Remnants

The smoke rising from the newly formed crater was enough to deter most, not one scientific unicorn however. Twilight Sparkle, baby dragon in tow, was clambering up the crater to examine the landing site of the third object to fall by and on Ponyville this week. The first had been an empty shell, badly burnt and charred, but otherwise intact. Strange markings had adorned its side, of which she could back no progress toward understanding. The inside was mechanical and made of the same bubblegum pink as its exterior. Although she had searched, she could not find the flying object detailed to her by Applejack. The unicorn furrowed her brow, cresting the rise of the crater was difficult, spike clambered up with far greater ease, a direct result of his claws and reptilian nature. His violet body was short and chubby however, so she still managed to keep up.

"Can't you just teleport us up?" He groaned irritably.

"There’s no telling how stable the rim of the crater is, you might hurt yourself." Twilight explained compassionately the dragon groaned and continued to climb. It took them a further thirty seconds to crest the rim of the crater, upon doing so they gaped in surprise. There lay an eight meter long tube made of sort of metal, it was crumpled, burnt and otherwise damaged, but there was no mistaking it. This was a vehicle.

"Spike," twilight said slowly "take a letter..."

~

"Shit-shit-shit-shit-shit!" sobbed the badly injured janitor as he sat, bleeding, on the floor of the escape pod. Why had he taken the gun? It was the worst idea that had ever graced his foolish mind-and that said a lot. He had attempted to bind his wound with one of the medical kits lying about, but couldn’t get any further than opening the box before the pain in his shattered wrist stopped him going any further. After abandoning the attempt he crawled in agony to the pilot seat, he needed fresh air, it was too hot in here! Gurgling in pain he collapsed two metres from the release switch. He lay panting for a minute before struggling to his feet, fire washed through him. His arm felt as though it were a black hole and all matter were rushing into it, crushing him in the weight of pain. Grimly gripping the wall with his good left arm, Adrian examined his wounds. His right shoulder was dislocated and his right wrist was bent perpendicular to the rest of his arm. Bone was protruding from the compound fracture; he fought the urge to retch. His left thigh was bleeding where he had been shot by a point blank slag pistol. Green knew he would die of lead poisoning if he left it too long. He took a single step and collapsed in pain. Roaring his agony he clawed his way up the pilots chair, gripping the seatbelt and armrests with grim determination. Agonisingly he reached up and opened the pod doors with three shaky button pushes. He was delirious with pain now and wasn't thinking through his actions, which meant he did not consider exotic fauna tearing him to pieces after they entered through the now open door- all he could think of was to get outside. He tried to get to the open hatch but fell less than a foot from the pilot seat. He fought unconsciousness knowing it would mean his death, but succumbed to his pain after a three second struggle.

~

"Status!" demanded the angry captain of the now landed colony ship. Crewmen lay strewn across the floor, but she paid them no heed. The slim captain was fearful of the damage done in the crash, but her hard features gave no hint of this as she looked sternly at her pilot.

"Section b is caved in, two escape pods have been launched, we have numerous injuries and I spilt my damn coffee all over my pants!" was the squeaky reply from her pilot. He was a small man with little in the way of looks going for him; his pen line moustache gave him an idiotic look rather than the suave one he was going for, his crooked nose aggravating the perfectionist in her and is poor haircut embarrassed those who knew him. Louise unlatched herself from her chair and leapt spryly to the deck.

"Order all able bodies to assist the wounded to the med-bay, have maintenance check the reactor, send a rescue team into section b and get security to secure a perimeter fence about the LZ. Go!" Her orders were quickly relayed by the comms officer, Jean, standing by the PA.

Louise quickly aided her crew to their feet, she was distraught by their injuries and comforted by their devotion. Most had stayed standing working to ensure a safe landing, lugging them to medical was reward enough she decided. She began dragging one crewman by his shoulders; he had a nasty looking head wound and was out like a light. As the captain slowly made her way through the halls of her ship she observed numerous bruised crewmen, tending to the more serious injuries among them. The lighting was damaged in some parts of the ship, flickering on and off, making navigation through the object strewn halls hazardous. Most of said objects had fallen off shelving and now rolled on the ground aimlessly. A few dazed crewmembers were slowly picking them up-before she rerouted their manpower. It took her far longer than usual to arrive at the medical station of the ship; the unconscious man slowing her down. The wounded were already piling up in the large med-bay. Stretchers lined up against the walls, about thirty in all, around half were full.

"How many injured?" Captain Parker inquired in an uncharacteristically gentle tone, dragging her burden onto an empty stretcher.  The tall doctor looked up from his wrist mounted computer.

“With that one included: seventeen.” The doctor (whom she knew as Elmer) drawled slowly. Louise winced, that was a lot of casualties.

“Have we had any dead yet?” She enquired, regretting the responsibilities of her position.

“Not yet.” He stressed the yet. She took the hint and left him to get back to work.

He merely grunted and returned to the equipment manifest he had displayed on his wrist computer.

Louise walked among her crew offering comforts to those who were lucid. Of the seventy five crewmen at least 17 were injured and over half a dozen jettisoned by escape pod. That left her with around fifty crew members to take on the most difficult stage of colonisation-she could really do with a smoke right now. She snapped out of her reverie and slowly returned to the bridge, aiding crewmembers as she went. Let none say she was a woman of inaction. She finally completed the walk and returned to a calmer bridge with a mere three others present. Ignoring their queries she accessed her terminal and ran a system scan.

RUNNING SYSTEMSCAN>>

-0%

--6%

---33%

----54%

-----84%

------97%

-------100%

SYSTEMS AT: 69.6575%

SUMMARY:

-REACTOR: [97.76%] !!!!!!!IMMEDIATE SERVICE NEEDED-SYSTEM CRITICAL!!!!!!!

-CRYO STASIS: [87%] !!WARNING MAINTAINANCE REQUIRED!!

-LIFE SUPPORT: [72%]  !!WARNING MAINTAINANCE REQUIRED!!

-SHIELDING: [88%]

-HULL [90.5%]!!WARNING MAINTAINANCE REQUIRED!!

SECTION-A: 99%

SECTION-B: 56% !!WARNING-HULL BREACH!! !!WARNING VTOL 2 MISSING!!

SECTION-C: 99.5%

SECTION-D: 98%

SECTION-E: 100%

-COMMS [22%] !!WARNING MAINTAINANCE REQUIRED!!

-NAV [100%]

-SOLAR ARRAYS [88%] !!WARNING MAINTAINANCE REQUIRED!!

-WARP [MISSING]

The captain of The Blind Goldfish took a deep breath and stood up straight. This was bad but for all she knew earth was nothing but dust and bones, they would have to persevere.

The smoke rising from the newly formed crater was enough to deter most, not one scientific unicorn however. Twilight Sparkle, baby dragon in tow, was clambering up the crater to examine the landing site of the third object to fall by and on Ponyville this week. The first had been an empty shell, badly burnt and charred, but otherwise intact. Strange markings had adorned its side, of which she could back no progress toward understanding. The inside was mechanical and made of the same bubblegum pink as its exterior. Although she had searched, she could not find the flying object detailed to her by Applejack. The unicorn furrowed her brow, cresting the rise of the crater was difficult, spike clambered up with far greater ease, a direct result of his claws and reptilian nature. His violet body was short and chubby however, so she still managed to keep up. The dragon paused.

"Can't you just teleport us up?" He groaned irritably. She had considered this but explained her reasoning against the idea.

"There’s no telling how stable the rim of the crater is, you might hurt yourself." Twilight explained compassionately the dragon groaned and continued to climb. It took them a further thirty seconds to crest the rim of the crater, upon doing so they gaped in surprise. There lay an eight meter long tube made of sort of metal, it was crumpled, burnt and otherwise damaged, but there was no mistaking it. This was a vehicle.

"Spike," twilight said slowly "take a letter..."

~

"Shit-shit-shit-shit-shit!" sobbed the badly injured janitor as he sat, bleeding, on the floor of the escape pod. Why had he taken the gun? It was the worst idea that had ever graced his foolish mind-and that said a lot. He had attempted to bind his wound with one of the medical kits lying about, but couldn’t get any further than opening the box before the pain in his shattered wrist stopped him going any further. After abandoning the attempt he crawled in agony to the pilot seat, he needed fresh air, it was too hot in here! Gurgling in pain he collapsed two metres from the release switch. He lay panting for a minute before struggling to his feet, fire washed through him. His arm felt as though it were a black hole and all matter were rushing into it, crushing him in the weight of pain. Grimly gripping the wall with his good left arm, Adrian examined his wounds. His right shoulder was dislocated and his right wrist was bent perpendicular to the rest of his arm. Bone was protruding from the compound fracture; he fought the urge to retch. His left thigh was bleeding where he had been shot by a point blank slag pistol. Green knew he would die of lead poisoning if he left it too long. He took a single step and collapsed in pain. Roaring his agony he clawed his way up the pilots chair, gripping the seatbelt and armrests with grim determination. Agonisingly he reached up and opened the pod doors with three shaky button pushes. He was delirious with pain now and wasn't thinking through his actions, which meant he did not consider exotic fauna tearing him to pieces after they entered through the now open door- all he could think of was to get outside. He tried to get to the open hatch but fell less than a foot from the pilot seat. He fought unconsciousness knowing it would mean his death, but succumbed to his pain after a three second struggle.

"Status!" demanded the angry captain of the now landed colony ship. Crewmen lay strewn across the floor, but she paid them no heed. The slim captain was fearful of the damage done in the crash, but her hard features gave no hint of this as she looked sternly at her pilot.

"Section b is caved in, two escape pods have been launched, we have numerous injuries and I spilt my damn coffee all over my pants!" was the squeaky reply from her pilot. He was a small man with little in the way of looks going for him; his pen line moustache gave him an idiotic look rather than the suave one he was going for, his crooked nose aggravating the perfectionist in her and is poor haircut embarrassed those who knew him. Louise unlatched herself from her chair and leapt spryly to the deck.

"Order all able bodies to assist the wounded to the med-bay, have maintenance check the reactor, send a rescue team into section b and get security to secure a perimeter fence about the LZ. Go!" Her orders were quickly relayed by the comms officer, Jean, standing by the PA.

Louise quickly aided her crew to their feet, she was distraught by their injuries and comforted by their devotion. Most had stayed standing working to ensure a safe landing, lugging them to medical was reward enough she decided. She began dragging one crewman by his shoulders; he had a nasty looking head wound and was out like a light. As the captain slowly made her way through the halls of her ship she observed numerous bruised crewmen, tending to the more serious injuries among them. The lighting was damaged in some parts of the ship, flickering on and off, making navigation through the object strewn halls hazardous. Most of said objects had fallen off shelving and now rolled on the ground aimlessly. A few dazed crewmembers were slowly picking them up-before she rerouted their manpower. It took her far longer than usual to arrive at the medical station of the ship; the unconscious man slowing her down. The wounded were already piling up in the large med-bay. Stretchers lined up against the walls, about thirty in all, around half were full.

"How many injured?" Captain Parker inquired in an uncharacteristically gentle tone, dragging her burden onto an empty stretcher.  The tall doctor looked up from his wrist mounted computer.

“With that one included: seventeen.” The doctor (whom she knew as Elmer) drawled slowly. Louise winced, that was a lot of casualties.

“Have we had any dead yet?” She enquired, regretting the responsibilities of her position.

“Not yet.” He stressed the yet. She took the hint and left him to get back to work.

He merely grunted and returned to the equipment manifest he had displayed on his wrist computer.

Louise walked among her crew offering comforts to those who were lucid. Of the seventy five crewmen at least 17 were injured and over half a dozen jettisoned by escape pod. That left her with around fifty crew members to take on the most difficult stage of colonisation-she could really do with a smoke right now. She snapped out of her reverie and slowly returned to the bridge, aiding crewmembers as she went. Let none say she was a woman of inaction. She finally completed the walk and returned to a calmer bridge with a mere three others present. Ignoring their queries she accessed her terminal and ran a system scan.

RUNNING SYSTEMSCAN>>

-0%

--6%

---33%

----54%

-----84%

------97%

-------100%

SYSTEMS AT: 69.6575%

SUMMARY:

-REACTOR: [97.76%] !!!!!!!IMMEDIATE SERVICE NEEDED-SYSTEM CRITICAL!!!!!!!

-CRYO STASIS: [87%] !!WARNING MAINTAINANCE REQUIRED!!

-LIFE SUPPORT: [72%]  !!WARNING MAINTAINANCE REQUIRED!!

-SHIELDING: [88%]

-HULL [90.5%]!!WARNING MAINTAINANCE REQUIRED!!

SECTION-A: 99%

SECTION-B: 56% !!WARNING-HULL BREACH!! !!WARNING VTOL 2 MISSING!!

SECTION-C: 99.5%

SECTION-D: 98%

SECTION-E: 100%

-COMMS [22%] !!WARNING MAINTAINANCE REQUIRED!!

-NAV [100%]

-SOLAR ARRAYS [88%] !!WARNING MAINTAINANCE REQUIRED!!

-WARP [MISSING]

The captain of The Blind Goldfish took a deep breath stood up straight. This was bad. Very bad.

~

Snapshot had not only been knocked out of the sky, he had dropped his camera; the second was an unforgivable offence. So it was with great anger he slowly wobbled to his hooves, the ultramarine pegasus glared at what had caused him to crash. It was over a kilometre long, bright silver and smoking heavily, it had reduced the once grassy hill it had landed on by a good foot of height and had sent a great deal of top soil into the atmosphere. He was shaking now; he had dodged death today, no question about it, that thing could have hit him. The monstrosity was over a kilometre of bulging tubes and cylinders. The top seemed more solid; it was coloured dark blue-a lighter shade than his- and was covered in strange foreign, letters. Orange lights lit along its side, dim in the sunlight and blue electricity danced along its length. Shakily grabbing his camera the pegasus stallion lifted into the air and snapped some photos. The front of the thing was two thirds wider than the back, giving it a tear-drop shape one hundred meters across at its broadest point. Four enormous... cylinders were positioned on it, two on each side, one to the front one to the back. The forward right of these cylinders was utterly destroyed, thick black smoke rose from it. Fire danced gaily with the erratic blue sparks that erupted from the many cables jutting from the torn metal frame, like arteries and veins of some great injured creature. He snapped another photo. The side bearing the damaged cylinder had been charred and crumpled from the explosion and he could see inside of the metal monstrosity. He hovered a moment before deciding to investigate further, he was an adventurous stallion by nature.  Cautiously, he flapped his way into the glowing red opening by the charred mess that had once been one of four enormous tubes. It was once adorned with many flaps and foreign letters like its counterparts, now it was charred black and glowing red.

The inside of the thing stank of sulphur and the walls were plastered black from the explosion. This is a building! He realised with sudden clarity, where were all the ponies then? Frightened he hovered nimbly through the once white halls. He entered the first room he encountered; its door was blown inward and would not forbid him access as the others soon would. Inside was a room filled with damaged metal furnishings and strange black panels. He approached the least damaged of the latter, shielded behind a jutting cupboard-now mangled and devoid of contents. It flickered with a rainbow of colours before scrambling grey then returning to random colours once more. It was so beautiful he snapped four pictures, despite knowing he could do it no justice with a camera. Looking about the dark room he decided that the ponies living here must be pegasi, as everything was incredibly high and tall. Snapshot left the room and continued down the hall for several minutes. Suddenly lights flashed blue, startling him out of the air, and a strange voice began shouting through the halls. It spoke it a garbled alien language, seeming to demand unknowns of him. Snapshot screamed and flew faster than he had ever flown in his life, he knew to stay would be death. He was out of the hallways in less than a minute.

Snapshot was shaking too badly to keep flying for long and lowered to the ground after a small distance was put between him and the fifty meter tall steel behemoth. Suddenly, distant red lights began to flash at the things tapered rear and before he could do anything a ramp dropped down. What emerged was terrifying. Giant beetle-like wagons rolled out, accompanied by four towering creatures made of metal. Swallowing, he crept as close as he dared before snapping three photos in quick succession. Up until this point the strange machinations had been slowly turning in circles, pointing long narrow metal bars as they scanned the landscape. He couldn't make them out clearly so he crept closer through the foot high grass. Snapshot crested a rise in the earth and realised too late that he was outlined clearly against the horizon. He froze and quickly tried to scamper backwards but he was spotted instantly. One of the monsters let out a cry, pointed at him and the others swung around too. It began to shout at the cowering pony a hundred meters away, gesturing at the ship and then Snapshot, then the horizon. The terrified blue pegasus flew off so fast he awoke to a torn wing muscle the next morning.

Beneath their helmets the security guards grinned. The four foot tall equine had been so flighty that they hadn't needed to fire a single warning shot.