Chapter one: No Big Disasters
“You almost never get to just come out here and hang out with us like this Princess, it's such an honor!” said Twilight Sparkle, the little unicorn blinking up at her mentor with a smile.
Princess Celestia nodded, taking a sip of tea, before setting it down, and returning the smile to her favorite pupil, “And I do regret that my dear student, for I do so enjoy spending time with you and your friends, especially on such a gorgeous day!” she said looking out to the bright, clear day, with the sun sitting high in the sky.
“It certainly is, your sun looks brighter than ever right now! I guess we're just not used to seeing each other unless some big disaster is happening...” she said with a little chuckle.
Another unicorn, with a rather stylish mane nodded in concurrence, swishing her hair to the side before she tipped her bonnet up slightly, taking a sip of tea, before setting it on a sculpted table, which looked a bit out of place on the grassy ground, “I couldn't agree more myself, it is so delightful to have royal company on such a day!” she says tilting her head back slightly.
Applejack chomped down a bright shiny apple she had in a basket before her, nodding, and speaking with her mouthful, “Mmphmm it sure as sugar is! It's just to bad the others couldn't join us.”
“Pinky Pie and Fluttershy had some pet, and baby sitting to do, and of course, Rainbow Dash is training overtime at the academy,” said Twilight Sparkle.
“Oh that's right, you told me about your friend being accepted into the wonder bolt academy,” the princess tapped her hoof to her chin for a moment, “Hmm, perhaps I'll pay her a visit sometime, I do so enjoy watching those talented Pegasus,” she said with a smile.
Twilight Sparkle calmly laid down in the comfortable, warm grass, “Have you heard anything about Cadence, and my brother over in the Crystal Empire, your majesty?” she asked looking to the princess.
Celestia perked up at this, lifting up a napkin to dab her lips slightly before nodding, “Oh yes I have! The Crystal Empire had its first formal emissary from the Griffon Kingdom! I have been told that it has gone wonderfully, and that they intend to form trade routes soon!” she said with a smile.
“The Griffon Kingdom, that IS wonderful! I heard that griffons are especially hard to reason with at times, and make proper allies with...” said twilight, splaying her ears some.
“Surprisingly enough, it was your brother who played a big role in that. Griffons are proud warriors, and look fondly upon strong soldiers. When Shining Armor displayed himself as a competent warrior, and a member of the Equestrian Royal Guard, they readily gave their reverence to him.” said the shimmering white princess.
Rarity coughed a bit on her tea, before setting it back down, “Griffons?! I can hardly see what we would want to trade with them... they seem like such brutish and mean spirited creatures.” she said turning her head away.
Applejack shook her head at Rarity, “Come on Rarity, you can't say that about ALL griffons, we only ever met one...” she said raising an eyebrow at her.
Rarity rolled her eyes, sighing, “Oh well, I suppose that is true...”
The ponies fell silent for a little bit, simply enjoying the serenity of the day. Eventually Rarity spoke up again, raising her crystal class with a bright smile, “I propose a toast, to friendship, and to an absolutely perfect day!” she said raising it with her magic.
The others all followed suite, and said in unison, “To friendship!”
It was at this point, that something unexpected happened, just as it always did whenever princess Celestia seemed to visit Ponyville. It was rarity who first noticed it in the sky. It looked almost like a shooting star, save of how big, and bright that it was. This of course struck her as rather odd, “My goodness... look how big that falling star is, we can even see it in the daylight, actually...” she began to look a bit worried as she noticed how it grew slightly. Every other pony turned their heads, their maws agape as they noticed it.
The Princess Spoke up, “That doesn't look like any sort of falling star,” said looking with as much awe and curiosity as the others.
All of the ponies gasped, the princess startled and standing up quickly as they all heard a loud bang, like an explosion, and then witnessed the object breaking apart into a few smaller pieces. They all stood up at this point, as they realized that the object, or now, objects, where falling uncomfortably close to them.
Applejack jumped up, running forward towards the estimated landing spot of the objects, “Every pony, get out of the way!!” she yelled out at the top of her lungs, before Twilight Sparkle grabbed her, pushing her away hurriedly along with the princess, and the others to get behind cover. A few of the other ponies who were enjoying the day, luckily not too close, but near the grassy hill scrambled, getting away from the impending shadow of the object. One little filly it seemed was a bit confused, and wasn't moving fast enough. Princess Celestia noticed this, and used her magic to teleport the scared little foal over to her, before she ran off to the side to find her mother.
They had only a few more seconds to prepare, to watch the spectacle that would unfold before them. The smaller objects that had broken off from the main piece crashed, violently into the ground, sending a plume of dirt and debris around their impact zone. Then, as if all of this wasn't enough, another strange thing happened. The main object appeared to be primarily cylindrical, with a trapezoidal tip, along with many other, very, very strange markings that the ponies had not the time to focus on as it dashed to the ground. Before it made it's inevitable impact to the ground, some sort of bright blue glow emitted from underneath it. It looked very much like magic to the ponies that observed it. This blue glow appeared to slow it down significantly, before it took a loud metallic crash onto the ground before it. It echoed through out the countryside, but was still a petty crash in comparison to the smaller objects.
Twilight coughed, shaking head as she cleared her vision, looking forward onto the crash site. The air was full of dust and dirt, shaken up from the crash site. Princess Celestia nuzzled her quickly, “Twilight, Applejack... is every pony alright?” she looked around. The others, although shaken, and on their backs, nodded, they appeared to be alright. Several royal Pegasus guards flew in rapidly, landing around the princess, some even drew their spears, shaken, and pointing them at the crash site with fear.
Twilight sparkle looked confused, and shaken. The young unicorns eyes were filled with fear, and shock. Still, the image of the strange object, as it hovered, and thumped to the ground was fresh in her mind. Her studious, curious nature drove her to have a certain fascination with it, even though, admittedly, she had no idea what it was, and fully acknowledge the potential for its danger. She looked to her teacher, “Princess Celestia, what... what is that...” she asked, almost as a statement than a question, for the way the princess reacted to it, she wondered, if even her all knowing beloved Celestia knew what this thing was. Her intuition would prove to be correct.
“I... do not know my student. I believe that we should use the utmost cation when examining this, thing,” she said with a look of awe, and apprehension on her face.
As she stepped forward, a few of the guards jumped before her, “No, your majesty! Its too dangerous, please, let us take care of this!” they insisted.
The Princess closed her eyes and raised a hoof before them, “That will be quite alright sirs, myself and my student will investigate. You and your steeds will check the nearby area, and make sure no other pony is hurt,” she commanded them. The guards knelt before her, and saluted her, quickly flying off to the outskirts of the wreckage. Celestia turned to Twilight, giving her a nod. She quite readily knew how eager her student was to explore this new phenomena, even though she cared for her safety, “Let us go Twilight Sparkle, but stick close to me,” she said, beckoning her to follow with a wing.
The unicorn gulped, and trotted along close behind the much taller Alicorn princess. The dust in the air was beginning to clear, but as the neared one of the smaller crashes, they could see that it was still smoking. The princess edged closer to it, and soon it became clear why. In the center of the impact zone, there was little else than a smoldering heap of some sort of metallic goop. Other than the fact that it had fallen from the sky, there did not appear to be anything special about it. After a few moments of peering, Twilight and Celestia trotted on. They went past another one of these pits, with yet another glob of metal at the center, but then they're attention was drawn to something, much more interesting. Something that looked as if it was not of this world.
It was something that neither pony could quite put into words. It was like an elongated, metallic box, with various buttons, and strange devices hanging off the back. Towards the front, the box came to a point, and there was what looked like glass on the front. Of course, the glass had cracked, what lay behind it was clouded by sparks, and smoke. There were strange symbols, of which neither Twilight nor Celestia had seen before.
Slowly, each of them took a few steps closer to the crashed object. Twilight, although bursting with curiosity, stood closely behind Celestia. As they looked closer at the object, they noticed that there was written words along various places on the metallic box, words that, although they understood their pronunciation, they did not understand their meaning. There were words like, “Kodiak” and “Alliance” and “Thermal Reactor”. The rear of the object looked crumbled, and broken, with various metallic pieces and wires sticking out of it, it was also sparking quite a bit, so the ponies stayed away from that end. The two of them nodded to each other, and began to circle the fallen object. Of the strange words, Twilight Sparkle noticed two of them that made sense. She noticed next to the glass windows, there was a button, and underneath it was written, “Manual Open”. At that moment, there was an eruption of wonderment in Twilight Sparkles eyes, and in her heart. In fact, she took several moments just to stare at it, thoughts of the future, of what could lay inside this alien object racing through her mind. The Princess walked back over to Twilight, noticing her rigid stare. She stepped to her side, and looked to Twilight. Her own natural curiosity and excitement was churning inside her. She didn't feel she could, and perhaps, she shouldn't, stop her student. Instead, she stood there, and waited for her, wondering, with all her greater ability to wonder, what was going to happen next.
The tension could be cut with a dragons tail, but alas, after much pondering, Twilight broke it, by finally lifting her hoof, and moving it towards the button. The button was level with the rest of the metallic surface, only it's thin outline, and the text below it gave it away. The unicorns hoof came in contact with it, this for some reason, made it seem less intimidating and made her breath a sigh of relief. It almost seemed jammed, as simple force seemed to have no affect. Twilight moved her other hoof up to assist her, she had to put quite a bit of effort into it, before the button depressed into the machine. Twilight jumped back in surprise, as a hissing sound emitted, dust, and air was blown out through the outline of the glass window. As she ducked closely against the princess, they both stood cautiously, watching, as the window, now apparently on some sort of frame, slowly opened, revealing the interior of the wreckage.
Everything that they had seen thus far paled in comparison to what unveiled before their eyes. As soon as the windowed glass opened up, and the smoke cleared, that was when they saw it. He flopped down, onto the ruined Equestrian ground, for the first time.