Author's Note

I'm so sorry for the massive delay for this chapter some personal family drama as well as work have had me stuck in a severe case of writers block but I managed to get this one out.

Chapter 14

The week following the overwhelming show John had put on, the bridge was completed, as well as the expansion of the everfree mine John had commissioned several weeks prior. He was also receiving letters from business enterprises, and the seemingly never-ending demands, from the nobility, to turn over his technology, all of those were promptly burned. He was also receiving letters from small frontier towns seeking aid. The top three were a frontier mining settlement called Silverton, miners who were being threatened by diamond dogs. In a farming community called Green Hills, crop yields were suffering from an unknown reason and none of the scientists that had looked into it could find a reason. The third was a small port town that was being raided constantly by pirates. The biggest question over it all wasn’t why they needed his help, but why they were asking HIM in the first place.

The quandaries perplexed him as he was, for a lack of a better term, a non-citizen. He wasn’t part of the kingdom of Equestria, yet these cities, which were, are asking for his intervention. This would need some tactical diplomacy if he did seek to aid these places.

Having placed the letters off to the side he focused on the other letters before him. A few were progress reports on other construction sites such as the landing platforms and the construction of the cargo haulers, of which six were operational. Not to mention the space stations he had in construction as a means to make new production facilities.

The next letter was a detailed one on how well his students were progressing, a letter written by Trixie, detailing that with the addition of the proxy droids, who were using their holo systems to project different force users, the current student learning level was accelerated ahead of the original estimated time frame. This pleased him as he was looking forward to seeing his newly rebuilt gray order thrive.

The last two were letters from fancy pants and the mayor of ponyville, the first was for John to meet with the stallion to finalize some details for their business venture. The last letter, addressed from mayor mare, was of a similar venture john had briefly discussed with the mayor last they spoke. Something John was very much so looking forward to.

The day was starting to turn out great until his comlink went off. Sighing John activated it. “Yes, what is it?”

“Sir, we have an emergency, the acclamator, spirit of defiance has suffered a major power failure and is being pulled down to the planet's surface.” This caused the man to perk up as the clone continued. “We evacuated the crew, but the ship has reached too low an orbit for us to use the tractor beams to save it.” The clone reported over the link.

“Damn, any idea where it is falling?” The man said as he rushed out of his chambers and hopped down to the ground floor using the force to slow him down.

“Yes sir, it appears that the trajectory will cause it to crash land on the village close to the temple.” The clone said as a cold chill ran down the man’s spine. Quickly stowing the comlink he dashed to the advanced classes. Bursting into the room, causing all to turn to the man in shock.

“All advanced students, we must make our way to ponyville, one of the acclamators in orbit is plummeting towards the village, the ship in question suffered a catastrophic power failure.” The man said as they all scrambled to the entrance. Moments later the entrance of the castle turned temple burst open, startling the clones who were working the partially done landing zones. They all looked stunned but snapped into action when John started giving orders.

“Landing director, I need five LAAT troop ships brought here now and several fire suppression ships prepped for a crashing acclamator. We will alert you when a landing site is plotted.” He said in a commanding shout.

The clone in question started speaking into his headset as the advanced grey students gathered near to their head of their order.

“Students, my star disciples, we are needed. Ponyville is in danger.” The man said getting shocked looks “ one of the acclamator in orbit had a massive system failure and is plummeting towards the small village. We will slow it down and direct away to a place it can crash safely.”

“Do we know how a failure of this magnitude was able to happen, grandmaster?” One of the more adept acolytes inquired as to the LAAT gunships started docking with the half-finished landing platforms.

“I have a hunch, but I had hoped that issue had been dealt with before my arrival, but it seems that issue is still showing it's annoying head again.” the man said as he jumped in the gunships troop bay as Trixie and the others and in no time they were bearing down on the village.

The ponies of ponyville were stunned as the gunships passed over them heading towards the town hall, where mayor mare was watching fretting as to why their enigmatic neighbor would suddenly appear with a startling number of strange and scary vehicles.

Exiting the building, the mayor approached the first ship, which opened to reveal grandmaster John, who stepped out of the ship followed by several students.

“Mayor mare apologizes for the scares but there is danger coming.” the man said as he started gathering the students.

“What danger? Is it monsters? Bandits?” the mare asked following the man as he went.

“no, nothing like that. One of my ships in orbit is falling to the ground after a catastrophic failure. the trajectory shows it's crash landing site is ponyville.” the man said, in a somewhat exasperated and sarcastic tone, as he quickly moved to the center of the gathering.

“what oh dear do I need to call for an evacuation?” she asked as she followed after the man in a hurry.

“no time, the ship is closing fast and the people wouldn't get out fast enough….” he said as he got to the middle, turning away from the worried mayor, he continued. “... Oh and we are diverting the ship's course to outside the village's edge”

He looked at his gathered students, taking a second to focus before he spoke. “Ok everyone, we need to divert the ship away from the village. Use the force to find the ship," he said as he too searched for the falling starship. “ Once you have it, grip it, and push,” he said as he started to force push against the sizable vessel, noting that it was slowly shifting away from the original impact site to a more safe impact site.”

As the group focused on the plummeting ship, the rest of the town watched in equal parts fear and amazement as the glowing ball of fire in the sky started to slow and angle away from their home.

Amidst the collective of force users, several were sweating as they struggled to shift the ship with their fellow students. At the center, John was watching the gathering keeping most of his strength in wait. to gauge his students' advancement in their studies. As the ship got closer he noticed that it was progressing well.

He was suddenly brought out of his thoughts by the pained cry of one of his students as their concentration broke and they collapsed, this started a chain reaction as several of the others followed suit. John, for his part, started giving more of his focus to the ship trying to take the strain off of the remaining students as the ship bled off-speed and speedily relocated to a landing spot he picked out on the road to canterlot.

The purpose of this spot was two-fold, one being an outpost to keep bandits away, as well as a fallback zone for both canterlot and ponyville, should an issue arise sometime in the future. It also helps that the ships Hull was intact, well a few plates of armor may need repair or total replacement, but that can be done at a later date.

After the relatively large ship was down the residents of ponyville cheered and celebrated their survival, while John and his students were moving back to the LAAT’s to head back to the temple, and cheering the ponies responsible for saving them.

“Harbinger, come in’ its mercer,” John said as he stood near the back of the L.A.A.T as his students gathered near the open bays to wave.

“Yes master, how can we help you?” Came the reply.

“I need a detachment sent to the now beached starship to turn it into a fort. Preferably turning the ship itself into a safe zone for the locals.” He paused for a moment before continuing.”Leave the ship's engines just hide them and get it space worthy.”

“Right away, master, is there anything else you need?” The voice asked.

“No that will be all.” The man said as he closed the link. Placing his com back on his belt, he relaxed as the gunship headed back to the temple.