Chapters ...Of course, this isn't to say that Gallineigho was without his own academic failings. His realization that Eris wasn't the center of our solar system went against ponies' most ancient beliefs, but he ultimately recanted his explanation when he said he discovered a star that defied his mathematical principles. Gallineigho passed away before showing anypony else the mysterious celestial body which, many speculated, drove him to madness. Ponies were thereafter left in the dark, unable to trust the principles of orbital mechanics that Gallineigho himself claimed false in the end.
Nearly one hundred years passed without astronomical note, until the great Renneighsance mare Tinkers Trade developed a new type of telescopic lens--the same kind, in fact, that astonomers use to date. Tinkers nearly disposed of the design when she observed a distant star moving in an unusual manner. After studying it for some time and independently corroborating the means by which her predecessor Gallineigho calculated celestial movement, she realized that the star was being influenced by a far more massive object. She shared her results, and in light of the intellectual revolution sweeping her country at the time, she was afforded the consideration necessary to find widespread acceptance for her ideas.
Although Tinkers Trade herself could never find an explanation for the movement of the distant sun, her work paved the road for later scholars. Workers broke ground for the Tinkers Laboratory on what would have been her hundredth birthday, and astronomers using the telescope installed there would eventually solve the mystery. Researchers found that Curious, as the star was named in accordance to Tinkers's supposed muttering when first she observed it, was indeed orbiting a planet. The greater mystery that this spawned, however, was the fact that this planet was no bigger than Eris.
Steady Steel shut the book with a sigh and reclined on the park bench where he sat. Turning his gaze skyward, he scanned for Curious and noted its position with a smile. He had no reason to read the book--he'd known almost as much since his foalhood. Granted, the circumstances prompting him to read had changed considerably. He no longer did so out of childish curiosity, but a history lesson so late at night would not help him in any case.
He stood, stepping beyond the light and warmth of the street-light that hung overhead. The cool desert air drew a shiver out of him but he did not rush to his destination. The party can certainly wait , Steel thought to himself. Of course, it had not. The party had started four hours ago and Steel knew it, but he intended to honor his promise of an appearance. And so he cantered steadily toward the bar.
When he reached the dilapidated wooden building on the edge of town, Steel hesitated. He saw no movement within. Glancing behind him, the wide dirt road led through a cluster of smaller, hastily-built wooden homes before abruptly ending at the foot of a larger brick structure. His approach from another direction had obscured his view of the little neighborhood, but now he confirmed that nopony had decided to bring the party outside. If it yet continued, he would find it within the bar.
Typically, no sense of apathy would keep Steady Steel from a party in a bar hosted by somepony else. The devastating fact that no drinks were to be served at this one, however, left Steel regretting his promise to attend. He breathed a quiet sigh of relief, then, when he pushed the front door open and did not immediately see anypony.
"Hey, Steel!" A familiar voice chirped from a booth in the corner of the room.
Muttering a quiet profanity, Steel turned to the stallion. "Hello, Spanner." Steel mentally berated himself and focused his mental energy on being polite. "What the hay are you still here for?"
Spanner simply laughed. "Waiting for you, of course! You swore you'd come and I wanted to be sure somepony'd be here to keep you company!"
Steady Steel found he could not remain irritated at his well-meaning friend. He slid into the opposite booth, awkwardly expressed his gratitude for the sentiment, and fell silent. Spanner watched as Steel lowered his head slightly and snuck a glance at the liquor counter.
"Steel... You know the regulations," he warned. "We're one day out; don't mess it up now."
The other earth pony narrowed his eyes and met Spanner's own. "I know perfectly well what the rules are and I am perfectly capable of following them. We're in this together, Spanner, but make no mistake about who's in charge."
Spanner raised his hooves defensively, his jaw tensing and lending to his nervous countenance. "Easy... I didn't mean anything by it..."
The pair remained like that for what Spanner judged to be approximately forever, and then Steady Steel sighed deeply and leaned back. "Forget it," he muttered, staring at the ceiling. Spanner gently lowered his hooves to the table and they sat in silence once more.
Seemingly without provocation, Steel returned his gaze to the other pony and asked, "Have you said goodbye to Lily yet?" His voice was one of genuine concern.
Taken aback, Spanner hesitated briefly before answering. "Yeah. I told her I had to run some system-checks after the party and I wouldn't mark it home tomorrow." Steel raised an eyebrow and Spanner continued. "I know, I know... But it just seemed easier that way. You know how it is."
Silence.
"I mean... Well, I just- I think if I waited 'till tomorrow, I might not be able to do it. It's easiest this way." Steady Steel offered a reassuring nod, unwilling to involve himself in actually rendering some form of insight. Spanner glanced at the door and frowned. After another moment's pause, "I suppose I ought to get on those last-minute checks.
Both stallions stood simultaneously. As they walked toward the door, Spanner made one last attempt at breaking the glacier their conversation had become. "Did you see the new emblem?"
"No. It's changed?"
"Yeah," Spanner continued as he stepped outside. "Some higher-up's foal didn't like it, so everypony scrambled to find something new. Nearly delayed the whole project. The launch vehicle's already been fixed with the new decal if you want to go see."
Steady Steel nodded. "I'm headed that way anyway," he divulged. Spanner began to say something, but his companion was already trotting toward the structure towering in the distance.
The two ponies traveled in silence for several minutes before Steel stopped and squinted at the craft. The sleek metal casing near the top bore a fresh coating of black paint. Adorning it, he saw a large golden circle on what was evidently an orbital path around a much smaller white circle. Below it, somepony had boldly emblazoned the name, Curiosity I . Steel smiled at the vessel, stole a final glance upwards at his destination, and turned to Spanner.
"Tomorrow." He mirrored his smile from a moment before and gave a reassuring nod. Then he turned down a different path and walked away.
0/08:57:00 MET
Steady Steel braced himself against a nearby pole as the craft rumbled around him. Once the motion ceased he pushed off the wall and drifted toward the cockpit. The elongated shape of the vessel made it easy to move in the relative weightlessness of space. Seen from outside, the ship bore a passing resemblance to a hammerhead shark. Long and sleek, it had two forward-facing glass domes jutting from either side of the foremost point. Fin-like projections extended from the body in opposite directions at its midpoint, in line with the "eyes." In the rear, two other projections reached for the remaining two cardinal directions.
Continuing that metaphor, Steel slowed his progress toward the left eye by dragging his hoof along what some engineer meant as a floor grating. Much of the ship evidently failed to account for a lack of gravity in its design. After carefully entering the doorless chamber and coming to a halt, he greeted its occupant. "Hey, Trail. We prepped?"
Trail Blazer glanced over his shoulder, only long enough to smile in greeting and brush his slightly-too-long yellow mane away from his eyes and horn. He returned his focus to the levers, buttons, diodes, and displays arrayed before him as he replied. "Most nearly, cap'. Course is figured and Rivet's working to calibrate. We're on schedule for departure at the top of the hour."
"Good, good. Pass me the comm and I'll tell everyone to get settled."
The pilot took his hooves off the controls momentarily and removed a corded device from its mount on the console, passing it to Steel.
"Alright, everypony," Steady Steel began, his voice echoing through the ship. He paused, leaning slightly to get a better view of the dusty planet below. Smiling, he began again. "Blazer says we're minutes from jump, so buckle in and get set. You've all done this before; you know the drill. Take a good look out the starboard windows. It's a sight we won't see for another while yet."
Steel returned the radio and stepped back into the main corridor. He briefly considered checking with Rivet, but decided he valued his life too much to disturb her. He moved toward the back of the ship, pausing just past the open bulkhead that separated the front and back sections. A single window extended the rest of the length of the corridor, offering a greater view of Eris below. Its brownish-orange sands, dulled by the dense atmosphere and almost matching that of Trail Blazer's coat, reflected in his eyes as he reflected on them.
The contemplation was short-lived, with a tinny-sounding variant of Trail's voice declaring over the comms that "We're jumping in fifteen seconds. If you're not ready, I'm not gonna clean you off the wall." Steady Steel hastily pushed himself away from the window and straight into his bunk--one of the six that lined the central hall. A cursory glance revealed nopony else in their bunks, so they had presumably opted to secure themselves in the mess hall. Buckled in, Steel pressed his head against the soft interior lining of the miniature room and shut his eyes.
...
7/03:24:17 MET
"You're telling me we're a week into this and you've already screwed up the ventilation system?!" Rivet raged from the maintenance chamber in the rear of the ship. Her sterling-silver coat shimmered angrily and the red of her mane seemed alight as she stood over a cowering Spanner--a feat which, one should note, is not easily accomplished without gravity.
"B- But you're in charge of-"
"I have to help navigate, you idiot! We're both engineers and you've gotta do your part! On a ship this small, I can't be calibrating the FTL and fighting fires at the same time, now can I?"
Each of them looked at the other expectantly for a moment before Spanner stammered out, "Was that not rhetorical?"
Rivet just groaned and yelled "Get out! I'll fix this."
The stallion pushed off the wall behind him and glided out of the room (narrowly missing the two other ponies who had come to watch the feud). With a final look back at the angry mare, Spanner entered the mess hall and opened a package of freeze-dried rehydrated refried beans marked with Rivet's name. He set one of his more favorable meals in its place as penitence and found a spot to eat.
...
18/14:00:01 MET
Curiosity I shuttered out of FTL, trembling violently and waking Steady Steel from his sleep. "That didn't sound good!" he yelled while clambering out of his bunk. "Was that good?"
"Not good!" Trail Blazer hollered back.
Steel felt a bit unsteady as he pulled himself along the railings to the main cockpit where Trail sat. Once he slid inside, he saw that the entire craft was in a flat spin. "Uh..." he muttered intelligently. "Reckon you might see to righting us?"
"I was rather enjoying the ride, but hey, you're in charge."
The captain reached forward and plucked the microphone from its resting place. "Everypony, sound off if you're not dead. If you're mostly dead, let Scarlet know. Rivet, Spanner, get to the drive chamber now." He exited the room just as Rivet came out of the second cockpit, and they traveled together. Down the central corridor, past the mess-hall and medbay, through the maintenance area. They arrived just in time to see Spanner forcing a crowbar into the inner airlock and leveraging it open.
"Are the hydraulics not working?" Rivet asked with a frown. Spanner grunted in reply.
"Ah!" he cried as the door snapped open, sending him flying into a wall of tools. The Velcro surface kept the assorted sharp objects from flying around the cabin, but that storage method did nothing to keep him from getting thoroughly injured. He did little more than stare in shock as the backside of his white coat turned red.
Steel acted quickly, hollering for Scarlet and then motioning for Rivet to join him in the drive chamber. They entered a spherical room that stood completely barren, save for a single black sphere suspended in the center by two pillars extending from the ceiling and floor. He immediately felt nauseous when looking at it, but choked back the unpleasant sensation and scanned the room for anything amiss.
Rivet clutched at her horn as she followed him into the room, grimacing and shivering visibly. However, she understood the machine far better than Steady Steel, and quickly identified the problem. She nudged him and gestured to a small orifice in the center of the port chamber wall. Once he gave her an affirming nod, she hastily left.
Steady Steel still felt ill, but not to the extent of the departed mare. He climbed along the poles lining the interior and approached the opening to which he'd been directed. A small metal rod sat inside, capped with a lens. He glanced across the narrow room and around the central orb, noting that the device in the opposite hole sat at a lower angle. Steel braced himself and forced the object into a position mirroring the second, and then sealed it in place with a tube from his utility vest. Now that each lens directly faced the center of the room, Steel scrambled outside and mashed the button to shut the door. When that failed, he left it and went for the intercom in the hallway.
"Trail, status?"
The receiving voice sounded shaky. "We're not spinning anymore, I'm sure you've noticed. How's the engine look?"
Steel glanced at the maintenance hatch behind him before answering. "I think we're set. One of the lasers was out of alignment. When will you know if it worked?"
"Next time we make a jump!"
Sighing, he shut off the intercom and entered the medbay. He was the fourth pony inside, with Scarlet Glow treating Spanner's wounds and Rivet waiting nearby. He made eye-contact with Spanner and asked, "You good?" The stallion nodded, and Scarlet gave confirmation without looking up. Steel then turned to Rivet and raised an eyebrow.
"I'll be fine; just waiting for something to help with the pain."
Steel backed out of the cramped space and nearly into another mare. "Sorry!" she squeaked.
He managed to turn around and face Dandelion Tuft, who looked disproportionately apologetic. "Don't worry about it. Where are you heading?"
"I thought I'd help Scarlet... She must really have her hooves full right now and I can't do anything until we reach Curious." She paused after her explanation, brushing her long dandelion-yellow mane away from her eyes. Steel acknowledged the statement with a nod and made his way to the front of the ship where Trail Blazer sat. The seated stallion turned in his chair when he heard Steel arrive.
"What's the engine look like?" he asked.
Steel sighed. "Nothing was badly damaged, near as I can tell. The laser's back in place, and I'm sure that was the problem. Tell me, are we where we should be?"
Trail frowned and pulled a star-chart from a drawer. He turned it around several times, glancing out the window periodically. "No..." He said at length. "We're about half-way from where the jump started and where we should be."
With a nod, Steady Steel turned to leave. "That's what I suspected. Only one laser hit the core last time, so only half the energy was released."
"Ah-" Steel looked back, pausing in the frame. "That is," Trail continued, "I was just wondering how you know all that. Another bad jump could put us in 'We're-all- gonna-die' territory."
Trail received no forthcoming answer, but eventually the captain just replied, "I don't. You know as well as I that we don't understand Draconequum. It works because it works, and that's the only answer that counts out here." With that, he left the room and saw Rivet entering the second cockpit. He raised a hoof in greeting and she nodded.
As he drifted down the hall to clean up the maintenance section, he heard Trail Blazer speaking. "Break out the slide rules and star-charts, Rivet. We've got work to do."
...
67/09:25:12 MET
Laughter rang through the ship as five ponies crowded around a table in the mess hall. The Velcro dining surface crowded with packages of rehydrated cheesecake, berry pies, and assorted other desserts. Each pony was buckled into a chair, passing around containers and talking merrily.
"No, I'm telling you, just like that!" Scarlet Glow continued, speaking in an uncharacteristic show of energy. "I'd only been in general practice for a month, and up comes the chief surgeon and tells me I've gotta do it! I'd never removed so much as a tumor before, let alone a horn!"
Rivet looked over with a grin, leaning across the table to stop her cake from floating away. "So what happened? Did you manage it?"
Scarlet beamed proudly. "Of course! I didn't even have time to find a book on the procedure, so I was going entirely from the memory of a class I'd largely slept through! Still, it worked out. The mare said she rather liked the 'stump look,' as she put it."
Everypony laughed, save for Dandelion Tuft who looked on in shock and protectively cradled her own horn. "Why would anypony do that to themselves?"
Scarlet frowned slightly, unsure how to justify it. "Well, some ponies have the procedure done for medical reasons, like the mare I operated on. The only reason I did it for her was because the surgery was so urgent. But... Other ponies just do it as a fashion statement, or for convenience."
Dandelion nodded dumbly, still unable to grasp why anypony would willingly alter her body, even if the process was harmless. She ultimately decided to let it go and instead picked up her food package in her hooves to resume eating. She paused momentarily and asked, "I just realized, where's the captain?"
"Mmmfn the hrrm," Trail Blazer said through a bite of the apple held in his wing. After swallowing, he made another attempt. "Manning the helm. He wants to be sure everything's set for tomorrow."
"Oh," she said disappointedly. "That's a real shame. He should be here for this."
Spanner just shrugged. "We are only one jump out, after all. He doesn't want any surprises."
68/03:00:00 MET
Six faces watched eagerly through Trail Blazer's cockpit as space warped around the Curiosity I one last time, and each pony present let out a cheer as a large, dark sphere appeared in front of them. Trail Blazer turned to his captain, grinning. "There it is, sir."
Steady Steel stared ahead, a subtle, proud smile on his snout. He offered a reaffirming nod before turning to observe the rest of the team. Everypony was in a different state of excitement, from Dandelion Tuft's hopeful look to Rivet's unabashed whooping and shouting. Steel allowed them their moment of bliss, but soon reclaimed their attention.
"There it is..." he began, echoing his pilot's words from a moment prior. "It's been more'n three months now, and I can't say it's all been easy. But I know, beyond any whisper of a doubt, it was worth it. We'll be making our first pass around Curiosity in a few minutes, and the extreme gravity should slow us into a sub-orbital trajectory. We'll use our traditional fuel reserves to bring the ship into a stable orbit." He paused. "Rivet, I need you back in your cockpit to stray confirming our trajectory with Trail. Spanner, head back to maintenance and make sure everything's set. Scarlet, Dandelion, you two had best buckle in."
Everyone complied, rushing to their various tasks with newfound energy. Steel improved his grip on the railing as he watched Trail Blazer work. He found it fascinating to listen to the chatter between Trail and Rivet as they corroborated their perspectives. "We didn't account for that moon." "Re-calibrate our vector for the jump-displacement." "Check the alignment on our port thruster." It all went beyond his understanding, but it was important as captain to maintain an appearance of comprehension.
As he listened, not so much interested in individual words as he was their inflection, Steel noticed a marked shift in Rivet's tone. While she and Trail Blazer had begun with a light banter, each pony figuratively bouncing off the other as they worked, she had now adopted a nervous undertone in her responses. Looking down, Steady Steel noticed his pilot looking concerned as well. Finally, his suspicions were confirmed when Rivet declared into her radio, "It's not right."
Before Steel could seek clarification, Trail Blazer spoke. "I know. We should be feeling it by now... But the effects are practically negligible."
"It can't be because we're further than we thought -- we checked the distance!"
"Maybe the assumed size was wrong?"
"Nope. They calculated it back home. The margin for error isn't this big."
"Okay!" Steel cut in. "Somepony want to tell me what the hay's going on?"
"The planet isn't pulling us in like it should. We know how much mass this planet needs to have for that star to be orbiting it. The problem is, the planet isn't acting like it actually has that much mass."
With a grimace, the captain asked, "What does that mean for us?"
Rivet answered that time, hollering from the other room. "Means we're gonna sail past it and get pulled into the sun!"
"The FTL drive takes over eight hours to charge, though. We won't have time to make another jump!" Steel against the wall, looking shaken. "Trail, what are our options?"
The pilot was silent for a moment, staring at the dark planet ahead. "We can start our burn early and try to bring ourselves close enough to the surface to slingshot away, in the opposite direction of the star."
"Do that," Steel directed after a moment's consideration.
Rivet spoke over the comms again, her voice shrill and indignant; "Cap', if we do that, we won't be able to orbit! We'll have to scrap the mission!"
"I don't see much choice here," he responded. Trail gave him a grim, affirming nod. "Do it," Steel reiterated.
...
The entire craft rattled as the fuel-burning engines exhausted their supply and cut off suddenly. Steady Steel gave his pilot an expectant look and received only a shrug in response. The ship now moved on a much more direct path towards the planet, and Steel asked Trail Blazer what he expected.
"Well, sir, we're gonna be scraping the ground about eight kilometers. Should be plenty to send us flying in the other direction."
"Good..." he mused, staring at the planet. "No risk of slowing too much?"
"Not at all. We'll still be hurtling away at awful fast speeds. Should get a lovely view of the surface, though. We're passing way closer than ever planned."
Dandelion Tuft chose that moment to drift into the cockpit with Steady Steel and Trail Blazer. "Hey," she murmured. "Everything looking good?"
Both other ponies grimaced, and Steel explained the situation. Dandelion hurried away to retrieve some of her analytical equipment so that their time would not have been wholly wasted, and returned moments later.
"Awww..." she cooed, looking with a soft smile out the window. "Look! You can just see the sun through the atmosphere, coming out of eclipse." The three of them exchanged looks of wonderment at seeing a sunrise on an alien world. Then the three of them realized the same thing.
"Wait, atmosphere?!" "You said we're going as low as six k's!" "We're gonna burn up!"
Trail Blazer began shuffling through his equipment and yelling frantically into the intercom, while Rivet did much the same in the other chamber. The planet continued to grow as they sped towards it, and soon, quiet wisps of air could be heard outside the craft.
Spanner clambered into the cockpit just then. "Listen," he started, "I think our hull can withstand the heat if we seal off the back half of the ship and let it take the brunt. Trail, you need to turn us around."
The pilot stared at his controls, hooves hovering slightly over them. "The fuel..." he mumbled. "We burned all the fuel. I can't..." He paused. "Maybe if I blow the vent in the FTL chamber, the airflow will be enough."
"Do it!" Steel commanded. Trail Blazer twisted several knobs before decisively mashing a neon-red button the size of his hoof. A faint hiss sounded from the rear of the craft and the Curiosity I began to turn. Spanner began what would have been a smile when he saw that the ship had managed to face backwards, but quickly shifted to a grimace when it continued to spin.
"The airflow isn't enough to keep us straight!" Rivet yelled through the intercom as the cabin noise picked up. The force of the spin pressed Steady Steel and Spanner both against the wall. The voice-receiver smacked against the surface near Steel and he shouted into it, "Everypony, buckle in somewhere!" The noise was such that he never knew whether somepony heard him.
As the two unsecured ponies in the cockpit made their way towards the secure bunks in the main hallway, Trail Blazer noted that flames now licked across the glass periodically. A loud screeching sound emanated from the rear of the ship and the bulkhead at the midpoint slammed shut.
After half a minute more of uncontrolled spinning, Rivet unbuckled herself and fought back a wave of nausea, carefully climbing toward the main hallway. Once she reached its opening, she turned to face the other cockpit and addressed her copilot. "We haven't much longer before we hit. Open the chutes and get to your bunk!"
Trail Blazer quickly hit the button designating the escape tower and unbuckled, following Rivet into the main hallway and securing himself in a bunk. The escape tower had been designed to save the crew in the case of a failure during launch, but they had no alternative but to hope that the thrusters and parachutes mounted at the midpoint of the ship would prove adequate to separate them from the debris and lower them safely to the surface.
Each pony trembled slightly as the ship rumbled around them and jolted forward. The remains of the ship's aft section fell away, but the crew compartment showed no signs of slowing its decent beyond the effect of the atmosphere itself. However, the shift in the center of mass did aid the vessel in halting its spin and facing the direction of its travel.
From his position in his bunk, Steady Steel could see the ground below. Due to the angle of their approach, the ponies spent a long time skipping through the atmosphere, and though they had only leveled out near the end of that span, it afforded Steel a chance to observe the planet in the light for the first time.
He looked down at a vast expanse of desert, pockmarked with sinkholes and crevices. Several mesas stood nearby, certainly tall but almost indiscernible from his perspective. Evidently -- obviously, he had to correct himself -- they would find no life here. He remembered Dandelion Tuft shouting something about "oxygen-nitrogen," though, so he held some hope that the atmosphere would prove habitable enough. Of course, rations would only last a few months more.
Another rumble shook the vessel as it slowed abruptly. Steel tried to angle himself to see out the window, the perspective of which had drastically shifted, and saw the cause. "One of the parachutes deployed!" he hollered to anypony that might hear him.
His cheer fell short when he realized that the ground continued rushing towards them at an alarming rate.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I find myself unsure whether I am right in addressing this to you, or whether it is a matter better suited for Princess Luna. However, I suspect she'd still be sleeping. Several minutes ago, a bright light passed overhead and caused the library to shake terribly. I wonder if it may be a fallen meteor, but such a mistake seems unlikely of your sister. I have already taken measures to calm the townsponies * , and my question warrants no urgent response. I trust you were already aware of the curiosity and have the situation well in hoof.
Yours faithfully,
Twilight Sparkle
*Pinkie threw a "Celestia's sun has a new friend" party, and would not listen when I explained that, were that the case, everypony at her party would be unfortunately reduced to ash.
Tia,
Many of our subjects were awoken suddenly, several moments prior. Something to consider.
Luna
Luna,
Something just burned up over Ponyville, headed south. How likely is it that you lost track of a meteor?
C.
Everything is in place. If it is from beyond your sun, it must've arrived quickly to have gone unnoticed.
L.
The white alicorn looked up from the newly received scroll and set it aside. She surveyed the throne room, maintaining her regal, neutral countenance. After several seconds pause, she motioned for one of her guards to approach. "Gather two other pegasi from the barracks and fly south to Ponyville. Offer your assistance to Princess Twilight; if she declines, follow the rail to Appleloosa and assess the situation there. It is likely something passed overhead, and ponies may be hurt. If no one needs aid, use your judgment on whether to attempt to locate a fallen meteor. Go with haste."
The stallion gave a quick nod and bow, then turned and galloped from the room.
Many ponies find that their best rest comes when waking up naturally. Others swear by the quality of sleep maintained by a rigid schedule. Not one pony on Equus or anywhere else, however, will ever vouch for being knocked unconscious and awoken by falling two meters onto torn metal plating. Steady Steel did not reflect on this in quite so much detail when it happened to him; he settled on a hollered profanity and some groaning.
Looking around, he realized that he was laying on what should have been, under better circumstances, the starboard wall of the vessel. It was bent severely and open to the outside at several points—he could faintly discern the orangish-brown haze of sand through the slits in the ship. Turning his head to face the frontmost section, Steel saw that the starboard cockpit had been smashed in and almost completely destroyed. It appeared partially embedded in a rock-face, and was at least a meter above the sand below.
Having found his bearings, Steady Steel stood up and felt a stab of pain. It was only then that he realized how badly bruised and cut his hind legs had become. He carefully leaned against the wall—formerly the floor—and called out, "Who's not dead? Sound off."
Silence. His ears flicked up and he tilted his head, listening intently. He tried again. "Somepony else is welcome to speak up... Any time at all now." He looked up at the three sleeping compartments above him. Two were locked shut, while the third—his own—had slid open just enough for him to fall through. Below his hooves, the other three rooms were shut as well. He tried forcing one, but met with no success.
With a final, nervous glance around him, he sat down with a sigh and waited.
Headstrong grinned into the wind as he flew. He enjoyed few things more than travel, but being a royal guard stationed at the palace did not afford him many opportunities to do so. Thus, he felt thrilled when the princess asked him to investigate a meteor sighting in the far south of Equestria. He glanced briefly at his companions, both of whose names he had already forgotten, and then fixed his gaze on their nearing destination.
His hooves touched the ground first in what passed as the middle of town, followed shortly by the blue-coated stallion and red-coated mare on either side of him. Headstrong spun in place for a moment, scanning the quiet town and looking for anyone officious. He settled for a passing earth pony with a nice hat.
"Excuse me, sir," he began. "Has anything strange happened here in the last several hours?"
"'Roun'about an hour'n a half ago, this brigh' light jist blew past an' had a clap of thund'r! Was li' the prin'ess herself came down! An' angry!"
The guards all stared blankly at him for a moment, parsing the drawl. "Right," Headstrong said at length. "Did you see which way it went?" The Appleloosian pointed. Headstrong gestured for the others to follow him and took off in the indicated direction.
"Oh!" Twilight Sparkle exclaimed so suddenly that Spike dropped his ice cream. Wincing, he turned in his seat at the library and faced her, who stood halfway up the stairs to the second floor. He gave her an inquisitive look before leaning over to clean up the new mess. "I should thank the princess for sending her guards to help," she elaborated.
The young dragon finished slurping up the ice cream and hurried to retrieve a writing implement. Quill in claw and paper nearby, he indicated to Twilight that he was ready. "Dear Princess Celestia," the mare dictated, "Thank you for your consideration and foresight in sending some of your guard to assist with the situation here. While it proved unnecessary in this instance, the gesture is appreciated. Yours faithfully, Twilight."
She paused for a moment and gave Spike an expectant look. He rolled up the paper, held it in front of himself, inhaled, and lit it on fire.
Spike had already released the scroll as the flames engulfed it—it fell to the ground and smoldered for a moment, crumpling in on itself and singing the floor beneath it. Twilight cried out and rushed over, stamping on it frantically to extinguish the fire.
"Spike!" she screamed, once the threat to her library had passed. She recognized her volume a moment later and corrected it, speaking again in a softer tone. "Spike, what just happened?"
Initially, he could do nothing but shake his head in response, visibly stunned by the accident. "I... I don't know, Twi. I did the same thing as always, but this time it felt different." Twilight drew her friend in for a hug with one hoof.
"I know you didn't mean to, Spike. We'll just have to head up to Canterlot soon and get you checked out by someone a bit more knowledgable than me." As she spoke, she turned idly to the blackened paper on the ground and prodded it with her magic to determine the temperature. She felt nothing. A complete absence of stimuli. Frowning, she tried to levitate it and found that she could not.
The beginnings of a complaint about the proposed doctors-visit died in Spike's throat as he saw the unicorn's expression souring. "Something the matter?" he asked instead.
Twilight barely heard him. By that point, she had attempted to levitate every object in the room without success. "Nothing's working..." she muttered. "Magic's not working."
It wasn't a meteorite. He was unsure exactly what it was , but Headstrong could tell it was not a meteorite. It was too smooth and too reflective. Red only noticed it because of the glare. Headstrong had made the decision to investigate anyway, and now that they had closed to a reasonable distance, he found it was clearly pony-made. He did not recognize the material, though.
The three guards made a close pass around the object, circling it before they landed. It sat in a large field southeast of Appleloosa, on the edge of the badlands. The object was propped up slightly by a large boulder, and Blue noted that the rock had evidently shattered a window occupying the space previously.
The three pegasi now stood several meters distant from the craft, looking uncertainly at it.
"What do you make of it?" asked Blue.
"Maybe... We're near changeling territory—maybe this is something they made? It's certainly not any metal I've seen," Red offered.
"Are you suggesting it's the source of the light over Ponyville? How could it possibly get so far?" Blue countered.
"Have you considered," began Headstrong, "the possibility that-" THUD
A banging sound came from within the object. The guards all fell silent, watching. Several seconds passed before another noise sounded. THUD
Several seconds more. CRR-WHUMP
"Any-" Thud. A grey earth pony stallion fell out of the object and landed motionless in the sand.