David leaned back in the pilots seat as the scientists climbed into the shuttle. Mark was next to him, in the copilots seat, going over a few preflight checks. Neither of them were pilots, but the shuttle's were designed to be extremely easy to fly, and both of them had some basic flight training. The countless hours he had spent in the simulators probably helped too.

"Everyone onboard?" Asked David as he looked behind him. He was quickly answered by a series of nods and yeses. "Alright then. This is your captain speaking, please put on your seatbelts and raise your tray tables." He heard a few laughs from the back as he sealed the cabin door. After a second, the computer confirmed the shuttle was ready, and he opened the comms channel.

"This is atmos shuttle alpha, requesting permission to launch."

"This is launch control, please state your launch code." Came the response.

"Launch code is alpha-alpha-seven-one"

"Launch permission granted for port three"

With a lurch, the shuttle was moved along its tracks until it was facing towards the rear of the ship. Then, it tipped forwards and slid into the launch tube. A thud shook the shuttle as a hatch slammed shut behind them, and another opened in front of them, revealing the blackness of space.

"Launch ready," stated the computer.

A large, red launch button appear on the screen in front of him. "Hold on" said David as he hammered the button, and the shuttle was launched from the ship, pushing everyone back into their seats. No longer under the influence of the Intrepid's artificial gravity, only the harnesses kept everyone in place.

As soon as they were far enough from the Intrepid, David set a course for the waypoint already marked on the map. The shuttle twisted around, and fired its thrusters with a quiet hiss, gently slowing. After about thirty seconds, the engines shut down, leaving them drifting. A counter informed them they would enter the atmosphere in fifteen minutes.

David undid his harness, and turned around in his seat, floating just above it. The scientists followed suite, although they seemed rather reluctant to let go of their armrests, with the exception of me particularly green looking scientist, who pushed himself to the bathroom.

"So, this is it," started Mark, who had turned around as well. "People are going to look into the history books, and see our names as the ones who led the first expedition to the third garden class planet ever discovered."

"Bet your mother would be proud" said David nonchalantly.

"I can see it now," continued Mark. "Private Mark Elmer and David Jacobson bravely volunteered-"

"We didn't volunteer, we were chosen." Pointed out David.

"Come on, can't you be fun for once"

David just rolled his eyes, and pulled himself back into his seat. The timer said there was still a bit of time left, so he decided to look at their landing site. He moved the image over to one of the larger screens, and began looking it over. There was no way he could get the shuttle into the thicker dark forest, and if he landed in the fields, the locals would have to be blind to miss him. There were a few cleanings big enough to land in to the west though, which he marked on the map. He was interrupted a few minutes later by Mark.

"Nice holster" complimented Mark, who had just floated next to him. "Where'd ya get it? It certainly isn't standard issue."

"This?" Asked David, removing the holster from his hip. "Belonged to my great grandfather." He had a ranch back on earth. It's real leather too."

"Nice, bet that would go for at least a hundred today. It's pretty good quality too, considering how old it is."

"Yeah, I like it over just magnetically attaching stuff. It won't fall off if your battery dies."

Their conversation was cut off as the computer chimed. David glanced down to the control panel. "Three minutes." He called out. "Everyone buckle up." The scientists began floating back to their seats, and the two marines strapped themselves in. Already, the shuttle was shifting as it began skim the outer atmosphere. The computer prepared the shuttle for atmospheric entry, locking the wings open with a click, and firing the thrusters one last time to stabilize them before retracting.

They began rocking noticeably as they fell deeper into the atmosphere, a red glow building in front of them. An airspeed indicator popped up as they plunged deeper still. The increasing deceleration pushed everyone into their harnesses, accompanied by fierce red flames, and a bone shaking rattle. The temperature in the cabin began to rise, the immense amount of heat seeping in.

After a minute, the shaking began to ease, and the flames dissipated, leaving a white shock cone. Outside the shuttle, the intakes opened, allowing air to flood into the engines. It was heated to thousands of degrees by the reactor, accelerating out the nozzles. The shuttle pulled up as its control surfaces bit the air, leaving it cruising miles above the ground. David looked at the map and checked their course, before lowering the throttle, flaring the airbrakes, and dropping the nose. Their speed and altitude dropped, leaving them just subsonic and skimming through the clouds towards their objective. The cloud formations seemed to tower around them, massive columns of wispy gas climbing into the air.

"Hey, look at that rainbow," said Mark, pointing at a flash of light that had just appeared throughout the whiteness.

David glanced up, spotting the almost incandescent glow. "Wow, yeah, I haven't seen one in years. You really only get them on earth." Replied David as he swung the shuttle towards it, marveling at its vivid colors as they grew closer.

"Wait, something seems off" Thought David out loud. "Is the rainbow-?"

David stopped mid-sentence as it hit him. You aren't supposed to be able to get closer to rainbows. He grabbed the manual controls, but it was too late. The shuttle smashed into it, the intakes sucking in volatile liquid rainbow, the intense heat immediately detonating it. The sudden shock damaged and misaligned dozens of intricate systems, overloading the reactor. It instantly shut down, venting excess plasma as quickly as it could.

Unfortunately, the right engine exploded much more violently than the left, throwing the shuttle into a flat spin. The scientists screamed as they were pushed against their seats, and several passed from the intense G-forces. David gripped the controls, knuckles white, doing his best to stabilize the shuttle, while Mark frantically tried to get something working. Alarms blared as they plunged earthward, and from a glance, they knew restarting the engines was out of the question.

"Dammit you piece of shit, pull up!" shouted David as he grappled with the controls.

"Comms are out!" Shouted Mark over the racket. "We're on our own!"

"Shit, just what we needed!"

The altimeter counted down so fast the first few numbers went by too quickly to see as they broke through the clouds, the ground now visible miles below. After what seemed like an eternity, the spin slowed, and with a gut wrenching lurch, the shuttle pulled into a glide. David quickly pointed the shuttle at one of the closer cleanings he had marked, and, with help from the computer, he carefully let the shuttle glide in. As their altitude dropped, he lowered the landing skids and flaps.

As the clearing grew closer, it soon became obvious that it wasn't big enough to land. Rocks and brush scattered the area, before ending in a small cliff. The two marines desperately searched for some way to land. Out of the corner of his eye, David spotted the reflection of light off of water. A small stream ran through the forest into the field, providing a opening just wide enough.

David dipped the nose, guiding the shuttle in between the trees. The rear skids skipped off the surface of the water, and David flared the airbrakes. For a second it seemed like they might land safely, but then the back of the shuttle struck a downed tree. They pitched forwards as they burst into the clearing, partially crushing another tree, before hitting the ground. The front skid immediately tore free, digging the nose into the turf. With a crunch, they struck a large rock, and the entire shuttle flipped, landing on its roof, before rolling over, coming to rest mostly upright against a tree only feet from the cliff. Several moans could be heard throughout the cabin, and by the smell of it, at least one of the scientists had vomited.

"Everyone alive?" Asked David. After a quick headcount, the answer was, fortunately yes, and David pried himself from his seat.

"Everyone put one environmental suits, I don't trust this thing to be airtight anymore."

The suit locker had survived the landing, along with their weapons, so all the scientists were suited up quickly enough, allowing them to dispose of some vomit soaked clothing. They turned towards the battered exit, eager to escape the cramped shuttle. Mark pulled open the inner door, only to find the outer one caved in. After a few kicks, it yielded, revealing the outside.

"Damn," said Mark as he looked at the trail of destruction behind them."That was pretty rough". A trench extended at least 75 meters, ploughing through various plants and shrubbery, leaving various components scattered, before ending at a large rock. A dozen meters farther, one of their wings was snapped off, embedded in the ground from their flip.

David stepped out beside him, and glanced at the shuttle.

"Well, looks like its totaled." he said, trying to lighten the mood. "nose caved in, wing missing, engines gutted. That'll increase our insurance rates."

Mark, turned to look at him, and while he couldn't see his face through the helmet, David was willing to bet he was not amused. David instead turned to the scientists, who were standing around the shuttle, poking at the wreckage or investigating some of the nearby plant life. Time to get them working, he though.

"Well, it's safe to assume we aren't getting the comms back up anytime soon, and even if we could, the Intrepid and Prometheus are over the horizon, and probably won't be back for at least six hours. Hopefully they'll see us, and send a rescue. In the meantime, I guess you scientists can poke around a bit, just don't get lost. Someone can try to work on the comms, get a radio up to send an S.O.S. In the meantime, the natives might have seen the crash, and if they come our way we might be in trouble."

After discussing how to best keep watch, it was decided that they would take turns watching the edge of the forest. David was chosen to go first, since the scope on his marksman rifle would be useful for keeping watch. He turned to the forest, started a two hour timer, and began heading north.

Hours Earlier

"Hey, Twilight, you fell asleep reading again"

"Wha-" mumbled Twilight as she groggily pulled herself from her desk, before being blinded by the morning sun streaming through the window.

"Oww, turn down the lights" a second later, the memories of last night came back to her. She looked over her desk, seeing a completed letter, along with several sketches of the night sky and the object she had seen. She quickly rolled them up and sealed them.

"Spike, I need you to send these to the princess. I saw something last night while you were asleep, and I think it might be important."

"OK, whatever," said spike as he grabbed the letter and incinerated it in magical flame.

Twilight immediately began pacing back and forth, awaiting a response. Whatever the object she had seen was, it didn't match anything she could find in her astronomy books. She hoped the princesses would be able to make something of it.

Just before crash

Rainbow Dash zipped through the sky, kicking a stray cloud that had wandered into the sky above Ponyville. Finally, she thought to herself, I can get some rest. She started flying to her napping cloud, but decided to check on the rainbow she had set up earlier first.

The rainbow was quite impressive, thought Rainbow Dash. The new airships they got at cloudsdale certainly helped, although they wouldn't have been able to get it this big without her assistance. She flew in closer, skimming inches from the glittering surface of the rainbow. She slowed to a hover next to it, and admired the vivid colors, contrasted by the white of the clouds in the distance. It's awful nice up here, she thought. Maybe I could set up a cloud here, relax, enjoy the view. She turned to go grab a nearby cloud, but stopped. her ear pricked up as a low rumbling sound filled the air, gradually getting louder. She spun around to face it, just as the rainbow exploded.

Something smacked her in the side of the head, leaving her seeing stars. At the same time, searing pain spread across her left wing and body, before fading to numbness. The world slipped away, the only thing she could feel was the air rushing past her. It feels like I'm flying, she thought. But something is wrong, what's wrong... Her wings reflexively snapped open as she realized what was going on.

She shook the stars from her head, and pulled herself back to consciousness. Opening her wings had spun her to the left, into a dizzying spiral. She tried to correct, but could barely feel her left wing. However, she was able to slow her rate of fall, and go into an unsteady glide. I must have lost a couple feathers, she thought, mind still fuzzy. Those will take ages to regrow, and I've got to do... something, something about flying.

She began flapping her wings, and leveled out, struggling to compensate for the asymmetrical lift and the seemingly constantly shifting ground. She turned towards what looked like Ponyville, and tried to pick up speed. Below her, she noticed Red Apple Acres. Hey, I don't remember Applejack having two barns, that doesn't seem right, she thought. She tried to keep going, but her injuries combined with overexertion had sapped her strength, and the world went black again as the ground rushed up to meet her.

Mark stood in the center of the clearing, observing the scientists. It had been less than an hour, and the scientists had already found something intresting to examine. His HUD showed several of the scientists had wandered out of view, into the forest, only visibe because of the names dsiplayed above their heads.

"Hey, John, you're a bit too far away," he called out over the suit intercom. John mumbled something in response, and turned back to the clearing. Mark looked around checking to make sure no one else had left the clearing. As he completed a full rotation, he noticed something on the shuttle. He looked closer, and saw fur and blood splattered next to the engine exhaust port. "Huh, looks like we crushed an alien squirrel. Oh well."

Author's Note

OK, that chapter wasn't too bad. Things are starting to kick off now though, and it only gets more exciting from here. I also did some reworking of the earlier chapters, although I could still use an editor. I'm gonna try to put out chapters as fast as I can, maybe around once a week. Also, feedback is appreciated, I'm trying to make this story good, even if it requires a complete rewrite.

Edit: Ok, minor rewrite because having mark just randomly shoot at stuff was mostly out of character. This version makes somewhat more sense.