"My God, I can't see a damned thing!" exclaimed the first mate on board the USS Vanguard. For the past 3 months it had been patrolling the North Sea after word of a German invasion into Scotland caught wind in London.
"It's nothing more than fog. What else do you expect? Flying polar bears?" Chief Navigator John Kentsworth dismissed the first mate. A few chuckles shot up among the officers on the bridge of the airship. Suddenly, a phone rang out.
"Lookout A, report!" a communications officer answered it. "Lookout A, reporting! There's some sort of.. light at 6 o'clock sir!"
All eyes turned to the rear view port on the bridge. Indeed, a glowing ball of light had manifested behind the airship.
"Wake the captain! All ahead full, call general quarters!" the first mate barked. Alarms roared across the ship as it lurched forward, trying to escape the light that grew towards the Vanguard.
"It's closing! 700 feet!" an officer exclaimed.
Rain suddenly came down upon the craft, ruining all visibility from the view ports. Updrafts and downdrafts jostled the ship around like a child's toy. The wind howled like icy wolves. A commanding figure, the captain, entered the bridge.
"Seal all external hatches, bring the lookouts in!" he ordered. The crew quickly followed.
"Still closing! 500 feet!"
"Drop half of the ballast, prepare oxygen masks." the captain, Captain Longview, commanded once more.
As the sand dropped from her tanks on both port and starboard sides the ship rose into the dark clouds above it. The winds were even more fierce here, throwing the airship as if it was a rag doll.
"The thing... it's still following! It's climbing right after us! 300 feet and closing!"
Oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling and much of the crew rushed to put them on. At this height her engines would stall because of so little oxygen to burn. And so they did, the ship slowed once more and the mass of energy was almost right on top of it.
"BRACE!" was the last thing heard before the Vanguard was sucked inside.
Twilight Sparkle looked out her bedroom window, bored. She had read every single book in this library thrice times, and was too tired from Pinkie's party last night to do anything. Twilight was about to head inside when she saw something catch her eye.
"Look, Spike! There's something in the sky!" she yelled. Spike quickly ran up to see what was going on.
"It's...it's on fire!" he exclaimed.
"It's heading straight for Ponyville!"
The pair hurried out into the town square to get a better view. Alright many had gathered to see this "comet". Many screamed and fled in terror once they saw where it was heading. Everypony ran in confusion, and many a pony was trampled. Twilight and Spike grabbed Twilight's journal, some rubies that Spike had stashed and rushed towards the outskirts of town.
"Is everyone alright?" a call came out from the smoke-filled bridge.
"Two unaccounted for!"
The smoke quickly cleared and the bridge was a mess. Broken cables and structural steel had fallen onto the floor, crumpled and bent. A gaping hole had been made on the port side with air rushing in. 3 engines were critically damaged and out of operation. Her rudder had been ripped to shreds.
"We're going down!" someone realized.
"Pull up, god dammit! Pull up!"
"Full throttle! Full throttle!"
The Vanguard slowly groaned as it rose into the air, clipping a bell tower and heading straight for Sweet Apple Acres.
"We're gonna hit the hill!"
"BRACE!" was shouted once more as the Vanguard slammed into the knoll at 60 miles an hour.
A plume of smoke and fire rose over the grassy hill as Twilight rushed to the scene along with Pinkie, who just before the crash was stuffing her face with some of Ditzy's muffins. The two ponies galloped up towards the crater where the Vanguard plowed into the ground. Her balloon was leaking helium into the air and the ship had broken into several fragments. The bridge was crushed like a pancake and all inside were killed. The only survivors were a handful of engineers from Engine No. 4.
Richard Stevenson hauled himself out from under a heavy truss beam. His clothes were covered with oil and grease, tattered and ripped. Cuts, scrapes and bruises adorned his body. His face was covered with soot. Richard let out a dull moan and used a pipe to help himself stand up.
Twilight slid down into the hole when suddenly she saw a figure standing there, on two legs. When smoke cleared she saw Richard, who probably looked like a horrible monster.
