Assignment: Equestria

by Naxanz

Rating: teen
Tags: Queen Chrysalis, Adventure, Shining Armor, Princess Celestia, Human, Main 6, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Spike, Comedy
Length: 30822

A starship named the U.S.S Atropos finds a small planet with strange energy readings coming from it. Curious they investigate...

In Earth years it is the year 2512. Using advanced space technology humans have been exploring solar systems and other galaxies! Until one day a starship named the U.S.S Atropos finds a small planet with strange energy readings coming from it. Curious they investigate...

Btw, I was really bored one day and just started writing this. After reading over it I realized that it wasn't half bad, so I devised a plot and decided to upload it to fimfiction. Plz don't be haters! XD

Published 2012-05-15 19:34:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-01-12 16:26:21 UTC

The Encounter

Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity were all hanging out over at Sweet Apple Acres playing games one breezy summer afternoon in Ponyville.

“So, you said Rainbow Dash couldn’t make it Fluttershy?” asked Twilight wondering.

“Yeah, she said that she was too busy practicing her new air trick. I think she called it a Mach-3 triple loop nose dive…” answered Fluttershy softly.

“Wow, sounds great!” said Pinkie Pie excitedly while bouncing up and down.

“Anypony up for a game of horse shoes?” questioned Applejack to the party.

At that moment the five friends heard a loud roaring sound as something flew over their heads. They all looked up spontaneously to find out what it was. At first they thought that it was a dragon, but quickly dismissed that idea. It was grey with two wings and flying fast! The friends had never seen a creature like it before.

“Look, something is chasing it!” exclaimed Rarity pointing at the sky.

As they all strained to see what was that was following this strange creature it suddenly did a nose dive towards the ground.

“It seems as if it’s trying to shake the thing following it,” observed Twilight.

As the creature and its follower came closer to the ground the friends gasped as they all realized that it was Rainbow Dash who was chasing this thing.

“Why it’s Rainbow Dash!” uttered Applejack, “But what in the hay is she chasing?”

As the creature neared the ground it suddenly pulled up out of its nose dive and shot straight back up into the air. Once it got some altitude it leveled back out and did a 180 degree turn. Rainbow Dash was no longer following the creature; the creature was following Rainbow Dash! Then, all of a sudden, there was a loud zapping sound. Some type of red energy beam shot out from what the friends supposed to be creature’s mouth! Narrowly dodging the blast Rainbow Dash lost speed and unintentionally pulled up beside the flying thing. She looked over at it and a surprised expression suddenly appeared on her face.

“What in Equestria is she doing!?” exclaimed Twilight.

Using great carefulness Rainbow Dash slowly drifted over top of the creature and then landed on it!

“I can’t look,” cried Fluttershy covering her eyes.

Once on top of the thing Rainbow Dash raised hind legs and slammed them down onto the creature with great force. When nothing happened she continued kick over and over again until what looked like smoke started to rise from it. She quickly jumped off of its back just as it burst into flames.

“Whoa, I’ve never seen a living thing catch fire before! Well, except for a phoenix…” said Pinkie Pie wide eyed.

As the creature plunged towards the ground uncontrollably there was an abrupt popping noise as something ejected from within it. As the ejected object continued to plummet towards the ground the creature suddenly exploded with a deafening blast. Rainbow Dash, still hovering in mid-air, didn’t seem to care about the dead creature; instead she did a nose dive for the falling object! Both of them disappeared behind the apple trees as they neared the ground.

--In the Apple Orchard--

“I’ve got to catch it before it’s too late!” thought Rainbow Dash as she neared the ground.

The falling thing discharged something from it back that seemed to have slowed its falling speed down by a lot. The thing then landed in a tree and sat there motionless. Rainbow Dash landed next to the apple tree and looked curiously up at the strange thing. It appeared to be ensnared by the tree’s branches. She watched it closely but kept out of sight.

“What the hell was that thing!?” blurted the strange creature as it thrashed about in a hopeless tangled mess, “I’ve seen many things in my life but nothing like that before!”

“Everything was going fine until the commander told me to detach from the group and head back to the Atropos. Ugh, this is just great…” it said sarcastically, “I’m stuck in what seems to be an apple tree on an alien world! Oh no, what if that weird monster thing comes back? All I have on me is a pistol, and if that thing was strong enough to bring down an F-56 fighter jet then I don’t think a pistol will help very much. Well, now that I think about it it kind of looked like a horse. Oh great, a flying horse! What’s next dancing buffalo?”

“Buffalos don’t dance…”

“W-what?! Who said that?” stammered the unknown creature.

“I said buffalos don’t dance,” replied Rainbow Dash stepping out of the shadows.

“Whoa, it’s you again! You’re that thing that knocked me out of the sky!” exclaimed the creature struggling to get loose.

“Ok, I have a lot of questions,” said Rainbow Dash studying it closely, “And stop squirming, you’re only going to make it worse.”

“Don’t you come any closer or I’ll shoot!” cried the creature pulling something from its waist and pointing it at Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash jumped up and hovered about three feet off of the ground.

Suddenly the object the creature was holding made a few small clicking sounds before he threw it onto the ground and cried out in desperation, “Jammed!”

Puzzled Rainbow Dash replied, “I’ll help you get down but only if you answer a few of my questions first…”

Realizing that he had no other choice the creature answered, “And what might that be?”

“Well first of all what are you?”

“I’m a human! What else would I be?”

“Human?”

“Wait, are you telling me that there are no humanoids on this planet? Seems like 95% of the time a planet has humanoids on it…”

“Umm, nope. I’ve never seen anything like you before.”

“Ok well, I’m a human, from planet Earth. What’s the name of this place?”

“This place is called Equestria. Welcome, human from Earth. Wait, are you really an alien?”

“*sigh*, Yes… by the way I have a name ya know!”

“And what is that?” inquired Rainbow Dash excitedly.

“Nick…”

“Hi Nick, my name is Rainbow Dash!”

Nick stared at Rainbow Dash as if studying her for the first real time.

“Whoa, wait! Are you a talking horse!?”

“Pony,” corrected Rainbow Dash.

“I’ve been to many weird plants but I’ll have to admit that I’ve never seen a talking horse, err, I mean, pony before.”

“So, what was that thing you were flying in? It was going pretty fast,” exclaimed Rainbow Dash, “Maybe we could have a race some time; that would be cool!”

“Umm, how about you help me down first and then I’ll explain everything.”

After a while of untangling rope and other stuff Nick was finally safe on the ground beneath the apple tree.

“Ok, so let me start from the beginning,” sighed Nick, “I’m from planet Earth. It’s not that far away, only about 7.8 billion light years away.”

“So awesome! How’d you get here?”

“In the U.S.S Atropos.”

“…”

“It’s a fifth generation starship.”

“…”

“A flying machine that can travel to other galaxies!”

“Oh, cool!”

“Yeah, anyway, our ship was assigned to explore this solar system. Strange energy readings were coming from this planet and, when scanned, it proved to be habitable. The strange energy readings showed that transporting down here may be dangerous, so a few of us got into the F-56 starplanes to scout the planet.”

“Danger is my middle-name!”

“Anyway, when scouting the planet we found that there where many cities and towns. The life form readings seemed very strange so we assumed that our instruments were malfunctioning. About half way through the reconnoitering the commander told me to head back for the Atropos because I was no longer needed. When flying back you apparently started to follow me and you know what happens after that…”

“So what was that thing you were flying in exactly?”

“It was an F-56 starplane, basically a mini one man starship.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to break it. I was practicing a new awesome air trick when you came zooming by!”

“Ok, so you’re a flying talking pony?”

“Pegasus…”

“Whatever.”

“Anyway, you can zooming by like Kazaam! And I was like, wow, what is that? At first I thought that you were some kind of creature, but when I pulled up beside you I realized that you were inside of it! I still thought that the starplane thing was a creature, and I thought that it was eating you. So, I landed on top of it and started kicking, hoping that it would spit you out."

“Lucky shot kid, you damaged my stabilizers!”

“Sorry…”

“It’s fine, I guess… as long as I can get back to the Atropos somehow.”

“I could fly you up.”

“No, it’s too high. It’s orbiting the planet in space.”

“Oh”

“So, I guess I’ll just have to stay here for awhile until it comes back into range with my communicator.”

“How long will that be?”

“About 1-2 days…”

“Well, until then you’re welcome here. I’ll have to show you around. Twilight will love you! Wait, let me rephrase that, she’ll love to study you.”

Nick stooped down and picked up the clicker thing that he had dropped off of the ground, “Ok then, lead the way!”

Making Friends

Nick followed Rainbow Dash through the apple orchard for quite a while until it finally came to an end. When they broke through the last row of apple trees Nick noticed a big pinkish-red bard with purple roofing. Next to it were what seemed to be hen houses and also a well. A dirt road led up to the barn and next to it stood five other ponies.

At first the five other ponies didn’t seem notice Nick or Rainbow Dash, but as they drew closer a purple one suddenly pointed at them and cried out, “Look, here comes Rainbow Dash!”

The five ponies galloped over to them as they continued to walk closer.

“Hey girls, I’m here! And look, I brought a friend,” exclaimed Rainbow Dash to the gang of ponies.

As the ponies gathered around the two an orange one asked, “What the hay happened Rainbow Dash? And what is this…uhh…thing?”

Nick listened as Rainbow Dash explained to the group what had happened and how Nick wasn’t from Equestria. When finished she introduced Nick to her friends.

“Girls this is Nick and Nick this is Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie,” said Rainbow Dash finishing her story.

“Wow, are you really an alien?” questioned Twilight circling Nick a couple of times.

“Yeah”

“I have so many questions! Do you have anywhere to stay while you’re here?”

“Well, umm, no not really…”

“You could stay at my house,” proclaimed Twilight excitedly.

“Considering that I’m stranded here with no place to go for awhile then why not.”

“We need to throw a party!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie suddenly while bouncing up and down.

“I don’t really think that that’s necessary,” replied Nick.

“But of course it is! I throw a party for every new pony who arrives in Ponyville. Of course, you’re not a pony, but you know what I mean!”

“If you say so…”

“And that outfit of yours, it’s sort of dull with the black and dark blues. Maybe you could stop by my boutique sometime and I could try to make you some nicer clothing?” inquired Rarity thoughtfully.

“Wait, what? That’s nice of you and all but this is an Intergalactic Starfleet uniform. It’s mandatory that I wear it when on a mission.”

“So, you say that thing you were flyin’ in was a machine?” asked Applejack still studying Nick.

“Yeah, it was an F-56 starplane, capable of reaching speeds up to mach-20. Using a combination of hydrogen, francium, meitnerium, and oil in a 3T-Detrix juncture engine with other supersonic aero-components creates enough kinetic energy to…”

“Don’t you use your fancy mathematics with me! I just wanted to know if it was a machine.”

“Oh, sorry”

Nick scanned over the friendly group of ponies. This surely was an odd planet, but he was already starting to like it. Then his eyes suddenly fell onto the yellow one.

“Hello, I haven’t heard you say anything yet. Wasn’t your name Flutterfly or something like that?” questioned Nick while kneeling down to one knee.

“Fluttershy…” replied the yellow pony softly.

“What was that?”

“Fluttershy…”

“Oh Fluttershy, dear, there’s no reason to be afraid,” said Rarity walking over to Fluttershy, “He’s a nice…uhh…alien.”

When Fluttershy didn’t responded Nick stood back up and replied, “Well, nice meeting you Fluttershy, hopefully we’ll see each other again sometime.”

Soon after that the party began to slowly disperse. It was starting to become a dark when Twilight finally started leading Nick down the road to her house.

“So, what’s Earth like?” asked Twilight as they walked.

Nick looked up at the darkening sky and sighed, “Could be better…”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, lots of stuff is happening right now. Tensions between China and the U.S. keep growing and we’re afraid of a possible nuclear fusion war. Not to mention that the current world population is at about 1.2 trillion! That’s why we’ve started some colonies on Mars, a neighboring planet, but it’s not enough. The whole world worked together and created the first starship. After that followed many others. Now humans are flying throughout space trying to find other habitable planets to colonize on and other planets with resources to use.”

“Wow, your right, it doesn’t sound too good.”

As they walked Twilight would keep asking questions and Nick would answer them to the best of his ability. When they finally arrived at Twilight’s house the sky was a velvety black. A light breeze drifted through the cool summer air and it was so quite that somebody would’ve been able to hear a pin drop from a mile away.

“So, is this your house?” asked Nick as they stopped in front of a big tree.

“Yes, but it’s also a library.”

Nick was astonished when the door opened all by itself.

“H-how’d you do that!?”

“Do what? Oh, open the door? Simple, magic!”

“Magic? There’s no such thing.”

“Yes there is.”

“No there’s not.”

“Yes there is!”

“No there’s not!”

“Yes there is! Do you want me to prove it to you?”

“Ha, if you can prove it I’ll believe it!”

Suddenly there was a loud popping noise and they were inside of a bedroom.

“Whoa, what just happened!?”

“It was just a teleportation spell…”

“Teleportation? There’s no such thing. I don’t know what you just did there but it wasn’t teleportation and it certainly wasn’t magic!”

“Have it your way…”

“Where are we anyway?”

“Oh, this is just a spare room I have. I’ll let you stay here as long as you like.”

“Thanks Twilight.”

“Sure, no problem.”

The two chatted for a little while longer but it soon died down. Twilight then left the room leaving Nick by himself. He walked over to the small bed and laid down. He was too big to lie on it at full length so he curled up with his knees against his chest and finally closed his eyes. After the strenuous day it didn’t take long for sleep to overtake the weary soldier.

--Meanwhile in Canterlot--

Shining Armor was walking up along the castle walls to his corridors when suddenly a guard swooped down from above and landed in front of him.

“Sir, word has it that Las Pegasus is under attack by an unknown force! What should we do?”

“What!?” exclaimed Shining Armor in surprise, “How bad is the damage?”

“Pretty bad sir, the city has been almost completely overtaken.”

“Send more soldiers and if necessary destroy the attacking force!”

“Yes sir!”

Party!

Nick woke up the next morning to the chirping of the birds. He got up out of the small bed and stretched. He then picked up his laser pistol off of the nightstand and slid it into its holster. Not wanting to be rude, Nick made the bed before leaving the guest room.

“She wasn’t kidding about living in a library,” muttered Nick to himself as he scanned over the room filled with shelves of books.

He ambled over to one of the book shelves and started to examine the books in more detail. Some of the titles read: The Adventures of Daring Doo, Book of Prodigious Spells Vol. 1, King Arthur and the Ponies of the Round Table, Equestria Before Harmony, Beginner’s Baking Guide to Cake and Cupcakes, etc. As Nick analyzed the books he realized that this world paralleled Earth in many ways.

“The only major difference,” he thought, “is that they’re ponies.”

Nick’s eyes fell over a book entitled How Weather is Made. Puzzled he removed it from the shelf and started to flip through it. He stopped at the table of contents and read some of the chapter names: Cloud Craft, Snow Production, Hail physics, Rainbow Making, etc.

“So, I see you’re awake,” said a voice suddenly.

Surprised, Nick quickly shut the book and placed it back onto the shelf. He then turned his head to see who was talking to him.

At first he was stunned by what he saw, but he soon concluded, “Sure, if there’re talking ponies then why not talking lizards as well…”

“Excuse me?” replied the small lizard, “I am not a lizard! I just so happen to be a dragon.”

Nick winced, not realizing that he had said that out loud.

“Um, dragon…sorry,” corrected Nick as the small dragon started to walk towards him.

“It’s alright, and by the way I’ve never seen anything like you before,” said the small dragon studying Nick closely, “Last night Twilight told me that a guest was spending the night here, but she never told me who or why.”

Smiling uneasily Nick ran his fingers through his hair, “Let’s just say I’m not from here ok?”

Before the little dragon could respond Twilight walked into the library room.

“Ah, good, I see you’re both up,” she grinned trotting over to the two, “Spike this is Nick, and Nick this is Spike, my number one assistant.”

Twilight then explained to Spike who Nick was and how he was an alien that had crash landed in Equestria and would be stuck here for a couple of days. After the conversation Twilight left to do some “errands” and told Nick he was free to do whatever he liked while she was gone. At first Nick thought about exploring the village that Twilight said was called Ponyville, but then decided to stay at the library and learn as much as he possibly could about this world through the books. For the next few hours Nick sat in a corner reading informational books or, on occasion, chatting with Spike. By the time Twilight had returned Nick had learned four important things about the world. One, there are different types of ponies: Earth Ponies, Pegasus, and Unicorns; along with other mythical creatures such as dragons, draconequus, and Changelings. Two, weather is not natural here and must be artificially made. Three, their ruler is some alicorn named Princess Celestia. And four, they believe in magic. The artificial weather was right at Nick’s limits of believability, but magic was going too far. There is no such thing as magic; things can’t just happen! There must be a scientifical explanation for everything.

“Well Nick, Spike, I’m back,” exclaimed Twilight bursting through the door.

She seemed to be in a very cheerful mood.

“Welcome back Twilight, I cleaned the library, sorted the books, and finished all the other things while you were gone,” said Spike yawning, “Anything else you’d like me to…”

Suddenly the little dragon fell asleep on the stairs breaking off in mid-sentence.

Twilight chuckled and said, “Poor fella, he works himself too hard sometimes.”

Nick chortled as well and then asked, “So Twilight, what’s up?”

“Nothing much, now that I’m finished with my errands how about I show you around Ponyville?”

“Sure.”

The two started walking through the village while Nick looked around intently. He hadn’t seen the town in broad daylight before. Twilight pointed out a few things as they walked but mostly kept quiet.

“Alright, this is Sugar Cube Corner,” announced Twilight as they neared a pinkish house with what looked like a ginger bread roof, “This is where Pinkie Pie lives. It’s a bakery, and they specialize in cupcakes.”

“Cool…”

When they reached the door Nick opened it; the lights were out and nobody seemed to be home.

“Maybe we should come back some other time Twilight nobody…” before Nick could finish his sentence Twilight pushed him inside and shut the door behind him plunging them into darkness.

Then without warning the lights came on along with a huge surprise! Nick jumped, not expecting the sudden light and multi-colored group of ponies yelling surprise. Then there was utter silence as they all stared at him.

Nick heard one pony whisper to another, “What is he?”

Then, out of nowhere, Pinkie Pie suddenly bounced in front of Nick giggling.

“See? I told you I’d throw you a welcome party!” she exclaimed cheerfully.

“I can see that…” laughed Nick nervously as the rest of the ponies continued to stare.

“So what are we waiting for? Let’s party!” screamed Pinkie pulling a cannon out of thin air and firing it at Nick.

Streamers covered his body and a party hat landed on his head unevenly.

Twilight stepped out from behind Nick and cleared her throat, “Um Pinkie, maybe you should introduce him to everypony first…”

“Well duh, of course! How could I have forgotten?” said the pink pony jumping excitedly, “Everypony this is Nick. He’s an alien from another planet that’s like really really far away from here and he’ll be visiting in Ponyville for awhile!”

That’s when Twilight stepped in and explained where Nick was from and what had happened to everypony. Once they all understood and calmed down the place was soon nothing but a huge party. Nick stood in the corner watching the ponies dance and have a good time. He was starting to grow fond of this place and couldn’t wait to report it to the Atropos.

--Meanwhile in Canterlot--

Shining Armor stood over a map of Equestria in the Canterlot castle war room studying it closely. He’d been in the room many times before but this was the first time he was in it to discuss strategic military battle decisions. It was now the morning after he had caught word of Las Pegasus being attacked. Shining Armor was waiting for news on the attack from his scout. As he waited he pondered about what the opposing force could possibly be. Suddenly the wooden door of the war room chamber flew open and the scout stepped inside. He was limping and had a few drops of blood in the corner of his mouth.

“Dear Celestia! What happened?” inquired Shining Armor rushing over to the wounded scout.

“It was terrible,” croaked the scout, “I barely made it out alive. The strange force over took the entire city and anypony who resisted them was killed. They then barricaded the city letting nobody in or out. The troops you sent in didn’t put up much of a fight; the enemy used strange magic and killed almost all of them. I knew I must report this to you so I tried to sneak out. I was seen and the creatures pointed their strange magical weapons at me and told me to halt, but I kept flying. Then the magical weapons made loud banging noises and my chest hurt a lot. I painfully flew all the way here to tell you this…”

The scout suddenly began to gasp for breath before falling to the floor dead. His hoof fell away from his chest revealing a hole in it dripping with blood.

Dire News

Dire News

As Nick stood in the corner of the party room watching the ponies dance and have a good time Applejack walked up to him and asked, “Ain’t you gunna dance?”

“Nah, I’m not much of a dancer,” replied Nick with a smile.

“If you say so.”

Pinkie suddenly popped in holding a tray of colorful cupcakes.

“Would you like one?” she giggled.

“Uh, thanks,” said Nick taking one from the tray.

Applejack also took one from the tray before saying, “Pinkie Pie sure does make a good cupcake,” and taking a huge bite.

Nick also took a bite and his eyes lit up.

“Pinkie, this is the best cupcake I’ve ever had. What’s in them?”

“It’s my secret recipe, but I can’t tell you because then it wouldn’t be a secret anymore!” she chortled.

Pinkie then bounced over to Rarity who was on the other side of the room leaving Nick and Applejack to eat their cupcakes.

“Well I’ll see ya around,” said Applejack finishing her cupcake and disappearing into the crowd of ponies.

While Nick continued to nibble on his cupcake Rainbow Dash appeared into view. She was pushing Fluttershy from behind and slowly scooting her towards where Nick was standing. Once in front of Nick she stopped pushing Fluttershy and raised her head.

“See Fluttershy? He’s not scary,” said Rainbow Dash to Fluttershy.

“Hi Fluttershy,” said Nick softly after finishing his cupcake.

“Hi…” replied Fluttershy almost inaudibly.

“Twilight told me that you like animals, is that true?” asked Nick with a smile.

Fluttershy’s eyes lit up a little, “Yes.”

“I would love to see them sometime,” said Nick kindly.

“Well sure, if you want… A cute little group of baby bunnies has just been born.”

“So, uh, Nick. When do you think we could have our race?” inquired Rainbow Dash somewhat butting in.

“I don’t know… First I have to get back to the Atropos, and then I’d have to “ok” it with my commander.”

“Who’s your commander?”

“His name is Commander Trenton, but everybody in our patrol just calls him Commander Trent.”

“Who else is in your patrol?”

“Umm, Zach, Daren, and Mulder. By the way, why are you asking so many questions?”

“I don’t know, just curious I guess.”

“Ok then…”

“You’re pretty cool Nick. See ya around”

And with that Rainbow Dash disappeared into the mass of partying ponies as well. Nick looked back to where Fluttershy was sitting but she was gone now too.

“Must have snuck off while I was talking with Rainbow Dash,” he thought as he started to walk over to the concession stand.

On his way there he bumped into a brown pony.

“Excuse me,” Nick said stepping aside.

“No, excuse me,” replied the brown pony, “So, you’re from another planet? Let me introduce myself I’m Doctor Whooves.”

“Hello Doctor Whooves, nice to meet you.”

“And you too. You know when I was…”

“Doctor Whooves? Oh, there you are. I’ve been looking for you,” said a light yellow pony with blue and pink hair as it approached the doctor, “You kind of just wandered off.”

“Sorry Bon Bon, I was just having a nice conversation with our guest here,” smiled the doctor.

“Hello,” greeted Bon Bon.

"Hello..." greeted Nick in return.

Nick chatted with the two ponies for a little while before departing for the concession stand yet again. Once he got there he poured himself a glass of punch and took a sip. The song that was playing ended and somepony called out the name of another song Nick didn’t know. The disk jockey, a blue haired pony with glasses, removed the other record and replaced it with the new song.

“All right everypony lets party!” shouted the DJ before blasting the music.

At that moment the door suddenly flew open and Spike stepped in. His normally friendly face was very serious and he seemed as if he had just seen a ghost.

“Where’s Twilight?” he asked unemotionally.

By now the music had stopped and everybody was staring at him.

“Over there,” pointed somepony Nick didn’t know.

Spike walked over to Twilight and whispered something into her ear. Twilight’s eyes widened and they both hurried into another room and shut the door to talk in private. All the ponies began to chatter anxiously wondering what was happening. After a few minutes the door cracked open and Spike motioned for Nick to enter. Nick walked over to the door and went inside of the other room.

“What’s all this…”

Nick’s words were cut off as Spike hissed, “Shut the door!”

Nick shut the door behind him and looked around. They seemed to be in the baking section of the bakery. There was an oven, and cupboards, and also counters with baking tools on them. Twilight, Spike, and Nick were the only ones in the room.

“What’s all this about?” Nick tried again whispering.

Spike handed Nick a scroll. Nick unrolled it and began to read:

Dear Twilight,

This is an urgent message that must be responded to as soon as possible. Last night Las Pegasus had been attacked and captured by an unknown force. As Captain of the Royal Guard I sent troops to Las Pegasus to fend off the aggressors, but they only put up a small fight and were crushed easily by the attacking force. A scout reports that the aggressors are using strange magic. I was wondering if you, with all of your knowledge, had, by any chance, an idea of what this unknown attacking force could possibly be? Or, by chance, know what they mean by the term “strange magic”? If so please write back as soon as possible.

From,

Shining Armor

P.S

Do not tell any other pony about this! I do not want to spread worry.

“Are you at war right now?” asked Nick after he finished reading the scroll, “And how does this Shining Armor guy know you?”

“He’s my brother, and no we are not at war right now! Equestria hasn’t been at war for over 1,000 years!” exclaimed Twilight anxiously.

“Well, than what is it?” asked Nick puzzled.

“That’s what I was wondering at first,” said Twilight restlessly, “Equestria is generally a very peaceful place. But then I remembered about you and thought…”

“There is no way! The intergalactic Starfleet policy clearly states that it is illegal to interfere with other alien civilizations by means of war and/or violence unless attacked by them first,” responded Nick cutting Twilight off in mid sentence.

“Then what is it?” asked Spike throwing his hands up into the air.

“I don’t know…” replied Twilight, “I don’t know…”

While Twilight stared into space lost in thought and Spike paced the room Nick wondered if it really was the humans that had attacked this city. Unfortunately, he could not confirm this until he was able to contact the Atropos again. It would be at least another 24 hours before he could reach them. Until then Nick would just have to hope for the best.

--Meanwhile on the Atropos--

“The alien city has been overtaken and barricaded; what do you suppose we should do next sir?” reported an officer to the captain.

“Keep the city under quarantine. If alien forces attack again just fend them off, but do not take any more land. I want a complete analysation of the inhabitants of this planet as soon as possible. And, if you can, try to figure out what that strange energy reading is. That’s the whole reason we’re here in the first place,” said the captain coolly while spinning around in his chair to face the officer.

“Yes sir!”

Last Choice

Nick stepped back into the party room and looked around. Everypony was still standing there either staring or talking quietly.

“What’s wrong?” asked somepony stepping out from the crowd, “Is there a problem? Did something happen? I’ve never seen Spike that serious before.”

“Come on Nick, you’ve got to think of something fast!” thought Nick trying to act normal.

The message said not to tell anybody about the attack, and Twilight was still in the other room writing back to her brother saying that she has no idea what the unknown force could be.

“Umm…uh…Well, you see…Spike…he uh…ran out of ice cream. Yeah, that’s it! Spike ran out of ice cream and wanted Twilight to buy him more.”

“What the freak was that!? That was most likely the stupidest excuse I’ve ever come up with!” thought Nick with disgust, “Dragons probably don’t even eat ice cream.”

Rainbow Dash suddenly burst out laughing, “I knew Spike liked ice cream, but I had no idea that he liked it that much!”

“Whoa, it actually worked!”

“But what did Twilight need you for?” asked Rarity stepping forwards.

“She wanted…uh…to know if I had ice cream from where I came from,” replied Nick trying to sound as believable as possible.

By now everypony was smiling with relief.

“Well do ya?” questioned Applejack with a smile.

“Yep,” answered Nick.

Soon the party started again and everyone was having a good time. Nick realized that Twilight and Spike never returned to the party. He figured that they must have gone home. The party continued for a few more hours before it finally ended leaving everybody exhausted. Nick tried to find his way back to Twilight’s house in the dark but ended up getting lost in the pony village.

“This is just great,” thought Nick sarcastically as he walked.

“W-what are you doing all the way out here?” asked a familiar voice.

Nick turned around to see Fluttershy standing behind him.

“Oh, hey Fluttershy, I was just walking back to Twilight’s house and kind of got lost. I’m still don’t know the way around this town very well yet.”

Nick was surprised Fluttershy was talking to him; she appeared to be scared to back at the party.

“Well, it’s that way,” pointed Fluttershy uneasily.

She still seemed really shy, but at least she was speaking to him.

“Thanks Fluttershy, looks like I’ve been walking in the wrong direction.”

“You’re welcome…”

With that the two of them parted on their separate ways. As Nick sauntered down the path his eyes wondered up to the starry night sky. The constellations were different here but he could still pick out a few star clusters he knew. Nick’s eyes suddenly stopped over a certain stop in the sky. If he wasn’t mistaken he believed that he was looking at the Milky Way. Nick broke eye contact with the twinkling wonder when he finally approached Twilight’s house. As he stepped inside he noticed that books were scattered all over the library. Twilight was sitting at a desk flipping through one frantically.

“Ugh! I can’t find out anything about strange creatures or strange magic either!” she sighed in frustration.

“Maybe we should try some history books Twilight. We’ve just been reading books about other creatures so far. Maybe they were in our past at some point; and if they were then it may tell us how to defeat them! Whoever they are…” proposed Spike thoughtfully.

“That’s a good idea Spike! Go find some Equestrian history books.”

As Spike ran into another room Nick walked up to Twilight, “What are you doing?”

Twilight jumped at the sudden sound of Nick’s voice.

“Oh, hey Nick, I didn’t realize that you came in,” Twilight said as she turned around.

“Are you trying to figure out what the strange creatures are?” asked Nick as he scanned the cluttered room.

“Yeah, but with no success. Whatever those creatures are they are alien to me.”

The way Twilight said “alien” made Nick reconsider if this force could actually be the humans. He highly doubted it but there still was a chance.

“Well, I’m going to bed see you in the morning Twilight,” said Nick yawning.

“Ok, goodnight Nick,” replied Twilight as he began moving towards the guest room.

Right before Nick opened the door to the guest room Spike ran back in holding three big books.

“I got the History of Equestria volume one, two, and three!” the little dragon said excitedly as he set the books down in front of Twilight.

Before Nick could hear Twilight’s reply he stepped into the guest room and shut the door behind him. The room was dark except for the dim light of a few stray moon rays seeping through the bedroom window. Nick walked over to the bed and sat on it. He pulled his PC (pocket computer) off of his belt and stared at it. It was around the size of a 21st century I-phone, but it had about a thousand times more capabilities and was about a hundred times more powerful.

“How long before communications with the Atropos are reassembled?” asked Nick quietly.

The touch screen of the computer lit up with a faint blue light.

“In approximately ten hours thirty-four minutes and eighteen seconds…” stated the computer’s female voice, “…seventeen seconds, sixteen second, fifteen seconds…”

On the computer’s screen was nothing but the white numbers of the countdown. Nick watched the seconds slowly tick away for awhile before cursing under his breath.

“Is there a problem Nick?” inquired the PC.

“No…” replied Nick softly before putting the PC on standby mode.

He hooked it back onto his belt and then set his laser pistol on the nightstand. Ten hours seemed to be a long time for Nick. If the attackers really were the humans then every second mattered. Nick knew how powerful the human race was, and he also knew the outcome of what would happen if there ever was a war between another alien civilization and them. Then Nick thought about how great it was here and how nice all of the ponies were. He also remembered the human’s policy of never attacking an alien civilization unless attacked by them first.

“There is no way it’s us,” Nick thought before falling asleep.

--Meanwhile in the Canterlot War Room--

Shining Armor paced the war room waiting for Twilight’s reply to his message. He had sent her that message around 8:00 P.M and it was almost 10:30 now! Suddenly a scout burst in through the door.

“Sir, no matter how hard we try we cannot retake the city!” gasped the scout out of breath.

“Don’t worry; I’m waiting for a reply from my sister Twilight. She may be able to tell us what these creatures are. And if we know what they are then we will have a lot better chance of defeating them,” said Shining Armor stopping to face the scout.

At that very moment the magical smoke of a message blew in through a window and formed into a scroll which landed right in front of Shining Armor. Using his magic Shining Armor picked up the scroll and read it:

Dear Shining Armor,

After a few hours of research I’ve found nothing about strange creatures. I wish I could help you but I have no idea what they could possibly be. If there is any other way I can help you please tell me.

Love,

Twilight

“Damn it,” cursed Shining Armor while setting the scroll on the table.

“What’s wrong dear?” asked Cadence striding into the war room.

“It’s Twilight. She has no idea what these creatures are either.”

“What are we going to do?” questioned Cadence while looking back a forth between the scout and Shining Armor.

“The only thing that we can do,” said Shining Armor with a grimace.

“And that is?” inquired the Cadence.

“Gather up the Royal Army,” said Shining Armor to the scout, “I didn’t want it to end up this way but we may have a war on our hoofs…”

Departure

The next morning Nick woke up and stretched. The bed was small and it gave him cramps. The first thing he did was pull his PC off of his belt and check the time. It was only going to be about two and a half hours until communications were reconnected. Smiling Nick hooked the PC back onto his belt and walked over to the door. He slowly cracked it open and peeked out into the library.

Twilight was asleep at her desk with piles of books surrounding her. Spike was nearby sleeping on his back snoring. Nick glanced over at a clock; it was eight o’clock in the morning.

“Not too early,” he thought opening the door the rest of the way and stepping out.

Nick ambled over to the center of the room and set his PC down on the floor facing up.

“I wonder if I really was looking at the Milky Way last night,” wondered Nick while taking a few steps back.

“Commence star map,” he said trying not to wake up Spike or Twilight.

“Initiating star map,” answered the computer glowing slightly.

A few seconds later the room was filled with miniature holographic solar systems and galaxies.

“Mark the Milky Way,” said Nick to the PC.

A red dot appeared over the Milky Way galaxy.

“Find the galaxy Equus-avis Stella and mark section OGLE-3045-BLG-270Lb,” instructed Nick.

Another red dot appeared on the star map. Nick knew what galaxy he was in and what section, but he was in an uncharted solar system. The USS Atropos was assigned to explore the OGLE-3045-BLG-270Lb sector and chart the solar systems. Also, their mission was to find other habitable planets and planets with useful resources. So, although Nick didn’t know what solar system he was in, marking the sector would be the next best thing.

“Computer, would the Milky Way galaxy be visible to the naked eye from the OGLE-3045-BLG-270Lb section,” asked Nick.

“Calculating…” replied the feminine voice.

Nick thought he heard Twilight start to stir.

“Oh crap, if she sees this holographic star map the questions will never end!” thought Nick quickly glancing in her direction.

“Computer, terminate star map,” ordered Nick.

“I can’t terminate program while calculating,” replied the PC.

Twilight moved some more.

“Well then hurry…” said Nick anxiously.

“I’m going as fast as I can,” replied the PC.

“Oh come on,” huffed Nick, “You’re a computer. You should be able to do this in like 10 seconds flat!”

“Oh really? I’d like to see you try star-galaxy projection calculations!” countered the computer sounding irritated.

Twilight’s eyes fluttered open just as the computer said, “Yes, the Milky Way galaxy would be visible to the naked eye from the OGLE-3045-BLG-270Lb sector in galaxy Equus-avis Stella. Would you like me to terminate the star map now master?”

Before Nick could answer yes he heard Twilight say, “What the hay…”

“Never mind computer; it’s too late now,” said Nick doing a face palm.

“Nick, what is this?” asked Twilight getting up from her desk.

She started to walk over to him all the while ducting from incoming comets and sidestepping galaxies.

“What is what?” inquired Nick smiling and pretending not to notice the thousands of miniature holographic galaxies and star clusters.

Twilight just gave him a look that meant “you know what”.

Sighing Nick took a deep breath and said, “Well ya see… Last-night-I-thought-I saw-my-home-galaxy-so-when-I-woke-up-this-morning-I-came-out-here-and-set-down-my-PC-so-I-could-look-at-the-star-map-and-tell-if-I-really-did-see-my-home-galaxy-last-night-or-not! I was hoping you wouldn’t wake up…”

Twilight looked confused.

“Seriously Nick, slow down,” said the PC, “You said that so fast that even I could barely understand you.”

“Whoa! Who said that?!” exclaimed Twilight swinging her head back and forth.

“Ahem,” answered the computer making a sound like it was clearing its throat; although it didn’t even have a throat.
“Was it that thing?” questioned Twilight pointing at the PC.

“Excuse me? I am not just a thing,” objected the PC, “I am a pocket computer, and I have more than one thousand different capabilities.”

“That’s enough computer,” interrupted Nick, “Terminate star map. Sometimes I wonder why I couldn’t have just been like the rest of my patrol and got a PC with no emotion data.”

“Ha, ha…” laughed the computer flatly.

The holographic star map disappeared and Nick walked over to the PC and picked it up before turning to face Twilight. Then Nick explained what had happened and what a computer was and how it could do many things.

Still looking perplexed Twilight asked, “So, it isn’t alive?”

“Nope…”

“And that wasn’t magic?”

“Nope…”

“It’s a machine?”

“Yes.”

“Wow, that’s incredible!”

“I guess…”

“It even talks!”

Suddenly Spike jumped awake yelling, “No Rarity! I’ll save you!”

After realizing that it whatever had just transpired in his mind was only a dream he blushed bright red and said, “Hehe… So Nick, Twilight, what’s up?”

Ignoring Spike Twilight asked, “So, does it have a name?”

Nick had never thought about that. Should he give it a name?

“A name would be nice,” said the PC unexpectedly.

“Ugh, I forgot to put you on standby mode,” exclaimed Nick, “Have you been listening this entire time?”

“I guess you could say that…” replied the PC.

“Whoa, what is that thing?” questioned Spike jogging over.

“It’s a computer,” answered Twilight before explaining to him what a computer was, “And it needs a name.”

“How about Bob?!” supposed Spike excitedly once Twilight had finished explaining.

“Umm, how about no,” replied the computer, “I’m a girl!”

“Sure you are,” said Nick sarcastically, “Until I change your voice settings to male.”

“Don’t you dare!” snapped the computer while Nick chortled.

“Since your name is Nick how about we name the computer Nicole?” asked Twilight.

“I like that,” said the computer.

“I don’t know…” answered Nick sounding unsure.

“Please master! Please let my name be Nicole!” whined the PC.

“Fine.”

“Thank you, saving name to memory banks now… Save complete.”

“Now go to standby mode,” said Nick getting annoyed.

The computer stopped glowing as Nicole went into standby mode.

Nick hooked her back onto his belt before asking, “So, now what?”

“I don’t know,” said Twilight, “Didn’t you say that you’d be able to contact your starship thing today?”

“Yeah, in about two hours,” said Nick glancing at the clock.

“What will happen after that?” asked Twilight.

“Well, to tell you the truth, I’ll probably go,” replied Nick.

“Aw, but it seems like you just got here,” countered Spike glumly.

“It’s ok Spike; I’ll most likely come back.”

“Two hours isn’t very long,” said Twilight checking the clock as well, “I’ll go get the others so we can all wish you farewell.”

Before Nick could respond Twilight was already out the door. So, Nick and Spike hung out in the library for about an hour and a half until Twilight returned with her five friends.

“I’m back,” said Twilight smiling as she stepped in through the front door.

Following her was Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy.

“Is it true?” asked Pinkie pie while bouncing over to Nick, “You’re leaving?”

“Afraid so Pinkie, but don’t worry I’ll probably be back,” answered Nick.

The friends all conversed back and forth for awhile before Nick checked his PC, Nicole, and exclaimed, “Communications are reconnected!”

Everybody stopped what they were doing and watched Nick as he hesitantly unhooked his communicator from his belt and flipped it open.

“Atropos, this is Nick. Come in Atropos. This is Nick calling the USS Atropos. Come in Atropos…”

For a few seconds there was just static until suddenly a familiar voice responded, “Hello Nick, this is the USS Atropos.”

Nick sighed with relief before replying, “Is that you Mark?”

Before the Atropos could respond Rainbow Dash interrupted saying, “That is so awesome! They are so far away yet you can still talk to them. Is it magic?”

“No, it’s called technology,” informed Nick with a small grin.

“Yep it’s me,” replied Mark over the communicator.

“Ain’t that somethin’,” said Applejack sounding surprised, “A machine can do somethin’ like dat! By the way, who is this feller Mark Nick?”

“He’s a friend of mine, and also the officer in charge of the Atropos’s communication system,” answered Nick.

“What happened Nick? We all thought you were dead,” said Mark suddenly over the communicator, “When you didn’t return to the ship I asked the captain to send out a search party for you. He agreed and we probed your entire flight path. All we found was a burnt out shell of an F-56 starplane; you were nowhere to be found. We would have come down and searched on foot but those strange energy reads were very high in that area. Thus, we flew back to the Atropos and presumed you to be dead.”

“Your scanners probably couldn’t pick me up because I was most likely inside of a building,” replied Nick.

“Wait, what?! Don’t tell me that you went to that small town we found near your crash site!” exclaimed Mark.

“Yeah I kinda did; I also met some nice…”

“Are you still in the town?!” interrupted Mark.

“Yes…”

“You fool! Get out of there now! You’re lucky not to already be dead. The inhabitants of this planet are very aggressive!”

“What? More like the opposite. The inhabitants here are really nice.”

“You’ve conversed with them?”

“Yeah…”

“Maybe they’re not the same creatures as the ones that we found to be vicious.”

“Can’t be, the ones I’ve met wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

“Either way Nick you should probably come up; as long as you stay down there you are in danger. Give me your coordinates and I’ll send down a hoverjet to pick you up.”

“Ok, give me a sec Mark.”

Nick looked down at his PC, which he was holding in his other hand, and said, “Nicole, what are my current coordinates?”
Nicole rattled off a chain of numbers which Nick then relayed to Mark.

“Alright Nick, we’ll be there in less than ten.”

With that Mark ended the connection and there was nothing but static. Nick then turned off the communicator and turned to face the six ponies and the little dragon.

Twilight was the first one to speak, “They must have been attacked by the same creatures that attacked Las Pegasus!”

After realizing what she had said Twilight covered her mouth with her two front hooves and held her breath.

“What are you talking about Twilight? Did something happen in Las Pegasus?” asked Rarity looking perplexed.

With a deep sigh Twilight answered, “Well I wasn’t supposed to tell anypony but Las Pegasus was attacked by an unknown force.”

“What!?” exclaimed the other five in surprise.

“I’ll explain later. Let’s first say goodbye to Nick before he goes.”

Nick exchanged goodbyes with everybody, including Spike, before ambling over to the door and walking out. As he shut the door behind him Nick thought he heard Twilight start to explain the Las Pegasus incident to her friends. Suddenly there was the loud sound of choppers and the sudden rush of a strong wind. Many ponies came out of the houses to see what was happening but quickly hurried back inside once they saw the massive metallic hoverjet slowly descending out of the sky. When it was about forty feet from the ground it dropped a ladder and Nick climbed up. Once inside of the hoverjet he pulled up the ladder and closed the door. Nick then looked around. There were only three other people inside of the jet besides him: A soldier, which Nick didn’t know, Mark, and the pilot.

“Hey Nick, good to see you again,” said Mark as the hoverjet slowly ascended before shooting towards the Atropos.

--Meanwhile on the Atropos--

“Sir, you should probably take a look at this…” reported a crewman to the captain.

“What is it?” asked the captain sounding a little annoyed.

“It’s regarding the inhabitants of this planet sir,” answered the crewman.

Captain Chris got up from his seat on the bridge and replied, “This better be good.”

The captain followed the crewman through a few hallways before getting onto an elevator and descending down to the lab section of the Atropos. Once there he followed the crewman to a white door labeled, “Lab sector 8-Alien species study”. The crewman opened the door and the captain marched inside. Inside of the room was a large fiberglass wall. The captain walked over the glass and peered down through it and into the room below; he was immediately taken aback by what he saw. The room was completely white and had nothing it with the exception of one thing. Standing in the center of the white room was a brown horse with an hourglass printed on its flank.

“Prodigious…” said the brown horse as it looked up at the staring captain.

Magic

Nick hopped out of the hoverjet and onto the hard floor of the Atropos docking sector.

Mark shortly followed and gave Nick a light punch on the shoulder before saying, “Yeah, we all thought that you were dead. Promise me that you won’t ever do that again… Oh ya, by the way, when the captain learned that you weren’t dead he wanted to see you as soon as you reboarded the ship. That is as long as you weren’t in critical condition or anything, which you’re not, so I suppose that you go see him as soon as possible.”

“Ok,” replied Nick giving Mark a nod, “I’ll do that. See you around.”

The two cronies parted as Nick made his way to the bridge to report to the captain. Within about ten minutes Nick was at the entrance to the bridge. Taking a deep breath he marched inside. Nick knew that the captain most likely sent for him because he wanted an explanation of what had happened on the planet, and Nick knew that the captain would never believe him when he told him the truth. With that in mind Nick marched up to the captain’s chair and saluted.

“Nick reporting as requested sir!” said Nick confidently as he stood at attention.

The captain turned to face Nick; a smile soon spread across his face, “Ah Nick, good to see that no harm came to you. Please, follow me. We can talk as we walk.”

Nick followed the captain off of the bridge and down a hallway.

“So, Nick, I would like you to give me a very detailed description of what types of life forms you encountered while you were stranded on that planet,” asked the captain coolly as they continued down the hall.

“About that…” answered Nick laughing nervously, “The life forms, they were kinda… well, um… most of them anyway…”

“Spit it out already,” said the captain as they stepped onto an elevator.

“They were ponies…” replied Nick feeling like an idiot.

The captain raised an eyebrow, “Ponies?”

“Well, there was one dragon…” Nick quickly shut his mouth after realizing what he had said; now he wanted to disappear.

“Dragon?” asked the captain looking more interested now as the elevator doors opened and they continued down another hall.

“Well, it was a baby dragon,” replied Nick not really caring anymore. He knew that it probably couldn’t get any more worse than it already was anyway.

“I see,” said the captain smirking a little.

The captain finally stopped in front of a white door and opened it gesturing Nick to enter.

“Did per chance the inhabitants of the planet look a little something like this?” inquired the captain coolly.

Nick’s eyes widened as he peered down through the wall of fiberglass.

“Y-you wouldn’t! This can’t be… are you…” stuttered Nick in surprise.

“Yes,” replied the captain walking up beside Nick and peering down into the room below as well, “This is a life form that we have brought up from the planet for testing. Tomorrow it will be dissected for study.”

“Dissect him! What? You can’t! Have you sent men down to the planet!?” blurted Nick turning to face the captain, “Are you the strange creatures!?”

“Strange creatures?” asked the captain looking at Nick in a funny way, “Nick you’re not making much sence. Are you feeling ok? Did something happen to you down on that planet?”

Before Nick could reply a crewman suddenly burst through the door.

“Sir, we have finally established what the strange energy readings are!” reported the crewman.

“Well, what is it?” inquired the captain intently.

“It’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before sir, it can manipulate matter and bend the laws of physics as we know them. We gave the strange energy the nickname magic…”

“Magic?” interrupted Nick suddenly, “So they were right! Twilight wasn’t kidding.”

The captain and the crewman both turned to face Nick giving him an odd look.

“Anyway,” continued the captain turning to face the crewman again, “Is it dangerous? And did you find the source?”

“To the best of our knowledge it is not dangerous, and yes, many sources have been found.”

“How many?”

“Thousands sir…”

“Thousands!?”

“Yes, the energy seems to be emanating from the horns of the horned horses.”

“Interesting,” replied the captain thoughtfully.

“What!?” exclaimed Nick suddenly, “There is no way the Atropos could have gotten a reading that exact. For something that precise you would have had to be down on the planet with a scanner. Tell me captain, did our men over take an alien city down there!?”

“Is that all?” inquired the captain ignoring Nick.

“Yes sir.”

“Then you are dismissed,” said the captain to the crewman as he turned to face Nick once more.

“Sir we need to talk,” said Nick trying to keep his voice under control, “What happened while I was gone? I have some very important information concerning this planet but I need you to tell me what happened while I was gone first.”

The captain stared at Nick sternly for awhile before replying, “Follow me to my quarters, we can talk there.”

Nick followed the captain to the living section of the Atropos and then into his living quarters. The captain then pulled up a chair and insisted that Nick sit down. Nick took a seat and so did the captain.

“Care for a drink?” asked the captain.

Before Nick could answer he had already pulled out two small glasses and filled each about half full with what seemed to be some sort of whiskey.

“Now,” said the captain taking a sip, “I will tell you what happened while you were gone, but then you must tell me about this important information.”

“Yes sir,” replied Nick as he stared into the captain’s cold maroon colored eyes.

“Well let me see,” said the captain as he gathered his thoughts, “This is what happened while you were gone…”

“…It all started when your patrol returned without you. Of course we sent out a search party but you were nowhere to be found. After that we all assumed that you were dead. Your patrol reported that there was no humanoid life on the planet and that it was mostly just horse-like creatures. They did, however, find many cities and towns. This puzzled me a lot because the only planets that humans have ever discovered with life forms intelligent enough to build cities and machines were ones with humanoids on them. After long consideration I supposed that there used to be a past civilization of human type life on this planet but for some reason the alien race became extinct leaving nothing but its cities. To investigate I sent down five armored hoverjets with scientists and a few troops, just in case protection was needed, to one of the cities. They all, of course, wore protective suits to protect themselves from the strange energy that we now call magic. Because at the time we still didn’t know if it was harmful or not…”

“That city must be Las Pegasus,” thought Nick as the captain continued.

“…upon entering the city the investigators were attacked by an unknown force. Fighting for their lives they fought back. They soon realized that the attackers were the horse like creatures that inhabited most of the planet. Because they were attacked first and because the attackers were an inferior life form the party that I had sent down fought back and over took the city. The battle was close at first but my group called in for reinforcements, which I provided, and soon it was all over. Immediately after over taking the city we put it under quarantine and began three major projects: One, study the horse-like inhabitants of the planet and find out as much about them as possible; two, try to find out what happened to the past humanoid civilization; and three, find out what the strange energy was. As you can see we have already accomplished number three. We have found no information or past documents regarding number two, and number one is pretty much successful so far. We have learned that the horses…”

“Ponies!” interrupted Nick suddenly.

“Ahem, ponies,” corrected the captain.

“…have higher intelligence than what we had first expected. They are able to speak and are smart enough to be able to build and invent. This led us to the conclusion that there may not have been an ancient civilization of humanoids after all. Of course, we humans are far more intelligent and civilized than those animals down there. Their technological state seems to be mixed with the 14th century and the early 20th. Not to mention that they are also savage, and will attack any other type of life. Thus, if this planet does end up having sufficient recourses on it we would be able to just push these ponies aside and take whatever we wanted without breaking any intergalactic laws.”

“That’s where you’re wrong sir! I was down on that planet and those ponies are not savage like you say they are! And yes, although their technological state may be far behind ours they still have feelings and there is no reason why they shouldn’t be treated like us!” spat Nick as he raised his voice uncontrollably.

“Like us? Feelings? Don’t make me laugh!” laughed the captain coldly, “They are nothing more that smart animals. Think about it Nick, an ape is smart, but is that enough to make it be treated as an equal? No!”

“But this is different…” countered Nick.

“Enough!” ordered the captain slamming his glass onto the table, “I’ll do what I wish! You’re not even an officer, why should I listen to you? Now tell me this important information before I lose my temper.”

Nick bowed his head in defeat, “It was pertaining to the intelligence of the ponies’ sir, which you seem to not care about.”

“Right you are Nick,” replied the captain taking one final swig and emptying his glass.

Suddenly a crewman burst into the captain’s quarters breathing heavily, “Sir, you really need to come take a look at this! It’s about the magic!”

Both the captain and Nick got up out of their seats and followed the crewman to the bridge were he finally stopped. The crewman then backed away as one of the many scientists aboard the ship stepped forwards to meet the captain; she was holding a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other.

“Sir, we’ve found something incredible,” she said smiling, “As our current scientists down there were exploring a library they came across a book about these things called the “Elements of Harmony”. Apparently they are legend, among the horse folk, to contain very strong and powerful magic.”

“And what makes them so important?” asked the captain.

“Well, after a complete examination of the planet, we found that there was a massive energy reading coming from here,” the scientist pointed to a dot on a map which was on the bridge’s main screen.

“That’s Canterlot! The capital of Equestria,” thought Nick, “I remember Spike showing it to me on a map back at Twilight’s house.”

“How big is massive?” inquired that captain sounding a little interested.

“Well, the book said that there were six elements; so by dividing the energy reading by six each element would have enough energy to power this starship for about three years!” replied the scientist.

The captain’s eyes lit up as he began to grin, “Do you know what this could mean for mankind?”

“Wait there’s more,” interrupted the scientist, “The reading keeps slowing growing bigger, which means that the elements charge energy when they’re not being used.”

The captain actually seemed to be happy for once.

He turned to face the first officer, who was on the bridge, and shouted, “I want you to go down to that planet with as many troops as you need and bring me back those elements no matter the cost!”

“Yes sir!” responded the first officer with a salute.

“Oh no!” thought Nick anxiously, “I’ve got to somehow get off of this ship and warn everybody before it’s too late!”

Escape

After he had finished giving orders the captain took a few steps back and fell into his bridge chair.

Nick approached him seriously and asked, “Why are you doing this?”

“Why?” replied the captain looking confused, “Because do know what these elements could do for the human race? They’re virtually an unlimited power source!”

“You have no right to take them!” countered Nick furiously.

“Oh, I have every right to take them!” spat back the captain, “They attacked us first and they’re an inferior life form!”

“They’re a very kind and loving race! Maybe you could organize a peace conference, because you can’t just take away what is rightfully theirs! It belongs to them, and if you try to take those elements away from them I’ll…”

“You’ll what!” fumed the captain standing up.

Nick realized that he had finally gone too far. The captain hated when his authority was challenged, and now his cold maroon colored eyes seemed to pierce right through Nicks very sole as he stared down at him.

“I could have you punished for disobeying and/or threatening the captain!” roared the captain irately, “But I’ll go easy on you just this once and tell you to get the fuck off of my bridge! And I don’t want to see your face around here again for a long time!”

“Yes sir!” replied Nick in a cold sweat before making a dash for the door.

Once off of the bridge Nick took a deep breath. He was going to have to find another way to help his newly made friends. Normally he would never defy the captain, or any other commanding officer for that matter, but the captain was truly wrong. He had no right to steal from the Equestrians. Unless, they really did attack the humans first? Nick couldn’t see that happening, but, if they did, then the captain would actually have the right to wage war with them. Nick pushed that thought to the back of his mind; right now his top priority is to find a way to get off the Atropos and fast. As Nick walked down a hall he bumped into Mark who was talking to one of the top scientists on the ship named Damion Mach, or just Dr. Mach.

“Hey, Nick,” greeted Mark with a smile, “I was just talkin’ with Dr. Mach here about that horse thing that they are conducting tests on. I’m no scientist, in fact, I’m only head of communications, but I still love to learn about alien life. I find it interesting don’t you?”

“Oh crap!” thought Nick worriedly; he had completely forgotten about the pony scheduled to be dissected in the “Alien species study” lab!

“Mark, I’m sorry, but I don’t have time to talk right now… I got to go!” replied Nick as he pushed past Mark and started speed walking down the hall.

Once Nick was in an elevator and heading down towards the lab sector of the Atropos he realized that he was being way to irrational. There was no way he’d be able to free the pony scheduled to be dissected, at least, not with all of the scientists and crewmen walking around. He’d have to wait until the sleep hours on the Atropos when very few men are on duty. That’s when he would free the captured pony and secretly fly down to Equestria. Until then he would just hang out in his living quarters and act normal.

--5 hours later (sleep hours)--

Nick peeked his head out from the door of his living quarters and scanned the dimly lit hallway. Ninety percent of the men aboard the Atropos were off duty and sleeping now. It was the perfect time for Nick to make his move. He slowly made his way to the lab section of the Atropos, dodging the occasional crewman on sleep shift. Once there he found the door labeled “Alien species study” and slipped inside. The lab was very dark with only one dim overhead light on. Nick found the light switch and turned the rest on. The sudden burst of bright light made Nick squint his eyes until they adjusted. He then walked over to the fiberglass wall and looked down into the white room below. Just as he had hoped, the brown pony was still there.

“Who’s there?” called up the brown pony looking confused.

Nick must have awoken it from sleeping.

“Somebody that’s here to help…” replied Nick as he headed for an elevator that led straight down into the room below.

It was a one way elevator. Anyone could use it to go down into the room below, but to be able to come back up they would have to punch in a pass code to open the elevator doors.

Nick descended down to the room and the doors slid open.

“Quick! Hop in!” motioned Nick to the brown pony as he held the doors open.

The pony trotted over to the elevator and climbed inside with Nick.

“Wow, this is just fascinating!” exclaimed the brown pony as the elevator started to ascend, “I always knew that there was alien life out there somewhere but nopony would ever believe me.”

“What’s your name?” inquired Nick as the doors reopened.

“Dr. Whooves, and yours?”

“Nick…”

“Nice to meet you Nick, you know this place is pretty amazing don’t you think? I mean, this technology is extraordinary!”

Nick raised an eyebrow, “You sound like you’re having a good time?”

“That’s because I am. This place is great… of course, I do wish that they’d give me some more ponies to keep me company though.”

“Apparently he doesn’t know that he was scheduled to be dissected,” thought Nick as they made their way to the exit of the lab.

“Listen, I’m going to take you back to Equestria, but I need you to follow me, do what I do, and keep quiet.”

“Awww, I can’t stay for a little while longer?”

Nick did a face palm as he opened the exit door, “Trust me, you don’t want to stay…”

With that said Nick crept into the hallway, followed by Dr. Hooves, and started making his way towards the F-56 docking sector. He knew what he had to do, even if it meant stealing-or ah, borrowing an F-56 without permission. Nick was a little over half way to the docking sector when suddenly he heard the sound of footsteps coming from around a corner that he was approaching. He stopped and wildly swung his head back and forth looking for a place to hide. It would only be a matter of seconds before the oncoming person would round the corner. Realizing that there was no way of escape Nick prepared for the worst as the unknown man finally came into view. It was Commander Trenton, the commanding officer of Nick’s patrol and also a pretty good friend.

“Nick?” inquired the commander somewhat gruffly, “Why are you up so late? It’s the sleeping hours for the ship.”

“I uhhh…” stuttered Nick.

Apparently the commander hadn’t noticed Dr. Whooves yet who was hiding behind Nick.

“Umm… ya know… just doin’, uh, stuff…” stammered Nick with a shrug.

The commander cocked his head giving Nick a strange look.

“What’s that brown thing behind you?” asked the commander taking a step forwards.

“Oh, it’s uh, nothing sir…” replied Nick breaking into a cold sweat.

“Sir?” posed the commander raising an eyebrow, “You never call me sir Nick; unless, of course, we’re on mission.”

Now the commander knew that something was up. Nick never called him “commander” or “sir” when they were not on an operation. A few months ago their patrol’s old commander died of an unfortunate cause and the captain had elected Trent out of their patrol to replace him. Because the new commander used to be their rank, and because they were all pretty good friends, he didn’t mind when they were casual with him. But although they were friends Nick knew that the commander’s job came before friendship for him and that he wouldn’t hesitate about turning Nick in.

“That’s the alien test subject isn’t it Nick?” asked the commander as he started advancing towards Nick.

“Listen Trent, you just caught me off guard, that’s all,” replied Nick trying to act cool, “I was ordered to move it to the dissection lab for a final analysis.”

Still looking confused the commander countered, “But during the sleeping hours? And why you? You’re a starplane pilot and a scout…”

“Uh, you know, it was the captain. You heard about how he got angry with me right? Well, for punishment he ordered me to do whatever anybody asks me to do for the rest of the day, and it just so happened that Dr. Mach asked me to deliver this test subject to the dissection lab for him,” lied Nick.

“Ok then…” nodded the commander slowly still looking a little baffled, “Well that’s a first. I’ve never heard of the captain doing that before.”

“Yeah, me neither. I was surprised too,” answered Nick.

“I’ll see ya around then Nick. I was just heading back to my living quarters. I’ve been having a little trouble sleeping lately and sometimes walking around helps,” yawned the commander as he ambled past Nick.

“That was a close one,” thought Nick as he continued down the hall, “I can’t believe that Trent actually fell for that.”

“Were you serious about the whole dissection thing?” asked Dr. Whooves nervously as they finally reached the F-56 docking sector.

“No, but you were scheduled to be dissected tomorrow. That’s why I’m saving you,” replied Nick as he flashed his ID card at a wall scanner that granted him access into the hangar.

Dr. Whooves gulped at Nick’s response as they made their way down the hangar. Nick stopped at a random starplane which he jumped up into followed by Dr. Hooves.

“Thankfully these things can hold up to two passengers,” called back Nick to Dr. Whooves who was now seated behind him.

With that Nick pushed the power button, which had a build in fingerprint scanner to ensure that the person flying the starplane was a certified pilot, and the F-56 hummed to life. He then lowered the top of the starplane locking it into place and creating an air-lock.

“Equestria, here we come!” shouted Nick as the F-56 slowly ascended before shooting out of the Atropos and into the vacuum of space.

But before Nick was able to get more than about 500 miles away from the Atropos his starplane was suddenly hit by something hard. Nick got a sick feeling in his stomach as his main screen beeped a few times before displaying a holographic image of the captain.

“So, Nick, you thought you could just take your little pony friend, steal an F-56 starplane, and then fly back to the planet? Hmmm?” inquired the captain mockingly, “I knew that you didn’t necessarily agree with what I had said, but I had no idea that it would drive you to the point of stealing a starplane. I’ll give you one warning right now Nick; turn back now and your punishment won’t be as bad. But if you don’t then you’ll be guilty of treason and will be punished for treason!”

Nick knew that the punishment for treason was death, and he also knew that what had hit him before was a laser from one of three other F-56 armored starplanes that were following him. So, basically the captain was saying to either turn back now and be severely punished or get shot out of the sky.

The Elements!

“H-how did you know!?” stuttered Nick in surprise.

The captain smirked before replying, “Let’s just say that your commander, Trent, decided to find out if you were telling the truth or not…”

“Ugh! Damit Trent!” cursed Nick in frustration.

“W-what are we going to do now?” questioned Dr. Whooves from behind.

“Yes, what are you going to do?” agreed the captain coolly.

That was a good question; what was Nick going to do? He had four armored starplanes chasing him that weren’t afraid to knock him out of the sky if he didn’t comply with the captain. He was just about to give in when suddenly an idea struck him.

“Well?” inquired the captain impatiently.

“Well…” replied Nick as he slowly slid his hand over the megadrive lever, “…I think I’m going to chance it!”

With that Nick pushed the lever to maximum speed and shot towards that planet at about mach 20. The starplanes that were pursuing him were soon nothing but small specks behind him.

The holographic captain gave Nick a threatening glare before saying, “Fine, have it your way Nick…”

The captain then held two fingers up to his ear as he spoke into a small mike that was most likely connected to the other four starplanes that were chasing Nick, “He refused to comply. I want you to kill him at all costs; he’s a traitor!”

And with that the holographic captain disappeared as he ended the connection.

Nick knew what he had to do. Every machine onboard the Atropos had a tracking device installed inside it so that no matter where it was in the galaxy the Atropos would know exactly where it was. Nick needed to somehow disable the tracking device before landing in Equestria. If he didn’t then the captain would know exactly where he landed and Nick would have no chance of escaping.

“Nicole, I need you to hack into the main system of this starplane and disable the tracking device!” ordered Nick as he whipped her out of his pocket.

“Okay… but it may take awhile,” replied Nicole as seemingly endless paragraphs of code began to pour down her screen.

Nick checked his radar and found that his pursuers were rapidly gaining on him and were now almost within firing range. Nick knew that there was no way he would be able to out run them and he also knew that there was nowhere for him to hide in space; so his best bet was to fly down to the planet and try to lose them by flying through mountains or confusing terrain. Without hesitation Nick suddenly did a nose dive for the planet while still flying in megadrive. He then pulled the lever back out of megadrive and let go of the gas; he was now free falling towards Equestria at an alarmingly dangerous speed. His pursuers, shocked by his sudden and unexpected dive, followed with great determination.

“I think I’m going to be sick!” exclaimed Dr. Whooves as the space soon became sky and the ground started to grow closer with every passing second.

At the last moment Nick pulled out of his nose dive and sped forwards at a supersonic speed with only a mere four thousand feet to spare. Three of the starplanes chasing him did so as well but the forth was not able to pull out of its nose dive in time and crashed into the ground causing a massive explosion. Nick cringed at the sight; although he was rebelling against the Atropos he still hated to see one of his fellow crewmen die in such a way.

“Nicole, which way to Ponyville?” inquired Nick remembering the name of the small pony village.

“Head East,” replied the PC as it continued to hack the starplane.

Just as they started to approach what seemed to be a ravine Nicole happily exclaimed that she had finished hacking into the starplane’s main system and that they were no longer being tracked by the Atropos.

“Great!” answered Nick with excitement, “Now all we have to do is shake these people…”

“Why this is Ghastly Bottom Gorge!” exclaimed Dr. Whooves as they descended down into the ravine.

“Is there a problem?” asked Nick as they continued to speed along.

“No, just be very careful though,” warned the doctor, “This place is dangerous…”

At that moment a giant eel suddenly shot out of the side of the gorge narrowly missing Nick’s starplane. As Nick continued to speed through the ravine he was continuously dodging giant eels while making sharp and tight turns. The pilot’s of the starplanes behind Nick were fearing more for their own lives then trying to get a lock on him. If he was able to keep this up he might just be able to shake them. That is, until one of the starplanes chasing Nick lost control and crashed into the side of the gorge causing yet again another massive explosion. The explosion shook the ravine causing some boulders and rocks to break free and fall to the canyon floor. As Nick dodged the falling rocks he realized that it was too dangerous to stay in the gorge any longer so he pulled out and continued to fly east. Just as Nick was beginning to reach what seemed to be a city floating in the sky one of the two F-56’s following him launched two old fashioned heat seeking missiles at him. Although the technology was old it still proved to be quite effective in many cases. Nick quickly dispatched flares which eliminated one of the two oncoming missiles. But what was he going to do now? Those were his only flares! It was only about thirty seconds until impact when Nick finally reached the outskirts of the floating city. He started doing tight turns around random floating buildings in hope of shaking the oncoming missile.

“Wow, this must be Cloudsdale!” exclaimed Dr. Whooves in amazement, “I’ve always wanted to see it, but it’s not like I could just fly up here and visit…”

Nick was half tuning the doctor out as he continued to make what seemed to be futile efforts in shaking the remaining missile. With only ten seconds left before impact Nick made one last hopeful attempt by nose diving through what seemed be a coliseum. The missile, unable to make such a tight turn, continued to fly straight. Nick then pulled out of his nose dive and started flying east once more. Nick glanced behind himself to check if his pursuers were still following him or not. Only one of the two starplanes that had followed him into Cloudsdale was still behind him, which means that something must have happened to the other one back at Cloudsdale because they always flew together. Nick knew that he was going to have to fight back. He really didn’t want to do it but it seemed like it was the only possible way of escape.

Nick did a quick u-turn and went into a subsonic speed. The sudden turn and decrease in speed surprised his pursuer who shot right past Nick. Nick then did another quick 180 degree turn and was now behind his follower. Then, without hesitation, Nick pressed the fire button and shot his lasers. The F-56 did a barrel roll and narrowly dodged the fatal beam of light. Determined to end it Nick fired his two missiles at the last starplane. Same as Nick the F-56 launched flares but unfortunately lost none of the oncoming missiles. He put up a good fight as he tried to shake the missiles, but in the end he ended up exploding just like the rest of the ones before him. Nick hated himself for killing one of his own crewmen but he knew that there was no other way of escape. Nick pushed the thought to the back of his mind as he continued to fly east towards his destination.

A few minutes later Nick was flying above Ponyville looking for a place to land. After a little consideration Nick decided to land right next to Twilight’s house. He slowly flew above it before making a vertical decent down to the ground and landing. Once on the ground Nick undid the air-lock and jumped out of the starplane.
Dr. Whoove also climbed out of the starplane and looked around, “Why, this is Ponyville! But how did you know that I live here?”

“I didn’t,” replied Nick turning to face the pony, “I was flying here for my own purposes, but I’m glad that it’s also your home.”

“Well, thank you for saving me. I owe you one. If there’s anything that I could ever do for you just let me know,” smiled Dr. Whooves before walking away.

“Bye,” called Nick after the doctor as he disappeared around a corner.

Nick then turned and made a dash for Twilight’s door.

--Meanwhile in Twilight’s house--

Twilight was just about done sorting some books when suddenly Nick burst into the library.

“Nick your bac-”

“Twilight!” interrupted Nick jogging over to her, “I’m so glad to see you. Listen, I’ve got some really important information that you all need to hear!”

“Wait, what?” replied Twilight a little confused.

“It’s about Las Pegasus, the attackers, and the elements!”

“Whoa Nick, try to calm down. Go slower… what about Las Pagesus!?”

“It’s us Twilight! It’s the humans! And if we don’t act quickly they’ll take the elements!”

“You mean the Elements of Harmony?” inquired Twilight becoming concerned.

“Yes!”

“When did you learn about this?”

“Only about six or seven hours ago, but listen, if we don’t do something quick then nothing will be able to stop them. Trust me Twilight, I know how powerful we humans are; we’d be able to crush Equestria like a bug…”

War

“Like a bug?” repeated Twilight, “Nick I think your underestimating…”

“Trust me Twilight; the elements are in grave danger! They already know where they are and they’re coming to get them right now!”

Nick had convinced Twilight now; she was starting to become very anxious, “We need to get to Canterlot and warn the Princess!”

“But wait, can’t you just send one of those messages with Spike?”

“I could, but for something this important I know that she’d want to see us in person.”

“So… how are we going to get there?”

“By train.”

“By train! Can’t you just teleport us there or something like that?”

“When did you start believing in magic?” asked Twilight raising an eyebrow.

“Long story, but can you?”

“No I can’t teleport us to Canterlot. It’s miles away! Do you have any idea how much energy that would take? The farther you try to teleport an object the more energy it takes.”

“Oh…” replied Nick with disappointment, “Well, if train is the only way then so be it.”

“Spike!” called Twilight as she turned around abruptly.

“Ya Twilight?” he asked scampering into the room.

Spike’s eyes suddenly lit up as he spotted Nick.

“Nick you’re back!” exclaimed the small dragon with excitement.

“Spike, I’m sorry, but there’s no time for saying hello; the Elements of Harmony are in danger of being stolen!” informed Twilight taking a few steps forward, “I need you to send a message to the princess telling her that the elements are in danger and that she should be anticipating our arrival shortly.”

“Okay!” he replied as he made a dash for a desk to retrieve a quill and piece of paper.

Twilight then turned to face Nick again, “I’m going to go around Ponyville and quickly gather up everyone else. Meet me at the Ponyville train station in twenty minutes.”

“Okay,” answered Nick as Twilight hurried out the door.

“Are that elements really in that much danger?” asked Spike as he began to write the message.

“Not just the elements, but maybe all of Equestria…” replied Nick worriedly.

--Twenty minutes later--

Nick sat anxiously in the Ponyville train station as he waited for Twilight and the other five to arrive. It had taken him awhile but after stopping and asking somepony named Lyra for directions he had finally found his way to the station. There was a train leaving for Canterlot in about ten minutes and he was hoping that they would arrive before it left so that they wouldn’t have to wait for another one. Just as Nick was about to give up all hope on catching the train that was about to leave the six friends suddenly burst into the station.

“Over here!” called out Nick standing up and waving his hand.

The six ponies all turned and started galloping towards him.

“Nick!” exclaimed Pinkie as she closed the distance between them.

“Hey guys,” smiled Nick once they all reached him, “Listen, this train is about to leave for Canterlot, I’ll explain everything on the way there.”

“Alright then,” replied Rainbow Dash before flying into the train followed by the five others and Nick.

Once they were all seated on the train and heading for Canterlot Nick began explaining to them what had happened while he was gone. He explained how the humans were the ones who had invaded Los Pegasus and how they had discovered magic. He then went on to explain how the captain had found out about the Elements of Harmony and how he planned to steal them.

“…I don’t know how much time we have before he attempts to come down here and take them, but when he does we are going to need to be ready,” warned Nick as he finished up his story.

“I only have one question,” proclaimed Rainbow Dash raising her hoof.

“Yes?”

“Why is it that you’re helping us and not your own people?” she asked suspiciously, “Are you a spy?”

Nick couldn’t believe that Rainbow Dash had turned on him so quickly. Didn’t Twilight say that she was supposed to be the element of loyalty or something like that?

“Okay listen, I’m helping you because the short time that I was down here I realized how awesome this place is. You are a very kind and intelligent race, but the captain thinks otherwise. He thinks that you are no more than animals and he thinks that he can do whatever he wants with this planet. Although it hurts me to betray my own race I believe that you all deserve the right to live and grow on this planet and I will not let the captain take that away from you!”

Rainbow Dash seemed satisfied by that answer and settled back down into her seat.

“Besides stealing the elements what else might the humans try to do?” asked Twilight attentively.

Nick thought for a moment before replying, “Well, if they find any useful resources in this planet they may try to set up mining facilities. Also, they might try to set up alien research posts so that they can continue to study the life on this planet.”

“Anything else?” inquired Twilight.

Nick couldn’t really think of anything else that the humans might want the planet for. That is until he remembered their primary goal. Why hadn’t he thought of it sooner?

“Um…well if… they might…”

Nick gulped as he tried to push the thought out of his mind.

“…might what?” asked Applejack inquisitively.

“…might do…planet extermination…”

“What!?” gasped all of the friends in surprise.

Nick sighed before continuing, “Earth, my home planet, is extremely over populated. For years we have been trying to find other habitable planets to live on. So far we’ve only found two others that can support human life. Although we are slowly moving people to those planets we are still looking for more. If we find a planet that is inhabitable but for some reason the alien life on it is a threat to colonization we put into effect Operation Revelation, or, also known as, Planet Extermination.”

“A-and what is that?” stuttered Rarity in a panic.

Nick grimaced as his stomach did a sudden lurch before he continued, “Planet Extermination is when we completely terminate the threat to human colonization. And in this case that would be…”

“…us…” finished Rainbow Dash wide-eyed.

Nick knew that he should never have brought it up. Rarity looked like she was about to have a panic attack, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were just sitting in the seats speechless, Twilight seemed to be sickened by the thought, and Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were on the verge of tears.

“Listen, our top priority right now is the elements. From what I’ve heard they seem to be the most important thing to you guys. The captain never even mentioned anything about Operation Revelation so I wouldn’t be worrying about it if I were you. Right now we just need to focus on the elements and make sure that they don’t get stolen!” exclaimed Nick trying to get the six ponies to think about other things.

Although this did help some the rest of the ride up to Canterlot was mostly in silence. Once the train finally came to a stop they all jumped out of it and into the Canterlot station.

“Follow us,” said Twilight to Nick as they walked out of the station, “We’ll lead you to the castle.”

Nick followed the six friends through the city as they made their way to the castle. Nick didn’t have much time for sightseeing as he ran through the city, but from what he could tell Canterlot seemed to be a very impressive and fancy city. After what seemed to be about ten or maybe even fifteen minutes the seven friends finally all stopped in front of the massive castle gates gasping for breath. Two guards dressed in iron and gold armor were guarding the entrance to the castle. As the friends approached the gates they drew their pikes unsure of the sudden mass of ponies and strange creature.

“Who goes there?” inquired one of the guards distrustfully.

“It’s me, Twilight, and my friends!” answered Twilight still a little short of breath, “We are here on urgent business and need to speak with the princess!”

“Oh, it’s you Twilight,” replied one of the guards as they lowered their weapons, “Come on in. Celestia is expecting you. She’s waiting for you in the great hall.”

The guards gave a signal to another one which was up in the gate tower and the gates began to slowly open. When the gates were fully opened the seven friends all hurried into the castle and then into the great hall where the princess was waiting. Once Nick entered the great hall he saw what he knew had to be the princess. It was by far the most beautiful pony that he had seen yet. She was all white with a flowing rainbow colored mane; not to mention that she was an alicorn. To show respect Nick bowed.

“My faithful student and her friends what brings you here?” asked the princess taking a step forward, “I received your message about the Elements of Harmony being in danger but what kind of danger? And what is this thing that you have with you?”

“He’s a human and his name is Nick…” answered Twilight.

Twilight then went on to explain what humans were and how they were the ones who had overtaken Los Pegasus and how they now wanted to steal the elements.

“And are you sure that Nick is on our side?” inquired the princess once Twilight had finished.

“Positively,” exclaimed Nick cutting Twilight off, “I will not stand to see such injustice!”

“Is there a way I may speak with this captain?” asked Celestia calmly.

Nick was about to say no until he remembered Nicole, “Actually yes...”

Nick walked over to a nearby table and set Nicole onto it.

“Nicole, sync with my communicator and establish communications with the Atropos using holographic display.”

Her screen lit up as she responded to Nick’s voice.

After a few seconds she responded, “Sync complete, establishing communications.”

In a few more seconds a holographic image of Mark appeared in the air above Nicole.

“This is the Atropos who is...” Mark broke off in mid-sentence as he recognized that it was Nick, “Nick? I can’t believe it! What are you doing? The captain is furious that you escaped alive and now you’re contacting the Atropos? Why?”

“Mark, you’re a good friend, but I need you to put on the captain.”

“Wait what? Nick I hope you do realize that if you keep this connection up for more than a minute the Atropos will be able to track it and the captain will know exactly where you are. Disconnect now before somebody else sees that you’re communicating with me!”

“I’m glad to see that you still my friend Mark but I need to speak with the captain.”

Mark hesitated a second before pressing a button. His image suddenly disappeared and was replaced by an angry captain.

“Yes? Who is this?” fumed the captain obviously annoyed.

His eyes suddenly widened as he realized that it was Nick.

“YOU! I’LL FUCKIN’ KILL YOU!” roared the captain letting his anger get the best of him.

Nick could sense Celestia and the other six cringe at the captain’s sudden language.

“Where is he!?” barked the captain to somebody behind him, “I want you to track this call!”

“Wait, please just listen to what I have to say first,” interrupted Nick trying to stay calm.

“And what is that?” asked the captain mockingly.

“I’m here with the ruler of this land and she would like to have a word with you…”

The captain suddenly broke into a cold laugh, “The ruler of what? The little pathetic ponies that you think are apparently better than people!? Listen Nick, they’re nothing more than animals and I’ll do whatever I want with them. Now if you’ll excuse me I’ve got more important things to do…”

“Who are you calling animals!?” blurted out Rainbow Dash unexpectedly.

She flew up to the holographic image of the captain so that she was at eye level with it. The captain turned to face her giving her a piercing glare.

“You,” he replied unfazed.

In a rage Rainbow Dash flew into the hologram at full force passing right through it and crashing into the stone wall behind it.

“See? What did I tell you, nothing more than savage animals,” smirked the captain.

“Let me handle this,” assured Celestia stepping in front of the hologram.

“And who, might I ask, are you?” inquired the captain indifferently.

“I am Princess Celestia, the ruler of Equestria.”

“Oh?” gasped the captain uncaringly.

“Are you the one responsible for attack on Los Pegasus?”

“What if I said that you were?”

“What?”

“I never ordered an attack on that city. I just sent down a crew to study it. You’re the ones that attacked us first!”

Nick could tell that Celestia was somewhat surprised by the captain’s response but quickly concealed her emotion.

“From what Shining Armor told me, he’s the captain of the royal guard, you attacked us first and we were forced to fight back.”

“Oh no, you’ve got it all wrong. We just came down to study the city. Your guards must have thought of us as a threat and attacked us.”

“Whoa, hold on a second!” interrupted Nick butting into the conversation, “So, the ponies really did attack us first?”

“Apparently,” replied Celestia.

“Then that does give the captain the right to wage war with this planet if he wants to,” stated Nick shocked, “But until war is announced you still don’t have the right to take from them what is rightfully theirs.”

“Are you referring to the elements?” inquired the captain raising an eyebrow.

“Yes.”

“Listen, I don’t have to declare war to take that from them because they are nothing more than animals, but if it makes you happy I will,” replied the captain with a sneer.

“Wait, I’m sure there is a way that we can settle this peacefully!” interrupted the Princess.

“Peace? Don’t even bring it up. I’ll take from you what I want. And now, for the content of that double-crossing twofaced bastard Nick, I declare war!” exclaimed the captain.

With those final words the communication connection ended and the hologram of the captain disappeared.

The First Battle

--Atropos: Main Bridge--

The captain ended the connection and turned around, “Did you track the call?”

“Yes sir, it seems to be coming from a city called Canterlot,” replied a crewman confidently.

“Isn’t that supposed to be the ponies’ capital city or something?” asked the captain.

“Yes sir, it is.”

“Well isn’t that just perfect. Nick’s in the capital city,” grinned the captain.

He quickly turned around again to face his first officer.

“Okay change of plans. I don’t want you to go down and take the elements quite yet. I want you to gather up every able bodied soldier and overtake every major city down there except Canterlot,” ordered the captain.

“But sir, why not Canterlot? Shouldn’t that be our prime target since it’s the capital?” asked the first officer puzzled.

“No, I want you to seize all major cities except Canterlot. I want Nick to realize just how foolish he is as everything crumbles around him. Then, once all the other cities are overtaken, I want you to attack Canterlot with full force leaving no survivors and bringing me the elements.”

“Yes sir!”

--Meanwhile in the Canterlot Castle Great Hall--

Nick, Celestia, and the other six all stood in the great hall slack-jawed and flabbergasted. None of them could have guessed that the call with the captain would have ended up like that.

After a few minutes Celestia finally broke the silence, “It’s been over a thousand years…”

“Since what?” asked Nick still stunned.

“Since war…” replied Celestia soullessly.

“What are we going to do!?” shouted Twilight suddenly.

After a few more moments Celestia replied, “The only thing that we can do.”

“And what is that?”

“Fight back…”

--Canterlot Castle War Room--

Shining Armor had finished gathering up the Royal Army a couple of days ago but the Princess would not let him attack Los Pegasus because she said that it would be considered an act of war and the last thing she wanted was a war. So for the past couple of days he had been trying to find a peaceful way to win Los Pegasus back from the unknown attackers. Unfortunately, to no avail. Shining Armor was about to give up on trying to find a way to peacefully win back Los Pegasus when suddenly a Royal Guard burst into the room.

“Sir! I’ve got some very important news!” exclaimed the guard.

“Not now, can’t you see that I’m busy trying to find the answer to a hopeless cause?”

“But sir…”

“Not now!”

“It’s a message from Princess Celestia!”

“Well then, come in, come in, why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“I was trying to sir…”

“I’m sorry, what is this message?”

“She’s giving you the go-ahead to attack Los Pegasus.”

“What!?” exclaimed Shining Armor surprised, “I thought she wanted to resolve this matter peacefully.”

“Well, she did. That is, until the attackers announced war on us.”

“Wait, what!? B-but we still don’t even know what they are!”

“Calm down sir, Celestia has requested your presence in the great hall. She says that she’ll explain everything to you there.”

--Meanwhile in the Canterlot Castle Great Hall--

Nick was in the middle of explaining to the Princess more about the human race and where they had come from when suddenly a white pony with a blue mane that was dressed in gold and purple armor suddenly burst into the great hall.

“I’m here Celestia!” called out the important looking pony.

“That must be Shining Armor,” thought Nick, “Celestia sent for him a little while ago.”

Shining Armor galloped through the great hall towards the Princess quickly making up the distance between them.

Once in front of the Princess he took a bow to show respect and then asked, “One of my guards reported that we are now at war with the unknown attackers and that you would like to speak with me. Is this true? Are we really at war!?”

Celestia sighed before replying, “Yes it’s true. Let me fill you in on what’s happened…”

Celestia explained to Shining Armor what she knew about the humans and how they wanted the elements. When Celestia was in the middle of describing what a human was Shining Armor seemed to take notice of Nick for the first time.

“Is he one of them?” he asked.

That’s when Twilight took over and explained the story about how they had found Nick and how he was willing to fight against the humans.

“Okay…” replied Shining Armor in deep thought after Twilight had finished, “So, if they want the elements wouldn’t that make Canterlot their next target?”

“Most likely yes,” answered Nick, “Knowing the Captain he’s probably going to attack Canterlot with a very powerful Blitzkrieg attack, take the elements, and kill me. The Captain never gives up until he gets what he wants and right now his two main goals seem to be to steal the elements and killing me. He wouldn’t waste his time and soldiers by fooling around with other cities.”

“Sounds logical,” replied Shining Armor as he turned to face Celestia, “Should I cast the spell?”

Celestia nodded in response, “Do whatever it takes Shining Armor. I trust you to protect Equestria and all of its citizens.”

Shining Armor returned the nod and took a step backwards. He then squeezed his eyes shut in concentration. Suddenly, a beam of translucent purple light shot out of his horn. It passed harmlessly through the ceiling of the great hall and into the sky. Once the beam of light reached a certain height in the sky it exploded in a shower of purple and mauve colored sparks. The entire city of Canterlot was almost instantly enclosed by what seemed to be some sort of purplish energy field.

“As long as I am awake and well no harm shall befall upon this city!” exclaimed Shining Armor confidently.

--Fillydelphia guard station--

Thorn sat in his office lazily. He was the sergeant of a small platoon that was posted in Fillydelphia. They were originally posted in Fillydelphia to guard the city but that was a long time ago and it’s not like the city ever gets attacked. Over the years they become lax and became more like the city’s police instead of soldiers. If there was ever any crime they would catch the criminals, if a cat got stuck in a tree they would save it, if for some reason a fight broke out they would break it up, etc. They didn’t have to do this stuff, because it wasn’t their job, but Thorn and the others enjoyed doing it because if they didn’t then they would just end up sitting in a guard station all day. Thorn was just about to get started on some minor paperwork when suddenly Thunderbolt walked into his office. Thunderbolt was one of the guards in the platoon Thorn commanded but they were also really good friends.

“Hey Thorn, whatcha doing?” asked Thunderbolt with a smile.

“Nothing really…” replied Thorn pushing the paperwork to the side; it could wait until later.

“Want to go to the doughnut shop with me?” asked Thunderbolt, “We haven’t had much action at all for the past couple of days and I feel like doing something, even if it’s just buying a doughnut.”

“Okay,” chuckled Thorn hopping out of his office chair, “It’s about time for break soon anyway…”

Thorn and Thunderbolt made their way out of the guard station and onto the streets. They were only about half way to the doughnut shop when suddenly all of hell broke loose. The loud sound of rushing air suddenly filled the sky as giant metallic looking creatures descended out of nowhere. Out of them detached smaller metallic crafts that zipped through and around the city at high speeds. Then, out of those crafts, even smaller creatures jumped out of them. The even smaller creatures seemed to be wearing strange clothing and helmets. Right when they would near the ground some type of device would shoot out of the backs and land them safely onto the ground. Once on the ground the creatures would start yelling and hollering at all the ponies closest to them and tell them to get down on the ground, or, in many cases, there would just be loud banging noises and the ponies would fall down dead. Thorn was so traumatized by this sudden attack that all he could do was watch the pandemonium in speechless terror. An exploding building finally shook him back to reality as he jumped out of the way to dodge the falling debris. Suddenly, more buildings started to crumble as the giant flying metallic looking creatures shot, what seemed to be fire balls, down onto the city. Thunderbolt quickly rushed up to the closest grounded creature and stabbed it in the back with his sword before it had a chance to turn around.

But then, Thorns eyes widened in horror as he screamed, “Thunder! Look out! There’s another one to your right!”

But it was too late. A loud banging shortly followed leaving Thunderbolt lying motionless on the ground. Thorn couldn’t believe it... His best friend was dead! Not only that but the city was being over taken and there was nothing he could do about it. He only had fifteen guards in his platoon and there seemed to be countless attackers.

“I’ll kill you!” cried Thorn stabbing the creature that had killed Thunderbolt before it had a chance to react.

Then a loud voice suddenly rumbled throughout the city. It was coming from one of the large metallic flying creatures, “Surrender the city now or prepare for annihilation!”

Thorn fell down to his knees in terror and dismay as he realized that there was no possible way that they could win…

Meeting

It was early the next morning in Canterlot when Shining Armor got a report from a scout saying that Baltimare was in ruins, Fillydelphia had been overtaken, and Manehattan was currently undergoing powerful blitzkrieg attacks.

“What!?” exclaimed Shining Armor in a panic, “But we all thought that they were going to attack Canterlot! From what Nick said none of those cities have anything that the humans would want!”

Before the scout had a chance to reply Shining Armor took off down one of the castles many corridors. Only one thought raced through his mind and that was that he had to inform the Princess! Could it be that all along Nick knew that the humans would attack the other cities? Did he set them up? Was he really on their side? All these thoughts pounded through Shining Armor’s head he approached the throne room where he and Cadence had been married. Without hesitation he galloped into the room.

“Princess! Princess Celestia! Three major cities around Equestria have been hit hard by the humans! Baltimare is in ruins, Fillydelphia has been overtaken, and Manehattan is currently undergoing powerful blitzkrieg attacks!” stammered Shining Armor out of breath.

Celestia gasped, “But the Elements of Harmony are in Canterlot, not any of those cities!”

“Yes, this leads me to believe that Nick lied to us; the humans were never after the elements. They want something else, Nick must be a spy!”

“Are you sure?” asked the Princess circumspectly.

“Well, uh… I can’t think of any other explanation,” replied Shining Armor.

After a little consideration Celestia requested Nick’s presents in the throne room. He arrived a few minutes later.
Nick bowed before asking, “Is there a problem? Your messenger said that it was vital that I report to the throne room immediately.”

“Yes!” replied Shining Armor taking a step forwards, “We have reason to believe that you are a spy.”

“What? Me?” stuttered Nick clearly taken aback.

“Yes you,” replied Shining Armor, “You said that Canterlot would be the humans’ prime target so we gathered up the bulk of the Royal Army here. But, just yesterday, three other cities were attacked and overtaken by the humans, how would you explain this!?”

“I-I don’t know!” stammered Nick in surprise, “From what I heard the captain only wants two things, the elements and my head.”

“Then why isn’t he attacking Canterlot!?” countered Shining Armor heatedly.

“Please, calm down,” ordered Celestia, “Obviously Nick has no idea what’s going on and from what I have observed he is not a spy.”

“But-”

“No buts,” interrupted Celestia, “I want you to dispatch the Royal Army all throughout Equestria. We clearly have no idea where the humans will strike next. But I still want you to keep a fair amount of guards here. Oh, and dispatch the Elite Special Forces Unit to the four cities that have already been overtaken; we need to win them back!”

“Elite Special Forces Unit? What’s that?” questioned Nick.

“It’s a group of highly trained unicorns that are qualified both in fighting and powerful magic,” replied Shining Armor.

“Oh.”

“I’m also going to be holding a meeting in the war room tomorrow morning,” informed Celestia, “I want both you and Nick to attend.”

“As you wish your highness,” replied Shining Armor with a bow.

With that Shining Armor trotted out of the throne room.

--The following day--

Nick walked aimlessly through the castle corridors as he tried to find his way to the war room. The Princess had said that she would be holding a meeting and that she wanted him to attend but he had no idea where this room was. He was just about to give up and ask a guard for directions when he suddenly spotted a door labeled “War Room”. Nick jogged over to the door and opened it; he knew that he was late.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said awkwardly as he entered the room.

Nick quickly found a seat and sat down around a big round wooden table.

“It’s okay,” replied Celestia as she waited for Nick to get situated.

Nick glanced around the room to see who else was at this meeting. There was Celestia and and also a blackish purple pony with a starry mane.

“That must be Princess Luna, Celestia’s sister,” thought Nick. He remembered reading about her back in the library at Ponyville.

There was also Shining Armor and a pink alicorn sitting next to him.

“That must be Princess Cadence,” thought Nick, “Twilight told me about her.”

There was also Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy; not to mention himself. That made a total of eleven at the meeting.

“…Anyway,” picked up Shining Armor were Nick must have cut him off, “Like I said there has recently been yet another attack on another major city. Unfortunately, it has also been overtaken as well. Our forces just seem to be no match for the humans.”

“Anything else?” questioned Celestia.

“Well, the with the help of the Elite Special Forces Unit we were actually able win back Fillydelphia but the humans seem to be attacking it with all they got and we’re afraid that it will soon be retaken again.”

“What do you suppose we do?” asked Luna with concern.

“I truthfully have no idea,” replied Shining Armor grimly, “We are fighting our hardest and the humans are crushing us as if we’re nothing more than a fly.”

“Anypony have any ideas?” asked Celestia to the meeting in general.

Nick took the chance to stand up, “What type of attacks are they using?”

“Huh?” responded Shining Armor turning to face Nick, “Well, from what the scouts have reported huge metallic flying crafts will descend out of the sky and then smaller crafts will deploy out of them. Humans will then dive out of the smaller crafts as they zip throughout the city. It is also reported that the bigger crafts can shoot out fire balls that will completely destroy a building. Not to mention that the humans are armed with strange magical weapons that kill without contact and the target city usually falls within hours.”

Nick pondered over what Shining Armor had said for a little while before coming to a conclusion, “The captain seems to be sending down carrier crafts armed with heavy missiles. Carrier crafts are huge ships that transport other smaller ships like hoverjets, F-56 starplanes, and hyperplanes. From what you’re saying the carrier crafts seem to be deploying hyperplanes. Hyperplanes are a very small crafts and look somewhat similar to jet-skis. The only difference is that they can fly through the air and can reach speeds up to 600 hundred miles per hour. The humans must be parachuting off of them and into the city. By the way, those magical weapons are guns.”

Nick scanned the room satisfied with his explanation. Everypony in the room was giving him a wtf face. Nick suddenly turned bright red as he realized that they had no idea what he was talking about. So for the next hour Nick explained to everypony what a gun was and how it was used and also what a starship was and the different types of crafts it contained like hoverjets and hyperplanes.

“So, if we can somehow destroy the Atropos then we would win the war,” exclaimed Shining Armor once Nick had finished explaining.

Nick winced at what Shining Armor had said.

“Yes, but I will not let you destroy the Atropos!”

“And why is that?” asked Shining Armor as he studied Nick suspiciously.

“Because although I’m fighting on your side I still care for the humans, I have friends aboard that ship. Also, I never wanted war in the first place and by destroying the Atropos you will kill over 30,000 people!” exclaimed Nick, “Not to mention that destroying a federation starship will only make your problem worse. The Starfleet Federation Headquarters gets a signal if a starship is destroyed and they will send another one here to investigate. But I don’t see how you could possibly destroy the Atropos in the first place anyway so that option is out.”

“The Elements of Harmony would probably work,” said Cadence suddenly.

“Yes they would…” replied Luna, “But didn’t you hear what Nick just said? We will not destroy the Atropos.”

Celestia nodded in agreement.

“Then what else are we supposed to do!?” cried Shining Armor in defeat.

“We need to somehow get leverage over the humans,” said Rainbow Dash speaking up.

“How are we supposed to do that?” asked Shining Armor.

“Umm, I don’t know…”

“Oh, I know! We could release Discord!” proposed Shining Armor.

“Are you being serious!?” exclaimed Twilight.

“Who’s Discord?” whispered Nick to Fluttershy.

“He’s the spirit of chaos and confusion,” replied Fluttershy softly, “And he’s mean and scary.”

“No, we will not release Discord!” countered Celestia, “He wouldn’t help us and he wouldn’t help the humans either. We are currently in the middle of a war and Discord would love every second of it. He wouldn’t stop it; he’d probably just use his mischievous powers to extend the war as long as possible and make everything complete chaos again too.”

A long silence pursued as everybody continued to think.

“Maybe…Maybe if we could somehow threaten or kidnap the captain,” proposed Nick, “But we’d have to find a way to somehow get aboard the Atropos.”

“I think that I would be able to teleport you there,” replied Celestia.

“But Twilight said that you can’t teleport that far?” questioned Nick.

“I am a lot stronger than Twilight,” chuckled Celestia.

A few more moments of silence followed.

“Yes but… There’s no way we’d be able to abduct the captain and bring him down here,” sighed Nick.

“Why is that?” asked Shining Armor.

“Because the crew would know the second he’s gone; not to mention that they would recognize me on the spot. I wouldn’t be able to get within fifty feet of him before being captured and most likely killed. It’s almost as if we’d need an exact copy of the captain to replace him with so they wouldn’t know that the real one was missing…”

“What if I said that we could do that,” informed Celestia.

“Well even if you could we’d probably need some crew members that would be on our side and we’d have to do it during the sleeping hours,” replied Nick thoughtfully, “I wish it was possibly. Could you imagine the leverage we’d have if we held the captain hostage?”

After a few moments Celestia replied, “Nick, your plan is possible…”

The Plan

The Plan

“It is?” stuttered Nick confused.

“Yes, but we would need help from the Changelings,” sighed Celestia.

“You can’t be serious!?” gasped Cadence suddenly, “They’re evil and they’d never help us!”

“Maybe not, but it’s worth a try,” replied Celestia solemnly, “We clearly cannot beat the humans by ourselves…”

“Sorry to interrupt, but what are Changelings?” asked Nick puzzled.

“Changelings are black creatures from the waste realm that have the power to take the form of anypony they see. They usually take the form of somepony you love and feed off of your love for them making themselves more powerful,” explained Luna.

“Oh, so you think they might be able to take the form of humans?” inquired Nick beginning to understand.

“Yes,” replied Celestia thoughtfully, “But we’re going to have to contact Queen Chrysalis…”

“There is no way I’d ever ask the changelings for help!” exclaimed Shining Armor suddenly, “After what they did only a few months ago… I never want to see another changeling again!”

“It’s the only way,” countered Celestia grimly.

Shining Armor only huffed in response knowing that there was no way he could win the argument.

“I want you to go to the communications room and prepare it for contact with Queen Chrysalis immediately!” ordered Celestia turning to a nearby guard.

The guard bowed before quickly turning and trotting out of the war room.

“This meeting will be continued in the communications room,” informed Celestia standing up.

--Canterlot Castle Communications Room--

Nick stepped into the dimly lit room and looked around. It was a fairly small room with a few dusty bookshelves and a large caldron in the center. Inside the caldron was a clear watery liquid that had an ever so slight purple tint to it. The room had no windows and the only thing that was providing light was one small metal medieval looking chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Celestia waited until everybody was in the room before walking over to the caldron and touching the tip of her horn into the watery liquid. The purple tinted liquid began to ripple as if a stone had been thrown into. Suddenly there was a slight glow as the liquid became cloudy and started to form an image. The image was blurry at first but it soon started to become clear and Nick began to see what had to be the Queen of the Changelings. She had a twisted unicorn horn, a pair of tattered insect like wings, and her eyes were a dark green color. She had a sharp pair of fangs and on top of her head sat a small black crown tipped with blue orbs. Her mane, legs, and tail were full of holes she was very slender.

Suddenly she spoke; her voice sounded like a distorted echo, “What is so important that you contact me Celestia?”

“Equestria is currently in a very unpromising time. We think that you may be our only hope,” replied Celestia.

“Well, it must bad if you’re asking me for help,” laughed Chrysalis maliciously, “The changelings haven’t helped the ponies in over a thousand years! Besides, why would I help you?”

“Because this problem may also affect you,” answered Celestia.

“Really? How so? What is this oh-so-terrible thing?” asked Chrysalis inquisitively.

For the next half hour Celestia explained about the humans and how they were losing the war to them to the Changeling Queen. She also explained how they might be able to stop the humans if they worked together.

“…if you don’t help us and the humans win the next place they’ll probably target is your kingdom,” sighed Celestia finishing her long explanation.

“Hmmm…” considered the Queen thoughtfully, “How do I know you’re not lying? I don’t trust you Celestia and I know you don’t trust me.”

“Because I have a human right here with me,” replied the Princess motioning Nick over to the caldron.

Nick walked over to the caldron and peered down into the wavy image of the Changeling Queen.

“He’s the only one on our side,” commented Celestia, “And thanks to him we know some of the human’s tactics.”

“I see…” replied Chrysalis distrustfully, “If what you’re saying is true then both of our kingdoms are in grave danger, but if you’re lying… What do you want from me anyway?”

“I need you to come to Canterlot as soon as possible; bring at least five changelings with you. I’ll explain the rest of the plan once you’re here,” informed Nick once Celestia had nodded for him to speak, “We will stay unhostile as long as you do.”

“Okay, I’ll come, but if you’re lying Celestia then you’re going to have bigger problems on your hooves then these so called humans!” exclaimed the queen before the watery liquid rippled and the image faded away.

“How long will it take her to arrive?” asked Twilight making her way over to the caldron.

“Maybe a day…” replied Celestia still staring into the magical liquid, “The Changelings can move fast.”

--Atropos: Captain’s Quarters--

The captain sat in his living quarters smiling to himself. His plan was being executed perfectly. Every city they attacked was crumbling under their superior power. Some of his higher officials had called him cruel for overtaking cities with no point whatsoever other than the fact that it was fun, but that wasn’t what he was doing at all. The captain hadn’t told anybody yet but he was thinking that this planet might just be the perfect planet for human colonization. He had thought about putting into affect Project Revelation, it would kill Nick and all of the stupid little ponies and it would also allow him to take the elements with ease, but he knew that he would never do that. Although the ponies were nothing more than animals nobody wants to carry the burden of being the person who gassed an entire planet and killing almost all of its inhabitants. No, he decided that the best thing to do was to overtake all of the ponies’ major cities to show them who was the superior life. Once they knew their rightful place as animals humans would be able to safely colonize onto the planet without them interfering.

The captain then poured himself a shot of whiskey and quickly downed it as if in victory. Not only was overtaking the cities helping his plans but it was also showing Nick just how foolish he really was.

Suddenly the door to the captain’s living quarters opened and a crewman walked in, “Sir, I’m afraid that I’ve got some unfortunate news.”

“Yes?” acknowledged the captain as the crewman saluted.

“Well, during an attack on a city called Manehattan your first officer, Josh, died,” reported the crewman sadly.

“What? How so!?” exclaimed the captain surprised.

“Well apparently, although it was not his duty, he led one of the attacking platoons into battle. He could have just as easily stayed up in the main carrier craft but he said that he wanted “some action”. He underestimated the power of the ponies and died in the battle. Manehattan was apparently the ponies’ second largest city besides their capital, Canterlot, so it had more defenses than many of their other cities. We did overtake the city but it took about an hour longer than it usually takes to defeat a pony city,” reported the crewman seriously.

“I see…” replied the captain in thought, “It’s unfortunate that Josh had to die; he was a good first officer. He could be stupid at times, but overall he was good. It looks like I’ll have to appoint a new one.”

The captain dismissed the crewman and walked back over to his chair and sat down. He leaned back in his chair and got comfortable before pulling out his PC.

“Computer, list of names of officers eligible for first officer position,” ordered the captain while rubbing his temples.
About sixty minutes later the captain had finally narrowed it down to two people. Commander Trenton, who he personally knew the best out of the eight officers eligible for first officer, or Commander Miles who had two more years of experience in Starfleet then Trenton. After long consideration the captain decided to appoint Commander Trenton as the new first officer of the Atropos. Technically, Miles was more qualified for the position then Trenton, but the captain knew Trent a lot better. The captain then put away his PC and walked to the main bridge where he called up Commander Trenton and officially announced him the new first officer of the USS Atropos.

Infiltration

Infiltration

“But why me sir?” asked Commander Trent perplexed, “Commander Miles is more qualified for the position of first officer than me.”

“Listen,” sighed the captain moving closer to Trent and talking in a voice that only he could hear, “I know you the best out of all of the eligible commanders. Every since Nick betrayed us I’ve been a little less trustful of my crew, I need somebody who I can trust to be the new first officer and I feel that I can trust you the most. You’ve always been loyal to me and to Starfleet. Lately I’ve overheard some people calling me mean and cold hearted for attacking the ponies with seemingly no reason at all other than for the elements which I could easily just take from Canterlot. But trust me Trenton, I’ve got a plan.”

“Okay,” replied the new first officer Trent taking a step back, “And believe me, I would never betray you sir…”

--Canterlot Castle--

“She should be arriving soon,” guessed Twilight as everybody gathered in the Canterlot Castle throne room.

It had been about a day since Celestia had contacted the Changeling Queen and everybody was becoming anxious as they awaited her arrival.

“I do hope she doesn’t try to pull anything tricky,” sighed Rarity flipping her hair.

“I still owe her a punch since the last time we met!” huffed Rainbow Dash as she hovered in the air.

“Why do you guys hate her so much?” asked Nick as he watched Shining Armor walk into the room, “What did she do to you?”

Before anypony could answer there was a sudden blast of trumpets and the main doors leading into the throne room suddenly swung open. Two black changelings marched into the room followed by Queen Chrysalis and another important looking changeling. Behind them marched four more changelings and two royal guards who were obviously escorting them all into the throne room.

“I am here Celestia,” smiled the Queen slyly as she made her way to the center of the room.

“Welcome,” replied Celestia cautiously.

“Let’s get down to business,” exclaimed Chrysalis coldly, “I want to spend as little time here as possible.”

“Okay, but first may I ask who that is?” asked Celestia nodding towards the important looking changeling.

He was a buff changeling, slightly bigger then all of the others. He wore polished dark purple armor and carried with him a small short sword.

“Him?” wondered Chrysalis turning to face the important looking changeling who was standing beside her, “Why he’s one of the top generals in my army. His name is Bellator.”

“If the reason you called us here is true then we shall work with you to help overcome these humans, not because we care about you, but because the humans will most likely destroy us as well,” informed Bellator coldly.

“Bellator is right,” confirmed Chrysalis turning to face Celestia again, “So let’s end this war as quickly as possible. Now, explain this plan that you called me all the way down to Canterlot for.”

“I think it would be better if Nick were to explain the plan to you,” replied Celestia stepping aside and letting Nick take her place in front of the changelings, “He’s the one that came up with it after all.”

Nick gulped as Chrysalis, Bellator, and the other six changelings all stared at him.

“Well, uh, as you can see I’m a human…”

“You’re the one that Celestia said was on our side,” interrupted Queen Chrysalis warily, “Am I correct?”

“Yes, I’m fighting on the ponies’ side, but I still care for the humans and I want as little of them to die as possible,” replied Nick answering the Queen’s question, “Now, as for my plan. Is it really possible for you to take the form of another living creature?”

Suddenly a small greenish fire flashed around Bellator and he almost instantly looked like Shining Armor.

“Does this answer your question?” he asked; even his voice sounded like Shining Armor’s.

Nick blinked a couple of times not believing his eyes, “Y-yes, yes it does…”

Nick could hear Shining Armor clear his throat behind him, obviously disapproving the fact that Bellator had transformed into him.

“…but can you transform into humans?” asked Nick still staring at Bellator in awe.

Suddenly, all of the changeling except Chrysalis flashed into an exact copy of Nick.

“But can you transform into humans?” mirrored the seven changelings back in Nick’s voice.

They surprisingly even copied Nick’s Starfleet uniform.

“Is there some sort of condition before you can change into somebody?” asked Nick somewhat taken aback by all of the copies of him.

“To be able to transform into somebody we must see them first,” replied the Nick that Nick thought was Bellator, “And to be able to mimic their voice we must hear their voice as well.”

“Okay, that’s perfect!” exclaimed Nick happily, “Now here’s the plan; one of you is going to disguise yourself as the captain, and the rest of you will be disguised as normal crewmen. Celestia will then teleport us all onto the Atropos during sleeping hours. The captain should be in his living quarters at that time. We will break in and kidnap the real one replacing him with the imposter. Then, using my communicator, I’ll signal down here that we want to be teleported back. We will then have the perfect leverage against the humans, their captain!”

“Hmm, sounds good but I have a few questions,” spoke Chrysalis thoughtfully.

“Yes?”

“First of all, how would Celestia teleport you up there? She’s never seen the inside of the Atropos before. For a unicorn to be able to teleport somewhere they must have seen the place they are teleporting to at least once. They aren’t able to teleport somewhere they haven’t seen before.”

“Good question, but Celestia has already told me this. Luckily I have a picture of my living quarters stored on Nicole.”

“Who is this Nicole?” asked Chrysalis puzzled.

“Oh, she’s not a living thing. No, she’s an electronic device that’s used for various purposes.”

“Ah, I see… I’ve been informed that you humans are very technologically advanced. For example, you have a floating ship that sails between the stars.”

“It’s called a starship,” corrected Nick, “Any other questions?”

“Yes, why are we replacing the captain with a phony if all we want to do is kidnap him?”

“Okay, here’s why, the captain is always on duty. Even during sleep hours. This means that he can be awoken at anytime if there is some sort of problem aboard the ship. If, for some reason, somebody were to need the captain and he gone then the ship would go into a total lock down and a search would be made for him. If he is not found aboard the ship then the worst is assumed and the first officer becomes captain. If that were to happen then when we reveal to the humans that we are holding the captain hostage it wouldn’t matter anymore because he wouldn’t be the captain anymore. There always has to be somebody in command; so, if the captain disappears then the first officer instantly becomes the captain.”

“I see, but why wouldn’t we reveal to them that we have taken the captain hostage the moment he’s down here. That would be most likely before they’ve realized he’s missing,” proposed Bellator.

“Yes, but unfortunately no outside contact can be made with the Atropos during sleeping hours,” sighed Nick, “We’d have to wait until the sleeping hours are over before we could contact them and tell them that we’ve taken the captain. It too risky; we should play it safe and use a phony.”

“Okay, it all sounds good. I just have one more question,” spoke Chrysalis thoughtfully, “You said you would signal Celestia when you want to be teleported back down, but how are you supposed to do that when you’re so high up in the sky?”

“Simple, I’ll leave Nicole down here. Then I’ll use my communicator to signal her when we’re ready to be teleported back. She can receive small messages over far distances. Any other questions about the plan?” asked Nick looking around the throne room.

“No, I think that will be all,” replied Chrysalis, “But how do you expect us to change into the captain and crewmen if we’ve never seen them before?”

“Here, I’ve got some pictures,” answered Nick quickly drawing Nicole from his belt and pulling up a holographic image of the captain.

The Nick that was Bellator suddenly transformed into the captain.

“Do you have a sample of his voice?” he asked still sounding like his normal self.

“Nicole, play a small segment of my last call to the Atropos,” ordered Nick.

“Loading…” replied Nicole without much emotion.

After a few seconds she beeped and played a segment from Nick’s most recent call to the Atropos:

“Where is he!?” barked the captain to somebody behind him, “I want you to track this call!”

“Wait, please just listen to what I have to say first,” interrupted Nick trying to stay calm.

“And what is that?” asked the captain mockingly.

“Is that good master?” asked Nichole ending the call segment.

“Yes,” replied Nick with a slight smile.

--A few hours later during the Atropos sleeping hours--

It had taken awhile but Nick had actually been able to find six other pictures of six other crewmen. Although he didn’t have a voice for all of them he just advised all of the changelings to keep quiet while on the mission. Except for the one disguised as the captain, which was Bellator. They all stood in the throne room ready to be teleported up to the Atropos. All Nick had to do was give the word.

“Okay, let’s get this over with,” sighed Bellator gruffly.

“Are you ready?” asked Celestia. Her horn started to glow a yellowish color.

Nick nodded at Celestia and suddenly there was a loud popping sound. The next thing he knew they were all in his living quarters aboard the Atropos.

“Alright, follow me,” whispered Nick once he had gotten over the shock of being teleported.

They all sneaked out of Nick’s living quarters and into an empty hallway.

“The captain’s quarters are this way,” motioned Nick turning left down the hallway.

The seven changelings all followed him in almost complete silence. They were almost to the captain’s quarters when suddenly one of the changelings, still not used to the fact of walking on two legs, tripped over his own feet and crashed into the door of somebody’s living quarters! He let out a small yelp of pain before quickly scrambling back up onto his feet hoping that nobody had heard him. But just as everybody was about to continue down the hallway again the door of the living quarters that the changeling had crashed into suddenly opened and everybody froze.

Replacing with an Imposter

Replacing with an Imposter

“Who’s there?” barked a familiar voice from inside the living quarters.

It was too dim to make out who was speaking to them. All Nick could see was a dark silhouette looming in the doorway.

Whoever was speaking must have noticed the phony captain first because the voice suddenly sighed and said, “Oh, captain, it’s only you sir… but why are you up so late? Did something happen?”

Fear suddenly struck Nick; Bellator better not screw this up!

“Well… uh… We’ve finally been able to capture that twofaced bastard Nick,” replied Bellator gruffly.

Bellator suddenly stepped aside revealing Nick who was standing behind him.

“Wow, way to go Bellator!” thought Nick excitedly, “He sounded just like the captain! But did he really have to call me a twofaced bastard?”

The dark figure stepped out from the shadows of his living quarters and into the dim light of the hallway revealing his identity. Nick gasped as he realized who it was.

“Nick, long time no see,” greeted Trent without almost any emotion.

“Hey Trent,” replied Nick dourly as a sudden rush of anger washed over him.

“What’s the matter Nick? I’ve never seen you this unfriendly towards me before,” asked Trent as he looked Nick over.

“What’s the matter? What’s the matter!? You turned me in! I thought… I thought I could trust you! I mean, I knew that your loyalty to the captain is above friendship for you but… After you realized that I had taken that F-56 starplane and was flying down to the planet you could have just as easily said nothing! Nobody would have known the difference, but now, thanks to you, I’m going to be sentenced to death!” exclaimed Nick furiously.

Trent was taken aback by Nick’s sudden outburst.

“L-listen Nick… I’m sorry. I really am. I never wanted you dead. You see, when I found that you didn’t report to the dissection lab I decided to ask the captain if what you said to me was true,” sighed Trent sleepily yet sincerely, “I had no idea that you had hijacked an F-56 starplane and was flying down to the planet.”

“Are you implying that you would have rather had Nick fly down to the planet!?” exclaimed Bellator; his personality was almost indistinguishable from the captain’s.

“No…” replied the Trent turning to face Bellator, “I’m just saying that I don’t want Nick to die.”

Bellator huffed, as if annoyed by Trent, “Well he has to die! He’s committed treason and that’s the only possible sentence.”

“No! They’re two possible punishments for treason!” exclaimed Trent, “One is death and the other is…”

“I know what it is!” butted Bellator heatedly, “I’ll have to think about it… Now if you’ll excuse us, I’m kind of busy!”

“Yes sir,” replied Trent stepping back into his room, “I’m sorry if I doubted your authority.”

“Wait, Trent, before you leave. I just wanted to tell you that the ponies aren’t that bad. The captain is completely wrong about them, they’re actually…”

Before Nick could finish Trent shut the door to his living quarters leaving Nick and the changeling standing outside in the hallway.

After a few moments of silence Nick quietly whispered, “You did a really good job of impersonating the captain Bellator.”

“Yeah, well, I spent about three hours studying him on your Nicole thing before we left,” replied Bellator.

“Trent said there was a second sentence for treason,” wondered Nick thoughtfully, “Do you really know what it is?”

“No… I just acted like I did to make a convincing performance,” answered Bellator.

“Oh well, I won’t have to worry about it anyway as long as we don’t get caught. Let’s move,” motioned Nick beginning to walk down the hallway again.

The changelings followed him through many twists and turns until they finally stopped in front of a door labeled, “Captain’s Quarters”.

“Ok, this is it,” sighed Nick nervously, “The captain should be sleeping in here. All we have to do is replace him with you, Bellator, and then take him back to my quarters were we’ll be teleported back down to the castle.”

“Alright, let’s do thisss,” hissed one of the changeling guards.

“The door is locked with an eye scanner. Bellator, if I’m correct, you should have copied everything about the captain, hopefully even his eyes. All you have to do is stare into this screen and try not to blink,” instructed Nick while pointing towards the eye scanner right next to the door.

“Okay,” replied Bellator gruffly.

Bellator walked up to the door and peered into the dark scanner.

“Analyzing…” informed a feminine robotic voice, “Scan complete, access granted.”

“Yes,” huffed Bellator under his breath, “Although we changelings copy an individual’s irises exactly our eye color still stays the same… I didn’t know if that would affect it or not.”

“Apparently not,” replied Nick, “Now let’s go.”

The door that led into the captain’s quarters slid open and Nick and the other changelings slipped inside. The room was dark and it was hard to make out were the captain’s bed was.

“I-I can’t see anything,” whispered Nick as he stumbled around in the dark.

“Don’t worry, usss changelings have special eyesss that can see in the dark,” hissed one of the changelings somewhat creepily.

Nick listened as he heard one of the changelings that he thought was Bellator make his way across the room.

Suddenly he heard the captain jump awake and exclaim, “Who’s there!?”

“You,” replied Bellator with a small chuckle.

There was suddenly a loud thumping sound as Bellator slammed the captain’s head against one of the metal bed posts.

“Mission accomplished,” he sighed cantankerously, “Now get him back down to castle before somebody realizes there’s two of us.”

Two of the changeling guards walked over to the real captain and picked him up before lugged him out the door. Nick followed them and then they quickly made their way back to his living quarters unnoticed. Once they were all back in Nick’s room he flipped open his communicator and sent the signal down to Nicole that they wanted to be teleported back down to the Canterlot Castle. They only had to wait a couple of minutes before suddenly there was a flash of light and they were all magically back inside the castle.

Operation Revelation

Nick sat in a chair waiting for the sleep hours to end aboard the Atropos while everybody else gathered around the still unconscious captain. Besides Nick he was the only other human the ponies had ever seen in person. Even unconscious the captain still had a stern face and Nick knew that once he woke up he was going to start yelling his head off.

“Hey, Rarity, could you please unlatch the captain’s pistol from his belt and give it to me?” asked Nick still staring at the lifeless captain from where he was sitting.

“Why of course darling,” replied Rarity as she unfastened the gun holster from the captain’s belt and tossed it to Nick.

Nick caught the pistol and laid it down on the small table next to the chair he was sitting in. It had only been about fifty minutes since Nick and the others had teleported back down to the castle. The first thing Nick had done once they had all appeared back inside the castle was sit down in the closest chair and nearly pass out. It’s been about two weeks now since Nick had first come down to this planet and within that time he had had very little time to rest and almost no time to keep personal hygiene. He was starting to grow a little bit of a beard and he didn’t smell that great either. He just wanted this whole affair to end and move on.

Nick tiredly scanned the room as he waited for the captain to wake up. The mane six were all huddled around the unconscious captain and whispering about something. Celestia stood in the back of the room quietly talking with Queen Chrysalis. Nick could tell that whatever it was that they were talking about Chrysalis seemed to be annoyed. In the far left corner of the room sat the six changelings. Some of them were still in their human form while others had changed back into changelings the moment they had all returned to the castle. Shining Armor was nowhere to be seen, but Nick knew he was probably busy with all of his military stuff. As Nick watched this scene unfold he soon drifted off to sleep.

--Time passes--

“Get your damn dirty paws off of me!!!” shouted a voice that caused Nick to jump awake and almost fall out of his seat.

It was the captain, he had final awoken and some royal guards and changelings were all trying to hold him down.

“Let go of me right now or I’m kill you! I’ll kill you all!” exclaimed the captain thrusting his body forwards with all of his might nearly knocking all of the ponies off of him.

Nick grabbed for his gun and pointed it at the struggling captain.

“Don’t move or I’ll shoot!” ordered Nick as he quickly set the gun to bullets instead of laser.

The captain, who now had one of the changelings in a choking grip, suddenly stopped what he was doing and slowly turned to face Nick.

“You...” he hissed through his teeth as he narrowed his eyes angrily.

Nick stepped away from the chair he used to be sitting in and ordered the captain to sit in it. As the captain slowly made his way over to the chair Nick never took his eyes off of him. Nick could almost feel the anger and hatred seething underneath the captain’s skin as he took a seat. Two royal guards then fetched some rope and quickly tied up the captain very tightly.

“I should have guessed,” spat the captain as he stared at Nick, “But how did you get onboard the Atropos, much less my room? You know what, it doesn’t matter. All that matters to me right now is seeing you dead! Nobody commits treason on me and gets away with it!”

“Why are you doing this?” asked Celestia calmly.

The captain turned his head in her direction and smirked, “Why? Why what? Attacking you? Because your planet has so many valuable resources that we, the humans, need. Not to mention that you have six powerful element things that I’ve never seen the likes of before.”

“Okay, but why war? Instead we could negotiate and have peace,” persuaded Celestia hopingly.

The captain only chuckled and replied, “Negotiate with animals? I don’t think so! Besides, you’d never agree to my terms anyway…”

“Try me,” countered Celestia.

There was a moment of silence as the captain and Celestia stared at each other before he replied, “You see, this planet has the perfect atmospheric conditions to be inhabited by humans. Our sole mission pertains of only two things. One, chart this unexplored section of the universe, and two, find suitable planets for human colonization.”

Nick gasped, “And this planet… is perfect?”

“Yes it is, I was going to announce to the crew tomorrow that that is the true reason we’ve been waging war with this planet all along. So, unless the ruler of this place is planning to just hand over this planet to us then the war shall go on! And believe me Nick, it’s almost over because the only place we have left to conquer is this capital city!” answered the captain.

“That’s where you’re wrong!” countered Nick, “Why do you think we’ve brought you down here? We’re holding you hostage!”

“Don’t make me laugh,” exclaimed the captain, “Have you forgotten about the rule stating that if the captain dies or is presumed dead then the first officer instantly becomes the new captain?”

“No we haven’t, that’s why we’ve replaced you with a phony. Do you remember who knocked you out?” asked Nick with a smile.

“B-but there’s no way,” stuttered the captain, “I thought my eyes were just playing tricks on me, because the person who knocked me out was…me!”

“Exactly,” grinned Nick enjoying the captain’s concern.

Suddenly a small feminine voice proclaimed, “Sleep hours aboard the Atropos have ended, communications with the Atropos have been established.”

Nick knew that voice. It was Nichole, but where was she? He had never gotten her back after he had come back from the Atropos.

“Oh, uh… Here’s your techno gizmo thingy Nick,” remembered Applejack as she held Nichole out to Nick, “I kinda forgot to give it back to ya after y’all returned.”

“That’s okay,” replied Nick taking Nichole from Applejack, “Now let’s contact the Atropos and show them who we’ve got!”

Everybody waited anxiously as Nick ordered Nicole to make communication connections with the Atropos.

“Nick, this will never work. Why don’t you…” the captain was suddenly cut off as a lifelike hologram of Mark appeared in the room.

“This is the USS Atropos, your speaking with the Head of Communications,” reported Mark solemnly before realizing that it was Nick, “Nick, What did I tell you about contacting the Atropos! If somebody sees me speaking with you then…”

Mark was suddenly cut off as familiar voice exclaimed, “You there, who are you talking too!?”

Mark winced and replied, “It’s uh….. Well it’s…. Nick…”

“Let me speak with him,” ordered the voice angrily.

“Yes sir,” replied Mark.

The hologram of Mark suddenly changed to Bellator who was still impersonating the captain.

“Aw, shit…” huffed the real captain under his breath, “You imposter, once this is all over I’m going to have you killed for this!”

“Like you’ll have a chance,” ginned the phony captain maliciously, “It’s over! And there’s nothing you can do about it…”

Unable to contain his anger any longer the captain suddenly released a continuous string of the worst insults and threats Nick had ever heard. After a few minutes the captain finally calmed down and stopped struggling to break free. He just sat in the chair out of breath and red-faced.

“Okay,” hesitated Nick breaking the tense silence, “Bellator, I want you to connect me to the first officer.”

“Uh… yeah… okay,” replied Bellator still somewhat shocked by the captain’s sudden outburst.

The hologram of the phony captain suddenly changed to the first officer.

“First officer speaking, who is this?” asked the first officer.

There was no way; it couldn’t be. Was Nick really seeing what he thought he was seeing? Was Trent really the first officer?

“T-Trent, is that you?” asked Nick surprised.

“Yes, this is First Officer Trenton, and who is this?” inquired Trent.

“You know who I am,” replied Nick.

Trent suddenly did a double take as he realized who it was, “Nick, but how!? I just saw you last night; the captain was taking you to confinement.”

Nick chuckled about to respond, but before he could Rainbow Dash suddenly cut into the conversation.

“To bad for you that wasn’t the real captain!” cried Rainbow Dash jumping in front of the hologram, “It was a fake! We broke into your ship last night when you were all sleeping. How do you like that?! In your face!”

Rainbow Dash then stuck out her tongue and started making teasing sounds as Trent stared at her in surprise.

“What the heck Rainbow Dash!” exclaimed Nick quickly pulling her away from the still shocked hologram of Trent.

“Sorry Nick, but he deserved it,” snickered Rainbow Dash trying to hide a smile.

Nick only sighed as he turned to face Trent again, “When did you become the first officer? I never heard about this.”

“You shouldn’t have,” replied Trent, “I got promoted after you left. And what was that blue pony saying? You infiltrated us, but how?”

“Yes we did, and how we did it doesn’t matter, all that you need to know is that were holding the captain hostage,” replied Nick with a grin.

“No you’re not; I just spoke with the captain a couple of minutes ago,” smirked Trent.

“He’s a fake,” replied Nick turning Nicole to face the real captain who was still tied up in a chair, “This is the real one.”

“No way!” exclaimed Trent in astonishment, “It can’t be.”

“Well it is,” huffed the captain annoyed.

Trent quickly held down a small button on the wall next to him and ordered to see the captain at once. After a little while Bellator, still disguised as the captain, walked into Trent’s room.

“I’ve just been informed that you’re a fake! According to intergalactic law you will be imprisoned for life for impersonating a Starfleet officer,” announced Trent while pointing at Bellator.

“So, you finally figured me out…” sighed Bellator calmly, “About time too because I was beginning to get bored of this human form.”

Suddenly there was a flash of green fire as Bellator changed back into his changeling form.

After getting over the shock of Bellator suddenly changing into a black pony thing Trent turned to face Nick again and announced, “So, what do you want in turn for the captain?”

“I want you to end this war,” replied Nick.

Trent sighed before saying, “Listen, how about this-”

Trent was suddenly cut off as the captain screamed out, “STOP! Trent, the real reason I’ve been waging war with this planet is because it is the perfect planet for colonization. You can’t end the war now! Not when we’re so close! That’s why I’m giving you one last order… PUT INTO EFFECT OPERATION REVELATION! It doesn’t matter if I die too, just do it!!!”

At that moment a sudden flash of green lightning suddenly struck the captain causing him to fall limp in his seat.

I will never forget...

Nick could do nothing but watch in horror as the green flash of light struck the captain. He shook violently for about two seconds before falling lifelessly back into the chair.

“Captain!” exclaimed both Nick and Trent simultaneously.

Twilight, who was standing near the captain’s chair, quickly rushed over to him and felt for a pulse.

After a few moments of silence Twilight grimaced and said, “He’s dead…”

“Wait, what!? But he can’t be!” exclaimed Nick fearfully.

Scrabbling over to Nicole Nick quickly cut off communication connection with the Atropos before Trent could say anything.

“Oh no… Oh no! This is not good; this is not good at all!” cried Nick, “What happened? Who shot that lighting!?”

There was a moment of silence before Chrysalis replied, “It was me.”

Nick wildly turned to face the queen; his surprise turned to anger as he shouted, “Do you have any idea what you’ve just done!? You’ve just killed the captain, our only leverage! Not only that, but Trent is now the new captain. And to make it even worse the captain ordered an Operation Revelation before he died!”

Fluttershy suddenly burst into tears, remembering what Operation Revelation was. Applejack tried to comfort her, but to no avail.

“Listen, I didn’t mean to kill him,” explained the queen nervously, “I was only trying to subdue him. He was getting out of control.”

Nick stared blankly at Chrysalis before replying, “You’ve killed us all…”

--Meanwhile aboard the Atropos--

Trent stared blankly into space as he tried to comprehend what had just happened. He had just been trying to negotiate an agreement with Nick when suddenly the Captain just lost it and ordered an Operation Revelation. Then, in the middle of his crazed order he had suddenly been hit with what seemed to be a green lightning bolt.

“What the hell am I supposed to do…” wondered Trent as he continued to stare blankly.

He couldn’t stop thinking about the lightning that the Captain had been struck with before the communication had broken. Did it kill him? What had happened? Did the Captain really want an Operation Revelation? The word sent chills down Trent’s spine. Operation Revelation: complete planet extermination of all inhabitants.

Trent then turned to the black pony thing behind him and said, “Don’t even try to run. I’ve already called security.”

“Don’t worry,” replied the black creature, “I wassn’t going to try.”

Trent then stood up and began to pace his living quarters. He was now in charge of the Atropos, and his last order was to carry out an Operation Revelation. But Trent didn’t even know if the Captain was still alive, of course; it didn’t matter anyway because he had said to put the operation into affect even if he was still alive.

“Ugh,” sighed Trent in frustration as he continued to pace his quarters.

He knew that the Captain despised the ponies, but truthfully he didn’t have a problem with them. They seemed nice enough and were exceptionally intelligent. Not to mention the fact that if he issued the operation he’d have to live the rest of his life knowing that he had committed a planet sized scale genocide. But an order was an order and he knew that he had to obey.

At that moment the black insect like pony suddenly pounced on Trent knocking him to the floor.

“Gah!” exclaimed Trent in surprise and fear as he fell flat on his face, “What the hell are you doing!?”

“Did you really think that I would be dumb enough to just sit here and be taken away?” chuckled the black creature, “No, I have a plan. You see, all I have to do is kill you!”

“Wait, what!?!” exclaimed Trent as the black insect thing flipped him over onto his back.

“That’s right,” smiled the black creature fiendishly, “All I have to do is kill you and then take your place. I will be able to command all of these humans and completely destroy Equestria! Queen Chrysalis will be so proud of me, and Changelings will finally be able rule this entire planet!”

Trent couldn’t believe what he was hearing, and if he didn’t act fast he would be dead. Unfortunately, his pistol had fallen out of its holster when he had hit the ground. It had spun across the floor far out of reach.

“Any last wordsss?” hissed the black creature as he unsheathed his small sword and held the cold blade up to Trent’s bare neck.

--Canterlot Castle--

Nick kicked the chair of the dead captain with frustration, “It only takes about an hour to prepare Operation Revelation. That means we all only have about an hour longer to live! Damn you Chrysalis!”

“I’m ssorry, normally that spell would stun a pony! I guess it kills humans…” sighed the queen in despair.

Nick paced the floor restlessly as fluttershy began to sob once more. Rarity suddenly pulled up a red velvet chaise lounge before fainting onto it dramatically. Pinkie’s hair was flat and straight; she seemed to be in a deep depression. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Twilight were actually trying to come up with a plan, but just gave up after a while.

“There’s only one thing we can do…” pondered Celestia somberly, “We must use the Elements of Harmony to destroy the Atropos.”

Nick stopped dead in his tracks, stunned by what he had just heard. His stomach lurched as the word echoed in his mind, destroy the Atropos.

“B-but you can’t!” exclaimed Nick whipping around to face Celectia, “Do you have any idea how many people are on that ship!? Over 30,000 people, and some of them are my friends!”

“Okay, but do you have any idea how many ponies there are in Equestria?” countered Celestia somewhat irked.

“You can’t do this! There must be another way…” cried Nick desperately.

“There isn’t, and Nick, I really am truly sorry…” replied Celestia solemnly before turning to a royal guard and ordering him to retrieve the elements.

“No! You can’t” cried Nick in despair.

“I can and I will,” replied Celestia sternly.

Nick stared blankly at the princess for a while before turning abruptly and fleeing from the room, pushing anypony aside that was in his way. Nick could feel the tears welling up in his eyes as he ran aimlessly down the castle halls. He tried to push them back but to no avail. Nick could only think of a few other times that he had ever cried. He could usually push through something sad or tough assuring himself that everything was going to be okay, but not this time. All his friends and comrades aboard the Atropos were going to die, and he felt like it was all his fault! If only he had never crash landed on this confounded planet. If only he had been able to convince the captain about how good the ponies were. If only he had been able to stop the captain’s death. If only… if only… if only…

“Agh!” cried Nick in anguish as he grabbed fistfuls of his hair and fell to his knees in despair.

Nick sat there quietly for awhile as he tried to regain at least some control.

“There’s nothing that I can do,” sniffled Nick as he sat in the middle of an empty and unfamiliar hallway, “God, I need your help because there’s nothing that I can do…”

--Meanwhile aboard the Atropos--

Trent waited in horror as the cold blade pressed against his bare neck. Any moment now he was going to be dead.

“Goodbye…” hissed the black creature fiendishly.

Suddenly there was a loud zapping sound and the creature fell limply off of Trent.

“Looks like we arrived just in time,” sighed one of the two security guards standing in the doorway.

“Thanks, I owe you,” replied Trent standing up as he watched the guard switch his gun from laser back to bullets, “That was a nice shot.”

Trent looked down at the lifeless creature lying on the floor. It had a huge ugly burn mark on it back; the laser seemed to have even burned through its spine.

“Just doin’ my job,” replied the guard gruffly.

Trent sighed as he picked up his gun before turning and walking out the door. Now that that frightening experience was over he was going to have to carry out the final order the captain had given him. He didn’t want to do it, but he knew that it had to be done.

“All right, listen up!” shouted Trent as he entered the bridge, “The captain is dead. This means that I am now the captain. But, before the captain died, he ordered an Operation Revelation, and I plan to carry it out. So...”

Trent hesitated as he glanced around at all men on the bridge listening intently.

“…initiate the Operation!”

--Canterlot Castle--

Nick walked down the main hall leading into the room that he had just fled. He had calmed down but was still very sicken by what was about to happen.

“I’m back,” announced Nick opening the doors leading into the room, “I’m sorry I ran like that, I was overwhelmed.”

“It’s okay,” replied Twilight understandingly, “I know that this must be very heartbreaking for you.”

At that moment Shining Armor trotted into the room carrying a jewel encrusted box.

“A guard reported that you needed these you highness,” proclaimed Shining Armor placing the box at Celectia’s feet.

“Thank you,” replied Celestia as she opened the small box with her magic.

Nick watched in dismay and awe as she lifted the elements out of the box with her magic and gave them to the six ponies. Twilight placed a crown on her head as the other five all hung the elements around their necks.

“We’re ready,” declared Twilight austerely.

--USS Atropos--

“The Poison Pod is ready to be launched sir,” reported a crewman rigidly, “Just give the order and the pod will orbit the entire planet covering it in a deadly neurotoxin.”

Trent sat in the captain’s chair grimly. He really did not want to do this but it was an order, he couldn’t deny it.

Trent tried to stammer out the words “Launch Operation” but instead he ended up saying, “C-call Nick.”

“What? Why?” asked the crewman not expecting this order.

“Just do it!” ordered Trent harshly.

“Yes sir,” replied the crewman scrambling over to the communications panel of the bridge.

--Canterlot Castle: Royal Balcony--

Nick checked his watch. It had only been forty minutes since the captain had ordered the Operation Revelation, but if everybody on the ship had worked fast they probably had the pod ready by now. It didn’t take long to warm up the toxin. If the pod was ready, and if the Atropos was destroyed, then the poison might rain down on the planet.

“I wish we had never decided to investigate this planet!” thought Nick unhappily as he watched his six pony friends get into a position.

“Ready…” sighed Twilight closing her eyes, “GO!”

At that moment Nichole suddenly started ringing.

“It’s a call from the Atropos,” she announced.

“WAIT!” cried Nick as he watched to six ponies slowly start to ascend into the air, “I got a call from the Atropos!”

Nick quickly answered the call as Twilight and her friends dropped back down to the ground.

“Yes!?” exclaimed Nick not sure what to expect.

“This is Trent speaking,” replied a voice as Nick set the call to hologram.

“And…?” inquired Nick intently.

Celestia, Shining Armor, Twilight and her friends, the royal guards, Queen Chrysalis, and Nick all waited impatiently for what Trent was about to say.

“I’ve…Well I’ve…You see…”

“What!?” inquired Nick anxiously.

“I’m calling off the Operation. I just can’t do it…” sighed Trent, “I’ve never had anything against those little ponies, and I just can’t kill an entire planet without a good reason.”

Nick couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Trent was canceling the Operation. It was the most wonderful thing he had ever heard!

“YES!” cried Nick joyfully jumping up into the air.

All the ponies on the balcony were ecstatic. They were just as happy, if not more happy, then Nick.

“But wait…” declared Trent seriously, “There are a few conditions.”

Trent waited for everybody to calm down before he continued.

“One, I want you to hand over the elements immediately, and two, I want Nick to come up here and turn himself in for treason,” negotiated Trent sternly, “If you abide by these terms then I will release all of your cities and pull out my troops. Also, we will leave at once at never bother you again.”

Compared to complete planet extermination or the Atropos being destroyed these sounded like pretty good terms to Nick. Of course, he knew that Celestia would never hand over the Elements of Harmony willingly.

“I will turn myself in if it means no more bloodshed,” replied Nick honestly, “But you will have to consult with Celestia about the elements.”

Nick then handed Nicole over to Celestia who seemed eager to negotiate these terms.

“I will never give you the Elements of Harmony,” announced Celestia firmly, “We have no deal otherwise.”

Nick could tell that Trent was obviously shocked by this response. He could tell that Trent felt like he was being extremely generous to the ponies, but had just been rejected by their princess. Of course, Trent had thought that this was the ponies’ last hope because he didn’t know that they planned to destroy the Atropos.

“What!?” exclaimed Trent surprised, “You’re telling me that you’d rather have your entire planet killed then simply hand over the elements?”

“Wait, Trent, I don’t think you understand,” pronounced Nick calmly, “You don’t know this but the Atropos was about to be destroyed right before you called. So basically, you’re the ones in danger if you all don’t agree on something.”

“Destroy the Atropos?” gasped Trent surprised, “But how?”

“We were going to use the Elements of Harmony,” replied Rainbow Dash flying over.

Nick could tell that Trent was completely taken aback by this sudden turn of events. He let out a few gruff indistinguishable words before sighing in defeat.

“So…” Trent said at last, “It sounds like we either come to a compromise or both die.”

“Sounds about right,” replied Celestia unwaveringly.

A few minutes of silence lapsed as Trent pondered the serious matter. Then, realizing that he really didn’t have any other choice, finally gave in.

“Fine, we will pull out and leave at once, but only as long as Nick turns himself in immediately. Also, we will keep any resources that we have already taken from the planet. This is my final offer, is that understood!” huffed Trent determined.

Celestica mulled over this for a while before agreeing to the terms with a smile.

“I’m glad you agree,” sighed Trent, “I’ll begin removing troops now, and I’ll send down a hoverjet to pick up Nick.”

With that Trent disconnected from the communication link leaving everybody staring at nothing.

Nick felt a wave of relief wash over him as he realized that this entire ugly ordeal had finally come to an end. As he looked around the balcony he could tell that everypony else was just as happy as he was.

“This calls for an enormously huge super fantastic one-of-a-kind party!!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie with ecstatically.

Nick chuckled to himself as he made his way over to the edge of the balcony and took one last look at the world he was about to leave. It was a beautiful place, but he knew that he had to go. If it meant the end of the war, then he would do it without a second thought. Nick then turned, and with a smile, said goodbye to all of his pony friends.

“See ya,” waved Applejack, “I’m somewhat glad you crashed in my orchard, because, if you didn’t, we never would’ve been able to have met.”

Nick jumped as Pinkie suddenly appeared out of nowhere and hurtled into him with a hug.

“I’ll miss you,” she sniffled glassy-eyed before finally letting go.

As pinkie trotted back over to her friends Rainbow Dash flew up and said, “I’ll see you around Nick, and for the record, you’re pretty cool. By the way, be sure to call me anytime you want to have that race.”

“I will,” joked Nick as Rainbow Dash flew away and Rarity took her place.

“I still do say that you’re so called uniform is a crime against fashion, but I’m still glad that I had the chance to meet you,” smiled Rarity.

“Oh, yes…” added Fluttershy emerging from behind of Rarity, “At first I thought you were scary but now you’re not scary at all.”

Nick then quickly said his goodbyes to the five ponies as the hoverjet appeared over the horizon. But wait… where was Twilight? He had gotten a goodbye and said a goodbye to everypony but her.

“Where’s Twilight?” he asked scanning the castle balcony.

“I don’t know,” replied Rainbow Dash, “She was here just a minute ago.”

Nick really didn’t want to go without saying goodbye to her, but the hoverjet was almost above Canterlot now. Nick nodded to Celestia, Luna, and Shining Armor, who were standing off to the side as he savored his last few seconds in Equestria. Then, just as the hoverjet rumbled over the balcony Twilight suddenly came galloping out onto the balcony.

“Wait! Nick! I’m here.”

Nick smiled as Twilight ran up to him. Spike ran up as well, holding something in his claws.

“Before you go…” huffed Twilight out of breath, “I would like to give this to you.”

Spike handed Nick what he was carrying and Nick quickly realized that it was a book entitled, “The Magic of Friendship”.
“Thanks Twilight,” beamed Nick, “I’ll never forget any of you.”

“And we will never forget you either Nick,” replied Twilight.

At that moment a ladder suddenly dropped out of the hoverjet and somebody yelled for Nick to climb up. Nick climbed up the ladder and waved one last time through the hoverjet’s window as it glided away. The last thing Nick saw of Equestria was Celestia, Shining Armor, Spike and his six friends waving goodbye to him as the hoverjet flew out into space.

--15 minutes later: USS Atropos--

After Nick arrived onboard the Atropos he was immediately escorted by two burly guards to the main bridge where Captain Trent was waiting.

“Nick!” exclaimed Trent as he was shoved onto the bridge, “Long time no see. I’m glad you finally decided to do the right thing and turn yourself in.”

Nick just hung his head and said nothing, being sure not to make eye contact.

“Well, this entire war and your little escapade resulted in absolutely nothing,” announced Trent solemnly, “The only thing it accomplished was procuring a small amount of valuable resources, and getting out captain killed.”

Nick grimaced as Trent stood up and marched over to him.

“You used to be my friend Nick, one of my closest. But now… now I don’t know what to think,” spoke Trent.

There was a few moments of silence as Trent stared down at the planet through the viewing window.

“So… I guess you’re going to kill me?” asked Nick breaking the silence.

Trent turned and studied Nick very closely before replying, “No… I’m not…”

Nick looked up at this unexpected response, “Wait, what?”

“…No, I’m not going to kill you,” continued Trent, “I still like you too much. But did you know that there’s a second punishment for treason?”

Nick didn’t know what the punishment was, but he briefly remembered it being mentioned when he infiltrated the Atropos.
“W-what is it?” Nick finally stuttered.

Trent didn’t answer Nick’s question right away. Instead he said something completely different, disregarding the question Nick had just asked.

“We’re going to mark this planet down as a void planet,” spoke Trent, “That way other people won’t make the same mistake we did in the future. Besides, I think if we leave the ponies alone they will eventually evolve into a sophisticated race.”

Nick listened quietly as Trent continued to talk.

“Set course for the next solar system,” ordered Trent to the chief navigator, “And Nick, you will now be punished for treason.”
“But I still don’t know what it is,” replied Nick anxiously.

Trent stared once again down at the planet for awhile before replying, “The second punishment for treason is… memory erasure.”

Nick’s eyes widened when he heard this. He’d heard theories about this, but as far as he knew memory erasure had never been done before. It was science fiction.

“T-That’s not possible,” stuttered Nick, “It’s only a theory. It’s science fiction.”

“So you think,” replied Trent, “You see about five years ago memory erasure was, for the most part, perfected by the US government. Of course, it was kept top secret because of how powerful it was. The memory machine was surprisingly easy to make, the only down side was that the procedure was excruciatingly painful. Testers could not be put under anesthesia because the brain had to be active, or awake, for the procedure to work. The government knew how powerful this machine was, and knew that it should only be used if absolutely necessary. They eventually decided that it could be one of the punishments for treason, other than death. Soon every Starship was secretly equipped with one, and only the captains were informed about it. They were told to only use the machine if a man ever deserted or committed treason.”

Nick stood dumbfounded by what he had just heard. He couldn’t believe it. Trent was going to remove all of his memories about Equestria. Of course, at least it was better than getting killed.

“But wait…” spoke Nick suddenly, “You said that it was for the most part perfected. What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, you see,” answered Trent, “They were never able to actually pick and choose which memories to erase. The machine doesn’t remove select memories… It removes all memories.”

Nick turned pale at this reply. His entire life… would be gone! He wouldn’t remember his family, friends, or anything!

“You can’t do this!” cried Nick, “I’d rather die!”

“I’m sorry Nick, but this isn’t your decision,” sighed Trent, “I’d rather have you alive then dead.”

“NO! Please don’t!” shouted Nick, “I don’t want to forget EVERYTHING!”

Two guards suddenly grabbed onto Nick and held him securely. Nick tried to shake them off, but they were just too strong.
“Take him away,” ordered Trent, “Begin the procedure. Oh… and Nick? I really am sorry, but you brought this onto yourself.”

“NO!” screamed Nick going into a frenzy, “You can’t do this!”

The burly guards began to drag Nick off of the bridge.

“Trent… please, no…” sobbed Nick tearing up.

Nick’s sight of Trent was cut off as the sliding metal doors leading off the bridge shut in his face. His last hope… gone.
As the guards escorted Nick down the hall he sadly flipped open the book that Twilight had given him. Inside the first page was an inscription that read,

“Nick, although we will probably never see each other again, I just wanted you to know that friendship is something that can never be broken. Even if your memory gets foggy over the years, you will never forget what’s in your heart.”

Author's Note

Hello everyone! I know that I promised an alternate ending to this story a long while ago, but please don't get your hopes up because it most likely isn't going to happen. I've pretty much lost interest in this story and it's been so long that I forgot a lot of it too. Besides, I'm currently working on another story and believe me when I say I'm no multi-tasker. So, see ya, and peace off! xD

Prologue

“Sir, we are picking up strange readings from an uncharted planet,” stated a crewman studying a screen on the main bridge.

“What do you mean by strange readings?” asked the captain.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen energy readings like this before sir!”

“What? This ship has the capability to read and identify over 1,000 different types of energy waves and masses, yet you can’t tell me what it is?”

“No sir, I cannot. But whatever it is it could be dangerous… Although the planet does seem to be habitable.”

“What do you recommend we do?”

“Well, if we are going to investigate I believe that we should deploy a squad of F-56 starplanes to reconnoiter the planet.”

“That’s a good idea, call up patrol 3 and tell them to scout the planet and report anything they find.”

“Yes sir!”

--Atropos Docking Sector--

Nick and his patrol containing of their commander, three others, and himself all hurried down the hall towards the F-56 docking sector. Ever since he had launched on this exploration voyage he had not had much action. Of course, they had only been traveling for about three weeks. Nick didn’t usually get spacesick but when the ship had traveled through that wormhole a few days ago he had felt pretty nauseous. But now he could finally get some action; he was going to scout a new planet! Nick had never set foot on another planet before; well, except for Mars, but that shouldn’t count. All Starfleet enlistees had to go to the International Starbase located on Mars for boot camp and training. His thoughts were suddenly put on a hold as his patrol arrived at their five designated starplanes.

“All right listen up!” shouted their commander.

The commander was a burly man and always very strict when on an operation. When not on a mission he was a pretty nice guy and sometimes even talked to them as if they were close friends. He carried the standard sixth generation P99 Laser on him, as did they all. It was a nice gun; handheld laser technology was fairly new and to Nick’s knowledge this was the only pistol so far created with a laser attachment. Of course, you could always switch back to the old fashion bullet gun with the push of a button. They all stood at attention as the commander informed them of their mission and what they were supposed to do. Once finished they all climbed into their F-56 starplanes and fired them up. The slight hum of the engine calmed Nick as they all hovered off of the landing pads and shot out of the Atropos at about 8,000 mph. Nick wondered what lay ahead of him as they all slowly approached the strange and alien planet.