The capsule hissed open, small swirls of steam escaping as the seal was broken. The young, purple unicorn inside slowly opened her eyes, but quickly squeezed them shut once the bright light above her hit her retinas. She waited a few seconds before opening them again and slowly climbing out of the hyper sleep capsule. She stretched and looked around, seeing that all the other capsules were already opened. She rubbed her forehooves over her violet eyes and saw the cylindrical computer connected to the eight hyper sleep capsules surrounding it. Several tubes and wires hanging between the capsule and the computer that kept those inside alive.

She turned around and saw the eight computer screens built in to the circular wall that made up the hyper sleep chamber, and noticed that hers was still on. She magically levitated her keycard-which was laying on the desk in front of the screen-into the slot and pulled it out. The screen displayed in bright green letters:

Twilight Sparkle: Signed in.

She stood up and set the ID back down on the desk, then floated a white lab coat which was hung on a coat rack around her forelegs and torso, zipping it up to just below her neck. She walked out of the room and headed down the hallway to the mess hall. Passing several doors as she walked. She stopped only to let a pair of stallions hefting a large metal plate between them pass her. She then continued to the door that led to the mess hall, which slid upwards as she approached it.

Inside was a round table surrounded by three long, curved benches. On one of the benches were three mares, two of which were holding each other warmly, the other was sipping from a cup of coffee which she had suspended in the air with her magic. Twilight sat down next to the white unicorn, who also had a dark purple mane which was in several curls, along with a pair of red glasses perched upon her nose and said;

"Good morning, Rarity."

The white unicorn groaned in response and said: "Good morning, Twilight. Though I very much doubt that's the actual time of day..."

Twilight nodded, realizing that Rarity probably wasn't as used to hyper sleep as the rest of them were. She turned to face the other two mares, who were seated across the table from her and Rarity, and said to the orange earth pony; "Morning, Applejack."

"Mornin' Twi'," she replied, nudging the cyan pegasus with a rainbow coloured mane who was nuzzling into her shoulder, "Dashie's jus' a bit tired. Ain't been in hyper sleep for a while."

The pegasus raised a hoof tiredly to her forehead, and dropped it back onto the bench. Applejack nuzzled her marefriend affectionately, and Twilight had to stifle the 'aww' that was threatening to escape her throat. She got up again and left her friends to find the food dispensers.

On one of the curved walls were four plastic containers attatched to the ceiling. The bottoms of which bent inward like an upside down pyramid to a nozzle which was used to release the food within to drop into the pony's bowl or plate, whichever he or she desired. Twilight used her magic to float one of the bowls from the stack of them and placed it under one of the nozzles. She then turned it and a steady stream of oatmeal fell into the bowl. Closing the nozzle, Twilight levitated the bowl next to her as she sat back down at the table and placed it in front of her. She began eating as another pony entered the room, taking the seat next to Rarity.

Twilight looked up with her eyes to see the light yellow mare with a long, pink mane sitting there, sneaking a quick kiss on Rarity's cheek before they could be caught. Twilight smiled to herself and sat back to look at the pair.

"Morning, Fluttershy," she said.

"Oh, um... good morning, Twilight," Fluttershy said, barely above a whisper.

Twilight smiled to Fluttershy and went back to eating, silence taking over as the other four poonies in the room did the same. She noticed Rainbow Dash getting up with Applejack and then going to get food together. She couldn't help but smile at the thought of them, they were just too perfect together. She heard the door open as another pony trotted in and took a seat next to her. She turned her head to see the bright pink face just inches from her own, light blue eyes staring daggers into her. She dismisses this and shakes her head lightly, a small smile forming on her face as she chuckled silently to herself.

"Hi Pinkie," she said, causing the pink earth pony beside her to finally look away.

"Morning Twilight," Pinkie Pie replied, kissing Twilight on the cheek before heading over to get her own food.

Twilight went back to her oats and smiled again, happy that the gang was all together for breakfast. Even if it was probably the middle of the night for all they knew.

***

The six ponies stood side to side in the bridge, awaiting their briefing from the captain. Twilight stood with Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rainbow Dash to her right, and Fluttershy and Rarity to her left. She stood at ease, her head slightly tilted forward. Pinkie was babbling on and on about different types of frosting, which she had gotten too bored of to listen to anymore and was simply letting her marefriend drone on about it while she tried to figure out just what they were going to be doing.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash were leaning on each other, Rainbow's wings draped around Applejack as they nuzzled together. normally they wouldn't be so affectionate around others, but they were all friends here, they knew that they'd be accepted for it. Rarity was levitating a cup of coffee next to her while she rubbed her eyes with a hoof, still trying to wake up, while Fluttershy just stood silently with them.

A bright yellow mare with an orange and yellow mane and tail approached them. The firey look in her yellow eyes seemed to be enough to melt ten buckets of ice within seconds and the colours of her mane made her head look like it was on fire. She stood in front of the six mares and they instantly stood at attention, awaiting whatever orders the captain had to give them.

The captain drew in a long breath and cleared her throat before speaking, looking each of the six mares in front of her over before saying; "Good morning, ladies. Thank you for joining me at this time," she looked at them to make sure they were all listening before continuing,"we are here for a basic mining operation. Our objective is to retrieve as many valuable items, minerals, elements, and anything else we can find, and head home," she took a breath before asking; "Any questions?"

None of the six raised a hoof. Instead they all looked like they understood perfectly... then the beeping started. Faint and slow, at a steady pace, and coming from one of the main consoles. Seated in front of it was a light blue stallion with a darker blue mane, who was furiously tapping on controls to figure out what the problem was.

The captain looked behind her and said; "What's the situation, Soarin?"

"Working on it, captain," Soarin said, his button pressing coming to a stop once he had it figured out. He looked at the monitor to make sure he was seeing what he was, and looked back to the captain. "Spit, you're gonna want to look at this."

"Put it on the main monitor," she replied, and the large monitor which was attached to the front wall of the bridge, which was currently showing a picture of the planet, zoomed in on a particular area of the view.

Within the screen, clearly in orbit of the planet below, was a ship. It was shaped like a cylinder, with several protrusions extending from the main hull, along with several antennas sticking out on one side. Toward the ship's bow, it narrowed down to a single, rounded point, and there was a large, glass window at the front of it. Clearly the ship's bridge. It clearly wasn't of pony design, and the captain was speechless to say the least.

The six mares behind her were also staring in shock at the ship, their jaws hanging from their hinges like they had seen a ghost. Nopony spoke, until Twilight regained control of herself and asked;

"What... what is that?"

"A... ship, I think. But I don't recognize the design," the captain said.

"Then that means..." Twilight started, "we've found aliens."

Author's Note

Oh, just you wait, Twilight...