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// Strange Meteor 
// Story: Equestria: The Final Frontier 
// by Broneyofnoel 
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	Twilight shifted uneasily whilst looking through her telescope, a strange anomaly was happening very high up in the night sky. After what had happened over Canterlot last night, whatever it was, Twilight had been keeping watch from her own library, only occasionally stopping for a visit or maybe a nap of coffee from Spike.

The anomaly was getting brighter, but it didn’t show signs of moving at all, it wasn’t a comet, or a meteor, probably just the Princess’ doing an experiment with her own creation. Yet something still seemed...off, whatever it was...it would climax in some way very soon.

The light in the night sky suddenly vanished, causing Twilight to recoil away from her telescope for a moment, but only just. She was back gazing a moment later, but this time something was very wrong. The light was no longer a light, but a rapidly approaching rock of some sorts, it had fire coming from its rear and was made up of squares.

“Spike!” Twilight ran from her telescope and leaped down to Spike, grabbing him and covering him.

“Twilight?” Spike questioned as the mare held him.

The tree started to shake, very violently at that, and the two held each other as pictures and books dislodged themselves from the walls and shelves.

“What’s going on?” Spike said as the two held each other for dear life.

“I don’t know, it’ll be okay!” Twilight said as she made the decision, she teleported to the hills outside of Ponyville.

Twilight turned to see the object causing the commotion around Ponyville, the rock....the ship was soaring very slowly over Ponyville, heading right towards them. 

Before they had time to react, the ship landed less than ten feet from them, the ship didn’t effect the earth, other than a heavy gate dropping beside the large craft. Two strange looking creatures appeared from the craft and looked around, that was all Twilight needed before she teleported away to the castle.

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Lorhanna tensed up as the ship entered the planet’s atmosphere, as smooth as the flight was going, something was bound to go wrong. Her controls became very energized as the ship neared the planetary surface, the atmosphere changed from hope to happiness.

“Altitude, 1200 feet.” Lorhanna reported as the ship came closer to the surface, the soldiers and Gabriel started towards the back of the ship to gather their supplies.

“Alright , mount up the HUMVEE’s with enough fuel, ammunition, medical supplies, and food for a while, put the excess fuel drums on the probe trailers and hook them up!” Gabriel commanded as he went to the armory on board.

Lorhanna looked towards the small town coming towards her, a town she had dreamed of living in when she was a teenage girl, the town she had once called Ponyville. She had almost forgotten the beauty of Equestria, but here it was, as real as she was.

She maneuvered the ship to land gently in a field beside Ponyville, trying not to cause too much disturbance to its residents. But what happened next would ba an image she would never forget.

Twilight Sparkle and Spike, the two most prominent characters from her childhood, appeared on the hill in front of the ship, they just watched her land the ship, almost as if they were scared to move. She pulled the controls away from the hill and landed the ship in the valley beneath the hill.

Lorhanna parted ways from the controls and ran down the halls to the exit ramp, while the rest of the crew were waiting, she and the Sergeant would be stepping off of the craft. She ran to press the release button.

“Are you ready Sergeant?”  She asked as the door slowly opened, allowing pressure to balance before they stepped outside.

The large automated door lowered for several long moments before finally touching down on the soft grass below them. The Sergeant first stepped out with and oxygen measurement device.

“Oxygen is 20.55% at surface, nearly perfect.” he said as they panned the device around, admiring the night sky.

“Alright.” Lorhanna said as she saw a purple flash come from the front of the ship, a flash from a teleportation.

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Gabriel, followed by the soldiers, unlocked the vehicles and weapons aboard the ship, his first order was to arm the HUMVEE’s and load the ambulance variant with supplies. Once he unlocked the armory, each of the soldiers grabbed their own gear; Weapons, armor, communications devices, all of it.

Four soldiers were in the first HUMVEE, 1 driver, the gunner, and two passengers, it was the armament carrier, which would lead out the missions. In the second was two soldiers, a driver and gunner, it held the supplies and medical litters.

Lorhanna would be in the front passenger seat in the first HUMVEE, Gabriel would be riding with the probe being towed by that one. The other two soldiers would be on the second probe trailer, making sure the extra drums of gasoline didn't fall from the trailer.

“Move out!” Gabriel commanded as the two HUMVEEs drove down the ramp and onto the grassy area.

“Establishing Radio contact, channel 12 normality, channel 5 in emergencies.” The Sergeant told the first HUMVEE.

“Alright,” Gabriel said over the probe’s radio, “Team 1, head towards the town, set a probe on top of the tallest hill you can find, my team will head to the original drop point and set up Lunar Republic’s probe.”

“Roger that.” The Sergeant, who happened to be the driver of Team 1, said.

The two teams split ways, team two, where Gabriel was, was approaching Drop point 1, Canterlot suburbs, at around fifty miles per hour, taking the main road going from the small town they had landed near to the large city where their first point was.

“Beacon is showing that we’re about 20 miles out.” Gabriel radioed to the driver, who signaled through the room that he copied.

As the team started up the mountain, they stopped to set up the first probe. Once they fully stopped, Gabriel jumped from the trailer and unhitched the probe.

“Alright, you two head up to Drop point Alpha, I’ll meet up with team one.” he commanded.

“Yes, sir.” The two leapt back into the HUMVEE and continued driving.

“Alright Private, help me with this.”

The two unlatched the probes base, and they dug a couple of inches into the ground, next they opened the solar panels on either side, and then they uncovered the laser transmitting satellite area.

“Alright, 1187.” Gabriel said as he punched in the code to start the transmitter.

The probe sprang to life, it’s touch-screen interface lit up with life, and the NASA logo appeared for a moment, and then a call screen came up.

“Videocall, Houston Space Center.” Gabriel said, and the probe followed his command, in a very short time, Earth’s very first interplanetary call would be made.

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