//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Arrival // Story: Out of the Old, Into the New // by SentientHydra //------------------------------// Seconds passed like minutes for Celestia, minutes like hours went by as she stood on her balcony, watching the sunny sky. With Day Court cancelled while the throne room floor was repaired, all the paperwork handled, petitions signed and unofficial business taken care of there was precious little to do but wait for this silver monster to arrive in orbit above her nation. She was not scared of the beast for herself, she was immortal, her mind worried for her ponies, and those creatures not under the blanket of her protection, how much damage could a beast like that do before it was stopped? 5 and a half kilometres long and capable of surviving in the depths of space, the immortal Goddess pondered whether it could be reasoned with. Whatever it was, it was certainly intelligent, tracing magic back to the source and then casting some great magic of its own, propelling itself at speeds nothing else Celestia had ever seen was capable of matching. She had taken precautions, Shining armour and the rest of the Unicorn guard had all been sent out, ready to put shield-spells over major population centres should the thing attack, Cloudsdale was mass producing lightning clouds for the Pegasi Corps, every single wonderbolt still capable of getting airborne had been called up. the elements of harmony, Celestia had sent Twilight a scroll just moments ago, giving her instructions to... … “Hide!? Celestia wants us to go hide in the Everfree?!” Rainbow Dash shouted furiously, her wings flared in annoyance and her face stuck up in Twilight's , the Librarian backed away, flustered and trying to stammer out something to calm her friend down, she was saved by Applejack, who stepped between the furious pegasus and the unicorn “Whoah there girl , no need to go flying off the handle at Twilight. Ain't her fault what the princess asks” she spoke calmly, then turned to Twilight “Though it is mighty queer that Celestia's trying to get us to go running an' hiding like a bunch a cowards, what with everypony else with any lick of backbone is helping get the town ready fer whatever is happening” there was no hiding the annoyance in her tone. Twilight wilted slightly, but rallied back with the letter held prominently “We're not 'hiding', the Princess just wants us safe. We are the Elements of Harmony after all, if Celestia or Luna can't stop this thing from getting angry, we need to be ready to fight back.” Her reasoning did temper Applejack's annoyance, even getting Rainbow to take a step back and calm down a little. Then Rarity stepped forward “Well I'm glad we're all in agreement about following the Princess's instructions. But I don't feel it has ever been properly explained what this 'thing' is.” Twilight suddenly looked a little embarrassed, rubbing a hoof behind her head and mumbling inaudibly “the Princess said that it might be some kind of giant space worm...” The girls all leaned in and Applejack asked “Uh mind repeating that Twi? you came of a mite quiet. She mumbled again“It's a giant, space worm..” Applejack rolled her eyes and leaned in really close “Say again partner?” More mumbles “Giant Space worm” Rainbow dash flared her wings in annoyance and shot forward “Will you just spit it out already!?” Twilight bit her lip for a moment, but blurted out “It's a giant space worm okay!?” As her friends looked on in confusion, she rubbed the back of her head and explained “A giant space worm, just like Rainbow said. The princess thinks it might of caused that wormhole, but then Luna cast a spell on it to try and drag it to Equestria, Celestia stopped her before she could get it very far, but now it's coming here anyway and the Princess thinks it might be angry.” There was a long, pregnant silence between the six friends; then A chuckle escaped Rainbow Dash, which evolved in fits and starts into a full on gale of infectious laughter that quickly spread to everyone apart from Twilight, who began to get mildly annoyed. After a while the gale slowed to fits of giggles, the cyan speedster looked up from where she lay on the floor, wiped her tear filled eyes, and chuckled “Oh Celestia, you sure know how to get worked up egghead, we're doing all this because of some stupid worm?” Twilight's mouth was an angry line “It's not 'stupid' Rainbow, this is serious. It's giant enough to make her call in the wonder-bolts” Applejack held her ribs and made an attempt to look serious, patting her barrel to get the giggles to stop before asking “Okay sugarcube, I'll be serious. Just how 'giant' is this critter anyhow?” The librarian dead-panned “approximately 3.5 miles in length, or five and a half kilometres in metric” All laughter ceased, after a moment of silent digestion Fluttershy spoke up from her seat by the window “Oh my, that is a big worm” There was another long pause, which went on for several long minutes before Rainbow Dash broke the silence tentatively “So... The Everfree it is then. Glad I packed my bags” New Dawn Observation Deck Captain Morgan held the floor in-front of the assembled crew, a thousand space marine, five hundred auxiliary security personnel. He had put them at ease for the coming talk “Alright Crew, you may know the situation, you may not. That doesn't matter, what does matter is that in approximately 40 minutes we will be arriving in orbit around a planet that we think, and I cannot stress that fact that we are not sure enough, that we think is earth, maybe in the past, maybe a parallel version of it. Once we have arrived in orbit, and established a stable altitude, we will have one goal; to establish a beachhead base, to that end I will be sending scout teams of marines down in teams of two, your mission will be to scope out a decent landing and base establishment area, dealing with any threats as necessary, and then calling down a team of engineers to prepare a runway for the bulk lifters, after that the rest of you will be sent down to defend our new surface base. We will need it functioning if we ever hope to get home, it will be a testing facility to see if we can open our own wormhole. I will also need another team of 10 volunteers for a special operations. The energy field that dragged us through the wormhole originated on the surface of this planet, I intend to find that source, and eliminate it's capability to threaten us” He finished with an “Am I understood?!”, when the affirmative rang loud and clear in the air he spoke again “Good, now for the actual details of the mission, I will be handing the floor to CSO Henry. If you want to sign up for the special operations, speak to the CSO after his presentation.” His piece done, the Captain left the floor as the giant security chief mounted it, his booming voice calling out names and assignments. The old man's clean exit was spoiled somewhat by the CMO ambushing him outside the door, very clearly excited about something, so much so that she near enough forgot to salute. Before he could ask, Susan blurted “I've identified the Energy Field.” Morgan stumbled back a bit, he blinked a little cautiously, but motioned for her to explain (deciding it was best to ignore the smell of brandy on her breath), she pulled out a holographic computer and began flicking through documents, talking as she searched “Well I was looking at the sensor deck's wavelength analysis, and the number reminded me of something I had seen once in the medical archives.” she found what she had been looking for and held it up for the captain, holding it up for him to glance through, the veteran muttered as he read, then turned and asked “Are you serious?” She smiled “absolutely sir, the problem is that we've been assuming that some sort of machine did this. Something, instead of someone” The slate she held so proudly was projecting a single article, from an ancient medical journal dating all the way back to 2070. “It turns out sir, that psychic abilities are not only real Sir, but quantifiable. Something like five percent of the population is born with latent talent, caused by the formation of tiny crystalline structures in their brains” Susan explained giddily, pulling up images of old MRI scans showing a human brain, focused in on what looked like gossamer thin lines that wrapped around the two frontal lobes. Morgan looked at them all with dawning realisation, he couldn't help questioning “And the rest of us have never heard of this why?” The CMO hesitated, if only for a second before launching back into it “Because it was a dead end Sir. The structures that formed were never developed enough to do anything useful, no telekinetic was ever found to be capable of lifting more than a piece of paper for longer than a few milliseconds, telepaths were barely able to pick up on strong emotions, let alone read thoughts. Studies were made into accelerating their growth, but they were too slow; these structures took years and years to form, they could be developed to make their abilities stronger, but estimates all said that it would take a decade or longer for anyone to develop them enough to actually do anything. Eventually the funding stopped, researchers moved on and the project faded into obscurity.” The captain just stood still, taking all this in. Then The CMO began walking, making a gesture for the Captain to follow, as he walked Morgan asked “Okay, suppose that this planet is full of 'psychics' how does this help us? If this energy field was made by a bunch of psychics down on this version of earth, does that mean we have to be worried about them pulling the ship out of orbit?” Susan seemed a little discomforted by the idea, but shook her head “No sir, because now that we know what we're dealing with, we can defend against it.” she came to a set of double doors, they swished open to reveal the corridor heading towards the armoury “During the studies back then, they found that psychics, while they are potentially powerful, are relatively easy to disable.” Coming to another set of doors, she pushed them open to reveal an expansive hall, usually the training hall for the marines. Today the large room only contained one crew member, standing in-front of a table which held 3 different device. Susan walked over, still talking “Right in here Sir, this is Corporal Anders” the standing crewman saluted “ and these are three gadgets I asked Li to whip up quickly, just quick modifications of some equipment we already have.” she picked up the first and tossed it to the Captain. Morgan caught it easily and inspected the device from all angles, then he said slowly “This is just a sonic grenade. Used them for riot control during the Martian rebellion, why do we even have these?” he queried, genuinely confused. Susan nodded “We're prepared for nearly everything sir, but I edited that particular grenade. You see, the crystalline structures that gave psychics their abilities have a very specific harmonic frequency, if you play a sound at just the right tone then you can cause them quite a bit of discomfort. Imagine a thousand tiny wires, each as thick as a human hair, vibrating at high speed inside your skull. The best part is because the frequency needed is ultrasonic, so people without the latent ability won't be aware of any sound at all” Morgan and Anders both winced at the imagery, The captain hurriedly tossed the grenade back to Susan, who placed it down on the table before picking up the next gadget, a bulky tripod, mounted with what resembled loudspeakers. After hearing how much sounds could hurt, the two men were apprehensive as the medical officer moved on “This is a sonic barrier, used to control perimeters, Li altered it to play the same frequency as the grenade, but at a much lower level, with one of these set up, the psychics won't feel anything above an annoying tingle, but they won't be able to use their abilities, if they try, then they'll be in quite a lot of pain” Morgan was interested now, though a glint in his old eyes told that he was quickly reassessing how dangerous his 'little dove' of a CMO really was. CMO McConnell moved on to the last device, which she had to get Anders to help her lift, it was little more than a big black chunk of metal. Morgan helpfully pointed out “That's.. just a section of hull plating.” Susan smiled and spoke past her grunts of exertion as she struggled to keep the metal balanced “Yes Sir, it is; but I've had Li alter it, the emitters that usually put out the EM shield that keeps us safe from meteors and debris are now putting out an exact opposite wavelength to that of the energy field that captured us, and a few micrometers in either direction down the range too Sir, each psychic's energy projection has a unique wavelength, varying just a few nanometres from any other, so we had to cover a wide range.” Morgan nodded, his smile growing back “So if we alter all of our hull like this, these psychics won't be able to touch us, or at least not that specific group?” Susan's smile faltered slightly “Yes Sir... But I think you might have the wrong idea slightly, that energy field wasn't projected by a group of psychics, from what I can tell, it was just one.” The Captain's smile stopped, and began a rapid retreat “Just one? We were pulled sixty million miles through a space-time rip, from over four hundred million miles away. By just one psychic?” At the CMO's nod, he tried to calm himself down, failing a bit “Okay, that's brilliant, lets just say that that one psychic is anomalously powerful, just for the sake of sanity. At least we'll be immune to it's attacks inside the ship?” Susan nodded, and Morgan gave a sigh of relief. “Alright, I've heard enough, you're dismissed. Go find Li, get that shield in place asap, and we'll need a few of those grenades as soon as he has time. I need to go back to the observation deck. There's a few things need editing in the CSO's plan.” he ordered calmly, though his smile betrayed his joy, finally something was going right. author's note – Sorry for the OP 'anti-magic shield', I just feel the story would be rather short if Celestia, Luna or Twilight ever got annoyed enough to yank their ship out of orbit, they would be powerful enough to do so (in my head-canon at least =3) Crew Member #1049 - Audio Log 84 Mark CXIV Exploration vessel 'New Dawn' July 15th, 2159 -log begins- I was useful! Where'd I put that brandy? -log ends- Equestria The world waited, all around the planet, creatures looked to the sky in anticipation. The griffins in their eyrie's highest heights scanned the darkening skies, the ponies flocks to observatories set up in the underground shelters. In the Zebra Savannah, the herds stargazed endlessly. The world watched, Equestria waited for the arrival of the star travelling beast, the gigantic monster that the Lunar Princess had called to their world. They were not disappointed. The silver beast arrived in spectacular fashion, a golden bubble flashed across the skies, made small by the distance. But there was nothing small to what happened next, the bubble snapped to a stop, but a plume of golden light came off the front. Across the world below night became day as the bright light filled the sky. As the plasma plume met the atmosphere it began to fall, the watchers on the ground and in the skies were treated to a meteor shower like no other, where the falling stars seemed to shimmer and burn with sunlight before fading from view. Aboard the New Dawn The bridge was a hive of activity, voices buzzing back and forth “Bubble's burst, momentum transferred with no problems” “Engines 1, 2, 3, 4 online, getting up to speed.” “Reactors holding. Capacitors full in five” “Radio's picking up no chatter, scanning low-band.” “sensors online, searching for energy signature” Captain Morgan stood in his suite, watching the crew and belting out orders. As soon as scanners found out where this 'psychic' was, they were go. Every space marine on the crew, regardless of gender or age, was 6' foot 6 inches in height, each and every one received gene treatments and surgery on sign-up to the corps; bringing them up to perfect physical health, bulking out their muscles, and installing several implants to make life in the forces easier. The Mark XIV 'Legionnaire' power armour augmented their height up to an imposing 8 foot, giving the men inside a 10:1 strength increase. In the armoury, 10 Marines stood at attention, kitted out in their power armour, with standard issue heavy assault rifles held high (the gauss rails inside could accelerate 'hard' -3 inch spikes of high carbon steel with an osmium core- rounds at speeds of up to Mach 3, or switch out to use 'soft' -high penetration hypodermic darts filled with a potent mix of tranquilizers- , 3 of the newly edited and dubbed 'psych-out' sonic grenades were stuck on each hip. One marine had an officer's pip on his helmet, he carried a hand-held scanner, keyed to look out for the energy signature of their target -Just head towards the arrow and they would find the psychic in no time at all- and 3 marines were carrying the tripods of 'scramblers' on their backs. CSO Henry put the men at ease and gave final orders “Alright squad, standard insertion procedure. Orbital drop, low opening, head straight for the target. This is a capture mission, we need whoever it is alive if we're ever going to find out why they dragged us through that wormhole. Keep casualties to a minimum, kill shots only if there is no other option. When the target is tagged and bagged, pop a radio flare and we'll send in the extraction vehicle.” The marines saluted with a resounding “Sir Yes Sir!” Henry smiled his big dog smile at them “Good, head to the airlock and get your chutes. As soon as dusk arrives over the area, you drop” Castle of the Pony sisters, Everfree Forest Twilight and her friend all sat on the throne room floor, Spike had perched himself atop the statue that had once held the elements of harmony, so very long ago. Sleeping bags had been broken out, and a picnic had been pulled from nowhere by everyone's favourite party pony. While the light in the sky faded, the seven friends all traded stories and jokes, laughing and smiling to dispel the hanging sense of foreboding that had weighed down on them ever since leaving Ponyville. Twilight had brought her telescope, but nopony had the heart to have a look a the silver creature that hung over Equestria. It took many minutes and a dozen stolen glances, but eventually Rainbow Dash stood up and growled “This is stupid!” with a flap of her powerful wings, she shot over to the telescope and rammed her eye into the view-port. Her hooves fumbled with the knobs and dials all over the device, she got more frustrated as her efforts got no results “How do you work this thing? I need to know what that thing is doing.” Twilight teleported over, she carefully pulled the speedster pegasi's hooves away from the controls, without saying a word her horn flared up and adjusted the telescope to look directly at the silver creature. Then she finally spoke, reassuringly gentle “it's okay Rainbow, we're all worried.” Rainbow said nothing, glaring through the eyepiece as the picture came more an more into focus, showing a side on view of the beast for the first time. Her expression went from anger to confusion, and she spoke up In a questioning tone “Uhh, Twi. Are you sure that this thing is a worm?” The librarian was made hesitant by the sudden change in her friend, but answered after a moment “Well... No, nopony's actually got a good enough look at it to see what it really is” The weather pegasus grunted “Well I'm getting a pretty good look right now Twi, and it doesn't look like any kind of worm. I don't think it's even alive.” she suddenly found herself wrapped in a purple aura, and forced away from the telescope as the unicorn interposed herself, looking through the aperture. “What?” She adjusted the controls, bringing the object into sharper focus still “That.. That's not anything natural. The angles, the structure.” she backed away a little “It's not a space-beast. It's a space-craft.” turning back around, she looked to Rainbow Dash “Go wake Spike, we need to tell the Princess.” The pegasus saluted before shooting off to the far end of the hall. By bad luck or bad timing, Twilight had missed a critical juncture. Had she kept eyes glued to her telescope but a moment longer, she might have seen 10 tiny dots fall from the bottom of the craft, or 1 larger speck break away from the main ship, veering sharply towards the Everfree where they stayed High above Canterlot Ten men feel through the void above the atmosphere, each with arms tucked to their sides and legs held straight out. The vacuum around them began to fill, for minutes the metal suits were encased in fire with trails of wispy smoke left behind. It was only a few minutes, but by the time the flames faded the heads of the armoured suits already glowed white hot. The red-pipped marine opened up comms “ Entering atmosphere proper. Sound off, two to ten. Check radio.” “Two. Loud and Clear” “Three. Loud and Clear” “Four. Loud and Clear” “Five. Loud and Clear” “Six. Loud and Clear” “Seven. Loud and Clear” “Eight. Loud and Clear” “Nine. Loud and Clear” “Ten. Loud and Clear” The Mission commander tapped fingers against the side of his suit, using a virtual keyboard to log a clip of that audio exchange for the mission log. Checking on the marines then tilting his head to look towards the ground again he opened comms once more “adjust your angle Eight, you're drifting out of formation” Eight acknowledged, One didn't have to look to know that the marine was very slowly moving his limbs to change the airflow around him, at these speeds and in the thin air they had to be careful, a sharp movement could send them spinning out of control. The rifles and anything that could produce drag had been carefully stowed inside a heat-proof case on the back of their armour. The scrambler tripods remained out, they would be deployed as soon as they landed to make a 'safe-zone' for extraction. As they cleared the topmost layer of clouds and the target area came into view One opened the mike “Aim for red mark, Castle courtyard north is the mark” All 9 other marines tilted their helmets to see what One had marked, the holographic displays in their visors displayed all the information they could need in combat, right now they all could see a tiny red x floating over the northern-most courtyard of a castle on the mountain below. Following One's lead the team adjusted their angle, keeping the motion slow to maintain formation.