The intercom buzzed and a voice roused him from his sleep. “Admiral, we're almost there.”
“I'll be up in a bit.” Rolling out of his bunk, he headed in to the bathroom to get cleaned up, he hadn't had a good rest for a while, so his body felt good for almost forty eight hours of doing nothing. Ten minutes later and he entered the bridge, dressed in his combat gear.
“Sir, I really think we need to talk to him about his obsession.”
“And what obsession would that be?”
“His Halo one. I mean, it's bad enough we're on a Prowler, but the combat gear they designed...we look like freaking ODST's!!”
“Do you have a problem with that?”
“.....no sir.”
“Good. Get to your position and be ready for anything.”
“Yes sir.” The admiral settled in to the command chair and sighed, speaking to himself in a whisper.
“Wait till you see how we are getting down there.......”
“Twilight, what are you doing up at this time of night?”
She was stood on the balcony outside her bedroom. “I can't sleep. I'm having nightmares again.”
Her husband came up and stood beside her, nuzzling her gently. “It's cold out here, why don't you come back to bed?” She just looked up to the canvas that Luna used in her art.
“He was right you know.”
“About what?”
“That there is a beauty and peace at night. I don't know why ponies all those years ago couldn't see it when it's right there.”
“It's quite late, but why don't we go do some stargazing? I'll carry the equipment, you're in no condition to do that any more.”
Twilight just looked down at her slightly swollen stomach. “I'm not that far along you know? But.... thank you.” A short while later and they were lying on the grass on top of a hill on their backs looking up at the sky. Peace pervaded until another voice came across the ground.
“Hey boss! Didn't expect to see you out at this time of night.”
“Lieutenant Streak. May I ask what you are doing here?”
“I'm.....on my way to see Fluttershy. We....had a bit of an argument and I need to sort things out. If that's okay with you, Colonel?”
“Here's an idea. Why don't you get her to come out here?”
“Because this isn't a conversation I want to have in public.”
Twilight looked over at the pegasus who had his head hanging towards the ground. “What was the fight about? Maybe I can help.”
“It wasn't a fight...or an argument as such. We just got to talking about stuff.....and it eventually turned to talk about marriage and foals....and I spooked. I just flew out of there. That was two nights ago.”
“No wonder Fluttershy didn't want to see anypony. Streak, you're a moron sometimes.”
“Why thank you Lady Sparkle, I never realised that.”
“Lieutenant, watch who you're talking to.”
“Sorry sir.”
“Now, get your flank over to that cottage and apologi....Twilight what's wrong?” She had her attention to the sky, and he followed her gaze, Streak doing the same. In the inky blackness was a bright blue aurora, which whilst spectacular, was also cause for concern. “Twilight, has anything like that ever happened here before?”
“No, you only see things like that in the Crystal Empire....” As she trailed of, the aurora disappeared, but they could see a new star......one that moved across the night sky slowly. She ran to the telescope and pointed it in the direction of the anomaly. “I'm don't know what that is, but it's not a star....”
White Feather moved over and had a look himself. He could make out blue lights along the body, and on the outer edges were flashing red and green lights. “We need to tell the princesses about this....” There was a flash from the anomaly that they could see without the telescope, and something came away from it.....before turning towards the planet and entering the atmosphere.
“Are we under attack?”
“I don't know lieutenant, but we may need to get reinforcements. I'll gather the Seven's, you contact Canterlot.”
“Yes sir.” As he turned to gallop off, the object in the sky disappeared over the horizon to the south.
“Celestia help us.....”
“Entering normal space in five.” They all turned to their stations and started monitoring the ships status. They had made numerous jumps and now they were used to the effects of the transition. Reporting the statuses was no longer necessary, as there was no difference each time. “And we're back. Sensors are picking up a planet.....it's massive.”
“How big?”
“If the sensors are right sir.....it's three times the size Earth.”
“That's big. Start the scanners. Hopefully we'll pick up on his emergency transponder.”
“Scanners are warming up......by the computers calculations, it's going to take eighteen hours to scan the entire surface, so it may be a while.....”
“SIR! We've got a hit all ready!! An emergency transponder signal, and it is consistent with the equipment he had!”
“That quick? Okay, drop a beacon to that position and lock us in to geosynchronous orbit of where we are now, then head down to the docking level. We're leaving the Luna in orbit and taking a different way down.” As they turned to their stations and started typing in commands, he watched as the beacon launched in a white streak towards the planet.
“Sir, do we know what's going on?”
“No. We aren't to do anything yet, but we are to be ready. Princess Luna doesn't know what it is either, and she can't get a hold of it with her magic.”
“SIR!” White Feather turned to the pegasus at the telescope.
“What is it Sergeant Starfyre?”
“Something else has broken away from the main object and is heading in the same direction as the first, but at a slower pace.”
“So something is controlling it then? We shall follow orders and remain in Ponyville to protect the Bearers....for now.”
“Yes sir.”
“Admiral, I beginning to think this was all a big joke!”
“And why is that?”
“BECAUSE WE ARE IN A FUCKING PELICAN, sir!”
“Hey, even I didn't know about it till ten minutes before we left!!! You're not the only one that was a little shocked.”
“Yeah, but ten months?”
“Surprise bitches.”
One of the other officers sat down the back spoke up. “Hey boss, can I say something, seeing as we're in a Pelican dressed as ODST's?”
“Permission granted.”
“I've always wanted to say this: FEET FIRST INTO HELL!!!”
“Helljumpers. You fucking moron.”
“Yes sir.”
It was early morning when their ship arrived at the beacon, and what they saw shocked them. For two miles around the crater the sand was black and cracked, and there was a hill that they could tell should be higher. The place looked like someone had dumped a nuke on it. They set down at the edge of the field and exited the drop ship. “Okay, the beacon is over that way, near the centre, that's where we got the transponder signal from.”
“Weapons check. Ben?”
“Heavy support ready to go, Sir.”
“Dave?”
“Explosives ready, sir.”
“Daniel, I can't believe, that out of all of us, I'm asking you this. Sniper?”
“Ready to take some heads off sir.”
“Good. Move out.”
After half an hour a walking through what looked like a ruined city, they had arrived at the centre. The middle of the crater was very deep, and they could see through some holes that there used to be a massive hole here, more than likely filled in by what ever they were now walking on.
“Sir, the signal is coming from with five metres of our position.”
“Spread out and start looking.” They started to route around through the wreckage, hoping to find some sort of sign or clue as to his whereabouts. The admiral was just about to lift up a large metal plate when on of the troops ran up to him.
“Sir! Look at this!” He was handed a piece of glass that had a strap around it, large enough for a human head. Taking off his helmet, the admiral put it up to his eye, which then widened in surprise at what was displayed.
HUD Hardware damaged.
Weapon targeting offline.
Please return to manufacturer.
“This.....is it. This is the emergency transponder.....but where is the rest of it? Why only this piece?”
“Sir, there's no bodies here. If Alec was here, then he's long gone.”
“We need answers. Back to the Pelican, we heading for Ponyville.......once we find it.”
Twilight was walking along with her friends, who were all chatting excitedly about what the lights in the sky were. Their respective partners were out patrolling the Everfree, making sure nothing had snuck up on the town during the night. Rainbow Dash, typically, thought it would be awesome if it was more aliens, but Twilight had shot her down immediately, saying that there was no evidence to support it.
They were just about to enter Sugarcube Corner when a sudden gasp from behind them made them turn around. They looked at Pinkie Pie who seemed to just be standing there until her mane and coat started to blow around like there was a gale right in front of her. As quick as it started, it stopped.
“Pinkie, what was that? I've not see that Pinkie Sense before.”
“That last happened when me and Flutter....” She trailed off as it hit her again, and then repeated twice more.
“Pinkie?”
“I DON'T KNOW!!!” Just as Twilight was about to respond, they heard a loud scream from the edge of town, and they rushed towards it. At first they thought he was back, but then another one appeared, followed by two more. The one in the lead saw them standing there and approached, it's weapon pointing at the ground. Twilight instantly recognised it and pulled it from the creatures grasp.
“Ooooh, an L85!!! Let's see here.....” She pulled the magazine out and slid the cocking handle back, watching as a round exited the chamber. “Walking around with a weapon made ready? Who taught you, a blind chipmunk?” The creature, as they couldn't see if it was human because of the darkened visor, just stood there, it's head cocked at an angle and not saying anything as Twilight proceeded to strip the weapon down, before reassembling it and passing it back. “Thought so, an A2. Yours seems to be a bit lighter though.”
The admiral couldn't believe it. He hadn't even started talking when the purple one grabbed his rifle, removed the magazine, chided him, and then stripped his weapon before reassembling it and floating back over to him. She had even carried out the function test correctly.
“How do you know how to operate this weapon?”
“Oh, so you can talk. I guess the short version of it is I was taught how to before I shot myself in the face with it. He wasn't too happy about that.”
“Who wasn't?” He watched her expression fall as she hung her head.
“I.....don't want to talk about it.”
“Look, we are here to find our friend, if you know where he is then please tell us.”
A male voice sounded behind them and they turned to see a massive white unicorn in gold armour heading towards them. “The Captain is no longer around. Please, do not talk about it in public, it makes them upset.” He raised a hoof and pointed it around the gathered ponies. “Follow me and we can discuss it.”
“Lead the way.”
“.....and that was the last time any of us saw him. He sacrificed everything so that we could escape. He is a true hero to our ponies.”
“So you think he's dead?”
“Nothing could have survived that blast. Even if he did, he wouldn't have made it out in time to escape the falling structures. That was about eight months ago.”
“So we came all this way.....for nothing.”
“No, Daniel, we came here for a good reason. Just because we didn't find him, doesn't mean it was for nothing.”
“Yes sir.”
White Feather looked at the gathered humans in the guard station. “I am assuming you are his friends?” They all nodded. “Then there is something you need to see. Lieutenant Streak!”
“Yes sir?”
“Show these gentlecolts to the train station and purchase them a return ticket to Canterlot, I'll inform Captain Gale of their arrival.”
“On it sir.”
“What are we going to see?”
“What he has done whilst he was here. I would say leave your weapons, but you may need them. We are still getting reports of scattered Changeling activity, but we never find anything.”
“I see. Thank you for your time, I'm sure we'll meet again.”
“Yes, I'm sure we will.” He watched the humans leave and looked to the picture on his desk, from all those months ago in Manehatten. “Dammit Captain, where are you?”
The pegasus mare watched her husband change into a pony in front of her, then looked to the creature laid out on their couch. They had been looking after it since he brought it back. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Yes, I've got to go to Canterlot to let them know he is here. We've healed him all we can. I received word from a friend on the inside that more of his kind have arrived. He can go home.”
“But what if he tries to do something to the foal?” Her husband pulled her close and revealed his true face, giving her a kiss before opening the door.
“Then tell him that Pokey will be spending another night in jail. He'll understand.”