//------------------------------//
// Prelude: Crash Landing 
// Story: Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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It was a peaceful day in Ponyville, which the residents had come to treasure, especially when dealing with the like a swarm of magically altered Parasprites, or when Cerberus left his post and the headache that followed, or whatever Discord felt like spreading on that fateful day, so it was easy for others to see why they treasured peaceful days. It was on such a day that the ponies of the town found Starswirl the Bearded, a myth made real, walking down one of the streets, who wore his equally legendary cloak and wizard hat, though he wasn't here to take in the sights, rather he had set himself a task and he intended on completing it. His task was to head into the heart of the Everfree Forest and investigate some happenings he had become aware of recently, though as he walked he found that many of the citizens moved out of the way and let him go about his business, as he seemed to have an air of authority, no doubt due to his reputation and the fact that he had taught two of the Princesses at one point in time. The reason for him setting himself this task was because of a string of disappearances that had happened in this part of Equestria, all sorts of ponies had vanished and some were important to the survival of their world, so he was trying to find some information before seeing if he could track them down and bring all of the missing back.

Of course as he thought about that he recalled the fact that Discord was using his power to move the sun and moon, just to make it seem like nothing was wrong, though he hoped that his task worked and that they would be able to return their world to normal in due time, which was incredibly strange and was part of the reason for his decision to do this, hence the reason he was walking towards the forest.

Starswirl also knew that someone was following him, as he had spotted a pony-like mare some distance behind him at one point and had pretended not to notice her, due to the fact that she was a Kirin, a race that usually wasn't seen outside the area that they called home, so it made him curious as to why one would be following him. Kirin, from what he recalled, had scales on their backs, their manes were bushier than what ponies had and even wrapped around their heads, their ears were slightly longer as well, they had curved horns that looked like branches, and had cloven hooves, or at least that was what he recalled about them. The interesting thing, in addition to her following him, was that she was hiding behind a few carts, behind a corner of a house, and a few other places that made the citizens of Ponyville raise their eyebrows, but they seemed to figure that she was no threat to him and that he could deal with her on his own, though most of his attention was on his task and not on her. Of course he planned on talking to her at some point, after he visited the cave that was his final destination, so he wasn't too worried about her following him and sneaking around like she was curious about what was going on right now, hence why his focus was on the street and what might be waiting for him when he reached the Everfree Forest.

Eventually Starswirl came to the edge of the forest, a large dark place that most of Ponyville seemed to ignore or stay away from for the most part, where he engaged his magic and caused his magical aura to form around his horn, just in case the creatures who called this place home came out to attack him and his companion, who had caught up to him and stayed as close as she could without giving herself away.

"You had best stay close, least the dangers come after you." Starswirl said, knowing that there were dangers in the forest he was going to be traveling through, though not a few seconds later he noted a bit of movement behind him and found that the Kirin had decided to trust his judgement, as she rushed up to where he was standing and stayed close, no doubt worried about the forest now.

With that done they carefully made their way through the Everfree Forest and remained silent, as both of them decided not to talk for some time, though Starswirl wondered if it was true that the Kirin had taken a vow of silence, to not speak and keep their emotions to themselves, but that was something he would have to worry about later, once they weren't in any danger. He expected there to be a few Timberwolves on the path he was following, given that they roamed the forest in packs, though all of the more dangerous beasts would be deeper in this place, far from the path he had been told about some time ago, though even a well traveled path made his wary, just to be on the safe side since there was no telling what the animals might be up to. As such Starswirl kept his magic at the ready as his companion glanced around the area that they were walking through, no doubt because this was her first time in such a place, but neither of them said anything as he head the way, following the path that Twilight's friends had told him about as he sought out the ancient castle known as the Castle of the Two Sisters. His reason was because the cave he was looking for was just below the place that both of his old students had once called home, before Nightmare Moon reared her head and Celestia had to banish her to the moon, so by finding one he could find the other and complete his task in no time, or at least that was his plan right now and it could change in a matter of seconds.

It took him sometime to find the area he was looking for, even when he followed the path, and he smiled a little as he and his companion laid eyes on a ruined castle that rested on the other side of a bridge, but that wasn't where he was going, rather he turned to his right as he reached the other side of the bridge and headed down a diagonal path that lead to the bottom of the dried up riverbed that once ran through the area, which allowed him to find the cave he was looking for in no time.

"What's so special about this cave?" a voice asked, where Starswirl paused for a moment as he heard the feminine voice and turned to face the Kirin for a moment, who seemed shocked by the fact that she was able to speak, meaning she must have taken the vow of silence like the rest of her kind, according to some of the stories he had heard anyway, where he could see that she was pleased by this sudden turn of events, "I... I can talk?! I can talk again!"

"So it would seem... though to answer your question, there is an ancient tree in this cave, and some powerful magic still sleeps near it," Starswirl replied, deciding that the best thing he could do right now was just continue with his mission and check out the Tree of Harmony for signs of tampering, hence why he continued walking and heard the sounds of hooves coming after him, though it didn't take him long to find the crystalline tree in question, "I would have to guess that being in the presence of this tree, so named the Tree of Harmony, has overwritten the vow of silence that you and the other Kirin took, allowing you to speak again, and that when we leave you'll be forced back into the state you were in earlier. I came here to figure something out, to help Twilight and her friends prepare for what the future has in store for them, and I will answer any questions you have once my task is complete..."

As he said that, however, Starswirl heard the sound of something hitting the ground and turned around instantly, finding that the Kirin mare had knocked herself out from all the excitement she had been experiencing, making him wonder how long it had been since the Kirin had taken their vow, though as he turned his head away from her, so he could focus on his objective, a wave of magic washed over him and he felt tired all of a sudden. In that moment he glanced at the Tree, which was either pulsing or glowed like it normally did, before a new idea came to mind as he determined what was going on, as he had figured out part of the puzzle that he wanted to solve, but before he could leave a clue for anyone who might come to this cave in the future, to warn them about what might happen to them, he fell to the ground and blacked out, falling into the enchanted slumber that had been pressed onto him and the Kirin as he remembered nothing more.





It was an ordinary day on Veldin, a backwater planet located in a remote corner of the Solana Galaxy, where the people worked hard to maintain the farms and settlements that were scattered all over their world, which was difficult at times since the ground was rocky and hard to work with, most of the planet was covered in a vast desert, and there were only a few bodies of water scattered around their it, which were protected at all costs, at least from some of the more dangerous critters who lived in the desert. Of course the size of the bodies of water limited the amount of people who could call this world home, as the colonies were tasked with trying to improve Veldin to the point where it could sustain like without too much hardship on those who would call it home in the future, but for now everyone focused on carving out a life on this planet and didn't focus on why someone would send all of them to this place. They did have to worry about the wildlife from time to time, which was part of their day to day lives at this point, but that was why each colony had a set of workers who fought back against the wildlife and defended their homes as best as they could, though there was also a building set up on a plateau that was right in the middle of where all of the colonies were build, a daycare of sorts so the children that weren't of age could play and have fun while their parents worked. Sadly there were times where some parents would fall to the wildlife and leave their children without anyone to care for them, so whoever it happened to would end up living in the daycare, which became both that and an orphanage, while some of the colonists cleaned up the residence that they used to live in so some new colonists could move in, as the one who watched over them and maintained a steady stream of essential supplies, like machines, usually had new people moving in a week after someone passed away, but he made sure not to send too many, given the status of the planet.

Today, however, was one of the more peaceful days for the colonists, as there were no aggressive wildlife for them to even worry about and they were able to do all of their work without anything interrupting them, though as they focused on their work in the farms, so they could ensure everyone had food and maybe store some inside their storage containers, one of the Helper Bots who watched over the children noticed something odd, a purple crack appeared in the air, like it was made of glass, before a small pod flew through the opening it created, where the pod crashed into Kyzil Plateau as the opening just vanished entirely... and before it could process the event in question a comet of sorts crashed into the area as well, to which it filed a report to the higher ups of the colony and got back to work.

A few minutes later some of the colonists headed out to check out Kyzil Plateau, as they saw the notice and wanted to see what the Helper Bot had discovered while it was working, though the group consisted of a robot miner, who happened to be nearby when they heard the message, another was a blue skinned humanoid who focused on protecting the farmers from the wildlife, and another was a feline humanoid with dark brown fur that had a few stripes on her arms and legs, and she also had sharp ears that looked like a fox's as her tail swayed as they walked up to their destination. She was a Cazar, a race that was similar to an extinct race known as the Lombaxes, though her species usually held offices of power, like in the government for example, so it was odd to see one of her kind in a colony, even though she was the Major who talked with their Investor from time to time when he wanted reports, but she felt that it was the best thing for her, since it was far more rewarding than being involved in politics. It was odd for something to crash into Kyzil Plateau, since the only thing that was in that area was an old storage shed that she was thinking of clearing out in the future, once they had a purpose for it anyway, hence why she was heading over there to check on whatever might have crashed into their world, even if it was on the outskirts of the colony, though what surprised her and the others was the fact that there was a pod resting in the open area they were coming up on, which seemed big enough for two babies, up to two years old based on what she was seeing. Near the pod in question, something that appeared to be made in the style of the Lombaxes, as their tech was unique in some instances, rested two smaller containers that looked like a basket that someone used to leave orphans in, even though they were big enough to contain kids that were the same age as whoever was in the main pod, which was a fair bit larger, though she had her companions spread out, to be sure there wasn't anything they had missed during their trek to this place, all while she checked out the pods.

What she discovered in the pair of pods were two anthropomorphic ponies who appeared to be two years old, as neither of them looked like horses in her eyes, though one appeared to be male and the other was female, where the former had a light gray coat while his mane and tail were brown colored, though the interesting thing she found was that he had what she had to assume was a unicorn's horn, a small one to match his size, in the middle of his forehead, making her wonder if he could perform magic, like the stories said. The female, who she assumed was the boy's sister since they arrived with the main pod, had a light goldish gray color to her body, with a moderate tangelo mane and tail that were different looking than what her brother had, and her horn was curved and looked like a tree branch, nothing like a unicorn's horn, though it was a deep red color and had two crimson lines near the base, though it looked like she had grayish green apple colored scales on her back, not to mention on the area between her eyes. When she turned her gaze to the main pod, however, it was in that moment that she paused, as resting in the pod was a two year old male Lombax, who appeared to be sleeping like the pair he had arrived with, his siblings she guessed, where she found that he had yellow fur with brown stripes on his ears and his arms, though all three of them seemed to have bundles wrapped around them, keeping them warm while they slept. She then discovered what she guessed were name tags on the smaller pods, where the boy's had 'Starswirl' on it while the girl's had 'Autumn Blaze' on hers, before she noticed an inscription on the Lombax's pod, written in what she assumed had to be the language of the Lombaxes, which was a bunch of markings that looked like wrenches and maybe a few gears, but from what she could see it revealed that the Lombax's name was Ratchet and that there was an 'and' that was followed by some damage, making it so she couldn't read it.

As she did that, however, she also spotted what appeared to be a small necklace resting near Ratchet's head, one that she knew he would likely come to wear at some point in the future, when he was old enough, before finding that it had what looked like half of a flat orb, cut diagonally in half, which happened to be roughly about half the size of one's palm in her eyes, attached to it, to which she assumed that his sibling, whoever that was, would have the other half of it, but that was something for Ratchet to worry about when he was old enough to do something about it.

"Mayor Brooke, what should we do?" the mining robot asked, who spoke in a male voice, though at the same time he did discover the trio of newcomers who had crash landed near their settlement, all while the Cazar, Brooke, moved her hand over part of Ratchet's pod, which she discovered was definitely set up to have someone else inside it, before finding what had to be an indent that she couldn't open, meaning it had to be for Ratchet and might open up when he was old enough for whatever was inside it.

"We'll take them back with us, so they can grow up with the rest of the children," Brooke replied, as it was the only sensible thing for someone to do in this situation, though she would have to tell their Investor about this discovery, just so he had an idea of things, especially since one of them was a Lombax, a race that everyone thought was extinct based on what the last bit of news from the Polaris Galaxy revealed to them, to which she reached into the main pod and carefully extracted Ratchet, as well as making sure to grab his treasure so it wasn't stolen.

As she said that the mining robot carefully did the same for Starswirl as the Captain of the Guard, purely a title since there was no real guard and he was the one who lead his fellows in making sure everyone was safe, did the same for Autumn, to which the three of them turned around and made their way back to the colony so the newcomers could be placed in the orphanage, and so some of the Helper Bots could focus on them while she and her fellows focused on making sure things were fine, though she had the feeling that things were going to get more exciting in the days and weeks to come.