Goliath One-Status: K.I.A.

Chapter Two

Equestria

June 19th, 2023

“Is-is there somepony in there?” The orange mare, Applejack, stood to the left of the strange aircraft that had crash-landed in the far side of Sweet Apple Acres. When no response came, she and her brother both hesitantly made their way in a full circle around the machine, trying to inspect every inch of it.

  “I still think we should either leave this thang alone, or get some friends over here at least...”

Applejack groaned, finally giving in to her sibling’s idea.

  “Alright, fine. I’ll go and get the other five, you stay here and keep a keen eye on this thing...”

Before Big Mac could protest, Applejack was already in a full-on sprint towards the companion that lived the closest; Rainbow Dash. It took a few minutes, but she finally found the pegasus she was looking for.

~~~~~~~~~~

Marcus awoke from a blank sleep inside the snug, but surprisingly comfortable cabin of his F/A-38 VTOL. He pressed a button on the side of his helmet and the tinted visor flipped up into the helmet slot, as he began to look at his surroundings. He could not remember anything except for a white light and about a minute before that. When he was looking, something caught him off guard...

“When did all these trees get here? Last time I checked, I was flying above a desert and sinking in-oh shit, everyone probably thinks I'm dead...”

As soon as his brain started to (try to) work, the whiplash of the crash hit him like a Smart Car colliding with a semi-truck as his head started to throb violently. Marcus rubbed his forehead when something else caught him off guard. A voice could be heard faintly through the cabin of the jet.

  “Is-is there somepony in there?”

It sounded female, and Southern, but the throbbing of his head and the semi-noise-canceling glass made it too hard to tell. That’s when the thing that caught him off guard the most registered in his mind.

“Pony? What the fuck does this person mean by that?! Maybe it’s a metaphor?”

Marcus just pushed that thought out of his head and tried to contact command.

  “Ug, this is Goliath 1. I’ve crashed in-arg-an unidentified field about-hello? Command, do you copy? Damnit!”

After his failed attempt to get help, he just decided to open up the cabin to see if he could get help the old-fashioned way. The sound of the cabin depressurization tended to sooth Marcus a little, he just loved that hiss. As the glass paneling moved forward towards the  nose of the plane, he began to stand up to get out. When took a step onto the first stair, he stumbled and fell the rest of the way out of the plane.

“Ow...” He thought as he lay face-up on the dirt staring up at the blue sky. When he finally was able to stand up, he turned to find something that caught him off guard even more so than the use of ‘pony’ in the person’s speech. He turned and had a staring contest with a... horse? This horse wasn’t like any other he had ever seen. This one had a fire engine-red coat, with a orange mane and tale, and it was... tiny compared to the horses he had seen before. Plus this figure in particular seemed to be giving Marcus not a plane look that most normal horses do, but this one giving him a look of... horror... That was the last thing Marcus registered before he buckled down to his right knee and face planted in the dirt.

~~~~~~~~~~

Big Mac watched in curiosity as the unknown being climbed out of the front of the machine, and had to push down laughing at the creature as it took a step onto the stair and fell out onto his back. Big Mac started to slowly approach the fallen critter, when he heard it let out a faint grunt and backed away as the thing stumbled to its feet. When there eyes met they seemed to stare at eachother for an eternity,  before the biped buckled down on its right knee... and collapsed. Big Mac cautiously walked over to the fallen being, and nudged its side with a hoof. No response. He tried it again and gave up.

“Welp, I guess I’ll just wait for Applejack to get back...”

~~~~~~~~~~

“Okay, do we have to do this right now? Just c’mon! I’ll tell ya when we get there!” Applejack tried explaining to Rainbow Dash.

  “Alright fine, where did you say it crashed again? I can meet you there.” Rainbow Dash responded.

  “On the far side of Sweet Apple Acres, but-” But Rainbow Dash was already out of sight, on her way to Sweet Apple Acres.

Big Mac sat next to the being just staring into the sky, when he noticed a rainbow blur over head and got up. As Rainbow Dash landed about ten meters from the crash sight, Big Mac walked up to her.

  “Hey! I heard that a UFO landed here. So where is-WOAH!!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she flew up to the side of the massive machine. She just hovered in-place and gawked at the thing, then she noticed the biped laying face-down in the dirt and landed behind it. She then flew up a few feet and settled down on top of the UFO and laid down.

  “Well whaddaya know! I guess I’m braver than I thought!” Rainbow Dash said as she settled on the hard metal surface.

  “Yeup.” Big Mac calmly responded.

Another voice made Rainbow Dash jump a little.

  “Rainbow Dash! What do you think you’re doin’!” Shouted Applejack as she trotted down the field.

  “Oh give me a break! You don’t see it trying to kill me do you? Oh, and watch out for-”

But Applejack had already tripped over the fallen creature.

  “Ow! Wh- what the hey is thi-” She was cut short when she saw what she had tripped over. “Whoa!” She said as she jumped back.

  “What do you think we should do with this thing?” Asked Rainbow Dash, still perched on top of the metal surface.

  “We should get Twilight, she’ll know what to do!”

~~~~~~~~~~

“I still can’t believe this is happening! A real alien!” Announced Twilight as she was levitating Marcus to her library and bounced with joy every so often.

  “I know, I know. Let’s just get this thang back to yer place before it wakes up again.” Said Applejack as Twilights home came into view.

  “But where are you gonna keep this alien when we get there?” Asked Rainbow Dash.

  “Maybe the basement? Just for now.” Twilight happily responded as she trotted towards her home.

~~~~~~~~~~

Marcus shakily sat up after another blank slumber. His vision was blurry, but he could make out the books that lined the walls of the room.

“Great, it had to be a library didn’t it?”

Marcus rubbed his eyes and got to his feet, he wasn’t very steady but he could at least stand. That was when he heard shouting from an upstairs level of the building. He pulled out his B23R and slowly proceeded to walk up the stairs on the far side of the room. when he was up the stairs, he looked around, still undetected, and spotted a door. As he proceeded to open it, two things were detected in his mind: the door was locked (not a big surprise...) and it was really short. He never minded the second thought and went with the only way to get out of this locked place that he could think of. He took a few steps back and charged at the door. The door snapped into three pieces and flew off its hinges. He stopped as his eyes adjusted to the blinding sunlight and pressed the button on his helmet as the dark visor covered his eyes.

“Ah, that’s better...”

His thought was cut short when he heard footsteps rushing from the inside of the house. As his gut took over, he ran as fast as he could into the nearby forest. He glanced back to see probably the most bizarre thing he’d ever seen: a orange pony with a yellow mane wearing a cowboy hat, a cyan blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail, and a purple unicorn(?) all watching him with intense focus. Marcus decided not to process what he had just seen and kept running into the forest.

~~~~~~~~~~

“No! I don’t want it in our house!” Shouted an angry Spike.

  “Don’t worry, we’re only keeping it for right now!” Replied Twilight,

  “But why can’t we move it into, gah-I don’t know, Applejacks barn?!” Yelled Spike.

  “Because, Spike, I have a business to run, and a family to take care of!” Retorted Applejack.

  “Ug! Can we please figure this out another time?! And Spike, for Celestia’s sake, suck it up! Shouted Twilight which made Spike recoil a little.

  “Hmf! Fine!” As spike was walking away, there was a loud crash emitted from the doorway. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack all went to see what happened. They looked to see a gaping hole where the front door used to be and pieces of it littered the ground outside. Then they all gasped (yes, even Rainbow Dash) when they saw the strange biped kneeling outside while one of its arms was shielding its eyes. Then it quickly got up and sprinted in the direction of the Everfree Forest.

  “C’mon! We can’t let it get away!” Shouted Rainbow Dash as the three of them (hesitantly) followed the creature into the forest.

~~~~~~~~~~

Marcus didn’t stop running until he was out of breath. He stopped and leaned against a thick tree to catch his breath. Then he took notice that it had gotten really dark.

“Odd... It was daytime a few minutes ago...”

Marcus didn’t mind though, he pressed a few things on his data glove and his visor suddenly showed everything in a green and white view of the night vision/thermal imaging. He slumped against a tree and thought about what he should do next.

“Okay, everyone thinks I drowned or died in that crash, which is okay! Wait, that not okay... Gah! Think Marcus, THINK! First things first; I need to get back to my jet, all of the tactical and survival gear is in the compartments. As well as the-” Marcus did a facepalm to his helmet that would've made Twilight jealous.. “The Dragonfires! I totally forgot!” Marcus said out loud.

Marcus checked his data gloves touch-pad to see if it was still paired with the two things he needed. This is what he saw:

F/A-38 VTOL signal strength: 94%

MQ-27 Dragonfire(s) signal strength: 93% Remoteflight available

He tapped the Dragonfire icon and waited about 15 seconds before the camera view for the three of them, placed in a side compartment on the jet, opened up each a separate window on his H.U.D. The three were waiting for orders as they flew out of the side of the compartment and just hovered in place. Marcus pressed another icon that told the Dragonfires to return to the source of the control signal, and watched the three camera views start to move all in one direction towards the forest. Marcus got a notification on his HUD of the orders given to the drones:

Orders set: I.D., Monitor, Eliminate threats, link with transmission source

Marcus smiled as he watched the signal strength slowly increase, but was cut off when he heard a roar close by. He quickly got to his feet and was confronted by one of the scariest thing he’d ever seen. A massive 13-foot tall lion with bat wings and a scorpion tail was slowly approaching him. Marcus pulled out his B23R and shot one three-round burst at its leg, which made it bucle over and roar but get back up and start limping at him. Marcus emptied his whole clip on the thing to no avail. He then pushed a icon on his data glove and pointed a crossair shown on his H.U.D. at the beast and tapped engage. Just when he thought he was gonna get eaten, three rockets came from the top of a nearby tree and struck the monster simultaneously. Marcus smiled and breathed a heavy sigh of relief as the monster fell in a mangled and bloody mess, and the three dragonfires came over a tree and hovered in defensive positions around Marcus.

Target Eliminated

~~~~~~~~~~

“Tell me again why we’re doing this?” Asked Applejack.

  “Oh don’t be like that! C’mon, this is fun!” Responded a obviously very excited Rainbow Dash.

  “Yeah, walking around searching for a possibly deadly alien in the Everfree is a whole lot of fun...” Twilight said sarcastically.

“But I thought you were the one that was all excited about studying this alien?” Said Applejack.

Twilight sighed in defeat. “How long have we been walking anyway?”

  “I don’t know, 15 minutes?” Replied Applejack.

  “Aw, guys! You’re giving up alre-” Rainbow Dash was cut off by some distant bangs in the distance, followed by what sounded like three more powerful bangs all from one direction, which caused all of them to jump.

  “W-w-wh-wh-what was that? Asked Twilight in a shaky tone.

  “It s-sounded like it came from over there!”  Responded Applejack.

  “Well what are we waiting for, invitations?! Let’s go!” Said Rainbow Dash as she sprinted off in the direction of the noise. The other two looked at each other and shrugged before following.

When the two of them were just about out of breath, they came into a small clearing where Rainbow Dash was staring at what looked like a red mound of fur. When the two of them got closer, they realized it was a huge and bloody manticore body. The reactions can be deascribed in this analysis: Rainbow Dash was literally frozen in place, Twilight's face turned a strong shade of green, and Applejack ran over to a nearby bush and threw up. After Applejack had returned to the two, Rainbow Dash spoke up.

  “What...what could have done this?” She turned to the other two, “You don’t think... it, did this... do you?”

  “I think we should split up to find this thing. If one of us finds it, it’ll think of us as less of a threat. I’ll bet it only...hurt...this manticore because it attacked first...” Suggested Applejack as she gagged a little.

The other two hesitated before nodding and heading off in different directions.

“Well that went easier than expected...”

~~~~~~~~~~

Rainbow Dash walked along her invisible trail in search of the strange alien that killed the manticore they encountered earlier. Not a fear in the world, she proudly trotted along the thick vegetation for what seemed like hours.

“Ug, this is hopeless!”

“No it’s not! Just keep looking! You’ll find something!” Her thoughts battled it out in her head until she spotted something shiny on the ground in another small clearing, like a blackish-silver. She knelt down to get a better look. It almost looked like some kind of cartridge. Maybe it was from the alien? It was an idea.

“Hmm, I must be on the right track, the alien can’t be fa-” Rainbow Dash couldn’t even finish her thought as an irritating crack could be heard from above her. She looked up to see a massive rock that was wedged in a tree fall. To scared to move, she watched as the large stone fell and, with her wings outstretched to fly, crushed her right wing. She screamed as she heard the bones in her wings get crushed with a chilling ‘crunch’. She lay there helpless as tears began to stream out of her eyes. For the first time in a long time, she felt... scared... genuinely scared... She tried to pull out from the rocks grip, but a sharp pain shot through her wing. She lay there for what must’ve been an eternity until, when she thought she was about to pass out from the pain, when she heard a deep growl that made her entire coat stand on edge. She was able to look up to see a small pack of three timber wolves slowly creeping around some trees, and Rainbow Dash knew that they were getting ready to tear her to shreds...

“Well... I guess this is it...”

The wolves took a step closer...

“I’m going to die out here...”

The pack took one more step...

“I’ll never see my friends again...”

The pack got even closer...

“Or be in the Wonderbolts...”

The lead wolf was getting ready to pounce...

“Goodby life, I’ll miss you...”

At the last thought she let out a small sob as the wolves were about to make their move. She closed her eyes as the first wolf lunged, as it did, a loud noise that made Rainbow Dash's ears ring, echoed through the area. And the first wolf fell dead, she managed to look at the corpse to see three holes in the side of its head and blood was pouring out. Before she knew it, the same loud noise played her eardrums twice and the other two wolves dropped to the ground. The same effect on them as well: three holes and blood. At that moment, Rainbow Dash did the only thing she saw suitable for this situation... she opened her muzzle and screamed.

~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight calmly trudged along the forest, not a thing on her mind but finding the strange creature.

“Ug, I feel like it’s been hours since we started this... Maybe I should just turn around and-” Twilight’s thought was short-circuited as she noticed something in the dirt. She knelt down for a better look and noticed that it was a... footprint. And not the kind that anypony would leave behind. Then something ‘clicked’ in Twilight’s head, this print looked a lot like the footwear that the alien was wearing.

“Sweet! Looks like I’m on the right track. Now I just have to follow these prints!”

Twilight was slowly following the constant trail of prints when she heard a familiar voice from behind her.

  “Twilight! Hey, wait up!” Yelled Applejack as she ran towards Twilight.

  “Applejack! Hi! What are you doing here?” Asked Twilight.

  “Oh, I was just following these footprints I found! Pretty amazin’!”

  “Hey, I was just following these footprints too-” Twilight was cut off by a distant scream coming from the same direction as the footprints. As if on cue, Twilight and Applejack both shouted,

“RAINBOW DASH!!!”