The Last Horseman

by AceTriggerhappy

Rating: teen
Tags: Alternate Universe, Human, Dark
Length: 13931

A tale of discovery, revege and redemption.

A soldier on the run finds himself crashing onto an unknown planet, His pursuers following close behind and their resulting conflicts are opening fresh wounds of times that were almost forgotten. Will their unwanted presence cause a war to erupt around them while they figure out who the true enemy is? Or will they try to put aside their grievances and survive long enough to find a way back home?

Story arc 1/3

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-09-11 19:32:44 UTC

Prologue: FUBAR

“I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death.”

(Revelation 6:8)

UESS Endeavor.

Navlog update…

Time Stamp - 15/07/3028…

System - Unknown...

Local FTL netlink - Error #404 (Buoy may need maintenance. Please notify local system administrators)…

Quantum point communications - Error system unresponsive (M4it3nte…Error)

Master Errrrrr…

System reboot in progress…

System failure…

$@#523%...

Ever since they fled out of the Aegis system and dropped out of Faster than Light Travel the ships primary and secondary systems began to fail. Leaving the armor clad figure that stood on the ships bridge to smash a fist into the navigation console in frustration, causing it to spark. It reached up and placed two fingers against the side of its helmet; activating the radio to speak. “Ghost, this is Hunter. Have you reached the lifeboats yet?”

Another voice crackled over the radio.

“Negative sir, had to take a detour. Corridor seven no longer exists…" Ghost’s reply was interrupted as a low explosion came over the radio. Soon after Hunter felt the reverberation come through the floor as a bulkhead failed; resulting in a massive decompression in the affected area.

Ghost started to speak again, with a slight edge in his voice. “Fuck, that was too close. Please tell me you’re not going keep trying to fly this wreck.”

Before replying, Hunter stumbled to the left, catching himself on the door frame as more explosions rocked what was left of the ship. “Negative this boat is too far gone. I’m falling back to your position what route did you take?”

“Once you hit the junction that takes you to seven take the ladder up to B deck, then work your way through the medical bay. You’ll find a maintenance shaft at the end that will drop you back down to C deck from there the boats are a fifty meter dash down the hall.”

Leaving the bridge behind, Hunter mentally checked the route he was given against what he was able to memorize when they first infiltrated the ship.

He clicked his com again. “Wilco, but won’t it be faster to go through corridor five and through the armory?”

“Ha! I wish. One of the heavy cruisers decided that we didn’t need that anymore; it used its mass driver to relieve us of that burden. Only thing stopping us from breaking in half is the spine and what’s left of the lower decks.”

Hunter swore to himself. He was hoping they could come back and raid the ship after it crashed. But with the armory gone it left very few reasons to risk coming back.

As he made his way through the medical bay of the ship an explosion erupted from his right side and engulfed him in a massive fire-ball, without losing pace he emerged from the inferno a short time later his armor smoldering as he reached the maintenance hatch. Dropping down just as more oxygen tanks and other hazardous medical supplies were consumed by the flames. The weight of his armor and body combined resulted in a resounding thud when he hit the floor in a half crouch. Quickly standing up he took off in a sprint to where his comrade stood, in similar battered armor like his own. He waved him on as the ship around them started to violently shake; bulks heads starting to buckle as the crippled ship plunged into the atmosphere of an unknown planet.

Once Hunter had reached Ghost he pulled him inside before making his way to the pilot seat. Ghost secured the hatch behind him before strapping himself into a seat while talking to Hunter in a mocking tone. “So, you enjoy the sights while taking your sweet time?”

           Hunter shrugged as his hands danced across the control surface; initiating the launch sequence to get them as far as possible from the ship before it crashed. “Well if you want to leave faster, why don’t you fly next time?”

Ghost laughed while holding his seat harness in a vise like grip, the lifeboat jerking around violently in the launch tube. “You know I hate flying these death traps. Besides, you're more qualified to fly than I am any way.”

With one hand on the flight yoke, Hunter looked over his shoulder at Ghost who was seated behind him. “And who says I’m qualified for anything like this?”

Turning back around, he smashed the launch button with his free hand. The acceleration force tossed him back into his seat as the lifeboat rocket out of the launch tube and into the open sky. Before getting caught in the thermal wake of the crashing ship.

Hunter strained against the controls to get the craft to stop tumbling and into a controlled flight, but As soon as the control’s started to respond he spotted a massive piece of debris breaking off the ship that was heading straight towards them.

“Oh fuck, hold on to something!”

Ghost started to yell back a response but his voice was lost over the sound of the impact, his seat harness snapped and he was thrown into the row of seats in front of him. Hunter was thrown forward, his head rebounded off the control console cracking his visor. His vision fading as he fought to stay conscious, before blacking out he watched as a hole formed as the wing broke away taking parts of the hull with it.

With the starboard wing gone the lifeboat entered a chaotic tumble. Warnings inside the cockpit blared as its unconscious pilot was tossed about in his seat. Soon the other wing broke away from the extreme force, sending the battered hull into a spiral heading for a snow-capped mountain side.

__________________________________________

Zeveck Ironwing had only just fallen asleep after taking his turn on watch for the camp when a set of hooves started to pound into his back trying to wake him. Moaning, he lifted his head to look over his shoulder at the forest green unicorn that decided to assault him tonight.

“What is it Diamond? Your watch can’t be over yet.”

Diamond Glitter finally getting the attention of the massive white speckled Gryphon gave him a quick nuzzle, before stepping back with a large grin before he could swat her away.

“Don’t worry, it’s still my watch. But you need to come outside and see this!”

Zeveck gave a loud yawn before getting up and stretching. “This better be important. You know how little sleep I get since we got to the borderlands”

Diamond sighed as she held the tent flap open.

“Just look. I promise it won’t disappoint you this time.” The gryphon shook his head at the last part of what she said.

“Like I’ve said before I wasn’t disappointed, I... I was just caught off guard, you… what’s causing that glow?”

Going outside the tent where a strange glow was reflecting off the crisp snow. He looked up, beak agape, as he saw the sky glowing with a prismatic display.

“See? What did I tell you? Now help me wake the others.” She chimed in with a smug grin on her face.

Diamond quickly moved to wake the Professor, her father, Glacial Winds who was leading this archeological expedition into the borderlands; the area between the Arie mountains were all the major gryphon clans resided and the border of Equestria, where most of her kind was from.

The bluish white pegasus, Glacial Winds followed behind his daughter. Yawning and ruffling his wings to get the blood flowing again. He looked off to his left and saw Zeveck, a very old friend of his, walk out of a tent with the light grey earth pony Quartz Luck, a colleague of his from the Trottingham University. He was quickly puzzled about why they both were staring mystified up at the sky. Looking up, he was dumb struck at the sight above him.

What everyone thought was some atmospheric event turned out to be something much more ominous as a massive fire-ball lit up the night sky, following with a massive rainbow halo blooming out behind it as it streaked across the sky and disappearing over the horizon; followed then by a low roar that permeated the air and shook everything around them.

Diamond was amazed at what she saw. She had seen a rainboom before in the past, but this… this was on a whole new scale. And what was the object that created it she wondered. While pondering, she heard Quartz speak up. She looked back at him and saw him pointing to something in the sky. Following his hoof she saw what look liked a fiery piece coming towards them, but it instead screamed over their heads and impacted the mountain side on the other side of the valley they were in; not even an hour trot away.

“By celestia’s light, do you think it could be some skymetal?! Quartz eyes were wide with the prospects of what a find like that could do to their career and wealth.

“If that entire piece was skymetal then the small bit that landed next to us is more than enough to keep us fat and happy to our end days.”  Diamond offered.

“We will check it out in the morning.”

Glacial said before being cut off by his daughter.

“And let some other pony or gryphon find it?!”

“I’m with Diamond on this one, Glacial. We may be the only ones out here now but something like this wasn’t very subtle and will start a gold rush if others think it’s valuable. What about you Zeveck?” Quartz now looking at the gryphon.

“I think I’m going to agree with the Professor on this one. It’s just too dangerous to go out now.”

“Oh come on, Zeveck, just because you think you’re here for our security doesn’t mean you can’t have any adventures.” Diamond pleaded with her lifelong friend.

Glacial huffed. “Oh fine, you and Quartz can go see what it is. But I want you back here as soon as you look at it. I don’t want you risking your life out here for naught”

Both Diamond and Quartz ran back into their tents to pack some small saddle bags with necessities for the quick journey, while Glacial walked up to the side of the large gryphon and spoke low to him.

“Go with them and keep an eye out, I don’t want anything to happen to them.”

Gently placing a claw onto the old stallions shoulder, Zeveck looked at him.

“Don’t worry. My oath to you from all those years ago still stands. I would rather fall then let anyone harm your family and friends”

Glacial smiled at the reassurance his friend gave.

“You know when we get back to Equestria you could try asking me for my blessing instead of trying to hide your feelings for her.”

The gryphon almost tripped over himself as he moved away to wait for the others at random change of subject.

Stammering and scratching the back of his neck with a talon “I…I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh please, I’ve seen how you act around her. I honestly think you two would be perfect for each other.” Glacial said starting to laugh now.

“You really think so?” The gryphon asked, a bit more at ease.

Before he could get a response the other two were finally ready and started heading towards the impact site.

Glacial walked up to his friend and gave him a pat on the back.

“Yes, I really think so. Now get going before they leave you behind.”

The gryphon gave a smile and took off to catch up with the others before stopping to hover.

“Are you going to be okay up here by yourself?”

Giving a sly smile the old Pegasus nodded.

“I may be old, but I can still put up a good fight.”

With the answer he was hoping for, the gryphon resumed his flight to catch up with the others. Once he reached them he landed down beside them and kept pace on foot.

“So what’s got you smiling and the old stallion laughing now?” Diamond asked.

“Just reminiscing about the older days” The gryphon said replying with a small smile.

“So if this turns out not to be a chunk of skymetal what do you think it is?” Quartz thought aloud the group.

“I guess we're going to have to find out!” Diamond giving a large grin before racing ahead of the group.”

______________________________________________________

Moments earlier

The UESS Orion in pursuit of the Endeavor.

Commander Charles Stone shook his head at the data screens not wanting to believe the readouts that flashed at him, while the ships klaxon blared overhead and the rest of the ships systems going haywire.

Looking over at his Chief engineer he called out to him using his nickname first.

“Hammer?”

Nothing.

“Master Chief.”

The ships lead engineer was still fixated on the damage states and trying to remotely fix what he could from here. Since dropping out of FTL behind the Endeavor everything started to spiral down words: first a massive radiation spike that knocked the coms off-line and just about everything else on the ship, then the main engines dying out. Resulting in them having to overclock the reaction thrusters on the front of the ship; burning most of them out just to slow them down. Since then one by one they were losing critical systems, and out of the thirty crew members on his ship, the possibility that the five others on the bridge with him could be the only ones left alive. And that was way too much for him.

“Master Chief Rodriguez!”

Finally sinking through the Chief engineer jumped in shock at his name being yelled.

“Sorry Commander. Just got a lot on my plate right now.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. But I need to know if we have our coms, netlink or something… anything back up yet.”

The engineer nodded.

“I should have the coms back soon. But as for the netlink I don’t understand why the ship won’t pick up a buoy single its showing green, and...”

“And?” The commander asked raising an eyebrow.

“And I don’t understand how Bowman can’t get a ping with the point link. It’s still attached to the ship.”

Stone scratched at his beard before turning to his coms officer.

“Bowman confirm your still having no luck hailing anything?”

“Aye sure. Still can’t get anything, its saying were out of range...which should be impossible.”

Stone shook his head. None of this made sense to him.

“Barrels. Got any good news for me?”

The helmsmen wiped sweat off his ebony brow as he concentrates on the screen in front of him.

“With the speed the Endeavor is clockin in commander and no signs of lifeboats, their gona be

hitting the dirt pretty hard. Rating at the most a class four impact... Nothin is gona survive that.”

“Don’t write them off that easily Ensign. Those sons of bitches still might be stubborn enough to survive.”

“Let’s hope your wrong commander.”

He hoped he was wrong to, even if his entire crew were alive a single one of Omega team could force them onto their knees let alone if all six of them were alive.

Stone Looked back his helmsman.

“Can you keep us in a stable orbit?”

“Negative Commander. Without the main engines best I can do is keep us in a degrading orbit for about an hour. After that we will have to set down if we want to stay within a class one, maybe an extra ten minutes if you want to risk a class two, after that we’ll just be a smudge on the surface.”

Stone sighed. He hope that they could somehow stay in orbit. But if they landed and could not get the main engines back online there was a good chance they would be stuck until help arrived… if help arrived.

“Launch distress beacons and program one of them to loop a connect protocol for the netlink. Hopefully the thing is just in a shadow with dead batteries for a few hours.”

Stone sat back in his chair and turned to his executive officer that stood rigid beside him.

“You have any insight on our predicament Price?”

“We could try turning off that bloody alarm sir.”

After tapping through the commands on his screen to stifle the master alarm, the coms over the bridge started to crackle to life.

“This is warrant officer Bryant Fields. If you are receiving this please acknowledge, I say again this is warrant officer Bryant Fields. I am locked in the arms locker with three other survivors and life support is offline. Again anyone who can hear this please acknowledge, we’re running out of air here.”

Stone hopes rose after hearing the voice of his security chief. He pressed the coms button in his chair hoping they could hear him.

“This is the commander. we read you and are coming to get you out there, you said you had  other survivors with you?”

Stone started to worry when no reply came but after several tense seconds it crackled to life again.

“Thank every holy thing in existence, it’s nice to hear your voice for once commander, I’m locked in here with two of my marines and smoke’s.”

“Roger. I’ll be opening that door myself so you won’t forget who saved your sorry ass.”

“looking forward to it commander. Fields out.”

Commander stone motioned to his engineer and gunnery officer.

“Hammer, Falmer with me. Price you have the bridge until I get back”

His XO nodded and moved himself to the Commanders seat once he had left the bridge.

Ch.1 First Contact

The trio had made their way down the side of the mountain to valley where the object had touched down; before sliding to a stop and leaving a furrow in the earth a few hundred feet long. They cautiously made their way through the burning debris towards what now appeared to be some kind of wreckage.

“So what do you guys think it is? It sure isn’t looking like any skymetal now.”

“I have no idea Diamond. But just looking at it gives me the creeps.” Zeveck said ruffling his wings in anxiety. “But I think we should turn around and head back to camp and send a message to the border guard so they can deal with it.”

“Oh come on Zeveck where is your sense of adventure and Diamond you’re not going to back out now either are you?”

“I don’t know Quartz. I…I’m kind of getting the same feeling as Zeveck and I think it might be wise if we head back.”

Quartz huffed and started moving forward. “You both can act liked scared foals but I’m going to get a closer look.”

____________________________________

Hunter let out a short moan before entering a coughing fit and splattering more blood against the inside of his helmet. He had just released his seat harness before realizing he was hanging upside down. Leaving his banged up body to protest in agony when it hit the ground. When the coughing had subsided and he managed to pull in a raged breath, he sat up and pushed himself towards the wall to brace himself. Wincing as his left leg was dragged over uneven debris.

“Broken ribs and a shattered leg, could be worse I guess.” Grimacing as he talked to himself.

Flipping open the cover on a small Personal Date Assistant that was attached to his wrist, resulted in sparks as the holo graphic display shorted out. Swearing at it he pressed down on a small button that flashed blue before turning yellow, showing the air was breathable but toxic.

“Let’s just hope it’s the smoke.” Undoing the seal that locked his helmet to the rest of his armor resulted in a hiss as the pressurized air in the helmet escaped. Tossing it to the ground he let out a wet cough as he took in a breath of cold air laced with the smell of burnt metal and plastics. Wiping the blood out of his eyes he looked around what was left of the life boat, but all he saw was the carnage of things being ripped from their mountings and tossed about or being sucked out of the several rends that pocketed the ship. It came to him in a shock when he realized he couldn’t spot Ghost.

“Ghost? Ghost!?” Hunter started to claw his way through the debris trying to locate his buddy. Once he had muscled some of the bench seats out-of-the-way he found arm that was still attached to a body, albeit it was at the wrong angle. Throwing off more of the larger pieces he dragged his comrade out of the pile and towards a large hole in the starboard side of the craft to get him into cleaner air.

Ghost sputtered as his helmet was removed and an armored glove passed across his face wiping blood away, he looked up at bloody and bruised face with a jagged scar that ran from his right side temple down to the chin, still standing in contrast to the blood.

“You look better this way *Cough* hides the ugly.”

Hunter tried to laugh but only a sharp wet cough came up. “Ya. But the ladies always preferred my looks over yours.” He entered another coughing fit that left him wheezing and wiping more blood from his mouth.

“Can you walk at all?”

Ghost tried to sit up but quickly gave up, pain contorting his face. “Gah! Every thing feels like its on fire and I cant feel my legs.”

“looks like I’m going to have to drag you then.” Hunter draged himself back towards the pilot seat in hopes that the trauma kit was still secured. Finding it and his battle rifle still secured he undid both, tossing his rifle towards the hole and sliding his way back over with the kit in his lap.

“No way in hell you’re going to be able to drag me anywhere with your leg fucked up like that.”

“We’ve got no choice. We need to get out of here and find some place to hold up before the Republic catches us.”

“And then what Hunter! The rest of team is probably dead and we have little supplies and practically no ammo *cough* what the hell are we going to do? Find some fucking hole to hide in and hope this all blows over?”

“I don’t know. But we can’t just sit here arguing about it. We have enough supplies to ration out for a few weeks and we can try to scavenge for more. There’s snow outside and from what I saw from the bridges windows there were green patches on this planet so there has to be something edible some were.”

Popping open the trauma kit he worked out a small gun like device and placed it against a patch of exposed flesh on his leg. He pulled the trigger, letting the medigun shoot a small pellet of painkillers, antibiotics and other chemicals meant to speed up healing into his leg.

His leg quickly went numb as it took effect and he let out a sigh. “Ahh fuck, that’s what I’m talking about.”

He moved over to Ghost to give him a dose but he sat up slightly and used his good arm to stop him.

“Don’t even bother *cough* I’m too banged up to be worth saving.”

“Bullshit.” Hunter said with a growl in his voice.

“Face it Hunter I can’t even use my fucking legs, my right arm needs surgery and we don’t have the *Cough* fucking damned tools to fix any of it. Just leave me behind, you’ll be able to cover more ground without me slowing you down.”

“Don’t you fucking talk like that. That’s an order.”

“Then I’m done following your orders sir.” Reaching up ghost grabbing a small chain from under his armor that held his dog tags and a small data chip; ripping them off he handed them to Hunter.

“Take her and just let me go dammit.” Ghost slumped back down with a defeated look on his face.

“You stubborn fucking bastard.” Hunter shook his head and took the objects from Ghost's hand and shoved them into a pocket on his assault webbing before reaching an arm around Ghosts  chest and started to lift him up.

“What the hell do you think your doing Hunter?”

“I had to leave the others behind, I’m not not fucking loosing you to.” Hunter gritted his teeth as he put weight onto his bad leg and started to drag Ghost out.

“Hunter, Razor orderd us both to take the ship and go.”

Hunter collapsed as his bad leg gave way; bitting down on his tounge to stiffle a cry of pain that made it through the pain killers.”

“For fucks sake Hunter give it up. all your going to do us get us both killed.”

“Then we will both die togther!”

Ghost worked his way from Hunters grasp and proped him self against the ragged edge of the hole. “Hunter just stop! We both know I wont live more than a few hours without surgery. Just leave me here, I will cover your escape as best I can.”

“Ghost please dont do this to me. I…” Hunter stoped talking when he heard movement outside.

“Hunter wha…” Hunter clapped a gloved hand over ghosts mouth. “Shhh. Something has already found us.”

Drawing his .45 Hunter slowly crept out side to meet what ever was creeping around.

____________________________

Quartz slowly made his way closer to the wreck. Trying not to step on the numerous pieces of metal and other unknown material that blew around in the wind while also trying to stay out of the fire light. Once he got close enough he was positive that something had crafted it, he just had no idea what.Upon getting within a dozen feet of a large hole in the side he could hear noises coming from within. Then he saw it, Some kind of large creature slowly working its way out of the hole favoring one of its legs over the other. Quartz heart raced as he stepped back and winced as his hoof struck a piece of metal that was buried under the windblown snow.

He froze as the creature spun around to face the sound he made, It’s eyes staring back at him with unbridled furry, and shouting something. Quartz stood frozen regretting his past choices as what seemed like lighting burst forth from a device held infront of it. Resulting in lancing pain tearing through his neck. He laid in the now reddening snow trying to stem the flow of blood with his hoofs that now gushed from his neck, the last thing he saw was Diamond’s face frozen in terror.

Hunters hand shook as he kept pulling the trigger on his sidearm to no avail, he had fired the last three rounds he had into the creature that was sneaking up on them. He had no idea what it was but he wasn’t going to risk finding out if it was friendly or not when so much was at stake.

“What do you mean unknown contact!?” Ghost yelled at hunter as he holstered his sidearm and reached down for his rifle.

“I have no idea and I'm not going to…” Hunter was cut off as something roared behind him and pulled him out of the ship, throwing him into the snow.

“Hunter!”

___________________

Glacial sat in front of the fire waiting for the other to come back, he felt like they should have been back by now. Standing up and stretching, he contemplated about going out and looking for them, but decided he would give them another hour instead of facing his daughters scorn about him being reckless. He had started to pick up a piece of wood to throw in the fire when he heard noise from behind him. Spinning around and bringing one of his old wing blades to bear, he was met with spear leveled at his throat, he furled up his wing as more spears appeared out of the shadows while a red Pegasus in front of him stepped from the shadows; bearing the armor of the Equestrian border guards and still keeping its spear leveled at him.

“State your name and your business in these parts. And where the rest of your party is.”

He swallowed before answering. “I am Professor Glacial Winds. Three others and I are on archaeological expedition on behalf of Trottingham University. As to their whereabouts, they went to investigate an object that fell from the sky.”

“Glacial Winds eh? Perhaps the same Glacial Winds that lead the Ninth Pegasus Wing During the Ironwing Raids twenty years ago?”

“What is it to you?” Glacial said narrowing his eyes.

The Pegasus raised his spear with the others following suit “I mean no disrespect, I’m just curious. I am Lieutenant Spark Kicker.”

Glacial was taken aback by the familiar name. “Spark Kicker huh. That would make you Captain Tempest Kickers son am I right?”

“Yes it would. My father has talked highly about you, says your one of the best officers he’s ever had the pleasure of leading.”

Glacial sat down with a smile on his face remembering his old commanding officer.

“Heh, so how’s old thunderhead doing nowdays.

“Old, senile and enjoying retirement in Cloudsdale.”

Glacial rubbed a hoof under his chin “He retired? Never imagined  the day he would set down his duty’s and grow complacent”

“Yep. It was a shocker to the rest of the family and I. But enough of the pleasantries you said the rest of your party went to look at something that fell from the sky?

Standing up and pointing down the valley were a small glow emanated “Right down there is a small bit that crashed. The larger piece kept on going until it pass over the horizon.”

A soon as he finished talking three cracks echoed up the valley, followed by an unmistakable roar resulting in Glacial ears to perk up at the sounds and leave a dire expression of shock on his face.”

“Diamond!”

Spark turned from the sound to the old stallion next to him. “One of your party members?”

Glacial was starting to panic “My daughter! And that roar is from Zeveck the..the gryphon in our group.

Spark nodded and turned to the others and waved a hoof at his troops. “You six I want you down there now!” Six pegasi saluted and took off at incredible speed towards the crash site. While Spark pointed at the next group. “You two. hitch up the chariot and get sergeant Flint down there!” The two pegasi and one of the only two unicorns in the group saluted before moving off.

Spark walked up to glacial and placed a hoof on his back to help settle him and hold him back if needed.

_______________________

Hunter tossed the massive beast off of him and tried to crawl back towards the wreck where his rifle lay, but it soon wrapped its claws around his bad leg and pulled him back; causing him to howl in pain.Working free and rolling over he brought his good leg back and gave the beast a mighty kick into its chest; sending it flying.

Zeveck landed with a massive thud; the wind knocked out of him. He was surprised how much strength the creature had, it was just about the same size as him and looked badly injured but it still seemed to outmatch him. With a roar he leapt back at it, he would tear its throat out no matter the cost.

Hunter rolled to the left as the creature leapt at him and was caught by surprise as it spun around faster than what seemed possible and found its talons glancing off his armored chest piece, leaving small scratches in it. Pushing off the ground with his good leg he tackled it as its beak snapped at his face. Rolling through the snow Hunter managed to pin the creatures forelegs against its neck stopping it from attacking his face, but it still managed to get its hind legs under him and push him off.

Zeveck rolled back to his feet and pounced the creature but was met with an armored fist smashing into his head. Dazed and landing on his side he felt a sharp pain in his right wing as he rolled to get back on his feet, shaking his head trying to clear his vision he spotted the creature pick somthing up and start limping towards him, he gave another roar and swung his talons at his foe but missed. Before he could strike again he felt a sharp pain shoot up his back and his legs collapsing under him as he lost all sensation to his lower half.

Hunter yanked the bloody metal shard out of the creatures back and started limping his way back to the wreakage for his rifle. He only got a few paces before getting hit in the back by some force that threw him forward. Rolling over he spotted the culprit.

A green horse like creature that had a horn sprouting from its head, that started to glow again. Rolling to dodge the next blast of energy Hunter renewed his efforts towards the wreck, quickly reaching it he fumbled for the rifle. Feeling the sling, he wrapped his fingers around it and pulled. Spinning around and getting onto a knee, he shouldered the rifle and took aim at the creature now running for its life. Holding his breath he pulled the trigger. The heavy .338 round knocking his poor balance off as the round tore into the things right hind leg; throwing it over the snow bank and out of sight. Hunter sat down outside the ship catching his breath, he pulled the charging bolt back and peeked into the chamber, he had one round left.

“I think we got a breather for few seconds Ghost… Ghost?”

Hunter looked over were he had left his friend, who was now pale and slumped over. “Ghost!” Hunter clamberd his way over to ghost and reached for his neck looking for a pulse, but found none, “Dont do this to me Zach, not after all we’ve been through.” Ripping his chest piece off and laying him down Hunter attepmted to resuscitate his comrade. “Dammit! You cant leave me now… I need you.”

_________________________________

Stone dropped his hand from the final salute he gave, he had just finished burying the last of the dead. Nineteen of the bravest men and women he ever knew now lay in shallow graves in the sun-baked earth. He jumped slightly as a hand fell onto his shoulder. “Don’t beat yourself up sir. There was no knowing the core could ever throw off that much radiation.”

Stone turned to the Lieutenant commander. “They died under my command Price. If we haddent  jump for the opportunity to pursue the Endeavor...”

“Then we would be probally be standing in front of the admiral explaing why we didnt give chase.

Turning away from his XO he looked off into the distance, watching the heat shimmer off the flat ground. “I think I would rather face admiral Mikhailov then loose half of my men.” Sighing he looked towards his men who still stood stiff above the graves of the fallen.

“At ease men, we have a lot of work to do and little time to get it done.  Fields take your marines and grab the Pumas. Take Chief Bowman with you to make up for a gunner.” The three marines and the coms officer saluted before making their way back to the ship.

“ Falmer get our guns back online, I want some kind of fire power before night fall.”

The Gunnery officer saluted and also made his way back to the ship.

Stone finally turned to the last few crew members. “Bartels dig out the all of star charts and start looking at the sky when night falls. I want to know where the fuck we landed. Hammer go and check up on miles and see if he’s gotten Sangha patched up yet, you guys are going to have the most work getting this ship flying again.”

Saluting they both left to join the rest.

Turning back to his XO stone pulled a pipe out of his pocket and lit it. “Now we wait.”

“The calm before the storm sir?”

Stone gave a weak smile. “Aye. Seems like it.”

_______________

Flint shaded his eyes as the sun started to rise over the mountains. It wouldn’t be too long before the gyphons started to flock here and find out what transpired. Looking down from the chariot he  spotted a red trail through the snow and something green at the end of it.

“Take us down I see something.”

Once he was a few feet from the ground he leapt out and made his way to the what he now saw as a body, he hurried over and found a unicorn barely alive with a massive wound where her cutie mark would lay on her right flank. He picked up her head while channeling what little healing magic he knew into the massive rend.

“Stay with me, your safe now. Are you Diamond? Glacial’s daughter?”

She rolled her eyes mumbling the name Zeveck over and over.

“We need to get her back to the garrison now! Darter can you fly me and her back by yourself while Clouds gets word back to the lieutenant?”

“It’s going to be a tough pull but I can manage.”

“Good. Clouds help me get on her on here.”

The yellow Pegasus unhooked himself from the harness to help the unicorn get the young mare on the chariot before saluting his sergeant and taking off back towards the camp, while Darter strained to get his overburdened load into the sky and back to the garrison in Grazefield.

Hunter had no idea how long he had been asleep from passing out from exhaustion after tying to revive ghost, when he heard strange muffled sounds coming from all around him. Opening his eyes he found himself face to face with another horse creature, this one sporting armor and holding a spear. The creature back peddled in fright before quickly recomposing itself and jabbing a spear at him and appeared to speak in some garbled tongue. Hunter had no idea what kind of fucked up hallucinations he was having but that spear seemed real enough, he grabbed the shaft and yanked on it. Throwing the beast forward towards him. when it landed in front of him Hunter head-butted it, but to his surprise its skulls seemed thicker than his and he recoiled from the shock. As he shook his head one of them decided to thrust it’s spear at him. It broke when it failed to pierce the ballistic layer under his armor.

Hunter grabbed the broken end and worked his way back on his feet before smacking the now surprised creature alongside the head with it, knocking it out when another spear was thrust at him he yanked it from its grasp and knocked its feet out from under it before spinning it around and thrusting at another attacker, the spear embedding into its armor. One of the last three standing managed to get his spear through one of the tears in his armor on his bad leg. He let out a howl as the blade cut into his flesh, he brought his hand down on the spear shattering it before dropping to a knee. The creature he had head butted was already back on its feet and kicking its hind legs out at him. Hunter saw blackness as its rear hoofs connected with his face.

Ch. 2 A Brewing Storm

            Kelly bounced around in her seat as the Light Attack Vehicle soared over the dune and landed heavily onto its wheels. Pressing a pedal next to her right foot she swiveled the 20mm cannon and brought it to bear on an outcropping of rocks that she was aiming at earlier.

The radio in her helmet crackled to life. “Got a visual on that thing yet corporal?” She squinted into the guns sight making it zoom in on the rocks.

“Negative sir, whatever it was, it’s still hiding. Want to go and take a closer look?”

“Negative. Commander doesn’t want us venturing out beyond the perimeter. Probably just some local wildlife.”

“How much are we willing to risk and hope it’s some wild alien sir?”

“The Endeavor crashed hundreds of miles West of us. I’m pretty sure Omega still has a way to travel and I doubt they would waste time to dart around rocks corporal .”

“Yes sir.”

Kelly leaned back in her seat while panning the gun around, feeling the hot wind blow against her face while keeping an eye out for trouble.

Bryant thought about what Kelly  had spotted at the rocks and wondered if it was something to look into, but thought against it. Orders were orders. After driving around for several more minutes the radio’s light in the cab blinked, telling him someone was trying to hail them. flipping a switch to receive it resulted  his ear piece blaring, swearing he turned down the volume.

“Home plate to Alpha actual how copy?”  Flipping another switch let him broadcast back on the secure channel.

“This is Alpha actual copy.”

“All recon elements are to report back to base for debriefing over.”

“Roger home plate, Alpha is RTB over.” Flipping another switch Bryant contacted the other LAV on patrol.

“Alpha actual to Alpha 3 we are RTB how copy?”

“Alpha 3 copy, heading back now over.”  Spinning the wheel around, the Pumma  slid as it quickly changed direction and headed back towards the Orion.“Why are we heading back so early sir? We’ve only been out here for a few hours.”

“Don’t know Corporal. Commander wants us back so we head back.”

“Roger sir.”

Darrel stood next to the ramp control while watching a small screen as their two LAV’s slid to a stop right outside.  Pulling the lever in front of him the ramp started to lower as warning lights above spun around with a siren buzzing every few seconds. Once the ramp had touched down the LAV’s tires spun as they gained traction in the soft earth and the engines roaring as they climbed they ramp. Once both of them were up he closed the ramp and walked back to where they parked.

Kelly swiveled her seat to the side and hopped off the back of the Puma and took her helmet off,  lashing it to her side before walking up to the head mechanic and giving a quick salute. “How’s Petty officer Sangha doing sir?”

Darrel sighed. “Not the greatest. Doc says he will recover if we keep a steady dose of anti-radiation meds, but he’s going to be pretty scared up.”

They both turned towards loud banging behind them to see Bryant throwing the roofs hatch open. “The Damn hatch is still sticking Hammer and the com’s seem to be glitching out again to.”

Darrel nodded. “I’ll give it a look sir. Also the commander is waiting for you guys on the bridge.”

Bryant gave a quick nod and whistled for the others to follow.

They made their way through the tight hall ways to the bridge where the Commander was waiting for them.

Once they step onto the bridge they all gave a quick salute and the commander returned it.

“Anything of note from your patrol?”

Bryant spoke up. “Corporal Buchanan spotted something moving in and out of rock out cropping near grid 17.”

Kelly nodded her head.” Some kind of black creature sir.”

“Interesting.”

Bryant gave a puzzled look. “Is that all you wanted sir?”

“No sorry. The reason I called you back early is that we have a more pressing concern.”

“What kind of concern sir?”

“We picked something on the scope not too long ago. We’re not quite sure what it is buts its large and moving slowly towards us.”

“Could it be Omega sir”

“Hard to tell. All we know for sure is that its flying, it has a mass of about 100 tons and its moving at steady 6 knots.”

“Short of tying some balloons to a few tanks I can’t imagine anything that large flying so slow. How long till we have a visual?”

Commander Stone turned to his gunner who was waist deep inside one of the control consoles. “Any luck with the guns Falmer?

Sliding his way out he sat up and looked with a small data tablet and pressed it a few times. “Nnn...YES!  I just got the 120’s back online on our 12 and 9 o’clock. As long as they keep heading straight at us we can get a good visual on it about thirty minutes.”

“How long do you think it will take to get the point defenses online?”

Falmer shook his head. “Few hours messing around down here maybe. Sooner if Hammer could work on them outside.”

Stone shook his head. “I guess we’re going to have to trust your aim then. Fields take your marines and get the entrances locked down tight and get back here with whatever we have in the security lockers.”

Bryant saluted and motioned for his two marines to follow him.

“Kelly lock down the port side, I’ll take the starboard. Vance go clear out the gun lockers and get what we have to the bridge.”

Both marines nodded and jogged off to their destinations leaving Bryant to himself. “If its Omega that’s wanting to pick a fight now they have another thing coming.”

_______________________________

Hunter groggily lifted his head to find the same blue pissed off horse thing he spat on earlier shouting  more random gibberish; and threatening to club him again with a hoof. After getting knocked out from the first time a few hours ago he woke up in heavy chains on what he was guessing was a boat or something and started fighting against his captors with little effect, until he spat on the one that stood above him. He chuckled at his situation, for the last thirty some years in Omega he saw some weird crap on alien worlds and fought things that could rip an entire platoon apart in seconds. And here he was chained up by some alien horses. While lying there a door towards the front opened flooding the room with light and cold air.

Trying to twist his head to get a better look he saw a group of them carrying something down the stairs, His temper quickly flared when he noticed it was Ghosts body they were bringing down and dropping into a corner. He thrashed in his chains while shouting at them. “You fucking pieces of shit! I’ll rip your damn heads off if you don’t leave him alone!.” He felt his head get bashed again and quickly lost consciousness.

“Keep that up Nova and you’ll be explaining to the Princesses why there are two dead creatures when we told them one was still alive.”

“Sorry sir. It just started yelling again.”

“Then gag it! Now get out here and help us get this wreckage tethered to the airship.”

Nova Blast followed Lieutenant Spark Kicker up onto the air ship deck before weaving their way through the busy crew to the ramp that led down to the ground. “So Lieutenant what manner of creature do you think they are?”

“Not my area of expertise to say private.”

Once on the ground Nova left to lend a hoof  to get the wreck secured for flight; while Spark watched the organized chaos unfold. After watching for a bit he moved on to where a small clearing was made for medical area. He watched as some of the healers were carefully moving the covered body of an earth pony who was killed by the beast a few hours ago. Moving out of their way he made his way to the pegasus Glacial Winds who sat off from another group of healers working on a gryphon.

Glacial looked to the side when he heard somepony approaching him.

“Have you gotten any word on my daughter!?”

Spark shook his head. “I’m sorry not yet. And we probably won’t have one until we reach the garrison.” He watched as the old Pegasus hung his head in grief.

“How’s your friend doing?”

Glacial choked back tears while trying to find his voice. “They said his spine was severed. Paralyzing most of his body…”

A fresh stream of tears rolled down his cheeks as he started to break down.

“I saved his life two decades ago. And he’s repaid me by watching over my family since. He was there for my daughter  and I when my mate passed I…I can’t bear losing either of them.”

Spark was at a loss for words so he simply extended a wing to comfort him.

Hunter awoke when he felt the vessel lurch forward. He tried raising his head but the sudden spike of pain showed it was a bad idea. He laid there with his head throbbing feeling the ship rock with the waves, but it quickly dawned on him. It’s wasn’t gentle waves he was feeling it was the unmistakable feeling of turbulence that came with several thousand hours of flying. Was he on a flying boat? When he started to move he quickly found a hoof pressing down on his chest, sending spikes of pain through his body from his broken ribs. Starting to Cough up blood he looked to find the same blue furred fucker that spent the day bashing his brains in. It quickly jumped back in start and partly unfurled wings when a red one snapped at it. He noticed the red one also had wings, and that every single creature that now stood at attention of the red one all had wings. he dropped his head back down and wondered. Was he actually dead and this was the fucked up hell he was cursed with?

__________________________

“Coming into view now commander!” Everyone looked at the gunnery screen as a large wooden ship held aloft by balloons came into view.

“Can you get me a closer look Falmer?”

“Sorry sir. This is the best I can do without the main targeting systems.”

“How far out is it still?”

“About three miles sir.”

Stone scratched his beard “An airship of all things out here, and an extreme one at that.”

“Perhaps we landed on a lost colony sir? Maybe something happened to their Titan and technology took a step back over the centuries?

“Then even more to worry about then. If those Damn FCLF has already beat us here they could already be sniffing out our distress beacon.”

“On the bright side commander the separatists hate Omega more than us.”

“Were still not going to find any friends out here Chief.”

Stone stepped back and turned towards his marines. “Everything locked down?”

Bryant nodded. “Yes sir. And we cleared out the armory and moved what  gear we had up here. And I had sergeant Findley and corporal Buchanan set up defensive positions along the main corridor.”

“What do we have to fight with?”

“We have twenty Mk30 rifles, Several CP .45’s smg’s with around 2000 rounds for each of them. Also have a few shotguns. Only a few hundred shells for those though. We also have a carton of frags and flash bangs and my marines should be back soon with the .30cal from the dropship.”

“If worse comes to worse let’s hope it’s enough.”

“We will be ready for them sir.”

Vance struggled to undo the last pins that held the mountings for LMG to the telescoping arm.

“Want me to show you how it’s done sergeant?

“Fuck you Kelly.” Vance said through clenched teeth while giving the rusted pin one final tug, resulting in it flying across the cargo bay. Kelly caught the machine gun as it fell and hefted it onto her shoulders.

Vance grabbed four of the six 250 round ammo boxes carrying two of them under his arms and the other two in his hands. “Double time it corporal.”

After a few minutes of working their way back they reached the blast door on the bridge and keyed the pad. The door slowly opened with a hiss before they quickly squeezed passed the widening gap and closed the door again.

Bryant gave them both an annoyed look “Took you two long enough.”

Kelly placed the machinegun on a crate and pointed it toward the door while she fed one of the ammo belts into it. “Sorry sir won’t happen again.” she ended her reply by racking the charging handle.

The crew of the Orion stood tense as the craft slowly approached with half of them down the hall covering the first blast door while the rest but Falmar took position around the bridge. Falmar sat at the gunnery controls keeping the crosshairs from the only working cannon that could aim pointed at it. “Sir! Its slowing.”

Stone lower his rifle and approached Falmar, looking over his shoulder. “How far off is it?”

“Just under a mile sir.”

“Why would it stop so far?”

“Perhaps there being cautions? We are an armed warship even if it’s a corvette. Single salvo from the 120 rails would shatter that.”

“Yes but… What’s that coming from the side?”

Falmar zoomed in the camera as far as it would go. “It looks like ropes and supplies being lowered… What the fuck are those!”

Every one perked up at Falmar’s yell. Stone looked closer and saw winged horse like creatures taking off and landing under the ship unloading the baskets of equipment that were being lowered.

“I believe we have just encounter the first living alien civilization chief.

__________________

Captain Thunder Striker watched as his crew bustled about, getting everything needed lowered to the ground to set up camp. He dared not to land his airship when it could still could provide perfect cover incase the things his scouts reported seeing earlier are hostile.

“What kind of craft do you think that is captain?”

Thunder looked at his first mate beside him. “I’m not convinced it’s a craft at all Blitzer.”

“Really?”

He handed him his spyglass. “Well look at it. It seems to be at least plated in metal, no balloons to be seen. Now tell me how can something that size fly?”

“Some kind of array of arcane crystals? And if it was plated in skymetal it would be light enough to fly with a few of the largest balloons.”

“And what nation has that kind of wealth hmm? A single charged arcane crystal is worth more than you make in half your life. And lots not even talk about skymetal. The amount needed to even plate a fraction of that doesn’t even exist”

“Cant imagine what else it could be captain. It somehow appeared between the patrols rotation. short of flying in or appearing by magic there is no way it could be here sir.”

Thunder snorted.” Unless it’s always been here. Changelings have been spotted skittering around this dessert for the last few years, small chance this is there doing. Finding a way to make it look like a large dune or something with their magic.”

“If it’s of changeling origin sir I fear we might have a situation.”

“Right you are Blitz, Right you are.”

_____________

Celestia walked through the grand marble halls hovering a cup of tea and legal papers that required her attention in front of her. It would have been any normal morning until her sister had requested her presence as soon as she had awoken. Turning a corner she heard a familiar rough voice.

“I see you already have your nose buried in those exciting reports again Princess.”

Moving the papers to the side she was met with a rugged grey unicorn. “A good morning to you to Brazen. You seem to be out early for once.”

“thought I would stretch the old legs before I run the new recruits into the ground today.”

“That time again?”

“No better time I say.”

She chuckled. “I suppose not.”

“Well, I will leave you to your work your highness. Have a Good day.”  Celestia smiled and gave a small nod as the guard captain Walked off way towards the castles training grounds to break the fresh recruits.

After a few more minutes Celestia found herself walking down the stained glass hallway. She smiled at the scenes she past, Even though it had been almost a decade since most of these events had transpired and some of them were gloomy. She would give up all past the memories of her life to keep the few that meant the most. Like watching her star pupil grow into her own and rise as a leader, and the redemption of her sister. As she approached the throne room the guards on duty saluted her and opened the massive gilded doors for her. As the guards closed the door behind her, the magically crafted hinges gave off little sound as they closed shut.

She approached the throne were her sister was waiting with her own royal escort and talking to her assistant raven. Celestia passed the papers off to her assistant, who accepted them with a quick bow before leaving. She eyed her sisters guards. She had let her sister reform the Lunar Watch shortly after Tirek attacked several years ago, but she rarely seen them about.

“Is there something I should be aware of Luna?”

“Yes. In the twilight hours of dawn we received a few urgent missive from various locations across our borders.”

“And this wasn’t urgent enough to have me awoken?” she asked cocking an eyebrow

“I wanted to sort through them and eliminate any that were duplicates or that did not require our attention first.”

“A missive from any border station is important for security Luna.”

“As of the last few hours most of these were the same reports. Which leads to the first thing to be aware of.”

“And that is?”

“A large fiery object was spotted streaking across the sky in the early hours, but the western outposts are the only ones to report it impacted. And that I was big enough to make the ground shake.”

Celestia was now finding her day quickly becoming very interesting. “And where did this object land?”

“Somewhere within the dragon lands.”

“Then it’s outside our jurisdiction.”

“That’s not all Sister. The eastern garrison at Stableside reports of another object that appeared within the desert. Within our borders.”

“Appeared?”

“Yes. Sometime within the patrol change the object appeared, possibly landed. I ordered an air ship to investigate but not take any action without order from you.”

She shook her head.” I would have preferred you talk to me first before sending off a military asset to something unknown, but I’m glad you have restricted their operations until I can precede over them.”

Luna flattened her ears and shifted her wings. “There is one final piece of news that’s much darker than the rest.”

Celestia’s toned darkened “Is this why you have your guards summoned?”

“Yes. The final missive came an hours before our eastern report. From the north at the borderlands. A small object was spotted crashing within the mountains and a patrol took it upon themselves to investigate.”

Celestia’s temper flared. “Do they have no idea what they have done! That crossing into the border lands armed is an upfront offence to the treaty I signed with the Blacktalon’s almost a century ago! Alvis has been looking for an excuse to go to war for some time and now he has one.”

Celestia shook her head in disbelief. She thought they were trained better than this, and now she had to contemplate capital punishment for treason. The last time any kind of capital punishment was dealt was after Luna was banished. She looked back at her sister.

“Please tell me you don’t have any more dire news?”

Luna looked down and pawed the floor before looking back at her sister. ”They found the impact site with a small camp above it. A small group of four archaeologists.”

Celestia rubbed her temple with a hoof as a headache started to form. “What else?”

“Out of the group, three of them had checked out the impact site before the patrol had even arrived. One pony was killed while another was badly injured. They also had a gryphon from the Ironwing clan traveling with them that was also badly injured.”

Celestia sat down, in complete shock. She wished she was still asleep and that her sister playing some cruel trick, But she would never go this far.”

“So the gryphons already attacked and left one of our subjects dead.”

“It wasn’t a gryphon that attacked them.”

Her head shot up at what Luna said. “What.”

“It wasn’t just any impact that hit the mountain side. Something had crashed. When the patrol arrived they found two unknown creatures. One was dead and the other was said to be on the edge of death. But it still managed to knock down and injure several guards before it was subdued.”

Celestia sat there slack jaw. “Are you saying some alien creature attacked our subjects? Killing ones and injuring several more?”

“That’s what the report seemed to indicate. They’ve already secured the object and creatures and are moving them to the garrison. They have asked for our presence as soon as possible. As such I’ve had your personal guards summand along with some of our fastest fliers. They await us in the courtyard. I also took the liberty to discuss with your advisor we would be out of the capital for a few days. ”

“You managed to summon my own personal guards?”

Luna laughed. “It wasn’t as hard as you think.”

Luna walked off with her escort while Celestia sat there trying to process everything that just transpired.

Ch. 3 Questions

The eerie silence around the crash site was broken by the flapping of feathered wings as a dozen gryphons touched down around the area. They all stared moving about looking for clues on what transpired when a small black gryphon quipped at a larger leopard patterned one near her.

“Well what do you know Aetius, they already left.”  Aetuis looked at the black gryphon and snarled.

“If you don’t clamp that beak of yours shut Ishka, I will do it for you.”

Ishka flicked her tail in annoyance. “We could have been here hours ago, But no. You had to go after the larger piece even though you lost sight of it.”Aetuis roared and pounced onto her, she squawked in surprised as she was pinned to the ground. He growled while he looked down at her, and dug his talons into the flesh of her shoulder. “If you think it's fun to scold me how about I rut you till you bleed, and make you think otherwise?”

“Unless you want to end up like your brother, Aetuis. I suggest you take your claws off her.”

Aetuis looked over his shoulder at the gyrphon threatening him. “Stay out of this Valerin. This is between me and her.”

Valerin narrowed his eyes as he spoke. “And I will gut you before you try anything.” As soon as Aetuis released Ishka she scurried off towards Valerin and his escort. Before he turned and faced him; Puffing his chest out. “You think you can threaten me just because you’re a patriarchs son? You think I’m scared of you or your father? Your just a hatchling to me!”

Valerin laughed. “You can see me as you want, but attacking me is an attack on the Silver tip Clan. Which itself is an attack on all the clans under the king. How do you think King Alvis will respond when the heir of one of his biggest contributing clans is killed by a lowly mite ridden bandit?”

Aetuis Growled. “You can hide all you want behind the king, but when a time comes. I will feast on your corpse.”Aetuis turned away in a huff and barked orders at those under his command.

“Valerin looked down at the small female that cowered behind his guards. “Are you okay?”

“Y…Yes, I think so.”

“Do you usually antagonize him like that?”

“Just when I get to frustrated with his stupidity.”

“Why don’t you just leave? My clan would gladly take you under wing.”

“I…I can’t”

“Why not?”

“It’s complicated.”

“I don’t see how being attacked and threatened with rape makes it complicated enough that you would rather stay?”

She shook her head. “You all hide in the Aries growing fat with a wall of banner guards keeping you safe from the outside world. While we try and scrape by out here in the wastes. You’re kind is no better than those pampered equestrians. You will never understand what it’s like out here.”

Valerin stood there dumbfounded as she walked away, he knew the clanless held distaste for those that belong to one of the four great clans, or even one of the several lesser ones. But to reject an offer like what he proposed and turn him into the enemy. Maybe she was right. Maybe he would never understand them.

He and his escort made their way to Aetuis who was tasting some of the red snow in front of him. He turned and looked at Valerin. “Pony.”

Valerin gave him a puzzled look. “Pony?” Aetuis rolled his eyes “A pony shed blood here. A lot of it.”

“So what happened?”

“You are a dense one hatchling. Look around you! What do you see?”

“I see what seems to be the chaos of battle.”

“Exactly. At least half a dozen ponies where here along with a gryphon. And something else.”

“Something else?”

“Come here and looks at these tracks.” Valerin followed the bandit leader to were the ground was barren of snow and the earth was torn up. “Look at these tracks.” He looked down at the grooved imprints left in the frozen mud. “Have you ever seen a creature that left a track like that before?”

“No?”

Aetuis smiled. “Neither have I. Whatever left these tracks weighs almost as much as a minotaur. And fought a fairly large gryphon before fighting off ponies.”

“How do you know it was fighting the gryphon and not just the ponies?”

Aetuis tapped a claw against the young gryphons head but stopped when his guards raised their muskets. He glared at them before backing off. “If you actually hunted like your ancestors did, Like we do. You would see the stories the tracks tell.”

“Okay so a gryphon is out alone fighting another creature and ponies what of it. And what left this scar in the earth?”

Aetuis ran a paw down his face. “Again the tracks hatchling. First that gryphon traveled with two ponies down here before it got into a fight, and one of the ponies was killed. Then at some point more showed up and got into the fight as well.  Second the thing that made that scar is the reason why you’re out here with.”

“The only reason I’m here. Is because my father promised you a cut of whatever value this mysterious  object held. And he wants to make sure you held up your end of the bargain. But the object seems to have run off on its own now it seems.” Aetuis growled at him and ignored the guards that aimed his way.

A ruffling of wings quickly broke the standoff as one of the gryhons under Aetuis command landed, and was breathing heavily. “Airship…Ponies…object… heading to… the Hoofington Garrison.”

Valerin watched as the scout passed out from exhaustion before turning to Aetuis and smiling. “Seems you can still show your worth and get what the equestrians stole from the king.”

Aetuis gave a bellowing laugh. “You want me to attack the main northern garrison with several dozen of my best. Armed only with blades and a few muskets.”

“My father could be persuaded to possibly forget to secure a few of his air ships that you just happen to also borrow.”

Aetuis rubbed the bottom of his beak with a talon. “Hmm. If you really think you can get me some armed airships hatchling,  I just might possibly find your fathers missing prize.”

___________________________________

Hunter stepped off the airship onto what looked like a docking platform before gazing into the walled courtyard of a small fort. He watched as the life boat wreck was worked over logs toward a large shed, he also noticed the stretcher that held ghosts now covered body was also being taken to the shed. He was jerked forward as the chains on his shackles grew taunt and guards pushed from behind. Hobbling his way behind his captors towards the fort he watched as troops all around him dropped what they were doing to gawk at him. He noticed amongst the plethora of colors that most of them had wings, but some had horns instead and the rest just looked like a normal small horse.

Spark Kicker looked over at the blue Pegasus near him “Nova. Go and lead Glacial to the hospital so he can see how his daughter is doing.”

“Yes sir.”  Giving a quick salute he made his way to the distraught stallion and lead him to the forts hospital.

Spark continued on with the creature in tow towards the fort to get it locked up when a very disgruntled earth pony made his way towards him. “I leave you in charge for a few hours lieutenant, and I come back to this! What in tartarus do you think you’re doing!”

Backpedaling slightly as the stallion stopped in front of him nostrils flaring. “Major, sir. It was only a basic recon patrol on the fringe when we saw something crash down and the situation quickly grew complicated. I acted as I saw fit and would have dropped everything and retreated if gryphons had showed up. And I will add that none did.”

“I don’t care if gryphons showed up or not! What you did was a breach of the borderlands treaty.” He shoved a piece of paper in Sparks chest.

Spark looked down at the paper slightly confused. “Sir? I…”

“The Princess’s will be here within the hour to personally strip you of your rank and title.”

Spark stood there dumbstruck as he watched as the major turned and left, He knew what he was risking when he was in charge a few hours ago, but he never thought everything could spiral downward this fast. His thoughts were broken as the creature behind him and chuckled and said something in its alien tongue. He shot it a glare before turning to his troops. “Get that thing in the prison already!”

Hunter stumbled when he was violently shoved into a wrought iron cell,his captors chuckling and mumbling to each other as the cell door was slammed shut. Hunter hopped on his good leg to a pile of straw in the corner and collapsed onto it; his head giving off a soft thump as he slumped against the wall. He looked at his shackles, pulling the chain between the cuffs testing its strength. Sighing he gave up and dropped his arms, he was too exhausted to try and break out of them, And theyhad stripped him of his combat harness that held all of his tools and supplies when they chained him up. His head snapped up when the door to the cell room opened and several guards walked in escorting what looked to be a doctor and what he guessed were his assistants.

All three of them sported horns, but the two behind the doctor seemed to lack the more masculine features that he’s grown accustom to seeing. Soon afterone of the guards opened his cell door and walked in, before it started to growl gibberish at him while pointing to a large eye bolt in the floor. When he refused to budge more guards came in and dragged him to the center of the room and forced him onto his back as they secured the shackles around his wrists to it. Once they figure he was secure enough the doctor move over to him and talked in soft voice, and starting to tug on pieces of his armor before looking back at the guards and asked them something. The guards shook their heads. Shaking his head the doctor back off slightly. Hunter began to squirm as its horn started to glow a soft yellow,and light swept over his body. Hunter felt his skin tingle as the light passed over him, and he watched as the doctor’s brow furrowed as he seemed to struggle.

After a few seconds the doctor gasped and his eyes went wide. He turned back over to the guards and shouted something at them causing them to get agitated. He then turned to his assistance and pointed to his chest and leg. He thrashed against his constraints and kicked out at them with his good leg when they approached him, soon the guards were holding him down as the horns began to glow on the doctor and his nurses. Hunter howled as he felt the shattered bones in his legs shift around before the pain quickly ebbed away into a dull heated throb, he also found it slightly easier to breath. Hunter let his body go limp as they backed away panting heavily. He tried to contemplate what they did but nothing made sense to him. As the guards began to leave he was unhooked from the floor and hunter quickly pushed himself up against the wall. He prodded at his bad leg and found that it was still sensitive, but nothing like what it was after the crash and that it actually seem to be strait.

Celestia and Luna made their way to the fort entrance where they were met by the rust colored Major who commanded it, who also gave them a quick bow. “I’m sorry you had to visit on these terms your highnesses.”

Celestia nodded. “I also regret that it has come to this Major Boulder.”

“Would like see what was recovered first or proceed to the problems at hoof first?"

"I think we should get some understanding on what we are dealing with first before we dive head first into the heart of the problem major."

The Major nodded and lead the sisters to a large shed were the wreck was being kept.

Celestia and Luna both looked at the dead creature laid out before them on the table. "What can you tell us about these things Major?"

The major cleared his throat. “There were two creatures that where found at the crash site. One was dead upon discovery" Pointing his hoof at the one on the table. "The doctor who examined it found evidence of massive internal bleeding along with several fractured bones. The other one though we just had healed not too long ago, we found it to have seven broken ribs and a shattered leg. Which we had healed, but it still has some minor injuries.”

“Impressive. I would think not many creatures could live long with that kind of damage.” Luna said with an small impressed look on her face.

“It most likely was suffering heavily before we healed it, but I would agree with you there Princess. On the other hoof this creature is something else. Ever since we caught it it’s been fighting us every step of the way. I still have a guard in the hospital with a concussion.”

Celestia left the corpse and made her way towards the mangled wreck of metal and other unknown materials. "What of all of this."

The major and Luna both moved up to where Celestia stood. "We think it's some kind of craft. How it would fly we are not sure and the metal they used to make it is foreign to us as well. Strong and lighter than Iron but no were near that of skymetal." Boulder made his way to a device that laid on the ground next to other random unknown devices and carefully picked it up. "This though we believe to be a long gun of sorts. It has the basic features that you find on a musket, but more advanced then we can even fathom."

Celestia looked towards her sister before then turning to the Major . “I would like to see this creature that still lives and hear what your lieutenant has to say about his encounter.”

“Yes your highness. As you wish.” Leading them out of the shed and towards the fort the quickly made their way the prison wing. He lead them inside while the guard on watch duty quickly dropped to the ground in a bow.

Hunter stirred from a light nap when he heard the door to the room opened, he grumbled as he got up. “You fuckers can’t let me close my eyes for more than a few…” Hunter was stunned as two new creatures walked into the room. Both stood taller than any of the others he’d  seen, and sported wings and horns. He rubbed his eyes not believing what he was seeing.

Celestia looked the create directly in the eye. She saw great cunning in its eyes, and a flame of great anger being smothered by exhaustion. “Have you gave it any food or water at all Major?”

“I’ve been told the guards offered it some but it simply refused. Not in disgust or anything. Just like it was not interested at all.”

“And You have not removed its armor?” Luna asked as she took a step closer and cocking her head slightly to the side.

“No one could figure out how it came off princess, but we did disarm it of all of its gear.”

Every one turned as a new comer opened the door. “you wanted to see me sir.” As soon as it registered in his brain, kicker dropped to the ground in a bow. “For give me your highnesses. I didn’t know you had arrived.”

Celestia looked down at her subject who was visibly shaken “You would be lieutenant Spark kicker I presume?”

“Y…yes. You majesty.”

Celestia turned to the major while the lieutenant still groveled at her hoofs. “Could you please leave us for a moment Major and take your watch guard with.” Boulder gave a quick bow. “Yes your highness.”

Once the major and the watch guard had left she turned back to the lieutenant. “Do you understand lieutenant. What kind of mess you have caused, and that you are looking at banishment or worse. Death.”

Still groveling. “Yes Princess. I absolutely understand what my actions may have caused, and I beg of you to show mercy to my troops. The blame is entirely my own, they were only following my orders.”

"Would you like to explain your reasoning lieutenant?

Kicker sat back on his haunches. "It started out as routine patrol on the fringes of the borderlands to keep an eye on the bandits that like to try and sneak over to conduct raids, but then we caught sight of a massive fireball. When we noticed a small piece break off we decided to check it out and make sure it wasn't going to be anything to worry about. And then we saw the camp site near it and only a single pony tending to it. So we went down to investigate and tell them to leave the area. From there everything began to unraveled. We found our self's rescuing the rest of the camp members and fighting off some unknown creature. I then sent for a light sloop of war to come over to recover the object as it looked like something that could cause more harm if the gryphon's ended up with it."

Celestial looked down at the soldier. "Did the thought of putting the entire kingdom in jeopardy and risking the lives of its subjects; the very same subjects you swore to protect. cross your mind lieutenant when you decided to uptake this quest of yours."

Kicker looked down in shame. "Yes your highness. And I accept any form of punishment that you see fit. Even if it means my own life is to be taken to appease the king of the Aries."

Celestial turned away and looked towards the creature. "It may very well turn to that lieutenant. Please say your goodbyes to your troops and wait with my guards outside with any belongings you see fit to have turned over to your family."

Kick arose and gave a somber nod of his head before walking out the door and letting the major back in.

"I fear it is done then?"

Celestia looked over at the major and nodded.

"A sad day it is then. He was a good officer and I mourn to see his families named soiled from such events."

"A sad event it is."

Every pony in the room stood in silence for a few minutes staring at the creature who had become bored of the earlier display and had gone back to wresting against the wall.

"So what are we to do with this thing your highnesses?"

Luna turned to her sister. "Perhaps we should see if it understands us?"

Luna approaches the bars of the cells and looked inward at the creature.

"Hello there... strange bipedal thing." The creature simply looked up turned its head slightly and spit on the floor.

Luna took a step back with slight disgust on her face. "Well it seems like it's well cultured."

Celestia walked up next to her sister and spoke softly to the thing. "We mean you no harm. Do you understand us at all?"

It replied with a twisted tongue and made weird gestures with its hands.

"I believe I know how to overcome this problem, but I will need your help luna."

Hunter watched with disinterest as the two creatures mumbled to each other and  pointed towards him. before hunter could lay back down and doze off he noticed them stop talking and touch their horns together and start to glow. Hunter stood up straighter not sure how he should be feeling about the situation when a beam shot out from their combined horns and struck him in the face. He fell to the floor screaming in pain as what felt like millions of tiny hot needles blasted their way through his skull. The majority of the pain quickly subsided as fast as it came but enough still lingered to leave him writhing on the floor and yelling out a string of curses.

"I don't remember universal translation spells causing pain like that." Celestia said now looking worried.

Hunter froze at her voice. The shocking revelation that he understood what it said hitting him suddenly.

"Well either it just died or whatever you did faded away." Luna said in a whimsical manner.

Hunter slowly rose from the ground and staggered back against the wall looking at the two things that stood before him.

"Out of the frying pan and into the fucking fire it seems."