//------------------------------// // Breaking Atmosphere // Story: Across the Stars // by SonnyStar //------------------------------// Explosions dotted the blackness of space as the Confederacy of Independent Systems’ successful ambush pulled a Jedi strike fleet out of hyperspace. Before the shields could even be raised the confederate ships had already destroyed half of the fleet. Alarms blared throughout the bridge as Jedi General Jorcen Alketses watched in disbelief as his fleet was quickly falling to separatist bombardment. “General! Our engines have been disabled! We need to abandon ship!” Clone Captain Hale shouted over the ships comm system. “Get as many men off the ship as you can Captain. Fall back to the closest republic planet. I’ll see you there.” Jorcen turned and announced to the whole ship over the comm system to abandon ship before setting the self-destruct. Couldn’t risk republic intelligence falling into the enemy’s hand. Jorcen quickly made his way to the hangar bay and boarded his personal transport ship, ‘Windshear’. It was the last ship to leave the republic cruisers hangar, just barely getting enough distance before it exploded into useless wreckage. “All craft clear.” Jorcen started over a republic frequency. “Everyone make the jump to hyperspace as soon as you’re clear.” Jorcen’s Astromech droid R3-78 had set the nav computer’s coordinates and prepped the engines for the jump to hyperspace. Just as the hyperdrive kicked in and the stars started to stretch into lines, a stray blast from an enemy fighter struck the rear of the ship causing the hyperdrive to malfunction. Before the Jedi could react his ship shot off into the blue void of hyperspace. “What do you mean you can’t pull us out!?” Jorcen yelled at the little yellow droid. It beeped and booped frantically as it tried to interface with the ships systems. “How much damage are we talking about?” Jorcen asked, trying to get the long range communications online. R3 continued to chirp the damage report and potential solutions. “Blast! Hopefully, Force willing, we come across a planet somewhere along the jump. Maybe the hyperdrive’s safety procedures will pull us out once we hit a planetary mass shadow.” R3 beeped his own words of hope and statistical likelihood. “If not then it was a pleasure to have a loyal little droid like you R3.” R3 beeped somberly, returning the sentiment. Jorcen closed his eyes and began calling on the force to calm his mind and wait for whatever would come to pass. Several hours passed and a deep hum from the engines sounded as the Windshear was pulled back into realspace just above the atmosphere of a colorful terrestrial planet. Jorcen smiled and opened his eyes. “Thank the Force, R3 what do the star charts say? Where in the galaxy are we?” R3 beeped slowly as if hesitant to tell its master. “Spit it out R3.” The droid spun its head to face the Jedi and projected a map of the galaxy out of its holoprojector with a bright blue dot showing where they were. Jorcen slumped back into the pilots chair and closed his eyes again. “The unknown regions…” He sighed heavily but was quickly reminded of how much trouble they were in when the ships consoles starting beeping warnings. R3 squealed loudly in response to multiple system failures. “Hopefully there’s some kind of civilization down there to repair the ship. That is if we make it, hold on to your dome buddy we’re putting her down the hard way.” The Windshear’s systems started blaring emergency klaxons and the dull red emergency lights kicked on as the ship entered the atmosphere in a spear of fire. Twilight Sparkle sat on her balcony, slowly sipping on a cup of tea her assistant Spike had made for her to keep her warm while she spent the night watching the stars. Twilight set the cup down and went back to looking through her telescope, scanning the heavens for shooting stars and her favorite constellations. She smiled softly as she spotted a small gleam streaking its way across the sky. This one lasted significantly longer than most shooting stars she’d seen so she decided to share the spectacle. “Spike! Come quick! You should see the size of this shooting star!” “Jeez Twilight you don’t need to yell, I’m right here.” Spike said, rubbing his ear in mock annoyance. Twilight looked away from the telescope and smiled sheepishly. “Eh he he, sorry Spike. Here come take a look.” “I don’t think I need to Twilight, is that what you’re talking about?” He asked, pointing a claw at the sky. Twilight’s mouth hung open in disbelief. The shooting star was burning a large streak across the sky, showing no sign of burning out. “I don’t believe it Spike, do you know what this means? It must not be a shooting star, I think I just discovered a new comet! I’ve been waiting for this day since magic kindergarten! I have a list of names I came up with for astral entities, though I was hoping for a constellation but this will do. Tell me Spike, what do you think about-” “Ummm Twilight?” Spike interrupted. “It looks like it’s coming right at us.” He said, eyes shrinking to pinpricks as he started fidgeting nervously. “Don’t be ridiculous Spike, if it was going to hit the ground it… would…” Twilight lost the words in her mouth as the comet had changed direction sharply and was indeed heading in their direction. Twilight and Spike were paralyzed with fear as a flaming hulk about half the size of the library blazed over their heads and came to a loud landing at the edge of Ponyville and into the Everfree Forest. The pair sat on the balcony, stunned at what they just saw. Several ponies in the streets below began poking their heads out their windows and doors. Murmuring words of confusion and fear. “D-did we almost get hit by a meteor?” Spike asked quietly. “I…I don’t think that was a meteor Spike.” Twilight’s mind was racing so fast it was hard for her to think straight. “I’m…I’m going to go check it out. Go tell the rest of the girls and have them meet me there.” Twilight stood up and started making her way downstairs. “Twilight wait!” Spike chased after her. “I don’t think you should go alone.” “I’ll be fine Spike, I’m the most qualified mare to go take a look.” “Are you sure about that? You said yourself it’s not a meteor.” “That’s why I’m going to go see what it is.” “But what if it’s something dangerous? What if it’s ALIENS?!” “It’s not aliens Spike, now hurry and go get the others. Don’t worry I’ll be fine.” Twilight turned and left towards the impact site as fast as she could. She knew that if she kept talking Spike may have been able to talk her out of going. As she neared the edge of the forest she could see the scar left in the ground by the object. There were bits of flaming metal here and there all along the gash in the dirt. Twilight cautiously started walking down the new path towards her goal. She ignited her horn into a ball of light to illuminate her path. The crash must have scared off every animal that had been anywhere near as the forest was eerily silent save for the small flames scattered through several trees. Twilight continued down the path through broken trees until a large glow could be seen just ahead. She swallowed hard and steeled herself for what she might find, mentally shoving the idea of aliens out of her head. As she got close enough to finally see the object she couldn’t believe her eyes. Whatever the nature of what lay before her it was clear that it wasn’t natural. Maybe it was some kind of science experiment or a new kind of airship. Twilight’s thoughts were brought to a complete halt when a loud hiss sounded from the crashed ship. A ramp weakly fell to the ground and a dark form stumbled down it. It really was aliens. Twilight never thought in her wildest dreams that she would see first contact from another world. As excited as she was at the prospect she was equally afraid. What if they weren’t friendly and were bent on conquering Equestria. She took a few apprehensive steps closer to the alien and spoke softly. “Hello? My name is Twilight Sparkle. Can you understand me?” Twilight gasped sharply as the alien fell face first into the dirt at the bottom of the ramp. Now that the alien was in the dim light of a nearby flame Twilight could see its brown garment was stained with blood. Twilight mentally bucked herself for not thinking of that sooner. Whether it was an accident or not the alien had crashed and could die and Twilight would do everything in her power to prevent that. The alien briefly made its way up to its knees and slowly extended its hand at Twilight. It muttered something Twilight couldn’t hear as all the worry in her mind was wiped away and replaced with calming and soothing thoughts. Despite her worry’s earlier Twilight quickly trotted to the alien’s side. It muttered something Twilight couldn’t understand and slumped against her, unconscious. A moment later after making sure it hadn’t died, the rest of Twilight’s friends came into the clearing. “Twilight! What happened?” Applejack asked as they slowly surrounded Twilight. “What the heck is that thing?” Rainbow asked, wrinkling her nose at the battered creature leaning against Twilight. “Oh…Oh my. Is that blood?” Rarity recoiled, taking a few steps back. Pinkie Pie gasped loudly and zipped over to Twilight in a pink blur. “Ohmygoshtwilightisthatanalien!” “Pinkie! Calm down! It’s very hurt.” “W-what are we going to do?” Fluttershy asked softly. “We are going to take it to Ponyville General.” “Are ya sure that’s a good idea Twi?” Applejack said, looking at everypony else’s worried expressions. “Trust me girls, it’ll all be alright. You’ll see.”