An Unexpected Change in Course

With Twilight Sparkle and her six friends as well as Spike walking along a dirt road with her pegasi friends flying rather close to them, intent to find out whatever was at the crash site not far from the outskirts of Ponyville. As the plume of smoke grew larger and climbed higher into the night sky, thoughts of whatever they could possibly find began to run through the pony's heads. Despite the time it took the six mares and dragon to travel as close as they could to the crash site by following the dirt road, none of them said a word; their minds too preoccupied with what they could potentially find there. Upon noticing that whatever it was that had landed was deep in White Tail Woods, Twilight Sparkle and her friends looked at each other before nodding and steadily followed the road and entered the forest with the moon now roughly two thirds of the way across the night sky. Once they had lost sight of the green fields that were behind them, the six ponies jumped at a distant, but terrifying sound that only seemed to grow louder.

"Uhh...girls, do any of you know what that sound is?" asked Twilight in a strained tone as she began to look around nervously, hoping that whatever was making that sound could be reasoned with.

"Ah never heard anything like it Twi, and I sure as sugar hope I don't hear anything like it again." Applejack responded as she too was looking for the source of the sound.

"I just hope that whatever we find won't be hideous to look at darling." Rarity chimed in as she kept pace with her friends while Spike hurried in front of and looked back to her.

"Don't worry Rarity, I'll protect you from any beasts that try to harm you," said the baby dragon as he puffed his chest out and lightly thumped it, trying to show off for white unicorn.

"Thank you Spike," replied Rarity and gently rubbed the baby dragon's head which caused him to blush a little and chuckle.

"Eh, it can't be that scary if it's just making the same sound over and over again," said Rainbow Dash casually, despite the sight of her tail twitching in fear a little. The others just looked up at the boisterous pegasus and glared at her, knowing that all of them were scared to some extent.

"I just hope that whatever it is, is friendly," whispered Fluttershy as she made sure to stay extra close with the group while making sure to look at every shadow that moved.

"Do you think whatever it is likes parties? I sure hope so because I plan on giving them a party when we get back to Ponyville!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie in her usual hyper-active way.

Outside of the Armageddon, the Captain of the survey ship as well as a few combat trained troops stood a little ways back from the hanger door as the sound of metal blades cutting metal plates echoed throughout the woods. Not knowing if their flagship had been boarded and destroyed from the inside, or if nothing but a gruesome horror show awaited them, they made sure to stay vigilant should the ship be infiltrated. With a wide range of emotions boiling within not only the Captain, but the rest of his men, it would only take one proverbial spark to set off the powder keg.

Inside of the fallen ship, Michael Naral heard the familiar sound of metal blades cutting metal place and shuddered while he steadily moved forward by leaning up against the walls of the hallway, hating the sound as it reminded him too much of being cut open by a group of some sick and immoral scientists experiments when his body was more...fleshy. Fuck, not again Michael thought as he leaned over and held back what remained in his stomach as some of the memories of his ancient past came back to haunt him, but it was a losing battle. Turning his head away to minimize the splashing of his own vomit onto his body, he finally and undesirably emptied the last of the food within his stomach, which quickly growled to be fed. Upon feeling well enough to keep moving, the cyborg kept his heavy plasma cannon at the ready and within moments, found the hangers. Stepping inside, he saw numerous bodies as well as countless unidentified remains before seeing the sparks fly at the hanger doors to the outside.

Once they had the object that had crashed into White Tail Woods in their sights, Twilight Sparkle and her friends all gasped in shock at the size of whatever it was that had landed. Being the brave one as usual, Rainbow Dash began to fly closer to the object until she felt something pull at her tail until she was back in the group of her friends.

"Rainbow, try to stay with us. We don't know what this thing is capable of," Twilight said with worry to the cyan-colored pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail.

"Yeah, yeah. I don't see how something like that can be dangerous," Rainbow Dash said as she and the others moved into the brush and circled around the object. It wasn't until they saw some strange hairless creatures doing something to the larger object, as well as what was making that noise that the mares made sure to keep themselves hidden within the thick foliage. Just off to the side they even spotted a much smaller metallic object and some of the mares wondered if that was where these strange creatures came from

"What are those things? They don't look like ponies," stated Applejack as she squinted to try and look at the hairless beings.

"They don't look dangerous to me. I say we take them out!" Rainbow Dash said. Though before she could even begin to charge at the hairless creatures, her body was enveloped in a lavender color of energy and pulled down onto the ground.

"I don't know what they are. I've never seen any thing about these creatures, even in all of my books back home or in the Royal Canterlot Library," voiced Twilight, trying to be quiet enough so the creatures didn't hear her.

"Whatever they are, they have a horrid fashion sense," Rarity responded. Wondering if even she could fix those fashion disasters.

Panting heavily as he unsteadily walk over to where the hole was being cut out, Michael Naral leaned up against the door and banged on it in a specific pattern to see just who it was. Everyone that had served in the guild was taught patterns to make if they were separated and needed to know if others nearby were friendly while also learning the pattern to use to confirm if they were friendly. Feeling unusually weak, he continued to bang on the door in the same pattern. Waiting a few moments in between for a response before banging the same pattern out again. Much to his delight, a pattern he recognized was banged back and turned to see closer that where the cut was being made was the body of a poor soul that appeared to have died from blunt-force trauma to the head as there was blood leaking from his head in various places. The moment the blades were withdrawn, the cut-out section fell outward instead of inward. Causing some of the men outside to yelp in surprise. Just after the disc that had been cut out fell, the body of the man he saw had his intestines fall out of his body and ship while a deep gash in his neck from the blades caused his head to tear off when his body hit the ground.

Once the six mares saw what had happened, all of them quickly let out a blood-curling scream in near unison. Almost instantly, every one of the creatures pulled out a strange object and pointed it in their direction before what they thought was the leader of the creatures began to speak in a language that none of them recognized. Though they didn't understand what was said, they did know that they wanted them to reveal themselves. Looking at all of her friends with worry obviously in her eyes, Twilight nodded and stood up before stepping out of the bushes and was quickly followed by her friends. Upon seeing what had emerged from the brush, the creatures began to look at each other in amazement and confusion.

"What do you think they want with us Twi? I really don't like the looks of them," Applejack whispered to the group before seeing another one of those things come out from the hole that they had made in the larger object, only this one landed on his belly and seemed to be very tired.

When he heard the screaming, Michael Naral, wondered what, or who made that noise. While he normally would've been able to get through the hole that was made, a heavy wave of fatigue as well as sadness washed over him, causing him to move slower and more clumsily than he would. Even going so far as to slip on some of the fresh blood and synthetic oil that was spilt on the hanger floor. The realization that not only had he lost his home that he had traveled the starts with for several centuries, but almost all of the people he had come to enjoy being around were now dead and that he, was the one at fault for what happened to them. Struggling with the last of his remaining energy, he lifted himself up to the hole and pulled himself through, but before he could pull his feet through, he spent the last of his energy and collapsed onto the ground. The last thing he remembered before blacking out was hearing his name and rank being called out.