Chapter 1
The vacuum of space.
A peaceful yet hostile environment, at a temperature of near-absolute zero, bathed with radiation and seething with all manner of particles, debris and energies nigh-undetectable. Above the blue sphere of the planet Gaia, it was only slightly more tolerable. The sheer lack of heat when not in the sun’s unrelenting, blinding whiteness was enough to kill off all but tardigrades, as was the radiation - nothing short of a being of great power would be able to survive in the black void.
And yet, orbiting the planet, alone and comatose, was a figure - a frozen, nearly dead humanoid. With its back to the planet, the frozen, vacuum-ravaged humanoid seemed to be looking out into space… if it wasn’t frozen and in extreme pain. A red glow surrounded the indistinct, half-frozen being, evidently protecting it from the radiation to some degree.
But this being was falling. Slowly at first, Gaia’s gravity took hold of it, and so it began to accelerate.
The being was gradually coming back to the world of the living as it began to plummet, the ice breaking off from its speed and the rapidly-building heat of atmospheric entry. Still indistinct from its vacuum-induced pitch blackness, the friction with the atmosphere continued to build up, the previously serene blue surroundings against space rapidly becoming a horrible, unbearable heat. The flames of atmospheric entry suddenly flared up to its maximum as the being exceeded the speed of sound. Realizing its situation, the being was awake and panicking, its muzzle open in a silent, ice-riddled scream, with no air to form one but just enough to send a smattering of ice crystals out, which then promptly evaporated in the bright red flames.
Reflexively, a red outline expanded around the being’s form before the heat could do much more damage - this outline did protect the creature from the hellfire, but it was a poorly-summoned, easily compromised shield. The magnetic field of the planet then came to the being’s attention as it entered the stratosphere - a punch in the face by all means apart from physical, a blinding, disorientingly sudden shock that caught the being by surprise from inside its own head.
The stifling pressure of the atmosphere was beginning to make itself known to the creature as well, a little bit of blood escaped its body as it adjusted to the presence of pressure and breathable air. Still, the energy shield was holding as strong as it could, making the being look very much like a brightly-glowing meteorite.
The wind direction and the gravity of the planet was altering the being’s course - instead of falling straight down, the energy-protected creature was cruising at supersonic speeds at an angle. Of course, such behavior was no less than expected of a falling object from that height.
Moving too fast to be able to see anything (and if its eyes even worked at this point), the being would have seen mountains rushing past, a curious city on one of the slopes speeding by far too quickly - a merciful green plain glided past which then gave way to a massive expanse of untouched, unbroken forest, which was coming alarmingly close to--
A bright red, glowing, burning object sped through the trees - literally, in the sense of trees being crushed, destroyed and burned by the object’s heat and speed. It tore through the shroud of ancient evergreen pines, ripping wood, rending earth and setting fire to one or two bits of wood, here and there. A small pond or several were instantly evaporated by the object’s heat as it continued its wrecking-ball path through the forest. It eventually came to a stop in a clearing - or at least, it made the clearing a lot bigger, thanks to its absurd momentum and sheer heat.
The red glow surrounding whatever it was still shone brightly - outshining burning magnesium. The crater that it made upon stopping was deep, a huge hole in the dark earth, with small fires burning the exposed roots, with smaller rocks melting into little puddles of lava.
“You think he’s alive?”
“...Hard to say. If that so-called meteorite was actually that - then I say we off this freak here and now.”
“Sir! You know we’ll get into trouble for that! We can’t just do that; what would we tell them?!”
“We tell them that we discovered a meteorite that disintegrated before we could recover it. That’d shut them up for at least a little bit.”
A smirk made itself known on the red stallion’s face as he chuckled. “Heh. Come to think of it, that is a little harsh. Even for us, right boys?” the stallion asked as he looked back to his small squad of 5 stallions.
“Sir… ugh, Sparks, we can’t just ASSUME this… whatever-it-is will live anyway,” the stallion’s second-in-command sighed.
Sparks, the only one without a mask or a helmet, chuckled again, running a hand through his cropped, military-cut brown mane. Outfitted in green-and-brown camo with several weapon holsters slung around his body, he’d seen far stranger things in his time as a mercenary. A weird creature that had evidently fallen from space was, in fact, one of the more mundane things he’d seen.
The five masked, similarly garbed stallions behind him were his personal squad - the elite soldiers of his organisation: Spectre Lance PMC. Currently hired by the Equestrian Royalty to both serve as a guard force and to revamp the training process of the former Royal Guards (who proved time and time again to be rather useless at their jobs).
Right now, their orders were to investigate the meteorite’s crash site, secure the area and report back, but it seemed that there were complications.
Instead of a meteorite, in the centre of the crater was a bipedal creature. Lying on its front, not seeming to move or even breathe, its body had been blackened and burned, with signs of damage and frostbite never really seen in anything before on that scale.
“Ya know what? Let me take a look myself. If it’s dead, we leave it here, got it?” Sparks asked - although it was as good as rhetorical, being an order. The second-in-command nodded, taking a moment to load his assault rifle.
Sparks put his own rifle down and hopped onto the side of the crater, then slid down it standing up, steadying himself with one arm. After he reached the bottom of the crater, he knelt down to inspect the creature’s body.
Covered in what seemed to be blackened but formerly red fur, the creature definitely wasn’t a pony of any kind - the length of the muzzle and the lack of any sign of a horn or wings made that obvious. What made it more obvious, however, was the presence of a distinctly non-equine tail - formerly bushy and long, but the heat of atmospheric entry must have blackened and damaged this creature’s fur by quite a margin.
While the mystery creature did have hands (ending with formerly sharp claws on the fingers) and normal-looking arms, its legs were very different; digitigrade, dog-like legs instead of legs ending in feet, with broken, battered and blackened claws on those as well. The creature had hair as well - which would have been a full head of black hair if not for the impact and the heat. Instead, clumps of hair were missing, and what wasn't burned off was left.
Sparks extended a hand and poked the creature’s shoulder. “Hey,” he tried, but with no response. The body just lay there, inert.
He tried again. “Hey! You alive?” Sparks said louder, shaking the creature’s body.
Again, there was no response.
Sparks shrugged and got to his feet, then turned away to leave. This, he thought, was a waste of time. The only thing left to do was to report back and say the meteorite disintegrated on arrival--
“...p-please”
Sparks was stopped in his tracks when he felt a hand grab his ankle. He turned, taken by surprise, and looked down at the creature behind him. Astoundingly, the creature was alive. Its eyes had opened - piercing, pure yellow eyes with white sclera, with which it looked up at Sparks. Somehow, its eyes hadn’t been damaged in the slightest. The creature spoke again, its arm trembling as its painful breaths came, with some kind of vapour leaving its mouth. “Please… help,” it said, its throat dry - the vapour that came out when it spoke was the smoke; its organs had literally burned.
Sparks was shocked beyond speech. To think that this creature - no, that anything could survive falling like that was incredible… and dangerous.
“Sir! What’s happening down there?” Asked one of Sparks’ men, who was standing on the edge of the crater. But he too stopped in his tracks, shocked as his CO was. “Wh--what the…”
“...Stand down, soldier. We've got a casualty - get Tourniquet over here,” Sparks finally said - he had recovered from the shock now. As the solder went off to get the team medic, Sparks knelt down again, facing the creature. “First of all… what are you? What’s your name?” he cautiously asked.
“R… Ryu--zaki,” the creature painfully breathed. A violent cough shook the poor creature - flecks of blood flew out as well as what seemed to be ash and dust. “A--a… kitsune…”
“So, you're a fox? No offence, but you're the weirdest-lookin’ fox I’ve ever seen,” Sparks shrugged jokingly. “C'mon, let’s get you outta here,” he chuckled, hefting the (surprisingly light) fox up onto his feet - even though Ryuzaki was as tall as he was, Sparks found the fox very light.
Jumping up from the bottom of the crater to the top in one bound, Sparks set the kitsune down on his front. The squad were taken aback, even intimidated by Ryu’s appearance. A soldier with a medical cross on his uniform came forward, then took off his helmet and mask.
Tourniquet was a brown-coloured, white-maned unicorn stallion, and acted as the team’s combat medic. He wordlessly got down onto one knee, experienced hands rapidly producing a syringe kit. Slightly apprehensive, he took out a syringe filled with orange-coloured viscous liquid, but then paused, looking down at the blackened, burned fox with a look of doubt and fear, his hand trembling.
“Tourniquet, heal him already!” Sparks commanded. The medic then got right to it; he stuck the needle into the fox’s shoulder, getting nearly no reaction. That concerned him, to say the least - it indicated extensive nerve damage when being stabbed with a syringe got no reaction.
However, it seemed to work well enough. The burned gashes and clumps of missing fur and hair were replaced and regrew rapidly - working exceedingly well on the kitsune. The healing gel, normally meant for gunshot wounds, broken limbs and lacerations, seemed to have an accelerated effect, one that was very welcome to the fox especially.
After a few seconds, he was looking marginally better. The clumps of fur that were missing had grown back in what was presumably the fox’s natural fur colour - a bright, pure red. His hair had also regrown, for some reason. A snapping sound was heard as his left leg’s bones apparently shifted back into place.
Suddenly gasping and coughing up ash, along with blood, the kitsune slowly got to his feet. The blackness from the atmospheric entry seemed to fall away as he took a step forward, revealing that he was wearing what apparently used to be black jeans and a plain, now soot-covered shirt - his clothing was in shreds but thankfully still holding together.
Blinking in the bright sunlight, the fox then noticed the soldiers, all with their rifles trained on him. He couldn't see their faces, but the scent of fear was overpoweringly strong. Eyes widened with apprehension, he raised both hands - he had no weapons and was in no state to fight at all, let alone fend off armed soldiers.
“Squad! Stand down,” Sparks commanded, finally speaking. His men looked in his direction in confusion, but followed the order nonetheless.
He then sighed, scratching his head. “We weren't ordered to eliminate anything or anyone - only to report back what we found. I know we didn't expect a fox to have been that meteor, but we can't just kill him!” Sparks then turned to the fox. “I’m sorry. My men can be trigger-happy at the worst times,” he said. “My name is Commander Sparks; Head of Spectre Lance PMC and Canterlot Defence - what was yours, again?”
“R...Ryuzaki,” the fox replied, looking downwards. His hands shook, ears twitching - he was scared, if nothing else.
Sparks nodded. “Okay. Uh, my squad and I were ordered to investigate the damage caused… we all thought you were a meteor at first.”
“S-sorry. I don’t remember what happened,” Ryuzaki apologized, putting a hand over one of the regrown patches of fur on his arm.
“I’m sure it ain't your fault. We were told to bring back whatever we found for inspection, so… it’d be better if you comply - we don’t wanna come back empty-handed,” Sparks reassured the kitsune. He was telling the truth, of course, but it’d be extremely embarrassing if he and his team came back with nothing to present.
“...Okay. Does this mean I’m under… under arrest?”
“Nah, you're not - we ain't cops, as you might’a guessed,” Sparks chuckled. “Seriously though, we’re not gonna hurt you,” he said. The military stallion then turned to the medic. “Tourniquet, teleport us back to Canterlot.”
“Sir,” the brown unicorn saluted. A white glow surrounded his horn as he closed his eyes. The magic glow then enveloped the rest of the group, Ryu included. He looked around, unnerved by the magic - sure, he could teleport, but of course, he wouldn’t be trusted to obediently go to wherever they wanted him - even if they told him were it was.
“Preparing for teleport, Sir!” Tourniquet suddenly said. At that, the entire group disappeared with a flash of white light, leaving no trace of them being there in the first place - apart from Ryuzaki’s crater, of course.
