An Unexpected Change in Course

It was late at night with the moon shining high in the night sky and almost everypony was asleep at this time of night, but among the few who were awake at this hour was the unicorn Twilight Sparkle, currently engrossed in book about the theories of the origin of magic with only a lamp shining on the book being the only other source of light to read by. As avid a reader as she was, Twilight knew that if she had started that book earlier in the day, she might have been finished with it by now. Letting out a yawn, she realized how tired she was and turned to see her dragon companion Spike fast asleep in his bed next to her own. "I think I'll hit the hay. As much as I want to keep reading, I think I'll pick up where I left off tomorrow-" Twilight said before letting out another yawn, "besides, it's not like that book is going anywhere". With that said, the lavender mare placed a bookmark where she had left off in the book and turned off the lamp before looking briefly into the night sky, smiling at the moon before making her way over to her bed and with her right hand, slid the sheets back and hopped into bed. Had she stood at the window sill for a few moments longer, she would've saw something that was truly out of the ordinary.

In low orbit above the newly discovered planet, a rather large and well armored ship was running scan after scan on the planet. "Well? How does she fare for a colony Ensign?" A deep, slightly robotic in tone voice asked one of the men sitting in front of the console that was displaying data that the scans were picking up. Several taps on a keyboard brought up the results of the most recent atmospheric and geological scans and displayed it on-screen.

"Captain, the land mass we're over now is surprisingly dense in mineral and gem deposits, not to mention that the soil itself appears to be good for agriculture. The atmosphere scans also detect higher than normal level of oxygen due to the abundance of trees. As far as it looks sir, this planet has more than enough for us to finally have a place we can call home. The only down side this planet has over the others we've come across that there is no sign of any fossil fuels for us to jumpstart the colony," the ensign responded to his commanding officer.

"Well that's a shame, but we should send these reports in just in case he wants to call this planet our new-" the officer was saying before he was suddenly cut off by another voice from the side of him.

"Captain! The planet is inhabited!" One of the science officers cried out as he pulled up a picture of what appeared to be a very ornate castle that had been built into the side of a mountain as well as several more pictures of different cities and villages onto a large holographic screen in the center of the control room. Once all of the pictures were on screen, another scan was run over the various structures and to everyone's surprise, the bio-signs were not only positive, but the cases of the castle as well as the large cities had unexpectedly high numbers of life signs.

"Incredible! This is almost like every other civilization, but without the pollution and destruction that normally should have occurred," exclaimed the Captain. "Men, complete the remaining scans, and pack it up for transmission. I think we've finally found our new home."

On Canterlot's observation platform sat Princess Luna, taking a break from dream walking through young colt's and filly's nightmares to look at the stars above through a telescope. It wasn't until the telescope was brought past the moon that she noticed something out of the ordinary. A tiny black speck was highlighted by the moon's glow, but within moments, another, much larger objected appeared out of nowhere and obscured the first object she saw. "I must be seeing things," said Princess Luna to herself before pulling away from the telescope and rubbed her eyes for a few seconds. Once her vision had cleared again, she looked back into the telescope and within moments found where she had spotted the strange object was, only now, there were several dozen smaller ones not too far from the one she had earlier saw appear out of nowhere, only these smaller ones were firing various colored beams of light at the larger object.

On board the Black Heart's flagship and only capital ship, The Armageddon, a man wearing a brown trench coat draped over his shoulders, black sweater with a set of titanium plated body armor underneath, black cotton pants with a belt hiding an emergency plasma pistol within his coat, heavy leather boots that, in the right one, hid a small survival knife and a small block of an extremely powerful high explosive in the left, as well as black fingerless gloves on his hand, sighed heavily. At first glance he appeared to be a normal human, but the only visible evidence that he was something else were the metallic joints of his fingers. "Are we ever going to find a place we can call home." Michael Naral stated absent-mindedly as he sat in his chair on the bridge, reviewing the survey reports that were coming in on a holographic screen around his chair. Every report was disappointing however, as each planet always had some critical flaw that would greatly inhibit or outright prevent the establishment of a colony such as an acidic atmosphere, or despite appearing to have solid land masses, only had a mushy surface like one would find after a heavy downpour. Letting out another heavy sigh, he was about to close the report logs from the recent survey missions he had sent out when all of a sudden, the final report came in with a small beep indicating its late arrival.

Not expecting anything special from this report, Michael Naral almost absent mindedly sent it to be stored in the databanks on board before he noticed the size of the report compared to the others. Figuring that he may as well look at the report since the crew of that mission managed to do a complete survey as opposed to the partial ones that were filled out, and what had come back, astonished him. A planet, not only with a strong atmosphere, but fertile soil and more than enough minerals for them to start a colony of their own. "Navigator, get us to these coordinates as fast as possible. If what the report says is correct, after countless years of searching, we may finally have found a home," Michael Naral said out loud and sent the coordinates enclosed within the survey report to the navigator.

"Aye sir," said the Navigator. "Coordinates received and entered. Ready to jump on your mark sir."

"Thank you," Michael Naral said before reaching up to his left ear and began to transmit his voice throughout the entire ship. "This is Admiral Michael Naral. All hands, prepare for phase jump. I repeat, this is Admiral Michael Naral. All hands prepare for phase jump." Within minutes of the announcement, every compartment of the huge ship was prepared for the jump. Looking over to the Navigator, he nodded before speaking. "Mark."

The moment that was said, the ship lurched forth as if it was being stretched out like a piece of dough in a bakery. Everyone's vision blurred from the effect and within minutes, they had arrived at their destination. While a vast majority of the crewmen and women on board the Armageddon had experienced countless phase jumps before, some still got sick from the feeling of performing them. Even Michael Naral himself was not immune to the sickening effects of them, though at the worst he had a serious case of nausea and a headache. Despite the ill effects from the recent jump, Michael performed a quick scan of the planet and what had come back matched what the report had said, causing the cyborg to smile; something that was extremely rare of him to do nowadays.

Standing up from the seat he was in, trench coat still around his shoulders, Michael Naral placed his left hand up to his left ear and began to transmit his voice throughout the ship once more. "Ladies and gentlemen! After surviving countless hardships and many years passing, I am proud to announce that we had finally found a planet to call our own. Begin launching supplies, equipment and personnel down to the surface of the planet."

Before anyone could move to prepare the things needed to start a colony, an explosion and a massive shockwave rocked the ship, throwing many people off of their feet. "What the hell was that?!" Michael exclaimed as he looked up from his position down on the floor and slowly got onto his hands and knees.

"Sir! A large number of vessels have just de-cloaked on our starboard side! They are opening fire again!" Cried out one of the crewman before another explosion was heard, only this time it happened at the bridge of the ship. Screams of pain and agony were heard as shrapnel flew into the unfortunate souls who were closest to the blast, ending some of them before they could even make a sound and fires started burning across several decks.

Realizing that this was one battle he couldn't fight and win or escape from since the phase drives had just begun cooling down, he chose to take the only other option available. "Navigator! Take us down to the planet's surface! It is our only hope!" Cried Michael Naral as yet another blast and shockwave rocked the ship. Without responding to her commanding officer, the Navigator nodded began to guide the massive ship down to the planet looking frantically through the various scans for a place flat enough that would allow for such a landing.