//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Crash // Story: Stargazer // by StrawberryGamer //------------------------------// With a basket of baked goods in hoof, Summer and crew left Sugarcube Corner, then Ponyville, finally entering the Everfree Forest. The ancient forest filled with wild plants and untamed creatures gave them no concern as they walked down the same path they usually took until the forest was so thick they couldn’t see the lights of Ponyville anymore. And then, like the eye of the storm, the forest opened up into a clearing. A grassy hill made up most of the clearing with a tree stump sitting at its peak, offering an unparalleled view of the sky. Summer set the basket of pastries on the stump and Amethyst laid out a picnic blanket for them to sit on. Corona grabbed a donut and lounged on the blanket as Summer set up the telescope. “So, expecting to see anything interesting?” She asked. Summer nodded. “Remember the dark spot I saw on the Griffon’s Eye?” “The one that looked like a mouth?” “It wasn’t a mouth, but yes. I wanna see if there are any changes. Today the star should be right overhead, so I’ll get the best view possible.”  “Maybe the mouth will be smiling,” Amethyst joked, “‘Good job Summer, I am so proud of you for babysitting us.’” Summer responded by tossing a cupcake at her face. “Aw, a present. How sweet. Literally.” A few moments later and Summer had her telescope set up. “Perfect. Pitch, what’cha got for easy listening music?” “Only the easiest and most listenable.” Amethyst said, pulling out a small music player. “Is that even a word?” Corona asked. “It is when I use it.” While Amethyst started playing some soft synthetic music, Summer turned her attention to the sky. “Alright you old coot, tell me your secrets.” Checking her starmap, Summer turned her telescope to the Windscar Constellation where the Griffon’s Eye sat, always watching. And then she double-checked her map, and adjusted. And then triple-checked and adjusted again. “It’s not there.” “Come again?” Corona asked past a mouthful of muffin. “The Griffon’s Eye is gone.” “Are you looking in the right spot?” “Yes, I triple-checked. I’m looking right at Windscar, but his eye is not there.” “Maybe he’s sleeping,” Amethyst suggested. “Stars don’t sleep,” Summer countered. “Let me look,” Corona said, getting up and approaching the telescope. Summer moved aside as she did, giving the thestral permission to look. Coordinates reached, analyzing anomaly… 25%... WARNING: Right thruster malfunctioning. Immediate maintenance required. WARNING: Right thruster disabled. Adjusting left stabilizer to compensate. 50%... WARNING: Insufficient power to maintain lift. WARNING: Altitude decreasing. Deploying emergency stabilizers. Corona spent a few seconds looking through the telescope before something seemed to catch her attention. “Oh, I think I see something.” “The star?” Summer asked, hopeful. “No, it’s black. Maybe a military craft? Looks like it’s been hovering around for a bit.” Corona answered. Summer blinked, she never noticed that. Leave it to the thestrals to spot things in the dark. “Pretty well hidden, but something seems wrong with it, I see sparks. Oh shit!” She suddenly jumped away from the telescope and pointed up. “It’s coming down. Look!” Sure enough, when Amethyst and Summer looked where she was pointing, they could see a faint streak of light coming down, getting slightly brighter as it came towards them. 75%... WARNING: Speed exceeding safe parameters. WARNING: Heavy exposure risk. Alerting security drones. Analysis complete. Sending results to maintenance drones. WARNING: Impact imme- All three watched as the craft came crashing down into the forest with a distant thud. “That wasn’t too far from us,” Corona said, “come on, we gotta check it out!” “You sure? I don’t wanna get slammed by the guard for seeing some sort of classified black-ops shit.” Amethyst cautioned. “All the more reason to scope it out. We can probably get a fat check from the Princess in exchange for keeping our mouths shut.” “Is that how that works? I thought they just made you go poof.” “Why would they do that? None of us have any record, so it would be very suspicious if we were taken away,” Summer intervened, shaking her head, “no, the more likely outcome is payment for silence. Or they could just threaten us, but the Princess is too nice for that.” “I’m holding out hope for the check,” Corona said as she led the three through the forest, practically skipping with excitement, “that way we can go a crazy shopping spree together, just like back in school.” They continued to chat about what they’d spend a “silence check” on and speculating on what actually crashed. Amethyst and Corona occasionally breached the forest canopy, looking for signs that they were on the right track. The smoke rising from the trees looked pretty promising, though it could’ve been a campfire for all they knew. When they finally reached the site, it was no campfire that they were looking at. A thin, shallow groove about the width of a pony had been carved into the dirt, narrowly missing several trees. It ended when whatever made it finally did collide with a tree directly, snapping the trunk and splitting the stump almost in half. Small fires were scattered around the crash site, creating the small beacon that led the ponies to it. What actually crashed was a pitch black object, about the size of a pony. Bits and pieces of its plating lay scattered around the site. Summer could make out two wings, which look like they were sheared off. The wings looked vaguely like pegasus wings, if the feathers were all fused together, but they also had small rocket or jet-like thrusters attached to them, all damaged beyond repair. The main body of the craft looked more or less intact, which astounded Summer due to how hard it hit the ground. The worst damage done to it were about seven or eight holes, which looked like outer parts had been ripped off. Upon closer inspection, Summer found something on the inside was glowing. “Hold on… This looks familiar…” Summer said, using her magic to attempt to rip open a hole in the craft. Despite the augments, it was surprisingly difficult. The outer plating was really strong, even with the holes ripped in it. “You sure you should be messing with this? We can get in trouble for messing with government property.” Amethyst cautioned. “I know, I know. I just need to see this.” Summer lifted the craft up and turned it over, finding a bent-up hatch on the belly. With some effort, she was able to get it open to get a better look at the interior. Looking inside confirmed her suspicions. “This… this is an Equidroid core.” “You sure? Doesn’t look like any I’ve ever seen. Too small.” Corona commented, peering over her shoulder. The core was a small rectangular prism, which gave out a faint cyan glow. In the middle of the core was a slot that looked like a data chip could fit in. Attached to it were several cords leading to various parts of the chassis. Summer noted that most of the cords were severed at the holes around the chassis. “I am, I’ve seen enough of them helping out Dad. The data slot is unusual though.” “How so?” “Equidroids have a slot, but it’s on the back of their head, not in their core. Easier to access. If it’s on the core, it’s possible that means it’s a more modular design. Like it could be refitted for different purposes, similar to the old first gen models.” “So it’s a first gen core?” “No, they didn’t even have data slots. You had to manually hook a computer up to them. And again, as you said, it’s way too small. First gen cores were almost as big as the whole torso.” “So why put a slot in the core itself?” Amethyst asked. “Good question. To protect against direct hacking attempts? To increase modularity? I’m only guessing, Dad might know more. I’m just the assistant.” “Why don’t we take it to him? See if he can’t fix it up, then maybe we can ask the owner of this core directly.” Summer blinked. “Wait, it just clicked. If this is an Equidroid core, what crashed wasn’t a government aircraft, it was an Equidroid!” “Duh.” Amethyst and Corona said at once. Summer nearly facehoofed. “I was so focused on how odd this whole thing was, I didn’t realize we were dealing with an actual pony! Quick, gather up all the parts and pieces scattered around, no matter how small! We gotta get them to Dad, fast!” “Assuming they’re even still alive.” Corona said. Summer quickly shut the panel on the belly and lifted the body up in her golden aura. “If the core is still glowing, they’re still alive. Now, start gathering!” It took at least an hour to scour the surrounding forest for every last scrap from the downed Equidroid. Summer was letting no leaf stay unturned. Eventually they had confirmed that it was indeed an Equidroid they had found, and not some aircraft that housed one of their cores. The wings had already been recovered before the body. The legs were scattered further back, and Summer found various tools and gadgets tucked inside that she had never seen before and could only guess at the functions of. Corona found the head tossed aside several meters from the impact, and nearly threw up upon seeing the damage. The jaw had been ripped off and the eyes were completely shattered. Summer noted various sensors in the head where the secondary computer would be, the Equidroid’s “brain.” Again, she was drawing a blank as to their functions. What really caught her attention was a small hole in the forehead, where a unicorn’s horn would be. “Wings and a horn? Were they trying to create another Alicorn?” She asked herself. Alicorn Equidroid creation was illegal for several reasons, biggest of which was that an Equidroid’s core couldn’t contain the magic of more than one tribe, or it would violently explode. If the government figured out a way to do it without the Elements… Her musings were cut short as her friends had found the last of the pieces, metal scraps that had broken off the main body and limbs. Notably, they did not find any sign of a mane or tail, meaning this Equidroid was built without them. It was unusual, though not unheard of for this to happen, but most preferred to have them for the appeal, or to fit in. “So… how are we getting all this back to your place without arousing suspicion?” Corona asked. “Bundle it in the picnic stuff?” Amethyst suggested. “That… isn’t a bad idea. You’d have to take the rest of the pastries out of the basket and probably eat them though.” Summer said. Amethyst licked her lips. “I thought you’d never ask…” The walk back to Summer’s house was slower than she would have liked, carrying the chassis and head bundled in the picnic blanket and the rest of the parts in the basket, which Corona had loaned her hoodie to cover them up with. She desperately hoped nopony would be suspicious of the floating bundle, but given that this was Ponyville, those fears were unfounded. Soon enough, they had arrived back in front of Summer’s home. The repair van had left, so the water heater had been fixed at least. Summer had sent a message ahead, vaguely asking her dad to clear the garage for another patient, but realized after that she had already booked him a patient, so it was redundant. Sure enough, when they entered the garage, they saw Northern Star already working on fixing Supernova’s wing. When he noticed them, he shut off his welding torch. “You’re back early.” He said. “You know the rules, your friends can’t be in here when I’m working on a patient. You can hang out in your room or something while you wait, I’m almost done.” So they did, and a few minutes later North let them back in.  Supernova still sat on the operating table. “So what’s up? You messaged saying you had another patient?” He asked. Summer set down the bundle and basket on the garage floor. “Well, yes and no.” When she opened the bundle, Supernova looked almost ready to throw up. Summer didn’t even know Equidroids could do that. “We were in the Everfree when we saw them crash nearby. We gathered up everything and came right back home.” North took a moment to pick his jaw off the floor, and even then it took another minute before he could speak. “I-I’m a mechanic, dear… I do repair work, not autopsies. This… this is too far gone for me to fix.” Summer shook her head. “Not quite, check this out,” she turned over the body and opened the panel again, “the core is still intact. They’re still alive.” North gawked at the glowing core in disbelief. Even Supernova spared a glance before deciding she’d had enough and went to calm herself down in the living room. “That… that is the core? It’s so small… and is that a data slot?” He looked at the basket and grabbed one of the metal shards, setting it on a scanner he had set up in the corner. It was meant to identify materials so he could order more of them for Equidroids that were made of more unusual materials. “Incredible… Summer, do you have any idea what you brought me?” “A pony who needs help. Can you stop gawking and fix them?” “Not just any pony. The chassis is made of nothing that I’ve ever seen before. The best my computer can determine is it’s some kind of Titanium alloy.” “That explains why my magic couldn’t do much to it, and how it survived the crash mostly intact.” Summer said. “So… what, this is some new military project?” Amethyst asked. “Make a new super soldier Equidroid?” “Maybe, I’d have to do some tests. But aside from that, everything here you brought me… Nothing here is like anything I’ve seen before. This could be the start of an entirely new generation of Equidroids.” “And you get to be the one to put them back together. Congrats,” Corona said, “just be careful, the military might want their pony back, and I don’t wanna be here when they come knocking.” With that, she and Amethyst left. Summer later got a message on her Gear saying they’d be at Corona’s place, doing some unpacking. Summer set everything down on the table and left North to examine it all for a while. He gave the wings in particular special attention. “These are the strangest wings I’ve even seen. Why use maneuvering thrusters and jets for propulsion instead of just using normal pegasus wings?” “They’re faster?” Summer guessed. “That doesn’t explain the thrusters. Those are used for small adjustments, like…” He trailed off. “I think I know what this pony is meant for.” “What? Don’t leave me in suspense, Dad.” “This isn’t a soldier. That much was obvious based on the tools and sensors. No, this pony was meant for space.”