Commander Krr’zal paced the bridge of his Corvette, Bloodlust, as he waited for the ship to come out of its jump. As Krr’zal’s claws clacking on the polished metal floor and the angelic sound of typing on consoles was the only thing to be heard on the entire bridge, he looked around at his bridge crew. The intership comm system was manned by Lieutenant Ob, who was doing a system check at the moment; at the weapons console sat Major Morr, who looked calm and passively stoic as ever.
Navigation was the domain of Lieutenant Kessedra, who was currently sprawled over her personal effects, which completely covered her console.
Before Krr’zal could reprimand her for sleeping on duty, Gres called him over to the master communications console. Giving a weary sigh, he walked over to his Communications Officer, who was also the ship’s Intelligence Officer. Because of this second fact, she was the least-liked crewmember aboard the starship, especially by the Commander. As he towered over her slender frame and looked at the display, he saw that someone on board was waking an unauthorized communication back to the Galactic Core Cluster.
What was most worrying was what the messages were about.
“Engines set. Six cyclics until detonation.”
“Very good. You have served the cause well, die an honorable death, your sacrifice will not be forgotten.”
As Krr’zal watched, another message was sent.
“Thank you. May you complete your objective. Morr, out.”
As soon as the Commander read that last part, he drew back in fury and turned to Major Morr at the weapons console and drew his sidearm, but saw that the Major had already taken out his own and had it levelled directly at Krr’zal’s head.
“Morr you traitor!” Krr’zal roared, “What did you do? What did you do to the engines?!”
As the entire bridge crew turned to look at their Commander being held at gunpoint, the Major simply smiled and said, “What I had to do. Don’t worry, Commander, you won’t be able to stop it in time, so don’t even try. As for all the rest of you,” His gaze swept the other Officers, “I don’t expect you to-”
SHREEEW!
The blast from Commander Krr’zal’s weapon screamed as it seared through Morr's arm and caused it to fall to the floor, along with the gun he had been holding. Krr’zal had finished aiming his sidearm at the Major while he had been busy with his address to the crew, and with one more screaming shot, he fired straight through his ex-weapons specialist’s head.
Tapping his communicator, Krr’zal got hold of the engine room, the fury and desperation clear in his voice.
“Verder! Shut down the engines! Now! Morr’s sabotaged them somehow and they’re set to blow in less than two cyclics! I just tried doing it remotely, but he’s disabled our access from the bridge!”
“What?! Why would the Major do something like that?” the chief engineer stammered back.
“Because he wanted to destroy the ship, you fool, now get those engines shut down!”
“Y-yes sir! Right away sir!”
Turning back to the remainder of his bridge crew, the Commander spoke in a solemn tone.
“In one cyclic, we’ll either all be dead, or the engines will shut down, causing us to be yanked out of our jump. If the latter happens to take place, I want everyone braced for the turbulence and ready to deal with damage the moment we drop back into regular space.”
As his bridge crew all acknowledged the order, Krr’zal strode over to his station and had one last thought. He hoped they would survive the ordeal and be able to call for help. After that, everyone on the ship was thrown forward as the Bloodlust’s warp jump was unexpectedly cut short and the ship entered regular space.
Shaking his head to clear his vision, Krr’zal saw looked at the display on the main monitor and saw that they had exited the jump over the green-blue of a mid-sized, rocky planet. He was about to utter how thankful he was that they hadn’t been vaporized, when the rear of the ship exploded, and everything descended into chaos.
“Damage report!”
“We’ve taken serious damage from the engines. Reactor’s offline too. Auxiliary power’s only getting to 46% of the ship’s systems, and we’re venting off the starboard side. It’s pushing us towards the planet’s surface,” Kessedra replied, completely awake now.
“Aaargh! How can this day get any worse?” Krr’zal said, eyes full of fire.
“Well sir, I’ve got some good news, the atmosphere is breathable and pressurized enough for us to survive,” Gres called out, looking up from her display.
“Great, just what we need. If we survive the crash, we’ll be able to starve to death on the surface,” Krr’zal muttered.
As his ship rocketed down towards the planet below, spewing green-white flames and picking up speed from the gravity, Krr’zal simply stood there, carefully watching the various displays, and waited for the time the Bloodlust had left to come to an end.
***
Applejack opened her eyes as she heard the farm’s rooster start to crow. Stretching, yawning, and getting up from her bed, she walked over to the bathroom and began to brush her teeth. Looking out the window, she saw a bright spot in the sky. Only the size of a pinprick, she dismissed it as a star that was still visible; the sun had still barely cleared the horizon.
Downstairs in the kitchen, she met Granny Smith and Big Mac, the former making herself a cup of coffee, while the latter spread jam on toast.
“Mornin’ ya’ll,” Applejack yawned.
“Well a-good mornin’ to you too,” Granny Smith replied cheerfully.
“Hey Big Mac, have you seen Applebloom yet? Do ya know if she’s up yet?” Applejack asked.
“Nope.”
“Dagnabit,” the orange mare muttered to herself as she made her way back up the stairs and down the hall to her sister’s room. Peeking inside, she saw her little sister already awake and staring out the window.
“Applebloom! What’re ya still doin’ up here? C’mon downstairs fer breakfast, we gotta start our chores soon!” Applejack said sternly, walking into her sister’s room. However, Applebloom didn’t hear a word she had said and instead asked, “Hey Applejack, what is that? Is it a fallin’ star?” Applejack walked over to stand by her sister and looked out at the object she was pointing at.
It was the same bright spot that had caught Applejack’s attention earlier, however it was quite a bit lower in the sky now and was the size of a housefly.
“I-uh, I’m not sure, sugarcube,” she replied faintly.
As the two sisters watched, the bright spot grew to the size of a Bit, then an apple, then a watermelon.
Applejack had a sudden, incredibly bad feeling about this.
“EVERYPONY GET DOWN!” she yelled at the top of her lungs as the object increased in size from that of a beach ball to what seemed like the size of Ponyville in half a second and soared over the apple farm in a rush of wind. The only sound to be heard was that of the sudden, hurricane-force winds outside, then a second later the whole world exploded.
A thunderclap that sounded like the entirety of Equestria being torn in half rang out, shattering the windows in the house, including the one the two sisters had been standing next to a moment ago, and everything shook like an earthquake for several long minutes. During that time, several powerful aftershocks could be felt, and Applejack was surprised that their house hadn’t been obliterated yet.
When the shaking finally ceased, Applejack lifted her head, opened her eyes, and looked around her sister’s room.
There was nothing that hadn’t been broken. Most of the smaller items had been pulverized, while larger things like Applebloom’s bed had lost its blankets and mattress, and had snapped in half,
As Applebloom scrambled out from under Applejack, who had thrown herself on top of the little filly to protect her, she saw the state of carnage her room was in and began to cry. Applejack hugged her little sister close and whispered, “Shh, shh, now, now, don’t ‘chu cry, sugarcube. You’re all right now, you’re all right. You’re safe with me.”
***
Ponyville was in chaos.
Every building in town had been affected by the catastrophic event in some way, and everypony was striving to get Twilight’s attention.
The most predominant question everyone was asking was: What the buck just happened?!
As Twilight was trying to keep everypony under control (no one was paying any attention to Mayor Mare at the moment), her friends arrived, bringing most of their households with them. Applejack, Big Mac, Granny Smith, Applebloom and Winona came first, followed closely by Rarity, Sweetie Belle and Opal, Pinkie Pie, Gummy and the Cakes, Fluttershy and just about every animal within a ten-mile radius, and finally Rainbow Dash, who was carrying Tank in her hooves and an unconscious Scootaloo on her back.
As Rarity approached Twilight, she whispered just loud enough to be heard over the crowd, “What should we tell everypony to calm them down?”
Without answering, Twilight shoved her friends and their families into her castle and quickly slammed the door shut on everyone else gathered outside, before falling to the ground in a heap.
Applejack took it upon herself to answer the white mare’s question.
“We gotta tell ‘em the truth. It’s only right,” leaning over to Twilight she whispered, “Uh, what is the truth?”
Standin up with a sudden vigour, Twilight said, “What all of you just felt and experienced was a meteorite.”
“A meaty-whatnow?” Sweetie Belle asked, confused.
“A meteorite. It’s an asteroid that impacts on the ground and isn’t consumed when it begins burning up as it enters our atmosphere.” The rest of the mane six simply looked expectantly at Spike, who had stood quietly beside Twilight the whole time and now sighed and explained, “It’s a big rock that fell from space.”
“Oooooohhh,” the group said in unison.
“Well, um, what should we do about it? I mean, only if you girls want to do something, that is…” Fluttershy asked in a quiet mutter.
“Well, we’ll probably have to go find it to contain any fires it may have started, and help anypony else outside of Ponyville that was affected. It was huge, and probably caused a lot more damage than what we’ve seen,” Twilight explained.
“But what about everyone here?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking uncertainly at the unconscious Scootaloo.
“Well, leave them in the castle. Starlight and Spike can look after them until we get back. As for everypony outside, it’s not likely the meteorite’s going to do much more, so they might as well start working on cleaning up and fixing the town.”
Calling into the castle for Starlight Glimmer, she soon appeared at the balcony overlooking the main entrance, and Twilight asked, “Starlight, I have to go and find the meteor, and my friends are coming with me. Can you and Spike look after their families while we’re gone?”
“Oh, um, sure thing Twilight, you can count on us, right Spike?”
“Yeah, whoopee,” Spike replied sleepily, beginning to sweep up chunks of broken glass.
***
Finding the meteorite wasn’t hard.
It had plowed straight through a large hill after passing over the apple farm and continued on, chunks wrenching themselves free to create miniature trails of destruction. From the apple farm, it had travelled a distance of over four times the length of Ponyville, finally coming to a stop halfway through another large hill, and it took the six mares over an hour to reach it.
Over a hundred small fires dotted the site, and the massive trench it had left was still scorching hot as the ponies made their way down the side of the final impact crater, Twilight noticed several peculiar-looking circles engraved in the side, as well as a large hole. When she looked back at the whole thing, she faltered, realizing what the massive object was.
“Are you alright, darling?” Rarity asked, noticing her friend’s posture stiffen.
“What’s wrong sugarcube?” Applejack added, concern clouding her face.
Twilight had to wait a few moments before she could answer, but when she did, it came out as barely a whisper.
“It’s a spaceship.”
Author's Note
This is my first story on this site, to whoever reads this, I hope you enjoyed the first of many half-baked ideas my brain comes up with. And no, that does not mean I will stop the story halfway through.
