Crashland: Equestria

by computerneek

Collision

She simply can’t believe it.

Ninety-three thousand, four hundred eighty-seven. Dead.

The scary part? If she adds just one to that total, herself, that comes out to her ship’s entire crew complement¹.

What had managed to kill almost a hundred thousand humans, but not herself? She’s found numerous corpses in the months since. The medbay had told her that each and every one of them looked perfectly healthy. As near as she or her computers could tell, they had all simply stopped living.

At the same time.

She has cleared the bodies from any rooms still holding pressure. Thankfully, this includes the entire hydroponics bay; at least she doesn’t have to starve. Cold comfort that is, when just about every propulsive or defensive system is shot. She’s been working repairs- and as just managed to seal up the main fuel bus for the few remaining intact reverse engines. Next up, gyros-

The alarms go off again. She dodges to the nearest panel, striking the key to read the problem.

She’s dangerously close to a star. Again. This time, though, not only is it detected earlier by the better-functioning aft sensors, but it’s going to pass behind her, not in front… Without ever dropping her into the truly dangerous zone. At least she managed to get the last-ditch hull shield online last week, before this star came too close the first time; so long as it doesn’t get any closer than a few thousand kilometers, it shouldn’t be able to damage her ship. It’s closer this time than last- but the range is still almost a quarter million kilometers at the closest approach. She’ll be okay- but, just to be safe, she’ll stay in the forward half of the ship until it passes.

Which is interesting. This is the second time she’s passed this star- and her computer tells her that, aside from a perfect emissions signature match, the passes are exactly twenty-four hours apart. Furthermore, the computer notes the arc in its path, the center of which is a matter of light-minutes ahead. Roughly sixty hours of flight time, as a matter of fact- two and a half days. More cold comfort- at least she won’t hit it until she reaches the other side of its odd circle, which the computer places as a solid impact between ship and star.

A few more keys reveal more interesting information. This star appears to be a fairly standard G-class main sequence star, though the speed of its orbit could only mean it’s orbiting a singularity. A singularity her sensors cannot see, and which does not seem to affect her ship’s observable velocity.

---

Twilight is going crazy. Celestia’s sun had hidden the target of her observations from her view every day. As the thing came closer, it eventually stopped blocking out the tiny dot with the glow of day, but only with its direct passage. These last three times, though, the thing eclipsed Celestia’s sun- and is visible during the day not as a light, but as a shadow. It’s also beginning to be visible to the naked eye, as a faint glint in the night sky. When she searches through her telescope, despite how much closer it has gotten, it’s still a slightly oblong glinting object. Still too far, even after these three months, to get any meaningful appearance estimates… Though she is able to start guessing at its size, and plot its course.

That’s the part she’s worried about. It’s at least as big as Ponyville itself- and it’s headed straight for Canterlot at such speed that she wouldn’t be surprised if it broke the planet apart. It’s still simply ignoring every spell she throws at it- and she expects touchdown in another eight hours or so.

She sends another letter to Princess Celestia. Perhaps the two royal Princesses can capture it in their joint magic when it comes closer than Luna’s moon, in about seven hours, and deflect it? She peers into her telescope again- and something has changed. Celestia’s sun is still behind it, so it’s still a shadow- but there’s a few bright spots on its front, like fire. Is it already hitting the burning layer? She already knows magic cannot touch meteors once they start burning, until they finish… Or strike surface. But it’s a million times too far for that!

“Uh, Twilight?”

“Yes Applejack?”

“You do know you’re sayin’ all that out loud, right?”

“Oops sorry!”

“And you do remember that megameteor we deflected with the Elements last week, right?”

Twilight stops at this. “Huh? Oh, yes, we did… But it’s moving so fast we might not-”

“So we just trigger it sooner,” Applejack interrupts. “Seriously. Come to bed- even the Princesses are napping before we tackle that thing!” Nevermind, she thinks, that they only need to because you’ve kept them up all night.

A sigh and, after another fruitlessly long gaze into her telescope, Twilight finally turns in. Two all-nighters in a row is a little much, as it turns out- she’s asleep almost before she lands on her bed.

---

Deceleration is holding steady. Now, vertical thrusters; I’m on a collision course right now. She races through the ship, hunting down key components for the vertical thrusters, both fore and aft. She’s managed to ignite a couple of the remaining reverse thrusters, producing an acceleration of about one G- and thank the heavens the gravity generator is still working! Those reverse thrusters should be able to reduce her to orbital velocity for the planet she detected ahead of her fifteen minutes ago, but unless she can get herself out of a collision course, simple orbital velocity won’t save her life. Her ship, even in its current state, has enough structural integrity and armor to withstand a planetary collision at orbital velocities; unfortunately, with the inertial compensator shot, the same cannot be said for anything else.

Fifteen hours later, three Princesses, two Pegasi, two Earth ponies, and a Unicorn, all confused, stand on the upper balcony of Twilight’s castle. The thing in the sky has been slowing down inexplicably; Twilight’s latest estimate places it as hitting the burn layer about as fast as a meteor might, in another hour. She’s gotten some pretty good telescope views of it- even if the glare from the flame sticking out the front hides much of its appearance. As near as they can tell, it’s some kind of giant, metal dragon-like creature. Even now, none of the Princesses can touch it with their magic; it all simply bounces off, it seems. Thus, Twilight and the non-Princess ponies present are standing ready with the Elements of Harmony- which won’t be of much use until it hits the burning layer.

Vertical thrusters working. A few of them, at least- estimate 0.8g maximum lift. She rushes for the bridge to light them off- but before she quite gets in the hatch, she feels the buffeting effect of reentry strike the ship. What- NO! Not the atmosphere! She makes a mad dash to the command chair, spends two seconds buckling in, and strikes at the controls, igniting the vertical thrusters. Accelerative impetus… 0.81g. Not bad. A few numbers on the navigation panel, however, indicate that it won’t be enough- she’s already caught in the planetary gravity field, and will have to rise to avoid a mountain. Lateral thrusters not responding, boosting forwards not an option, reverse thrusters still running. She can’t do anything!

But wait, she can. She can jettison weight. A few strokes on the control panel and fully 15% of the ship’s mass is released to crash into the mountain instead of herself.

A 15% that will leave the still-running rift shield before two of the four giant missiles hit the mountain, the other two landing on flatter terrain. She estimates she’ll be able to glide her ship overtop the rest of the continent to crash in the ocean- a much gentler collision than on land. Her available vertical thrust is just barely insufficient to hold her ship up against the local gravity field- and besides, it’s easier for the automatic to work repairs on- or under- the surface than in orbit, anyways.

Just a little behind schedule, the object now clearly visible in the sky hits the burn layer. The Elements charge up to deflect it- but the giant rainbow beams bounce off of the air some distance away from it. Four pieces of it are seen falling off- and magic has no trouble reaching them, even if they might be a bit heavy even for the Elements to move. Two of them are almost completely ignored, crashing down on uninhabited land like giant arrows. One of them, the Elements manage to deflect upwards- and slow down enough- that it comes to a rest lying across the top of Canterlot’s mountain. The fourth one, also deflected upwards to avoid the mountain, passes overtop… And lands just outside of Ponyville, like a giant arrow. A quick glance reveals to Twilight that it has struck a couple of buildings on the edge of town- but the ponies seen fleeing that part of town suggest nopony is hurt. They focus back on the bigger piece- which seems to be holding itself up with more dragonfire as it passes directly overhead.

At which point its size fully strikes them- and its shape, as well. It’s wide enough to reach between Ponyville and Canterlot, and twice as long. It has a wide head, connected to its larger body, with two wings reaching out the sides of its body, from which the four giant arrows had fallen. They watch it pass them completely, staring at the oddly circular shapes all over its back, all dark… and similar to the firebreathing ones on its head.

Interesting. The energy that the rift shields continue to deflect has intercepted her jettisoned weapons, altering their landing points- as if protecting something on the mountain. Her ship manages to clear the mountain under its own power, gliding through the air towards the ocean. Once she splashes down, she intends to return to this same shore and settle her ship near it, mostly out of the ocean; she wishes to minimize wave- or water level- damages to the local ecosystem. Her vertical thrusters may not be able to produce enough thrust to lift her ship back to space, but they should be more than enough to create a cushion of air for her to float it on.

The initial impact goes exactly as expected. At the speed of impact, and with the amount of vertical thrust still thundering, her ship skips across the surface of the ocean a few times, exerting jolts as high as eight gees on her, even through the gravity generator’s best efforts- and her command chair’s built-in crash couch. Fortunately, she can handle much higher than that- and when her ship stops skipping, that’s because it’s slowed down enough to develop that cushion of air… And is hovering instead. She uses the single functioning gyro to turn around before a short 10g burst from the main engines sends the whole ship skittering back towards shore. The forward radar array detects a few terrain features she can settle her ship on, over water, without displacing too much liquid- and she orders it done. With a supply of water, she should be able to restart one of the onboard fusion plants. So far, she’s been relying on solar power, either active or stored; now, solar production will be vastly reduced, not only by the planet’s shadow but by its atmosphere.

Her ship glides smoothly into place, tilting slightly to the sides to control lateral motion, before it settles gently onto the ground.

“It’s stopped!” Twilight yelps.

“Where?” Rainbow asks.

“It’s… on the South Luna Ocean, just outside Las Pegasus, but magic still can’t seem to touch it.”

Author's Note:

¹ For perspective, the US Army- at 541k- has enough men and women to crew just 5.8 of these ships, assuming complete training for every person.

Comments

[Thiz]

"She has cleared the bodies from any rooms still holding pressure."
So, did she toss them out the airlock?

[computerneek]

8690197
Probably. They are just bodies at this point, after all- and she doesn't like burying people. Besides, what better cremation than atmospheric reentry?