Markus Harrison liked to think of himself as having seen everything. He was a shaft miner employed by Nanotrasen, tasked with mining for resources on the planets Nanotrasen built their stations in orbit of. Nanotrasen had a habit of picking only the most dangerous planets much to Markus' dismay. The danger would vary greatly from planets filled with exotic gases that turn into a planet-sized fireball when their atmosphere makes contact with oxygen to planets filled with giant alien megafauna looking to devour any other living creature they came into contact with which often had to be fought off with just mining equipment instead of real firearms.
He had been working as a miner for five years now, and unfortunately due to a bureaucratic mishap he was the only miner sent to the newly built Research Outpost 24. He was surprised when he was instructed to report to the captain's office instead of immediately beginning mining operations. As he entered the office, he saw Captain Oliver Shaw leaning against a wall. The airlock immediately closed behind Markus.
"What we discuss here will be of utmost importance," commanded Captain Shaw. Shaw tapped an intercom on the wall before speaking again. "AI, display the local on the holopad here for Harrison to see."
The circular gray holopad on the floor would flicker and display a hologram of what appeared to be a mythical unicorn. It had big eyes and a surprisingly well kept mane, though any colors were impossible to make out as holograms were restricted to different shades of blue.
"Shaft Miner Harrison, this is an image of one of the local aliens you may encounter on the surface of the planet below," said Shaw. "Preliminary analysis suggests they are indeed sapient, though their level of advancement has proven inconclusive as there are many major inconsistencies with their technology. Fortunately, they appear to be pre-industrial."
"Is this some sort of joke?" asked Markus, staring at the hologram in disbelief.
"I asked the research staff the same question," replied the captain. "While it is possible to render a quadrupedal species sapient through biological experimentation, we have never seen it occur naturally. This station has not had a mining outpost built on the planet below yet as we do not wish to alert the locals to our presence yet. We do have a site for the outpost in mind however so you have been tasked with initial scouting and observation of the locals to gauge their hostility. Should you be spotted or feel at risk you are to retreat. The mining vessel has been pre-set to the potential site. You are going alone. Dismissed."
Captain Shaw opened the airlock behind Markus. Markus quickly stepped out of the office as he knew better than to linger and ask questions. He began to make his way to supply.
The supply department consisted of cargo and mining, and was considered to be the smallest department in the number of people who staffed it despite the huge size of the cargo bay. Supply was unusually empty when Markus entered as he proceeded to mining.
Mining was an office with a dock attached to it, though the dock itself had a small shuttle for the mining crew to use to ferry back and forth between planets and stations. The shuttle itself was piloted automatically to a landing site, Nanotrasen did not approve of most of their crews manually piloting the shuttles after an incident where an agent from an enemy corporation managed to hijack and remotely pilot a mining shuttle through the medbay of another station.
Markus gathered his mining equipment. He wore a dark green lightly armored survival suit and hoodie, with an explorers gas mask to go with it. Under the mask he wore a set of meson goggles which would allow him to partially see through the walls of structures and caves though was unable to detect any actual living beings beyond those walls. The suit itself was not pressure-proof but allowed miners some armor in environments where a spacesuit was not required without sacrificing mobility. The planet below would have an atmosphere suitable for life, so there was no need for an air tank or any pressure protection.
A habitable atmosphere is a double-edged sword however, as some of the mining equipment such as the kinetic accelerator only functions in low pressure environments. Kinetic accelerators are used to blast apart rocks and hostile fauna at a distance. It was the closest thing to a gun miners could get their hands on, and it was the primary mining tool used on Nanotrasen stations. Unfortunately it only works in low-pressure environments. In an environment with habitable pressure the blast uselessly tickled anything it hit. Markus wasn't sure why or how it worked, but knew it would be useless on the planet below. He opted not to take one to instead mine the old fashioned way, with an automatic electric mining drill.
Markus quietly whispered obscenities as he discarded the kinetic accelerator.
Markus donned a set of survival webbing over his armor. The webbing was outfitted with many things to assist in the field. Survival medipens, portable shelter capsules, a flashlight, ore scanner, and a survival knife.
Satisfied with his gear, Markus made his way onboard the mining shuttle and sat down. He tapped at the computer console at the front and could hear as the shuttle detached from the station. The shuttle began to descend to the planet below.
Red Nettle had been staring at the strange shape in the sky for hours now using a telescope. The young earth pony filly was restless. Her parents had tried to get her to sleep, though tonight she simply chose to sneak out of bed.
They had brought the telescope with them when they moved from Canterlot to Ponyville, though Red's parents had made it very clear over the past week that they were starting to wish they hadn't. Red Nettle had been using the telescope nonstop while ranting about some strange shape in the stars almost every day. Fortunately her parents were asleep and under the assumption she was as well.
"I just know there is something up there," mumbled Red Nettle as she adjusted the telescope. The balcony on the new home proved to be a decent vantage point.
She had been attempting to convince her parents, friends, and anyone who would listen for days now of the strange shape in the sky to no avail. The odd shape even had lights radiating off of it and smaller shapes sometimes moving to and from it. Unfortunately nopony believed her, other than a mare she barely knew by the name of Lyra Heartstrings. Over the week she very quickly stopped speaking with Lyra however due to the mare's crazy rants about mythical "Hootmans."
Something was off about the shape tonight however. Red Nettle yawned, desperately fighting off the desire to sleep in favor of using the telescope.
She watched as a smaller shape left the bigger one, but rather than speeding off it was getting bigger. Red Nettle blinked and rubbed her eyes, before looking back into the telescope.
It wasn't getting bigger, it was getting closer! Red Nettle nearly yelled in excitement, though quickly simmered back down.
"I can finally prove it," Red Nettle whispered to nopony in particular. As the shape got closer she could begin to make out its features. It appeared to be a metal bird of some kind, or perhaps even a dragon! It did not flap its wings however.
The metal bird would descend and pass over Ponyville. Red Nettle watched curiously as it headed in the direction of the Everfree Forest. Red Nettle gasped. Nothing good ever came from the Everfree Forest. She shakily turned the telescope with her hooves in the direction of the metal bird. The metal bird began to descend sharply, and disappeared into the forest's trees.
"How am I supposed to prove it if its hiding in the Everfree?" Red Nettle let go of the telescope and sighed, before rising.
She gathered her courage and walked back inside, carefully sneaking past the loud snoring emanating from her parent's room. She carefully made her way down the stairs and to the front door, quietly opening it and stepping outside. Red Nettle closed the door behind her as quiet as she could manage, though the hinges let out a loud squeak.
Red Nettle shuddered, though breathed a sigh of relief when she heard nopony moving inside the house.
She would walk along the trail in Ponyville, keeping careful watch of her surroundings to make sure nopony was watching. Red Nettle shuddered as she arrived at the Everfree Forest. She entered the forest and followed the trail, determined to find the metal bird.
Markus groaned as the shuttle touched down. It had landed in the middle of a forest during the night cycle of this planet. He knew this was no jungle planet but was still paranoid by being surrounded by dense trees as alien forests and jungles were often more deadly than the other planets and death traps he had previously mined on.
Fortunately for now his mission was to explore, not to mine.
Markus would stand and stretch his arms before grabbing his equipment and leaving the shuttle. He found the fresh non-recycled air to be nice at least.
Markus would sigh. "You would think they'd want a future mining outpost near a mountain or cave instead of out in the damn sticks," he complained to himself.
He grabbed a set of glowing marker beacons from his satchel and began to walk in a random direction deeper into the forest. He would occasionally set a marker beacon down, leaving a trail back towards the mining shuttle as he ventured into the darkness.
Princess Luna had grown unbearably frustrated.
It had been a week since a great structure had appeared in the sky. Much to her chagrin the structure was practically invisible during the day, only barely seen during her night. She had made an agreement with her sister Celestia to only discuss the structure in private as nopony other than them had noticed it yet. Luna had made a wondrous discovery about the structure however. It was inhabited.
Luna often devoted the time of the night when night court was not in session to dreamwalking. She often peered into the dreams of sleeping ponies and replaced any nightmares she happened upon with comforting dreams. Luna discovered early that she was just capable of overseeing the dreams of the beings who inhabited the structure in the sky.
There were numerous species that inhabited the structure though they were all bipedal, and the dominant species referred to themselves as "Humans." These so-called humans appeared to be monkeylike, though with very little hair. Luna was shocked to find that their dreams varied more than the ponies whose dreams she oversaw. Some of the humans dreamed of wondrous fantasies, others dreamed of paranoia and violence. Tonight was different however.
Rather than the usual relaxing purple and blue colors most dreams had before inspecting them further, one was a violent red. Luna grew even more concerned as she had trouble accessing the dream, as if blocked by an invisible barrier.
Luna normally had very little difficulty when entering dreams, it had become second nature long ago. Too be unable to access this dream was an alien feeling. Luna was filled with a strange sense of dread as she gazed upon it.
"What secret does thou hide?" Luna spoke to the dream and paused briefly as if she was expecting a response.
The idea of being unable to access a dream was preposterous to Luna. She was the Night Princess and this was her realm outside of Equestria. Luna began to use an extensive amount of magic attempting to access the dream, and eventually the seemingly invisible barrier dissipated. Luna entered the dream, and gazed around in horror.
Corpses were laid upon corpses in a seemingly never-ending pile within a strange room that had red and black walls and floors. Many different inscriptions or runes littered the floor, drawn in blood. Three robed humans surrounded one of the runes while chanting incoherently.
All three slowly turned towards Luna. Two had crimson colored swords and the third was spinning a throwing bola.
Luna instinctively backed away but was knocked off balance when the third threw the bola and it wrapped around her front legs. She fell to the floor.
Luna quickly attempted to alter the dream but found herself unable to. In the panic she began to fire bolts of magic at her three attackers, though the three expertly dodged them and were sprinting at Luna.
Luna caught a close look at the closest human. His left hand was glowing an unnatural red and radiating magical energy. He held the sword in his right hand. She quickly stood up but found moving difficult with her front hooves wrapped together by the bola.
Luna would scream. "Cease foul assailants-"
"Fuu ma'jin!" The human screamed and slammed his glowing hand against Luna.
Luna fell to the floor convulsing. She could do nothing but panic. Whatever magic the human had conjured left her stunned.
She was unable to access her magic. She couldn't move. She couldn't scream. She couldn't speak. It was as if her own body refused to obey any command or instinct. Luna could still feel however.
The two attackers with swords briefly lightly cut into her sides while the third slammed a blunt object against Luna's head. After a few seconds of attacks that seemed like eternity to Luna, the three began to drag her to one of the runes.
The bloody rune somehow changed from red to white as the three humans dragged Luna to it. She attempted to move, scream, and even exit the dream with every fiber of her being and yet her body failed to do anything. The robed humans dropped Luna onto the white rune.
They once again broke into incoherent chants, when finally one of them kneeled in front of Luna and began to yell.
"Mah'weyh pleggh at e'ntrath!" yelled the robed human.
Everything went dark.
