//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: My Little Pony: Worlds Collide 
// by The Grimm Reaper 
//------------------------------//


My Little Pony: Worlds Collide

Prologue

Year: 20 A.G.W (After Genesis War)



Alarms blared throughout the corridors of the moonbase. Anthropomorphised animals in white lab coats rushed to the designated escape shuttles. Two men had yet to leave their stations.
“Come on, Igneel it’s useless. The sun’s already on its way and there’s no time to activate the shield system. Earth is done.” one of them said.
“I’m not giving up just yet. If I can put up part of the shield perhaps something will survive.” Igneel was furiously punching buttons on the holographic console. The screen shut down before him and a computerised voice sounded in a Germanic dialect.
“Warnung! Warnung! Sonneneruption unmittelbar bevor! Sofort verlassen (Warning! Warning! Solaf eruption imminent Evacuate immediately).” Igneel smashed his hands against the console.
“Come on! You gave it your best, we have to leave. Saving a species isn’t going to do us any good if we can’t access them for the next hundred million years.” the first man said.
“No! Just go, I’ll catch up when I’m done.” Igneel replied, crouching down to open the console’s circuit board.
“There’s nothing left to do. Right now, you’re more valuable than we are, only you and your team can get the Nebuchadnezzar working to sustain us for the journey.” the first one said. Igneel growled at him.
“Look, it doesn’t take a genius to work that thing. All you need to do is connect the main power conduits to the turbines and activate the air filters on the bridge and you’re golden. Now get going! I’ll catch up.” Igneel threw his comrade out of the room and locked it behind him, denying him access to try and stop the wolf from doing what needed to be done.
“We brought this on ourselves. Hopefully, the universe will be kinder to the next generation of evolution.” Igneel removed his jacket, revealing two mechanically augmented right limbs. He reached towards his arm and pulled out a device from a storage unit within. Connecting the device to the wiring on the room’s console, he began work, using a holographic interface surrounding his arm. With lightning speed, he’d broken through all the firewalls and was activating the shield.
“Schutz aktiv in: Amerika, Australien, Deutschland, Afrika, Antarktis. Sonneneruption Auswirkungen in 30 Sekunden (Shield activated in: America, Australia, Germany, Africa, Antarctica. Solar flare impact in 30 seconds).” The computer designated some of the major countries to be safe from the solar flare.
“Thirty seconds… That gives me a whole minute. I’m not gonna make it. I figured it would come to this.” Igneel shut down all the systems except those necessary for the shield. With a sigh, he walked over to one of the walls and snapped his metallic fingers. The wall opened up to reveal a stasis chamber inside. Igneel casually approached it. He turned around and lay on the gel cushion. A glass cylinder engulfed him and within seconds, he was frozen as the temperature dropped to a negative degree.
“Stasis aktiv. Reawakening Folge Set für– (Stasis active. Reawakening sequence set for–).” the solar flare hit. The room shook around and the computer went crazy for an instant before resetting the awakening time. Needless to say, Igneel would not wake for a very long time.

Three hundred and fifty billion years later…

“Twilight, this is getting annoying now. The dust in this place makes me sneeze every ten sec- ah, ah, achoo!” The familiar voice of the now teenage dragon, Spike echoed in the hollowed out catacombs.
“Don’t worry spike. There’s nothing in the dust that will cause you internal injury. Just ride it out while I find what I came here for.” the purple maned unicorn replied. Spike sighed and sneezed once more.
“But perhaps you should wait outside; anything louder than that one and we’ll be buried alive down here.” the green dragon sighed a deep sigh, flames eating away at the dust before him.
“You could just teleport back to the camp.” he muttered as he escaped the dusty torture that was the catacombs. As Twilight began to return to her examinations, she heard a loud and deep burp from where Spike had been.
“No way.” she said as she abandoned her task to check up on him. As she thought, Spike held a little rolled up parchment with the royal insignia waxed on the end.
“A message from Celestia?” she asked, noting her presence to Spike who jumped in surprise.
“Figures nothing short of that would pry you from this place.” Twilight ignored his statement and opened the parchment to read it.
“It’s from Luna.” Twilight’s surprise escaped her. Never had Princess Luna written Twilight a message of any kind, even after the Nightmare Night party where she promised to do so.
“What’s it say?” Spike asked, peeking over his carer’s shoulder.
"Dear Twilight Sparkle…

First of all, you may be pleased to know that I have learned to drop the royal ‘we’ that has seemed to go out of fashion for the past several hundred years and am now referring to myself on a first-person basis. But I did not write to you simply for that. On a side note, I’d like to add that I am sorry for not writing as I said I would, only royal duties have caught up to me and it may surprise you, but night time duties are hardly less tasking than Daytime duties. Nevertheless, I have dropped those duties for a reason I believe will be of particular interest to you.
During my millennia on the moon, I recalled coming across strange objects that seemed out of place. I hadn’t remembered them until just recently and I thought it best to check up on some of the tomes from the Ancient Library. Had I any suspicions on the matter, they would have been correct. What I found made me begin to believe that my banishment may not have been as… cruel as I thought. Using what best translating skills I possessed, I concluded that the Ancients managed to travel and thrive on the surface of the moon, just as we have, without the use of magic…”

Twilight paused for a moment.
“Is that even possible?” Spike asked as he quickly reread the last few lines. 
“You have to understand, Spike; the Ancients were an advanced race that thrived without magic. They relied solely on technology. Starswirl the bearded read one of the ancient tomes and managed to translate a good deal of it. He said it was a journal. One of the ancients erected a barrier around most of the world before the sun could destroy it. This indicated that the sun hadn’t been tamed before Celestia. But they managed to stave it off without magic, which is why they’re so respected.” Twilight was giddy to say the least, though she kept her composure until she finished reading the letter.

“Needless to say, this find made me proud to be the Princess of the Moon. I’ve asked Celestia to take over my duties as I put together an archaeological team to join me on the moon. When considering my options, I believed that you were the best choice. Your friends are invited also, as I believe that the Elements of Harmony will be a necessity for defending the team. I say this because I’m not sure what we will find, if we find anything at all. I trust your judgement greatly, Twilight, which is why I’ve also sent to you, along with this letter, several profiles relating to those I believe are best suited for this task. It was a cursory reading as I was too excited to remain still. I’m sure you can understand. Let me know what you think by returning the profiles of those that you believe we can hire, including a reply on the other side of this letter.

Hope to read your reply soon,

Princess Luna, Second Princess of the Royal Equestrian Family.”

Twilight was speechless as the profiles floated around her. Ancient ruins. The thought raced through her mind in circles, making her feel light-headed.
“Wow, a journey to the moon? That sounds awesome. I always wanted to go there. There’s a rumour that the moon is made out of cheese, and Princess Luna has yet to verify or deny that claim.” Spike began to look at the profiles himself and smiled.
“These look good, hire them.” Spike shoved the documents in Twilight’s face, distracting her from her looping train of thought. She eyed all the profiles and looked at the ones Spike had discarded.
“Spike, these are all mares.”
“No need to be sexist, Twilight.”Spike raised his hands in defense. The documents of the remaining three choices were pulled out of his talons by the violet aura that was Twilight’s magic. She quickly scanned over each profile and chose two stallions and two mares.
“These four will do nicely. The remaining three, though experienced in digging and archaeology, don’t know that much about translating Ancient text. Having gone through Starswirl’s journals numerous times, I may be able to translate something there. These four are also good translators and may be able to help me. Take a note, please.” she said. Spike looked at the remaining two mares’ profile pictures with a sad look.
“Spike.” Twilight called again. The purple dragon sighed in defeat and pulled some parchment and a quill from his backpack.
“Dear Princess Luna,

First of all, I understand your royal duties may have impeded your availability to write back to me, and that’s fine…”

Secondly, I accept your request to allow me and my friends to join you on this expedition. I know Spike is excited to discover the mystery of the cheesy moon."

There was a slight splatter of ink afterward.

“Furthermore, I have done as you asked and quickly returned the profiles of those I believe to be the best suited for this journey. I doubt my friends will be as excited about the historical value of the trip, though I believe the location may be a great equaliser. I will tell my friends tonight and hopefully, we will be at Canterlot by this time tomorrow. I will inform you of any changes to this plan.

Your best friend,

Twilight Sparkle, faithful student to Princess Celestia."

Luna finished reading the letter in her bedchambers and a nervous blush entered her features.
“Oh dear. I forgot all about Spike. I’ll have to fix that. Guard, please tell the organiser to prepare for a young dragon on the expedition. I hear that dragons like to eat gems.” A dark coloured guard with bat wings nodded, confirming his Princesses order and left the room immediately, leaving his companion to watch over the princess alone.
“Is that Spike, as in Miss Sparkle’s assistant, Princess?” The remaining guard asked. Luna turned her head and smiled.
“It sure is. Why do you ask?” The guard chuckled nervously.
“No reason. I just remember bumping into him. He had a pile of jewels in his hands. I went to help him and realised that he was running away with a haul. The owner of the gems caught me helping him and thought I was his accomplice. We both ran for the hills, so to speak.” Luna found the story both apt and amusing, sharing a chuckle with the guard.
“Well then, perhaps I’ll take you with me. You can see your little accomplice again. We may need those fleet hooves of yours to escape with whatever we find in the ruins.” The guard gave her a nervous chuckle again, abandoning composure to rub the back of his head.
“As you wish, your majesty.” he said with a goofy grin.