Bound By Stars

by Coenogo

Rating: mature
Tags: Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Original Character, Science Fiction, Royal Guard, Shining Armor, Crossover, Human
Length: 51003

Since the dawn of ponykind, ponies have looked up at the sky, wondering what may lie beyond the distant stars. They had hoped for riches and knowledge beyond comprehension. Instead, they had found humanity, or rather, humanity had found them.

When Commander Eric Callaghan was contracted to chart the recently discovered Sagittarius Nebula, he expected it to be an easy way to earn some credits. Unfortunatly for him, things don't always go according to plan when you're in space, and they certainly don't always follow the rules. Follow him in his journey, as he finds himself in a delicate situation, on the edge of a war between civilizations.

If you are interested in the background of the Olympus Organization, you can find more info here.
Now with extra background information! Click here!
Also, custom-made 3D-models of some of the objects from the story can be found here: Sketchfab

Crossover with aspects from “Elite: Dangerous” and “Star Citizen”.
Gore tag is for detailed descriptions of violence and blood, and the Dark tag is for psychological and regular, albeit highly explosive, warfare.

Published 2017-02-11 18:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2017-10-29 19:18:24 UTC

Chapter 1 - Alone

///LOCATION - UNKNOWN///TIME - 14:22 LMT///DATE - 13-05-2232///

“Alone.”

“I’m all alone.”

“Nobody knows where I am.”

The thought rang throughout Eric’s head. He was alone, all by himself, nobody within range of his radio. The same radio that he used to report that he was charging his Hammer Propulsion MK-VI Warp-Drive to jump to the next system along his route. The same MK-VI Warp-Drive as usual, making the same sound as usual, placed in the same Horizon ShipWorks H2215EX Divertia as usual, charging up the same as usual, but malfunctioning in a rather unusual way. The same unusual way that most of the other systems inside the ship malfunctioned. Without reason. Without warning. Without solution. No way back.

“Why did those Genesis people send me on this damn trip to this godforsaken place?!” he desperately shouted, knowing in the back of his head that there would be no answer.

“Ok Eric, no time to panic, get it together!” He tried motivating himself to stay focused, but doing so seemed more and more fruitless the more he thought about it.

“I’m stuck here.” he said, “Nobody is going to look for me.”

“I have no way of contacting the UENRS.” He tried activating the diagnostics program, but it merely confirmed his growing suspicion:

[CATASTROPHIC FAILURE]

“Thanks, that really helps!” he sarcastically said.

Hoping to find a suitable place to land, Eric decided to activate his Stellar Body Scanner, one of the few systems in his ship that was still functional and available for him to use. A projection to his left showed the control-panel for the scanner. With a slight hint of doubt, Eric reluctantly activated the procedure. These scans draw massive amounts of power from the FluxCo XR-2A Reactor, power which would normally be used for other systems, such as life support. Much to the annoyance of Eric, the oxygen-levels started to drop, whilst the carbon dioxide-levels kept rising, continually forcing Eric to invest more energy and focus in order to maintain proper personal health. After the initial ranging-ping was successfully performed, the projection displaying the scan-results showed a small window, giving an estimate time until the scans were completed:

[ESTIMATED TIME UNTIL COMPLETION – 03H:48M:32S]

[ATTENTION - PLANETARY LIFE-FORMS DETECTED]

Ofcourse, Eric didn't notice that last message, as he was already too low on oxygen to focus on such things. With nothing left to do, and without knowing that he was being watched by those sentient quadrupeds, Eric attempted to catch his breath as he tried to remember how this dreadful adventure to the edge of known space started;

///LOCATION - NUAKEA/OBLIVION/GENESIS BIOTECH///TIME - 13:37 LMT///DATE - 11-05-2232///

“Commander Callaghan?” the receptionist asked, looking for the pilot who applied to chart the recently discovered Sagittarius Nebula.

Eric was pleasantly surprised to hear his name being paired with the official title he received from the Federal Pilots Association, which was often neglected by others. Throughout the years, Eric had gathered a certain reputation with the people of Oblivion Station, and it was not the type of reputation that anyone would brag about at the local bar. He tried to remember how he ended up here, at the Freelance-Department of the Genesis BioTech Bureau at Oblivion, his homestead, orbiting somewhere within the Nuakea System. The same place where he had spent most of his adult life, or at least the part of it after the accident. Up to this point, his day had been the same as every other boring day:

///LOCATION - NUAKEA/OBLIVION/APPARTMENT A289///TIME - 08:00 LMT///DATE - 11-05-2232///

‘BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BE-’ “Hrmpf, I get it, I get it!” ‘EP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP’

With a loud bang, the alarm-clock was turned off by the grumpy freelance pilot. Half awake, and whilst rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Eric looked up through his rooftop-window, catching a glimpse into the docking bays. He liked his home, but the locations proximity to landing pad 14 made the mundane task of getting enough sleep quite a challenge sometimes. Then again, would anyone be able to sleep while a giant freighter is igniting it’s gigantic thrusters above their bedroom? Luckily, Oblivion was the furthest station in the Nuakea System, meaning that it was more efficient for large freighters to dock at the much closer Admiral Thirsk. Because of this, ships larger than an H2188 Adder were a rare sight.

Still half asleep, Eric tried to get out of bed. This was usually the most time-consuming part of his daily routine, and today was no exception. As he was stumbling around, his home-management system went online to tell him about all the events around the galaxy. Hoping to find some kind of work, he asked the computer to tell him all the available jobs. As usual, there were none.

“Great, now I’ll have to work at that damned restaurant again!”

He was hoping to finally have a reason to leave this station with his Divertia, built by Horizon ShipWorks. This ship was his life, his ticket to infinity. At least, that’s what he thought when he bought it from the local shipyard. When he bought it, Eric hadn’t realised that running a ship requires more credits than just those for the initial purchase. After he saved up enough money for the ship, he finally got a grasp on the cost of interplanetary travel. This also made him understand the reason as to why there was always a large security-presence around the landing pads and the fuel storage yards, all coordinated by the security department of Olympus. Before that, Eric used to believe that the security was there to protect citizens from OPA-attacks. When he realised that the guards weren’t protecting civilians, he immediately lost all respect for them.

Suddenly, Eric’s phone started ringing. He clumsily tried to answer the call, and after some time, he was finally able to press the button on his screen.

“Who’s there?” he said with obvious annoyance in his voice.

He was in turn greeted with a joyful one, a voice he could not get out of his head:

“Good morning Eric, are you awake?”

At the sound of this voice, Eric got slightly happier. Of course, he still wasn’t enjoying waking up so early.

“Of course I’m awake Michelle, that damn alarm-clock made sure of it!” he said “Why, is there something important?”

Michelle responded: “Actually, there is! I remember you telling me that you wanted to get a job, right?”

“Yeah, as long as it’s a one-time job. I hate being stuck to a single thing! I want to see more of the universe, explore the wonders of-”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it! Don’t worry, it’s a single task. Complete it, and you get a decent amount of credits!”

Eric liked the sound of that: “Sounds good, but can you give me more details?”

“Well, I don’t know much about the job, as I just overheard it at the bar.” Michelle explained “But what I do know, is that the reward is somewhere around half a million credits, and all the costs are covered by the contractor!”

Hearing this, Eric got extremely excited. The mere thought of not having to worry about money for at least a year was something Eric had only dreamt of.

“Count me in!” he said “Where can I sign up?”

“I knew you’d be interested, so I already took the liberty of uploading the location to your VisionAR.”

Lifting his arm to activate the wrist-mounted device, Eric noticed that he had indeed received the location.

"Will I be seeing you there?" he asked.

"No, sorry, I already have another job. I told you, working at the Star-Bar was a great place for employment!"

"Yeah yeah, you don't need to remind me everytime." Eric was about to hang up, until Michelle interrupted him:

"Hey, Eric. Good luck!"

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/EQUESTRIA/CANTERLOT///TIME - 14:13 LMT///DATE - 13-05-2232///

It was a night like every other at the royal castle. Princess Celestia was vast sleep after another long day of royal duties, whilst her sister Luna guarded and admired her moon. Shining Armour, Captain of the Royal Guard, was staying in Canterlot for the week to discuss the new security-measures that were to be put in place to defend against the changeling-attacks, which were steadily growing in size.

Downstairs, most of the guards that were off-duty were asleep, except for a small group who were playing poker and were having a beer or two. Since the changelings appeared to have suspended their attacks for a while, the guards thought that it would be okay for them to relax as well. One of the off-duty guards was Solar Streak, a pegasus colt with a dark-blue coat and an orange mane and tail and a meteor cutie-mark, who had an interest in the galaxy ever since he saw a falling star when he was little.

Whilst the others were downstairs playing games, Solar Streak was busy with something else. He had snuck into the royal observatory, where the best telescope in the kingdom was located. This marvel of technology was most commonly used by princess Celestia’s pupil, princess Twilight Sparkle, but ever since she moved to Ponyville, the device has been left unused. Not that it made a difference to Solar. He would have asked the princess if he could have used the machine, but he was usually quite shy. Hence, he thought that this would be the perfect opportunity.

When he was finally done with the calibration, Solar Streak looked through the scope of the device. Everything was the same as usual up there. He wished he could go there, to the stars, and explore those other planets he got a glimpse of every now and then, but even for a pegasus, these were still way too far away. That wouldn’t stop him from dreaming though.

Solar Streak was about to return to his post, as it was almost time for his shift, when he noticed a flash in the corner of his scope. He tried finding the origin with the telescope, until he eventually found what appeared to be a storm cloud of sorts, but way out in the darkness of space, far beyond what any pegasus could reach. Out of the storm cloud appeared a dark object, too far away to be distinguishable. The only thing that remained visible after the storm cloud had disappeared, was a pulsating red light.

Author's Note

Please keep in mind that this is my first time writing a story. Because of this, the reading experience might differ from stories written by more skilled writers. Names, locations, ships, technologies and events are inspired by various sources, including: Games - Elite: Dangerous, Star Citizen | TV - MLP:FiM, The Expanse

If you want your character to be featured as a human soldier, pilot, politician or civilian, or a pony civilian, politician or royal guard, please send me a message with the character's name, looks, characteristics, and role if you have any preference. All featured characters will be credited.

Chapter 2 - Mayday

///LOCATION - NLTT-512///TIME - 18:10 LMT///DATE - 13-05-2232///

‘BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BE-’ “Hrmpf, yeah, yeah, I'm awake!” ‘EP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP’

Eric tried finding the button to shut off the alarm-clock, only to realise that it wasn't his alarm-clock that was making the noise. Instead, it was the Planetary Body Scanner telling him that the scans were completed. After taking some deep breaths, and realising that he could barely inhale any oxygen, he came to the conclusion that he wasn't in his appartment. Slowly, his memory started to return. He realised that he was in his ship, in the middle of nowhere. The oxygen-deprived enviroment had caused some neural malfunctions, resulting in temporary short-term memory-loss.

Atleast he had gotten some good sleep, which was a good thing, as he had a difficult task ahead of him: He would have to choose the most habitable planet, and then attempt a landing on it, as his ships life-support systems would be incapable of sustaining a breathable enviroment for much longer. He would have to land on a planet with some sort of breathable atmosphere, if he wanted to stay alive until rescue arrived. He would have to fix the CO2 scrubbers that were damaged from the jump if he wanted to keep breathing, but his EVA-suit was broken, and he wasn't going to risk his live for some extra oxygen.

He started going trough the scan-results, looking at every planet to see if he could survive on any of them. There were quite a few planets in this system, which the scans revealed was called NLTT-512. Two of the planets actually had a breathable atmosphere, and gravity similair to that of all Coriolis-made space stations. He noticed that one of those planets, NLTT-512-3A, had both flaura and fauna, meaning that he would have the best chance of finding food and shelter if he landed there. The scans had also picked up some possible structures, though these could simply be rock-formations, like the rock-formations on Mars that were believed to be the home of aliens back in the early days of space-travel.

Slowly but surely, the engines started to come back online as Eric tried to re-activate the controls. One of the main engines and some of the RCS-thrusters were too damaged to function correctly, but luckily the flight-computer was of an advanced enough model to correct for the imbalanced thrust. It would take almost all of the remaining fuel if he wanted to transfer to an intercept course with the planet. Eric was about to initiate the burn, when he remembered that the UENRS had no way of knowing which planet he landed on, if they even knew which system they had to search. Fortunatly for Eric, he remembered that he was still carying around surveillance probes in his cargo-bay.

After finally connecting his VisionAR to one of the probes, Eric re-programmed the device to transmit a message to any ship that comes in the vicinity. He also overcharged the built-in beacon, to extend the range at which it could be found, but at the risk of overheating. When Eric had completed the modifications, he dumped the probe into space, and checked to see if it worked. After succesfully receiving the message, he started the burn-procedure towards NLTT-512-3A. He would have to use the gravity of the sun to catapult himself towards the third planet in the system.

Once he was at the closest point to the sun in his orbit, Eric performed a pro-radial burn to increase his orbit's inclination. This was a required step during his flight, because NLTT-512-3A itself was also on an inclination relative to the orbit of other planets in the system. If he didn't perform this maneouvre, Eric would simply pass by the planet without ever reaching it. Such a mistake would have been fatal, as he wouldn't have the oxygen-supply to keep him alive for long enough to complete another entire orbit. Fortunatly for Eric, he was an experienced pilot, who understood atleast the most basic of orbital mechanics.

After that last trajectory modification, the ship was on a course for NLTT-512-3A. It would take atleast another day before he would reach the planet, and with nothing else left to do, Eric decided that it might be a good idea to think of a better name for the planet. The first name he came up with was Erics Hope, but he quickly came to the conclusion that such a name was quite a cliché one. In the end, Eric settled on a name that was inspired by the date shown on one of his displays: 13th May. After entering the new name into the discovery-logs, Eric slowly fell asleep, partially due to the ever-lasting lack of oxygen, as his ship drifted trough the darkness of space, on a direct route to the new planet.

Initial blueprints of the Horizon ShipWorks H2215EX Divertia

///LOCATION - NUAKEA/OBLIVION/GENESIS BIOTECH///TIME - 22:34 LMT///DATE - 13-05-2232///

Back at the Genesis BioTech bureau at Oblivion Station, Michelle was trying to get information about Eric from the person working at the counter. Ever since Eric first set out in his ship, he and Michelle had made a promise to each other. If one of them was outside the station, they would contact each other atleast once every day, to make sure that they were both safe. This tradition had begun after Eric's first flight with his new ship, where he tried to jump to another system on his first real flight. The jump-drive went haywire, and Eric was stranded in space. Fortunatly for him, he had jumped to an inhabited system, where the UENRS, or United Earth Navy Rescue Service, was quickly able to recover him.

When they returned Eric and his ship to Oblivion, Michelle was incredibly excited and happy to see him again. Eventhough they weren't in a real relationship, they still cared for each other. Or, Michelle cared about Eric. Eric never bothered to show any kind of nice-ness to Michelle, if that is even a word. Michelle liked to think that it was. And the more Eric ignored Michelle, the more she became interested in him. There was something odd about Eric. When they first met, Michelle found him to be incredibily lazy and annoying. But after she stayed around him, sometimes without him knowing it, she found out that Eric was actually quite clever, and he certainly knew his way around problems.

One thing she wasn't too happy about though, was something she discovered when she was secretly following Eric into a pub. He had ordered a drink, but while doing so, he had pushed someone else away from the bar. he hadn't just pushed some random person away either: It was John Mc Arthur, one of Oblivion's most feared crime-lords. He had been arrested plenty of times for crimes ranging from theft of spaceships to cold-blooded murder, but everytime that he was taken into custody, the charges were mysteriously dropped before he could be convicted for any of his crimes. He had slowly but surely created his own empire inside the lower parts of Oblivion, and he practically owned all appartments on floors D trough G.

John was known for picking fights, often for the most ridicoulous reasons, and sometimes even without reason at all. Unfortunatly for most of his victims, John Mc Arthur was an experienced fighter, having previous experience in underground (Or lower-deck) fighting-rings. Even if someone managed to dodge the first swing from John, and was able to run away, they still didn't get far. The network set up by John spread for miles across the station, and most people were quickly dispatched before they could get to the safety of a police station.

John Mc Arthur was ready to fight Eric, and he was making sure to create as big of a show as he could. Looking over at Eric from the middle of the pub, he yelled:

"Hey you, at the bar, are you gonna buy me a new drink or what?!"

Eric just ignored him, taking another sip from his beer.

"Oh, so you are not gonna get me a new drink?! Fine, we'll settle this another way then! I gave you a chance, you skinny piece of shit!"

After announcing his plans to Eric, John grabbed a knife from one of the nearby tables, which he held firmly in his hand. He was ready to slice Eric to pieces, starting with cutting of his head. He had it all figured out. He was going to hold Eric's head up by the hair, to make a statement to anyone else who dared to oppose him. With this plan in mind, he set his words into action, running at Eric, knife in hand, ready to kill.

Without flinching or looking up from his drink, Eric went for his pocket.

'BANG'

Author's Note

Names, locations, ships, technologies and events are inspired by various sources, including: Games - Elite: Dangerous, Star Citizen | TV - MLP:FiM, The Expanse

If you want your character to be featured as a human soldier, pilot, politician or civilian, or a pony civilian, politician or royal guard, please send me a message with the character's name, looks, characteristics, and role if you have any preference. All featured characters will be credited.

Chapter 4 - Shooting Star

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/ON APPROACH///TIME - 14:57 LMT///DATE - 14-05-2232///

Daydreaming was something that Eric loved to do. He liked to imagine what the universe looked like, eventhough he had a ship that would normally be capable of exploring said universe. Not that it was able to do anything like that in its current state, ofcourse. Thinking about the condition of his vessel, he was not exactly looking forward to re-entry, and he had every reason not to.

'Re-entry' is a space-flight procedure where an object enters the atmosphere of a planet from space. This is usually done at extremely high speeds, at which a spacecraft would normally orbit the planet. Vessels that perform a re-entry procedure undergo extreme aerodynamic drag, resulting in an immense amount of heat. If this heat is not deflected, or if the vessel does not have proper heat-shielding covering the required surfaces, the vessel will catch fire or melt. The drag can also cause the vessel to be ripped apart.

The most well-known occurence of an accidental re-entry was the disaster of Piscaro Orbital, a Coriolis-Class station that used to orbit NLTT-023-2C. After a massive fire in the engine-bay, the retro-grade thrusters were accidently ignited, which caused the station to lose speed and approach the planets atmosphere. Olympus services were quick to evacuate all of the 1.433.968 citizens from the station to other stations. Just 2 hours after the last ship departed, the station's habitation-rings started to catch the atmosphere. The drag upon them caused the station to flip, resulting in multiple structural failures in the arms supporting the rings. The station was subsequently ripped apart due to a combination of intense heat and strong aerodynamic drag. After that, the debris of what was left of Piscaro Orbital crashed into the planet's largest ocean.

After the long transfer, Eric was finally nearing 13th May. After reading trough his data and checking his systems one more time, he confirmed the maneauvre to slow his craft down enough so that he wouldn't just zip past the planet. This was normally a delicate procedure, because you would need to look out for other orbiting spacecrafts, but since he knew that there was little to no chance of any ship being in orbit around the planet, he didn't really care. He would have actually been glad to have a close encounter with another human.

After the ship had burned enough fuel to slow down to orbital speeds, and after some subsequently heavy vibrations due to inbalanced thrust, Eric was finally close to a planet again. He just had to set up the final maneauvre: the re-entry. His ship, the H2215EX Divertia, was never designed for atmospheric flight, let alone re-entry. He would have to improvise if he wanted to survive this ordeal. Eric thought of two ways to put his ship and himself on the ground in mostly one piece:

Option 1: He could use the RCS-thrusters to slow down just enough so that his orbit intersected with the atmosphere. He would then head into the atmosphere head-first, and he would use his ship's RCS to maintain a correct heading, whilst using the ship's relatively aerodynamic shape to slow his descend and glide towards the planned target. If he was going to miss the landing zone, he would be able to correct his descend enough to probably still land on the desired location. Exactly how he was going to descelerate enough to come to a safe landing was something he was not yet completely sure of.

Option 2: He could use his main thrusters to slow down as much as possible, to make sure that the effects of re-entry would be minimalized. He would then continue his descend with his tail down, continually using his main engines to slow down. Once he was close enough to the ground, he could try to almost come to a complete stop, after which he would touch down on the ground on his back. He didn't know if his ship would be able to stand up on it's rear, but if it didn't, the worst that could happen was his ship ending up slightly more damaged then it already was.

He had to choose one of these options, and he had to do it fast, as the atmosphere in his ship was slowly starting to reach toxic levels. After much consideration, he decided that the best course of action would most likely be the first plan, as the atmosphere seemed dense enough for his ship to glide to atleast a certain degree, and he believed that the heat-shielding would be sufficient enough to make sure that he wouldn't be fried inside his cockpit.

Reading his scanners, he tried locating the best place to put his vessel on the ground. He noticed a reasonably large field on the eastern side of the largest continent, big enough to give him a fair bit of space. The ground seemed to be somewhat muddy, which was a good thing, because it would allow him to slide across the ground whilst still slowing down. He entered the coordinates into his computer, which would atleast be able to show him where to go. His ship was never designed for landing on a planet, but the flight computer that was mounted in his ship was of a class commonly used in atmospheric landers. It wasn't going to land him automatically, but it would atleast provide some form of guidance.

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/LOW ORBIT///TIME - 16:23 LMT///DATE - 14-05-2232///

In preperation for the procedure, Eric reprogrammed and dumped another drone, but this time the message included the coordinates where he was going to land if everything went well. IF everything went well. He still wasn't sure if he was going to be able to pull it off. He gathered all the hope he could find, and focused on the task at hand: Get on the ground.

After the flight computer calculated an estimate approach-plan, the RCS-thrusters went online, and Eric stopped being too scared, he confirmed his plan to the computer. The forward-facing RCS-thrusters fired, shooting monopropellant out of the nozzles. Very carefully, Eric watched his periapsis drop into the red-zone: the altitude at which the orbit is unstable, because it intersects with the atmosphere. Slowly but surely, his altitude started to decrease.

"This is it!" Eric thougth, reasonably confident that he would be able to do it. "Here we go!"

Suddenly, the spaceship started to shake. Lightly at first, but steadily increasing in strenght. The hull-mounted thermometers confirmed Eric's suspicion; He had entered the atmosphere. If he wanted to survive ren-entry, he would have to keep the nose of the ship at a slight upwards angle to minimize drag, whilst still retaining control. If he didn't point the nose high enough, the ship would dip down and spin out of control. If the nose were to go to high, drag would increase massively, resulting in an overheat or structural breakup.

For a few minutes, Eric continued to fall out of space, burning trough the sky like a shooting star. He left a trail of fire atleast a mile long, clearing trough the upper cloud-layer. His speed continued to drop, until he was slowed down to the point where the air-friction was not high enough to create a blazing trail. The ship's thermometers indicated that the heat was slowly dissapating, and that there was minimal heat-damage inside the craft. Eric didn't agree with his systems though.

"Damn, now that was hot!" he yelled to nobody in particular. "It's like a freaking sauna in here!"

During his descend trough the upper cloud-layer, the ship had drifted off-course a fair bit due to a jetstream, but Eric was quick to notice this. He used his RCS-thrusters to bank his vessel to the left ever so little, just enough to correct his heading. Eric was roughly 5 kilometers above the ground when he got a first glimpse of his landing site. He was still 43 kilometers away from the fields, when he received a warning from the ship's FMS (Fuel Management System):

[MONOPROPELLANT LEVEL LOW]

Eric had to land, and he had to do it fast, if he wanted to walk away from the landing. He had to save his monopropellant for the final stages of the landing, where fine-tuning is required. Looking at the status of his 3 primary thrusters, he noticed that the engine that was offline was the top engine, while the lower 2 engines were still functioning. Realising this, he quickly thought of a new plan:

His plan was to use the remaining monopropellant to aim for the fields, and then glide for the final part. When he was almost on the ground, he would fire his thrusters at their maximum. This would increase his speed on touchdown, but it would also point his nose up before touching the ground due to the center of thrust being below the center of mass. The result would be a softer landing, but with a longer landing-distance.

In order for his plan to succeed, Eric had to turn of his flight-assist, as it would prevent the thrusters from firing too much to prevent inbalanced thrust. After overiding the flight-assist, he returned his focus to the controls and his heads-up display. He was now just a minute away from reaching the ground, and all he had to do was time the ignition of his main thrusters correctly. A second too soon, and the ship would flip, resulting in an upside-down and backwards landing, which would most likely be fatal. A second too late, and he would hit the ground with the front-edge of his ship's nose, which would be quite dangerous at almost 350 kilometers per hour.

"Come on, come on, almost..." he thought, focusing on his altimeter. When it reached 8 meters, he slammed the throttle all the way forward. "NOW!"

With an ear-deafening roar, the engines kicked into action. Massive flames bursted out of the rear of the craft, incinerating anything behind it for many meters. Just seconds after the engines were turned on, the ship's bottom hit the ground, instantly destroying the RCS-thruster that were located there. The main engines instantly cut off as the fuel pipes were destroyed on impact.

Slowly but surely, the spacecraft descelerated. It began to stop, though it had already travelled atleast 2 kilometers across the field. Eventually, after what seemed like an hour to Eric, the ship finally stopped with it's nose half a meter into the ground. Everything went perfect. Atleast, almost perfect. The ship was still mostly in one piece. He hadn't caused a forrestfire. But Eric himself wasn't doing too good.

The inside of the canopy was covered in blood. Eric's left leg was twisted in an unnatural way, and he was bleeding out of his mouth.

The worst thing though, was the metal bar that had pierced his heart.

Author's Note

Please keep in mind that this is my first time writing a story. Because of this, the reading experience might differ from stories written by more skilled writers. Names, locations, ships, technologies and events are inspired by various sources, including: Games - Elite: Dangerous, Star Citizen | TV - MLP:FiM, The Expanse

If you want your character to be featured as a human soldier, pilot, politician or civilian, or a pony civilian, politician or royal guard, please send me a message with the character's name, looks, characteristics, and role if you have any preference. All featured characters will be credited.

Chapter 5 - Medic!

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/SOUTH OF NEIGHAGRA FALLS///TIME - 16:12 LMT///DATE - 14-05-2232///

[PILOT CONDITION CRITICAL]

[INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL INJURIES DETECTED]

[NO PULSE FOUND]

[HEART-FAILURE DETECTED]

[ADMINISTERING ADRENALINE]

[ADMINISTERING EMERGENCY BLOOD SUPPLY]

[BEGINNING DEFIBRILATION PROCEDURE]

With pain racing troughout his entire body, Eric slowly awoke from his trauma-induced slumber. He looked around, and almost immediatly noticed the metal sticking trough the upper left of his chest. With fear in his eyes, he tried to grasp for air, but in doing so he coughed up blood from his lungs. He wasn't dead though. The metal bar had pierced the bottom of his right ventricle, which reduced his ability to pump blood around, but luckily the ship was fitted with a SMEE (Standard Medical Emergency Equipment) system, which had pumped adrenaline into his veins when it detected a loss in bloodpressure.

This caused his heart to go into overdrive, making it pump harder to maintain a constant pressure, whilst the ship injected him with spare blood from the tank. Eric always hated the thought of having things like that poke into him, but at that point, he was glad that the UEE was so strict on their regulations. But just because his heart was still pumping, didn't mean he was safe. The ship could be leaking fuel, and he had to fix his heart and lungs somehow.

Eric pressed the canopy jettison button, which quickly shot the glass bubble up into the air, allowing him to receive fresh oxygen form the planet's atmosphere. He removed his seatbelt, which had held him firmly in place during the rough landing, and he tried getting up, but he quickly returned in his seat when he felt a sharp pain in his leg. He looked down, and noticed the angle of his lower leg. It had twisted in a way that it was definitly not supposed to, and it hurt a fair bit.

Because he was unable to get up, Eric decided that he would have to tend to his injuries inside the cockpit. Reaching back into the compartment behind him, he grabbed the first aid kit. After he took the Cell-Gun from the box, and had inserted a cartridge into the device, he pulled at the metal bar with all his strenght. The bar left his body, followed by a large flow of blood, and he quickly stuck the Cell-Gun into the wound, and pressed the trigger.

This incredible device is a technological marvel that sprays modified stem-cells into a wound, which quickly change into the same form as the cells that surround them. They are also intelligent (to a certain degree), meaning that they know exactly what to heal. This helps to fix things like bulletwounds and perforated organs, but it is crude in it's function. It is prone to infections, and it can only be used on wounds that aren't too large in size.

The cells inside Eric's heart were quickly merging and connecting with the original cells, slowly closing the hole. After just 12 seconds, his heart was restored enough so that it could properly function again, but he was still severly wounded. Atleast he wasn't in any grave danger from injuries anymore.

But he wasn't safe yet. One of the fuel tanks was ruptured during the landing, and the toxic hydrazine was leaking out of it. Eric had to seal it before it reached any sparks or fires, or he had to run away as far as he could. With his leg still broken, and with all of his equipment still onboard, he chose to seal the leak. He pulled himself out of the cockpit, making sure that he wouldn't move his broken leg too much while doing it.

After grabbing an oxygen-mask and tank from behind his seat, and after falling from the fuselage of his ship into the the grass, he began to crawl towards the fuel tank. He was able to reach the hole, but he had no sealing-kit. Luckily, there were loose pieces of metal plating all around the ship, one of which Eric held against the hole in the tank. It had stopped the spill, but he still had to somehow attach it, because he couldn't just sit there holding a metal plate while waiting for help, espescially since his oxygen-tank would run out after a few minutes, and without that, he would be breathing in toxic hydrazine fumes, which would knock him out almost immediatly.

He put the plate on the ground next to the tank, and crawled towards the cargo compartment. He knew he had a spare repair kit laying around somewhere, and he kept looking for it. After 2 minutes of searching, he started looking around the ship in the hope of finding the toolbox somewhere outside. It could have been thrown out during the landing. Eventually he found it near one of the engines, and he quickly took the portable welder from it.

Crawling back to the tank as fast as he could, he activated the welder. He grabbed the plate, and was about to weld it stuck when he suddenly remembered what was inside the tank. Hydrazine is highly flammable, and in the right conditions, even explosive. He had to think of another way to seal the tank. The only plan he could think of, was to heat up 3 of the edges of the plate to the point of melting, and to then stick it onto the hole.

Not knowing if heat would also ignite the hydrazine, Eric acted out his plan. It took him another minute to get the edges to the point of melting, and when he did, he quickly pressed the plate against the hole.

It worked. It hadn't exploded, and the hole was sealed. Now he was really safe. Or as safe as one can be on an alien planet with unkown life. Without food, without water, without any shelter aside from the blood-stained cockpit of his ship. Hearing what sounded like a wolf howl in the distant mountains, Eric slowly fell asleep.

"Damn this goddamn planet..."

Author's Note

I don't do resurrections. :ajsmug:

Chapter 6 - A Guard's Duty

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/EQUESTRIA/CANTERLOT///TIME - 18:20 LMT///DATE - 13-05-2232///

As soon as Solar Streak's shift was over, he quickly went back to the telescope, in the hope of finding the object again. It took him some time to adjust the telescope, but after a while he was able to find it once more. He kept obesrving it, his curiousity growing and growing the more he looked.

Eventually, one side of the object started glowing, slowly becoming brighter as the seconds passed. Until suddenly, it created an incredibly bright light, shining like the stars scattered troughout Celestia's heaven. It was so bright, that Solar had to look away to keep himself from turning blind. When he looked at the object again after roughly a minute of rubbing his eyes, it was gone. Dissapointed that the object in the sky had dissapeared, he went back to his home. He was done for the day anyway, and he felt sleepy.

Back at home though, he couldn't stop wondering what it was that he saw; A spark, followed by a lightning cloud, out of which appeared an object with a red light, which didn't do much for hours, only to shine extremely bright and then dissapear. What could it have been? Was it a new weapon that was being tested by the Royal Guard? No, that wasn't likely, as he would have probably heard about it. Perhaps it was a project that was in development, and they were testing it? Maybe some kind of spacecraft?

"Impossible, that's the stuff from books, not science!" he thought, remembering the conversation he once had with a scientist at the Royal Canterlot University. "It's preposterous. There has to be a better explanation for what I saw."

Exhausted from a night full of pondering and mindstorming, Solar eventually tired himself out to the point of him simply falling on the ground. He couldn't think of any other explanation for what he witnessed. He knew he had to tell someone about this, but who could he trust? Wouldn't others think that he's crazy? What if they did, and they locked him up for his madness? He could only think of one pony he trusted enough to share this information with:

"Hey, is it okay if I come in? There's something I need to talk to you about." he said.

Lightning Sky looked at him with a concerned look. "Sure, come in." he said, opening the door wider to allow Solar to enter.

"Thank you, I knew you'd want to listen."

"Do you wan't a beer?"

"What do you think?"

"Two beers, coming up!"

Solar knew he could never get enough of his always joyfull yellow-coated friend. There was something about Lightning that always made him feel comfortable, possibly his positive energy, but more likely his seemingly endless supply of beer. He would never know for sure, and this was one of the few cases where the curious pegasus didn't mind not knowing something.

Solar was in the middle of pondering about the possible things the object that he saw could have been, when Lightning came into the room and passed a bottle of Hayneken his way.

"Catch!" Lightning yelled, startling Solar by doing so.

He caught the bottle with his wing just before it hit him in the face, and he looked at Lightning with an angry face. "Stop throwing stuff at me! You're gonna hit me one of these days!"

"Well, I haven't hit you yet, have I?" he said with a smirk on his face.

Solar was quite certain that he had, but he wasn't going to start a discussion on that. "You're right, you're right, but you still need to be carefull! If you were to hit me, my CO would want to know why I had a wound like that on my head, and I'd have to explain that I had been drinking!"

The red-and-white maned pegasus was confused by this explanation: "Huh, I thought you didn't have guard-duty around this time?"

"You're right, my shift doesn't start in another few hours, but since the changeling attacks have been picking up in frequency and strength, we received new regulations. No more drinking for any guards or soldiers, no matter if they're on-duty or not."

"Are the princesses really resorting to such measures to keep us safe? Seems a little bit over the top, if you asked me!"

"No, the princesses were not the ones who called for this action. It was Captain Armor. He recently arrived at the palace, and now he is calling the shots around here." Solar replied, clearly showing that he wasn't too keen on the new regulations either.

"Don't worry, I won't tell them anything. Unless you're a changeling!" Lighting jokingly said. "Anyway, wasn't there something else you wanted to talk about, or was that it?"

Solar remembered why he had come to Lightning Sky. The object. The strange thing that had appeared in their sky. "No, I do have something else I wanted to talk about. Today, while I was taking a break, I sneaked into the Royal Astronomy Wing, where I used the telescope. You know, the really powerfull one."

"Why were you in there? You could have gotten into trouble!"

"Pfft, since when do you care?" Solar said, trying to make it look like a joke, but somewhat failing by doing so.

"Hmpf, thanks. Good to know" Lightning clearly didn't like that.

"Oh come on, you know that was a joke!"

"Yeah, yeah. Was that it?"

"No, there's more." Solar said. "Whilst I was looking at the stars trough the telescope, I saw a sudden flash out in space."

"A flash? What kind of flash?"

Solar Streak tried to explain: "i don't know! I guess it was kind of like a lightning bolt. It was very, very, very bright!"

"Maybe it was just lightning?" Lightning asked.

"No, it couldn't be, because there was more. After looking around with the telescope, I found something that looked like a stormcloud, bristling with electricity, but it was strange. It was way up there in space. No pegasus can fly that high up!" Solar exclaimed. "And after a few seconds, the cloud started dissapearing, along with the electricity, and all that was left was a dark object in the place where the cloud used to be! It had a flickering light, but that's all I could see!"

"Wow, that is certainly weird! What do you think it could be?"

"I don't know, but as soon as I had finished my shift, I went back to the telescope, and I kept looking at that thing. Eventually, it started glowing, and then it was suddenly shining brighter than Celestia's sun! I was blinded by it, and after I was finally able to see again, the object was no longer there!" he explained, remembering all the events in fine detail. "I don't know what to do now! Maybe it is a changeling weapon? Maybe it's from some other place in the galaxy? What do I do?!"

Lightning Sky tried to calm Solar: "Relax, it'll be fine. We'll go to your CO tommorow, and we tell him everything we know. He'll know what to do."

"Are you insane?! You want me to tell my commanding officer that I went into a restricted area, and used restricted instruments?! Are you insane?!"

"No, I am not. If it really is a weapon, they have to know. He'll probably thank you!"

"Fine, but you're coming with me!"

"Ugh, if you really want me to."

Author's Note

Please keep in mind that this is my first time writing a story. Because of this, the reading experience might differ from stories written by more skilled writers. Names, locations, ships, technologies and events are inspired by various sources, including: Games - Elite: Dangerous, Star Citizen | TV - MLP:FiM, The Expanse | Companies/Organizations - NASA/JPL (Alcubierre Drive)

If you want your character to be featured as a human soldier, pilot, politician or civilian, or a pony civilian, politician or royal guard, please send me a message with the character's name, looks, characteristics, and role if you have any preference. All featured characters will be credited.

Featured Characters:
Lightning Sky - Oskar

Chapter 8 - First Encounter

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/EQUESTRIA/SOUTH OF NEIGHAGRA FALLS///TIME - 19:48 LMT///DATE - 14-05-2232///

Shortly after the object had pierced the skies, a search-party was set up to find the thing that Solar had seen. In order to help identify the target, and because his squad was one of the squads that was sent out to find it, Solar was on the mission as well. He was nervous, not having a clue what could have caused such an event. He had left Lightning behind at the palace, who had volunteered to help with cleaning up of all the shattered glass that was laying around everywhere.

With their rifles shouldered, Charlie-Squad of the 3rd Airborne Battalion, 12th Regiment, 2nd Division slowly made their way trough the dense forest. They were walking in a v-shaped formation, though it was far from a perfect formation. The trees made it hard to see each other, and it slowed them down aswell. Still, they tried their best to follow the orders given to them by their squad-leader.

"Squad-leader, what exactly are we supposed to do again when we find it?" one of the rookies asked.

"Have you been sleeping trough the briefing again, Private Blaze?" Solar jokingly said. The rest of the squad chuckled, and even Blaze could laugh about it. Maybe because he though that it was a good joke, but more likely because he was nervous.

Solar continued: "Well, when we find it, I will shoot up a flare, to let the other squads know that we found it, and where we found it. That means, that if you see another flare, you should immediatly inform me, so we can regroup there. Got it?"

"Got it!" Blaze answered, this time with more confidence.

"It seems we are approaching a clearing. Keep your eyes peeled, and don't leave the cover of the trees. If there are hostiles on the object, we want to see them before they see us. Is that understood?"

The entire squad responded in unison: "Understood!"

They reached the edge of the forest, and were greeted by an unfamiliar sight. A long path of mud was thrown outwards, creating a wide, shallow ditch, with a metal craft at the end of it. It was slightly bigger than the tank-prototypes that the military was experimenting with, and it appeared to be damaged. He ordered his squad to slowly push up to the craft, reminding them to keep their heads low.

Suddenly, one of the unicorn rookies screamed. After looking around, Solar realised that the scream had come from Blaze. He had gotten too far ahead, and had come face to face with a large unkown creature. Terrified to the bone, Blaze quickly raised his rifle up to the creature's face. They stood there, looking at each other, nobody moving a single muscle.

After nobody had moved for atleast a minute, the creature slowly raised his hand, and started to move it towards the unicorn. Blaze, out of shock, quickly blasted the creature backwards a few meters with his magic, after which Blaze was quickly yanked back by Solar, who didn't hestitate to respond. Both the unicorn and the pegasus rolled backwards onto the ground, with the creature now somewhat dazed by the sudden magical blast.

They quickly ran back to the rest of the squad, who had now surrounded the craft and the creature. All of them were pointing their rifle at the creature, afraid of what it might do. After he had recovered from the initial shock, and when he knew that the creature was not going anywhere, he took the flare-gun out of his bag, and shot it up in the sky. It lit up the area in an ominous red glow, and only now did they really get a good look at the creature.

It was large, very large actually, atleast twice the height of a normal pony, and about the same height as the princesses. Strangely enough, it was able to walk on 2 legs, which seemed quite impressive, given the balance that must be required to maintain an upwards posture. It had long arms and legs, and it was covered in clothing from top to bottom. The only parts that weren't covered were what Solar believed was the head, and a small patch on the upper left of its torso.

After about a minute, more squads started to arrive, each of them following the same sequence of surprise, shock, and finally, fear. After 10 minutes, all squads had arrived, and there were about 40 ponies aiming their rifles at the creature, and about a dozen unicorns casting shields to protect the rest from any possible shots from the creature. They had no idea if he was armed, but they were not planning on taking that risk.

Then, the creature opened it's mouth, and said: "Ick komm inn freedde!"

Author's Note

Names, locations, ships, technologies and events are inspired by various sources, including: Games - Elite: Dangerous, Star Citizen | TV - MLP:FiM, The Expanse | Companies/Organizations - NASA/JPL (Alcubierre Drive)

If you want your character to be featured as a human soldier, pilot, politician or civilian, or a pony civilian, politician or royal guard, please send me a message with the character's name, looks, characteristics, and role if you have any preference. All featured characters will be credited.

Featured Characters:
Lightning Sky - Oskar

Chapter 10 - Doctor's Advice

///LOCATION - NUAKEA/OBLIVION/GENESIS BIOTECH///TIME - 10:53 LMT///DATE - 14-05-2232///

Michelle had practically turned the Genesis BioTech Bureau upside-down out of anger when the people there told her that Eric had gone missing. She couldn't believe it. Her best friend, Eric, who had always been able to find a way out of a dangerous situation, was presumed dead. Her friend.

She wasn't going to just accept it. She tried her best to convince the people at Genesis to initiate a Search-And-Rescue party, but they said that such a thing wouldn't be worth it. The chances of finding him out in the depths of space were so small, that it was incredibly unlikely that they would ever find him.

All they had was a list of coordinates and checkpoints where Eric had reported in, and a transcript of the communications with local flight controllers. The last thing that anyone had ever heard from Eric, was him declaring that he was charging his Alcubierre Drive to jump to the next star-system:

"PHT-752D, charging warp-drive for jump to [INAUDIBLE] sector 58."

Unfortunatly, the part where he said his exact destination was inaudible, due to a partially corrupted drive at the local flight-control center. Michelle was willing to try anything she could to prove that Eric was not dead, and to make sure that he would make it back to the station. They told her that it would be best for her if she left the investigation to the local authorities, and she decided to take that advice.

///LOCATION - NUAKEA/OBLIVION/KENDRIK UNIVERSITY///TIME - 16:00 LMT///DATE - 14-05-2232///

"And that is why this specific flower is capable of surviving in a vacuum, but not inside an atmosphere. Any questions?"

Nobody in the classroom lifted their hand to ask a question. The explanations provided by their teacher Christina Castello were more than enough for them to understand the subject of non-atmospheric vegetation. After confirming that nobody had missed any information, Christina noticed that the class was out of time. "Okay class, you are dismissed! Don't forget to study for next-week's test!"

Michelle finished typing the last notes, and then proceeded to put her stuff in her bag. She had tried her best to focus, but all she had been able to think about was Eric. He was still out there, she knew it. As she made her way down to the exit, she passed by Christina's desk. As she did, her professor asked her: "Hey Michelle, are you okay? You seem quite distracted? Is something bothering you?"

Michelle looked up, and turned towards Christina. "Well, uhm, yeah, there is something, but I'm not really supposed to talk about it."

"What is it? Trust me, you can tell me. I might even be able to help."

She sighed, and opened up. "Okay, the thing is, my friend Eric went missing in space, and the people at Genesis refuse to help me find him!"

Christina looked at her in confusion. "Wow, calm down there! How did he end up missing? And what does Genesis have to do with it?"

"You see, my friend Eric was trying to find a job, since he was a bit short on credits. So I told him about a job-offer I overheard whilst working at the Star-Bar. You know, the bar at B266? The one with the special drinks? Anyway, I told him about the job. It was something about scanning a newly discovered nebula or something. He was halfway there, when all communications with him were lost. Nobody has heard from him again. All you had to do, was scan the damn nebula Eric!"

Christina was shocked by what she heard. "Let me guess, this job was offered by Genesis BioTech?"

"Yes, it was. I don't know what to do! They won't help me, and they are saying that Eric is probably already dead, but I know he's not!"

"And how exactly do you know that he's still alive, if I may ask?"

"I JUST DO!" Michelle yelled, almost crying in the process.

"Okay, just calm down. I'm done for today anyway. Would you like to come with me? We might be able to figure something out." Christina asked.

"Sure, that sounds good."

///LOCATION - NUAKEA/OBLIVION/APPARTMENT A600///TIME - 16:17 LMT///DATE - 14-05-2232///

"Hello dear, welcome back! How was your- wait, who's this?" Adrianos Castello said to his wife.

"Hello honey, this is Michelle!" She replied. "She needs help with something."

"Oh, is she one of your students?"

"She is, but it's not about that. She needs the both of us for something else."

Adrianos started to become more and more curious. "Well, would you mind telling why you need me and my wife's help?"

Michelle looked at the man standing before her. He was atleast in his fifties, maybe even older, and he was wearing glasses. Not many people wore glasses those days. Most people with sight-issues get laser-treatment, which doesn't even cost that much anymore. Either way, it did make him look rather intelligent, somehow, which fitted him, as Adrianos Castello was one of the smartest doctors on the station. Maybe even in the entire UEE. He came from a family of doctors, one of which led a team of researchers to discover a cure for heartfailure.

"Well..." Michelle said. "It all started out when my friend Eric was on a job for Genesis..."

Author's Note

Names, locations, ships, technologies and events are inspired by various sources, including: Games - Elite: Dangerous, Star Citizen | TV - MLP:FiM, The Expanse | Companies/Organizations - NASA/JPL (Alcubierre Drive)

If you want your character to be featured as a human soldier, pilot, politician or civilian, or a pony civilian, politician or royal guard, please send me a message with the character's name, looks, characteristics, and role if you have any preference. All featured characters will be credited.

Featured Characters:
Lightning Sky - Oskar

Fun Fact!
Adrianos Castello is actually based on a real-life scientist and doctor (I will not give away his real name here.) who is part of a team which is incredibly close to finishing a cure for heartfailure! In less then a month, they will know whether the medicine will be succesfull. If it is, I will share the results, and a link to the corresponding medical page in one of the upcoming chapters and/or blogposts!

Chapter 11 - The Council

///LOCATION - NUAKEA/OBLIVION/APPARTMENT A600///TIME - 16:28 LMT///DATE - 14-05-2232///

"Okay, I think I've got a clearer picture of the situation now, and I may even know the cause of all of this."

"You do, mister Castello?" Michelle asked.

"Yes, I believe so." he answered. "You see, the warp-drives used in space-ships are far from perfect. But to understand why that is a problem, you need to know exactly how these devices work. So, Michelle, do you know the inner working of a warp-drive?"

"I'm afraid I don't."

"Don't worry, I'll explain it." he said, as he begun his explanation of the warp-drive. "First off, you should know that a warp-drive is not just a single machine. It is a combination of two highly advanced systems: The Alcubierre Drive, and the Energy Deflector. The Alcubierre Drive was invented long ago, but it was never put to use back then. As revolutionary as it might have been, humanity simply didn't think that it was important enough. It was later re-discovered, and some things happened, but what matters more is how it works."

Adrianos continued: "In its simplest form, and Alcubierre Drive contracts and expands spacetime around a local region by creating a configurable energy-density field lower than that of vacuum. Basically, you don't travel faster than light, since that is impossible. Instead, you effectively change the distance you have to travel, resulting in a shorter travel-time. Do you understand it so far?"

Michelle snapped back to reality. "Uh, yeah, I think so. But what happened to Eric?"

"Be patient, I'll get to that. Anyway, the Alcubierre Drive is only one of two parts. It requires an immense amount of energy to transform spacetime. And where does it get this energy from?"

"From a reactor and batteries?" Michelle answered.

"No, those are not powerfull enough to achieve such a process. This is where the Energy Deflector comes in. You see, the Energy Deflector is a system that basically sucks energy from the space around it. Contruary to what you might think, the vacuum of space is not entirely empty. Energy is always flying around, and there's quite a lot of it, if you know where to look! Once it has established a stable field, there is no more energy required, except for some energy to stabilize and direct the field, but this can be managed by a standard reactor."

Michelle started to understand how the Warp-Drive functioned, something she had never thought she would, but she still had a question: "But what about those storm-clouds? What do they have to do with a spacetime-field-thingy?"

The professor responed: "Ah, yes, the clouds, almost forgot! Tell me, what is the first law of thermodynamics?"

"Uhm... Isn't it about something like: Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed?"

"Precisely! This is why the storm-cloud is created. The energy that is put into the field is stored in that same field, and when a ship leaves that field, the field dissapates. But remember the first law of thermodynamics? The energy from the field has to go somewhere! Therefore, the Energy Deflector activates again when the ship leaves the field, but this time, it doesn't suck energy from the enviroment. Instead, it releases the energy outwards, resulting in what looks like a storm-cloud."

"I see. But again, what happened to Eric then? "

"Well, I can't say for certain that it is the definitive cause, but what might have happened, is that the energy was not correctly dissapated. If the energy was transfered into electricity as usual, but the electricity wasn't ejected into space, then it is likely that it fried many of the on-board systems and electronics."

"So what you're saying is that his ship basically short-circuited?" Michelle asked.

"More or less, yeah."

This made Michelle hopefull. "So that means that Eric is still alive!"

"Not necesserily. Look, I don't want you to get your hopes up too soon. It is possible that the electricity was directed into the cockpit, which would have instantly electrocuted him. Or the electricity might have gone into his life-support systems, which would cut of his oxygen. The point is, I do not know if he is still alive. I can, however, help you." Adrianos answered.

"How?"

Adrianos started to show a smile, a distinct contrast from the otherwise professional looking face. "During my time at the University Medical Center Oblivion, or UMCO, and whilst I was at conferences around the empire, I have made quite a few friends in high places. Some of them were even working at the council. I may be able to convince them to set up a search-party, though I'll have to give them a reason to do so. Saving a single civilian is, unfortunatly, not enough. But don't worry, I'll come up with something!"

"You always do, honey!" Christina replied from her study-room. "Just try not to be too stubborn this time though! That always puts the council on edge!"

"Stubborn? Me?! What are you talking about, I'm not stubborn at all!" Adrianos sarcastically said, knowing that he indeed was a bit stubborn sometimes. "Anyway, are you coming Michelle?"

"Where to, if I might ask?"

"To the consulate ofcourse! How else are we going to find your friend?"

After agreeing a plan, Michelle, Adrianos and Christina left for the monorail-station, taking them past the luxury-region of Oblivion. Michelle didn't usually go there, as she stuck out like a sore thumb, but she did enjoy looking at the plants and trees there whenever she had the chance. It was the only part of the space station that actually had real plants, flowers and trees, aside from the hydroponics-department, though the hydroponics-department only really had algea for oxygen-generation and carbondioxide-scrubbing.

They eventually arrived at the consulate, where they were able to go directly to the council, eventhough they were in the middle of a discussion. "Perks of being an important doctor, I suppose!" Adrianos joked, though he was right. The council knew that, if either of the Castello's required the help of the council, it was serious. Adrianos got straight down to bussines:

"Dear members of the council, I have something I need to discuss. For those of you who haven't met me yet, my name is Adrianos Castello, and this is my lovely wife, Christina Castello. With us today, is the lady Michelle... I'm sorry, what was your last name again sweetheart?"

"Oh, right! My name is Yonderia! Michelle Yonderia!" she answered, remembering that she had forgotten to properly introduce herself.

"As I was saying, Michelle Yonderia here has something she wants to share with the council, don't you Michelle?"

"WH-WHAT?!" she said a bit too loud for her own liking. The plan they had made did not involve her speaking to the council of Oblivion, who are some of the most important people in the star-system. "Uhm, right, yeah, uh..."

"Come on, you were gonna say something about Eric, and why you need help from the council, right?"

"What do you mean?! This is not what we agreed to do!" she whispered to Adrianos.

"Listen, I know these people. Hearing a young person like you telling such a sad story, is something they simply can't let go. I'll probably just annoy them even more! Think about those people at Genesis. Think about how they thought that Eric wasn't important enough. Come on, do it for him!"

Something switched in Michelle's head. She was no longer scared. She was angry. Angry at Genesis. Angry at everyone. And she was sure to let the council know. "Alright, listen up! Let me tell you a little story! It's a story about how I lost my friend to bureaucracy. To people who only think about money. To people who judge others by what they're worth. To people who refused to save my friend who was lost in space because of THEM, just because it wasn't financially viable! With an excuse of: 'Oh, he's probably already dead, so it would be wastefull'!"

The council was completely silent. Everyone was at the edge of their seat, listening to the person standing before them. This person that was quiet and shy at first, but was now giving one of the most powerfull speeches they had heard in a long time.

"Good, it seems that I have your attention." Michelle said, noticing the silence in the room. "The friend that I'm reffering to, is Eric Callaghan. He is a close friend of mine, and he was low on credits. I told him about a job that was being offered by Genesis BioTech. All he had to do, was scan a nebula. Simple, right? Well, it wasn't that easy, because after a little while, when Eric was about halfway to his destination, and a few lightyears into uninhabited space, all communication was lost. He is presumed dead."

"But I refuse to believe this. Instead, I believe we should search for him. We owe it to him, as he offered to go out there and explore a new frontier, as mankind has always done." Michelle continued. "And you know what else mankind has always done?"

Nobody said a word. Everyone, including Adrianos and Christina, were completely silent. Then, Michelle said:

"Mankind... Has always stood as one. So why shouldn't we do that now? When someone needs us most! Isn't that what we are all about? Being together, working together, surviving together?"

Author's Note

Names, locations, ships, technologies and events are inspired by various sources, including: Games - Elite: Dangerous, Star Citizen | TV - MLP:FiM, The Expanse | Companies/Organizations - NASA/JPL (Alcubierre Drive)

If you want your character to be featured as a human soldier, pilot, politician or civilian, or a pony civilian, politician or royal guard, please send me a message with the character's name, looks, characteristics, and role if you have any preference. All featured characters will be credited.

Featured Characters:
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Chapter 12 - Search And Rescue

///LOCATION - NUAKEA/OBLIVION TRAFFIC CONTROL///TIME - 09:20 LMT///DATE - 18-05-2232///

Oblivion Station was surrounded with spaceships. There were vessels of all different types and sizes, ranging from hundreds of 1-seater fighters and civilian cargo ships, up to 8 gigantic H2200 Aristotle-Class Railgun Destroyers, provided by the United Earth Navy. There were ships, no matter where you looked. The local Space Traffic Control, or STC, had been working around the clock for multiple days to guide every ship to a safe place around the station.

Initially, the people at the Oblivion-STC were unable to handle the massive number of spaceships that were coming in to help in the search for Eric Callaghan, who had become known as the missing pilot. Luckily though, Olympus was quick to arrive, and the first thing they had done was bring more coördinators to the station to aid with the managment of the incoming wave of vessels. Shortly after these coördinators had arrived, a small fleet of towing-ships warped in, and they began the preparations for the larger vessels that were inbound.

The head of Olympus had been glad when they had heard that the high-court had cleared the Olympus Organization of all charges. Genesis BioTech, a daughter-company of Olympus, was however not so good off. They were instead put under investigation by the High Council of the UEE, and all their operations were seized immediatly, for as long as the investigations were to be underway. Olympus was, however, deemed to be far enough from Genesis in terms of bussines and managment, that they were free to help in the search, and to clear their name.

After a few days, the fleet had gathered. A massive armada of vessels, littering the sky around Oblivion. It was the largest fleet any human had ever seen, and possibly the largest fleet any human would ever see again. Everyone was amazed by the size of the fleet, even Admiral Bishop, who was tasked to lead this fleet trough their mission to find the missing pilot. After he had walked trough the door and had entered the STC-Tower off Oblivion, he received a file from an officer there, which contained a full list of all the vessels that had signed up:

\{O}/// [OPERATION FROZEN NEBULA] \{O}///

[LIST OF ALL ENLISTED VESSELS ORDERED BY SIZE, TASK INCLUDED]

===[SMALL VESSELS]===

185 X H250A DAGGER [ATMOSPHERIC LANDER]

194 X H250C DAGGER [LIGHT CARGO TRANSPORT]

255 X H250G DAGGER [LIGHT FIGHTER]

73 X H250D DAGGER [DROPSHIP]

59 X H250M DAGGER [MINING AND SALVAGING]

84 X H2215EX DIVERTIA [SCANNING]

56 X H2215FA DIVERTIA [STRIKE FIGHTER]

===[MEDIUM VESSELS]===

53 X EU55C HORNET [ATMOSPHERIC CARGO TRANSPORT]

23 X EU55F HORNET [HEAVY ATMOSPHERIC FIGHTER]

33 X EU55FA HORNET [ATMOSPHERIC STRIKE FIGHTER]

40 X EU80B EXOFORTRESS [HEAVY ATMOSPHERIC BOMBER]

28 X EU80D EXOFORTRESS [ATMOSPHERIC VEHICLE DROPSHIP]

H2300 UENFV-75 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-76 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-77 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-78 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-79 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-80 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-81 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-82 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-83 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-84 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-85 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-86 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-87 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-88 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-89 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

===[LARGE VESSELS]===

XH0030S UENIV-88 [SPECTRE-CLASS EXPERIMENTAL CLOAKER]

H3000 UENCV-53 [MIDWAY-CLASS CARRIER]

H3000 UENCV-54 [MIDWAY-CLASS CARRIER]

H3000 UENCV-55 [MIDWAY-CLASS CARRIER]

EU787D UENDCV-27 [MIRAGE-CLASS DRONE CARRIER]

EU707K UENTV-18 [HORIZONS-CLASS SUPERTANKER]

EU707K UENTV-19 [HORIZONS-CLASS SUPERTANKER]

H2200 UENDV-60 [ARISTOTLE-CLASS RAILGUN DESTROYER]

H2200 UENDV-61 [ARISTOTLE-CLASS RAILGUN DESTROYER]

H2200 UENDV-62 [ARISTOTLE-CLASS RAILGUN DESTROYER]

H2200 UENDV-63 [ARISTOTLE-CLASS RAILGUN DESTROYER]

H2200 UENDV-64 [ARISTOTLE-CLASS RAILGUN DESTROYER]

H2200 UENDV-65 [ARISTOTLE-CLASS RAILGUN DESTROYER]

H2200 UENDV-66 [ARISTOTLE-CLASS RAILGUN DESTROYER]

H2200 UENDV-67 [ARISTOTLE-CLASS RAILGUN DESTROYER]

===[CAPITAL VESSELS]===

XH0001 UENCCV-02 [ATLAS-CLASS COMMAND CENTRE]

Admiral Bishop was glad to see that so many people had volunteered to help, altough it did start to dawn on him just how many vessels and lifes he would have to command. When the order for a shared-effort search party was first received, Bishop was uncertain if the reasons of the mission were important enough to send out atleast a quarter of all human spaceships. But, while watching the news, he realised that this event had united the UEE more than ever. It showed how humanity can still stand together, no matter where in the universe they're from.

Something important to note, is that the call for support was only put out for human members of the UEE. Altough there were many alien races included in the UEE, such as the On'San, Iknomi, Lomnéra and Sotrani, many of which were integrated into the UEE, they were still aliens, and were therefore not asked to participate, and were even actively denied from providing assistance.

Admiral Bishop himself was assigned to the largest ship known to human-kind, of which only two were ever constructed. This ship, designation UENCCV-02, was most commonly known as Atlas Beta, with it's twin-sister Atlas Alpha on a permanent mission to guard the capital-planet of Earth, in the Sol system. The Atlas-Class vessels were designed to command multiple fleets at once trough state-of-the-art communication equipment and a unique Artificial Inteligence, known as HANNBAI, or Highly-Advanced Neural Network-Based Artificial Intelligence.

This system was highly controversial when first released to the public, as it required uploading a human in order to function, or as some civilians like to say, the Atlas-Class ships require a 'soul' to properly function, which was not too far from reality. At first, people protested against uploading a human into a warship, but in the midst of the discussions, two twin-sisters volunteered to have their minds uploaded. They knew that they would never be able to return to their real bodies, but they didn't mind that.

The fact that they were twin-sisters also resulted in unforseen side-effects of the neural network. One of the most notable effects, was that the AI's were able to communicate and share data instantly, no matter how far they were apart from each other. The HANNBAI-Proggram was concluded to be limited to the two Atlas ships, as the consequences of Psion-Technology that it was based on were not yet clear.

It was time for Admiral Bishop to give his speech for the people on this mission. The comm-link had been established, and all 5.238.423 people that were tasked with finding the missing pilot, Eric Callaghan, were watching the Admiral on their displays.

"Ladies and gentleman, I, am Admiral Bishop. I will be commanding this endavour to find the one known as Eric Callaghan, who, as you all know, went missing a few days ago after being tasked to explore the Saggitarius Nebula. He offered himself to extend the grasp of human knowledge. Now, we will do what he had done for us. Help. We will help him, as he would have helped humanity. Now, with that out of the way, each pilot will have received instructions for their ship from HANNBAI. In general, all ships up to and including the EU80's in size will be loaded up into their assigned Midway-Class Carriers. In total, there will be a simultaneous jump of 31 ships, jumping a distance of several dozen lightyears, at exactly 12:00 LMT."

"Now then, all captains, please follow HANNBAI's orders, make sure not to collide, adhere by the rules of the carrier-crew, and lastly, I wish you all a safe flight. May fate be with us on this journey!"

With that, all the ships fired their engines. A total of 1.085 ships were moving to dock with their respective carriers, which were hard at work directing everyone into the correct docking-bays. It would take another 2 hours before every ship was docked, and the larger vessels were in position. "Admiral on the bridge!" a crewman yelled on the bridge of the Atlas Beta, as Admiral Bishop marched into the room. He was immediatly greated by the ship's captain, Captain Kevin Lenox.

"Welcome abourd our humble ship, Admiral. I'm sure she'll treat you well!" the Captain said.

"I'm certain she will. How's HANNBAI doing, if I might ask?"

"She's doing fine, although coördinating 1.085 vessels at the same time wasn't too easy for her, but she was able to handle it nonetheless!"

"Glad to hear it. Now, shall we initiate the jump?" the Admiral asked.

"Ofcourse, she's been spooling up her warp-drives whilst all the smaller ships were docking, and all systems are ready to go on your command. I will open a comms-channel to the other UEN-vessels for confirmation, sir!"

A crackling sound could be heard in the bridge of the UENCCV-02, as the communication channel was being opened. After a connection had been established to every UEN ship, the Admiral began giving out orders.

"Attention to all captains. It is almost time. I trust your ships are all ready for the maneauver?"

He received multiple confirmations from all the ships, letting him know that they were ready to go.

"Very well then. Captain Lenox, activate the drive!"

"Aye aye, sir!" the Captain answered, and he pressed the button. A loud sound could be heard throughout all the ships, and many of the civilians began to be scared. They had never experienced the power of the largest warp-drive in existance. It was quite a sight to see. The entire fleet was in close formation, with the gigantic Atlas-Class Command ship in the center of it all.

Then, at exactly 12:00 Local Mean Time, in the Nuakea system, close to Oblivion Station, the vacuum of space was suddenly empty again, as the fleet jumped towards the last known position of the missing pilot, Eric Callaghan.

"Wait, is that it?" Michelle asked, looking out of the window of the lounge at Deck 5 of Atlas-Beta. "I was expecting more... pizzaz, I guess? Are we even moving?!"

"I presume, from your reaction, that you have never travelled in a spaceship?" Adrianos asked.

"I have, but I have never gone outside of the Nuakea system. I just travelled to Admiral Thirsk Orbital a few times, but never using a warp-drive."

"Well, believe it or not, we are actually currently travelling faster than light!"

"Huh? I thought you said that going faster than the speed of light was impossible?!"

"It is."

"Then how are we travelling faster than the speed of light?!"

"We aren't."

"Huh?! But you just said-"

"I said we were going faster than light, not the speed of light. Yes, our velocity relative to the space directly around us is far from the speed that light travels at. But remember how warp-drives work? We are moving the space around us, thus making us reach our destination faster than light!" Adrianos explained with a smile.

"Haha, very funny..." Michelle sarcastically said.

"It is, isn't it?"

"Sure, if you say so..." She quietly said. "Don't worry Eric, we're on our way!"

As the fleet was moving trough the darkness of space, the 1.085 ships and their crew-members were being assigned into squadrons. Each squadron received their own role, some of which were support-roles, whilst some roles were to be put to use as soon as the fleet left warp-travel. Eitherway, every ship and every person on the mission had a task, and a way to be usefull.

In the VR-Area's aboard the carriers, the experienced UEN-Sailors were bringing the civilians up to speed with UEN tactics and strategies, as well as a variety of other usefull stuff that would be of extreme importance if they ever wanted to survive a conflict in space. The reason for combat-training and preparations, was the fact that the UEE had no clue to the reason of the loss of Eric Callaghan. Nobody knew what had happened, and as long as that was the case, no risks were to be taken.

///LOCATION - NLTT-511///TIME - 23:32 LMT///DATE - 18-05-2232///

Out in the depths of space, an incredibly flash was created as the armada of vessels left warp-travel at the last-known location of Eric Callaghan. A massive cloud surrounded all the ships as Atlas-Beta's Warp-Drive tried to dissipate all the energy of the now collapsed field.

"Alcubierre Field nullified! Initiating Energy-Deflector!" the Warp-Engineer yelled across the bridge of the Atlas. "Siphoning energy to UENDV 60 trough 67!" Engineers were running around to ensure that the dissipation of kinetic energy into electrical energy went without a problem. As they did, people all across the Atlas were being shaken about by the forces rippling throughout the hull. Most people had never experienced the warp of a ship of such magnitude.

A special feature of the Energy-Deflector aboard the Atlas, was that it could direct where the energy was being transferred to. As soon as the engineers noticed that there was too much energy to safely release into space, they had immediatly established an electrical link to the Aristotle-Class Railgun Destroyers. The energy went directly into the massive capacitors meant to charge the MRG-6000 Kinetic Penetrator Railguns, and was safely stored there, to be later used in combat.

After all the energy had been redirected, the shaking seized as swiftly as it had begun. People were relieved to hear that the jump had been succesfull, especially as the jump was quite a long one.

"11 hours, 32 minutes and 28 seconds, sir. Pretty good, isn't it?"

"Not bad Captain, not bad at all." Admiral Bishop acknowledged. Even he was impressed by what the Atlas could do.

"Nothing on the radar, nor anything on visual scanners. Should we send out the forward observer squadrons, sir?" Captain Lenox.

"I believe that would be our best option at this point. I'll be heading to my quarters. Let me know when the first reports come in."

"Ofcourse sir."

Author's Note

Names, locations, ships, technologies and events are inspired by various sources, including: Games - Elite: Dangerous, Star Citizen | TV - MLP:FiM, The Expanse | Companies/Organizations - NASA/JPL (Alcubierre Drive)

If you want your character to be featured as a human soldier, pilot, politician or civilian, or a pony civilian, politician or royal guard, please send me a message with the character's name, looks, characteristics, and role if you have any preference. All featured characters will be credited.

Featured Characters:
Lightning Sky - Oskar

Fun Fact!
Kevin Lenox is the actual current Commanding Officer of the USS Nimitz, CVN-68 of the United States Navy.

Chapter 13 - Shackles

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/EQUESTRIA/CANTERLOT///TIME - 04:41 LMT///DATE - 19-05-2232///

His mind spun around like a ship with a malfunctioning RCS-system. He hadn't eaten anything since he was put in that cell. They had offered him plenty of food, but none of it was to Eric's liking.

"How many times do I have to tell you, that I am NOT eating those GODDAMN FLOWERS! Now you better get me something good, or you are gonna have to pull my GODDAMN CORPSE out of this GODDAMN CELL!" he yelled at the guards standing across the hallway. He had hoped to receive something else than daisy-looking flowers, but that was all that he had received for nutrition, aside from a glass of water every now and then. Atleast he wasn't going to die from dehydration.

One of the guards looked over at his colleague. "Can't we just shoot it? I mean, is anyone really going to care about that thing?" he asked to his fellow guard. As much as he was intrigued by the weird nature of the creature behind those bars, he didn't like having to listen to that annoying screeching.

"We can't, the scientists wanted to get a better understanding of it. Figure out what it's saying and where it came from." the other guard responded, looking over at his colleague.

"Pfft, i don't think it's even saying anything! It's just making loud and weird-sounding noises!"

"I guess that could be true, but we don't know for sure, do we? We'll just have to endure it." the guard said, looking back towards the door.

"I guess you're right. Still, that thing just annoys me so much!" the other guard said, after which he also turned back towards the celldoor.

"Well, the scientists should be starting their investigation sometime this day, so just be patient."

"Hmpf, if you say so..."

Suddenly, and without warning, the sky lit up as if it was the middle of the day, the atmosphere exposed to a bright blue light, after which it dissapeared just as swiftly as it had appeared. The guards quickly looked at each other with a look of confusion. They were waiting for the obvious rumble of a lightning strike, but much to their surprise, it was never heard. Then, something happened, something that neither of the guards had expected to see: Their prisoner was... smiling.

"Finally! It's about time! Come on, just find the beacon, and then I can finally get out of here!" Eric yelled at the sky trough the tiny window of his cell. Unlike the guards, he knew the exact cause of the flash.

"What in Tartarus is that thing saying now?!" one of the guards said.

"I already told you, I understand it just as good as you do!"

"So, not at all?"

"I thought that was obvious. Anyway, it seems the scientists are here. Look alive!" he said, pointing his hoof in the direction of a small group that was approaching them at a steady pace.

The unicorn that was leading the small entourage of other scientists was the first to speak. "Hello, I am professor Goodall. I'm with the Royal Canterlot Science Department, Anthropomorphism Division. I presume that -this- is the target of our upcoming investigation?"

"Corporal Stormflare, 1st Garrison Division, 5th Regiment, 3rd Division, and yes, this thing over here will be your subject." the guard responded.

"Good to hear. I hope you treated it well?"

"Pfft, yeah right, that darn thing hasn't eaten anything we gave him. I bet he's gonna die of starvation pretty soon!"

"Oh dear, that doesn't sound good! It is imperritive that we find a means to communicate with this creature, in order for us to understand how it got here, and what the thing was that it was found next to."

"You mean the weird metal object where they recovered him?" the guard asked.

"Exactly. Now, let's get our subject over here to our laboratory. I hope that it will consume some of the foods that we have at our disposal there. We wouldn't want it to die, now would we?"

"No, ofcourse not. That would be terrible." A sarcastic response was all that Goodall was going to get out of the Corporal.

"Either way, I suppose the two of you are also tasked with escorting the subject to the lab?"

"Yes, we will prep him for transport immediatly!" the guard said, after which he opened the cell-door. He walked in, and with a fell swoop, he knocked Eric unconcious with the back of his rifle.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Goodall furiously exclaimed, completely put off-guard by the violent handling of her subject.

"Like I said, I'm preparing the prisoner for transport. That thing is known to be dangerous and violent, so this is the only way that we can safely transport it, whether you like it or not."

"You maniac, we could have tried talking to it! Either way, I don't think we'll be needing you help anymore. The subject is OUR problem now. You, are done."

Author's Note

Writer's block is a b*tch. Especially when you are trying to squeeze in some writing-time between studying for tests.

If you want your character to be featured as a human soldier, pilot, politician or civilian, or a pony civilian, politician or royal guard, please send me a message with the character's name, looks, characteristics, and role if you have any preference. All featured characters will be credited.

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Chapter 14 - Target Acquired

///LOCATION - NLTT-512///TIME - 04:45 LMT///DATE - 19-05-2232///

Crossroads = HQ [Colonel] Mr. Jayden Bonython (XH-0001 UENCCV-02 Atlas-Class Command Centre)

Falcon 3-1 = Squadron-Leader, flight Falcon 3 [Captain] Mr. Carl S. Combs (H2215FA Divertia)

Falcon 3-2 = Reconnaisance-Specialist, flight Falcon 3 [First Lieutenant] Mr. Sebastian Morrison (H2215EX Divertia)

Falcon 3-3 = Communications-Specialist, flight Falcon 3 [Second Lieutenant] Mrs. Emma M. Johansen (H2215EX Divertia)

Falcon 3-4 = Defence-Specialist, flight Falcon 3 [Second Lieutenants] Mr. Darcy Ciantar & Mr. Taj Willson (EU-55F Hornet)

"Falcon 3-1, Falcon 3-1, this is Crossroads, message, over."

"This is Falcon 3-1, send message, over."

"Falcon 3-1, we are picking up your transponders on trackers. Please confim succesfull warp, over."

"Affirm, warp succesfull, current position is grid 052832 in NLTT-512. Standing by, over."

"Copy Falcon 3-1, your orders are as follows: Scan the local solar system. If anything comes up, proceed to target for detailed scan. How copy, over."

"Scan system, proceed to target if discovered. Falcon 3-1, copy."

"Good copy Falcon 3-1. Crossroads out."

"Hey Combs, what exactly are we looking for again?" the Communications-Specialist asked.

"Like I told you, we are looking for that missing pilot. Eric Caller, Callhoy, something like that."

"And how exactly are we going to find him then? Finding a small and damaged ship in the depths of space isn't exactly easy!"

"That's where Lieutenant Morrison comes into play!" the Squadron-Leader said.

The Recon-Specialist interupted: "That's First Lieutenant, sir. But you lot may call me Sebastian."

"Right, First Lieutenant, sorry. Anyway, Sebastian here is our Reconnaisance-Specialist, with his upgraded vessel. The scanners on that thing are massive."

"They sure are!" said Hornet-Gunner Taj Willson. "You compensating for something Sebastian?"

"Very funny, but this thing is seriously powerfull. I'm even picking up things fro- Wait, shouldn't there only be 4 ships around here?" Sebastian asked.

Combs was confused by this question, and asked Sebastian to clarify. "Yeah, why are you asking? Are you picking up anyone else? Maybe our target?"

"I don't think so, the object that I'm picking up is way too small. It is more the size of a drone, or a probe. Nothing that a person could survive inside. Question is, how did it get here?" the Recon-Specialist explained. "Should I scan it, Combs?"

"Well, are you our recon-specialist or not?"

"Yeah yeah, I got it. Give me a second..." Sebastian focused his instruments on the small object, which was not more than half a meter in diameter. It took a while, because of the small size of the object, but after about a minute, the scan was completed. "Uhh, Combs, I have good news and bad news."

"Don't be so dramatic, this is a serious situation, not some damn novel or something. Just tell me what's up!" Combs snorted. He had a thing against drama.

"Fine, here's the deal: The object is a probe, Yota-Model. Designed for orbital surveys. The labelling shows that it is property of Genesis BioTech, but it is not activated. Maybe Eric dropped it out here?"

"Why would he just ditch a perfectly fine probe? Those things cost a fortune."

"Well, there's more. It seems the probe is sending out some sort of signal, but I can't decipher it."

Emma Johansen, the Comms-Specialist, thought that she might have a solution. "I can run it trough my computers to see if it can decipher it?"

"It's worth a shot." Morrison said. "Alright, sending the link now."

"Let's see what this little thing has to say..." The communicational computers aboard Johansen's Divertia went to town on the signal, trying every possible decription protocol in order to understand the message. After attempting atleast a few dozen different combinations and frequencies, the system finally locked down the transmission. "Got it!"

"Well, what does it say?" the rest of the squadron asked, in near flawless unison.

"Hang on, give me a second..." she said, as she listened to the recording. "It's... Eric!"

"What?! Are you sure?" Combs asked.

"Yup, clear as a pulsar. I'll forward the audio to you."

"...This is Commander Eric Callaghan, tailnumber PH-KDN, repeat, PAPA HOTEL KILO DELTA NOVEMBER. I lost most of my onboard systems, and the Warp-Drive has malfunctioned. My life-support systems are damaged, and I'm running out of oxygen. If you are hearing this, please send help! I will attempt to land at NLTT-512-3A. Please, help me! Help me..."

"Well, that doesn't sound particulary good." Combs stated.

Hornet-pilot Darcy Cianter acknowledged. "By the sound of things, he'd like for us to hurry up."

"Well, can you blame him?" retorded Johansen.

"You know what I meant Emma!"

"Like I told you a million times, you call me Johansen while on mission, got it?!"

Combs intervened. "Now is not really the time for such issues. The two of you can discuss this later, as we have more pressing concerns at the moment. We have to inform Atlas to our findings as soon as possible, and then await orders. We can't go out there on our own, something in this solar system might be causing issues with spaceships, and I don't know about you, but I sure as hell don't want to end up like Eric! Johansen, get me a link with Crossroads ASAP!"

"On it sir!"

Radio-chatter was relatively calm. There were a few teams that were reporting that they had reached their destination, all of them with negative results. One of the teams, Falcon 6, was just informing Crossroads that they were receiving some odd readings, most likely due to the neutron star that their squadron was in close proximity with, when they were abruptly cut off by an urgent message coming in from Falcon-3.

"BREAK BREAK BREAK, this is Falcon 3-1 to Crossroads, come in Crossroads, over!"

"This is Crossroads, what the HELL is so DAMN IMPORTANT Falcon 3-1, over?!"

"We have found an emergency broadcast from the target, Eric Callaghan!"

In his excitement, Combs even forgot about proper communication procedures. Luckily, the Colonel didn't seem to mind it that much.

"Falcon 3-1, you have found the target? Please confirm, over!"

"Negative Crossroads, we have not located the target, however, we are roughly aware of our target's position, over."

"Copy Falcon 3-1, please transmit the location, over."

"Target's suspected location is NLTT-512-3A, propability is high. From what we could gather so far, it is a planet with a temperate and breathable climate, consisting of one major landmass, and several smaller islands, all surrounded by a connecting ocean. The exact location of the target on this planet is unkown. Please advise, over."

"Copy your last Falcon 3-1, your task is as follows: Proceed to 3A, establish visual on the planet, and get us more info on the planet. Stay on this frequency at all times. How copy, over."

"Proceed to target, gather intel, stay on frequency. Wilco, Falcon 3-1, out."

Author's Note

A big help for this chapter was this webpage, where I learned about different military communication procedures. This chapter was decently delayed due to sickness, but I'm happy to report that I'm back behind the keyboard! Lastly, Eric's ship's tailnumber, PH-KDN, is actually the tailnumber of the aircraft that I normally fly with in real life.

If you want your character to be featured as a human soldier, pilot, politician or civilian, or a pony civilian, politician or royal guard, please send me a message with the character's name, looks, characteristics, and role if you have any preference. All featured characters will be credited.

Featured Characters:
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Chapter 15 - Royal Biological Laboratory

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/EQUESTRIA/CANTERLOT/R.B.L.///TIME - 07:38 LMT///DATE - 19-05-2232///

A bright light hung above the table on which Eric was strapped stuck. His arms and legs were tied to the edges of the hard surface by rough leather straps, digging into his sore limbs with every movement of his painfull muscles. He had given up all hope of getting loose almost as soon as he had awoken from his pain-induced slumber. All willpower was lost, and he had given up hope, waiting to find out what was to come of this mysterious predicament.

He had been dragged out of his cell onto a stretcher, after the painfull blow to his head, which had knocked him out just as efficiently as the rough landing, which he barely survived. He wasn't sure how long he had been unconcious, but the light coming from a small window high up on the wall of the partially lit room suggested that the sun had risen above the horizon. He had a hard time figuring out where he was, as the hit to the head had resulted in a disorientating headache.

After a while, he started to more clearly notice his surroundings. The blurred shapes scattered around the room were apparantly various surgical tools, much to Eric's disgust. The only place where he had witnessed such old-fashioned devices had been when he had partaken in a medical history-lesson that Michelle had asked Eric to attend. There, they showed various illustrations of medical equipment from long ago, tools such as knifes, which Eric had only ever thought of as a tool to cut wires in his ship's electonics when he had to conduct maintenance.

He had learned that about 200 years ago, humans would cut a person open to see inside of the body, something that Eric was unfamiliar with. It made no sense to him, as all he had ever known was doctors using nano-machines to insert miniscule arms into the injured bodypart, which could operate inside the human body without cutting anything open. Realizing that this hadn't always been the case, Eric became more and more glad that he lived in a time where medical technology had reached such sufistication.

And now, Eric was laying in a room filled with these nightmarish machines, strapped to a cold table in an uncomfortable manner. He knew pretty well what the reason for all those devices was, but he didn't want to admit it to himself. He denied the possibility of it, though he knew that he would have to admit it at some point. He knew, that the aliens who captured him and locked him up, would do the same thing as aliens from the movies he had seen: They would dissect him.

"Oh my, I'm sorry, I would've thought that those guards would have atleast turned on the lights!"

The bright light above Eric's head was turned off, after which a bunch of lights of lesser brightness were turned on. He tried to look around to find the source of the sound, which he had come to the conclusion as being the aliens' language. he hadn't come far in terms of translation, but he had a rough idea of the emotions that were portrayed with different tones. He had also recognized some sort of difference in accents between the aliens, though he wasn't sure if it was really a difference in accent, or just normal.

"Now why did they strap you down? I told them that it'd be okay for you to be allowed some freedom, but ofcourse they didn't listen. Stubborn as ever, I suppose." After the creature had spoken again, Eric saw the straps around his arms and legs loosen up, to the point of being completely removed. He sat up straight, still a bit shaken up from the hit to his head. He looked around once more, and noticed the origin of the voice.

He had come to peace with the idea that he had found real, living, presumibly talking horses, or rather ponies. They appeared to be too small to be horses, though Eric wasn't too sure. He wasn't raised on a farm-planet after all, so his knowledge of animals was limited. He was even okay with the fact that some of them were unicorns, and other were pegasuses, or was it pegasi? He wasn't sure. "And who the hell are you?"

"My name is Professor Goodall, head of the Royal Biological Laboratory's Anthropomorphism Division. You are currently in one of our special interrogation rooms. I hope you are feeling well?" The unicorn replied, noticing the wounds on his subject.

Eric looked at the pony with a confused look. He wasn't sure, but it had seemed that the unicorn was... Replying? Could it understand him? Only one way to figure that out. "I'm not sure if you can understand me, but if you can, nod your head like this two times." he said, followed with an action that the unicorn would only have to mimmick in order for Eric to confirm his suspicion. Much to his surprise, the unicorn did as he requested, nodding its head twice. Eric was perplexed.

"Ofcourse I understand you, it's my job after all." Goodall said. "But it seems that you can't quite understand me. Here, I'll fix that." He focused his magic on Eric's brain and vocal cords, which Goodall had determined were in roughly the same position as with ponies. He filled Eric's head with the linguistic knowledge of the pony-language, granting him the ability to properly communicate with the ponies. Atleast, that's what would've happened if everything had gone to plan.

Due to a slight miscalculation the the professor's part, he hadn't accounted for the fact that Eric would no longer be able to speak any normal human language anymore, although he would retain the ability to understand it. He had changed Eric's vocal chords to the point where all he could speak was Equestrian, which Eric figured out almost immediatly.

"Ugh, I don't know what you did to me, but my throat..." Eric stopped. He looked to nowhere in particular, with a look of shock in his eyes. Was that really him? He wasn't speaking English, that much he knew, but he wasn't sure what he was speaking. It sounded like the language of the ponies, but he... understood it? How was that possible? "WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!" he shouted at Goodall.

Author's Note

Writing in different languages is fun! *Sarcasm*

If you want your character to be featured as a human soldier, pilot, politician or civilian, or a pony civilian, politician or royal guard, please send me a message with the character's name, looks, characteristics, and role if you have any preference. All featured characters will be credited.

Featured Characters:
Lightning Sky - Oskar

Chapter 16 - Words for Thought, Thought for Words

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/EQUESTRIA/R.B.L.///TIME - 07:40 LMT///DATE - 19-05-2232///

"I WILL GIVE YOU ONE MORE CHANCE! WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!" Eric yelled, still shaken up from the realisation that he was now speaking an equine language.

Professor Goodall was still as calm as he always was. "Like I said, I merely altered your vocal chords, and granted you the ability to understand Equestrian, all in one spell. Lingua Doctrina is quite an advanced spell, but I have studied it for long enough to understand it's proper function. Now, if you would please refrain from shouting or being enraged, we can try to continue, understood?"

Eric was still angry, but he also wanted to understand what was happening. The only one that seemed to have a good grasp on the situation, was this unicorn, which he could now understand. It would still take some time for him to process all of this. "Alright then, but first, I'd like to know just what exactly is going on."

"That's quite reasonable. First off, let me introduce myself, as I have seem to not have done so yet. My name is Goodall, I am a professor in Anthropomorphism at the Royal Biological Laboratory, which is where we are currently located. What is your name, if I might ask?"

"I'm Eric Callaghan, and I am a UEE-citizen. You have no right to hold me here against my will!"

"Well, mister Callaghan, first off, didn't we agree that we weren't going to shout? We wouldn't want the guards to think that I'm in trouble. Second, we're not holding you against your will. You are free to leave as you please. Lastly, what exactly-" Goodall couldn't finish his sentence, as Eric was already on his way to the door. He opened it, but was immediatly stopped by two guards, standing at the other side of the door with their rifles ready.

"Free to leave, huh?" Eric said.

"You are free to leave, AFTER you answered some of my questions. That was my fault, I suppose I should have made myself clear. Now, if you would please sit back down, we can continue."

Eric didn't like where this was going, but he knew that even those old-fashioned guns could seriously hurt him, if not kill him immediatly. He wouldn't be able to defend himself either, as he was unarmed. His pistol was in th ehands of Michelle, who was probably worried sick back at Oblivion. He decided that the best course of action would be to coöperate, and to see what would happen. Maybe Goodall was being truthfull.

He sat back down on the edge of the table, and Goodall returned to his clipboard with questions, which he was hovering in front of himself. The fact that these beings possesed anti-gravity devices, but were still using ancient rifles at the same time, was something that he would have to figure out the reason for at a later date. Goodall continued with his question. "Now, as I was about to ask, what exactly do you mean by UEE?"

"UEE, or United Earth Federation, is a collection of planets and space-stations, formed in the year 2098. The goal of the UEE was to unite the powers of Earth to face the alien threat."

"I'm sorry, space-stations? I've never heard of those, but I presume from the name that they are some sort of transfer hub in the sky?" Goodall asked, confused.

"Kinda, yeah. Some stations are transfer-hubs, but some have other purposes. There are research-station, mining-station, farming-stations, military-stations, and so forth. I was born in a space-station, called Oblivion, in the Nuakea System. I believe Oblivion is a research-station, though I'm not really sure. And you're right, they are high in the sky. Really high, actually. Most of them are circling more or less 400 kilometers above the surface of a planet, but the height depends on the diameter and gravity of the planet."

"Fascinating... But tell me, just how exactly did you get here? I presume from your explanation that you are not from this world?"

"That would be correct, professor. Like I said, I'm from Oblivion. I bought my own spaceship a few years ago, a beautifull and brandnew H2215EX Divertia, which is what your guards found me in."

"So, hang on, let me get this straight: You... are from space? And you can travel from planet to planet in a... ship?" the professor summed up.

"Basically, yes. But we can travel further than just between planets."

"What do you mean?" the professor looked at the creature from space with curiosity radiating from his eyes.

"Well, we can travel between stars aswell. The station that I'm from is quite far away. I'm not sure how far exactly, as I'm not even sure where I am, but it is atleast a few dozen lightyears."

"I know I keep asking more and more, and I hope you don't mind, but what are lightyears?"

"That's fine, I like talking, especially after being stranded in space for a few days, and then taken prisoner with nobody to talk to. Lightyears are a measurement of distance. It's quite easy, actually. One lightyear equels the distance that light can travel within one year."

"I see. That must be a really long distance then."

"It is. Do you by any chance use distances like kilometers and such." Eric asked.

"As a matter of fact, we do!" Goodall said, surprised by the fact that an alien form an entirely different solar system used the same measurement-method as they did. Why this was the case, he didn't know, but he suspected that it was due to the fact that it was simply a logical and universely capable method. Clearly a good standard for the universe.

"Well, one lightyear is roughly 9,5 trillion kilometers. So yeah, it's quite a distance!"

"Fascinating! I can't even imagine how advanced your species must be. How many of you are there, if I might ask. In case you are curious, Equestria has a total population of around 59 million ponies. That's quite a lot, isn't it?"

"I presume that Equestria is the nation that we are currently in?" Eric asked.

"It is, yes."

"That's quite a decent number, though us humans are a bit more numerous. I'm not sure what the current total is, but last time i checked, the counter was somewhere around 630 billion people, all planets and stations included."

"630 BILLION?! Excuse me, but that seems rather impossible! Even if you are that advanced, there is simply no way that you can have a nation with a population of 630 billion inhabitants."

"Well, you are right, it couldn't fit in a nation that you are acustomed to. However, keep in mind that the human race has colonized a few dozen solar systems, and that we have built even more space-stations."

"And just how big are those stations then?"

"I'm not sure about the exact size, though I do know that most stations have a population of around 1 and a half million."

"Unbelievable... And here I was, thinking that you were just another mythical being from the Everfree Forest. We have to discuss this with the princesses!" Goodall exclaimed with excitement.

"Ah, so you have a monarch?" Eric noted.

"Two, to be exact. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna." Goodall said with pride.

"And who's your queen or king?"

"Uhm, what do you mean?"

"Well, if there's a princess, or rather two of them, then there must be a ruling king or queen, right?"

"I'm not sure what you mean. Maybe it is different where you're from, but here, the only queen I've ever heard of is Queen Chrysalis..." Goodall went silent. He had clearly said something that he didn't like to discuss.

"Anyway" he said. "The princesses are the reigning ponies. They control this beautifull land known as Equestria."

"So, what do we do now?" Eric asked.

"Well, I presume you had some personal belongings with you on that... -ship- of yours? I suggest we go and collect those, before those guards do. They are good at their job, don't get me wrong, but they aren't really good when it comes to something else than shooting things."

"Yeah, I've noticed that..." Eric said, pointing towards the back of his head, which had been hit multiple times by different ponies. The first time was by that guard in the cargo-hold of his ship, and the second time was in his cell, when they knocked him unconscious. "Anyway, you're right, I would like to return to my ship. Maybe get some stuff to contact the UENRS."

"UENRS?"

"Yeah, the United Earth Navy Rescue Service. They basically come and help people when their ship has malfunctioned." Eric explained.

"Is something wrong with your ship then?"

"Are you kidding me? Have you seen the state that my beautifull vessel is in?! She's ripe for scrapping! I just hope I can salvage enough to establish communications with a UENRS-vessel so they can come and pick me up." Eric exclaimed.

"Hmm, I don't know that much about space, but I do know somepony who does!"

"Somepony?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's just... Us humans normally say somebody instead of somepony. Which one would you like me to use?"

"I don't really mind, but I'd suggest saying somepony when talking to other ponies. Although it will probably be a while until you will be allowed to talk to civilians..."

"What do you mean?"

"Seriously? You are an ALIEN! There's now way that the princesses will allow such news to spread! Can you imagine what kind of chaos that might cause?"

Eric thought about the history-lessons about the First Encounter. That was about a 100-or-so years ago, when humanity first met alien life. Those On'San had caused quite some panic, which was actually justified, as they started bombing Earth almost as soon as we made first contact. "Yeah, I think I can imagine what that would be like."

"Still, the civilians can't know about this, but the military can. They will escort us to the crash-site, as there have been reports of changeling-activity around that area."

"Changelings?" Eric asked. He then looked trough the window, and noticed that they had been talking for a few hours already, and he was starting to get really hungry and thirsty. "Actually, nevermind, we can discuss that later. Right now, I just need to eat and drink something."

"Oh, ofcourse!" Goodall replied. "From what I heard from the guards, you do not like our food, or atleast not flowers?"

"You're correct in assuming that! Back where I'm from, flowers are decoration, not food. We normally eat vegetables and some plants though, and meat ofcourse."

"...Meat?" Goodall replied. He suddenly appeared far less excited. Instead, he seemed more scared than curious. He took a few steps back, keeping his eyes on Eric.

"Are you okay?" Eric asked, looking at the unicorn in confusion.

"It's just... I..."

"Oh, I see." Eric replied. He had figured out what the issue was. "You ponies are herbivores, aren't you?"

"Uhm, yes, that's... right."

"Well, humans are actually omnivores. We have evolved to eat both meat and plants. There have been discussions about whether we really NEED to eat meat, and after some research, we came to the conclusion that, while it is not neccesery, it is recommended for humans to eat meat atleast once a week."

"I... See..." Goodall started to understand. He was still taken back by the fact that he had been talking to a flesh-eating monster, but Eric's explanation seemed to make sense. He would have to investigate it further though. "Well, I suppose that's fine, but we don't really have any... meat... in the canteen. Or anywhere, for that matter. What kinds of plants do you eat then?"

Eric told Goodall about some of the plants that were most commonly produced on the farming-stations and planets, and Goodall knew some of those, which he went to get. Eric sat there, on that table, on an alien world.

"Who knew I'd get to talk to a unicorn one day!"

Author's Note

This chapter basically wrote itself! I'm rather happy with the dialogue, as this is still something that I'm inexperienced with. I do believe, however, that I have dragged this chapter out more than I should have.

If you want your character to be featured as a human soldier, pilot, politician or civilian, or a pony civilian, politician or royal guard, please send me a message with the character's name, looks, characteristics, and role if you have any preference. All featured characters will be credited.

Featured Characters:
Lightning Sky - Oskar

Chapter 17 - The Arrival

///LOCATION - NLTT-512///TIME - 8:23 LMT///DATE - 19-05-2232///

Just like a few days ago in a different solar system, a bright light shun across the sky of NLTT-512, showering the worlds in its rays. The origin of the light came from the arrival of the 3rd Defense Fleet, which was closer than ever to completing its task: Find Eric Callaghan.

Back in Equestria, everyone looked up at the sky, trying to find the source of the mysterious light. Eventually, some were able to make out faint shapes out in the brightest parts of the sky. No-one was able to identify the object, and some thought that they were simply seeing things due to the incredible brightness eminating from those shapes.

"What is that?!" Goodall shouted. He taken Eric out of the building, and he was walking with him towards a truck that was being driven by part of the 2nd Logistical Batallion. Eric was still not trusted by the Guards, and he was therefore forced to have his hands tied together with rope behind his back. Goodall turned to Eric, and asked: "Do you have any idea what's going on?!"

Eric didn't respond. He just looked up at the sky, at the presence of the massive armada. He knew that they were looking for him. He knew that it wouldn't take them long to find him. He knew what that fleet was capable of. And most importantly, he knew that his captors knew nothing. He didn't respond to Goodall's question. Instead, he turned to the 2 Guards escorting him, and said: "If I were you, I'd be VERY carefull about your next step."

Solar Streak had just arrived at Lightning Sky's house, when he was suddenly blinded by the strange light. He ran towards a window, and looked at the sky in awe. Never had he seen such things. The weird shapes, moving, glowing, far out in space. The bright shining light had ceased, and in its place, a group of objects similair to the one they found Eric in, but many times larger, was now hovering between the planets. The exact shapes of the objects were hard to make out at such a distance, but Solar recognised atleast one thing.

The blinking red lights.

"Argh, my head hurts..." Lightning moaned, rubbing the sides of his head with his wings. The bright light had given him a headache, eventhough he hadn't even looked outside. The mere reflection of the light off of other things was still enough. "What in Tartarus was that?!" he asked with confusion.

"I'm not sure, but I suspect that it has something to do with the alien that we found. You know, the one with the ship?" Solar replied, unsure of what was about to happen. "I might be wrong, and I hope I am, but I think that those -things- out there are similair to the ship that the alien arrived in, only a lot bigger."

"Seriously?! We should do something! Anything!"

"Calm down! Right now, there isn't much we CAN do. We'll just have to wait and see what happens."

"Haven't you ever read one of those comics about aliens? They are going to invade us! That first one was just a scout!"

"Relax! We'll be fine! Even if they attack, we will win. Do you have any idea how advanced our military is?"

"Well, yeah, I did, but still..."

"So calm down. It's going to be okay."

"If you say so..."

Solar had finally managed to calm down Lightning, when someone knocked on the front-door.

"I'm coming, hang on." Lightning yelled to the door, as he started to walked to see who was out there. Whoever was at the door, they had to be in a rush, as they kept knocking. "Calm down, I'll be there in a sec!" "There, how can I help..." He was interupted by one of the two Guards standing at his door, both of which were wearing their standard DPU's.

"Sir, we received word that Captain Streak was at this location. Is that correct?" One of them said in a strict tone.

"Uhm... Yes, he's here... Should I go get him?" Lightning asked.

"No need." the Guard said, as he proceeded to push Lightning aside, as he entered his house. The other Guard followed, and the two of them trotted straight towards the livingroom, where they found Solar, who was lost in thought. Solar snapped out of focused-mode, and looked up at the Guards. He quickly noticed their patches, and realized that they were part of his Regiment, though they were 1st Division, not 2nd Division like him.

"How may I help you gentlecolts?" he asked, eventhough he already knew the reason of their presence.

"Captain Streak, we are here to notify you that General Armor has requested your presence." One of the Guards answered.

"Ah, I see. Well, I suppose I shouldn't leave him waiting! I'm sorry Lightning, I'll see you soon!" Solar said, as he proceeded to walk out of the door with the Guards, who were guiding him to a truck waiting outside. Just before he got in, he looked back at Lightning, and said: "Oh, and don't worry! If the aliens arrive, I'll make sure to create a good first impression!"

The Public-Announcement-System aboard the various vessels of the 3rd Defense Fleet switched on with a crackling sound. Shortly after that, Admiral Bishop could be heard announcing their arrival. The warp was succesfull, and all systems were in optimal shape.

"Listen up!" he said. "Although we have made it to our destination, we are far from done. While it is good that we were able to locate the rough whereabouts of Eric Callaghan, we will still have to keep looking. So far, we only know which planet he is on, namely planet NLTT-512-3A. Now, Captain Lenox would like to give you all some more information on the planet, since many of you will have to land there, and walk around. Captain, the microphone is yours."

"Thank you Admiral." said Captain Kevin Lenox from the bridge of UENCCV-02. "Scans from Falcon 3's Squadron have shown that this planet is an Earth-like world, complete with vegetation, and a suitable atmosphere for human life. Mister Callaghan was lucky to have found a planet like this. The ground-teams will be able to walk around on the planet and look for the target without requiring Atmo-Suits, which will greatly improve performance. However, just because the air won't kill you, doesn't mean other things won't kill you either."

Many people, especially the civilians who signed up for the mission to help, were confused as to what he was talking about. At the same time, many of the Marines were quite certain that they knew exactly where he was going with this, and they were not looking forward to it.

"You see, we have detected movement across the planet. What this means, is that there's alien-life on this world."

Now, even more people were starting to get worried. "Do they mean creatures like the On'San or Iknomi, or more like the Lomnéra and Sotrani?" some asked.

"We're not certain as to the intelligence of these creatures, or the threat that they pose to our mission, but we are damn sure that they won't stand a chance against our armaments and defences. Now, before we make planetfall, your Squad-Leaders will brief you on your task, and they will inform you in terms of your equipment."

In the end, a corps of 80.000 men and women was established, which was divided into 4 battalions of 20.000, each of which was seperated into 8 regiments of 2.500 each, which in turn consisted of 5 500-strong divisions. Battalions 1 and 2 were the main bulk of forces, tasked with security and search for the target. 3rd Battalion consisted primarily of trained Marines, and they would be stationed on the UENCV-53, which was equipped with Orbital Drop-Pods for QRF-purposes. The 4th Battalion was designated as a Logistical Battalion, meaning that they would handle supplies and equipment, both on the ground and on the ships.

Each Division was grouped into 25 20-man Squads, each of which consisted of 1 Squad-Leader, 2 Machine-Gunners,21 Assisting Machine-Gunners, 2 Ammo Bearers, 4 Shield-Bearers, 1 Marksman, 1 Medics, 1 Grenadiers, 1 Breacher, 1 Anti-Tank, and 4 Riflemen. Everyone, except for the Machine-Gunner, the Marksman, the Breacher and the Medics, received an MRX-3 Rifle with a standard Assault-Rifle configuration. The Machine-Gunner carried an LMG-configuration of the MRX-4, the Medics had SMG-configurations of the MRX-3, whilst the Breacher received a Prototype MK-5 Energy Pellet Gun, and lastly, the Marksman received an SRG-400 Shoulder-Fired Railgun.

The Shield-Bearers were equipped with ESP-3, a personnel-version of standard Ship-Mounted Energy Shields. Shield-Bearers were affectionatly called "Espers", due to their equipment. Like all other Marines, they also had an R-55 Pistol, 2 S-5 Stun Grenades, 3 MK-23 Pulse Grenades, and a pair of SMK-8 Smoke Grenades.

With their weapons equipped, the 1st and 2nd Assault Battalions, with a combined force of 40.000 men and women, were preparing to make planetfall. The fleet entered a holding-pattern above the planet's equator, where it stayed in orbit at an altitude of around 500 kilometers. Then, the command to board the Drop-Ships was sent out. Several thousand Marines, spread across 3 gigantic Carriers, marched to their respective ships, ready to find Eric Callaghan, and to fight of any creatures in their way.

With the Marines loaded up, the ships refuelled, and the destinations set, all personnel left the hangars, and after it was confirmed that everyone had left the hangar-bays, the bays were de-pressurized, and the blastdoors were opened, releasing the swarm of Drop-Ships into the deep void of space. Every ship had their own destination, and every Squad had their own plan, but they all had one common task: Find Eric Callaghan, AKA The Missing Pilot.

After about 30 minutes of carefull re-entry procedures, 1st Assault Battalion, 3rd Regiment, 2nd Division, Golf-Squad set foot on the planet NLTT-512-3A.

The UEN had landed.

Author's Note

If you want your character to be featured as a human soldier, pilot, politician or civilian, or a pony civilian, politician or royal guard, please send me a message with the character's name, looks, characteristics, and role if you have any preference. All featured characters will be credited.

Featured Characters:
Lightning Sky - Oskar

Chapter 18 - Camp Ebony

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/CRYSTAL EMPIRE/CAMP EBONY///TIME - 13:41 LMT///DATE - 19-05-2232///

As soon as the first ships landed, several reports had started to come in that the planet was indeed inhabited by other creatures, of which atleast one was at the level of a real civilization, complete with cities and towns. These scans weren't detailed enough to know what this species looked like, but from what they could see, they appeared to be somewhat smaller than humans, though "longer" horizontally. In the end, it was concluded that these creatures were most likely four-legged.

After Admiral Bishop received word about the alien civilization, he ordered the construction of a Forward Operating Base, where ships can refuel and rearm, troops can sleep and eat, and where expeditions and patrols can be set up to find the target, now nicknamed 'Nomad'. This base would have be able to defend itself, both from wild animals, aswell as against the unidentified and uncontacted civilization.

The 4th Logistical Battalion received the plans for Camp Ebony, the to-be-construced FOB for the ground-forces, shortly after they were put together by HANNBAI. The UEN employs a modular base-construction-system, designed by Sylvine Habitation, which happens to also be a daughter-company of Olympus. In its simplest form, the KOMHAF (Kit Of Modular Housing And Fortification) system uses container-like structures, which can extend and fold out when deployed.

There are 3 sizes of KOMHAF-Modules: Small, Medium and Large. Small Modules are things like lavatorys, generators, stacks of lights and walls, food and medical-supplies, etcetera. These are packaged into boxes of 1,5x1,5x1,5 metres, and can fit in almost any cargo-ship, and even some exploration-vessels. The Medium Modules mostly consist of bunks, canteens, offices, comms-towers, and even some smaller defensive systems, like the C-RAM-12, an Anti-Air-System developed by Archimedes Armaments and Taurus Defense.

The Medium Modules all fit inside 2x2,5x6 metre containers, designed for transport by ships such as the EU-55C Hornet, a ship built for atmospheric cargo-transport by Echillon United. It can carry one of those containers in the middle of the fuselage, with the container located in a magnetic frame between the engines. Finally, the Large Modules, which are 5x5x12 metres, include things like the CRI-T-5 Radar Tower, Armoured Ammo- and Fuel-Storage, Artillery Installations, and even Static Anti-Armor-Railguns, such as the LRG-50-AT.

These massive containers can only be transported by a EU-80D Exofortress, the largest atmospheric-flight-capable ship in existance. These monstrosities are 122,3 metres long, 88,5 metres wide, 30,8 metres high, and weigh 580 tonnes. They can carry a total of 10 Large Modules in its cargohold, in a 5x2-configuration. With a whopping 28 of those vessels in the fleet, of which 16 were assigned to the 4th Logistical Battalion, an incredible 160 Large Modules could be landed on the planet in one go, as long as a sufficiently long runway is available. The minimum requirement is 3,8 Kilometres.

With the cargo properly distrubuted among teams, and after the first shipments were loaded up, the first ships began spooling up to make planetfall. The first things to be constructed were the runway, aswell as some lights and generators, because the construction-efforts would most likely go on into the night. The runway were to be built from standard high-friction plates, which have a hexagonal design with some holes for drainage.

After the first Hornets had dropped-off the runway-plates, things really started to kick off. Ships were landing and taking-off around the clock. The sky was filled with sparks of the bright engines as the vessels of the UEN transported delicate equipment. The ear-deafening roar of crafts re-entering the atmosphere could be heard halfway across the continent. The same could be said for the lights, which were clearly visible from the city on the mountain-side.

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/EQUESTRIA/CANTERLOT///TIME - 23:20 LMT///DATE - 19-05-2232///

"Will the LRS please report at the Ops-Room? I repeat, will the LRS please report at the Ops-Room? That is all."

The loudspeakers went quiet yet again. The Lunar Recon Squad had just been called into action. They were the top-of-the-line, the elite-of-the-elite. They were famed for their ability to improvise, yet they were still a mystery to most. They were the newest addition to the Royal Equestrian Guard, and were a separetly-functioning unit under Princess Luna's control.

The basis of the LRS was the ability to improvise and adapt to any possible situation. Members of the LRS were encouraged to obtain their own weapons, in order to innovate combat. Although they sometimes function on the front-line, they usually only operate behind enemy lines, or undercover in own territory.

One of the members of the LRS was Lieutenant Sturdy Shield, a thestral who had been one of the first members of the LRS. He was there when the LRS was first created by Princess Luna to investigate mysterious occurences outside the kingdom. She had decided that a special recconaisance-squad would have to be established if they wanted to know what was happening out of the kingdom's juristiction.

Now, the LRS had to respond once again. Lieutenant Sturdy Shield put down his book, got up from his bunk, and began to head towards the Operations-Room, where all the briefings take place. As he walked in the direction of the Ops-Room, various ponies looked over at him. It wasn't every day that they saw a thestral, let alone one in such a high role.

The LRS was the only squad in the Royal Equestrian Guard where non-ponies were allowed to serve. After all, thestrals weren't officially recognised as inhabitants of Equestria. Most of them lived in the former-Arimaspi-Territory, while some of them lived off-grid inside Equestria's forrests. Equestria was, however, becoming more and more acceptant of these pony-likes. Therefore, Princess Luna had ordered that the LRS would be open to both ponies and non-ponies.

With Sturdy Shield now present in the Ops-Room, the briefing could begin.

"Is everyone present?" Major Bladed Sword asked. He had received temporary control over the LRS for as long as the Changelings were active. Most of the Squad therefore expected the mission to be Changeling-related, which wouldn't be too difficult or special. Therefore, none of them expected the mission to involve the weird creature that had arrived a few days ago.

"I'm sorry sir, but with all respect, are you sure that this is a good idea? You only need to look towards the North to see that these creatures aren't screwing around! They have lights flying up and down non-stop, and as far as we can see, they go up all the way into space towards those giant metal things! You want us to fight THAT?" Sturdy Shield asked, as respectfully as he could.

"Negative Lieutenant. I don't want you to fight them. In fact, I don't even want you to be seen by them. Instead, I want you and your Squad to find out what they are doing, and where they are doing it. You will be transported by truck towards FOB Xerxes, which is the closest known location to where we believe those creatures to be. From there, you will be on your own. All you need to do, is find them, observe them, and then report back to me. Transport will be waiting for you at Xerxes. Understood?"

"Understood Major."

"Good. In that case, MOVE OUT!"

The Major left the LRS there, to let them come up with their exact plan of action. They would have to be quiet, sneaky, and stealthy. These creatures seemed to be incredibly technologically advanced, so who knows what kind of observational equipment they might have. This was going to be the LRS's hardest mission yet, that was damn sure.

And Lieutenant Sturdy Shield knew that all too well.

Author's Note

This one took me a while! With all the technical-terms, dimension, statistics, and the inclusion of a map, the time required for 1 chapter significantly increased. Add to that the fact that I was gone for 1 week on vacation, and that I was sick for another one, I didn't really get around to writing. But, here it is nonetheless!

Hey Wild Balance, I hope you like what I did with Sturdy Shield! This is just about the only way it would fit into the story! I'm also not that experienced with other species, so I had to do some research, and some improvisation. I hope that's okay?

Featured Characters:
Sturdy Shield - Wild Balance

Chapter 19 - Confusion

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/CRYSTAL EMPIRE/FOB XERXES///TIME - 01:59 LMT///DATE - 20-05-2232///

"Ladies and gentlecolts, we have arrived at our destination! The local time is 01:59, which means we've arrived a whole minute ahead of schedule! Thank you for choosing the 2nd Logistical Battalion for your transportation needs, and we hope to see you again soon!"

"Cut it out Emerald! This is a serious mission, and these are special forces we're talking to!"

"Oh, don't be like that Nimble! They can take a joke!"

The LRS dismounted from the truck, which had taken them all the way from Canterlot to the icy northern FOB Xerxes. They were special forces, but they were none the less somewhat shocked by the extremely low temperature. All of them suddenly had a lot more respect for the ponies stationed up there.

The LRS wore large and heavy clothes to keep them warm, whilst the ponies from FOB Xerxes were walking about in nothing more than their normal combat-fatigues. Nobody in the LRS understood how those ponies didn't freeze to death, or became living icicles, until one of them went up to an engineer near him, and just asked him. Apparantly, all he was told, was that they got used to it.

After admitting their defeat in the battle against cold-resistance, the LRS marched on towards what was believed to be the location of the creatures. As they did, they walked past a firing-range, where some guards were practicing with their rifles. The loud noise of gunfire was something that Sturdy Shield was very keen to avoid, and being so close to gunfire certainly startled him. After all, he had very sensitive ears, so guns and explosions appeared to be a lot louder for him.

Since he couldn't bear the sound of gunfire, Sturdy doesn't use guns himself. Instead of a rifle, he preferred to use a custom-made compound crossbow. With this crossbow, he could fire various types of arrows, including regular, incendiary, explosive, poisonous, and signal arrows. He was also quite experienced and talented with swords, always keeping a shortsword on his side instead of the standard MK1 or MK2 Combat Knife.

In front-line combat, he preffered to wield a shield and a heavy greatsword, using the former to knock down enemies, and using the latter to then slash the heads of enemies off of their chests. Normal Guards would not be allowed to use non-standard weapons, but the LRS was different. They were encouraged to find new weapons, and to use them in whatever way suits them most.

With their equipment in saddlebags, and their weapons shouldered, the LRS set out to find the alien creatures.

After roughly an hour, the LRS started to notice an increase in temperature. The further they walked, the warmer it got. By the time they started to near a clearing in the frozen forrest, the enviroment was so warm, that it almost seemed like it was summer. The snow had melted from the trees, and the heavy clothes seemed like a bad idea at that point. They stopped to pack the overly warm clothes into their saddlebags, when Sturdy Shield began to hear weird sounds.

"Yeah, just put it here. That should be okay. You can begin the configuration-sequence when you're done."

It seemed like... Voices? Probably the aliens. He had heard from some other Guards that the alien that was captured spoke in a weird language, one which didn't sound like Equestrian at all. Just some clicking, garbling and hissing. Not that it mattered. They were getting close, which meant two things. They would soon have eyes on the target, but the target would be able to see them aswell. They would have to keep really quiet and low to the ground if they wanted to remain undetected.

"Okay, I think the C-RAM is online. We should still do some test-firing though. I'll advise Command, ask them permission. You know, the usual stuff."

The voices were getting louder the closer they got. Not only that, the temperature also continued to rise. They were definitly getting closer. Across the ground they crawled, bellies on the ground, weapons pointed forward. They would be almost invisible under the cover of darkness of Luna's night.

"Attention all personell! This is Commander Briggs! The Defense-Team will be test-firing the C-RAM-12 in a few minutes! Do not be alarmed, but keep your head down if you want to keep it! I will give another warning a few seconds before firing! That is all!" the Camp's speakers yelled.

The LRS now overlooked the Camp from a hill. What they saw far exceeded all their expectations. A gigantic fortress, spreading several kilometers, with alien creatures walking around everywhere. At first sight, they could already see that these creatures were far ahead with technology. As they were looking, a giant metal object, somewhat similiar to the one the first alien arrived in, roared over them at an incredible speed, and with an ear-shattering noise. Sturdy Shield held his hoofs against his ears to block out the noise, to no avail.

"What in Tartarus was that?!" one of the LRS-Members yelled, pointing at the landing EU-80D. He immediatly received a hoof over his mouth by somepony else, in order for him to keep quiet. Sturdy, however, had sighted a greater issue.

A large group of Changelings, standing atop a hill, just at the edge of the forrest. They too were observing the aliens. This was to be expected, as they too were probably curious about the aliens. However, much to Sturdy's surprise, the Changelings transformed into... Royal Guards! "Bastards!" he said. "They are going to attack the aliens!"

He had to do something, or else the Changelings might kill the aliens. Drawing his crossbow, he quickly readied an incendiary arrow. Changelings are good at burning, after all. He raised his weapon, and took aim at the center of the group of Changelings. Without any more hestitation, he pressed the trigger.

The arrow quickly accelerated from the weapon, powered by the elastic force. The arrow was hardly away from the crossbow however, when Sturdy Shield noticed something turn around very rapidly in the corner of his eye. Without warning, the night sky suddenly erupted in a bright light, as an ear-deafening sound, similiar to a thousand guns being fired in close sequence, filled the air. A streak of light shot up at the arrow, showering it in explosions. Where there was once an arrow flying trough the sky, all that remained was a cloud of smoke.

Sirens went off all throughout the Camp. "INCOMING, INCOMING!" they yelled, continuing for some 30 seconds, until finally being shut down. Still, the alarms wouldn't seize, and more and more aliens began to run around. Eventually, the speakers activated once again: "Attention to all troops! We have just intercepted an unknown projectile headed for the Camp. We believe we are under attack. All Combat-Ready soldiers, please report at your Commanding Officer! All non-combatants, please return inside, and remain behind cover! Stay alert, Briggs out!"

Whilst the Camp was becoming more and more active, Sturdy Shield watched the disguised Changelings run down from the hill, guns drawn, and shooting on the move. Their fire was quickly answered with more rapid fire than any of the LRS-members had ever seen. An absolute hail of bullets, many of which with tracers, poured trough the Changeling-horde. Most of them were eliminated before they could even reach the outer walls, but some of them still managed to get inside.

The ones that survived the hail of bullets quickly ran around the buildings, shooting anyone they came across. Most people were able to shoot back before they could get hurt, but some non-combatants were unable to defend themselves. Doors were broken down, people were shot. Cooks, engineers, technicians, they were all easy targets for the Changelings in their Royal Guard-disguise. The Changelings even resorted to biting their victims, which sometimes wasn't even lethal, atleast not immediatly.

All Sturdy Shield and the rest of the LRS could do, was watch, as the aliens would not be able to distinguish them from the Changelings whilst they were still disguised. The question was, why were they disguised as Royal Guards, and not like those aliens? Suddenly it dawned on him.

"Son of a... THEY ARE TRYING TO START A WAR BETWEEN THE ALIENS AND US!"

Author's Note

Yay, combat! :pinkiehappy: Finally! I have been waiting so long to finally get into some fighting, and this is only the beginning!

Featured Characters:
Sturdy Shield - Wild Balance

Chapter 20 - Running Out Of Time

| [INCIDENT REPORT]--------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| TIME OF ATTACK ------------- 03:02 - 03:14 LMT ---------------------------------------- |
| LOCATION OF ATTACK ----- NLTT-512-3A --- CAMP EBONY --------------------- |
| HOSTILE FORCES ------------- UNIDENTIFIED ----------------------------------------- |
| FRIENDLY FORCES ----------- UNITED EARTH NAVY -------------------------------- |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| FRIENDLY CASUALTIES ----- 05 KILLED --- 03 MISSING --- 12 WOUNDED --- |
| HOSTILE CASUALTIES ------- 83 KILLED --- 00 MISSING --- 02 WOUNDED --- |
| CIVILIAN CASUALTIES ------ 00 KILLED --- 00 MISSING --- 00 WOUNDED --- |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| CONCLUSION -------------------- DEFENCE SUCCESFULL ----------------------------- |

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/LOW-ORBIT/UENCCV-02///TIME - 04:30 LMT///DATE - 20-05-2232///

"Admiral Bishop, we have just received the incident report from Camp Ebony." said the Comms-Officer on the bridge of Atlas-Beta. "As you know, the base has experienced a surprise-attack about one-and-a-half hours ago. Details are still coming in, but so far, it seems that the attack was performed by the local civilization. From the reports, we have concluded that we are dealing with quadrupedal creatures, similiar to horses, though smaller. Weirdly enough, all of them have different hair-colours."

"That is indeed odd." the Admiral replied. "Any idea as to what causes this? Is it some form of hair-dyeing? Some tribal tradition, perhaps?"

"No, that is unlikely, as the green blood had no effect on the colours."

"Hold on, 'green blood'? I'm not a doctor, but back when I had to shoot some On'San, they usually had red blood, as with most creatures that I know off." said Admiral Bishop with confusion.

"Indeed, the doctors at Ebony who aren't working on treating the wounded are investigating some of the alien corpses in an effort to find out more about their anatomy. They are also working on patching-up 2 captured and wounded aliens."

"We have captives?! Why didn't anyone inform me about this?!" the Admiral asked angrily.

"I'm not sure, sir. What are your orders?"

"My orders, are to prepare a goddamn dropship for planetfall!" he practically yelled across the bridge, startling several officers there.

"Uhm... May I ask why, sir?"

"I am going to talk to those fucking aliens, and I will see to it personally that they tell me why the hell they killed 5 of my men and women!"

Few people on the bridge of Atlas-Beta had ever seen the Admiral that angry. It was a terrifying sight to behold, though some of the officers present there had a pretty good idea why Admiral Bishop was acting up like that. Why? Because they had seen him like this before. Back when the Admiral was just a Sergeant, enlisted in the 21st Earth Defence Battalion, back when humanity was at war with the On'San.

Without much more hestitation, the Hangar-Crew of Atlas-Beta were informed of the Admiral's request. They immediatly got to work preparing a H250A, a basic orbit-to-planet transfer shuttle. The Admiral was going down to the front-lines, which could only indicate one thing:

Shit was about to get real.

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/EQUESTRIA/CANTERLOT///TIME - 07:14 LMT///DATE - 20-05-2232///

Black Bess arrived in Canterlot, coming to a screeching halt at the entrance to the palace itself. Study Shield was quick to dismount, practically flying out of the truck. He had to be carefull, the rain almost causing him to slide down onto his face. After retrieving his balance, he quickly trotted towards the door.

The Guards at the door tried to stop Sturdy, but after they noticed the LRS patch on his uniform, they quickly moved aside, informing the Princesses of the Lieutenant's arrival. The doors to the throne-room flung open, revealing the special-forces unit to none other than Princess Celestia herself.

"Princess, I must ask for your time immediatly!" he shouted. He would normally think twice before talking to the Princess like that, but considering the possible consequences if he wasn't fast enough, he believed that it was more than appropriate to hurry up.

"I'm sorry, but who might you be?" Celestia asked.

"Sorry your majesty, I am Lieutenant Sturdy Shield, leader of the Lunar Recon Squadron. I am here to personally inform you of our recent findings."

"I believe that such manners should be discussed with your Commanding Officer, not directly with me."

"I know, your majesty, but I believe that, in the current situation, it would be better to skip that to save time."

"I don't see what would need my attention this quickly. I will tell you again, though this time it wont be a request. Talk to your Commanding Officer."

"I'm sorry, but I can't. The situation is too important."

"Honestly Lieutenant, I simply don't see what would be important enough to-"

"LIVES ARE AT RISK!" he shouted. He had just shouted at the Princess, and disobeyed a direct order while doing so. He hadn't even thought about it. All that mattered to him at that moment was the protection of the ponies he knew. That was one of his key traits, and whether it was a positive or a negative trait, he wasn't sure, but he would always step up for the ponies he cared about, no matter the cost.

"Oh. I see." the Princess said in a calm voice, somewhat taken back by the Lieutenant's outburst. In her mind, she tried to think of all the possible reasons that lives could be in danger. The first thing that came to mind were the Changelings. Shortly after that, she heard another alien vessel roar overhead, reminding her of their presence. "Go ahead then. I presume it has something to with either the Changelings, or the aliens, has it not?"

"Both, actually."

Princess Celestia was taken back by the short and clear response. The problem was both the Changelings, AND the ominous and recently arrived aliens? "Very well, you have my attention. You may speak, Lieutenant, though I must warn you. Next time, such attitude will NOT be tolerated."

"Understood, your highness. As I said, I am the Squad-Leader of the Lunar Recon Squadron, a team assembled by your very own sister."

"Yes, I have heard of your team."

"We were sent on a mission by Major Bladed Sword, our current CO. He told us to go out and investigate the alien-activity within the Crystal Empire. We eventually found a base being build by the aliens, but shortly after we arrived, a group of changelings also found the encampment, and they attacked it."

"I understand. So the civilians in the area are in danger then? We should-"

"If I might interupt, I wasn't done yet. Yes, the civilians are in danger, but not just the locals. Everypony is in danger. That includes you, your majesty."

"How so? I don't see how a war between the aliens and the Changelings would be bad for us?"

"That is because the war won't be between the aliens and the Changelings, but between the aliens and US." Sturdy said, as dramatic as he could.

"But we didn't attack the aliens, did we?"

"We didn't but the Changelings had disguised themselves as Royal Guards before attacking, thus making the aliens think WE attacked them. And I'm sorry to say this, but a war with them, is a war we can't possibly win, no matter how hard we try. They are so technologically advanced, we wouldn't even be able to get close to them."

"This is a rather unfortunate situation. I shall talk with my advisors, and we shall think of a plan to contain the situation. Is there anything else I need to know off?"

"No, your highness. That was all I had to say."

"Very well then. I have one last order though. Bring the captured alien to me. I believe I should have a little... discussion with him."

"Ofcourse, your majesty." And with that, Lieutenant Sturdy Shield left the throne-room, trotting back towards the palace-entrance, where he found that Black Bess and her crew were still waiting, along with the rest of the LRS.

"How did it go?" one of them asked.

"We have new orders. Escort the captive to the Princess for interrogation." Sturdy Shield explained.

"You mean the alien?"

"No, I'm talking about one of the Changeling-corpses outside the wall! Ofcourse I mean the alien! Sheesh."

"Are special-forces always like this?" Black Bess's mechanic asked, a unicorn mare.

Sturdy Shield replied. "Not always, just sometimes, especially when somepony is a little slow. But we're just joking around, we are a team after all!"

And so the LRS drove off in the truck towards the Royal Biological Laboratory, where the alien resided.

Admiral Bishop was sitting in the ATS, or Atlas Transport System, a metro-like transportation system running troughout the Atlas. He was on his way towards the auxiliary hangar-bay, where his H250A Dagger transport was waiting to take him to Camp Ebony. A flight-plan had already been submitted, a route plotted, and the ship prepared for departure.

Inside the ATS, the Admiral was considering his options whilst being transported trough Atlas-Beta at high speed. He had received another report, this one more detailed than the first report, which stated that some weapons had been recovered from the attackers, and that they had appeared to be similiar to muskets, similiar to the ancient ones used on Earth centuries ago, though they were not exact copies.

Nevertheless, they had done some real damage to the base, or more specifically, the people inside it. Many of the rounds that were fired into victims never left the body, staying lodged inside and destroying internal organs with every move. The bullets, which were nothing more than pure lead balls, had to be carefully removed, though in some cases, less care was taken, as time was of the essence. Any and all movement would cause the fragmented round to cut even more into organs and flesh, which could be fatal.

After every hostile was either killed, neutralized or scared away, the wounded could be taken care of. 12 people were hurt, some more than others, with a few victims having bitemarks from the sharp teeth of the creatures that had attacked them. Five people were killed in the attack, but the weirdest part was the fact that 3 people had gone completely missing. Not even their Tracking-Implants could be tracked. It was as if they had just completely vanished.

Included in the report were photos and a video. A short clip, taken by a cook who was making a short video about what the enviroment looked like, which he wanted to send to his girlfriend back home. The video shows him telling about the experience of flying in a Midway-Class Carrier, when he is suddenly interupted by the sound of a C-RAM-12 system firing at a threat. The video cut off at that point, with the last image being one of pony-like creatures running down from a nearby hill with weapons pointing towards the base, muzzle-flashes included.

After watching the video, Frederik Bishop decided to take a look at some of the photographs. The first file he opened, was a picture of the open area in front of the base where most of the pony-like hostiles were eliminated. The ground was covered with bullets and fragments, corpses ridled with holes, and limbs. The grass was soaked, with what indeed appeared to be green blood. He still believed that it was odd for a creature to have green-coloured blood. The only thing he could think of that caused green blood was a weird and rare virus. Maybe it was due to a disease?

The next file was a diagram of the insides of the hostiles, which Admiral Bishop noticed the doctors had labeled 'Equis pugnare'. Clever joke. The dissections revealed that this Equis pugnare is quite similiar in terms of anatomy to a standard horse, though obviously a lot smaller. Their blood was, indeed, green. No explanation had been found thusfar, but investigations continued. There had to be a reason why their blood was green. If only they knew...

The last picture was a schematic of the weapon that proved to be extremely usefull in fighting off the enemies. It included a message: "Our LRG-50-AT's have proven extremely usefull against the attackers, and with their current technology, we expect the enemy to have some form of armoured vehicles. Hereby requesting 5 additional LRG's." The request was signed by Commander Briggs, who was in control of Camp Ebony.

Admiral Bishop considered refusing sending more supplies down whilst the base was still unsecured, but quickly decided that, if the Commander considered it a good idea to employ more LRG's, he wasn't going to go against that. He knew the Commander. They had known each other since the First Interplanetary War, where they had fought together. He pressed 'ACCEPT REQUEST' on the screen, and continued on.

It appeared he had seen all the files he had been sent, which was good, as the ATS had arrived at the Hangar-Bay. He could see the H-250A standing ready to depart. Walking over to the vessel, he once again looked up to take in just how massive even the Auxiliary Hangar-Bay was. Saying it was massive, would be an understatement. He sat down and strapped himself in, reminding himself what he would do as soon as he arrived. Meet the prisoner, check his condition...

And then find out where the hell his soldiers were.

Author's Note

Chapter 20! Yay! Included a schematic of the LRG-50-AT that I made, with correct scales. This is also the first time you get to see how large people are in comparison to ponies. Don't mind the fact that the pony used to represent the size is RD, it's just because it was the only good Pony-Model I could find on the 3D Workshop in Google SketchUp. For anyone interested in looking at the model, JUST CLICK HERE!

Featured Characters:
Sturdy Shield - Wild Balance

Chapter 21 - The Disease

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/UNKOWN LOCATION///TIME - 08:09 LMT///DATE - 20-05-2232///

[SOLDIER CONDITION DANGER]

[EXTERNAL INJURIES DETECTED]

[ADMINISTERING STEMCELLS]

[PULSE FOUND, 30BPM]

[SOLDIER UNCONSCIOUS]

[ADMINISTERING ADRENALINE]

[SOLDIER REGAINING CONSCIOUSNESS]

[ATTEMPTING CONNECTION TO COMMAND]

[CONNECTION FAILED]

2nd Lieutenant Jaakko Palander's suit had succesfully awoken him, but when he opened his eyes, he didn't like what he could see. In fact, he couldn't see anything at all. His eyes were covered in a thick, yello-like, deep-blue goo, as was the rest of his body. He tried to move his arms, and with some effort, was able to reach for the knife in his pocket. He moved it forward, poking around him with it in the hopes of finding something, anything, to help him orientate if for nothing else.

He quickly found a wall, one that appeared to be somewhat soft, being able to bend slightly around his knife as he continued to poke the wall with it. He eventually felt his knife slide trough the wall, allowing some goo to be released from its containment. He quickly dragged his knife upwards, slicing trough the wall in front of him in a vertical line. Once he was halfway, the rest of the wall ripped open, spilling him out onto the cold floor, all covered in deep-blue goo. As he slid out, the mask that had been placed over his nose and mouth popped off.

"HHUUURGHG....!" he quickly grasped for air, just realizing how out-of-breath he had been. He got on his knees, trying to get an idea of his surroundings. He saw lab-equipment. Ancient versions of the ones he had seen when he was visiting his girlfriend at the Oblivion University Medical Centre, but it was lab-equipment nonetheless. He looked behind him, noticing a row of weird biological-looking pods, one of which he had come out off.

"What the hell is this place?" he lifted his arm, trying to look at the map on his VisionARM, the military-version of the VisionAR. Unfortunatly, a link to a relay could not be established. "Damnit! Okay, not to worry, I can send a distress-signal to the Camp. They'll find me, and get me out of here!" he pressed the Emergency Distress-button on his VisionARM, but to his horror, this signal also didn't get trough. He was all alone, in a weird lab, with nobody around.

Then, he heard the sound of something approaching the door.

'Oh crap, someone's coming!' he thought. He quickly ducked behind one of the workstations, and went for the rifle on his back.

It wasn't there.

'Shit! Where is it?!' he couldn't find it, and whoever was on the other side of the door was getting closer and closer. Grabbing for his pistol, he was glad to find his trusty sidearm on his hip, ready for use. Although, it wasn't all that ready. The internals had filled up with goo, blocking the firing mechanism, and filling the space around the bullets in the magazine, not to mention the amount of the stuff inside the barrel.

The door opened. Jaakko couldn't see who or what came trough it, but he did hear a surprised voice, talking in a language which seemed somewhat familiar.

"Quid hoc est?! Unus quidem superfuit ex eis?! (What is this?! One of them escaped?!)" he heard. He had no idea what it meant, but he didn't intend on asking. He slowly crawled towards the open door, making sure not to be spotted. As he passed the space between two workstations, he caught a glimpse of the source of the voice.

A large black... horse? It was filled with gaps, like it was ridled with bulletholes. It looked quite menacing, It had a long horn on its head, but not like the ones that those mythical unicorns from the books had. No, this horn was... different. It was shaped in an odd way, going in random directions at some points. It reminded him of a twig.

Continueing on, he eventually reached the door unheard, and sneaked out. He was going to avoid a confrontation if he could. Those were his orders after all: "Whatever happens, DO NOT engage with the unkown civilization, OR the wildlife, as long as it is possible. We don't want to have another On'San-Situation, now do we?" The voice of the Commander echoed in his head. Going trough the door, he ended up in a hallway, one that looked reasonably well-lit, atleast in comparison to the previous dark room.

He looked around. There was nobody. As far as he was aware, there wasn't anyone else going to find him there. Looking at the signs above some of the doors, he realized that the letters were the same ones that the English language uses. 'Laboratorium', 'Imperium locus', 'Repono cella'. These all seemed quite important, eventhough he had no clue what any of them were. Except for the one he escaped from, the 'Laboratorium'. 'That must mean Laboratory.' he thought.

Sneaking trough the hallway, he could hear a faint buzzing, but he couldn't quite place it. The sound reminded him of a large bee-hive. He eventually reached the door labeled 'Repono cella'. He opened the door, revealing yet another hallway, this one having rows of doors on both sides, labelled with Roman numerals. Jaakko walked over to the first door on his left, which appeared to be room 1, and tried to open it. He tried to open it, but to no avail. It was locked, but he noticed a text on the door:

'Notas investigationis'

Jaakko suddenly remembers that his VisionARM has a translator-function. Holding the holographic screen in front of the text on the door, the wrist-mounted device was quick to recognise the language as 'Latin'. That is odd. Why would an alien species use the same language as an ancient human civilization? It made no sense. Either way, it did mean that he would be able to understand what everything meant. The VisionARM had translated the message on the door as 'Research Notes'.

The other doors hand't been blocked, so this one had to have something important behind it. Grabbing his knife once more, he stuck it into the small space between the door and the frame, and attempted to open the lock that way. It didn't work. With no other option, he jammed the knife into the lock, shattering the lock, but damaging his knife in the process. Either way, the door was opened, and Jaakko didn't hestitate to open it. With his pistol at the ready, he flung the door open.

The light from the hallway revealed the boxes full of paper, all scribbled with notes and drawings. He took one of them, and scanned the text on it.

XXXVIII Et Murmur Stomachum experimentum
Videtur quod non inveni clones novo ordine rerum erat fons. Sum fraudatus aspectu hic alios homines et ipsi sunt. Tres eos omnia vivere et subtracta a praesentibus. Quod si homines sunt hic tandem forsitan cum hunc viderint receptum in tribulatione mea, vocat? Ego sum non certus. Vel modo ego mihi permanere ad investigationis.
Cloned me unus de hominibus. Videtur quod per 'UEE', milites credo. Im non certus quid sentiunt de conservis cloning homines et eos subiciendo Murmur Stomachum, sed non alia optio. Si vis invenire remedium, mea mihi.
Quia ex hoc ipso quod videtur. De Clone non debebatur ad novum medicina, et tamen est vehemens in morbo post nuditate.
TBF CCCXXXVIII non operatur.

Whispering Stomach experiment 38
It seems that the clones have found a new source of subjects. I never expected to see other humans here, but here they are. Three of them, all alive, but unconscious. If there are humans here, maybe they have finally received my distress-calls? I am not sure. Either way, I will have to continue my research.
I have cloned one of the humans. It would seem they were with the 'UEN', soldiers, I suppose. I'm not sure what to feel about cloning fellow humans and subjecting them to Whispering Stomach, but I have no other choice. If I want to find a cure, I have to.
It would seem that the result is the same this time. The clone did not react to the new medicine, and is still violent after exposure to the disease.
TBF 338 does not work.

"Whispering Stomach? Did that translate correctly? And also: 'fellow humans'? Does that mean that the creature that I saw is- WAS human?! But that's insane!" Jaakko exclaimed, a bit too loud for his liking. He could hear the creature coming back towards him. He quickly grabs the paper, puts it in his pocket, and runs back into the hallway. Grabbing his sidearm, he gets ready to defend himself from that weird thing.

The door opened, and as soon as the creature entered trough it and looked Jaakko in the eyes, he fired his gun. Enough goo had flowed out of his gun, so that it could fire. The bullet went straight for the head, but never reached it. It simply stopped in mid-air, glowing in a weird green glow. The same glow that was coming from the creature's horn.

"Quaeso, mitescere! Et non nocuerunt mihi facturus es! (Please, calm down! I'm not going to hurt you!)" it yelled.

"How... What... Who are you?!" Jaakko asked.

"O mala mea! (Oh, my bad!)" it said. "I forgot that humans usually speak English."

"You... You speak English?!"

"Ofcourse I do! I learned it in school!"

"But... But..."

The creature looked at Jaakko. He seemed to be confused. "I know that this must seem weird to you, but I am, or was, a human, just like you!"

"But you look nothing like a normal human!" Jaakko exclaimed.

"sigh..." the creature's face turned from one of understanding to sadness. "I know... Damn Murmur Stomachum..."

"Murmur Stomachum...?" Jaakko looked at the creature. He then remembered the note he had picked up. Taking the note out of his pocket, he held it up to the creature. "This note said something about Murmur Stomachum. It translated to Whispering Stomach. What is it?"

"Where did you... Nevermind. Yes, that note is about an experiment with Whispereing Stomach, or rather, a cure for it. I would know, because I wrote it some 15 minutes ago."

"But what is Whispering Stomach then?" Jaakko asked, putting his pistol back in the holster.

"I'll explain." the creature said. "But first, let's go back to my laboratory. There's something I need to show you."

Walking back to the laboratory that Jaakko had just escaped from, the creature had introduced itself as Dr. Märtha Löfgren, though she is known by the locals as Chrysalis, or rather, Queen Chrysalis. She told Jaakko that she still didn't understand what reason the locals had for calling her that, but as far as she had been able to find out, it was because her new form resembled that of a creature from folklore.

The disease that she had come to name Whispering Stomach was one she accidently encountered when doing personal research on NLTT-512-3B, the planet's moon. The disease had caused some weird effects, including a painfull stomach, a weird rash, and most noticably, rapid mutation. She was able to land on NLTT-512-3A, in the Yakyakistani mountains, which was their current position, but she had no fuel to make it back home.

"Basically, I began by sending out a robot to find a willing subject." she explained. "One of the local ponies agreed to help me. I was able to clone him, and from that, I could make more and more clones to test the disease on, as their anatomical construction was roughly the same as mine is after the mutation. Unfortunatly, the real pony died because my cryopods were not perfect yet. Luckily, I still had enough genetic material left to create a few more clones, but I gave these ones some brain-functions, and I installed a chip that gave them simple commands, like finding volunteers."

"Why don't you just go outside to find them yourself?" Jaakko asked.

"I wish I could, but it seems like the disease interferes with the atmosphere, killing the host. That's why my clones usually don't return when they go outside to find volunteers."

"Uhmm... I'm sorry, but I don't think that's the reason they're not returning, nor are they finding 'volunteers'."

"What do you mean?" Dr. Märtha was confused. "They deliver plenty of volunteers. They are always unconscious, but I just thought that that's because of the altitude that we are at, along with the freezing temperature."

"Well, they certainly aren't volunteers, and the reason the clones don't return, is because they get shot."

"SHOT?! What the hell do you mean?!"

"I mean, they run up to us, shooting guns, and getting themselves and others killed. I'm pretty sure they are the ones that brought me here, weren't they?"

"Yes, they brought you, aswell as two other humans in earlier today. But how do they have guns?! I didn't give them those! Oh god... What have I done..."

"It's not your fault. You were just trying to find a cure. You were all on your own, after all. Speaking of that, why did you come here?" Jaakko tried to comfort Dr. Märtha.

"Well, first off, it IS my fault. I made and programmed the clones. But, since you asked, the reason I was here was for a freelance-mission for a company called Genesis BioTech. They told me to do some research in this star-system."

"You have to be kidding me..." Jaakko said under his breath.

"Now that I think of it, I remember getting a distress-signal across to one of their unmanned exploration drones, and they told me they'd send someone to find me, but he never arrived."

"Wait, what?! How long ago was that?"

"A week or two, why?"

"Oh crap..." Jaakko finally put one and two together. It all started to make sense. "I have good news and bad news."

"Give me the good news first."

"Well, the help arrived." Jaakko explained. "The bad news is that he crash-landed on this planet, and that a massive fleet from the UEN is currently in orbit around this planet, ready to bombard it and kill all those pony-like creatures."

"They are gonna do WHAT?!" Dr. Märtha exclaimed.

"I said, they are going to-"

"I heard what you said, I just can't believe it." She looked down in defeat. "Jaakko...?"

"Yes?"

"Have I just started a war?"

Author's Note

Bet y'all didn't see that one coming, did ya! :ajsmug:

Chapter 23 - Blitzkrieg

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/CRYSTAL EMPIRE/CAMP EBONY///TIME - 09:42 LMT///DATE - 20-05-2232///

When Jaakko Palander stepped out of the Dropship, he could see that the base was in disarray. People were wounded, buildings were damaged, and machines were in horrible shape. Those clones, or Changelings, had caused quite a lot of damage. Nonetheless, it seemed that, whilst Jaakko had been knocked out and dragged away, the other Marines had made short work of the Changelings. He still didn't like that he had been unable to help defend his comrades, but he reminded himself that he was unconscious at the time.

Along with Jaakko walked Dr. Märtha, who, unsurprisingly, caught a lot of attention from the Marines at the base. Most had heard the rumours that Dr. Märtha had once been human, but as much as these rumours had spread, so had the ones about her 'experiments'. They had seen the results first-hand. Not only had they seen them, they had shot them, and some had been shot by them. You could say that most people were not too happy with the results of the experiments, nor with Dr. Märtha in general, even with the large amount of intel she was able to provide.

Bad first-impressions aside, the information from Dr. Märtha did shed some light on the situation, aswell as providing a solution for it. From what she had learned, Eric, A.K.A. Nomad had probably been found by the Equestrian authorities, and he was most likely taken to their capital, the castle-city Canterlot. Exactly what they would do to him was something she didn't know, unfortunatly. It was possible that he had been excecuted as soon as they had found him. It was unlikely, though still a possibility.

With this is mind, a plan was made to extract Nomad as fast as possible. The basic principle was to get in and get out before the enemy even knew what hit them. With the overwhelming technological advantage of the UEN, they had a good chance of pulling this off without having to fire a shot, though the lack of knowledge about the exact whereabouts of Nomad reduced those chances significantly. Not only that, but the Equestrian Royal Guard had the tactical advantage, since defense is always easier than offense, espescially when positioned atop a mountain.

Nevertheless, Admiral Bishop agreed to the plan. Finding and retrieving Nomad was of the utmost importance. If this could not be achieved, the entirety of Operation Frozen Nebula would have been pointless, and the loss of life would have been pointless. It simply HAD to succeed, or it would all have been for nothing. The damage to equipment, the incredible costs, the planning-time, and most importantly, the lives of the fallen comrades.

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/CRYSTAL EMPIRE/CAMP EBONY///TIME - 12:00 LMT///DATE - 20-05-2232///

It had begun. The assault on Canterlot was now in action. With the 1st and 2nd Assault Battalions embarked in the dropships, the EU-80D's loaded up with AVT-5 armored vehicles ready for dropping, the several Aristoteles-Class Destroyers loaded and aimed at the capital, and the Hornets ready spearhead the assault, it was time to commence. This assault would result in the retrieval of Nomad, no matter the costs.

The ROE was to only fire when being fired upon. The armour of the vehicles was too strong to be damaged by most of the enemy weapons, if the intel from Dr. Märtha was correct, but the same could not be said for the Marines, who, aside from the Espers, had very little protection. Also, since there was no way to know which ponies were Changelings, and which ones weren't, each Marine was given a few pictures of what the clones looked like before infection, which is what they could somehow transform back into. If any of these were to be found, they were to be shot on sight.

At first, Briggs didn't trust Dr. Märtha, espescially since she looked like one of those horses herself, but 2nd Lieutenant Jaakko Palander, now 1st Lieutenant, vouched for her. They had told Briggs and the Admiral everything they knew, which was enough to begin the operation, and to retrieve the target, 'Nomad'. Everyone hoped that the Equestrians would simply allow them access, but after hearing how they had been at war with the Changelings for quite a while, chances were high that they would fire at anything that didn't seem friendly. The same could be said for the Marines.

From Dr. Märtha's estimates, the Royal Equestrian Guard's Canterlot Defence consisted of roughly 2.500 ponies, with an additional 8.500 ponies in the reserves inside the city, or in close proximity to it. To put that in perspective, the 1st and 2nd Assault Battalions, together with the 3rd Battalion, had a combined manpower of 60.000 troops, a healthy mix of experienced and trained Marines, along with civilians with a week or two of training.

There were two ways the assault could go: The first was peacefully. If the Marines, with help from Dr. Märtha (who volunteered to go along in one of the armored vehicles), could convince the ponies that they don't mean to do any harm, they might be open to a discussion on the release of Nomad, who had been confirmed to be in the possession of the Equestrian Authorities by Automated Surveillance Drones.

The second outcome was the most unwanted, and the bloodiest. If the Marines were to be unable to convince the ponies of their peacefull intentions, the result would be devastating. All it would take was for one person or pony to fire at the other. If either side made the first move, things were sure to kick off, with no end in sight. 'Nomad' had to be recovered, alive, to boost the morale of UEE-Citizens around the galaxy.

The Marines were ready to defend their vehicles and their lives with everything they got. If the Equestrian Royal Guard decided to attack the UEN, they would sure as hell fight back. And the Marines knew all too well that if a full-on fight were to break out, they would kick the shit out of those colourfull equines.

The time had come. At exactly 12:00 LMT, the 3rd Defense Fleet went into action, flying to the Rendevouz-Point, an area between the capital, known as Canterlot, and a city marked as Cloudsdale on Dr. Märtha's maps. The plan was that, when all the transports had arrived, the Marines would mount up into the AVT-5s, and make their way towards the city, all the while being covered by the Hornets in the sky, and the Aristoteles' from space.

It would take the Fleet roughly 30 minutes to reach the RV-Point. In that time, they would be passing FOB Xerxes, a Forward Operation Base from the Equestrian Royal Guard. The Guards stationed there were usually tasked with patrolling the area around Crystal City, but with the increasing danger of an alien base in close proximity to the capital of the Crystal Empire, the majority of the Guards were at the Crystal City Palace at the time of the assault.

The few Guards that remained at the FOB, witnessed something they had never seen before. It began with a noise. A low and quiet humming, slowly becoming louder and deeper, until it was deafening and chest-piercingly loud, the thunderous noise shaking the organs inside the ponies on the ground. Seeing the large fleet of metal objects fly over in the direction of Canterlot, the Guards had no other choice, but to mount up on the Flak-Guns, and to engage the threats.

"Sir, we are picking up signs of increased activity at FOB Xerxes. It seems that they are preparing an AA-Emplacement. What are your orders?" The co-pilot of DS-053, codename Fox 1-1, looked back from the cockpit towards Admiral Bishop, sitting in the back of the H-250D.

"Tell all squadrons to increase power to shields, but stay moving. They will likely report our attack to their capital, so we have to get there before they realize what is going on!." the Admiral answered.

"Understood sir!"

With that, the fleet marched on, barely responding to the increasing number of shells being shot out towards them by the Flak-Position of FOB Xerxes. The shields absorbed most of the damage, though some of the ships reported that bits of shrapnel had entered some engines, but nothing too major. All of the vessels were still in working condition. After about five minutes, when the fleet was a few miles past the FOB, the base seized to fire. On the ground, one of the Guards ran over towards the Comms-Building, where he quickly contacted the Canterlot Headquarters.

-.-. -- -.. .-. / .-- .. .-.. -.. / .- -.-. . / - --- / -.-. .- -. - .-. .-.. / .... --.- --..-- / .. -.. . -. - / ..... ..--- ---.. ...-- .---- .-.-.- / . -. --. .- --. . -.. / .- .. .-. / -.-. --- -. - .- -.-. - ... .-.-.- / ..- -. .- -... .-.. . / - --- / -.. . ... - .-. --- -.-- .-.-.- / .... . .- -.. . -.. / ..-. --- .-. / -.-. .- -. - .-. .-.. .-.-.- / .-. . .--. . .- - --..-- / .... . .- -.. . -.. / ..-. --- .-. / -.-. .- -. - .-. .-.. .-.-.-

("Cmdr Wild Ace to Cantrl HQ, ident 52831. Engaged air contacts. Unable to destroy. Headed for Cantrl. Repeat, headed for Cantrl.")

In Canterlot, things were becoming increasingly chaotic. The Royal Guard had been scrambled into action, with all Flak-Guns being prepared for combat. The air-raid sirens blared troughout the city, and ponies rushed to get back into their homes. Nobody was certain what was happening. Some believed it was a changeling-attack. Others thought that the aliens were attacking the capital. Nobody knew for certain, but everyone was scared nonetheless.

Lightning Sky sat in his room, watching the latest broadcast of his favourite movie, when the sirens began. Completely taken off-guard, he ran outside to see what was going on. As he stood outside, he looked up at the sky, where he saw the giant metal objects, floating high above Canterlot, ready to strike. He quickly dove to the ground when a Flak-Gun, positioned on a plaza close to his house, opened fire on those metal objects, but it had no effect. They were simply way too high for anything to hit them. None of the rounds ever made it to their target, with most of them landing in a lake near a small town named Ponyville.

Looking back up, he saw a metal ship flying towards him at an incredible speed. Lightning was sure that he was about to die, but instead, the ship flew over his head, firing down on the Flak-Gun, completely destroying the weapon and the ponies firing it. He could hear the screams of pain, even over the deafening sound of the metal ship, which had dissapeared as soon as it had appeared. After making sure that the metal ship wasn't coming back, Lightning Sky ran towards the Flak-Gun in full trot. He knew the gunners were in need of help, and since he lived closeby, he decided to bring them into his house.

When he got to the gunners of the Flak-Gun, he saw something he wished he had never seen. Dead ponies, eyes still opened, horror shown with their faces. Absolute fear radiated from those eyes, staring deep into Lightning's soul. As he walked, he felt that he had stepped into something weird. Something... squishy. He was afraid to look down, knowing in the back of his mind what he was walking on, but not wanting to acknowledge it. Ignoring the feeling of splattered meat underneath his hooves, he trotted onwards towards one of the gunners that seemed to still be alive. After looking for a pulse, and finding one, he knew that this one was still alive, even after that attack, but something was missing...

Lightning Sky looked down at the gunner's body, finding that he was missing one of his forelegs. Lightning almost threw up, being able to look directly into the flesh and bones of the severly wounded pony. Luckily for the gunner, Lightning had taken a First-Aid course last summer, the knowledge of which he used to bandage the wounded pony, sealing off the place where the foreleg used to be, and applying pressure to slow the bleeding down. With the gunner's condition now stabilized, Lightning dragged him back into his house, where he carefully placed him on his couch. He had no clue what to do next, but atleast he knew that he was doing all he could to help his nation.

Back at the Palace, the Royal Guard was preparing for a worst-case scenario, a full-scale invasion. The Flak-Guns were being prepared, whilst trucks were being mobilized to evacuate and alarm the civilians, and to gather the Reserves. In the midst of it all, Solar Streak was running around the Palace, checking on his Squad-Member's positions, if they had enough ammunition, and if they were ready to fight. If the intel from the LRS was correct, it was going to be one hell of a battle.

Many Guards were scared. Their first real battle being one against a far more superior force was, as expected, quite terrifying. Nonetheless, there were a bunch of Guards who had fought in another war which, at first, seemed decently similiar. A few decades ago, Equestria was under attack from the Dragons. They had invaded the Southern territories, raiding villages, and destroying infrastructure, effectively crippling the affected area. The Guards that were stationed there, had seen horrors that could only be described as nightmares, worse than anything Princess Luna could control.

But eventhough the Dragons were much larger, and a lot more dangerous than the Guards, Equestria had been able to defend their territory, and saved hundreds of lives from fires and pillaging. Ever since that attack, FOB Duff and FOB Orange had been reinforced, and permanently staffed, to prevent something like that from ever happening again. Unfortunatly, nothing could have prepared them from the fight that they were about to experience.

Sturdy Shield had his own task. He would protect the Princesses and the Ministers, no matter the cost. They had locked themselves in inside the Conference Room, where they were interrogating the alien, when they received information that the aliens were on their way. They had gathered the rest of the LRS inside the room, sealing the door after the last LRS-Soldier entered. Everyone took their position, waiting for the inevitable arrival of the alien army.

With nothing better to do than wait, Eric decided that it was as good of a time as ever to ask some of the questions he had come up with while answering the questions that were directed at him by the Princesses and the Ministers. "So, tell me:" he said in the quiet room, startling some of the Ministers. "Those stamps on your rear. What are they? Are they some sort of required tattoo? Or maybe a birth-mark? Something genetic, maybe?"

Princess Celestia looked at the human with a confused look. It took her a few seconds untill she figured out what he was reffering to. "You... You mean our cutie marks?"

"Cutie... Marks?" That was the weirdest name he had ever heard, and probably the most feminine aswell. "Okay, so that's what it's called, but what IS it?"

"It is a symbol that appears when a pony finds their purpose in life. That one thing that they are specialized at." She explained with confidence, trying to regain the upper hand, or hoof, in the conversation. Cutie marks were the symbol of Equestria, the thing that made a pony a pony.

"So... It just appears? Just... Poof?" he asked.

"Yes, that is correct."

"And just like that, you know your destiny."

"Exactly."

"That is the most ridicoulus thing I have ever heard."

Princess Celestia was quite taken back by this response. But she knew a way to show this human what cutie marks were all about. "Fine. If that is what you believe, I think it would be quite appropriate if you found out your true destiny. Here, let me help you with that..." Immediatly after finishing her sentence, Celestia's horn lit up, glowing a bright yellow, akin to the shine of a star. Eric could feel... something. He didn't understand what it was, but he began to feel a burning sensation in his hips. Looking down, he was surprised to see the sides of his hips glowing the same colour as the aura eminating from the horn.

"There." said Celestia. "Now you can see your true destiny. Just take a look."

Eric was unsure what she exactly meant by that, but he was curious why his hips were glowing. Pulling one side of his suit's pants slightly down, he saw what he could only describe as a tattoo on his hip. He checked the other hip, and the image was the same. A burning wreckage, looking a lot like a meteor striking trough the sky. Was this his purpose, his destiny? To crash, and to die? To cause harm?

In her room aboard Atlas Beta, Michelle Yonderia looked out of her window towards the beautifull planet below. She wanted to be down there, no matter how violent it was going to be there for the coming hours. Having never visited a planet, she was extremely curious how it felt. To have solid ground beneath your feet. To not have to worry about suffocating. Not having to worry about radiation. Not having to worry about finding your own little space. That was what she wanted to experience the most. Not being around others. Being secluded, in your own enviroment. Your own little piece of tranquility.

Everyone in the galaxy had their eyes focused on NLTT-512-3A. Some had come to call the planet 'Equis', because of the mostly Equine inhabitants, while other preffered to call it by its official designation. It wasn't that 'Equis' was the weirdest name for a planet. Far from it, actually. There was a planet called 'Hobosis', a planet with an unemployment-problem, and 'Methania', the planet with an atmosphere that was scarily similiar to farts. In comparison to all of that, 'Equis' wasn't all that bad.

Adrianos and Cristina Castello, the two most important doctors in Oblivion, were watching GalNet-News, when they heard about the start of the assault. They weren't sure how to react, but both of them had always stood against violence. Nevertheless, they were not scared that this would result in a conflict. Why? Because both of them knew that the fleet was under command of Admiral Bishop, a friend of them. They knew, that if even remotely possible, the Admiral would avoid a violent confrontation. They knew, or atleast hoped, that this would be the same.

The forces had gathered around the RV-Point. The Marines had entered the AVT-5s, the EU-80Ds had returned to base, and the Hornets were still flying around. On the way to the RV-Point, they had encountered some flying ponies, known as Pegasi according to Dr. Märtha. These pegasi had tried to approach and blockade the oncoming fleet, but the ships were quick and agile enough to maneauvre around them. Pilots reported seeing a mix of terrified and impressed faces on the pegasi as they flew by, wondering what went trough their heads at that moment.

Every now and then though, one or two pegasi would fly up towards them, firing guns, which allowed to pilots to use their weapons to dispose of the threats, in accordance with the ROE. The salvos of 20MM rounds from the on-board cannons were powerfull enough to not leave a single part of the pegasi that were attacking. All that remained after one of those attacks, was a puff of red mist.

Continuing on their way towards Canterlot, the Marines and Tank-Crew were now finally able to see what their target looked like. A massive castle, built on the side of a mountain. Apparantly, it was actually constructed atop a plateau on the hillside, but this had been covered up with bricks and plaster, to make the city seem more impressive. Manipulation of the populace at its finest.

March on they did, plowing trough the muddy tracks. Paved roads were infrequent, even on this seemingly important route. The road that connected the capitals of two nations, was nothing more than a trail of dirt and puddles. Every now and then, the convoy of armoured vehicles encountered trucks from the Royal Equestrian Guard, soldiers included. These would most often move out the way and hide, though some chose to block the road with their trucks, and the ponies decided that the best coarse of action was to open fire with their rifles at the convoy.

Ofcourse, it had no effect. Rounds bounced off of the armour, barely scratching the plating. Marines would quickly aim their rifles trough the view-ports on the sides, and mow down any hostile that had decided to be dumb enough to fire at the convoy. When the Marines couldn't get a good shot on a hostile, the AVT-5's 20MM ForestKing Auto-Cannon would open up on the target, obliterating it in seconds with High-Explosive rounds.. Everytime the convoy was stopped and blocked by a truck or other obstacle, a Utility-Version of the AVT-5 would move up the convoy, and push the obstacle to the side of the road, often completely destroying the truck in the process, after which it would return to the convoy, so they could continue their advance towards the capital.

When they were about kilometer away from the first gate into the city, the shockwave of a loud explosion shook the convoy. Some thought they had hit a mine. Others believed that the enemy had begun firing rockets. One of the AVT's was totalled. The vehicle's Crew, aswell as the Marines had to dismount, and they would be transported in other vehicles. As they were walking to the rest of the convoy, one of the Marines heard a faint whistling sound, coming from above. As he listened, it became louder and louder, until he realized exactly what he was listening to.

"ARTILLERY!"

Another explosion shook the ground. Some soldiers toppled over as the shockwave hit them, while others were holding their hands up to their heads in an effort to get rid of the ringing in their ears. Another massive artillery-shell had just next to the convoy. Without any hestitation, the Crew-Members inside the AVTs quickly activated the IonFist Active-Denial-Systems. As soon as the systems were booted up, another projectile was detected.

The Ion-Fist on top of the leading AVT immediatly turned towards the target, firing a concentrated ray of energy at it as soon as it had a lock. The incoming artillery-shell heated up, reaching a critical temperature hot enough to detonate the gunpowder inside of it. Triggering the shell, a rain of white-hot metal shards shot down towards the vehicles and Marines. The ground was perforated with fragments, but most of the Marines were in good condition. Not everyone had as much luck as them, though.

A fair number of Marines who had been standing outside their wrecked AVT had been hit with fragments. Nobody was killed, but a good chunck of the Marines and Crew-Members had been hit by atleast a few shards of hot metal. The injured servicemen were quickly pulled into the safety of the armoured vehicles, which closed their doors just in time to block out the fragments from the next shell that exploded above them.

"It's not doing anything! They are still coming! Why in Tartarus are the shells exploding in mid-air?!" the pegasus FAO (Forward Artillery Observer) from 3rd Airborne Battalion, who was tasked with directing the artillery-strikes on the advancing enemies, looked at the convoy below. To say that she was confused would be a severe understatement. She did see that some of the aliens appeared to be hurt, but she didn't quite see how badly. Seeing that the artillery-strikes didn't seem to be effective in destruction, but still good for slowing them down, she sent an order to the Canterlot Artillery Brigade to keep firing on the road.

The vibrations of exploding munitions and the rattling of shards hitting the hull of the AVT-5 scared Dr. Märtha, but less than she had expected. She had never been in a military vehicle, let alone whilst it was taking fire. It was surely an experience she would never forget. Whilst the air outside the vehicle was burning and exploding, she tried to remember exactly what she was going to say to the ponies of Canterlot.

The rudamentary loudspeakers on the roof of the AVT had been installed in a matter of minutes, to allow Dr. Märtha to speak to the ponies without being in too much danger. Going outside before peace had been established was not allowed, and would surely have been a death-sentance. As she was thinking, another shell exploded above the vehicle, shaking the entirety of the hull and the occupants.

Ten minutes later, the convoy had reached the first gate. The Artillery-Strikes had seized, most likely due to the civilian presence around the area, combined with the inaccuracy of the Equestrian Artillery. Even with that, the convoy wasn't clear yet. In front of them stood a massive wooden and copper door, the only way trough the gigantic wall surrounding the capital. There was only one way for the UEN to enter trough that gate.

"Bring up the Breacher!"

A large vehicle rolled up from the back of the convoy. It was a M3A2-B Combat Breacher Tank, a modified version of the M3A2 Main Battle Tank, specifically designed to breach walls and fortifications. When it had made it to the front of the convoy, it parked to the side of the leading vehicle, aiming the barrel of the giant gun towards the massive wooden and copper gate. With an incredibly loud bang and a bright flash, the M3A2-B fired its special munition, a breaching round, designed to explode inside of a wall to create a hole just big enough to let the AVTs and MBTs trough. Atleast, that was what it was designed to do.

With an incredible noise, the remains of the gate came crashing down. It had completely shattered, most likely due to the old age of the gate, and the state of the wood that it was made of. It didn't stand a chance against the powerfull round piercing it, ripping it open from the inside. With the remainder of the great gate now just barely hanging on its hinges, the convoy continued past the Breacher.

And so, the city of Canterlot, capital of the mighty Equestrian nation, had been entered.

Author's Note

I hope that this version is more liked than the previous one. If there is anything I could improve, please let me know! Also, this is NOT the ending anymore. More chapters are on the way!
Lastly, please let me know what you thought of this story using the poll below.
PLEASE VOTE HERE

Credits for Eric's question, the one about cutie marks, was inspired by stealthysaphiro.

Featured Characters:
Lightning Sky - Oskar
Sturdy Shield - Wild Balance

Chapter 24 - Guerilla Tactics

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/EQUESTRIA/CANTERLOT///TIME - 12:43 LMT///DATE - 20-05-2232///

"They have cleared the outer gate!"

"How?! There's no way they could have opened it! It had one of the most powerfull magical locks!"

"They just blew it up! The gate is gone! It's completely gone!"

"What do we do now?!"

"WE STAND OUR GROUND!" Solar Streak shouted.

Everyone went quiet. In the midst of the defensive line in front of the inner gate, Solar had stood up in an attempt to motivate his fellow guards. He knew that his Squad, aswell as others, were starting to doubt their chances against the invaders. He had to keep their spirits up, if they wanted to have any chance against the aliens that had now entered the outer layer of the city. Their chances of succesfully defending against a full frontal attack were close to none, but the Guards had one advantage: The home ground. They knew the exact layout of the city, every corner, every building, every tunnel.

With this in mind, Solar Streak ordered his Squad to move with him furter into the Outer City, in an attempt to ambush the approaching convoy that was still closing in. The convoy had slowed down when it had entered the city, due to the many structures, blockades and corners, but it was still going at a steady pace towards the Inner City and the Palace. Before entering the Outer City, Solar picked up a batch of explosives, which he believed to have a good use for.

Solar's Squad was an 7-unit strong team of combat-hardened Guards, all of which had their own role. There was Sgt. Moonlight Hunter, the Combat Medic, who uses magic to heal wounds and to stop ponies from bleeding to death. The heavy firepower was provided by Ltn. Orchid Jewel, the team's Automatic Riflemare, equipped with a MK-2 REMAR Automatic Rifle. Because of the heavy weight of this weapon, only an Earth-Pony could carry this saddle-mounted weapon.

The Squad also had a pair of Unicorn Shield-Casters, Sgt. Thunder Horn and 2nd Ltn. Little Note. Those two had excelled at magic during Guard-Training, and had therefore been assigned the roles of Shield-Casters, which required the ability to be extremely focussed, even in a combat situation. The team's Forward Observer, Sgt. Onyx Star, also excelled in his field, though it wasn't magic. Instead, his expertise was in flying stealthly, without being seen. He was nimble enough to fly trough streets and between buildings, but fast enough to fly into cover before he could be seen.

A Squad can't function properly without a connection to HQ. To make sure that Solar's Squad had good communications, Comms Expert Sgt. Hazelblossom was equipped with a Magic-Relay Morse-Code Transmitter and Receiver or MRMCTR, nicknamed Mermcater. This device was similiar to standard Morse-Code systems, though this was a more modern wireless version that used Message Relay Spells. The Squad was also permanently joined by Rocketeer Ltn. Flawless Mustang, who was an expert in Anti-Tank work. Lastly, there was ofcourse Cap. Solar Streak, the most experienced soldier of the bunch, with experience in the field against Changelings, Dragons, and he was even part in a peace-keeping mission near Appleloosa, where there was conflict between the Buffalos and the local civilians.

As they were trotting between the buildings, Solar Streak once again considered his plan. His first step would be to dig a hole in the road that the convoy was expected to pass, and to place the majority of the explosives in that hole, which could be triggered using a remote detonator. This would hopefully destroy atleast one of the vehicles, and stop the rest of the convoy, where the other vehicles would be easy targets for their bazookas and anti-tank grenades.

Trotting towards the chosen location, the team tries to stay hidden from the metal birds flying overhead. Those large alien things had already destroyed several Flak-Guns and AT-Cannons, crippling the front-line defense severly, and causing the lines to be disorganized. Exact casualty-numbers were uncertain, but they were still rising, and at that time, they were standing at roughly 110 dead, and atleast 347 injured. This rivaled the largest battle in Equestria's history, the 40-Year Pony-Dragon War. That war happened many years ago, when Equestria was still at a very low technological level, remeniscant of the Human Medieval Era.

Solar still remembered how much pony-kind had advanced these last few years. Machines, Steam Power, Electricity, Gunpowder, all of these things, developed in the span of just a decade. How was it possible? All of it had been invented by the Royal Equestrian Laboratory. But what gave them such a boost in technology? It didn't matter, he had other things to worry about. He could ask these things later. Ofcourse, that would require him to survive this, which was something he wasn't too sure was possible.

As he returned his focus to finding his way trough the city, another metal bird roared above them, but this time was different. It dropped something. Something long and metal-looking, with... wings? Fins? He wasn't sure what to call them. As he was looking, the object continued downwards towards the block of buildings infront of his Squad. As it reached the roof of one of the buildings, it went straight trough it, erupting in an incredible flash just a tenth of a second afterwards. A shockwave knocked his Squad of their hooves, as it sent them flying back a few feet. The only Squad-Member who was still standing up, was Orchid Jewel with her Automatic Rifle.

Looking back up, Solar saw that the entire block of buildings had been completely destroyed, with just a few stone walls still standing. Fragments of buildings and furniture began raining down from the sky. Shards of glass and splinters of wood poured down onto the Squad, Showering them with debris. Solar quickly ordered his Squad to get into cover, to avoid being hit by falling rubble. The Squad dispersed, with everyone still in good enough shape to run. Nopony had really been injured aside from some scrapes and bruises.

"Okay, I guess that was a bomb then!" said Solar to Onyx.

"Yeah, apparantly." replied the somewhat shaken Pegasus. As they were talking, they heard the sound of more rapid firing in the sky, similiar to the sound they had heard when some bulkier metal birds flew over. Onyx and Solar looked outside, and as they did, saw a Pegasus fall out of the sky, crashing into the ground just in front of them at a bone-shattering speed. They could hear the Pegasus's bones break, making a horrifying crunching sound. The mare just layed there. She didn't move a muscle, if she even had any muscles left.

Moonlight Hunter quickly dashed outside towards the wounded mare, causing the other Squad-Members to immediatly react by securing the perimeter around him. He looked for her dogtags, but they were melted beyond recognition. He quickly checked the mare for any wounds, and he was quick to find a large chunck of her side missing, aswell as noticing her completely burnt-up wings, with some feathers still smouldering, emminating an ominous red glow. Moonlight focused his magic on the mare's wings, extinguishing them, and providing some relief in her ocean of pain and horror.

Moonlight did all he could, but it was to no avail. Even after almost 15-minutes of non-stop magic and conventional healing-procedures, the mare's condition was still deteriorating. He knew she was in severe pain, and he knew he couldn't heal her up. Nopony could. So, he did the only right thing to do in this situation.

*BANG*

The mare fell limp. Her eyes, still open, no longer showed any sign of life, her face not revealing the slightest hint of emotion. When he signed up, Moonlight knew he would see horrible things. That he would experience things nopony should ever witness. Yet here he was. He had no other choice. The unknown mare, resting now in Faust's eternal grace, finally received her well-deserved rest. He began to quietly cry, still holding the mare in his hooves, as a soft snowflake gently landed on the tip of his muzzle.

The cold feeling made him look up, staring in wonder at the sky. It was snowing, which was odd for the time of year. It was summer, not winter. As the haze of sadness began to leave his mind, he began to notice the drop in temperature of the air around him. It was practically freezing. In fact, he could see the frost on the windows, or rather, the shards of glass that remained in their frame after the bombs shockwave had shattered all panes of glass for miles.

"What the... Is it just me, or did the seasons just change?" asked Solar in confusion, as he too was staring into the dark clouds above them. No-one had noticed the build-up of clouds, and now, it was covering the sky in its entirety. "I don't know what's going on, but we still have a mission to complete! Moonlight, she's dead. We have to go. Hazelblossom will report her location to the base, so they can send a recovery-team, but we can't wait for them! Those vehicles have to be stopped, no matter the cost!"

"U-u-understood, Squad Leader." Answered Moonlight, still heavily shaken up. As the team began to trot on, he looked back one last time towards the downed Pegasus, and whispered.

"I'm sorry..."

The Squad had safely made their way to the target-area, with only a few more fly-by's from those metal birds, which someone noticed had numbers on them. Ever since that encounter with a bomb, every time one of those things flew over, the entire Squad would dive into a building, where they would lie down, as to prevent being hit with shrapnel, incase another one of those bombs was released upon them. Fotrunatly for them, no more explosives had gone of in their proximity, and no more Pegasi had fallen out of the sky, atleast not as far as they were aware.

After his Squad had taken position in some of the buildings on both sides of the street, aswell as a building at the end of it, Solar walked down towards the road, where he took the bag of explosives from his saddle. Checking the logs, he read that he was carrying around 20 pounds of C4, enough to breach a door, and demolish the house that is attached to at the same time. The plan would be to dig a hole in the ground in the middle of the road, and to place all of the explosives into it. They didn't know how strong the armor was of those vehicles, but he had heard rumours that they could survive a direct impact from an artillery-shell, so he didn't think using a 20-pound satchel was overkill.

Especially not after what they had done to his fellow Guards.

It took him a few minutes to remove the bricks from the road, and to then dig a hole underneath it. He was lucky that the Outer-City didn't have as good infrastructure as the Inner-City, but it was tough nonetheless. When he was done, one could barely see that someone had tampered with the road, with the only noticeable hint of an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) being the thin wire that stuck out from the side of the road, leading to a 2-story building besides it, which was connected to a detonator, held by none other than Solar himself.

A faint rumble could be heard, swelling up in volume as the convoy entered the street, some 200 meters away from the IED, and aproaching quite rapidly. "Get ready. As soon as I detonate this thing, you are free to engage. Remember to switch cover after every few shots, and NEVER poke your head over the same ledge twice, unless you want it blown off!" yelled Solar to his Squad. He was ready to blow the enemies to pieces, just like they did with their own.

The convoy kept racing trough the street, and was now 150 meters away. 125 meters. 100 meters. 75 meters. 50. 25...

*BOOOM*

The ground shook, windows were shattered alltroughout the street, and the leading vehicle of the convoy had been totalled. Some enemies made it out of the burning wreckage, running around ablaze, trying to extinguish the fire. As the rest of the convoy slid to a halt, the Marines rolled in the snow in an attempt to stop the burning, but it didn't work. They were burnt alive. All of them. The rear-doors of the other vehicles opened, turrets flung from side to side in search of threats, and Marines rushed out to attend to and retrieve the other Marines. Solar saw his oppertunity.

"NOW!" he yelled. As soon as the word left his mouth, guns went off from all sides, engulfing the street in hot lead, critically injuring another 4 Marines.

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

"ESPERS, UP FRONT, NOW!"

"GET THOSE SHIELDS UP!"

It was chaos. Turrets opened fire on anything that moved in the buildings, Marines rushed to cover, Esper's activated their shields to cover the medics who were dragging the wounded back inside, and Solar's Squad kept up their fire. It seemed the plan had worked. Solar was confident that they would win this, but as soon as he said that out loud, his Comms-Expert, Sgt. Hazelblossom, was hit in the left shoulder, cutting off a decent piece of flesh, and exposing the foreleg's bone to the cold and snowy air.

"MOONLIGHT, GET UP HERE! HAZELBLOSSOM IS HIT!"

"ON IT!" he heard from downstairs. Moonlight had stopped firing, but as soon as he popped up from his position to run upstairs, he was pinned down by automatic fire from the AVT-5's ForestKing Cannon. He had no way to move.

"COME ON MOONLIGHT, SHE'S BLEEDING TO DEATH!"

"I CAN'T! I'M BEING PINNED DOWN!"

"DAMNIT! I'M NOT LETTING ANOTHER PONY DIE TODAY! STOP FIRING! EVERYONE!"

"WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO?!"

"TRUST ME! I GOT THIS!"

Following Solar's command, the Squad seized firing, much to the confusion of both the Squad-Members and the Marines in the streets. Shortly afterwards, a white rag was levitated out of a window, which caught the attention of the Marines. They aimed their rifle at it, expecting it to explode, for some reason. They were confused, but then, out of one of the building came Solar Streak. He slowly walked outside, parallel to the Marines, who looked at him, wondering what he was doing.

As Solar reached the middle of the road, he stopped, and turned to face the convoy and Marines, who had their eyes and guns aimed at him. As he turned towards them, the Marines saw that he was holding, or levitating, a rifle. One of the Marines didn't hestitate, and shot at Solar. The round never reached him. Instead, it was stopped roughly a meter from his face, by one of the Shield-Casters, hiding in the building next to him. All the Marines stared at Solar, and Solar stared back.

Then, he dropped his gun.

The Marines lowered their weapons.

The snow stopped.

Chapter 25 - Adverse Weather

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/LOW ORBIT/UENCCV-02 "ATLAS BETA"///TIME - 12:58 LMT///DATE - 20-05-2232///

Aboard the Atlas, all scanners were in full operation after losing connection with the AO (Area of Operation) for several minutes due to a rapidly developing storm, which had dissapeared just as sudden as it had first appeared. Scientists were trying to figure out what had caused this weird enviromental phenomenon, but until a more scientific explanation could be provided, most of the people just agreed it was 'magic'.

They were quite serious when they said that they thought it was magic that had caused the storm. Almost everyone had seen the video of Dr. Märtha showing off magic on their VisionAR's and VisionARM's. If one person, or pony, could levitate stuff and stop bullets mid-flight, then surely it wouldn't be too impossible for a larger group to manipulate the weather? Or maybe it was part of another one of the legends from that weird planet. They had plenty of those.

One of the most fitting legends, and one that some of the scientists were looking into after a story told by Dr. Märtha, was a legend regarding Windigos. These were stories about a group of magical ghost-like horses, which caused blizzards. Their power relied on hatred, growing stronger the more divided or violent ponies were. According to Dr. Märtha, ponies still believed in this legend. Some even believed that it was the cause of the slow descend of the average temperature in the nation, even with the increased output of greenhouse-gasses. They thought that the fight against the Changelings was causing an increase in the Wendigos' power.

Whilst the scientists abourd the Atlas were skeptic about the chances of this legend being real, Dr. Märtha truly believed that the Wendigos existed. She remembered landing on NLTT-512-3A with an almost empty fuel-tank, and being quite frustratred because of it. As she was standing on the plateau in the Yakyakistani Mountains, she practically yelled her lungs out out of anger. Almost immediatly, she could feel a bizarre chill race trough her spine, making her shiver trough her flight-suit.

She still remembered how, when she was finally calmed down, the chills started to dissapate into warmth. Very few people abourd the Atlas believed her story, but the ones that did believe her, believed her trough and trough, and supported her research. They had seen magic first hand, and there was no denying that this world was different. It gave an ominous feeling to everyone on and around it. Something strange, yet logical. Something new, yet familiar. Something impossible, yet real.

In the Communications-Center of the Atlas, 215 Officers were managing all the ongoing communications with the entire fleet, including the ground-forces, the air-assets, and the orbital vessels. Whilst most calls were coming in from aerial vehicles requesting directions or asking permission to Return-To-Base, at 12:58 Local Mean Time, a call came trough from the convoy that was tasked with seizing the capital.

”Atlas, Delta 3-1.”

”Go for Atlas.”

”Atlas, convoy has engaged hostiles. Multiple casualties and wounded, one AVT-5 is destroyed. Hostiles appear to have surrendered. Please advise.”

”Understood Delta 3-1. Wait one.”

”Roger that.”

The call was immediatly forwarded to Camp Ebony, where it was handed over to Admiral Bishop (Codename: “Draconequus”).

”Delta 3-1, this is Draconequus. What’s the situation?”

”Draconequus, convoy has been engaged inside Outer-City. Multiple casualties, and the leading vehicle has been destroyed. Attackers have surrendered. Please advise.”

”Understood Delta 3-1. Task updated as follows. Gather the casualties in the rear vehicles, restrain the attackers and put them in one of the vehicles, destroy any remains of the destroyed vehicles, and continue with objective. Stun-weapons are authorized, and used at your discretion. How copy?”

”Gather casualties and attackers, destroy leading vehicles, continue with objective. Stun-weapons authorized. Wilco.”

”Good copy Delta 3-1. Good luck!”

”Understood Draconequus. Delta 3-1, out.”

”Alright lads, we have received our orders! Delta 3-2 and 3-3, gather the casualties, and bring them to the vehicles to the rear of the convoy! Delta 3-4, destroy any remains of the leading vehicle! We don’t want the enemy to gather any technology from us! Delta 3-1 will secure the hostiles! Move out!”

Everything went into motion again. The 2nd and 3rd Squad moved the dead bodies into the AVTs, and helped the wounded soldiers to climb inside if they couldn’t properly walk. In the end, 6 of the 20 vehicles had been required to load up the casualties, who took up more space due to some of them having to lay down. It was concluded that there simply wasn’t enough space to carry all the fit Marines in the AVTs, so Delta 3-1 would have to walk alongside the vehicles, or sit on top.

The 4th Squad had moved up to the burning wreckage of the leading AVT, where they put out the fire with the extinguishers from the other vehicles. They then tried to salvage as many parts as they could, to keep their technology out of the hands, or hoofs, of the enemy. When they had concluded that all salvagable parts had been recovered, the call was made to melt the remaining carcass of the AVT with a Thermite-Charge. One of the engineers went up to the vehicle, planted the charge, and was almost melted as the Charge ignited prematurely, just barely giving him enough time to jump away with nothing more than a slightly crispy shoulder.

The most difficult task was set for Delta 3-1. They would have to somehow restrain the captives, and take them with them. They couldn’t leave them, as they might report their position, or attack again. Some tried to think how the enemy always knew where they were, but they payed that thought no more attention than needed. They had to focus on the captives now. Delta 3-1’s Squad Leader asked Dr. Märtha for assistance, as she had learnt the alien language, and was able to function as a translator.

Delta 3-1’s Squad Leader walked up to the group of ponies, who were sitting in a building along the street, which was being surrounded by Marines. The ponies had already thrown their weaponry out of the windows, but the Marines weren’t sure whether they had thrown out ALL of their weapons. For all they knew, they had another pony with a HMG mounted on its back aiming at the door. They were already going to have nightmares from the first one they experienced in that fight.

“Hello?” yelled Dr. Märtha trough the door. “Don’t worry, we won’t do you any harm! It looks like you have thrown out you weapons, correct?”

A few seconds passed, and whispering could be heard, before one of the ponies replied from the inside. “That is right.”

“And you are certain that you have given away ALL of your weapons, and that you will peacefully cooperate?”

Another ten or so seconds later, the same pony spoke again. “We have, and we will. As long as you will help take care of our wounded!”

“Ofcourse, that’s only fair. I’m so glad we have come to a peacefull conclusion! Just wait here a second, and I’ll go talk to the leader of this group, okay?”

“Okay. But do it quickly!”

Dr. Märtha went back to 3-1’s Squad Leader, and she explained the situation. ”It’s safe. I’m confident they are speaking the truth. They just don’t see the point in fighting anymore, and they have a wounded with them. We could help treat their injured soldier, and when they see that we do not mean any harm, they might help us convince the rest of their soldiers to put down their weapons, so we can negotiate.”

”Hmmm...” The Squad-Leader wasn’t too sure. ”I’m sorry, as much as I’d like for such a plan to work, it simply wont do. They will fight back. I’m not losing another good Marine today, so I’m doing this my way. I advise you stay back. Oh, and move upwind. It will help, trust me.”

Dr. Märtha wasn’t sure what he meant by that, until she saw the Marines pull the pins out of their grenades, and tossing the grenades trough any window or opening they could find. She flinched, but there was no explosion. She could only smell a weird odour.

”Alright men, wait a few seconds for my command to enter. They’ll be knocked out in seconds. That Nova-Gas is powerfull, I’ll tell you that! I still remember accidently sniffing some of it. Phew, that was a loooong sleep I had!” The Squad-Leader joked, as he finally gave the command to enter. Marines with Gas-masks on entered the building, where they dragged the sleeping ponies from their holdout. Dr. Märtha could only watch as the normally peacefull creatures, who had just surrendered, were being dragged across the cold pavement to be loaded up in AVTs. She decided to ride along with the group of 4 ponies, one of them being injured, and another one looking more important in a way than the rest. He was probably their Squad-Lead.

With everything now ready, the convoy continued on their way, with Delta 3-1 now having to walk alongside the vehicles, which heavily slowed down the convoy. They estimated that they would reach their destination, the Palace-Grounds, in about an hour, and that was without any further interruptions, which was very unlikely to happen.

About half an hour after the negotiations, Solar Streak began to wake up again. As he regained his senses, he realized that he was being shaken around, hitting a metal wall with his back, while his front was laying towards the inside of the weird metal room. As he looked around, he saw another pony, with a white coat, covered partially in blood. He then noticed who was treating his Squad-Member. One of the aliens. What was he doing here? Where was he? What happened? Then he remembered.

He remembered the fight. He remembered his Comms-Expert getting hit. He remembered being pinned down by enemy fire. He remembered surrendering. He remembered talking to someone outside, someone who spoke Equestrian. He remembered seeing metal cans roll into the room, trough windows and doors. Then, he remembered nothing. It stopped.

He stared at the alien for a full minute, as the metal chamber, which he had concluded was probably the inside of one of those vehicles of theirs, kept moving and shaking. The alien never payed him any attention, being fully focussed on the injured pony. He decided to leave him alone. As he looked further to his right, he saw that none other than Queen Chrysalis, leader of the Changelings, was sitting next to him. “Oh, you have to be kidding me...” he thought. Maybe he was hallucinating? Maybe it was all a dream? Another shove by the wall of the vehicle proved it wasnt. The hallucination-theory wasn’t ruled out though. He didn’t really care anymore. He was tired.

”Damnit! I keep losing signal with this weather!” Solar could hear the aliens in the front compartment of the vehicle talking. Those were most likely the driver, and someone else. ”What the hell is causing these blizzards?! I thought it was summer-season here?”

”It is. Atleast, that’s what the briefing said!”

”Well, this doesn’t look like a summer-day!” As the vehicle continued on its path, Solar began to notice the sound of snow being compacted beneath the weels of the vehicle. ”I’ll try to connect again. I want to be on frequency when they finally anounce the reason for this oh so gorgeous weather!”

Solar felt tired. He could barely keep his eyes open. The rithym of the vehicle, the humming of the engine, and the clattering of metal weapons against the walls slowed drowned out all his thoughts, as he returned to his slumber, though this time, it was voluntary.

Author's Note

Moon_Dew called it with the Windigos! Congratulations, you get one free internet cookie! Here:

It's a "Roze Koek", one of my country's most well-known treats, being up there with "Stroopwafels" in terms of deliciousness!

Chapter 26 - White Peace

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/EQUESTRIA/CANTERLOT///TIME - 14:12 LMT///DATE - 20-05-2232///

The weather-conditions were constantly deteriorating. Temperatures had dropped far below freezing, and ponds and lakes all across the capital had frozen over. The beautifull waterfall that fell down from the Palace-Grounds towards the depths below was now a solid wall of ice. Trough the rough weather, the UEN-Convoy marched on towards the walls of the Inner-City.

The Guards at the great gate were now far from ready for fighting, the sweat in their fur from the sight of warfare completely frozen. Still, they were determined to defend their post. The Princesses and the Ministers were to be defended at any and all cost. They had called for more supplies from the 2nd Logistical Battalion, which was also stationed in Canterlot, and they had received exactly what they were looking for.

In total, 5 trucks had performed 3 runs each, providing the Guards with 3 Heavy Anti-Tank Guns, 4 Gatling Guns, several crates of ammunition, and enough food and blankets to allow them to keep fighting for hours, even in these extreme conditions. They were determined to fight for their Kingdom.

Meanwhile, the convoy continued on its way, and was now just a few blocks from the gate, and with their decent speed trough the cold and wet snow, it would take them less than a minute before they would arrive at the plaza that led up to the gate. As they got to the last road to the plaza, the convoy stopped, and the Marines dismounted to discuss their plan of action. Delta 3-1’s Squad Leader climbed onto one of the AVT-5s, and spoke to his men.

”Alright Delta 3! Remember, our primary task is to retrieve Nomad, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do more than that! Now, I would like to share our plan for the next step. As you all know, we have captured enemy soldiers with us. Perhaps we might be able to convince them to have their troops put down their weapons. Dr. Märtha should be able to talk to them. We will wait here while we prepare everything. Remember, the enemy is just around that corner.” He pointed to the corner at the end of the street. ”Whatever you do, DO NOT GET SPOTTED! We’ll be moving out in a few minutes, so get ready, and stay on your feet! We don’t know what those ponies might be up to.”

After his speech, he jumped back down, and entered the AVT-5 where Dr. Märtha was sitting next to the supposed leader of the Squad that had surrendered themselves. The pony, who had identified himself as being Captain Solar Streak of the Royal Guard, 3rd Airborne Batallion, 12th Regiment, 2nd Division. According to Dr. Märtha, Solar Streak was still shaken up from the fight, and he felt dizzy, which was a known side-effect of the Nova Gas. He also didn’t like talking to the great evil from legends across the nation, but he still joked that personally talking to many ponies worst fear wasn’t even the weardest thing that had happened to him those last few days.

As much as he still didn’t trust the aliens who had invaded his lands, he wanted to stop this conflict, and he knew that the aliens believed in the same thing. Conflict was negative for any civilization. Dr. Märtha had already asked if Solar Streak wanted to help end this war. He initially refused, saying that his higher-ups would kill him for treason, but Dr. Märtha already knew how to convince him. She knew that Solar would want whats best for his men. So she told her:

“Look outside. What do you see?”

“Not much. Pretty much nothing, actually!”

“Exactly! Do you really think that your Princesses or COs will be able to know what you are doing?”

“No, not really. But what about you? Surely your leaders want you to continue?!”

“They do. Luckily for us, they can’t tell us what to do anymore! This blizzard has cut off all communications with our FOB and our ships up in orbit. We can do what we want.”

“What are you suggesting?” Solar became more and more interested as the conversation went on.

“Do you believe you can convince your fellow troops to put down their weapons, if ours do the same?”

“Maybe. I can’t promise anything, but there is a chance I could do it. Why?” Solar Streak wasn’t sure where she was going with this.

“Well, this is what I propose: A white peace. Both parties give up. Then, we can finally begin peacefull negotiations!”

“And you seriously think that will work?”

“No. To be honest, I’m pretty sure it won’t work. But if we don’t try, our leaders are just going to send more troops at each other, until there is nobody left to fight. We can change that! If we can make peace between our armies, then we can simply refuse to fight for our leaders. They’ll HAVE to negotiate!” exclaimed Dr. Märtha, a fair bit louder than before, making some Marines quite interested in the discussion, even if they could not understand a single word.

“Fair enough. I trust you. You appear to be speaking the truth, and so shall I. I will make sure my troops will put down their weapons. You can leave that to me. But please, try to convince your metal birds to back away aswell. They are killing our troops!”

“I can’t promise I can get in touch with them, but I will damn well try! You have my word!”

The two stared at each other for a few seconds, before Solar Streak looked at Delta 3-1’s Squad Leader, and extended his right hoof towards him. He was confused by this gesture at first, thinking that the pony was pointing at him, before quickly realizing that he was offering to shake hands. This must have meant that they had come to an agreement. Delta 3-1’s Squad Leader gladly took the hoof in his hand, and gave it a firm shake. ”Allow me to introduce myself. Lieutenant Ruben Vermaas. Pleasure to meet you!”

The Guards at the gate could hear a rumbling sound approaching. They prepared themselves for the fight, manning the guns, and readying their rifles. All eyes were trained on the various streets that converged at the plaza. They were expecting a fight, more violent and bloody than any of them could ever imagine. They were ready. They were ready to die. To die for their country. For their Princesses. But it would not be so.

From one of the streets at the distant end of the plaza, a pegasus could be seen approaching the gate. That wasn’t what bothered the Guards though. No, what bothered them, was the alien walking alongside the pegasus. Guns were aimed, both at the alien, and the pegasus. For all they knew, the pegasus could’ve been a changeling. One Guard could not contain his nerves. Out of shear fear, Private Blaze fired a shot at the alien that kept approaching them at a slow pace. A small flicker of light could be seen as the bullet reached its target.

A crack could be heard as the supersonic round flew back over Private Blaze's head, just inches away from hitting him. Instead of splattering the Private's brains all over his fellow soldiers, the projectile dug itself into the heavy wooden gate behind him. His eyes were wide open with shock. He was petrified. 'Wh.. What.. What happened...?!' he thought, his mind going into overdrive after recognising the sound he just heard wizz past him. Two seconds later, he fell to the ground, completely paralized, trembling with fear. A second later, the Lieutenant's Esper-Shield stopped pulsating.

"HOLD YOUR FIRE!" yelled Solar. Nopony dared to fire, but they didn't lower their weapons either. All eyes were focused on the pony and the alien trough the sights of dozens of guns. "THEY ARE NOT THE ENEMY!"

The Guards looked at each other, confused. 'Not the enemy?' 'Is he crazy?' They didn't know how to respond. They hoped, prayed to the sun, that this pegasus knew what he was talking about. A few Guards had begun to lower their weapons. Others stayed focused on the threats that were still approaching them.

"I, Captain Solar Streak, 3rd Airborne Battalion, 12th Regiment, 2nd Division, hereby order you all to put down your weapons! These aliens, the 'Humans' as they call themselves, don't mean to do harm! They want peace, and one of theirs back!"

Another few Guards put down their guns. One of the AT-Cannon Crews disarmed their weapon, and took out the shell to show that they would not engage. Solar Streak appeared to do it. It seemed like he was able to pull it off. They had almost reached the fortifications. Soon, this whole conflict would be behind them. Peace was closer than ever. New allies would be made. Maybe, just maybe, Equestria could finally venture upwards, explore the stars...

"INCOMING!"

A forwards observer yelled, pointing at the Southern sky. As the Guards and the sole Human looked up, they saw THEM. The Changelings. Hundreds of them, maybe thousands. They were almost two kilometers away, and closing in fast. A plan would have to be made, and quickly, or they would be overwhelmed, and the Palace would be overrun. As the Guards prepared their weapons and armed their guns, nopony payed the two anymore attention. Lieutenant Ruben Vermaas and Captain Solar Streak knew exactly what to do. They could get two birds with one stone, if they could get back to the convoy quickly enough.

They ran and they ran, all the way across the massive plaza. Without any cover, aside from some statues, they were a prefect target for the airborne Changelings, who were now swooping down at the gate and the plaza. The two had to dive to the ground every few seconds, as another Changeling took it upon himself to kill the two of them. None of them succeeded. Eventually, Solar and Vermaas found a relatively safe hiding spot. They wouldn't be to reach the convoy with the Changelings still attacking. Vermaas tried to contact the convoy with his radio. No response. He tried again, with the same result.

After the third try, someone finally answered. It was one of the drivers of the convoy. They had seen the Changelings come in, but wouldn't risk firing at them. For all they knew, it could be detremental to the peace-talks. Now, it was time for them to make their grand entrance, when the Guards, who had previously been their enemy, needed them most. A dreadfull 20 seconds later, the first vehicles screached around the corner, racing into view as they entered the plaza. They dodged the several destroyed statues that were laying all around.

Because they were so focused on shooting the Changelings out of the sky, most of the Guards only noticed that the convoy had arrived when streams of bullets flew trought the sky, filling the flying bugs with hot lead, and literally tearing the enemy apart with the sound of a thousand angry bees, only several dozens of decibels louder. None of them had ever seen such volume of fire, let alone from such small weapons. Lines of red-hot lead flew upwards to the clouds, showering the plaza in a layer of thick smoke from the guns.

The driver of the leading AVT-5, who was the closest to the Guards at the gate, had opened his hatch to look at the destruction of those vile creatures. As he looked to his left with his head sticking out of the hatch, he looked right in the eyes of one of the Guards. They stared at each other. For a few seconds, none of them moved. The driver nodded. The Guard nodded back. The Guard smiled. The driver smiled back. They knew what to do. They weren't enemies of each other. They were allies, united against a common threat. And although their superiors might believe that they were still killing each other, they might have actually been forming a bond.

That's the weird thing about war. It isn't always as straight-forward as it might seem. It isn't just "Shoot the bad-guy". You wonder who the bad-guy is. Is it them? Or is it you? Both? Or neither?

Author's Note

This chapter is similair to the first version of the ending, with some mayor improvements. One of theses improvements, is a reason for being united. A common enemy. Also, this time, it isn't the end. There is more to come quite soon, though since we are just getting 2 new kittens today, I will most likely be distracted for a while!
OH-MAH-GOD-THEY-ARE-SO-CUTE-I-WANT-TO-CUDDLE-THEM-TO-DEATH!!!!

Chapter 27 - Common Foe

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A///TIME - 14:23 LMT///DATE - 20-05-2232///

They kept firing. Seemingly endless streams of hot lead pierced the clouds. They could be seen from across the city. The Guards were baffled by the volume of fire that was coming from those armoured vehicles. Many of them had a hard time believing what they saw. It was as if their eyes were deceiving them. Their enemies. Killing their other enemies, and saving them in the process.

The gunners and drivers of the AVTs had opened their hatches, and as the automated turrets were destroying the Changelings in the sky, they yelled at the enemy, to show that they knew no fear. "YEAH! GET SOME!" The Guards looked at them. They were confused by this behaviour, but they saw that the Humans were enjoying it, so some of the Guards gave it a try as best as they could. "YAAH! GHAT SOUME!" It wasn't exactly the same, but it sounded close enough, and the drivers and gunners looked over at the Guards. They smiled and laughed. Some things were the same, no matter what planet you're from.

The majority of the Changeling-Horde had been taken out before they had even reached the ground. The few remaining hostiles that had made it to the ground, had taken up positions in the plaza. They took cover behind statues, poking their heads up every now and then to fire another shot at the Guards and the convoy. The AVTs had a hard time engaging the Changelings whilst they were on the ground, so the Marines dismounted, pouring out troops onto the plaza. The Guards quickly followed the actions of the UEN-Marines, taking cover with them, and helping in any way they could.

As he was trying to get to another position, a Private from the Royal Guard was hit in the chest by a shot from a Changeling. He was laying there, in the middle of the plaza, as the Changelings continued to approach on his position. One of the Changelings was now standing next to him, his gun aimed at the pony's head. He closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable bang, and whatever would follow after that. To his surprise, there never was a bang. All he could hear, was hissing, the sound of someone struggling to survive, and then nothing.

The Private opened his eyes, revealing to him a Human, kneeling over him, as shots flew past them. "You're not just gonna die like that! Grab my gun, and kill those bastards!" It was Vermaas. He had jumped up as soon as he saw the wounded pony, grabbing his knife as the Changeling was about to execute the soldier. He had jumped on top of the Changeling, knocking it over, and proceeding to shove the knife into the creatures throat. Vermaas was covered in thick, sickly green blood. He had hit the main artery, causing a fountain of blood to spray over him.

Now, all that was standing between him and the shots from Changelings, was his Esper-Shield, which was ricocheting rounds left and right, but the shield wouldn't be able to hold up much longer. Those shields generate a lot of heat when they stop an incoming round, and the more they are fired at, the more heat is generated. This heat is stored in the soldier's backpack, in a heat-sink unit, but this can only take so much energy. He had to get rid of it and put in a new one at some point, or it might melt or fracture, which would be catastrofic.

Vermaas dragged the wounded pony to cover, sitting behind the footing of a shattered statue, which used to honour the ponies who had built the first buildings of the town that later became Canterlot. Now, all that remained of this once beautifull commemoration, was a pile or marble. After safely making it to cover, Vermaas took his rifle in his hands, and continued to surpress the enemy, who were relentlesly pushing up on them. He looked around the battlefield, trying to find any way to turn this battle in their favour. Destroyed statues, rubble, a damaged truck, shattered windows...

He looked back at the damaged truck. He saw that the fuel-tank was ruptured, and that it was spreading fuel all over the Changeling-controlled parts of the plaza. Vermaas had no other option. He was going to regret this, and his Medic would be really mad at him, but he had to do something. Putting his weapon down against the remains of the statue, he disconnected the Esper-Shield from his backpack, and took the heat-regulation-unit in his hands. Even while the heatsink was inside this isolated box, the heat that radiated off of it was almost unbearable. He had no other choice.

Disconnecting the safety, he opened the box, reveling a large black disc, which would boil the moisture in your eyes if you looked at it for more than a few seconds. He quickly took a hold of the disc, screaming out in pain as the flesh of his hands began to melt, and he quickly tossed the heatsink, along with pieces of his skin, across the plaza towards the large puddle of fuel that the Changelings were standing in. Almost as soon as the heatsink touched the highly flammable petrol, half of the plaza erupted in an astonishingly bright flash, blinding most Guards, and leaving the Marines who were wearing auto-shading goggles in awe. They jumped up, to neatralize the remaining Changelings, and celebrated, as the Changelings had just been wiped out in one quick swoop.

Meanwhile, Ruben Vermaas was still screaming in pain. His suit pumped him full of painkillers, but it did very little to the feeling of molten and smouldering nerves inside his hand. He could see the bones, which had turned black from the heat. A Medic quickly ran to his aid, injecting him with anesthesia to ease the pain. It only worked to a certain extent, leaving Vermaas feeling very uncomfortable, but atleast he had stopped screaming. The Medic, who had desinfected and bandaged his burnt hand, was now calling over another Medic to help him load Vermaas onto a stretcher.

The Medic decided to immediatly evacuate Vermaas to Atlas Beta, to have him put in cryo-sleep while his conditions were checked and monitored, and a plan could be made to patch him up. First off, all they had to do, was get him out of there. They had managed to make contact with a MedEvac-ship that happened to be on standby nearby, as the range of communications was now extended, since the storm had started to slow down.

It only took the MedEvac two minutes to reach the extraction-zone, as they no longer had to worry about AA-fire. It had seemed word of a possible peace had begun to spread across the city, and the Guards were quite eager to end this conflict. They had seen too many of their friends suffer and die. They had had enough of it.

The MedEvac quickly arrived at the EZ, where it gently touched down at the northern side of the Plaza, close to the gate. Wounded soldiers, both human and pony, were loaded into the H250A. It quickly took off, racing upwards out of the atmosphere to the fleet that was still in position above the capital. Now, the convoy was left alone with the Guards, without their leader. Luckily, they still had a translator. Dr. Märtha made her way out of the AVT, where she had stayed for the entire duration of the battle.

"IT'S HER!" The Guards looked at the Changeling Queen with fear and anger. Had the humans kept her with them? Had she drawn the humans to her side? Maybe, those humans were actually CHANGELINGS?! They didn't know. They thought that it was over, that the fighting was done, but now that she had arrived, they believed that they were far from peace. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" yelled one of the Guards, pointing his rifle towards Dr. Märtha.

"Please, calm down! I do not mean to do harm. I am here with the UEN as a translator!" Dr. Märtha started to get scared. She could stop one or two bullets with her magic, but she wasn't sure if she could stop hundreds of them at once. "Please! We just want to end this war!"

"And what in Tartarus is the UEN then?!" asked the Guard

"The United Earth Navy, humanity's military."

"Why are YOU working with those humans?!" The Guards was getting more and more frustrated.

"I'm one of them!"

"No you're not! You are a Changeling! You are their Queen!"

"I'm not who you think I am! It's complicated, but basically, there's a virus, which is causing those creatures, which you call Changelings, to go crazy and violent. Please, we need to stop this fight, and destroy those infected beings!" Dr. Märtha tried her best to convince the Guard, but it wouldn't work. They couldn't trust her. Fortunatly for Dr. Märtha, there was atleast one pony that knew the truth, and who trusted her.

"STOP! She is telling the truth!" Solar walked out of the AVT. Still somewhat dizzy from the Nerve Gas, he stumbled towards his fellow Guards, in an attempt to stop them from killing their only hope of communication with the humans. If they killed her, there would be no way for them to know what the humans were saying, let alone establish an agreement with them. "She isn't Queen Chrysalis. That's a figure from legends, nothing more! This is Dr. Märtha, she is, or used to be, a human like these soldiers. There really is a virus, and those Changelings are infected with it!"

While the Guards had a very hard time trusting a stranger, which was eerily close to the stuff of legends, they were interested in Solar's story. He was one of them. They had served alongside him, and they trusted him. As much as they believed they would regret it later, they accepted the idea that the aliens, or humans, and this 'Dr. Märtha' were friendly. "Fine. We believe you. Just make sure we don't regret this descision!

"I'll do my best! Now, we must make our way to the Palace! I have to speak to the Princesses!" said Solar, relieved that they had atleast somewhat calmed the conflict down.

The Leader of the Guards at the gate stepped forward, voicing his demands. "Fine. We'll escort you to the Palace. You can take this 'Dr. Märtha' with you, aswell as two humans. the rest stays with us at this gate! And NO WEAPONS! Even you, Captain. Hand it in." The Guard extended his hoof towards Solar, gesturing him to hand over his firearm. Solar hestitated. Could he trust his own comrades? Did he have any reason not to trust them? Yes, he did, but that wasn't important. He had to trust them.

"Okay then. I assume the humans have to hand over their weapons aswell?"

"That's right. Hand them over." Solar had no choice. He turned towards Dr. Märtha, who had been listening along, and he nodded to her, letting her know that he agreed to the plan. Dr. Märtha then walked over to two of the highest-ranking Marines of the convoy, and told them what they were about to do. The Marines seemed to hestitate, but eventually agreed that it was for the best. They gave their rifles and pistols to the Guards, but not before making sure that the ammunition had been removed, and that the weapons had been disabled. Just in case they tried to use them.

The rest of the Marines stood at the gate, along with most of the Guards, as Solar Streak, Dr. Märtha, and the two Marines, under escort of Guards, made their way to the magnificient palace standing ahead of them.

Author's Note

I tried to make this chapter confusing on purpose. I swear it didn't end up this weird because I wrote it over the course of more than a week, whilst being completely deprived of sleep. Totally not. :scootangel:

I'm now also taking submission/applications for roles in my next story, which will be a sequel to this once it is finished. You can take a look at my latest blog-post to see more about that!

Chapter 28 - Relativity

Author's Note

New school, new people, new rules, new inspiration.

Chapter 28 - Relativity

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/EQUESTRIA/CANTERLOT///TIME - 14:42 LMT///DATE - 20-05-2232///

The Royal Palace seemed far more menacing than Solar Streak had remembered. There were fires everywhere, lighting up the thick plumes of smoke that rose up to the clouded sky. They continued their way towards that once magnificient structure, with Dr. Märtha and two Marines in tow, and escorted by one of the Guards. They walked past the various military structures that had been built all around the Palace, including the office-buildings where Solar Streak had walked in with Lightning Sky not that long ago, to tell what he had seen. If only he had known then what he knew now.

As they walked, Solar saw just how much damage the humans had done. Various pieces of the Palace were destroyed. One of the towers had completely collapsed, and another was close to falling over. There wasn't an unshattered pane of glass in sight. There were wounded ponies and dead Changelings everywhere. Unicorns were busy taking care of the wounded, Earth-Ponies loaded up more and more Flak-Shells into the cannons to eliminate the Changelings, and Pegasi were flying high above the walls, shooting down any Changeling that dared to come close.

It had seemed that the Changelings liked to attack in waves. This made them stronger, but also more predictable. The last wave had just been taken care off by the combined force of the UEN and the Royal Guards, and the next wave was expected to arrive somewhere within 30 minutes from that point. They would have to hurry towards the Palace, otherwise they might end up in the middle of yet another battle. They stormed onwards towards the entrance of the magificient building, where they were quickly stopped by the Guards who were still holding their post.

"HALT!" yelled one of the Guards, aiming his rifle at Solar Streak. "Why are you here?!"

Solar didn't risk getting shot by moving. However, the pony that had been escorting them hadn't made a sound. He kept quiet. Solar began to grow more and more impatient, so he eventually decided to answer: "We are here to talk to the Princesses! It is important!"

"Sure it is! The Princesses are secured inside. Nopony enters, nopony leaves!"

Solar had to do something. He had to get in. he just didn't know how. "We were escorted by another Guard! He'll let us in!"

"Who are you talking about? You are the only one here!"

He looked behind him. just a minute ago, another pony, Dr. Märtha, and the two humans had been walking behind him. Now, all of them had dissapeared without him noticing. Where had they gone? As he looked around behind him, he heard a buzzing sound coming from in front of him, where the Guards were. He quickly looked in front of him again, and saw the two Guards fall limp onto the ground.

"W-what?!"

"Good job. They should be out for atleast a few minutes. That should be enough time for us!" Solar saw the two humans appear from both side of the door. They had snuck up on them, making sure to stay out of their sight, and they had knocked them out using their Tazers. These were built into their suits, so they had been able to hide them when they had to give away their weapons. Solar had no idea how any of that worked, but atleast they could now enter the Palace.

Dr. Märtha also peaked her head around the corner, making sure that the area was clear. She saw that Solar was looking confused at the Guards on the floor, and she tried to explain. "Don't worry, they're not dead. The Marines used electricity to stun them. They should be fine in a few minutes." Solar wasn't too sure, but atleast it was an explanation. Better than nothing. He still wondered where the other Guard that had escorted them had gone.

"Oh, the same thing. They stunned him from behind, and dragged him into some bushes. They then snuck around the entrance, and then, well... You know the rest!"

That made sense. Actually, it didn't, but Solar didn't care. He just accepted the fact that the humans have way more advanced technology than ponies would ever have, and that they can do basically anything. You only had to look up into the sky to see what he meant. Deciding that they had waited around long enough, the group opened the door, revealing a long and tall hallway. It seemed quite impressive. Solar didn't usually come here, unless there was a special event. And to be honest, this was quite a special event.

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/EQUESTRIA/CANTERLOT/PALACE///TIME - 09:45 LMT///DATE - 20-05-2232///

"FOR THE LAST TIME, WHAT THE HELL ARE THESE SUPPOSED TO BE?!"

Princess Celestia didn't respond. She enjoyed seeing this previously annoying creature yell in panic. She had managed to break him, just as she had hoped. And the best part? It wasn't even real. She couldn't just give creatures cutie-marks. It was impossible. Instead, she had cast a spell that had made Eric believe that there was now a stamp on either side of his hips. And thanks to her great sister Luna, who had dug around in Eric's dreams when he was asleep and locked up, Celestia knew exactly what Eric's greatest fear was.

"Like I said, it's your cutie-mark." She finally explained. "You didn't understand how they worked, so I thought I'd show you. It shows your purpose, your destiny. It shows what you are good at, or rather, what you excell at."

"So you are telling me, that my purpose, is to crash?! To burn and die?!"

"I'm not saying any of that. I don't decide what your cutie-mark looks like!" That was half a lie, and half the truth. Normally, she had no saying in what cutie-marks did. She barely understood how they actually functioned, or where they originated from. Therefore, she couldn't decide what ones cutie-mark would be. However, Eric didn't really have a cutie-mark. He just thought he did, thanks to the illusion-spell. Because of the fact that Celestia was the one who put the spell on him, she could decide exactly what this one looked like.

"Well... I get it, okay?! Just make it dissapear! I don't want this anymore!"

"Oh, but I can't just remove a cutie-mark. It doesn't work like that! I thought I told you?"

"Told me what?!"

"That cutie-marks are permanent, ofcourse."

"..."

Eric didn't know what to say. They were permanent? Why didn't she warn him about that BEFORE giving him those stupid marks?! He just stood there. To say that he was confused would have been a severe understatement. He knew he was out of options. He didn't know why, but those marks... What they showed... Burning and crashing... It made him afraid. Afraid of dying. Afraid of losing... Something? Someone? He didn't know. He didn't care. It was all lost. He would be here forever. They would surely perform tests on him. Dissect him. Put him up in a museum. Show his dead body to their children. They would-

*BOOOMMM*

He was cut off by an incredible explosion, and the feeling of a massive burst of wind pushing him forwards, accompanied by the sight of two gigantic wooden doors flying past his sides into the room. Curious to what might have caused such a blast, he looked behind him, and saw what he hadn't dared to hope he'd ever see again.

The Marines had arrived. And with them, an incredible amount of plastic explosives, which they had stuck on the doors to breach the chamber where Eric and the ponies were present. The Marines, two high-ranked soldiers from what he could see, were holding Equestrian rifles, instead of their own weapons.

"UNITED EARTH MARINES! HANDS UP!" Training and routine had made this sentence stick so deep into the Marine's mind, that he didn't even stop to think about what he just said, nor did he remember that nobody in the room aside from Eric could even understand him. Therefore, they didn't give his command any attention, instead raising their weapons at them, and making the ministers duck for cover in fear of what might come.

Nobody made a move. Nobody said a word. Nobody did anything, out of fear of what it might cause. The tension in the air was thick as syrup. Rifles were aimed and in position to fire, yet not a single clack from a mechanism could be heard. In the midst of it all, stood Eric. Dazed, confused, scared, out of options. He knew that, if he made just one wrong move, most people and ponies in the room would be dead within seconds. Nevertheless, he had to do something.

"Excuse me..."

Dozens of rifles, human and equestrian, instantly took aim at the frightened human.

"Please, don't shoot! Please!" Eric, in a state of panic, flung his arms up, and screwed his eyes shut in expectation of the feeling of several pieces of metal piercing him from all directions. But nothing happened. When he opened his eyes again, he saw that everyone, ponies and humans alike, were staring at him expectantly.

"Well, speak up then!" yelled one of the Guards.

"Wh-what?"

"Spill it, or we'll be forced to shoot the three of you!"

"R-right, okay..." Eric began. He hadn't really thought this trough, but he knew that if he waited for another few seconds, death was inevitable. "I.. want to propose.. a deal."

"A deal?!" said Princess Celestia mockingly. Eric thought about how she had been simply sitting there the entire time, even when the Marines breached the broom. "And what is this 'deal' that you speak of? Another trick, perhaps?"

"NO! I-I-I mean... no, it's not a trick! I believe that we could... help each?" Eric was panicking again, but he tried his best to stay calm, despite of how tense he was.

"Help each other!? How, exactly?"

"Well..." He noticed a change in Celestia's voice. Something almost unnoticable, something incredibly subtle, but just obvious enough for Eric to notice. "You are having a problem with creatures attacking your cities, right?"

"That is correct. In fact, I'm looking at one right now."

Ouch. "Fair enough. But as you probably know, I am talking about those bug-horses."

"Changelings?"

"Yeah, those. What if I told you, that I can make them go away within an instant?"

"I'd laugh at you, but I'd also be intrigued... Continue."

'Time to turn the tables!' thought Eric. "How does this sound? You release me, and I will make sure that wherever those Changelings are coming from, is destroyed. Deal?"

"Hmmm... No."

"Wh-what do you mean, 'no'?" Eric was destroyed. He was sure he had come up with the perfect plan to get this all over with. Apparantly, he was wrong.

"I'm not letting you go just like that. First, you destroy the hive, and then we'll talk further."

*sigh* "Fine, but you'll have to help me out. I'll need to talk to these two over here." He pointed towards the two Marines, who were still ready to shoot some horses, but although they couldn't understand a word of the conversation, they simply 'hoped' that this civilian knew what he was doing. "I can't exactly communicate a strike against those Changelings without being able to talk to them."

"I see your point... Fair enough, hold still for... one... moment..." Her horn lit up. Slowly, it started to increase in intensity. Soon, it envelloped Eric in its glow. Bit by bit, his vocal chords were returned to their original state. It wasn't painfull. It wasn't even unpleasant. It just felt... warm. 'Is this what magic feels like?' he wondered. Before he could get used to the feeling, the glow receded, and so did the feeling. It felt like something was missing. Like there was a hole inside of him.

"Testing, testing..." Eric tried to speak. Much to his delight, his voice had returned to normal, though it did sound a little bit raspy. Maybe he was just a little hoarse. "Okay.. So... How much of that did the two of you understand?"

"Wh-what? You can talk?!" asked one of the Marines.

"Uhm... Yeah? Anyway, no time for that, I don't know if they know what we're saying, but we don't have much time, so you two will have to do as I say, got it?"

"Hold on a sec!" One of the Marines quickly walked up to Eric, clearly annoyed. "And just who in the hell do you think you are?!"

"I'm the reason that we are now at war with these creatures! So calm down, and let me fix what I have caused, or YOU will be to blame for the extermination of an alien species!"

The Marine was visibly taken back by this bold claim. Eventhough every fibre in his body told him not to listen to this man, deep down in his mind he saw something in him. "Okay then... I suppose you are our target then?"

"If you are looking for a missing pilot, that would be me. Eric Callaghan, a pleasure to meet you." Eric gave the Marine a firm handshake. "I'm not normally all that keen on Marines and the authorities, but I'm glad you're here."

"No problem, it's our duty. I'm First Lieutenant Adams. This is Sergeant Ayers. Are you ready to go?" Lieutenant Adams started to slowly move in the direction of the door, or where the door used to be.

"Go? We're not going anywhere! I promised to get rid of those 'Changelings' in return for my freedom, and I'm NOT going to skip out on my side of the deal!"

"What deal?!" asked Adams.

"Just shut up, please! I got this! Give me your VisionARM, and patch me trough to whoever is in command of this operation!" Eric held out his hand.

"Wh-what?!"

"Just do it!"

With much regret and a grunt, the Lieutenant took off his VisionARM and gave it to Eric, who immediatly put it on and engaged the device. He brought up the writing-app, and started to type a holograpic text, which sparked the interest of quite a few Equestrian Guards. As soon as he finished typing, he turned his arm around, showing the holograpic text to the Princesses.

Eric had remembered that he would no longer be able to talk Equestrian, but that he would still have to communicate with the ponies if he wanted his plan to work. Luckily, he still remembered Equestrian language, and that it used the same letters as English. He had typed his plans, and now that both Princesses had nodded their heads in agreement, the plan could be set into motion.

It was time to teach those Changelings a little lesson, and to impress some to-be-members of the Intergalactic Council in the process.

Chapter 29 - Justice From Above

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 3 - In Need Of Protection

///LOCATION - NUAKEA/OBLIVION/SOLAR PUB///TIME - 23:16 LMT///DATE - 42-01-2232///

A medical squad, guarded by a local SWAT-team, was on it's way to the Solar Pub, after having received reports of a gunshot being fired in the pub. They had immediatly left for the pub as soon as they had received the first call, but after hearing that the person who was shot was none other than John Mc Arthur, the task was moved from PRIO-1 to PRIO-2, no longer warranting the use of dangerous driving or sirens. The local authorities had never been able to lock John up, and after hearing that he was shot by a random civilian, they were somewhat reliefed to know that the feared crime-boss was finally taken care off.

Back at the pub, most people were fleeing and running for their lives, whilst a few others were trying to attend to the shot John Mc Arthur. But all the help was of no use, as John had died almost instantly after the hollow-point 9mm round had demolished his heart. Blood was quickly pooring out of his aorta, causing the people that were trying to help the fallen crime-lord to end up being covered in a thick layer of their former bosses blood.

Whilst all of this was happening, Eric hadn't once looked up from his drink, taking a sip from it every now and then, whilst still pointing the R-55 pistol at the place where his attacker was when he charged at him. Most people were running away from him, some were staring, but nobody dared to approach him, perhaps out of shear fear that they would suffer the same fate as the person laying there on the floor, bleeding profusely, without an end in sight.

Outside the pub, looking trough the window, Michelle stood there, terrified at what she had seen. She would have never expected Eric to do something like this, not even out of self-defense. She was horified by the thought that he was carrying a firearm, which was illegal in Oblivion, except for law-enforcment. Knowing this, she started imagining all kinds of possible scenarios: Perhaps he was part of the maffia, or maybe he was a secret agent. Perhaps he was even part of a cult like the Discordian Angels.

Whilst Michelle was thinking about all the possible ways he could have ended up like this, Eric finished his drink, and payed the bartender, who was somehow unphased by all the events. The bartender seemed merely annoyed at the mess in his pub, which he would have to clean up when the police were done. Eric then got up, and holstered his gun, after which he started to slowly walk to the exit, making sure not to get any of John's blood on his dark-brown trenchcoat on his way out.

Eric managed to slip away into an alley before police arrived, making sure not to be taken in for questioning. He was sure that he was gonna end up in jail for atleast a few years, which he was not looking forward to. Not that it mattered, since the police didn't care who killed John Mc Arthur. All they cared about, was the fact that the biggest criminal in the station was finally dead. They hoped that peace and safety would return to Oblivion once and for all.

Ofcourse, it wasn't that easy. Other lower-ranking criminals, who used to serve John Mc Arthur, started to claim the bussines left behind by their previous boss for themselves. This resulted in a severe spike in crime inside Oblivion, much to the annoyance of the security department. They started enforcing stricter rules in an attempt to fear people into compliance. Like the events that occured during the infamous April-Riots of 2017, the results were horrifying.

Many people were killed after police engaged in violent conflict with protesters, who were protesting against the new laws that were put in place by the council of Oblivion. This council was so afraid of the protests, which were quickly getting out of hand, that they asked the Head-Council of the UEE for support. The highest council in all of human space subsequently announced that they were contracting the Olympus Organization to take back control of Oblivion.

When the first Olympus ships arrived, they quickly took back control of the landing platforms and the inner floors, establishing a defensive perimeter. They then started sending out teams to escort people who were caught in the conflict, bringing them to the safety of the landing pads. Out of the 738 people that were rescued, 139 volunteered to help take back control. The Olympus Security Officers handed them standard-issue R-55 pistols, and tasked them to do reconnaisance missions, and to help Olympus with their knowledge of the local area.

After what can only be described as a local civil war, Oblivion was finally taken back by Olympus after almost a month of fighting. Both sides had casualties, but most of these were on the side of the rebels. They had suffered 173 deaths, 247 heavily injured and 332 lightly injured people, while Olympus had lost just 23 soldiers, and had 59 heavily and 77 lightly injured. This was one of the biggest conflicts ever since the creation of the United Earth Empire, and it wasn't against a common threat. It was against themselves.

Eventually, people learned to put this all behind them. People started to return to their normal lives, and appartments started to once again be occupied. For Eric, it had felt like nothing had changed. There were still bar-fights, criminals, and everything that came with it. He never came back to the Solar Pub, primarily because he didn't like the atmosphere there. He had, however, kept the gun. He knew that it would save his life someday.

During the conflict, Michelle was one of the first to be rescued by Olympus. She had to flee from her home, whilst still thinking about what happened at the pub that fatefull night. She had seen Eric around after the conflict, but rather than going up to him and talking like she usually did, she actively tried to avoid him. She was afraid of him, and she didn't know what to make of it. Atleast until Eric finally found her, and began talking to her:

"Hey, I was looking for you." He said with a serious tone.

"Oh, you were?" She replied, being somewhat startled after Eric had sneaked up on her. She felt like running away out of fear, but something inside her made her want to talk to him.

"Yeah, ever since what happened at the pub, I wanted to explain something to you."

"What do you mean?" She said, slightly scared. "I wasn't there! I don't know what you're talking about!"

"I know you were following me that night. You are not a great detective, I'm sorry to say."

"Well, Uhm, you see, you're right, but I didn't say so, because..." She stopped, looking for words. "I WAS SCARED, OKAY?!"

"But you don't need to be scared." Eric calmly said. "You are safe."

"How could you say that, when you have a GUN on you?! I bet you still have it on you RIGHT NOW!"

Eric unholstered his gun, making sure that it was on safe. "You're right, I do still have it on me right now."

Michelle looked at the gun with a terrified look. "What are you doing?!"

"I'm giving it to you." He said, trying to hand Michelle the weapon.

"Why?! I don't want a gun!"

"I know you don't want one, but you need one. Trust me." He said, with a dead serious tone. "The station is not safe anymore, and I won't always be able to protect you. You need to be able to defend yourself if something goes wrong."

"But I don't want to have to protect myself!" Michelle almost cries out.

"Michelle, please..."

"No, I don't want it!" She says.

"Listen to me Michelle, I'm begging you..."

"And I'm telling you, that I will never, ever-"

"DO IT IRENE!"

Author's Note

Please keep in mind that this is my first time writing a story. Because of this, the reading experience might differ from stories written by more skilled writers. Names, locations, ships, technologies and events are inspired by various sources, including: Games - Elite: Dangerous, Star Citizen | TV - MLP:FiM, The Expanse

If you want your character to be featured as a human soldier, pilot, politician or civilian, or a pony civilian, politician or royal guard, please send me a message with the character's name, looks, characteristics, and role if you have any preference. All featured characters will be credited.

Chapter 7 - Confession

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/EQUESTRIA/CANTERLOT///TIME - 08:30 LMT///DATE - 14-05-2232///

Lightning Sky was waiting outside his house, just as they had planned. They had agreed to meet at Lightning's house, as it was on Solar Streak's way to the palace. Their plan was to go to the palace, and meet with Solar's CO, or commanding officer. They would tell him about the things that Solar saw when he was using the telescope, and most importantly, the strange object.

"Hey Solar, are you ready to go?" Lightning asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be." he said with a sigh. He was not looking forward to telling his CO that he had entered a restricted area, but he was curious about telling him all about what he saw. Maybe his CO could even tell him exactly what he saw that night, so he could finally put it to rest. He was starting to get tired of constantly thinking about it. He knew he should have just forgotten about it, but he couldn't do it. Something made him feel like it was important.

"Good, let's go!" he said with joy.

Solar stopped Lightning just in time to stop him from jumping directly towards the palace: "Listen Lightning, I know I've told you all about my job as a Royal Guard, but the problem is, that you know barely anything about the inner workings of the Royal defence. You can't just march into there all you want, you need special permission."

"Then how are we going to get in there?"

Solar showed his ID-card to Lightning. "I can get in there without a problem, being in the Royal Guard and all. I'll have to see if I can take you along as a visitor. We sometimes have people who want to see their relatives who are serving in the military, and they then receive a special visitor's ID-card. You'll have to act like you're my brother or something like that if you want to come along."

"Wow, I didn't know that there were such strict rules around the palace!" Lightning said, his voice becoming slightly more serious. "Sure, I can act like I'm your brother. Can we just go now?"

"Sure, let's go."

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/EQUESTRIA/PALACE ENTRANCE///TIME - 16:11 LMT///DATE - 14-05-2232///

It had taken them many hours to get Lightning Sky into the palace, which seemed more like a fortress than a royal residence. They had changed their plans on the way to the palace, after Solar Streak remembered that the guards at the entrance would be asking for identifications. If they didn't provide, there would be no entry. If they did provide, the guards would instantly know that they weren't actually brothers. Therefore, they decided to simply come clean at the gate, and hope for the best.

"Alright, everything checks out. You are allowed to be on palace-grounds for today, as long as you are wearing this ID-card in a way that is visible to anyone that passes by." The guard gave the ID-card to Lightning, who seemed somewhat taken back by the sheer amount of security that had been put in place. "Also, you must be escorted by a member of the Royal Guard at all times. If you do not abide by these rules, you will be taken into custody. Understood?"

Lightning was quick to respond: "Y-y-yeah, I got it! D-d-don't worry!"

"Don't worry Lieutenant. I told you, I'll take care of him. We'll be out of there within the hour!" Solar said in an attempt to comfort both the lower-ranked guard and Lightning Sky. "Oh, and thanks again for allowing him in. If you get into trouble, just send them to me, and I'll take the fall!"

"Sure you will, Captain."

Whilst walking towards the entrance fo the office building where his CO, Major Bladed Sword, would be waiting for them, Lightning noticed all the Guards running around with weapons everywhere around him. "I didn't know the Royal Guard was this busy. I thought you would all just be sitting around at your own spot, and just yell if enemies came?" he asked.

"Well, that's roughly what the military used to do some fifty years back. But nowadays, things have changed." Solar explained. "With electricity, a lot of new technologies were invented. For example, the rifle on my back! With things like these, each soldier can now defend themselves and others."

Lightning looked at the rifle with curiosity in his eyes. "How does it work?" he asked. "Can you show me?"

"I wish I could, but we're already at the office. I'll show you later, okay?"

"Sure, sounds good! Now, let's go!" He opened the front door, and walked into the building. After sighing once more, Solar had finally gathered enough courage to enter aswell.

They first walked towards the front-desk, where they told the receptionist that they wanted to speak to Major Bladed Sword. After checking a few papers, she told them that he was busy discussing the new regulations with General Shining Armor. Solar was about to tell the receptionist that they would be okay with waiting for him to finish, when Lightning quickly interupted him: "We have to talk to him, it's REALLY important! He HAS to know!"

"Okay then, you can enter, but only if it is indeed as important as you say it is." the receptionist replied. "He's in room 15, 2nd floor. I'll let him know you're coming."

"Thank you..." Solar was not looking forward to confessing. He had entered a restricted area after all. He tried not to think about it too much, and together with Lightning, they walked trough the hallway. Halfway down that hallway, they found the staircase, and the walked to the next floor, where most of the offices for the higher-ranking ponies were located. They continued walking to the end of the hallway, and found room 15. The could overhear a conversation, but Lightning didn't hestitate, and knocked on the door.

*KNOCK* *KNOCK*

They could hear the sudden stop in the conversation as soon as they knocked, followed by someone telling them to enter from the inside of the room. They opened the door, Solar entering the room first, and quickly followed by Lightning, who suddenly seemed a lot less comfortable now that he was in the vicinity of 2 of the kingdom's highest ranking ponies.

"So, how can we help you gentlecolts?" the pegasus Major asked, wondering why they were there. "We are actually a bit busy here, as you might have seen." He pointed at the table covered with papers, all of them with defensive plans.

Solar gulped, and then responded: "Sir, I actually have something that might be of vital importance to the war. Last night, while I was on break, I went into the Royal Astronomy Wing, and I used the telescope there to watch the stars."

He was interupted by the General: "You do know that the only ponies allowed in the Astronomy Wing are scientists, right?"

"I know, but there was nobody there, and I did my best to touch as few things as possible. Anyway, whilst I was watching the stars, I suddenly saw a bright flash. It reminded me of a lightning strike, with how bright it was. When I was finally able to see again, I saw a dark thundercloud out in space, and when it dissapeared, a black object with a red light was left there."

Bladed Sword was interrested by this: "What did the object look like?" he asked. "Was it something the changelings built?"

"I don't know, I couldn't really see any details. It was quite small, and REALY far away! Later that night though, when I looked again, it started glowing, and then it dissapeared again. We thought you should be informed about this, eventhough I know that what I did was in violation of the rules. I'm sorry sir."

"It's fine, though you should know that what you did is illegal. Then again, whatever you have found, it would justify what you did. Now we must figure out what it was. Do you, by any chance, have an idea?"

"Sorry sir, I'm afraid I don't." Solar replied.

"Well then, I guess we should try to find an explanation. Thank you for sharing this information with us. You are dismissed for the day, but remember: You are not allowed to enter the Royal Astronomy Wing, or any other restricted area. You will not be proscecuted this time, but next time, I won't be so mild!" Major Bladed Sword said, with a stern voice. "Now, if you gentlecolts could please leave the two of us to handle the rest, that would be great."

"Ofcourse sir, we will be on our way!" Solar left the room, taking Lightning with him, who was quite impressed by the strong voice of the Major and General. They started to walk back to the stairs, when all the windows suddenly shattered, throwing glass everywhere, and shaking the building in the process. They could hear an incredibly load roar, louder than anything they've ever heard.

Whilst the roaring sound was lowering in volume, and the shaking had stopped, Solar instinctively ran back to the room to check if everyone was okay. "IS EVERYONE ALRIGHT IN HERE?!" he shouted, afraid of what it could have been. Perhaps it was a changeling-attack? No, they couldn't make bombs of that size, and they would have been spotted, even if they had disguised themselves. Solar was anxiously looking around the room, but luckily, when the dust cleared, he saw both the General and the Major standing, coughing, and whiping the dust of their faces.

"By Celestia's beard, what the tartarus was that?!" the Major shouted, somewhat dazed by the blast. They looked out the window, and saw a long trail of fire, striking from the heavens. They had no idea what it was, but Solar was quick to notice that the trail was lead by that same object that he had seen with the telescope.

"THAT'S THAT THING I SAW!" he yelled, desperatly trying to make himself heard over the sound of what can only be described as a rocket being launched just meters away from him.

"STOP SHOUTING!" the General yelled.

"Sorry sir, must've been the shock!" Solar replied. "But as I was saying, I'm pretty sure that was the same thing that I saw with the telescope."

"Well, what do you suppose we do then?"

Looking at the horizon, they noticed that the object had probably reached the ground. The sound had stopped, and so ha dthe shaking.

"Well, I'd suggest we go out and find it."

Author's Note

Names, locations, ships, technologies and events are inspired by various sources, including: Games - Elite: Dangerous, Star Citizen | TV - MLP:FiM, The Expanse | Companies/Organizations - NASA/JPL (Alcubierre Drive)

If you want your character to be featured as a human soldier, pilot, politician or civilian, or a pony civilian, politician or royal guard, please send me a message with the character's name, looks, characteristics, and role if you have any preference. All featured characters will be credited.

Featured Characters:
Lightning Sky - Oskar

Chapter 9 - Communication Errors

(From now on, speach in Equestrian is writen "Like this", and speach in English is written "Like this".)

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/EQUESTRIA/SOUTH OF NEIGHAGRA FALLS///TIME - 20:03 LMT///DATE - 14-05-2232///

"What the hell...?" he tought. Eric was confused, and he had a good reason. He was just minding his own bussines, scavenging supplies from his ship, trying to repair the damaged transponder, when he was suddenly facing a small, weirdly coloured horse. But not just any horse. A unicorn with combat gear and a rifle, the last item reminding him of the pictures he had seen during history-class.

After him and the little unicorn had continued to stare at each other for about a minute, Eric had tried to pet it. He wanted to know if it was really there, or if he was just hallucinating due to dehydration. He quickly found out that it was indeed real, as the unicorn was startled by the sudden movement in its direction, and reacted to it.

Before he knew it, he was laying on his back a few meters away from were he first stood, the pain in his chest somewhat worsened by the sudden impact, and so had his broken leg. Eric looked at the unicorn with shock, and finally noticed the other similar looking animals that had surrounded him. They were all standing there, some 8 or so of them, all of them wearing some sort of combat-gear, about 10 meters away from him, all but 2 of them aiming a rifle at him. The 2 that were not pointing their rifles at Eric seemed to be unicorns, and their horns were glowing, which were connected to what he could only describe as shields.

The unicorn that had knocked him back had been dragged back by another horse, though it was not a unicorn. The blue and orange coloured creature reminded Eric of the mythological pegasus, though it was lacking a horn. Nevertheless, it would still look both amazing and cute, were it not that it looked at him with a deathly glare whilst it was pulling the unicorn backwards.

"I come in peace!" he shouted, hoping that he wouldn't be turned into swiss cheese right then and there. He knew in the back of his head that it sounded incredibly cliché, but it seemed appropriate for the situation. After all, what else was he supposed to say? He even raised his hands, in the hope that they would understand.

"What is it doing?!" one of Charlie-Squad's unicorns desperatly asked, focusing even harder to increase the strength of his shield.

"I don't know." Solar answered. "But I think it's trying to say something."

"Then what is it saying?"

"How in Tartarus would I know?!" he said. The air was filled with tension. "I think it's trying to show us that he's unarmed. He doesn't have anything in his... hands, does he?" He reffered to the appendages at the end of the creature's arms. All in all, the creature reminded him of dragons, only without scales, and a more slim body. Since the dragons reffered to those appendages as 'hands', Solar believed that he could call the ones that this creatured had the same, given the similarities.

"Good job on finding it, Captain Streak." Major Bladed Sword had appeared behind him, slightly startling Solar by doing so. "I believe we should take -that thing- into custody for examination and interrogation. Do you agree?"

"I do, sir!" he acknowledged. "You heard him! Charlie-Squad, secure the creature! We're taking it with us as a prisoner!"

"Wait, what are you doing?" Eric asked as the creatures came closer and closer, slowly tightening the circle. Afraid of what they might do, he jumped up, and ran towards the cargo-hold of his ship. He could hear gunshots being fired at him, but it seemed that he had surprised them enough to mess up their aim. Making a final jump, he dove into the cargo-hold, almost landing on his head.

He knew that they were gonna find him soon, so he had to come up with a solution quickly. Looking around the cargo-hold, he checked many of the boxes there, not finding anything he could use to defend himself. But he was not planning on simply giving up. Who knows what those creatures, those -horses- would do. He was an alien, all alone, on their planet.

After checking the 5th box, he found a knife, not one designed for combat, but for cutting wires. "I guess I'll have to do it with this!" he said, a bit too loud. As he was inspecting the knife, he suddenly noticed that something was breathing down his neck. He heard the stock of a rifle being flown forwards, followed by an incredibly powerfull wack to the back of his head.

"I got him!" yelled Solar, looking at the creature who he had just knocked out. "If this still doesn't get me a Hoof-To-Hoof Combat Badge, then I don't know what will!" He stared at the creature. This was the first time that he saw the creature from behind, and he noticed that the back of its clothing also had a hole in it, roughly in the same spot as the one on the front. The skin beneath it looked weird, and Solar thought that it looked burnt. One of its legs also seemed to be placed at a weird angle, though he didn't really care. He caught it, and that was all that mattered.

"Alright squad, back to base! We got the prisoner!"

Author's Note

Names, locations, ships, technologies and events are inspired by various sources, including: Games - Elite: Dangerous, Star Citizen | TV - MLP:FiM, The Expanse | Companies/Organizations - NASA/JPL (Alcubierre Drive)

If you want your character to be featured as a human soldier, pilot, politician or civilian, or a pony civilian, politician or royal guard, please send me a message with the character's name, looks, characteristics, and role if you have any preference. All featured characters will be credited.

Featured Characters:
Lightning Sky - Oskar

Chapter 22 - Meeting Royalty

///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A/EQUESTRIA/82KM NW OF CAMP EBONY///TIME - 08:13 LMT///DATE - 20-05-2232///

2nd Lieutenant Jaakko Palander looked at Dr. Märtha Löfgren with an understanding look. "Trust me, it's not your fault. It's the fault of GBT. They were the ones that sent you here, and they were the reason someone else crashed here too, and because of that, almost the entire UEN is now here. There's just one thing I need to know."

"Ask away." said Märtha, who had calmed down from her small panic-attack. She had a good reason to be confused and upset. She had just learned that, because of her action, many lives were lost. She had accidently started a war with the largest nation on the planet, and she didn't even know it. For months, she had thought that she was on good terms with the populace, but instead, she was killing them.

"Why didn't anyone inform the authorities when you didn't come back?"

"I don't really know. I don't really have that many close friends, and I don't really communicate with my family anymore, so maybe there was simply nobody to miss me."

"I might have just met you a few minutes ago, but I already know that that couldn't be true. You are a great person, ofcourse people would begin to miss you if you were gone for that long! I wouldn't be surprised if GBT was somehow involved in that too. Don't worry about that company though, they have been placed under investigation, and all of their bussines is seized for now."

"Why?"

"Remember how they said that they were sending someone to pick you up? Well, apparantly, the person that they sent wasn't actually told that that was his mission. He was told to investigate a nebula, but his Drive malfunctioned, and brought him here. Or, that was what we thought had happened. They are still looking into it."

"Oh god... I don't know what to do... Will people still accept me, even with how I look?"

"Ofcourse they will! Trust me, most people at Camp Ebony have seen a lot worse! They would be glad to help, and maybe even find a way to stop the clones. Who knows? I bet they will even be able to find a way to turn you back to normal, and if they can't we will send you on an express-flight towards the best medical centre in the known galaxy!" Jaakko assured Märtha.

"You... You really think that?"

"Ofcourse I do! Wouldn't be saying it if I didn't think it was possible, would I?"

"I don't know, I just met you." Märtha said with a small smile.

"That's the spirit! Now, let's go outside. Your clones are fine with the disease when going outside, and so should you."

"Okay, I'll try it, but if I feel like anything is wrong, I will get the hell back into my lab, understood?" Märtha said with a stern tone.

"Sure, I understand."

After agreeing on their plans, they went trough the hallway to the airlock, which would lead them outside. In all honesty, the airlock wasn't actually required, but Dr. Märtha didn't know that when she had it constructed by her ship's MOCS (Modular Outpost Construction System). The door to the outside opened, revealing a vast mountainrange to the two people, or rather one person and a horse. Jaakko lifted his arm, activating his VisionARM once more, this time receiving a strong enough signal to send a distress-call to the Camp.

"Ebony Command, Ebony Command, this is 2nd Lieutenant Palander, come in Ebony Command, over."

Nothing...

"Ebony Command, this is 2nd Lieutenant Palander. Does anyone read me, over?"

"Lieutenant Palander, this is Ebony Command. We hear you loud and clear Lieutenant."

The Communications-Officer in Camp Ebony could hear cheers and laughter coming from the other end of the line.

"This is 2nd Lieutenant Jaakko Palander. Myself and 2 others were abducted during the recent attack on the Camp. All 3 of us are okay, and we found someone else here aswell, along with an explanation for the attack, over."

"Uhmm... Understood Lieutenant. Please transmit your current position at frequency 117.85 and squawk 1700. How copy, over?"

"Understood, transmitting location on 117.85, squawk 1700, over."

"Coördinates received. Sending an H250D now, ETA is 25 Mikes, over."

"Understood Ebony Command. Palander out."

The H-250D Dagger Dropship sent out to retrieve 2nd Lieutenant Jaakko Palander and the others, designation DS-095, received absolute priority over all other traffic in the area, including the incoming ship with the Admiral onboard. When the pilot of the Admiral's ship, AS-158 received word that they would have to hold for a few more minutes while DS-095 was starting up and taking off, he immediatly informed the Admiral.

"Sir, I just received word that we will have to hold here for a few more minutes."

"How come? We have sent in a flight-plan before departing, right?"

"We did sir, but Ebony Command just received information that the missing soldiers have been found, and they are sending a dropship to pick them up."

"WHAT?! Join up with that dropship, I want to have a word with my men as soon as possible!"

"I'm sorry sir, but I'm afraid I can't do that. We have a flight-plan, and protocol says that I can't deviate from that without permission from the air-control. No exceptions."

"I admire the fact that you take protocol so seriously, but what you seemingly still have to learn, is that the safety of others takes priority over protocol. No exceptions."

"But-"

"Don't worry about it. If your crew-chief gives you shit about it, send him to me. I'll handle it. Now get me to my troops!"

"Uhh... Oh, to hell with it! Understood Admiral, setting course for DS-095!"

"A dropship is on its way to pick us up. Should we get back inside before we become popsicles?" Jaakko asked to Märtha.

"Yeah, sounds good." Märtha responded. "Oh, that reminds me, I still have two of your comrades in storage!"

"What?!"

"Yeah, you know those pods, like the one you somehow awoke from and destroyed? Well, they are a kind of cryo-pod I created. I won't go into too much detail about their inner-workings, but we should probably begin unfreezing them, aswell as the two locals I still have."

"Wait, what do you mean 'locals'? Other humans?" Jaakko asked, taken off-topic from his frozen friends.

"No, I'm talking about the ponies. You guys probably met them, right?"

"Uhm..." The only meeting the UEN had ever had with the 'ponies', was the one where they tried to destroy the Camp, and kill everyone inside of it. Not exactly a good encounter, though thinking about it, those weren't the ponies. Those were the clones. Were they clones of the locals? "I don't think we have... Aside from that time they attacked our Camp."

"May I ask what they looked like?" Märtha asked.

"Well, thinking about it, they all looked the same. In fact, they looked scarily similiar to each other. Perfect copies, like clones... Oh wait, that's probably because they are, right?"

"Yeah, they are, but WHAT did they look like then?" Märtha repeated.

"If I remember correctly, they were all white, with horns. Pretty small too, not bigger than a small horse. About half my size, I'd guess."

"But that's impossible..."

"What do you mean?"

"The most recent clones I made were clones of a white pony with a horn. But after I infected them with the disease, they transformed into a similiar form as me, though still small. There's no way they could have... Or maybe they could..."

"What? What is it?!" Jaakko asked.

"This is just an assumption, but... Okay, you know how I told you that I mutated into what I am now? Well, I'm not sure how, but I think that the clones somehow managed to find a way to transform into their original form. Again, I have no idea how this would be possible. It shouldn't be, but there are things in this world... Things that cannot be explained trough science..."

"Like what?"

"Like... Magic..." Märtha responded.

"Magic? What the hell are you talking about? Magic is a thing from fantasies, not reality!" Jaakko said, realizing he was becoming more and more confused.

"Like I said, I can't explain it! But I can show you what I mean!" After finishing her sentence, she aims her horn at Jaakko's holster, and she pulls his pistol out of it, levitating it in front of the confused Lieutenant's face. "See?! Tell me you can explain this with science! Come on, do it!"

"What... How... But you..." Jaakko had lost all ability of speech. Completely baffled, he had nothing else to say, but "I... can't..."

"Exactly." Märtha lowered the sidearm, levitating it over to Jaakko's hand. He took the gun, and put it back in the holster. He still didn't understand what he just saw. With the room completely silent, they could hear the sound of two vessels approaching, the roar of the engines getting louder and louder, until it was loud enough to damage unprotected ears.

"I'll go out and greet them. You stay here. It's gonna take me a while to explain the situation, but it's for the best if I explain everything to them before they see you, otherwise they might shoot you." Jaakko explained, turning around to walk back outside.

"You mean like how you tried to shoot me?" Märtha said with a grin.

"Yeah, kinda like that!"

"Explain why you are here!"

Eric had no idea what was going on. One moment he was having a nice conversation about space-borne hydroponics with the Professor, the next moment he was being forced into a truck by ponies and driven to an impressive palace, where he was now standing, surrounded by a large semi-circle, with important-looking ponies on both sides, and two larger ones directly in the middle, the tallest white one asking him the reason why he arrived there.

"If I'm not mistaken, your soldiers dragged me here. In a truck, if I remember correctly. I'd be carefull with those things by the way, the carbon-footprint is insane. If you want to keep your ozon-layer you-"

"SILENCE! I don't doubt you know what my question meant. Stop fooling around." The large white pony, which looked more like a horse with wings and a horn, who had introduced herself as Princess Celestia earlier, was now getting very frustrated. Eric was not playing along, which ticked her off quite a lot. She wasn't used to ponies or people not taking her seriously. At her side sat her younger sister, Princess Luna. The semi-circle was taken up by the six ministers of Equestria:

Twilight Sparkle, Minister of Science and Education.

Applejack, Minister of Industry and Agriculture.

Fluttershy, Minister of International Affairs.

Rarity, Minister of Finance and Trade.

Rainbow Dash, Minister of Defence.

Pinkie Pie, Minister of Safety and Inspection.

To Eric, they didn't look quite as menacing as they tried to look. It might have been because they were just half their size, aside from the Princesses, who were roughly the same height as him. Like all other ponies, they were all different colours. Purple, orange, yellow, white, blue and pink, and even more colours in their hair. Or, what did the Professor call it? The mane and tail? Yeah, that's it. As he was thinking about all those colours, the Princess spoke again.

"As you should be aware of, I was reffering to how you arrived on our world. You are clearly not from around here, nor are you from any other nation. Trust me, we checked. No other government knew about your species. Therefore, we believe it is reasonable to conclude that you are from another world, unbeknownst to us. The large formation of metal objects in the sky backs up our suspiscioun."

'So they know about the fleet. Thinking back, I remember seeing just how many ships there were when they dragged me outside. I'm pretty sure that they sent the majority of humanity to find me! I'm flattered.' Eric thought. It occured to him that he probably had Michelle to thank for that. 'Knowing her, she probably gave another one of her infamous speaches. God bless the poor souls that had to listen to her!'

"I'll ask once more." said the Princess, this time seemingly more angry than the last time. "Where. Are. You. From."

Eric knew he had the upper-hand, and he decided to use it to his advantage. For know though, he chose to play around with these 'Princesses' a bit more. If he was going to tell them anything about his world and civilization, then he expected them to do the same. "Fine, I'll tell you. But I want to know more about you too."

"That seems reasonable. For every question asked, you may ask a question of your own in return, though do keep in mind that we won't be able to share certain details."

"Happy to be doing bussines with you, 'Princess'!" He was going to exploit this situation to the best of his ability. If they wanted to know more about him, then he was sure as hell going to give it to them. After all, someone had to keep them busy until the fleet arrived.

And he might as well have some fun, right?

Author's Note

Equestria finally has ministers! It's about time they do, and now I finally have a place for the mane 6. They basically grew up more, as this story supposedly takes place about 15 years after season 6/7, where technology has advanced reasonably fast, atleast by human standards.