quit dodgin the question," Applejack replied.

"Maybe you should just explain to the rest of us how you got here," Twilight said, "It might clear things up,"

"Very well," Drake said with a sigh, "But I'm not stopping to answer questions," he finished, looking at Twilight.

-------------------------------------------------------------

"See! I told ya that you shot someone," Applejack said, "Ya'll can't be trusted,"

"I never said I didn't shoot him," Drake said, "But look at it this way, if I hadn't he would have shot Flint, who had Jack in his ship. Then two of my people die, and we two months worth of hard work,"

"But you still attacked another person!" Twilight said.

"Look at it this way," Cinder said, "This orchard is yours correct?" Applejack nodded an affirmative, "So Applejack what would you do if you were taking your apples to market one day and you were attacked by a bandit on the road,"

"Well i'd buck 'im into next week!" Applejack said, "I work hard for my Apples, if he wants 'em he can buy 'em like everypony else," Applejack said all of this, completely oblivious to what was said

"I think I get what your saying," Twilight said, "I guess i wasn't looking at it like that, but how did you know he would attack Flint?"

"He's got no reason to be sitting in w-space in a Battleship, as in, designed to fight things, has the word in its classification," Cinder said, "People like that are only looking for trouble,"

"Even I have to agree with Cinder there," Jack said, "While I'm not going to join in the fight that we're all righteous people just trying to make a living, because these three most definitely aren't, I would say that the Apocalypse was looking for a fight, and he got one,"

"Ya'll didn't have to kill him though!" Applejack shouted, "Just rough 'im up a bit,"

"Applejack," Drake began, "While the idea of ponies even threatening each other may be odd to you I'd like to explain that things are very different in New Eden. Fighting is a constant there, and while that may be hard for you to understand it is the truth. We don't always choose to fight, a lot of the time you have to. If you don't then you end up broke and begging for money in Jita,"

"That may be the case, but until ya'll prove it, I don't trust ya," She said with finality.

"That's something i can have respect for," Jack said, "Don't you ever trust nobody, its a good rule to live by,"

"Now that that's all out of the way though we do have several wrecks that needs to be looked at soon," Drake said.

"and we can't just leave my Manticore sitting at your farm" Cinder added.

"Don't you think we should find you somewhere to stay first?" Twilight asked.

"I don't necessarily think that us staying with you would be a good idea," Jack said.

"I can't just let you all stay in the middle of the Everfree forest, its dangerous and its a long treck to be making everyday,"

"I don't feel right leaving my baby to sit out in the middle of some gorge while I'm not there," Drake said.

"Wait, like, Ghastly Gorge?" Rainbow asked.

"I wouldn't know," Drake said, "Nobody has exactly handed me a map during my stay here,"

"I would assume that is where he is," Rarity said, "Its the only one around for miles,"

"There's a path to Ghastly Gorge Twilight," Rainbow said, "We wouldn't have to go through the forest!"

"I still don't think Celestia wanted them all out there on there own," Twilight said. "Maybe if one of them stayed in town? They could still watch Drake's... Ship? You are talking about your ship when you say that right?"

"What else would I be talking about?" Drake asked, as if it was incredibly obvious.

"Um, right, as i was saying one or two of you could stay in town and the others could watch Drake's ship. That way you guys have the ship safe, and the ponies in town don't feel like we've given four aliens free run of our country," Twilight said.

"Staying with ponies...." Jack thought out loud, "Sounds awful,"

"We'd probably be better off if i stayed closer to the manticore," Cinder said, "It does have all my stuff in it after all,"

"Manticore?" Rarity questioned, "Who would keep their things in a creature like that!"

"Her ship is called a manticore Rares," Rainbow explained.

"Indeed," Said Flint, "and while I don't mind staying with you ponies I sincerely don't think I would enjoy it for very long,"

"Well maybe we can land your ship in Ponyville dear." Rarity said, "It would solve finding you a place to stay, you can stay near your things and you're in town,"

"Yea!" Pinkie agreed, "and then Flint and Jack can just trade off or something! Oh! Maybe they can stay with me!"

"That idea works Pinkie," Twilight agreed, "But I doubt Mr and Mrs Cake would enjoy that, I do have a spare room in the library though,"

"Why do two of us need to be there again?" Jack asked.

"So that we don't freak everypony out. I doubt that ponies would be happy at the fact that you guys are just running all over the place doing whatever you want,"

"Point taken," said Flint, "I guess I'll go first, I'm pretty sure that Drake wants to talk to Jack before he stays with anyone,"

"While I like your thinking, Cinder's ship is probably about half the size of a football field. Where do you plan on landing it?" Drake asked.

"I don't know how much space that is, but there's a lot of space out inbetween the town and the school, I can talk to the Mayor and see if we could leave it there," Twilight said, "Until then I don't know where we could put it,"

"I can just cloak it up, it is a stealth bomber after all," Cinder said, "Nobody would see it unless i opened it up to get out, and even then the most they'll see is the inside,"

"Most unicorns will be able to detect the invisibility spell though, it would be even more noticable, especially with how big it is," Twilight explained.

"Invisibility spell?" Cinder asked while chuckling, "Like magic stuff from those Minmatar storybooks?"

"Well that much magic would be noticeable all the way to Canterlot," Twilight said matter-of-factly.

"I don't know what your smoking purple unicorn, but I would love to know where I can find some," Jack laughed.

"That's besides the point," Cinder said, "The covert cloak bends light waves, among other things, its invisible to sensors and any prying eyes,"

"But that still has to use magic," Twilight said, "There's no other way to do that,"

"Well i hate to disappoint you, but magic doesn't exist so you can throw that theory away," Jack said, still laughing.

"What do you mean 'Magic doesn't exist'!" Twilight said, "You guys use it in your ships don't you?"

"While I can see why you think its amazing, but my ship runs mostly on sleeper tech," Drake said, "Magic is just a story made up to keep lazy children out of trouble,"

"How can you deny magic that I can show you whenever I want?" Twilight almost yelled, "I mean really, watch," as she said that she teleported to the other side of the table.

"Congratulations guys," Jack said sarcastically, "You've finally beaten short range teleporting, Nice job learning basic physics,"

"Alright then," Twilight said, "Explain how your ships fly,"

"The generator creates power, this power is then routed to necessary systems and the engines, The engines then create thrust causing the ship to move," Flint explained, "It's really simple, I know you guys are still a developing race but I figured you would know things like this by now instead of just explaining everything with 'magic' That's just naive, haven't you even looked into how your 'magic' works?"

"Yes we have, it naturally makes earth ponies strong, allows pegasi to fly, and lets me use spells like teleporting and telekinesis," Twilight said.

"While the pegasi DO have small wings for some planets requirements for flight your planet has significantly reduced gravity, if it was the average Cinder's manticore wouldn't have fared too well. Also, you all appear to be different variations of the same species, 'Earth Ponies' as you call them are probably just naturally stronger, no magic there, and your 'spells' are all scientifically explainable as well, its probably just energy manipulation," Flint explained. As he finished Twilight was visibly fuming, but appeared to have no comeback to Flint's explanation.

"Of course you wouldn't understand," She said, "Your not a unicorn," When they didn't say anything she spoke up again, "Let's just go talk to the mayor about that land," There was quiet for a few seconds and then Drake spoke up.

"Sure, that's a great idea and all, but I'm afraid I do need to get back to my ship, there are some things I need to take care of while I still can, and Jack says he found a storage crate with drones in it. Flint and I should probably start clearing some of that up and seeing what needs to be fixed," He replied.

"Fine. Just take Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy with you," Twilight replied, still visibly upset, "The rest of you follow me, we'll stop by the library on the way,"

"Hey uh, Drake?" Rainbow began, "You sure you remember where you crashed? We've been wandering around for a while,"

"Well I'd be there by now if people would move a bit faster," Drake replied.

"sorry," Fluttershy squeaked out.

"Not you, you're doing fine Flutershy," Drake replied, "I was talking about Flint,"

"Shut up you, I don't have a suit," Flint replied.

"Just saying, I doubt you could go slower Drake laughed.

"Don't tempt me," He said with a chuckle.

"Hey, um Mr Drake?" Fluttershy started,"

"Yes?" Drake replied.

"Are you okay? if you don't mind me asking that is," She whispered.

"What do you mean?" Drake asked.

"You seem um.. hurt," as Fluttershy said this Drake stopped, and turned.

"How did you know that?" Drake demanded.

"I'm sorry! Its just that...Well... Your kind of limping..." Fluttershy barely managed to get out, "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to upset you,"

"No its ok, I just thought that I was hiding it pretty well," Drake replied.

"Your leg still?" Flint asked. "God Drake I thought we convinced you to get that fixed. How bad is it?"

"Well, Without the suit I doubt that I would be doing very much walking," Drake answered.

"Then that suit is pretty awesome," Rainbow said, "I didn't even notice,"

"That was the point," Drake muttered.

"We should get you patched up when we get back to your ship," Flint said, "I think I remember you having a medical storage unit on the bridge,"

"Don't you all pilot your own ships?" Rainbow asked.

"Yeah, but getting ejected from a carrier in a jetcan by its pilot is reason enough to be scooped on board," Flint explained with a small laugh.

"Well, I would love to get some medicine and such, and I totally would have when I left but the everything ended up broken and mixed in the unit when we crashed," Drake explained.

"Um.. we could stop by my house and grab some medicine, if you want..." Fluttershy asked.

"That would be great," Flint said, "and while you're at it see if you can knock some sense into his thick skull,"

"Oh, I don't think I could ever hit anybody," The humor seemed lost on Fluttershy.

"Is that it up ahead?" Rainbow asked as a hint of blue was now becoming visible through the treeline.

"Yea that's it," Drake replied as the group passed the treeline, slowing to an almost complete stop.

"Woah...." Rainbow exclaimed in awe. The beast before her was huge, at least five hoofball fields long, and layered thickly in metal. The front was reminisce of a hammerhead shark, it had a heavily armored midsection before it got somewhat smaller near the back where two armatures extended off of what Rainbow assumed were the engines. It was covered in twelve odd protrusions, one of which was spinning oddly, as if focusing on something for a few seconds before becoming bored. It had obviously been heavily damaged in the crash, but that made it no less impressive.

"Sorry to interrupt but... How is it doing that?" Fluttershy asked, breaking the silence.

"Doing what?" Drake asked.

"Um... Well.. Its not actually touching the sides of the gorge," Fluttershy explained.

"It has a shield around it, right now that's all that's keeping it propped in there," Drake explained, "If it were to fail the whole ship would plummet farther until it couldn't fall farther,"

"I haven't seen anybody look at yer ship quite like this since when you built it!" Flint exclaimed with a hearty laugh.

"Well it is something, especially considering the biggest ship they've probably seen is made of wood," Drake said.

"So how do we get in?" Dash finally spoke up.

"There's a drone bay near the back that I blasted the doors off of, we can get in there," Drake explained, as he started walking, everyone following except for Rainbow Dash, who was still staring.

"Come on Miss Dash, We can't just sit around all day," Flint said with another laugh.

"Alright, alright, sorry. How far from us is the entrance?" Rainbow said.

"At this pace?" Drake said, "It could take some time," As the group walked damage became more and more apparent, especially when Rainbow saw that a good chunk had been taken out of the bottom, and that several halls were visible through the other side of the ship.

It was definitely going to take some time.

Author's Note

Silly ponies always have to be right don't they? I would just like to point out that gravity in Equestria (at least in my story) is greatly reduced, allowing for the lighter frigates to be able to fly in the atmosphere, and for pegasi to fly, just don't expect anything bigger to be taking off without some serious help. Anyways, like I promised here is a chapter after less than a month, and of a decent size too. Expect updates like this about once per week :D (Also, Leave that author a comment, Authors love comments.)

Chapter 7

Cinder was currently sitting inside of a hollowed-out tree that had been converted into a library at some point. The group of ponies and capsuleer had arrived to the town almost an hour ago and she was letting Jack handle most of the affairs with the ponies, much to his chagrin. As of now she was going through the cargo manifest of the fleet's collective group of ships, debating on what they would most likely need that they could still use. She had just gotten halfway through Flint's Iteron's cargo when the other unicorn, Rarity, if she remembered correctly, walked up to her and rather awkwardly began,

"Um, I couldn't help but notice your strange choice of clothing, is it normal for everyone where you come from to wear that?" Rarity asked. As she said this Cinder looked down at what she was wearing, not having put much thought in it before. She was wearing a standard Caldari Navy jacket with the front open to a black shirt, along with grey pants and combat boots.

"I wouldn't know, I've never bothered to even really look at the non-caspuleers. They aren't worth my time," Cinder said rather darkly, somewhat upset that the unicorn was bothering her in the first place, but upon seeing she wasn't leaving, continued, "I guess Capsuleers like us are apparently known to dress... 'extravagantly' but I guess I never really put much thought into it, I've always just worn whats comfortable or on hand,"

"Really?" Rarity seemed somewhat shocked, "How can you not put thought into what you wear everyday?"

"I honestly don't spend much time IN clothes, these are honestly just what was for sale on the market the last time I bought some," Cinder explained.

"When i asked Jack he was polite enough to inform me that clothes are more required where you come from than here, are women an exception?" Rarity asked puzzled.

"Nope, I just spend most of my time in my pod, it just doesn't feel natural outside of it," Cinder said.

"You mean you just sit in one of those green things all day?" Rarity asked aghast.

"You wouldn't understand what its like, but you don't feel whole without the rest of your ship, when you're in there both of you become the same thing, and it just feels, right." Cinder said rather wistfully, "I don't really have a way to explain it in ways that I think you would really understand, but it is more natural to me than walking,"

"Well, I am in no position to judge although it does seem rather odd, however this is far from my original point. I was wondering if you and your friends would allow me to make clothing for you," Rarity said, "It would be a nice challenge, and seeing as you all appear to only have one pair I would say that you will probably need more, after all, one cannot limit themselves when it comes to fashion,"

"I couldn't care less but if i were you I'd check with Drake and the rest of them first," Cinder answered.

"I'll make sure to do that," Rarity said, "Now do you prefer blue or-"

"I don't really care,," Cinder interrupted, "Like I said, its of no real importance to me,"

"Ah i see," Rarity said slightly dejected, "I guess I just thought that as another woman you'd be my best bet to ask first,"

"Is that so?" Cinder said darkly as she continued to go through the list. It was quiet for a little longer before Rarity spoke up again.

"Well it looks like those two want to talk to me," Rarity said, leaving cinder, "Ill make sure i ask every- er how would you people put it? everycapsuleer?"

"The term we use is everyone, its all inclusive so everyone can use it, you'd probably be better off using it, its less confusing," Cinder replied

"I'll keep it in mind," Rarity said, stopping before she could continue to look at Twilight and Flint, "Well they seem to be done arguing, hopefully we can get something done now,"

"Yea... Hopefully..." A distracted Cinder replied.

"Are you sure there's nothing we could do to help besides sit over here?" Rainbow asked for the thirteenth time that hour.

"Yes I'm sure rainbow," Drake replied, stuck halfway into a rather tight compartment in the wall of the corridor they were in, "That's been the answer for a while now, and its probably going to stay the same,"

"But its sooooo boring," Rainbow whimpered.

"Then you shouldn't have tagged along," Flint replied from below the floor which now had several panels removed for access.

"Well Twilight wanted me to babysit you guys and make sure you didn't go all crazy and hurt somepony," Rainbow said, "Its not like I had any other choice," At this Flint stopped working and looked up at the pegasus, apparently in thought

"Tell you what Dash, we actually do need something for the next section we head to," Flint began, "If you take a left down that hall over there and then go into the room marked 'cargo hold' there are boxes, I need you to find me some headlight fluid, it should be in one of them,"

"Headlight Fluid? Got it!" Rainbow Dash said as she sped off, "Finally something to do!" was heard as she turned down the hall. At this Flint went back to working as Drake stopped and stared at him.

"What?" Flint asked innocently.

"I cannot believe you just did that," Drake said incredulously.

"Eh, she'll figure it out sooner or later," Flint replied

"Um, excuse me, but what is headlight fluid?" Fluttershy asked.

"It doesn't actually exist," Drake explained, "It's more of a joke than anything, something you send somebody off to find if they're being particularly annoying,"

"Oh," Fluttershy simply said, pondering what they had just said.

"So your saying that the big one could take out everything all the way to Philydelphia?" Twilight asked incredulously.

"Yep, if its reactor is still trying to go after that then it would put a serious crater in your nice little fields out there," Jack replied casually, his feet up on the table that Twilight had a map on and was trying to mark crash sites on.

"But thats not likely to happen right?" Twilight asked.

"Oh no, not at all but if it doesn't then you still have all that tritanium on there, and with the amount of stuff that gets used in ships and with no shield, well, you could be screwed. Tritanium gets really tempermental with in-atmosphere temperatures," Jack replied in a chuckle, making an explosion noise and mimicking an explosion with his hands.

"Well what can we do about it?" Twilight asked.

"Hell if i know, I'm not an engineer, why don't you use your fancy "magic" to fix it?" Jack asked.

"Because it's too big to put a bubble around," Twilight said.

"Can't ya just move it somewhere cold?" Applejack asked.

"Well we could move it up to the frozen wastes, there's nothing up there as far as we know," Twilight said, "But then I can't study it,"

"Well sparkle-butt its move it or lose it... and half the countryside," Jack said laughing, as Twilight frowned at the nickname.

"Cinder do you think you could come up with anything?" Twilight asked, causing the capsuleer to look up from her device.

"Well Sparkle, where is the wreck?" She asked getting up and pushing Jacks legs off the table.

"Hey!" Jack exclaimed.

"Its right here," Twilight said marking the spot the apocalypse had crashed, "and here is ghastly gorge where Drake is,"

"Well from what it looks like in either explosion the Proteus and this town are undamaged if it does explode, meaning we don't have to worry about it, we do need to worry about damaged drones and those half working sleeper components, wouldn't want something stupid happening," Cinder replied, assessing the situation.

"But in both explosions it hits towns!" Twilight said.

"So?" Cinder said, "Either way it doesn't really damage us getting out of here,"

"How can you say that!" Rarity exclaimed.

"Look, Your towns are replaceable and extremely cheap, I doubt you'll have a problem," Cinder explained.

"Wow," Jack said, "and i thought i was cold when it came to things,"

"I guess we'll just have to get the Princesses to teleport it," Twilight said dejectedly.

"Whats her problem anyways?" Applejack asked motioning over to Cinder who had sat back down.

"While I'm not going to say she's always sunshine and rainbows she is usually better than this," Jack admitted, "Its probably because of this whole predicament,"

"Well I hope she cheers up soon! The party won't be any fun if she's all mopey!" Pinkie said. As the group continued talking and moved on to the prospect of a party Jack and Cinder were both invited to a private chat channel by Drake and Flint.

'Hows everybody doing on your end Cinder?' Drake asked.

'The ponies are trying to find a way to neutralize the Battleship' Cinder replied.

'Great! How do they plan on doing that?' Flint asked.

'They think they're going to be able to teleport it with "magic"' Jack responded.

'I wouldnt worry about it, the only thing in the blast radius is a small town,' Cinder added.

'Just perfect... well at least when it fails them we aren't going to be paying for their blind beliefs,' Flint said.

'Still, it kinda sucks' Drake added, 'anything else happen over there before Flint and I start talking?'

'Not really, just weird shit in the cargo manifest for the iteron,' Cinder said.

'I'd like to err on the side of caution when on an alien planet with only one working ship,' Drake said, 'What kind of "Weird shit"?'

'Looking through compartment 04 there were quite a few unmarked objects, then the status for the whole thing changed to active and proceeded to blip out, like it got destroyed or something, I'm betting that the whole thing just bugged out or something' Cinder said

'We may want to check that out later,' Jack added.

'It is probably just a malfunction,' Flint said, 'But I'll add it to the to-do list I've got going on,'

'That is a bit concerning, but the Aura AI probably just went rampant,' Drake said, 'But back to the topic of said unstable battleship, Flint and I need to pull some parts out of it, because with the way it is the proteus isn't going to be too stable for much longer either if we don't get them,'

'Well Fuck,' Jack said 'That's just amazing,'

'We'll meet you all back at the farm-place, Rainbow just got back from looking for headlight fluid and she sounds kinda pissed, we'll see you all there soon,' Drake said.

"Alright everybody heads up!" Jack said enthusiastically startling the group of ponies talking in the middle of the room, "I just got done talking to the boss man and we are all headed back to Applejack's farm!"

"Its an orchard," Applejack corrected dully.

"Whatever, Now! Unless you have somewhere else to be, we're going to fix your crashed battleship problem," Jack Finished

"Uh Jack, they never-" Cinder began.

"Shut. Your face." Jack finished, "To the farm!"