The Sun peeked over the horizon. Shawn Instinctively woke when the sky started to brighten. Upon noticing his vitals rise Sadie spoke to him through his earpiece.

"Campsite is still secure. The only signatures I'm reading are our own."

"Thank you Sadie." he replied stretching his back. In a few moments he would begin his morning routine.

Standing, he surveyed the surrounding site. The remaining survivors were grouped together, the militia and civilians separating themselves. The other titan pilot was already awake, sitting cross legged next to the two still slumbering pilots. Seeing his approach she stood and saluted.

"Remember what I said last night?" Shawn said as he halfheartedly waved his reply. "No rank, no saluting."

He continued his march as he began to shed his clothes. Once naked he stepped into the lake, shivering from the temperature of the water. Once in up to his waist he began to wash himself of the grime of sweat and dirt from the jungle. The cool water snapping him from the last vestiges of sleep and heightening his senses as he rinsed himself off. A moment later as he emerged from the lake he noticed Lt. Hins just down the shore from him, doing the same.

Donning his boxers he gathered the remainder of his uniform and took it into some shallow water, submerging them and scrubbing them clean of the blood and muck, then proceeded to lay them out to dry on a nearby rock. At this point he noticed some of the civilians beginning to awake.
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Dillan awoke to the sound of splashing. He felt like he was home, and everything that had happened was a dream. Josh Denny and the rest were playing in the lake, and he fell asleep on the shore. Everything was Just a dream, no a nightmare. The suns rays warmed his skin. He wanted to live in this moment right now forever.

Opening his eyes the reality of the situation came crashing back down. He was in unfamiliar woods. His friends were with him, but they were down one. Josh, he deserved a funeral, or at least a burial.

He stood and brushed himself off, noticing that a few others were slowly stirring. Looking toward the lake he saw the Militia members gearing up for the day. The co-pilot of the dropship was applying fresh bandages to the pilots burns. During the fight with the dragon they registered temperatures inside the cockpit peaking right around fifteen hundred degrees Fahrenheit according to their navigation AI.

As his gaze flittered over the rest of the crew he saw that Shawn was looking his way and waved him over. Not wanting to anger the Major, he strode over and asked "Anything I can do to help?"

"Yeah" Shawn replied. "In roughly five minutes we are going to get everyone mustered, we are going to bury the boy and assess the damage done to our dropship. If it flies we are going to use it to scout out a more advantageous campsite." He began walking toward the ship so Dillan followed him. "If we can find a better location, something more defendable, I don't like the idea of sitting out in the open with creatures that can outrun our ships as well as melt them with their breath, we go there, set up shop, ascertain our whereabouts, see if we landed on a populated planet or not and go from there."

"If this thing doesn't fly" He continued, as they reached the ship. "We stay near the lake. I'll use the titan to scout around for someplace not so open for us to bunker down in, but we stay close to the lake. Its our best source for food and water."
______________________________________________________________________________
Meanwhile in space.

A house floats on a lone chunk of earth, slowly rotating, but being pulled toward the planets gravitational field, observed by two telescopes.
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Celestia trots into the observatory, here hoof falls muffled on the carpet.

"Any luck sister?"

"None yet. I must say Tia. I cannot bring myself to fathom how a house came to be on that floating rock." Luna said exasperatedly as she collapsed onto the seating cushion near the table.

She sighed, her tea had long grown cold, still untouched in the cup where it was set piping hot over an hour ago. A brief flare from her horn and the cup was lit in a magical aura. After a few seconds the tea began to steam.

"Well is it inhabited, or abandoned?" Celestia asked, in between sips of her own tea.

"That's just it sister. Its empty, but it hasn't been for long. evidence shows maybe less than a day. Yet that makes no sense." Luna replied, taking a slow gulp of her own tea. "It seems odd, but I somehow believe this is tied to the dragon's death. A mysterious house appears abandoned in space, and naught but an hour later..." she trails off, not wanting to keep thinking about the repercussions of their planet harboring something that could kill a dragon. The last time a dragon was killed by something other than natural causes or by one of its own was during the great war, and even then it took at least two alicorns to fight one fully grown dragon.

Even then the odd's were not in their favor.
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Shawn called the remaining survivors over. Once everyone had gathered around, he pulled two collapsing shovels from the emergency hatch of the crashed dropship. Handing one to the boys' father and began to dig.

Once the hole was substantial enough to hold a body without fear of being washed away over a short period of time, they lifted the boys body, wrapped in a cryo bag (a black bodybag designed to freeze and preserve the body for as long as it would take to get it home for a proper burial back home) and set him in the hand dug grave.

Everyone around aside from the Militia shed a silent tear for the lost boy.

"Does anyone want to say anything? Now would be the time. We don't know how long it's going to take for us to come back to retrieve him, if we even can." Joshua's father spoke, as everyone stood around.

"Not you." He violently responded when Shawn stepped forward.

Shawn honored the grieving mans wishes and stepped back in line.

Dillan took a few steps forward and took a knee by the grave, brushing the sandy blond hair out of his eyes. "Josh. I'll miss you man. All those times spent at the lake. or the time we skipped school to go smoke a cigarette behind Tina's moms garage, and coughed our lungs out. Heh you even threw up. All the times we had class together, and the teacher made us sit on opposite ends of the room because we wouldn't stop talking." he wiped a tear from his eye. "all the time spent in detention for when that didn't even stop us from yelling across the class."

Dillan broke down, as did Becky and Tod. Everyone gathered around each other to hug near the grave. John approached Josh's father, Tanner, and scooped some dirt into his hand. A tear rolled down Tanners cheek, but he nodded, and threw the dirt into the grave. Then everyone pitched in, with moist eyes, to bury the body of their fallen friend.

Once the body was buried they constructed a hasty headstone out of a pile of rocks, and a beautiful blue flower Becky had found in a nearby flower patch filled with the blue beauties.

"Alright." Shawn announced. "Time to get down to business. It's still early so we have time, but we don't want to waste it. You, you and you" he said, pointing at Tanner John and Kale. "Run a full diagnostics on the dropship," Seeing the lost looks on John and Tanners faces he added "don't worry, the pilot can do that on his own. If it needs fixed or worst case scenario, salvaged, you two do everything he says. Got it?"

The two men nodded as the pilot almost went for a salute, but caught himself midway and stopped, then turned and approached the ship.

"Alright, you and you." Pointing at Rebecca and Dennis. "Go to the ship, in the emergency hold there should be a couple containers of food and water, enough to last us for several days provided that the flames didn't get to them." He then turned to Lt. Stacy. "You go with them, have them move the food from the ship into the emergency cargo compartment on my titan. She nodded then gestured to the kids to follow her.

"Alright, that leaves us." He turned and spread his arms to gesture to the remaining group. "Co-pilot, what's your name?" "Private First class Jenny Jennings" Shawn deadpanned a look at her which prompted a "My parents weren't very creative Sir." and a chuckle from the civilians.

"Alright, Jennings, Dillan, Tod was it? we are going to..." Shawn was cut off by a persistent beeping coming from his arm mounted datapad.

Sadie spoke from the external speaker on the communicator. "Shawn, I have just detected a second distress beacon. It's still high above the planet."

"How did we miss it the first time we scanned?"

"The ship could have been in critical power failure, essentially running dark. I may have overlooked it as more debris floating from the piece of land that was nearby. Shall I attempt to establish communications?"

"By all means, please do."
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Several hours ago.

Davis, Farahad and Leo were frantically at work attempting to repair the crippled dropship. The remaining crew and Fireteam Juliet were either dead or unconscious. Unfortunately they didn't have time to worry about that, if they didn't get life support back online, they would all be dead in a matter of minutes from suffocation.

Farahad connected two sizzling wires together with his insulated gloves and spot welded them with a hand torch from his repair kit. A loud thump and a shudder resounded through the small craft as the emergency lights and ventilation kicked on. A sigh of relief washed over the three men.

After they rested a moment, they decided to check on the crew. Leo, the medic of Juliet set out ordering who was in most critical condition. He knew he couldn't save everyone with what was left in his medical bag. Too much of it had been consumed during that damn firefight planetside, treating wounded militiamen. He found the pilot dead, but the co-pilot was alive, but breathing shallowly. A two inch laceration above her right eye, where her head hit the console.

He quickly applied liquid stitch and a butterfly bandage over the wound and moved to the next. Sonny, the heavy gunner of Fireteam Zulu, laid under his Light Machine Gun, and was not breathing. He still had a pulse though. Leo quickly, with the aid of Davis, removed the heavy ballistics armor that Sonny wore, and pulled the bandoleers from his vest once all the weight was off his lungs they expanded as he gasped and coughed for air.

Leo continued his rounds but no one else was alive. With the weight of the loss bearing on his shoulders as a medical practitioner he slumped to the ground and sighed. At least he did what he could right?

A couple hours went by, and a moaning was heard from the cockpit. The co-pilot was waking up. Leo climbed into the cramped quarters to make sure she was alright.

"Hey." No response. "Hey!" he said a bit louder and the co-pilot jumped and pulled her sidearm.
She recognized him and felt a wave of embarrassment wash over her as she put the gun down.

"Hey its ok. I would have done the same thing, Williams is it?" he said observing the name on her flight suit. She nodded.

"Bailey" she whispered, her throat dry and hoarse.

"Nice to meet you, Leo, Sergeant. Third M-COR Medic division. Hell like it means anything right now anyways. Good job getting us out of there by the way. If it weren't for you and your pilot more lives would have been lost."
A moment of silence passes by and Leo continued "Hey is our distress beacon active?"

"Yes sir, it should be. Why do you ask?"

"Well thing is, this ship had a critical loss of power, If I remember my titan training" Bailey's eyes widened at those words. "If these systems undergo critical power failure, the emergency systems need to be manually reset."

"You're right." she gasped, "The beacon wasn't functioning." She said as she toggled a few switches off then back on. almost immediately the emergency beacon flared to life. Not a minute went by before the radio crackled with static.

"Unknown vessel. Identify yourself." the cold voice of an AI sounded over the comms.

"Don't answer that. It could be IMC" Leo suggested. "Instead, raise a hail of your own."

Bailey keyed the hand controls on her flight wheel. "Unknown responder, We are in no condition to fight. Are you Friend or Foe? Please Identify."

There was a momentary pause as the AI was most likely getting orders from her superiors, then the receiver cracked to life again.

"This is M-COR AI Commission number SDI-2851. Sadie. This is the M-COR Drop Vessel 56-R, code name Thistle is it not?"

A wave of relief passed over everyone who was currently listening to the comms chatter.

"Aye, we are, we are drifting dead in space, being pulled toward an unknown planet. We have no engines but our maneuvering flaps still respond with the emergency power."

"Advise, Thistle, you are to put down on this location or as close to it as you can." A nav marker flared on the ships HUD, overlaying a spot on the planet they were drifting to. "If my calculations are correct, you can use your maneuvering flaps to glide to the surface. The ship should withstand re-entry and be able to make it to that location. Deploy emergency chutes two kilometers before the beacon to ensure impact will not be fatal. We await your arrival."

"WE?" Leo said as the comms went dead. "More made it out alive? that's a good sign."

"Well, at the rate we are drifting we should be entering the atmosphere in about thirty minutes. At that point we can maneuver." Bailey said.
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A white unicorn stallion donned in gold armor burst into the observatory.

"Princesses! We have reports of a second object descending into the atmosphere!"

"Thank you Captain Shining armor." Celestia replied as calm as ever. "You are dismissed"

"Thank you Princess." he turned smartly and marched from the room shutting the doors with his magic behind him.

"Well dear sister?" Luna turned to Celestia. "Shall we dispatch a reconnaissance unit?"

"I believe that would be wise. Send the best."
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Spike was fixing lunch for himself, twilight and Rainbow Dash who had stopped in to pick up the next copy of Daring Do. The Daffodil sandwiches were good, but the real treat lay in the ruby encrusted bread that he made his own sandwich with, thanks to Rarity's generosity. He balanced the plates on his arm, draped with a towel and carried them into the living space of the Library.

"Thank you spike." Twilight said, taking the plates with her magic and laying them out on the table.

"Yeah! Thanks Bud!" Rainbow added as she bit hungrily into her sandwich.

Just as spike was about to take his first bite, Pinkie Pie exploded out of a vase in the corner of the room.

"TWITCHA TWITCHY TWITCH!" she shouted, causing everyone to scream a bit in surprise.

"Pinkie! Seriously? My vase?" Twilight exclaimed.

"I'm not even gonna ask how..." Spike said as he retrieved the broom and dustpan.

"TWILIGHT. SOMETHING IS COMING, AND ITS, ooooohhhhhhh....." Her whole body began to shake and contort violently "It's a DOOZY!"

Twilight had only just come to terms not long ago with Pinkie's so called Pinkie Sense, but with no reason to not believe her she simply sighed and braced herself for what was to come.

"Well? What is it?" Twilight asked.

"THAT!" She points at you. "Move ANON! I need to show them the window!" in the window behind you a fireball is visible as it was about to roar over Ponyville.

"Who are you shouting at Pinkie?" Rainbow asked confused.

The fireball passes without a sound.

"That's strange..." Twilight began but was cut off by Dash.

"COVER YOUR EARS NOW!" she screamed as her feathers sensed the pressure wave that was to come before it hit.

Everyone covered their ears just in time as a thunderous boom ripped through the town, shattering almost every window in the library and most of the buildings in Ponyville.

"What in the HAY WAS THAT!?" Twilight shouted, her ears still ringing.

"I don't know, it felt like my Sonic Rainboom, only that usually happens a lot sooner and not as loud. That thing must have been going waaaaaay faster." Rainbow said with wide eyes.

Twilight quickly repaired the windows with a spell she had used many times over thanks to Rainbow Dash's many visits. The trio went outside and their jaws dropped at the destruction. Twilight got busy helping other ponies repair their homes and businesses while Dash flew into the air to see where the object had gone. It wasn't hard to find though, it left a wake of burning ozone that left a distinctive trail that her senses as a weather Pegasi could detect. Not to mention the giant plume of smoke where it had run aground.

"Hey, where's pinkie?" Spike asked no one in particular.
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"The object has been reported to touch down about a hundred kilometers from a small farm town called Ponyville" the Bat winged pony instructed to a small contingency of other bat ponies.

"We are to gather as much Intel as we can. Assess the situation, if force is necessary it is permitted, as per Princess Luna. That shouldn't be needed though, If everything goes according to plan, nopony will even know we were there."
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Author's Note

Sorry it took so long for this one. The pneumonia didn't help any, oh and my Dad's home now. His knee replacements went well. He's actually doing pretty good all things considered. Anyway I hope to have the next chapter up a lot sooner than this one took. (those of you that want a history lesson on my take of the great war of the alicorns I will be including that in a later chapter)