Spirits and Stones

Dalrion waved his hand of the pulsing rune. With only a small psychic encouragement the wraithbone door elevated up without a sound. Crouching down slightly to let his helmeted head pass through the doorway, he passed into one of the main chambers of the Craftworld.

“Please Dalrion, take a seat.” Meneria welcomed the bonesinger into the court. She was already seated along side Arrendil, the autarch that would be accompanying her on her mission. They were discussing the plans long before Dalrion arrived, now they only had to fill him in on what was going on.

“You summoned me?” Dalrion took he seat, opposite both the warlock and the autarch. In between them was a large, circular table with holograms and diagrams relvent to the operation.

“Yes, your skills are needed in a search and rescue operation that will be conducted shorty.” Arrendil answered, fiddling with his gloved fingers in boredom. The autarch was tall and thin even for a eldar, and wasn't known for sitting around when he could be somewhere useful.

“What skills could a humble bonesinger like myself offer in a warzone?”

“The operation requires you to help us enter a dying craftworld.” Meneria began, casting several runes into the air and letting them orbit around her head gracefully. “The craftworld has long been deserted, probably crashed shortly after The Fall but recently, something has disturbed it dreamless slumber and reactivated the infinity circuit. It is imperative that we retrieve the lost souls of our kin before they waste away.”

“Meneria and I have agree to the responsibility of undertaking this task. A spiritseer has already agree to harvest the souls off the infinity circuit but your services are required to reactivate the webway portal inside the craftworld so the deed may be done.”

“I understand, but is the craftworld in any danger?” Darion asked. The bonesinger was not a capable fighter at all and would prefer staying out of any warzones that could claim the lives of many hardened warriors. Meneria closed her eyes and focussed on the runes around her, trying to get some foresight on the planet's fate.

“Somehow the planet has stayed off the radar to most of the universe, it is located on the eastern fringe so it is well out of the reach of the Mon-Keigh. The foolish Tau Empire might find a interest in it but the planet is well out of their empire's boarders.” Arrendil explained, idly waiting for Meneria to finish. After a few moments, her eyes shortly opened, “Any luck?”

“None, the lifeforms on the planet must be frequent psykers and due to near constant physic disruptions, it is difficult to predict the planet's fate.”

Darion's ears pricked, “The planet's lifeforms are psykers?”

“probably, the cause of this ability is unknown but is of no interest to us, the lifeforms are not hostile and will likely step aside when we arrive.” Arrendil's hand crunched into a fist, venting some anger of the lack of any fighting to be had.

“How can you be sure of this? If the planet's lifeforms are psykers then they might be affiliated with... the dark gods of chaos...” Darion voiced his primary concern, fighting a battle of the body was one thing, but it was another thing to fight in the mind.

“According to the rangers and the striking scorpion squad that already are planetside, the planet's lifeforms are harmless, with no indication to being cultists.” Meneria reassured, having already taking precautions to assure that the planet had no link to any of the dark gods, especially to She who thirsts... if that was the case, Meneria would see that each and every one of the planets creatures were annihilated. It was a sacred duty for any Eldar to fight the one that destroyed their own mighty empire, but many servants of slaanesh had already met their end on the tip of Meneria's blade.

“Very well, when do we leave for this planet?”

“Soon, very soon...”

****

Several million light years away...

“This sucks.” Scootaloo kicked a stone with her hoof. It gentle rolled it way along the ground and plopped into the cool pool of water.

“Come on Scootaloo, just try it again.” Apple bloom said, they had just finished another failed attempt at getting their cutie marks, and skipping stones over the water was one of the many ways Apple Bloom used to brainstorm ideas. Both crusaders agreed to join her, but Scootaloo was still disappointed that her idea hadn't gone to plan.

Scootaloo grumbled “Fine...” as she picked up another rock, remembering Applebloom's advice about getting the stone to actually skip across the water. She moved her hoof back to throw it and eyed the other end of the pond, her target was to get the stone to get to the other end without it sinking.

The stone left the filly's hoof and it did indeed skip its way across the water. All three fillies watched with eyes wide as the stone hopped its way over the water. It reached the reeds that bordered the pool's edge and Scootaloo almost let out a cheer of victory.

Until the stone hit something with a metallic thud.

“OH COME ON!” Sweetie Belle shouted on Scoot's behalf. Scootaloo was grumbling something and Sweetie had already shot off to get more throwable stones from the rock bed. Leaving Applebloom to ponder what the hay the stone hit. Did somepony dump something metal into the pond?

She wasn't left thinking for long. She eyed the large mossy rock the stone impacted, she could of swore it wasn't there before, but rocks couldn't move on their own. With curiosity driving her closer, she strolled on the other end of the pond to investigate.

As she got closer, it turned out the rock wasn't actually a rock. But some sort of metal that was painted green. The front (Or what she assumed was the front) had a golden symbol on the top as well as several red gems encrusted around the sides. A black panel was engraved into the front with two pieces of clouded red glass that glowed lightly in the sunlight.

She attempted to pick it up to take home with her, but the unthinkable happened. The thing rocked back and splashed deeper into the pool, eluding her touch. Soon after, something else began to peak out the water. A black barrel with some more gems and some sort of scope on the top was pointed towards her.

“Hey Apple Bloom, I've got more stones!” Sweetie called across the pond, holding more stones than her shaky magical grip could hold.

“Comin'...” She shouted back, taking one last look into the water as the object retreated back into the depths. Normally the water was clear in the Ponyville pond, but today it seemed like the water was shrouded so she couldn't see into it. Such a shame, she wanted to see what that thing was, for it wasn't something she'd seen before. After all, she might be able to get a cutie mark out of it. Making a mental note to visit again later to investigate further, she walked away to be with her friends.

She had no idea how close her death was...

****

Later that evening...

“We're almost where I saw the thing!” Apple Bloom reassured, tugging along her older sister with her. Applejack had never seen a fish like her sister described, with gems and almost metal like skin it sounded more like more like armour than a living thing.

“Are ya sure you saw somethin' Bloom? Maybe it was just you're imagination.” Applejack theorised, much to her little sister dismay.

“I'm tellin' ya I saw something. Look over there, that's were I saw it!” she pointed her hoof over to the reeds that Scootaloo's stone unfortunately didn't make it passed. Applejack sauntered over to the reeds and looked in.

“I don't see anything...”

“Oh, ya not lookin' hard enough!” Apple Bloom stood next to her sister and looked at where she saw the creature. Nothing was there and the near sunset wasn't providing enough light to penetrate the water.

Apple Bloom felt her sister's hoof tap against her back. “Don't worry about it, it was probably nothin', come on, Granny's making some of her famous apple fritters for desert tonight.” Apple Bloom sat down, wanting to look into the water for a bit in case the creature came back. Applejack shrugged it off, leaving her sister alone for a bit and walked ahead.

Once Applejack was gone, Apple Bloom hear a familiar splashing sound. Seeing what gem covered thing resurface again, it directed the two blood red indents in the front of the helm to face her. Next the helm moved closer towards her, exposing more and more of the thing. The thing didn't stop though, a thin torso and long arms grasping strange tools emerged, standing on two legs and taking long strides towards her.

The creature towered over her, she only made it to what she assumed was knee cap height. It looked down at her imposingly and pointed the long sabre towards her, “You will forget about me, or you will die...” It's croaky voice warned. The teeth on the long sword it held began spinning and wining for added effect.

“Are ya'll mad that Scootaloo hit ya on the head with a rock, I'm sure she's sorry, she didn't mean it, honest!” Apple Bloom cried. The creature lowered the sword and raised the other weapon, aiming for the space between her front legs. In a flash of light, a small disc shot out the barrel and landed on the ground between her legs. She let out a yelp of pain as a tiny shard of the disc scrapped her leg, it began bleeding and felt increasing numb.

“You will leave, never return nor speak any word of me, or you'll die...” it warned again, lowering the weapon back to its side and slowly turned to walk back into the depths of the water.

“Wait!” Apple Bloom cried out, the creature stopped but gave no indication it was listening. “What are ya? I've never seen anything like ya before.”

“A creature like you doesn't deserve to hear the name of my race, but I assure you, I'm not of your world.” it replied, then without another word it descended back into the watery depths.

“Apple Bloom, who ya takin' to?” She heard Applejack asked off in the distance. Quickly panicking to find an good answer, she went with her gut instinct. It wasn't a good idea to lie to the element of honesty, but between death or lying, she went with the second option.

“Myself...” she gave a nervous chucked as she felt the creature in the water eyeing her...

****

“You all did great, but don't forget to keep on practising for next week.” Twilight ushered the three fillies out the door of her castle. They had just finished their weekly 'Twilight Time' and were making good progress under her teachings. However one of their mis-adventures didn't go unnoticed by Twilight when  “Wait just one second Apple Bloom, can I talk with you in private?” she asked just before the filly escaped the castle.

Apple Bloom nodded her head and Twilight walked her away from the door so they couldn't be overheard. “So, Apple Bloom, I was talking to Applejack and she mentioned that you thought you saw something in the Ponyville Pond, now her description was a bit vague but from what I can tell their isn't any gem covered creatures in that pond.”

“Oh...t-that? It's nothing really. Just my imagination.” The filly gave a nervous chuckle, trying her best to defuse the topic quickly.

   “Oh, are you sure? I was very interested to hear about it.” Twilight almost sounded disappointed, like the inner scholar inside her just died a little.

Apple Bloom began examining the room around her, looking for anything out of place. “Can ya keep a secret?” she asked quietly, shuffling closer. Twilight nodded and also began looking around curiously. “It was an alien.” she exclaimed.

“An alien?” Twilight rose an eyebrow, sounding sceptical.

“Yep, it told me it was from another world.”

“Are you sure? Well, maybe you could introduce me to your alien friend, after all I am a princess and should give him a proper Equestrian welcome.” She smiled confidently, pretty sure that it was indeed just Bloom's imagination. After all, aliens aren't real, or that's what she thought.

“No! Ya can't, if he found out I told ya'll any of this he'll kill me!” she cried, snapping Twilight back.

“He said what!” Twilight gasped, death threats were rare in Equestria, especially if the threatened is a filly. She couldn't believe that Bloom would imagine a alien that would threaten to kill her, crushing any thought that the filly was just getting carried away in her imagination.

Bloom quickly became sheepish, knowing the severity of that kind of threat and that she just brought more attention to the alien that clearly wanted to be alone. “He said, if I told anypony about him he'd kill me...” she mumbled. “Does that mean, he's gonna get me now?”

“No Apple Bloom, if he is threatening anypony with something like that, he is not welcome in Equestria.”

“But how will you stop him, he's big and scary, with weapons that really really hurt.” she warned, holding out her hoof and showing Twilight the scar left by the alien's weapon.

“Don't worry, I'll contact the princesses and talk to this alien myself, I won't mention your name though.” she ruffled the filly's hair to comfort her.

“Thanks Twi', but please be careful. He's dangerous and there might be more than one.”

****

Twilight walked with cautious steps. Hoping to make her stumbling onto this alien more natural and therefore making it completely accidental. She was feeling a little nervous, this was the first time Equestria had ever encounter from beyond the stars, and from the sound of it they weren't too friendly.

A part of her was still sceptical, it wouldn't be the first time Apple Bloom's imagination ran wild and why would an alien from another world hide in a pond? Unless it can only survive in water, but that wouldn't make sense either.

She stopped thinking about it, otherwise she ran the risk of a migraine. Aliens just confused her, she get her answers when she made friends with the alien or force answers from it using her title of princess. So long as the aliens were on Equestria they'd follow Equestria's laws.

Reaching the Ponyville Pond, she quickly took note of each leaf, reed and lily blossom and compared it against her memory. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she checked, then triple checked.

Each time she looked, nothing surprised her or struck as if it was out of place. There was nothing alien about the pond. It was normal.

Sighing in annoyance and a little bit of disappointment, she sat herself next to the water. Looking into the murky depths and at her reflection, she levitated over some stones from the rock bed to be in front of her.

Idly skipping the stones in the water, she waited around for a while to see what would happen. It was probably hiding from her, Apple Bloom spotting it as dumb luck and it was just irritated that its camouflage was seen through.

As her final stone splashed into the water, something caught her attention. A whirling sound had begun off in the trees and birds had already flapped away to safety. She paid it no mind at first, but the more she thought about it the more strange the sound became. Then it dawned on her that it was a sound that she'd never heard before, cursing herself for not realising it sooner she went to investigate.

She stood up and galloped towards the sound. If the alien was trying to stay hidden then the whirling noise wasn't helping it stay unnoticed. When she got to the trees she'd noticed a path had been carved through the trees, though no remains were scattered on the ground.

Following the cut out path, she noticed how deep it when into the forest. While the forest was no Everfree, it was still thicker than most other forests in the region. Thinking about it she quickly began noticing something about the woods around her.

She never paid any attention to it before. These forests didn't even have names unlike the Everfree and the only time they were visited by multiple ponies was the running of the leaves that happened yearly, and even then the woods she was in were only sparely visited. Perhaps the alien had been around for longer than she thought, hiding and watching them.

She soon caught up to the alien. The thing was just as it was described. Tall, imposing and shrouded itself in fear. It was cutting away the trees, leaving a larger path than necessary.

Soon it reached a clearing, though it didn't look natural and more like it was cut out by similar techniques. The alien Twilight was following entered the clearing and a dozen more of the same aliens marched out the trees surrounding it, one resurfacing only a few metres away from where she was standing.

They talked in hushed tones, most of their attention focused on a large white arch that was twice the height of the aliens. One of the aliens stepped towards the arch, outstreching a large fist that was unique to that alien.

It ran the glove over some of the pulsing gems. As the last gem was touched, Twilight felt the ground shake under her hooves. A spark of light erupted from the arch and a tear in the fabric of the universe opened. Strange energies leaked out, burning away the vines that had wrapped around the sides of the arch in a blaze of white fire.

After a few minutes in silence, three figures walked out of the portal and began to survey their surroundings. The three figures were followed by many more figures and strange machines that walked on two legs. The figure in the center, rose it hand and strange symbols began to orbit her head as she caressed the air.

While Twilight was memorized by the strange figure, one of the green figures approached from behind and grabbed her. Despite all her kicks and struggles, the alien kept a hold on her and suppressed her wings and horn, preventing her escape.

"What should be done to this one?"