Can't Take the Stars From Us

Three commanding figures were clustered around the brightly illuminated holographic table, showing a star system and all of its planetary bodies. The trio observed the projection, waiting for someone, anyone to make the first move. Suddenly, one of the figures brought out his arms above the glossy glass and stretched them wide, causing the hologram to zoom in; onto Haycate and it’s orbiting satellite.

“So, as I said in our last briefing, I’ve sent detachments here, here, and here.” Classy pointed at three corresponding locations on the hologlobe. “As you asked, I’ve had them split up and search their immediate areas.”

Hood gazed over the planet with an attentive eye. “But they strayed off their given routes, anyway?” Creases furrowed his brow. “I can understand the temptation to explore, but surely this will cause problems.”

“I’m less worried about whether anything saw them, and more concerned about what they found.” Red pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Not to diminish the threat of being sighted by an unknown force, but what resources have we seen?”

“I’m in agreement with Red; for once,” Tux said over the radio. “I’m more interested in what we found than what they found.” Hood shuffled in place slightly.

Classy cast his eyes over those in attendance, even looking over towards the intercom from which Tux’s voice was projecting. “Well, if you’re done, I’ll continue.” Sweeping his hand to the right, he rotated the planetoid leftwards until the hologlobe showed a picturesque mountain range.

“This is Canterlot,” he said with a grunt. “As we expected from our aerial observations, it’s woefully underprotected.” Turning and looking both Redshirt and John in the eye, he snickered. “We could take it within a day with the away team alone.”

“We’re not invading them, Classy.” Hood starred his subordinate down, the air between them rife with supposed tension. “This is peaceful expedition, not the pretense to a planetary occupation!”

Classy turned to face the projection once more. “Of course it is, sir. Of course it is...” Those last words dripped with venom as he brought his attention back towards the globe. “Well, anyhow, our scouts have reported large deposits of silicon, titanium, and gold; amongst numerous others.”

A singular note droned throughout the room as Tux whistled. “That sounds pretty good. How long until we can tap it?”

“Before we even start mining their planet dry, we need permission from the natives.” Walking over by Classy and drawing both his hands outwards, Red zoomed in on the grand city. “Your team should make their landing here.” Pointing at a small pavillion, he grinned. “It’ll be a tight fit, but you should make a good impression.”

“The entire airspace is filled with hot air balloons, though,” Hood said with a grimace. “We even had to wait for them to disperse before we could get the geographical data.” Looking over at Classy, the stern man rubbed his chin in thought. “Would they cause you any problems on the way down?”

Flexing his neck and popping the joints, Classy grinned. “You mentioned a ‘show of force’ yesterday, right?” Imitating a firing posture, he pretended to fire a gun. “Shoot couple of them down and those ponies will scatter like frightened ants.”

“No.” Speaking up from the intercom, Tux snuffed the thought. “We should keep our cards held close to our chests for now. Force will not be necessary.”

Red sighed dejectedly. “Life’s never that easy.”

From above the heavens came a mighty roar, like the sound of plummeting stars. All across the city, and even farther out to the hamlets cusped in the mountain shadow, eyes turned skyward. At first it wasn’t such a worry. Another sonic rainboom? Somepony’s failed spell? Maybe even somedrake with indigestion.

With each passing second the sound grew louder and louder; eyes, wider and wider. Suddenly everypony realized it wasn’t something normal, something ‘natural’. Ponies began to head for indoors the moment a blazing streak of passionate orange and infernus red thundered pierced the clouds.

In between all that flame and fury was a large black object, with small flaps and sharp edges across it. It looked almost like some kind of flying shark. But then, it also looked like one of the minotaur’s old airship designs. Unlike the oaken and hearty ships of yore, however, this thing radiated nothing but the crimson aura of doom.

Then it howled. With that bowel shaking howl of savagery came a mass panic, as ponies began to flee rather than make their way to cover. Rippling throughout the streets, the roads, the plains; a hot fear of the unknown spread like plague.

Soaring down from the clouds and shattering the peaceful dusk sky into terror incarnate, the horrifying invader tore a path straight towards Canterlot. Across the entire country, for a few brief seconds, the horizon shone with the beauty of a dying star; the harbinger of the new dawn leaving a golden trail in its wake.

Slipping down low to the ground with a speed that flew before sound, the vessel passed forests and fields; only for them to rip apart. Its roaring howl died down as it closed in on Canterlot, slowing down significantly... and allowing sound to catch up.

The roaring beast continued to approach like a vulture, slowly circling the beautiful city as if it was in search of carrion. Gouts of flame shot from the tail of the shark-bird as it descended toward an empty section of the pavilion. As the flames from the tail seemed to die, the creature came to a stop almost thirty hooves above the empty patch.

New flames shot out from the stomach of the shark-bird as it slowly descended straight down. With a gentleness that belies it’s large bulk, it landed with a grating thud. Small scorch marks formed from where the jets of flames once protruded.

With a shuddering sigh the side of the object slid open, and a ramp protruded from somewhere inside. Blackness enveloped what was within, until bright red shone from behind numerous giants. Their strides were heavy, making the ground quake, and they were utterly silent.

Nopony said a word, nopony dared breathe.

They stood within the mist with their faces of iron and coldness. Sharpness and uniformity made up their bodies, glowing veins of starlight ran through them like poison.

The iron giants could be mistaken for golems, almost all of them perfectly identical to each other, faceless and emotionless, standing there as if waiting for a command from some invisible master. Everypony waited for something, anything to happen; the iron giants gazing down at them, sizing them up maybe. One suddenly lurched forward, its metal feet thumping against the ground like a wardrum, taking several large steps ahead of the group.

Nearby guards sprung into action, leaping to the defence of the gathered crowd; spears at the ready as the metal beast slowly stopped. It gazed down at them with its soulless glowing eyes, no doubt seeing if it could kill them with a malice filled glance alone. But from its emotionless gaze, it seemed as if hate was beyond it.

A long silence permeated the air; thick with fear and anticipation. It stood there unmoving, the guards resolve standing firm. Soon, however, doubt creeped up on them. Its ghastly metal body shone menacingly in the fading dusk, almost mocking their spears, daring them to make a foolish attack. The crowd became restless and sporadic.

What stood before them was not rational, not natural, and death should have been forthcoming. It became so tense that the prospect of death became appealing, the silence gnawing away at them.

When it suddenly and quickly raised its hand up, it would be forgiven if a few ponies—and at least one guard—fainted, as some terrible warbled screeching emanated from its seamless head.

The speech that suddenly rolled forth from the towering iron giant was as sinister as its appearance; with broken syllables and sneering punctuating every dark word spoken. It communicated with the voice of a machine, further adding to the terror. It outstretched its arms, in a futile gesture to placate the ponies as the voice box of the damned spewed forth such black tongues.

It paused. It noticed the fear it was generating in the gathered crowd. It took a moment to itself, as if to contemplate something, then it ripped out a segment of it’s iron neck. Sparkling, the now useless component clattered on the ground after the bipedal golem threw it.

It then grasped both sides of its head, and with a hiss and a click, it slid off, revealing an inner cranium that wasn’t machine at all. It was the face of something living. Everypony gasped as they realized that this was a creature inside of a mass of armor, not just a possessed automaton.

Now, the speech that was coming from the pale alien was significantly less sinister, but every time he opened his mouth to attempt to communicate, he would bare his sharp teeth; and everypony there knew that things with sharp teeth were to be feared, and backed away. They were now to never let it out of their sight, afraid that he might come upon them if they so much as looked elsewhere. The alien looked around again, stopping whatever speech he was making, and put his face into his mitts.

Sunlight streamed into the room, reflecting off of the calcite crystals in the massive marble pillars. The reflected light was briefly refracted by a thin sheet of glass before landing on the rich, arch shaped, mahogany conference table that dominated the room. The light also shone on the room's occupants, with ponies on one side of the table, and the off-worlders on the other.

The first alien was now accompanied by others of its kind, who were obviously its bodyguard, with less ornate and more plain armor. The alien leader had put back on its helm, but Twilight still lingered on what she saw of the face.

It was not unlike that of a pony. Judging by the leader’s face, it was very flat compared to nearly every being on the planet. And its clean, jet-black mane and eyebrows were the only features covering the figure’s hairless pinkish-pale skin. These weren’t creatures made of iron, but were creatures that wore iron like the guard ponies wore gold. Why are they here, and what did they hope to accomplish?

The tense silence was finally broken when horrifying sound came out of its mouth; one that seemed to promise a long agonizing demise. It was followed by a sharp stuttering noise which tone could be equated to someone’s angry ranting, or that’s at least what everypony present in the room was hoping.

Rambling and drawn out eldritch schpeel continued to drip from the creature’s lips, his arms moving around constantly; punctuating points that simply weren’t heard. Everything he might have said, have wanted to say, was falling on deaf ears.

Twilight didn’t like that. Everypo﹘ everybody, should be allowed to say what they want and have other poni﹘ people, listen to them. Casting her mind out to the ethereal and reigning in her deepest emotion, she captured the essence of understanding, and projected her image towards the creature.

Of course, they didn’t see that. They saw a purple flash and something hit their leader, causing him to slump.

Immediately, as if someone had flicked a switch, the mood in the room changed. Every biped behind the one collapsed on the table turned to look at Twilight in unison. Their arms moved to their weapons, and the hulking devices were pointed at everything breathing in the area.

The regal solar monarch felt her heart strain as one of the hulking machines turned to look straight at her, and watched with horror as her guards shrunk back. Their weapons were held high but their heads bowed like that of slaves.

Worse still, Twilight was practically hyperventilating besides her as the ramifications of her actions unfolded before her. Low hissing shuddered throughout the air as canisters that some of the bipeds wore slid open, revealing a ghastly pale yellow glow; a sea of stars.

Princess Luna was less scared than she was amazed, her wide eyes and slackjaw slowly becoming a gently sloping smile. Decompressions then permeated the room as metal clamps unlocked across their arms, the large machines glowing with a vibrant and powerful energy.

Unbeknownst to the ponies, who believed the giants before them needed time and preparation to strike; the only thing stopping the away team from repainting the room viscera red was the fact that Classy still had a heartbeat.

Celestia realized that things would only go from bad to worse, and attempted to halt their aggression. However, her words meant nothing to them, as one lowered its weapon and carefully edged forwards.

The utterly alien glowing lines that seemed to surround certain parts of the giant’s suit dimmed ever so subtly as it knelt down besides their ‘leader’. It first grabbed what Celestia supposed was the thing’s shoulder, shaking it gently; then roughly, then forcefully. The first, angry alien waved off the unarmed alien grabbing at him, and said, “CONSEQUENCE SEEMS TIME CONSTRAINT OF THE MOMENT.”

Everypony looked at each other, confused at the strange lines the alien now was saying. Twilight facedesked, the sound echoing in the castle hallways. She then groaned. The alien continued by saying, “THIS IS THE FUCK,” clearly confused at the turn of events.

Twilight then raised her head and started lamenting, saying, “So what if I never had the chance to practice that spell, knowing that someday I would need to use it, but no, I just never went abroad or just set time aside to set up practice te﹘”

The alien looked directly at Twilight and snapped their fingers. “UNDERSTANDING TAKES THE COURSE,” It said, almost as if in understanding. At this, the nervousness of alot of ponies present eased somewhat, though the guards still eyed the weapons of the alien bodyguard. Twilight gasped, and asked it, “You can understand me?” At the nod of its head, she giggled, and giddily clapped her forehooves together.

“Good! I say we let cooler heads prevail and let’s adjourn so we can get a linguistics expert in here so that there won’t be any more miscommunication!”

The silence in the room was then deafening, and more than one person in the room was impressed at the turnaround that the Princess of Friendship managed. Awkwardness reigned in the room for a time, then the occupants stirred, starting with the alien leader.

The alien leader relayed the message to his entourage, and they nodded their heads in unison. They got up, and the more seasoned guards made to escort them back to their ship when Twilight jumped in front of them, with an interruption.

“Wait, what’s your name?”

The alien leader regarded Twilight as he towered above her, and answered,

“ASS CLASS.”

Everypony present in the room waited until the aliens had departed before snickering and laughing.

After everypony in the room had regained their bearing, a new period of silent wondering began while the appropriate staff and experts were summoned, until...

“Here I am.”

The group turned their heads to see a lone brown stallion with a grey beard in a navy jacket trotting up to the conference table.

“I am Lexiograph. How can I be of assis﹘”

“Discord, that didn’t work the first time.”

Lexiograph gasped, then groaned, pawing at the ground. He then saw everypony’s unamused expressions, then sighed.

“You ponies are never fun.”

One flash of light later, and the pony was replaced by a draconequus. An annoyed draconequus.

“First, we can't have our little games. Then, we can't be a part of your little proceedings. Not that I would want to, of course. Our space-bound guests are oh so boring.”

Discord then made a show of half-heartedly inspecting the claws of his talon-hand. Celestia, with an unamused expression, sighed and shook her head.

“Discord, this is no time to﹘”

“Of course it isn't. I can see that this is something very serious, Celestia, which is why I'm offering my services as a translator to you.”

“You can't be seriou﹘”

Discord then threw his arms wide, asking the crowd of ponies gathered there questions in Prench, Germaneian, Zebrican, Old Grifficon, and many other obscure and even several long-dead languages.

Everypony in the room stood with gaping mouths at the display.

“You forget, Celestia. I was there when the omniglot spell was devised. Take me to their leader.”

It was a somber procession of Equestria's leaders, guard ponies, and an avatar of chaos which was leading the group. The hallways echoed their footfalls, punctuating the eerie silence that reigned in the castle. Eventually, the interiors and the ceiling of the castle gave way to overcast sky, casting grey light on the interstellar craft, which sat unmoving in the courtyard, cleared of all ponies save a perimeter of guards.

Apprehension suddenly gripped the hearts of the previously curious bunch. Even Discord felt a pang of doubt and fear clawing at his otherwise carefree self.

Their advance halted when whooshing air and the spinning of motors signaled the opening of the doors of the transport, with a being charging from inside the craft. Instantly, the situation became tense as guards raised their spears and leveled them at the screaming thing. It however halted and continued to shout into something in its right hand, eventually looking into the clouds and holding his gaze there.

Discord got naturally curious, and crept up behind it, despite the protests of the Princesses and others gathered there. Discord then conjured up a radio set and a tennis racquet, holding the radio under one arm while plugging the racquet into the radio. He then put on a set of earphones and waved the racquet behind the head of the alien, who hadn't noticed Discord. He then adjusted some knobs on the radio, muttering, "We just gotta get the right frequency, and..."

The meaning behind the irate one's words suddenly became instantly clear. "What the FUCK are you doing?!"

The outburst shocked everypony into silence. Incredibly, the device the alien was holding buzzed, and it also spoke. “Look. I accidently sent out all of the shuttles, and…”

“Dude!” the alien’s voice echoed throughout the castle. “You entrusted me to conduct the negotiations, you DICKCHEESE!”

Rarity covered Pinkie Pie's ears with her forehooves.

“We realized they might ask to see a higher ranking official, so…”

“Then wait for an available transport, sir.”

“...I'm already halfway down.”

The alien dropped the communications device. "You've got to be shitting me."

That's when a speck fell through the clouds. The tinny voice was still audible amidst the grass when it buzzed, “Deploying smoke and chute.”

A bright green-yellow line soon trailed behind the falling object. The speck soon slowed, and it grew. It soon became obvious that this was also one of the aliens, parachuting into Canterlot. The device on the ground squawked, “Signal flare, Classy.”

The alien numbly responded, “Uh. Sure thing, Admiral.”

He then threw something on the ground that itself spewed very visible bright red smoke. With that, the parachutist made its way to the courtyard.

The flare eventually burned out but the alien admiral had already arrived, flaring its parachute shortly before making a running landing. Motors whirred, and the parachute slowly retracted back into the armor of the aliens suit, itself equally as feature-hiding and imposing as Classy's was.

Discord levitated behind the admiral and held up a big card that read 9. The admiral, not noticing the display behind him, rolled his shoulders and said, "Well, that was fun."