THE DAILY TROTTER

The Search Continues
By Juniper Gates

It has been three months since Princess Twilight and Queen Chrysalis have gone missing and while thanks to The Changeling Link we know they are still out there they have not been located. Official reports from The Recovery Facility is that they are continuing to scan for them but no luck.

However we should not lose hope as we know that these tings take time but the Recovery always is successful.

As for word on the object that crashed in the desert near Appleloosa at the time of them vanishing there is no new information, the object was not present long enough for any significant information to be found that could hint at an origin….

Date: August 9th, 1666 Celestial Calendar
Time: 09:12
Name: Sky Watcher
Location: Equestrian Space Command

Sky sat at his workstation in the ESC watching the data coming in from Harmony Station, the space station that orbited Equus.

Most of the data was just the standard ingo, its current position, when it fired its adjustment thrusters and the like.

Harmony Station was named such as it, much like the trip to the moon, existed because of a joint effort between Equestria and her allies in order to establish a station that can both make repairs to the many satellites in orbit from all nations as well as conduct research on the effects of zero g among many others.

The current crew counts was slightly over 50 from all the different nations, made up of some of their best researchers in their field. Each nation took turns monitoring it as it made its never ending trip around the planet.

And all the data was just so boring to Sky.

He understood that it was super important and harmony station was doing ground breaking work, But that didn't change the fact Sky stared at a stream of data that basically never changed.

As such Sky wasn't watching his screen but playing a game on his phone, only stopping to reply to the radio transmissions that came from the station. This was very typical within this department since nothing ever really changed, a machine could do it.

A light on his station clicked on indicating it was pinged by the station as a transmission was incoming.

“Harmony Station to ESC.”

Sky flipped his switch to start broadcasting. “This is the ESC, we got you Harmony.” Sky said checking the location of the station, it was nearly over the ESC half way through their coverage.

“Sending down the results of experiment 429, Dr. Xern says the results are promising.” The station’s captain said.

“Affirmative Harmony, i’ll send it off up the chain.” Skys aid as he was looking up the experiment number so he could send it to the right people, Celestia forbid he accidently send it to the wrong people.

“Alright, transmitting.”

Sky watched as the system began receiving the data, watching the progress bar crawl across the box till it hit 100%. “Data received, sending it on up.”

“Affirmative ESC, will contact again whenever…...what….what's that?” The Captain said.

“Harmony?”

“Hold on ESC detecting unknown energy….hold….energy matches unidentified energy detected 5 weeks ago…….by the sands…..”

“Harmony status report.”

“I...ships….i...i say again 6 massive ships just appeared from….i don’t know what...just….by the sands…”

“Harmony...captain….are you saying you have extraequusrian contact?”

“Affirmative ESC….beginning first contact protoc--”

“Harmony? Captain? Respond…..come in Harmony.”

“ESC station has been seized in unknown energy...by the sand we are being pushed in atmosphere!” The transmission started getting interrupted.

Sky rapidly looked at his screen and saw nearly all the station’s adjustment thrusters were firing at full force in an attempt to stop the station sudden and rapid decaying orbit. “Harmony come in.”

The transmission clicked back on suddenly and Sky could hear the load groans of rapidly heating metal. “--scape pods! i say again all crew to the escape pods!”

“It’s too late!” another voice yelled in the background.

“By the sand...we’re burning up! We’re burning up! WE’RE BURN--”

Sky’s terminal lost all connection to the station, no longer receiving location, thruster status, anything.

Sky tore the headset off and ran for the door past his coworkers who had been staring at him since things begin and they followed him as he ran down halls till he burst outside along with the others as he looked up in horror as he saw the massive fireball that was slowly breaking apart as the station plummeted from orbit. He only had a guess where it was going to hit and could only hope it wouldn't hit anywhere people were.

The fireball went from one...to two...to 5 and continued to break up.

Then Sky saw one of the smaller fireballs shift and he watched as it changed direction.

It took his mind all of a second to figure out what it was. “One of the escape pods just launched!” He said as he ran for one of the emergency phones on the outside of the building.

HE picked it up and it was already ringing by the time it reached his ear.

“what’s the emergency?” A voice said within 3 rings.

“Harmony station just fell out of orbit, one of the escape bods just launched, scrambled everything!”

“What do you mean the station fell?” The voice asked in shock.

“No time to explain scramble everything we got an escape pod inbound.”

“On our way!” the line went dead as they hung up and a moment later the bases alarms began to blare to signal a major emergency.

Sky watched as the escape pod adjusted on it controlled fall towards the base’s runway.

It was coming in fast….faster than anything he’d seen He watched as the breakers deployed from the side, 4 massive flipper likes strips of metal meant to create drag to slow down even further.

He watched as they held for a few seconds before they snapped off as the pod was never meant to launch already in orbit and it was coming faster than it ever should have been when at its current altitude.

Still it came making adjustments as it near the runways and watched as a parachute deployed and didn't even last half a second before shredding as whoever was piloting was trying to slow them.

The pod slammed into the ground short of the runways at the speed of a jet from Sky’s estimation, then bounced back to airborne before coming back down and tearing through the fence that surrounded the base and bounced again only somewhat slowed from the first impact then slammed into the runways where the nose dug into the ground leaving a massive gouge behind and the pod slid across the ground, its landing gear destroyed by the first impact.

Despite wanting to Sky couldn't look away as the escape pod tore itself apart on its trip down the runway till it finally came to a stop.

Without thinking Sky and the others who were watching galloped forward.

The distance was close din a blur and the group was outside the cooling pod, the sound of sirens blaring in the distance as the emergency personnel sped their way to the pod.

Sky paid it no mind as he looked along the outside of the pod till he found a massive hole torn in the outside that exposed the cabin and wasted no time climbing inside and heard as a couple other did the same.

What they found were three bodies strapped into their seats leaving 17 empty seats as no one else had made it to the pod.

Sky moved to the first one, a zebra in a researcher’s jumpsuit and checked for a pulse….nothing.

He checked the pony beside them, one of the maintenance personnel...same.

The researcher pony beside them had a piece of the bulkhead lodged in her chest.

Sky made his way to the front where a seat was locked in with another body, a saddle arabian in a researcher coverall was strapped in, the console in front for her had exploded sending shrapnel into her face and chest as she sat limply in the seat.

Sky reached for their neck though after the other three his hope was low.

He nearly screamed when the body grabbed his arm and lifted it’s head, her face bloodied beyond recognition and looking almost like ground fruit, he couldn't meet her eyes...or...where her eyes should have been as the console blast tore through everything in front of it.

“The…..the others…”She said, Sky having trouble understanding her as her word went along with a gurgling noise.

“Medic! Medic now!” Sky yelled as the mare yanked his arm to get his attention.

“Th…..the others.” She repeated.

Sky looked back at the other three then back as the mare looking in his general direction. They...they made it, they are being offloaded into ambulances.” He told her.

“G…..good…”She coughed blood onto the front of what remained of her coverall. “god….some…..some one…..made it……” she said as her head lowered and Sky felt the grip slacked till her hoof dropped away.

“What in Tartarus is that?!” Someone outside yelled and Sky tore his eyes from the researcher and carefully made his way back through the ruined pod to go see what else was going wrong.

He stepped out of the hole he enter and saw everyone staring to the sky and looked up eyes widening as he saw 6 massive ships descending. They were like nothing he’d ever seen, the closest he could think was for one that looked like a whale and was larger than the others while the others were long and almost looked like river rocks, smooth and long.

Sky shook himself from his shock, these were the ship that pushed Harmony Station in atmosphere….they were the ones that just killed 54 unarmed people.

Their intent was clear and he ran back towards his building, he had to alert the military of the hostile force descending on Equestria.

Author's Note

Well.....things have kicked off.

Ass for the referance from the prologue for those interested.

The time, 19:47: In 1947 was when the allege UFO crashed near Roswell New Mexico

72 Miles from Appleloosa: 1947 was 72 years ago.

I have a PATREON with fair rewards. Every bit is greatly appreciated and helps me out.