Origin

Hey everypony, sorry for the late update, i recently had a family emergency in which i was away from my laptop,ALOT. so heres chapter 3 and due to me being a lazy ass,expect REALLY slow updates. Sorry im just that way. But time = Qaulity.

Enough about my mundane problems. Here is chapter 3

I tapped Spitfire on the shoulder and asked, “When will we be landing?”

Spitfire took a second think before replying. “About two days, give take a few hours.”

“How about where?”

“Quadrant 4, Sector 6, 67 clicks south of Charlie zone.” She recited, clearly from memory.

I gave her a blank and confused stare. She sighed and said, “You see that cloud the looks like a balloon?”

“Yes.”

“Just south of there.”

I caught myself staring at Keplar 22-B for a while, I don’t know how long – it was both fascinating and breath taking. The planet was simply beautiful, the white clouds, the cyan atmosphere, the light glow the ozone layer gave off. I sighed at its alien beauty before a familiar, high-pitched voice made me jump.

“HI TWILIGHT!” Pinkie shrieked. I felt my coat stand up in fear for a split second until the message from my ears hit my brain – it was Pinkie.

I sighed again as my fur flattened out. “Oh, Pinkie… it’s just you.”

“Of course it is, silly. It’s not like I’m an alien or something!” She stood on her hind hooves and put her front hooves out walking awkwardly towards me “Brains! Brains!”

I stared at her blankly and replied, “Pinkie, that’s more of a zombie pony imitation.” I then heard Spike scream.

“AHH, zombie ponies!? See, I told you they were real, Twilight!”

“Spike, relax – there are no zombie ponies.”

“Oh, well, uh, back to my nap then.”

I rolled my eyes and said to Pinkie, “What did you want?”

“Oh, I just wanted to tell you I’m gearing up the party cannon! It’s Hearths Warming Eve back home!”

“How do you even know what day it is?”

“Luna kept a calendar up to date since we left.”

“That reminds me, I have to go talk to her. Do you know where she is?”

Pinkie shrugged. “Probably in her room.“

“Thanks Pinkie, and, uh, have fun with your party cannon.”

“Oh yeah, I’ve still got a waking up party to plan, I’ve gotta’ tell everypony to be in the meeting room in an hour. Bye!”

I gave a light and somewhat forced smile that quickly faded once Pinkie trotted out of sight. Why should we celebrate this, of all things, I thought to myself - then I remembered that Pinkie celebrated everything. I trotted through the control r

room where Rainbow, Spitfire and Star Gazer were observing the 3D map display and reading the data of the surface of Keplar from the probes they sent there earlier to see if the L.Z was safe. We were scheduled to land the next day on a fifty-mile long, ten-mile wide valley. The ship was only a half a mile wide and three-fourths of a mile long, (Yes, it’s a gigantic ship) so it should be safe to land.

               Unfortunately, the valley is the only data we had received on the surface, the probes crashed into the opposite wall of the valley on a three-mile high mountain. I trotted past the enthralled trio of ponies through the metal doors, which were designed to automatically open when somepony walks towards it, and down the corridor towards Luna’s quarters. The doors on her room only opened with a code, which I didn’t know, so I knocked.

“Luna, are you in there?”

“Yes, come in.”

“But I don’t know the - ” I was cut off by the doors opening. Her room was a lot bigger than the rest of ours, since everyone used only there’s for a year, and she used for hers for nine. On the left side of the room was a kitchen; one that most restaurants would be jealous of. There was also a bathroom that was like its own spa – the whole living quarters was like an expensive five-star hotel. She deserved every bit of it for what she put up with for four long years, which was nothing - literally. Loneliness can be hell for somepony for such a long time, but for Luna I suppose it was simply unpleasant to say the most.

Luna was sitting on a black sofa that was facing a large window, which peered out at the endless space ahead. “Hello, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Hello, Princess.”

“Please Twilight, please call me Luna. I do not wish to be treated different simply for what I was born to.”

“Hello Luna,” I corrected myself. “I need to speak with you about something.”

“What is it you wish to speak with me about?”

I trotted over to her sofa and asked If I could have a seat, Luna nodded and I sat down next to her and said, “I just wanted to see if you’re okay.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you have been alone for around four years Luna. Not many ponies can do that without suffering at least some side effects, no offense.”

“Oh, that is quite alright Twilight. I can’t say I’m well, but I am fine – thanks for your concern. I am just... concerned about this place.” She waves a hoof towards the window at Keplar-22B.

“I think know what you mean, Luna.”

A moment of silence passed before Luna said, “Twilight, may I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“Could you - could you lead the search squad when we land? I… I can’t quite put my hoof on it, but I don’t feel like I can step hoof on this place. Not yet.”

I didn’t know what to say, the question really surprised me. I thought about it for a minute, I didn’t want to say, I didn’t think I could lead a mission this important, but the princess looked desperate for my help. It was rather peculiar that she said ‘search’ squad. Searching for what, exactly? I kept my thoughts to myself and didn’t ask.

“I… I – Yes, of course, Princess.”

“Thank you, Twilight. I’m must admit that I am very ashamed to ask this of -“

“Don’t be, I’ll be fine.” I lied.

“Very well, you’re a good friend, Twilight Sparkle.” She reached forward and gave me a hug.

“Promise me you’ll keep everypony safe.”

“I prom - ” I was cut off by a loud explosion from the other side of the ship, I left Luna’s embrace and we galloped through the ship’s corridors, past the control room where Spitfire and Star Gazer had already left to check on the explosion.

“Star, where is everypony?”

“They were all getting ready for the mission briefing in the conference room.”

“Then what could have...” We both looked at each other and sighed.

“Pinkie!” We said in unison.

We ran through the cryo chamber and past the weapons bay before we reached the living quarters to find Pinkie, party cannon in her hooves and a giant dent in the wall.

“Pinkie!” I yelled, “What happened!”

Applejack galloped into the room “What in tarnation happened here?”

“I’m sorry Twilight! I thought this was my party cannon!”

“Pinkie! That cannon is black, your party cannon is pink! How could you forget that?”

“I’m sorry.” was all she said before sinking her head in shame. Her ignorance truly is baffling sometimes, but I love her all the same regardless of how absent-minded she can be.

Star Gazer stepped between us and said, “It’s okay guys, and the wall doesn’t look that bad - just dented pretty good. Vinyl can weld them shut, no harm done.” I calmed down knowing that he was right.

I trotted over to Pinkie and rested my hoof on her shoulder. She looked up and I said, “I’m sorry I yelled at you, Pinkie.”

“It’s okay Twilight! You know, a dent in a wall really kills my mood to party, I’m going to bed.” She then bounced off to her room, energetic as ever. Everypony, myself included, had our mouths open agape. “Sweet Celestia, Pinkie not wanting to party? Four years of sleep really does change a pony!” Spitfire said. Luna excused herself, and said goodnight before trotting away towards her living quarters.

“Well everypony, I suggest we all get some shut-eye very soon. We’re going to be making history tomorrow. They all nodded like they’d expected that, it was rather obvious in hindsight. “What about the Princess?” Rarity pondered out loud.

“She has… other duties to attend too.” Every pony looked at each other skeptically, but shrugged and resumed their attention on me.

“So I want everypony to make sure you’re ready when you wake up in the morning. Also, somepony please make certain the oxygen suits are in working condition. It shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes.”

“On it.” Rainbow said before galloping away into the supply room.

“Other than that, everypony go get some Zs.”

They all silently nodded trotting off in different directions towards their rooms. I let my mind wander as I walked slowly down the hallways; I was still trying to get the new task sink in. I’ve led plenty of things before, but this planet, nay, this entire mission I knew very little about. I had almost no idea what to do. “Hey how hard could it be? We’re just gonna explore the landforms of the planet, starting with the valley, what could go wrong?” I mumbled to encourage myself. As I reached my room, I gladly collapsed on my comfortable bed. All of the rooms, except Luna’s, had just a small, twin-sized bed, a sizeable bathroom complete with a shower, a large window, and a small chair.

I had finally settled my mind and was just about to fall asleep when my door slowly creaked open; I sat up, yawned, and looked up to see Star Gazer’s silhouette. “Star, what do you want? It’s like, buck… what time it is?”

“I’m sorry for waking you Twi, I just wanted to see how you were doing.”

“Why? I’m fine.”

He trotted over and sat next to me on the bed “Well, Luna dropped a pretty heavy load on you today, and I wanted to make sure you can handle it.”

“Well, thank you, but I’m just nervous.”

“How hard could it be?”

“It could be very hard! We are billions of miles away from home, going to some unknown alien planet and we don’t have a bucking clue what’s on it!” I took a deep breath and said, “Sorry, I’m just… stressed out.”

“I completely understand.”

“No, you don’t! You don’t have anything back home to worry about, no family - nothing.”

“You’re wrong - I have you.”

“Sorry.”

“No, It’s… it’s okay.” He wrapped his hoof around me and lowered his head to mine, his eyes closed and lips puckered. His warm lips brought a shiver down my spine; I had to force myself not to accidentally jerk backwards and ruin the moment. I felt him slowly bring his lips away from mine and eagerly pulled him back into the kiss with my hooves pulling against the side and back of his head. I wanted this to last forever. His eyes opened for a second in shock and I felt the right corner of his lips curl up in a smirk.

When I finally decided to let go of him, he comically and exaggeratedly gasped for air before asking me, “You don’t mind if I sleep here with you, right?”

“Of course.”

I brought him into a quick embrace, wrapping my hooves around his broad shoulders and resting my head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat rise slowly. A few silent minutes passed before we laid down on the bed in a spooning position. We tacitly decided to leave the covers on the floor – our body heat was more than enough to keep each other warm. Star whispered to me, “Good night, Twilight. I love you.”

Those three words kind of hit me, but in a good way. He had always said stuff like ‘That’s what I love about you’ or ‘Love ya’, but he had never outright said ‘I love you’. About time, I thought as I felt my lips form a smile and a tear well up in the corner of my eye. I felt his hooves around me tighten as I gleefully replied, “I love you too, Star.” We drifted to off to sleep under the comforting sound of each other’s breathing.

“Twilight Sparkle! Star Gazer! Wake up, now!” The familiar, albeit terrified voice of Princess Luna shouted at is.

Star and I both sat upright and jumped off the bed. “What’s wrong?” Star asked.

“No time for questions. We need to get to the control room. Now! What are you doing?! Let’s go!” Luna made a gesture with her hoof before galloping down the hallway.

We both looked at each other before galloping out of the room and down the hallway to catch up with Luna. When we got to the control room, everypony was sitting in their chairs with their restraints fastened. Our seats were closest to Spitfire and Rainbow’s. We sat down and locked our belts. Tight.

“What the hell is going on?”

“That.” Spitfire pointed out the windshield. We were entering Keplar’s atmosphere and in the valley there was a large rotating circle of clouds that had a hole in the middle. I recognized the shape and forced myself not to shriek.

“A hurricane?! Are you bucking kidding me? Where in Equestria did that come from?”

“That!” Star said pointing towards a giant ocean to the right of the valley, our L.Z. Now when I say giant, I mean ‘HOLY BUCK THAT’S HUGE’ sized. I swear that thing could’ve probably fit 50,000 Ponyvilles on it.

“How did we not notice that before?” I asked.

“We just entered the atmosphere a few minutes ago, so we couldn’t see anything on the surface ‘till now.”

“Can’t you try to turn to avoid it? Do something!”

“No, if I do then the combination of the gravity and atmospheric pressure will make the ship unstable and gyrate enough uncontrollable momentum and we WILL crash. At least now there is a chance of Rainbow and I being able to do something about it once we enter the atmosphere completely.”

“What are we gonna do now? I did not spend four bucking years in cryo sleep to die in a crash this far from home!”

“Me neither!”

The storm was going south and based on our speed and landing zone, we would hit the storm right south of the eye of the storm. The ship could not land in that much wind speed. Unless… “Spitfire, can you slow the ship down?”

“Maybe, I can turn on the reverse thrusters and it would slow us down a bit, but I don’t know if the engines can take that much strain.”

“Do you think you can land in the eye?”

“No.”

“Can you try?”

She looked at Rainbow and they nodded. Spitfire grinned before saying, “Everypony, the flights about to get seriously bumpy. I suggest you all find something to hold onto!”

As she activated the reverse thrusters, the entire ship stopped and we all lunged forward violently. If it weren’t for the seat belts, we all would’ve broken through the windshield and... The ship was still heading towards the ground very fast, but much slower than before. The ship was rocking and was unstable until the eye was right below us. Spitfire looked to rainbow and yelled, “NOW!”

Rainbow pulled the lever for the accelerator and the ship went into a nosedive towards the hurricane. I was trying scream, but I couldn’t. When we were about a mile above the hurricane, Spitfire angled the wheel up until the ship turned upwards ninety degrees and faced the horizon. The ship very slowly went down towards the surface, the north wall of the eye about a half-mile away. The ship landed with a thud as we hit the reddish ground.

Everypony relaxed in their chairs while breathing heavy with relief.  Most of us were on the verge of puking, myself included. Spitfire stared at the planet beneath us, then turned to face us with a smile and proudly announced:

          "Attention Mares and Gentlecolt's. The Star Swirl has landed.”

“