//------------------------------//
// A Light In The Sky 
// Story: Strange Bedfellows 
// by BRBrony9 
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Strange Bedfellows
Chapter 1


The stillness of space was shattered by a brilliant flash of light. To any observer, it would have appeared as though the very fabric of reality was distorting- for that was exactly what was happening. The tear in space, glowing a deep reddish purple, slowly widened as something emerged from within. It was a ship, and within seconds it had been joined by half a dozen others. More tears were opening around it, and soon an entire fleet had materialized where before there had been nothing.
‘We have arrived, Captain.’ Lord Admiral Marcos spoke softly, belying his great bulk. On the bridge of his flagship, the Emperor’s Judgement, the Admiral’s command staff was overseeing the return to realspace. The Emperor’s Judgement, one of the many stalwart Emperor-Class Battleships in service with the Battlefleets of Segmentum Pacificus, was, as the Admiral willed it, the first vessel into the warp and the first vessel out of it. Never let it be said, thought Flag-Captain Petr Bormann, that Admiral Arlen Marcos is not a brave man. The vessel was his to command, having worked his way through the ranks and earning his position through years of loyal service, but for now he had to suborn his ship to the will of the Admiral, although, he was quick to mentally remind himself, the captain of a ship always retained final say in its operations.

The Emperor’s Judgement lay at the head of a vast fleet, not just of warships, but of troop transports, tankers and bulk landers- an invasion fleet. For this was the main force of what had become known as the Western Fringe Crusade- a vast, concerted effort by the Imperium to push beyond its western borders, and to continue where the Macharian Crusade had left off hundreds of years before. Captain Bormann thought that Lord-General Tomaz Galen, who was standing nearby on the bridge, would not have been overly concerned that his name had not been attached to that of the Crusade like that of the Lord Solar had been all those years earlier. He is a modest man, but unlike so many of his rank, he has nothing to be modest about, thought Bormann. Emperor knows this Crusade would have fallen apart at the seams without him long ago. The rank of Lord-General, the highest in the Imperial Guard’s General Staff, placed Galen in command of all Guard forces assigned to the Crusade, while Admiral Marcos retained control of all Navy assets and, controversially in many eyes, held overall command of the Crusade, the reasons given by the High Lords of Terra being that the Crusade would be heading into relatively uncharted territory and so someone familiar with space operations should retain overall command. Unlike in many cases Bormann could name, there had been remarkably little friction between the two branches of the armed services, and the two men had rapidly become powerful friends. Which explains, he thought, why we have already conquered seven star systems.

‘All vessels have returned to the Materium successfully, sir. No damage reported,’ called the ship’s Comm officer. 
‘Thank you, Lieutenant,’ Bormann replied. He noticed the Admiral nodding with pleasure. 
‘A smooth run, Captain. Remind me to thank Navigator Pericles personally,’ he said. 
‘Aye, most efficient, and no damage reported. The Emperor must have very little else to do today than watch over us,’ Lord-General Galen chimed in, eliciting a laugh from the Admiral. 
Bormann could hear the metallic monotones of the servitor crewmen delivering reports on the star system they had arrived in, known to the Imperium as Kuda.
‘Current fleet location deep in-system. Single-planet system, one moon, G-Class Main Sequence star. Fleet distance from planet currently 20,000,000 miles.’
‘Planet is Gamma-class, subtype garden world. Planetary dimensions are as follows: diameter at Equator six thousand four hundred eleven miles…’
‘Well gentlemen,’ Admiral Marcos spoke suddenly. ‘As far as our records indicate, we are the first humans to ever set foot in this system. We are treading new ground here, and it would be wise to tread lightly. I want the fleet to hold at two million miles while we scan the planet.’ The bridge crew hurried to relay his commands to the other vessels as the Admiral beckoned Bormann and Galen closer. 
‘We know very little about this system,’ he said quietly. ‘It is possible that an Explorator fleet may have made it out this far some time in the past, but as far as we know we are the first. Lord-General, I want you to keep our options open. Prepare two landing parties- one should be a scouting force, the other should be a first-contact party. There may be life down there.’
The Lord-General nodded. ‘As you say, so shall it be done.’ 
Admiral Marcos turned to Bormann.	
‘Captain, take us to two million miles.’ 



Peering through the viewport, Captain Bormann could see the fleet hanging in silent majesty against the inky blackness. Out here on the galactic fringe there were surprisingly few stars to be seen in most directions. They were holding as ordered at a distance of two million miles from the sole planet, now being designated with the placeholder name of Kuda Primus. Why Primus Bormann could not fathom, since, being a single-planet system, there was no Secundus.

‘Captain, our scans of the planet are complete.’ Bormann’s reverie was interrupted by the ship’s Auspex officer. ‘Scans show there to be significant plant and animal life on the planet, Captain, but something seems to be interfering with the scanners. Almost like low-grade interference, sir, though I could not say from what. We cannot scan much of the main continent, sir, but from what we can observe we see no signs of intelligent life.’
‘Thank you, Lieutenant. Continue attempting to scan the main continent. I will inform the Admiral,’ Bormann responded. Walking over to the Admiral, he made his report.
‘Interference? Hmm. Perhaps we should move into orbit and rescan,’ the Admiral suggested. Bormann agreed, and directed the ship into orbit above the main continent. A short while later, the Auspex officer came to him with his second report.

‘Captain, we have rescanned the planet but are still experiencing the interference. We have been unable to scan the main continent, but visual observations do appear to reveal several settlements there, although much of it is under heavy cloud cover. I believe there is intelligent life down there after all, sir, or at least there used to be. We are not picking up any radio or electromagnetic emissions from the planet, which suggests that whatever is down there is at a low technology level. Could be a feudal world, sir. The climate appears to be ideal for supporting life.’

The admiral seemed both excited and troubled by the news. Standing over a holo-map of the planet, he spoke.
‘Lord-General,’ he commanded, ‘I want both your landing parties ready to go within the hour. Depending on the reception they get we may not need to deploy your troops at all. This world is ideal for supporting life and it would make a most valuable addition to the Imperium. Therefore, we shall claim it in the name of the Emperor!’
‘As you say, Admiral. My men are ready to drop immediately,’ Galen replied. The Admiral clapped his strong hands together in glee. 
‘Very well! They go immediately. They are to land on the main continent. I want a first-contact party to approach the inhabitants at the two largest settlements we can see. The scouting party is to split into two also. One half will explore this large plain here,’ he indicated the central-southern part of the continent, mostly hidden by cloud, ‘and the other half shall provide escorts for the first-contact teams.’ Galen nodded and saluted.
‘It shall be done, Admiral,’ he said.
‘Excellent!’ Marcos replied. ‘Then let us see what awaits us down there.’



It had been a bright, clear night over Ponyville, but now the morning brought with it a thick coating of clouds. Spike was awoken by a knock at the library door.
‘Ugh,’ he exclaimed, rolling over in his bed. ‘Answer the door, Twilight!’ The knocking continued. Opening his eyes and looking round, the diminutive dragon could see that Twilight was not in her bed. Surmising she must be out somewhere, Spike realised he would have to answer the door himself. Reluctantly he hauled himself from his cosy bed and, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, made his way to the front door. A familiar orange pony greeted his gaze when he opened it.
‘Hay there Spike!’ Applejack said breezily. ‘Is Twilight around? She said she’d help me with the fancy math-er-matics and stuff for puttin’ up mah new barn today.’ 
‘Oh, hi Applejack,’ Spike greeted his friend. ‘I’m not sure where she is, I haven’t seen her this morning.’ He called out her name several times but got no response. 
‘Maybe she’s upstairs,’ he said, stepping aside to let Applejack enter.
‘Well ah don’t mean ta pester y’all, but could ya find her for me? Ah really need ta get started on this barn today,’ Applejack said, taking off her wide-brimmed hat as she stepped through the door. ‘Big Macintosh has already got all the materials, but neither of us know the first thing ‘bout this here ‘geometry.’
Spike led the way upstairs, the orange mare following close behind. He called out to Twlight again, but still received no reply. 
‘Hey! There she is,’ he said, catching a glimpse of purple through the door that led to the balcony. Sure enough, Twilight Sparkle, ever the studious pony, had apparently fallen asleep while studying her telescope. There were several books around her on the balcony, and some sheets of paper with scribbled calculations on them. The telescope was pointing at a jaunty angle up into the now overcast sky.
‘Twilight! It’s time to wake up,’ Spike said, giving her a gentle nudge. She stirred slowly, opening her eyes and giving a tremendous yawn that Spike would have been proud to give himself.
‘What…why am I outside?’ she asked, getting unsteadily to her feet. 
‘Hey there missy,’ Applejack said. ‘Looks like y’all fell asleep while you were lookin’ through that there fancy telescope of yours.’ Twilight blinked, then something seemed to click in her brain.
‘Of course, the telescope! You won’t believe what I saw last night,’ she exclaimed, searching through the discarded papers until she seized upon one in particular, which she thrust towards Applejack. The earth pony took the sheet of paper and examined it.
‘Uh, Twi..’ she began. ‘Y’all are gonna have ta explain this to me, ‘cause it makes no kind ‘a sense!’
Twilight, now fully awake, pointed at the paper. Spike jumped up onto her back to get a view.
‘This…well, these are just calculations I made last night. Actually they’re not really important. What is important is what I saw.’
‘What did you see, Twilight?’ Spike asked, as puzzled by the contents of the page as Applejack had been.
‘I was doing some routine astronomy, star cataloguing and whatnot, like I do every week,’ Twilight explained. ‘While I was looking through the telescope, I saw some flashes of light. I’ve never seen anything like it before. They weren’t very big, which suggests they were quite far away, but I counted at least sixty.’  Spike and Applejack looked at her in anticipation.
‘I don’t know what they were. I thought at first it might have been shooting stars entering the atmosphere, but they didn’t seem to move so I discounted that theory. Then much later, I’m sure I saw something…it looked like it was floating up there. I could only see it because light was reflecting off of it from the sun. I don’t know what it was, but I made this sketch.’ She picked up another piece of paper with her magic and showed it to her friends. The object she had sketched was roughly rectangular. She had drawn a bulge at one end, and the other end tapered to a point. Neither Applejack nor Spike had any idea what it was.
‘I tracked it for an hour and then I must have fallen asleep,’ Twilight continued.
‘Do you know what it is?’ Spike asked. ‘An asteroid maybe?’ Twilight shook her head.
‘No, not an asteroid. I tracked it for an hour and it didn’t seem to move, which means it must be in orbit around the planet. An asteroid that was pulled into our orbit would not orbit nearly so close as this thing must be. I did some calculations, she gestured with a hoof at the first piece of paper, ‘and I worked out that whatever it is, it is around 3 miles in length.’ 
‘Well,’ Applejack interrupted. ‘If it ain’t an asteroid, then just what the hay is it?’ Twilight looked worried. 
‘I…don’t know.’ Spike and Applejack shared a glance. ‘I don’t know,’ the unicorn repeated, ‘but I think I should tell the Princess. Spike, take a letter.’