//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 - Fire In The Sky // Story: Ponies and Lasers and Clankers, Oh My! // by Tekket //------------------------------// 2:07 P.M. Conference Chamber 3, Canterlot Castle, Canterlot Princess Celestia sat at the head of her favourite oak conference table while she listened to Elder Morgath and General Kratos give the deals Minos was willing to put forth in order to be given custody of the rogue Minotaur that had trespassed in the Crystal Empire the week prior. Although everyone in the room was very professional and friendly, little things belied the tension in the air. Princess Celestia had decided to go ahead with the political talk with the Minos representatives despite General Kratos’ protests, insisting that Twilight and her friends could handle any problems that could arise and that her sister’s absence would not be a hindrance in the talks. Even though the solar diarch was doing her best to keep her rapt attention on the two Minotaurs at the other end of the table, everyone noticed the soft tapping of her fingers against the tabletop. Likewise, the others in the room felt the strain that permeated the discussion. Elder Morgath kept clearing his throat and sipping from a glass of water; General Kratos’ heavy brow just kept getting lower and lower over his eyes, a feat that seemed impossible but continued nonetheless; Time Stamp shuffled his wings irritably as he continued to keep track of the proceedings; and not even the guards of the two nations were immune, constantly glancing at each other and out the various windows in short intervals. It was during a point where Princess Celestia was about to lose focus for what seemed like the tenth time by her count, that she took a slow breath and let it out, straightening up in her seat once more and looking at the massive general, when a gentle knock sounded at the door behind her. All speaking stopped in the room as, collectively, they all turned to regard the interruption with earnest. As the head of a royal guard popped in, Celestia swallowed the lump in her throat and motioned for him to enter. “Your Highness, Major Iron Buckle reporting,” He began, bowing low before continuing, while Celestia had to stop herself from ordering the stallion to get on with it and tell her that they had news of Luna and Twilight Sparkle. “One of our pegasus patrols picked up something approaching from the horizon. We couldn’t be sure at the extreme range, but it appears to fit the profile of the craft that landed in the courtyard earlier today.” Glancing back towards the Minos delegation, Princess Celestia caught the eye of the old grizzled Minotaur leader, noticing the whisper of a smile before he cleared his throat once more and spoke. “You know princess, perhaps we’ll leave the discussions here for the day. You obviously have very pressing matters currently transpiring within your country, and it’s not like we’ll be going anywhere soon. We can pick this up another day. You go tend to the needs of your subjects.” Dipping her head in a grateful bow to the Minos Elder, she, along with the rest of the ponies and Minotaurs around the table stood up and began collecting the various papers and scrolls that had become littered along the table during the talks. “Thank you, Elder Morgath, your understanding during these troubling times means a great deal to me. You are all, of course, more than welcome to join me in welcoming back the dignitary team to the castle.” The elder Minotaur waved a hand dismissively and sat back down at his seat, while General Kratos strode over to stand next to the alicorn. “I’d be honored to join you. I’d like to hear firsthand what Princess Luna and Princess Twilight have to say about your new ‘guests’.” Ah, Celestia grinned inwardly as she picked up on the General’s meaning, he doesn’t want anything to get in the way of him hearing the truth of what happened on the supposed alien’s ‘spaceship’. Walking down the main hall with the general, Celestia had a few moments to appreciate that while the Minotaurs and Equestrians were allies, the General still didn’t fully trust her judgement after allowing an army to be dispensed on the front steps of her castle. As practical as always, General. As the front doors to the palace were opened by flanking earth pony guards and the two leaders stepped out onto the landing above the main courtyard, Celestia could already make out the telltale sounds of the large blue flying creatures as they zipped below the heavy cloud cover and headed straight for the courtyard. Looking off into the distance, she noticed not only the strange shape of the large craft coming in towards the city, but what looked like another one heading down lower than the mountain-side city and towards Ponyville in the distance, accompanied by little dark specks of its own. What caught her attention most though, was the glowing trails left by what appeared to be shooting stars as they flew past everything towards the ground, or in some cases, towards the castle. As the first of the large blue creatures landed in the courtyard with loud thumps, Celestia’s eyes went wide as one of the approaching insect-things maneuvered onto the brilliantly glowing tail of one of the shooting stars and began firing red beams at it until it exploded in a spectacular fireball of expanding gas. While the light from the explosion cleared, the solar princess just stood there, watching as bits of metal rained down around her, until a loud clunk shook her from her trance. Glancing down to her side, a blackened representation of one of the blue creatures’ heads seemed to appear next to her, and she noticed General Kratos glaring at the thing like it might jump up and snap at them at any moment. When she looked back to the sky, the aggressive insect-monster from before was just coming in for a landing, and she noticed several other dark shapes taking up position behind the shooting stars, most of which were getting uncomfortably close. Moments before the closest one passed directly overhead, the princess of the sun finally recognized the dark shape burning at the heart of the meteor and she let out a gasp. No sooner had the glowing creature passed her then a tremendous crash was heard as the damaged insect-like thing plowed straight through a balcony and upper window of the palace. Screaming began immediately, coming from both inside the castle and beyond the main gates, where several ponies had stopped in order to get a look at the newcomers once more. More loud clunks could be heard as more and more of the blue towering creatures landed in the courtyard and began chattering to each other, while one trailing smoke flew too fast and missed the city, careening out of sight as it passed below the main roads. Seconds later the castle trembled and a sound like thunder rolled over from below the metropolis. “Princess! We need to get to safety!” the bellowing voice of General Kratos snapped the solar diarch out of her shock, while ponies began to run about, screaming in terror and fleeing the palace courtyard, where most of the supposed invaders flying escort were trying to put down, although a few unlucky ones were still on fire and missed, and distant thunderclaps could be heard coming from the streets as buildings were struck. Struggling to move and torn between staying outside to make sure all her ponies got inside as safe as they could and running and hiding in the deepest room in the castle like a little filly, Celestia steeled her gaze and lit up her horn. Within seconds, Canterlot became enveloped in a transparent sphere; her own variant of Shining Armor’s shield spell from several years back, and the first few blue creatures to impact on the dome shattered like so many porcelain figures. The ones following them wised up quickly and veered off, beginning to follow the trajectory of the large craft that had been headed for Ponyville. Despite the fact that the city seemed safe for the time being with nothing else crashing into it, Princess Celestia’s gaze wandered to the large blue insectile creatures, at least two dozen of them, that wandered down below in the courtyard, and the enormous landing craft, which had been inside the confines of the shield when she had raised it. If these things had turned hostile… well, she had seen firsthand how many of the skinny beige beings the dragonfly-shaped craft could disgorge. The large Minotaur beside her was making like he planned to pick up the slender alicorn and carry her into the palace, however, a multitude of shapes began pouring from the darkening clouds and churning up the air with smoke in their wake, as they began to scatter all over the countryside. Some of the objects looked like giant, oversized thumb tacks, while many more simply looked like wobbly ovals, and several had an elongated, boxy look to them. As the thunderheads above began to condense and get darker, roiling with untameable energy, a monstrous object shot out of it, blazing across the sky and leaving a trail of fire and steam in its wake. It was as if the hand of some god had grabbed a piece of the mountain itself and hurled it from the heavens towards the small world below. Pieces flew off, burning their own bright trails and heading in every direction, some picking up speed and blazing ahead, others falling away to the sides, and smoke billowed out of the many uneven openings along the surface. One of the dragonfly-shaped ships flew next to it, dwarfed by the enormity of the deadly projectile, and looked like it was trying to pull away from the gargantuan fireball. A long spar broke off from underneath and plowed straight through one of the four wings of the vehicle, setting it ablaze and forcing it into a spiralling descent to the ground far below. Other chunks broke away and shattered some of the flying craft in the sky as they passed straight through without slowing down. The enormous fiery object blasted across the sky and above the city in seconds, and despite how large it was it flew past the scene in an eerie silence. It was only after it had torn out of sight behind the mountain that a tremendous thunderclap followed, with enough force to instantly obliterate the protective barrier Celestia had put up, shatter windows across the city, and toss the princess and the general to a skidding halt across the cobblestone ground. Opening her eyes, the princess noticed first that her dress had been torn in several places from the rough treatment, and that it was on fire. Keeping herself calm, she cast a simple spell to extinguish the flames, though a slowly growing headache told her that casting magic would get more difficult soon. “General? General Kratos! Are you alright?” her voice sounded oddly muffled as she spoke while she shook the large motionless figure beside her until it stirred, and a loud ringing persisted in her ears. Shaking her head, she heaved the stumbling figure of the Minotaur General onto his hooves before surveying the city once more. Flames dotted the skyline, while glowing meteors continued to shower down around the mountain, mostly missing Canterlot and shooting to the ground far below, or impacting up high on the mountain and bursting into sparks. Smoke from all the falling debris began to choke the air, and the smell of burning metal and exotic materials clogged the princess’ nostrils. In mere moments, the beauty of her utopian city had been transformed into a hellish warzone. Feeling the ground tremble beneath her hooves, she looked to the edge of the city once again, but nothing more seemed to be impacting on the mountain, and the ringing in her ears continued to disorient her. Seeing Kratos flinch beside her, she whirled around to see one of the large blue insect-like creatures approaching the two of them, a high-pitched shrieking and chattering making its way past her hearing troubles. Gritting her teeth and flaring her horn up with magic, ready to take on the creature if need be, the Princess of the sun saw out of the corner of her eye as the Minotaur general took on a readied fighting stance at her side. After a few seconds of watching the creature approach however, the pain in the princess’ head spread to the base of her horn and her magic fizzled out. Suddenly more vulnerable, Celestia started planning on the next best strategy to deal with the situation, when the blue creature stopped, just a dozen feet from them, towering over the two figures. She looked up to see the bright red eyes of the creature staring down at her as it continued to screech away unintelligibly, before it tilted its head and backed up half a step. Turning its head to look behind the two, Celestia followed its gaze to the main doors of the palace where she saw several guards rallying with the Minotaurs and spilling out into the courtyard, spears and crossbows pointed at the many blue monsters. It was not until a tremendous crash resounded from the center of the courtyard, shaking the ground once more, that the guards stopped their advance, and the blue creatures took immediate interest in the thing that had plowed straight into the cobblestones. A large uneven oval had landed on its side in the courtyard, smoke trailing from one of the four bulges on the far end, and dust slowly settling from its impact. As the ringing finally began to die down in Celestia’s ears, she could have sworn she heard a metallic scraping sound coming from it. It was made of a silvery grey metal, and had lumps protruding from the sides of it, as well as dark panels on the visible narrow end, however, much of the underside seemed to have taken a tremendous beating upon impact, as the metal there was scratched and bent, even cracked and torn in some spots. It was then that she noticed the blue quadrupeds had stopped their advance towards the alien construct and were turning and chatting with one another. Taking a closer look at them, Celestia noticed the blue and white hexagon symbol displayed on each of the creatures’ bodies, while an identical symbol was stenciled onto the side of the metal oval. As she was looking over the crumpled metal construct, she noticed a flash of silver and then watched with shock as a very dusty and slightly battered-looking silver being shuffled its way around the side of the wreckage, followed by several of the skinny statue beings from before. The silver being looked downright identical to the one she had seen before, despite its slightly battered appearance, and she hoped that meant it too was the same translator. Eyeing the group over, she noticed most of the skeletal beings were occasionally giving off sparks from their joints, and the last one was downright missing an arm. Standing out in the open as she was, it did not take long for the silver being to notice her, and it immediately began shuffling over to her and waving. It wasn’t until it was closer that she could make out what it was saying over her slight hearing loss. “-o glad to see you again! We’ve had a terrible accident and everything happened so fast I couldn’t make sense of anything! Are you alright? I’m terribly sorry about what has happened, but something went wrong with our ship and well… have you seen the Captain? Or the Colonel? Or, well, anyone from our ship with any authority on how to proceed?” Shaking her head and wincing at the pain it brought, Celestia straightened to the best of her ability and looked down at the silver being, a hard look in her eyes. “I think it would be best first for you to explain to us what exactly happened, and why you have decided to attack us. It was a most foolish choice on your part, but I shall tell you now, if anything has happened to Twilight of my sister, you shall have much more to worry about than something ‘wrong with your ship’.” Beside her, the solar princess heard as General Kratos gave a snort and took a step forward, his hoof clacking on the stone ground as his large frame came into view. Seeing the threatening posture that the ponies and minotaurs were taking, and the harsh, if alien, words that were being directed at them, the small group of skeletal bipeds immediately bristled, grabbing their short black weapons and moving to shield the jroid translator with their bodies. Even the one with one arm had imposed itself between the princess and the silver translator, holding its weapon at its waist. All around the two groups, the landed flyers had started chattering again, and began to get agitated, quickly twitching their heads to look at individuals and stepping forward en masse threateningly. Raising its hands, the silver translator, tried pushing its way to the front again, and trying (and failing) to placate its comrades. “Please, no, you don’t understand! We haven’t attacked you. Something happened on our ship and we lost control of our orbit. The order was given to abandon ship and the Captain steered it down as best he could. Our ship crashed to the west of here, and I apologize, but some of the debris landed here in your city as it passed overhead!” Celestia’s eyebrows furrowed tighter together as she tried seeing through the possible veil of lies, before remembering the gargantuan object that had broken the skies overhead with flame and smoke. Understanding and a slight bit of fear crept into her gaze and voice as she spoke once more. “Wait… you mean to say, that the giant meteor that broke my shield… was your ship?!” A sudden weakness in her knees was the only warning anyone had before Princess Celestia buckled and fell onto her haunches, a haunted look in her eyes. The General and several guards rushed to her, concern written on their faces, but the diarch simply stared at the crumpled metal oval, which she now realized was some kind of transport, as her thoughts raged inside her mind much like the fires raged on the plains below the city. Their ship looked to be as large as Canterlot! How can we protect against something like that? They might be in worse shape than we are, now that their ship has crashed. But we’re in horrible shape now because of them! The city took so much damage just from outlying debris from the crash, and Ponyville might have been flattened! But what if they can’t get back to their people now? They might have to rely on us until they repair their ship! What if they can still get back? They could bring more ships like that! And now that I’ve seen the kind of vessels they use to explore the stars, I doubt we’d be able to stop them if they have any weapons. They were so high up we couldn’t even see their ship! Taking an offered hand, she snapped out of her short stupor and let one of the guards bring her back to her hooves, before she realized the danger to Ponyville. Tensing up, she realized that Twilight and Luna hadn’t made it back yet, and with so many escape craft catching fire in the air, or slamming against the mountain, she tried her best no to think of the worst. The princess ran to the edge of the courtyard, practically throwing herself off the mountain in order to see down to the ground far below. In the distance sat Ponyville, quaint and pristine as ever, and slightly to the north, a black wart marred the landscape, jutting up from the ground as tiny fires burned around it, visible even at this distance, and black spots pockmarked the hills it had landed in. Most telling of all however, was the mile-long trail of dirt that had been gouged out of the earth from the thing’s impact, spreading soil and bits of metal in an enormous arc in front of the wreckage. “Oh Sister, what have I sent you into?”