Providence

Chapter Two: Impact

"Somewhere up above my heart,

a tiny little seed is sown,

a government is overthrown..."

"Slow down, Pinkie! I only just woke up!" Twilight Sparkle said as she held her hyperactive friend's shoulders.

Pinkie Pie had come to her just minutes earlier, knocking on the library door so hard even Spike woke up. Spike! He sleeps through everything! When she answered the door, the pink ball of panic leapt into the library as quickly as Rainbow Dash, blabbering about some sort of "doozie" and the sky. This went on for about a minute before the tired unicorn managed to hold her friend down long enough to calm her down. Fortunately, Pinkie hadn't been sucking sugar-loaded icing or whatever she normally did to speed herself up this morning, so it was a fairly short time before she finally became coherent.

"Now take it from the beginning," Twilight coached, still holding onto her friend. "What happened?"

The party pony took a deep breath and told her tale. "I was dreaming about my own little world of scrumptious sweets and yummy candy with chocolate syrup rivers when I woke up shaking!"

There was a long pause after she said that, the only sound being her panting. "Uh... Pinkie?" Twilight said to break the silence. "Maybe you were just–"

"I'm not done yet!" Pinkie interrupted, panicking. "It wasn't any ordinary shaking! Nuh-uh! It was my Pinkie Sense telling me that there was a DOOZIE coming! Then I got my twitchy tail! Something's falling and it's a doozie, Twilight!"

Twilight did the math in her head. Common sense used to tell her not to believe nonsense like that, but that was before she had seen firsthand how accurate Pinkie Sense was. If it was a doozie and it was falling, that meant that whatever was falling had to be something important, dangerous, big, or all of those. Could it be... something from space? She went over the facts she knew about everything astronomical going on recently in her head. The conclusion: impossible! Nothing could fall from space at this time! It couldn't be a meteor or stray asteroid – she would have known it was going to happen. But... maybe she did overlook something, and that something was going to fall from space... right onto Ponyville! Then the destruction of the entire town would be on her hooves! The resident ponies might look up to the Mayor as the leader, but most of them expected Twilight, as the Bearer of the Element of Magic, to know if something this bad was going to happen. If she screwed up, then they wouldn't trust her again. They might even shun her, or condemn her from what would be left of the town, or maybe try to chase her down.

Though all that was ridiculous in reality, it wasn't so in Twilight's mind. She had to do something; there was no time to waste!

"Come on, Pinkie! We have to evacuate the town!" Twilight shouted. "Spike! Get down here!" When her drowsy, and perhaps a bit grumpy, assistant came down, she told him to send a message to the Princesses.

"Dear Princesses," Twilight said as Spike started writing what she dictated...

Dear Princesses,

Forgive the informality...

"Uh, what?" Spike said dumbly, scratching his head with the quill tip.

"Informality. I-N-F-O-R-M-A-L-I-T-Y."

"Oh, I knew that..."

Dear Princesses,

Forgive the informality of this letter, but this is an emergency! I have reason to fear that the town of Ponyville is in serious danger from an object of unknown origin (meteor, asteroid, etc.) crashing into it, destroying the entire town. By the time you read this, I will have begun evacuating the–

A rumbling sound came from outside, causing Twilight to cease her dictation and look up, though she couldn't see through the ceiling. Oh no! She was too late! She lifted a protesting Spike unto her back and quickly went outside with Pinkie Pie, looking up at the early morning sky. Soon, other ponies started to leave their houses to look for the source of the mysterious sound. Even Vinyl Scratch, who was notorious for her blaring alarm clock that was just barely legal, was awoken by this and opened her bedroom window to look up.

Streaking across the sky was a huge metal object of some sort. Flames shot out of it, leaving a trail of thick, black smoke behind it as it descended over the town. Twilight was prepared for the worst... when she saw that the thing – whatever it was – was going completely over the town, so when it came down it wouldn't hit it! That gave her a little room to breath, but this object would hit the ground hard. Just as it passed over the town completely, a small piece (some debris, maybe?) shot out over it and began tumbling in the air. Then, it crashed.

The ground shook as an explosion shouted that impact was made. After that, it mellowed out into a grinding rumble, like somepony was dragging a plow through an extremely weedy field, ripping and tearing the plants from their roots. The smaller object had landed near the place the main one first hit, only noticed by an observant purple unicorn. The noise died down, announcing that the ship had ceased dragging against the ground. A pillar of smoke began to rise into the air where it finally rested. This distressed many ponies. Some were almost catatonic. Understandable, since the object almost crushed them, and now it was sitting just outside of the town, north to be exact. The rest of Twilight's friends – and fellow bearers of the Elements of Harmony – came into view, approaching the library at top speed except of Rainbow Dash (who would argue that it was even close to a quarter of her top speed). Fluttershy was gliding along next to her, visibly frightened. The only thing that kept her going was the comforting hoof of her fellow pegasus.

"Twi'!" Applejack shouted. "Ya saw that, right? I ain't crazy or nothin'?"

"I did, Applejack!" Twilight replied, let out a small sigh of relief. "I thought it was going to destroy the town!"

"Just horrible!" Rarity exclaimed. "When I heard it come down I feared the worst! That explosion... terrifying! Whatever could it be?"

"Only one way to find out," Rainbow Dash said. "What about it, Twilight? Should we check it out?" Fluttershy hid her face behind her mane in fear of the suggestion.

"I have to go with 'Shy on this one, RD," Applejack said. "Ain't no way I'm gettin' near that thang. Least not yet..."

"Why not?" Rainbow asked in a challenging tone.

"Cause it's a big thing from space, Dashie!" Pinkie shouted, being the voice of reason for once. "And it's on FIRE! I mean... fire! It's... hot and dangerous! Not fun! No-no! Especially without marshmallows!"

Dash crossed her forelegs. "Well, then what?" she asked.

Twilight thought for a moment. That smaller object would be a good start... "Did any of you see the thing that came off of it?" The other mares shook their heads. "I saw what might have been some debris come off of it. It's not much, but it's a start, alright Rainbow?"

The athletic pegasus nodded. "Let's go!"

They started going, but then a tiny voice said "no".

"Fluttershy," Twilight told her softly. "It's safe. It wasn't burning or anything."

"No," Fluttershy said again. "I'll wait here in the library with Spike... I mean... if that's okay with you girls."

"Aw, but I wanted to–" Spike began to argue from his place on Twilight's back before he was taken off.

"She's right Spike," Twilight told him. "Your place is here with her for now. I need you to do something for me..." He whispered the rest next to the baby dragon's head. He nodded and saluted dutifully.

"I'll do that right away, ma'am!" he said before turning to the library door and walking inside.

"Well, 'Shy, we don't want to force ya to come or nothin'," Applejack said. "So we'll see ya soon, sugarcube."

The timid pegasus nodded her thanks. "I'll keep an eye on Spike. Be careful, girls... please." With that, the others parted, heading towards the crash site, leaving Fluttershy standing in front of the library. She slumped to her haunches and closed her eyes. "Stay safe..."

A voice was taunting him through the void. It jeered at him, telling him that he had failed something, or rather someone. What was odd was that, even though he wasn't really doing it, he was answering it.

"She got what was coming for her."

"Screw you, she was-----!" Not completed.

"You're a disgraceful little shit! I'm your damned friend!"

"NO! You're------"

...

It's your fault, Jordan.

You weren't there, and now...

A white room came into view, completely devoid of any furniture – not even a door. A noise came from behind him, and as he turned to look he was killed by...

Jordan jolted back into consciousness. Back into the pod he was confined to. He was gripping his rifle so tight that it hurt, even after he loosened his hands. The straps had stayed intact, and it was good to know that the airbags that cushioned him had deployed. Pods were designed with a system that was meant to keep the occupant from being injured in case they were ejected. After shaking himself back into wakefulness, a noise startled him. It was a burst of static coming from his communicator.

"Hey," a familiar voice said. "I saw you eject, you all right?" It was clear now, that voice belonged to that Adapter he saw in the hallway. Regged, was it? "Well, this is a one-way message so I guess it doesn't matter..."

Part of him wanted to respond and tell him that he was alive. The other part mistrusted the Adapter; a few of them just caused the ship to crash, after all. Like Regged said though, it didn't matter if he could respond or not, the signal was one-way. He leaned forward against the metal in front of him–it was a blast shield that was an extra precautionary measure, in case the thick glass was somehow broken, so it must have been cracked when the pod landed – and listened.

"Listen, and I hope you are because I can only say this once. I don't approve of what Oroon does, and I'm not the only one thinking that. So please trust me.

"There's something you need to know about that bomb. Somehow, when it exploded, it started a radiation leak. It's contained, but its effects are already showing up. Those acid gouches, or metal termites... well... I knew something like this would happen but they didn't..." Regged sighed. "They're changing. We don't have much time, they'll become a BIG problem if they get loose into the environment of this planet, got it? You better."

Jordan reached up and pulled the emergency door-opening lever and pushed the door. Something kept it from opening at first, but he managed to force it and step outside. Everything was a disaster. Providence was nearby, surrounded by flames that were starting to recede. A large pillar of smoke rose from the blasted section of the ship. Other than that, the Captain had successfully crash-landed it.

"Listen, I'm gonna try to mess with the wiring of one of these pods and see if I can get out. We could be a team," Regged said. "We could get the others out and deal with Oroon and the gouches together. I just have t–"

His words were cut off by a burst of static that lasted for several seconds before it stopped. Jordan didn't hear him speak again. The transmission must have been cut off. He took the communicator out of his ear and put it in his pocket. Picking up his rifle, he took a step out into the new world. It was, like on the ship, a bad step. He stumbled and fell on his knees as he came out of the pod, and a stabbing pain hit his leg, making him yell. A piece of debris had torn through the jumpsuit and cut his right leg, the point that entered him was red with his blood. A stream was slowly flowing from his wound. He would live, but it felt like he would be limping for a while. He got up, carefully not to put too much strain on his injured leg, and took another good look at the ship.

There was no way he would be able to get close to the ship, what with all the flames. Eventually they would burn themselves out, since the crash had left a sort of crater, blowing the plants that were there away. There wasn't going to be much for the fire to spread to soon. However, soon wasn't coming fast enough. Not wanting to go back into the pod, Jordan turned himself around and limped in the opposite direction of the wreck – heading south. The overturned earth and rocks mellowed out into green grass and shrubs, and eventually some trees. These occasional trees eventually became a wooded area that he had some difficulty getting through, but he managed.

As he hiked, he thought about everyone he met on the bridge. The experienced Captain Vash, the optimistic morale officer Bryant, Gunny (he never found out what her job was, now that he thought of it), and Kit. He had barely seen them for five or ten minutes before... this. They just met for the first time. Now, he might never see them again. They could be killed by the Adapters, the termites – Regged called them "gouches" – that were mutating, or even hazards that were made in the ship as it crashed. One bad move, and they might all be blown up At least that's how Jordan saw it until part of him made him want to slap himself. He could still help them! There were just a few more things to worry about than he thought there would be. He could save them, no, he would save them. As long as he was still breathing, he was still useful.

It wouldn't help him if he suddenly stopped breathing, but that's what he did. He had reached a clearer spot in the woods, where he saw something coming. A few somethings that were getting closer the longer he waited. As fast as he could with his limp, maybe even faster, he ducked behind a rock and some bushes and waited. He gripped his rifle tight and stroked the trigger with his pulling finger, ready to use it to defend himself. The sound of hooves and some other sound came to his ears and got closer, and closer, and closer, and then farther and farther as they passed him. Waiting a few more seconds after they had passed him, he peeked over the rock and aimed his rifle.

He couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was a herd of five... "Horses?" he whispered to himself. He corrected himself in his mind, there was no way he could call the three that were completely different horses, or ponies. Two of them, a purple one and a white one, had horns on their heads. Unicorns? They don't exist though! However, this was an alien planet. It could be possible – like Gunny said back on the ship, "the universe is infinite”. One of them had wings and was flying over the others, plus it had a rainbow mane. How could he pick that out compared to the others though? He's never seen any animals with colors like those – one was even completely pink! One more thing caught his attention though, and was probably the one thing that slapped him the hardest. The orange one, which looked normal compared to the unicorns and... pegasus? Yes, pegasus. This normal one with the blond or yellow tail had both her mane and tail tied in ribbons. But anyone could do that to his or her pony, what really got to him was that fact that the very same one was wearing a hat! Ponies don't wear hats! At least not the ones he knew... or used to know. This confused him to a great extent. Why would ponies wear clothing? One of them even had their hair done in fancy curls and...

"No way," he whispered. "They're... talking?" That conclusion was the only one he came up with in his place behind the rock. That is, until he looked down on his injured leg. "I lost blood. I must be hallucinating, that's all." Even though he had cleared his mind of worry, he still peeked to make sure they were gone, and then continued going his way.

"Yeah!" Dash agreed. "I could have totally flown over it in less than a second!"

"Those woods gave me the strangest darned feelin' ah've ever had," Applejack said, apprehension in her voice. "Any o' you felt that? Like we were bein' watched?"

"Oh, AJ, we WERE being watched, didn't you notice?" Pinkie Pie pointed out. The others looked at her in surprise, but before anyone could ask, she continued. "Ooo! Ooo! Ooo... Ooo... oh..." The party pony's mane deflated slightly as she looked past the others and straight at what was ahead. It was the object that crashed earlier, but not just that. The entire area around it was destroyed, some of it in flames. All the grass and trees where it landed were just... gone. The others looked at the sight in a mix of awe and horror.

"All this land," Applejack said solemnly. "It's gonna take a while for all th' plants to grow back, if they do at all."

"That isn't all we should worry about," Rarity said, closing her eyes in sadness. "Fluttershy... she told she was visiting a rabbit burrow here. I doubt they made it out before..."

Rainbow Dash had a genuine look of horror on her face. Fluttershy would never get over that! She had mentioned them to Dash one day, mentioning how she was thinking about moving their burrow closer to her cottage. "To get them out of the rain" was her reason. She would be devastated when she was told that her plans would never go through in the worst possible way.

"Look!" Twilight said pointing a hoof. "That looks like what I saw!" She was pointed at a big cylinder that was embedded in the ground a short distance away. It looked safe, so the mares approached it. They noticed that part of it was hanging off of it, and when they went to check it out...

"A door?" Applejack said, dumbfounded. "Now why the hay would this thang 'ave a door?"

"Applejack, don't you see?" Twilight asked. The farmer didn't know what she was talking about.

"I get it! That thing…" Dash said, pointing a hoof at the smoldering object. "…Is a ship of some kind! From space! A spaceship!"

"Now don't you go assumin' that big ol' thing is from space, RD," Applejack argued. "I don't believe for one minute!"

"But if it is," Twilight said, approaching the object they were standing in front of. "Then this must be an escape pod! Somepony must have been in here!"

"Of course they were, Twilight!" Pinkie said. "And now they're gone! We have to find them! Then we have to throw them a PARTY! A 'Welcome to Equestria, Space Pony' party!"

Ignoring the second part, Twilight looked around on the ground for tracks of some sort – even if they weren't hoofprints. She found something else: a piece of metal covered with something red. She had her suspicions about what this red stuff was, and there was only one way to find out. She went up to it and sniffed it. The scent of iron flooded her nose, making her recoil slightly.

"What is that, Twilight?" Dash asked.

"It's... blood," the scholar answered. "Whoever was in here must be hurt."

"Maybe they're wandering around disoriented," Rarity inputted. "Poor dear needs help!"

Twilight knew that, even if this pony – or whatever it was – was injured, they still had to be careful. What if whoever was in the pod was hostile? Or maybe frightened? Despite that, the injury might have been serious, and they needed to find them. Fast! She thought of some way to track them, and a spell came to mind. She had only practiced do this spell with a different liquid... an unfortunately very different one, courtesy of Spike, who was just as creeped out as her about the whole experiment.

Her horn began to glow and the blood of the metal lit up like a red neon light. Even though the sun was shining, it was glowing clearly. Then, a whole trailing of glowing red spots lit up along the ground. A trail like this would be one that any average pony would know not to follow, but in this case they had to (At least it isn't yellow, Twilight thought). The friends began to follow the spots without questioning about the spell, keeping an eye out in case who they were looking appeared. Soon, they saw that the trail led into the woods they had come out of minutes earlier.

"Girls," Applejack said. "Remember when ah said ah had that weird feelin'..."

"Like we were being watched," Twilight finished. "We were, Applejack. We walked right past them."

The five mares kept following the trail for some time before one of them spoke. "Hey, Twilight," Rainbow said. "How long have you had this spell?"

"About a month or so," Twilight answered, getting ready for the next inevitable question.

"How did you learn it?"

The unicorn turned her head to the airborne pegasus with a slightly disgusted look but said nothing.

Jordan finally stumbled out of the woods, landing on his good leg. The injured one was still bleeding, dripping over the gray and blue of his jumpsuit and onto the grass. He dabbed his fingers on the wound, wincing as pain radiated from where he pressed. The bleeding and pain might stop if he had a bandage or gauze, neither of which he had. He could only suffer through it until he found a suitable substitute... or die of infection... or hallucinate and think a deadly alien creature was a cute puppy dog. Ready to keep moving, he finally looked up.

There was no way what he was seeing was real. He had stumbled onto the outskirts of a town of some sort. Indeed, there were houses, what looked like shops, a large building towards the center that may have been the town hall or something similar. He could even see a farm to one side, with an orchard of some sort – maybe something similar to an apple orchard? He got on his stomach (though his injured leg protested) and crawled forward, hoping to get a better look. Was this yet another hallucination? He would have labeled it has a mirage if he was in a desert, but this climate was more like where he used to live back home. Maybe this was real, which made him wonder what the people living there looked like, and if they were aware of what happened.

When he got closer to get a look, however, what he saw made him sure that it was a hallucination. Ponies or horses or whatever they were, similar to the ones he saw in the woods, were moving around the town. He thought for a moment, though. If it were a hallucination, then why did he have any for a while after the first group he saw? Curiosity pushed him forward, but caution restrained him. Real or not, he didn't want to be seen. Finding the most discrete route, he head towards the town – slowly and carefully.

On his trip around the edge of the town, he found what looked like a park. Staying in the bushes, he spotted two of those... ponies he decided to officially label them, on a park bench. One, a tan one with a blue and pink mane, was laying on it in the way he would expect one to. The other, a mint green... unicorn, was sitting in an interesting way, though: like a biped. It looked a bit awkward, but it seemed to work for her. He saw that the first one had a picture of some kind where a brand would go on one of the ponies or horses back home. In fact, the ponies in the forest had ones like that too. What could they mean? The ponies on the bench were talking – once again, the concept of them talking got to him – loud enough for him to hear.

"This is getting ridiculous," the second one said bitterly.

"The thing falling from the sky, your obsession with creatures that don't exist, or..." the first one started saying. The other finished.

"Him, and yes, the falling object, but this creep is–"

"Annoying, and that's all, Lyra."

"But, Bon-bon," Lyra looked right at her partner. "He's starting to scare me. You, too! Don't lie!"

The other pony sighed. "You're right... but we can't just keep it secret forever."

That magic word, "secret", made Jordan curious as to what they were discussing. He focused on the two ponies, listening for said "secret". Probably something bad, he thought.

The green pony got off the bench and the other followed. "What if he does something crazy? Will Lyra have to smack a bitch?"

"He wouldn't dare try it because he knows you would," Bon-bon giggled, lifting a hoof to the other pony's cheek. "Come on, sweetie, let's go." She gave the unicorn a quick kiss on the lips, and the two embraced. This wasn't what he was expecting, but it was kind of relieving to Jordan that this place wasn't so different back home in its reaction to homosexuality. The couple was actually kind of cute. Something was familiar about this, though, especially with Lyra. He couldn't put a finger on it, but he knew it was familiar somehow.

The two went off down the trail. When the coast was clear, Jordan went back to scampering–as someone could put how he was moving into words as–towards the town. Leaving the park, he spotted something new, and very different. It was another building, but it was built into a tree. It wasn't a treehouse, but... yes, it was a tree… house. The tree was literally the building. Checking to see that none of the ponies were around he limped as quickly as he could to the door, which was just a little taller than him. A sign on it said "Library Closed. Please Come Back Later". So it was a library. When libraries were closed, they were empty, so he could stay in there for a little while. Plus, if he knew anything, it was that libraries had books – damn it, those things were useful sometimes. He wanted to see if he could find information about this world, and it was very likely he would find it here. Looking back to be sure he wasn't seen, he opened the door and slid in, closing it quietly.

Spike and Fluttershy were playing a game of cards in Twilight's bedroom. Twilight had told Spike to send a new letter to the Princesses, explaining the situation with the massive object falling from the sky. He didn't receive a response yet, which was good for his stomach, but not for Twilight. Knowing her, she would have wanted one back immediately.

"Got any threes?" He asked the pegasus across from him.

"Nope, go fish," she replied.

"Awww... come on!" Spike said, holding up his massive line of cars in his claws. "There's no way I couldn't have at least one pair yet!"

"Maybe you're just not lucky..." Fluttershy said. "Do you want to play something else?"

"Nah, I'm gonna go take a look around the library," the dragon said. "Maybe there's something I could do. Could you keep an eye on Peewee? He's had a habit of pecking the sheets and things lately." Sure enough, the young phoenix was pecking at Spike's pillow. Fluttershy nodded, going to the phoenix and pulling him away from his target.

Spike left the room, closing the door gently behind him. As soon as he took two steps down the steps, he heard what sounded like somepony putting something on the table. The library was closed, Twilight would announce her arrival, and Owloysius was asleep in the bedroom. So who would be downstairs? He snuck down the steps and took a peek into the main room. There stood something he had never seen before. It was tall and stood on two legs, had hair on its head but it didn't look like it had any of it anywhere else, and was wearing some weird blue and silver clothing. Whatever it was, it seemed to be looking at the books and trying to find one.

He didn't want to stick around for it to notice him, so he quietly went back up the steps, opened the bedroom door quietly, slipped himself in, and quietly closed it. Fluttershy was curious about why Spike was acting so worried.

"Oh, Spike, what's wro–"

The dragon lifted a claw to his lips, telling her to keep quiet, even though she already was. He tiptoed to her and whispered in her ear. "There's something down stairs. I've never seen anything like it, and I don't want to meet it. It's scary-looking!"

"What is it?" she whispered back.

"Some kind of monster, I think. It looked like it was limping but I couldn't tell. It could be dangerous."

Limping! "Spike, if... if that poor creature is hurt I have to–"

"It looked fine, though. It was looking at books, for Pete's sake," Spike tried to reason. "Look, if it doesn't leave in a few minutes, we'll go check it out, okay?"

A few minutes were better than never, Fluttershy knew. "Okay, fine... five minutes then."

Jordan had put his gun down on the table when he entered. After scanning the bookshelves for a book that would tell him about this place he was in, he found "The History of Equestria". Putting that on the table, he took his jar of water and freeze-dried eggs out. Opening the bag of eggs, he found a separately sealed compartment holding a plastic spoon, which he removed. After pouring the water in with the eggs and resealing the bag, he set it aside and pulled the book up.

Equestria was the name of this world, and the main population was comprised of ponies. The land was ruled by two Princesses, Celestia and Luna. Apparently, they were responsible for raising the sun and the moon, which would explain why this planet was the center of the system. Magic. It existed.

The book later said something about artifacts called "The Elements of Harmony" and six ponies that represent them: Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, and Magic. It sounded cheesy, but who was he to question how this new world worked? Turning a page, he pulled the bag and spoon back to him and opened the bag up. One spoonful of the readied eggs later, he hated himself. Freeze-dried food wasn't bad, but it wasn't good, either. In hindsight, he should have picked the canned food. Yet, food was still food, and he kept eating his meal while reading more about the world.

Weather was a fun thing to read about for him. It was interesting that these ponies, specifically the pegasi, have the ability to control it, going so far as to schedule what happens every week. There were three main kinds of ponies in Equestria: Earth ponies – normal ones – that had a strong magical connection with the earth (Earth...). Then there were unicorns, that had the ability to cast spells. They had a connection with the world's workings. Pegasi could walk on clouds and control weather, using their natural magic connection to the sky. He saw that it was a pretty diverse world, too. There were other talking animals living in Equestria; like griffins, donkeys, dragons (Holy crap!), and a bunch of other ones.

Finally, he came to a section on those Elements that he read about earlier. Their function was to dispel evil and all things that threatened Equestria. So, basically, they were like some sort of weapon. How he would hate to get blasted in the face with it. Then, a few pages into the section, he saw some pictures that made him freeze. They were pictures of the Bearers of the Elements – the same ponies he had seen in the woods! There were only five of them there, but he was certain it was they. But there are six bearers. If there were five in the woods, then where was...

"Um... hello?" a quiet voice said behind him, making him freeze in place in realization. Uh-oh...