Rotten.
Rotten to the core.
This is how Applebloom felt when she finally awoke from her horrible nightmares. It felt so real, so lifelike. It was frightening to say the least, but it was all over now. She pulled her comforter off of her tired body and yawned loudly. For reasons unknown, her legs felt weak as if she had just ran a full marathon.
Wait a minute...her room smelled a bit...different than the usual scent of apples and hoof paint. And what was that bubbling sound? And why did her mattress feel all funny?
“Whaza...huh?” Applebloom’s vision was usually blurry in the early mornings, so she rubbed her eyes to clear her view. She found herself staring at Zecora, who was tossing in a dash powder or two into her bubbling cauldron. She stirred the mixture with a very large wooden paddle. After a few seconds of stirring, she picked up an empty bowl off of a nearby shelf and dipped it into the cauldron, filling it up to the brim with a thick, purple liquid.
“Z-Zecora?” Applebloom said weakly. Zecora looked up from her black pot and turned to face the awakened filly. Applebloom started to climb out of the bed, but Zecora ran to her side and forced her back on, recovering her body with the blanket.
“Nonono, dear Applebloom! You must not rise to quickly, to soon!” Zecora spoke within her usual if somewhat taboo form of rhyming. “You are too weak, from the newcomer’s bright light. It drained your energy like a fright in the high night. You must get your rest, it is only for the best.” Applebloom tried to argue back, but her body was simply to tired for any sort of action. She said nothing and sighed heavily, accepting Zecora’s advice, and before she knew it, she was fast asleep.
Zecora dipped one of her front hooves into the bowl of freshly made brew, covering it with the sparkly mixture. She lightly dabbed the mixture onto Applebloom’s forehead in several spots, which started to glow with a soft light after a few seconds. “That should assist her with her fears...” Zecora walked to the front door of her tree-home and opened it, allowing the sounds of the nighttime forest to flood the room. She could faintly hear what sounded like boots on hard ground. Loud shouts echoed through the thick trees and the faint glow of the intensely bright lights she had encountered before peeked out through the crevices. The creatures were only a half-mile trot away from her deep forest home, a dangerous factor for her to be leaving a helpless young filly out here by herself, but she had it covered.
“No creature I know, would ever dare come this close...” Zecora silently shut the door and pulled down a small string next to the the doorpost, causing a giant blanket of multicolored tree leaves to drop onto the front of her home, covering it like a suit of camouflage. “...and with this veil on my home, eight or nine feet, at the most.”
Zecora quietly stalked through the thicket of trees like a panther stalking up to it’s prey. The boot-stomping and fierce shouting drew closer as she silently crept up towards the entrance of the outpost.
‘It’s a mystery to one such as I, as to why that alarm has not rang up it’s shrill-’
Zecora stopped dead in her tracks, one hoof hanging up in the air, directly above a small metal pole with a blue light glowing on top of it. Very slowly, she lowered her leg to the ground and backed away, keeping a sharp eye on the pole in front of her. Needing to take a more cautionary approach, she started to lurk in circles around the walls, trying at her best to find the entrance to the newcomer’s home. This went on for quite some time. The walls seemed to stretch on forever, the possible end in sight only leading to another rounded corner.
“Could there at least be a window, a front door perhaps?” Zecora quietly pondered to herself.
Suddenly, just as she was about to move in closer to the wall, the snapping of twigs caught her off guard. She froze, eyes wide, with her body shaking in fear. More twigs snapped, bringing her into a panic. The dead tree branches rustled in the nightly wind, their sways only adding to the fear already building up inside of her.
*crunch*
*crunch*
*crunch*
The footsteps came closer and closer, each new crack of the leaves and twigs setting off another alarm in her head. Her conscience was screaming at her to get to safety, but she didn’t budge. A thin sliver of light appeared through the trees. It’s beam swayed back and forth in conjunction with each new sound.
‘Get safe! Get safe, or only pure death will you taste!’
Zecora gave in to her conscious warnings and ran as fast as she could and dove into the nearest pile of bushes. She tried her best so slow down her breathing as to not give away her position to whatever was coming her way.
*stomp*
*stomp*
*stomp*
The third and final stomp practically made her heart stop. The beam of light shone above the bush, above her head. Her legs were frozen to the sides her body, locking themselves in a tight vice to her waist. She moved her eyes downward to get a look at the creature’s lower body, but instead of seeing the usual four legs of other dangerous beings she had encountered before, she saw only two legs, garnered in a long pair of black leggings with thick boots strapped on to it’s feet. Without moving her head, she looked up through one of the many tiny cutaways in the leaves of the thick bush.
The creature before her eyes had two very long, thick plated arms. It’s arms, torso, neck, and shoulders were fully-clad in the segments of black armor made from a material that she had not seen before. In one hand, it held what appeared to be a tiny section of a metal pipe. In the other, it held another section of pipe, but on one end, there shone a narrow length of white light, it’s auroral glow shining out onto the dark trees. It was like a magical torch, only much brighter.
*gasp*
Zecora’s eyes went wide. She had held her breath in for to long, causing her lungs to give in and take in a small whisp of air. The torch within the creature’s hand immediately turned to the bushes that she was hiding in. Zecora squeezed herself inward to get as far away from the light as possible, being careful as not to give away her position in the process. Suddenly, she saw the creature’s other hand move down towards the bush, the other small length of pipe in it’s grip. The end of the pipe was pointed at her face. Her levels of panic increased to even further heights. She felt like this was it. This was her end. She closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable as she began to silently beg Celestia to save her soul.
“GAH!” the creature yelped.
A loud ringing noise interrupted her prayers. The glowing pipe immediately jerked upward and away from the bush. The creature turned away, still holding on to the pipe with a vice grip. The creature uttered something to himself, then transferred the glowing pipe to it’s second hand, whereupon it then reached up to it’s head and fitted a small, metallic piece of jewelery over it’s left ear.
Zecora did not want to waste this single open moment. This was probably her only chance of escape. After silently thanking Celestia, with her own rhythmic verse of course, she leaped from the bushes, not caring at all as to whether or not the creature had heard her. She kept running through the forest until she reached the familiar dirt path that she normally used to get back to her forest home. She took in a sigh of relief, but it was short-lived, for she feared that the creature may be following her. Looking both ways before making her move, she leapt from behind the thicket of trees and sped down the road, her senses of caution and terror higher than ever before.
~~~~~
“Son of a...” said Canderous as he slowly lowered his pistol back to his side. His radio continued to blare it’s signal, but he ignored it as he continued to scan the forest in front of him, eyes wide and his senses charged.
“Canderous, this is Bendak calling to you from outpost lookout point number three. Can you hear me?”
Bendak’s voice came up over the radio. Canderous could hear the sergeant perfectly well, but he didn’t want to take any chances in answering him at the time out of fear that whatever sort of creature was stalking him in the nearby bushes a few minutes ago was still out there, watching his every move. Slowly, he transferred his flashlight from his left hand to his right hand, being careful as to not drop his weapon in the process. He reached down to his belt and unclipped his radio earpiece, which he then fitted over his left ear with his empty hand. After making sure that the radio was tuned in properly, he began to speak.
“Yeah Bendak, was is it?” Canderous asked.
“You were starting to drift a bit close to the outpost’s borders. Had you set off the alarms...hooboy that would taken a while to explain to the captain...” Bendak dryly chuckled before clearing his throat to speak again. “Anyway, your patrol shift is over. Captain’s ordered you to report back. Head for the front gate to relinquish your flashlight and sidearm to the marine that’s takin’ your place.”
“Roger that Bendak, heading back now.” Canderous unclipped his earpiece and reattached it to his belt. Before Canderous turned to start walking in the direction of the base, he looked behind him, then left and right, making sure of it that nothing big and nasty could be watching him at that very second. After carefully observing the many, many lengths of trees around his alert person, he slowly trudged towards the silently beckoning spotlights of the federation outpost.
Canderous arrived at the open maw of the outpost front gate. A single marine, clad in the usual fashion of light blue armor plates, stood nearby, both hands behind in his back in a patient manner. Canderous strolled up and saluted the awaiting soldier, who then saluted him back. He passed the torchlight and firearm to the marine’s open hands. After watching the marine head off in the direction of the forest, Canderous stepped into the outpost. He shielded his eyes from the intensity of a nearby spotlight. He started to walk away in an attempt to get out of the spotlight’s field of intensity, but after walking for a good ten feet and slamming his face into the hard metal side of a guard tower that he hadn’t noticed before, he got the feeling that someone was intentionally screwing around with him.
“Oh, my bad *hic* Nooooooooord!” said the slurred and groggy voice of a nearby person.
“Guess we *hic* should have had...mmmbrrr- someone *hic* watchin’ our backs!” came the slurred insult of another obviously drunken man. The two crapulous men burst out laughing, the sound of hard, gritty chuckles coupled with the slapping of knees on armor plates drowned out the nighttime forest noises around him.
Canderous could faintly make out the sound of boots stomping on the hard surface of the wall’s walkways next to him. They were fast and quick-paced, almost like a woman’s. The pair of drunken sods continued to hoot and holler, laughing their heads off, completely decimating any sort of respectable military dignity and pride.
But suddenly, the laughing stopped.
“Who in the dev-augh!” the man yelped before his voiced died down completely as the sound of cracking bones touched the air.
“Ay’! Who’s tha-” another crack of bone hit the air, silencing the man’s drowsy slurs.
The spotlight’s eye-burning gaze was lifted off of Canderous’s already painful retinas. He blinked a few times to regain his vision. When his eyesight finally returned to him, he immediately noticed a twin set of bodies hanging over the inward edge of the outpost walls. One of the bodies held a bottle in it’s right hand, a blue bottle to be precise.
“Much obliged miss Thane.” Bendak’s voice rang up as the sergeant walked over and stopped at Canderous’s side.
“Sure Bendak...” Thane lept down off of the walls and walked away, not even giving a passing glance to act as a farewell.
“Is it just me, or has Thane been a little on the...quiet side?” Bendak asked.
“What, you haven’t noticed? She barely utters more than a few words to anybody lately.” Canderous replied. Bendak just shrugged and walked over to the wall and grabbed the necks of both unconscious marines, pulling them down while they snored loudly in a drunken stooper. He threw both of them over his shoulders.
“Well, that won’t matter much I guess. Anyway, you’re bunking with Titas in habilitation module seven. Rest of the camp’s already out like a light, save for the night guards and the outer area patrolmen.” Bendak started walking away from Canderous. “I gotta get these two drunken bastards placed in a holding cell to await judgement from the captain. These two fuckers are in a whole heap of trouble...” As Bendak walked on, the blue bottle dropped from the lazy hand of one of the unconscious marines. Out of curiosity, Canderous stepped forward to take a look at it. He smiled and chuckled for a moment when he saw a familiar label stamped on the bottle.
“Private stores, eh’? Captain’s gonna be pissed...”
~~~~~
*knock knock knock*
Twilight Sparkle rose from her bed at what amounted to snail’s pace, her mind still groggy and slow from going to bed late that night. She looked at the grandfather clock next to her bed. Six in the morning. There was no reason for her to be up this early in the day.
*knock knock knock*
“Mmm...huh?” said Twilight as she started to rub her eyes to rid them of any mid-morning moisture. She slowly turned her aching body towards the bedside, letting her limp legs hang off the edge. She pushed off from the bed and successfully landed on all four of her legs, although she had some trouble keeping her balance while walking. The recession of knocks came around a third time. They were starting to irritate her, but she did not want to be rude.
“Just one moment!” Twilight cheerfully said to try and hide her true senses. She took a quick look in the mirror. After hastily brushing her mane to make herself look somewhat presentable, she strolled to the door and used her magic to open it, but what she saw put her in a bit of both surprise and confusion.
“P-Princess Celestia?” Twilight stared back at her mentor. She took a quick glance behind the royal figure to find that all of her friends, except for Pinkie Pie, were crowded behind Celestia, staring back at Twilight. “Girls?”
“Heyya’ Twi’...” said Applejack. Rarity scanned Twilight from top to bottom, inspecting her like she was a piece of a rare and elegant fabric.
“Hmm...rushed mane job, slightly unkempt coat, and a very deep look of weariness suggests that you haven’t been getting much sleep Twilight.”
Twilight felt embarrassed when she took a second glance at her coat and mane. “Hehe...yeah, I suppose...” Rarity just rolled her eyes.
“If I may girls...” Celestia started, “Twilight, I need you to gather any personal items as fast as you can and come with us...”
Twilight cocked her head and raised an eyebrow. “Why princess?”
“Your highness...” said the voice of a pegasus guard at the end of the top of a nearby staircase. Everyone turned to look at the bowing royal protector. “Your carriage is prepped and ready for departure. Proper transportation has also been arranged for the elements, as ordered.”
“Thank you Tasadar. What of my sister?” Celestia asked. The guard rose up from his kneeling position.
“Princess Luna is within the observatory, prepping the science and observational teams for departure. I have also been informed that the astronomical team has already departed, much earlier than anypony else.”
“Thank you Tasadar. You may report back to your assigned duties.” Celestia shooed the guard away with one of her pearly white hooves.
“As you wish your highness.” The guard gave a quick salute to Celestia before taking off down the stairs, his armored hoofsteps echoing around the hallway walls.
“Err...what’s going on princess?” Twilight was starting to get a tad bit nervous.
“Do not fret my dear Twilight. I will explain everything to both you and your friends along the way.” Twilight stepped out into the hall, closing the door behind her.
“I’m ready when you are princess. I didn’t bring anything personal with me.” Twilight obliged.
Celestia nodded and turned towards the opposite end of the hallway.
“Very well. Follow me...”
~~~~~
The foyer of the castle was in absolute chaos as Celestia and Twilight, along with her friends, slowly stepped down the grand staircase. Dozens of guard ponies were running to and from their commanders and giving instructions to other royal officials. Screams and shouts resounded across the room. Papers, boxes, and saddlebags filled with all kinds of things lay strewn out onto the floor in a sea of white parchment and cardboard.. A large troop of guard ponies ran up to Celestia, saluting her royal highness upon arrival.
“Your highness, we are here to escort you and the elements to your awaiting chariots. Princess Luna and her team of scientists and astronomers have already departed for the edge of the Everfree.”
The mention of the Everfree forest made Twilight’s spine tingle. Why in Equestria would one of the royal sisters go to the Everfree forest, and for what reason?
“Thank you Jolee.” The legion of guardponies turned around and started marching. Celestia motioned to Twilight and her friends behind her to follow. They were lead through several panic-stricken and messy corridors of rushing guards and frightful royal servants.
As the group of guards and ponies walked through a long hallway with clear glass dawning high on the sides, Twilight caught a faint glimpse of a black, oddly shaped object off in the distance sitting still next to the rocky mountains of the far north. She tried to move closer to the glass to get a better look, but was interrupted by Celestia’s voice. Twilight turned to see that they have stopped at the end of a large hallway with a massive wooden door that reached up all the way up to the ceiling.
“Now girls...” Celestia paused before continuing, “Something...has happened. Something of which not even I nor Luna know much too much about...” Celestia motioned the guards towards the front door. Some of the guards took opposite positions at both sides of the door, while the other guards formed a wedge around Celestia and the others.
“So...what happened? Did a meteor hit Equestria or something?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“N’other giant dragon come around to terrorize everypony?” Applejack asked with one eyebrow cocked upward.
“D-Dragon?!” Fluttershy squeaked.
“Is it aaaaaaaaliens?” Pinkie Pie said when she suddenly jumped out of a nearby potted plant and shook the dirt off of her pink coat.
“Precisely...” Celestia uttered quietly.
“Pinkie, how did you...wait, what?!” said Rainbow Dash.
Celestia’s horn flarred up with a deep, purple aura of power. She unlocked the mechanisms that held the giant door in place, then flung it open with ease.
Everypony’s jaw dropped to the floor.
Out on the horizon, floated a massive black monolith over the mountains of the Everfree forest. It was clearly visible from their standing point. It’s dark color and twisted design glared back at them from afar. Pinkie’s knees started to quiver, Fluttershy hid behind Celestia’s tail, and Applejack had her legs locked to the sides of her body. Even Rainbow Dash started to become frightened.
Twilight hesitantly turned away from the floating monolith of pure evil to glance a look down at the castle ground before her. Several chariots, along with several mobs of running and shouting guards occupied most of the cobblestone carriageway. Celestia’s special chariot along with two other chariots stood waiting nearby, their pilot’s already strapped in and prepped for takeoff.
“I know that this frightens you my little ponies, and I know that I haven’t explained much of anything so far, but I promise that my sister and I will explain what has happened so far once we reach the lookout outpost that is being set up at the edge of the Everfree forest near Ponyville, far enough away from the monolith you see before you. Even though I may have confirmed the term ‘Aliens’, I cannot say as to whether or not it is true. I would prefer the term, “extra-terrestial”, or not of this world. Even as I speak, Canterlot’s top scientists at the outpost are working as hard as they can to fully decipher the mysteries behind this ordeal.”
“Your highness, your chariot awaits, along with those prepared for the element-holders.” a nearby guard states to the princess.
“We are going to fly by chariot to the outpost, which, strangely enough, happens to be situated near Applejack’s apple orchard.” Celestia said with a small hint of ‘look on the bright side’ hidden in her voice.
“Hooboy, this should be fun...” Applejack said unassumingly with a sigh. Celestia directed each of the girls to their assigned carriages in groups of two. After making sure of it that the girls were safe and secure, Celestia climbed aboard her own carriage and signaled the pilots to take. Celestia’s carriage rose high into the air, with the three other carriages trailing alongside it.
Twilight looked out through a tiny window in the carriage at the behemoth of an object that they were fast approaching. She thought about her fears of the object for moment, taking in the factors of whether or not the object was alien, yet strangely enough, she managed to find a bright side to all of this.
‘Could this be the object that Luna and I were searching for all this time?’
~~~~~
“Nord!...” the voice of a shouting marine echoed in Canderous’s drowsy mind.
“Nord!” the voice came once again, this time with a much louder force than before.
“NORD!”
Canderous’s eyes shot open when the voice of Bendak screamed into his ear. Canderous shook his head to regain his senses. All around the habilitation module, red lights flashed, sirens were blaring, and marines scrambled all over the place, strapping on a pair of thick military boots or strapping extra weapon clips onto their combat vests. The gun-ho commanding officers shouted a different command to each soldier as they vacated the building and ran out onto the open dirt field. Bendak grabbed Canderous’s arm and hoisted him out of the chair he fell asleep in. Bendak walked away and opened a nearby locker. He withdrew a small pistol and passed it to Canderous.
“Hey Bendak, mind telling me what’s going on?” Canderous asked as he stared at the surging torrent of vacating marines.
“Captain’s called us out for extra outpost defense. Something outside of the walls keeps tripping the perimeter alarms.” Bendak led Canderous through the door and out into the early morning sun. Canderous was relieved to notice that every last patch of fog around the Iron Giant was gone, revealing the ship’s entire form to the world. As the two snaked around other assorted buildings in the complex, all around, sirens and warning bells of all kinds rang up in every direction, causing mass confusion for every man and marine running about.
After much walking, Canderous and Bendak finally made it to the front gate, where the captain was issuing orders to a group of engineers around him. After ordering the engineers to take position in a nearby guard tower, the captain paced over to the awaiting men, where the two gave him a salute upon arriving.
“At ease.” the captain ordered. The men did as they were told.
“So sir,” Bendak crossed his arms before speaking again, “how many times have the sirens gone off? Like what, err...a couple hundred dozen?”
“I think we lost count.” The captain motioned both men over to a nearby field tent set up near the gate. Titas and Vadik were working with two survey officers over a single control console with a holographic map of the surrounding area floating above it. Everytime the alarm went off, a tiny red blip would appear in an area relative to the direction of a white blip on the map, which signified the outpost and it’s boundaries.
“This is just bullshit...” Titas growled under his breath.
“Vadik sir, we can’t get a lock on the creature.” one of the survey officers explained.
“Well keep trying! After last night’s encounter, I’ve been dieing to my hands on one of those things!” Vadik shouted.
“Vadik, anything interesting happen yet?” the captain asked the frustrated scientist.
“Not much, but one of our stationary officers managed to get a visual on the creature...once. The officer’s description matches the creature that we have encountered last night. As you may have noticed from all of the marines running around, we are trying to get a second look to confirm it, but it’s giving us one hell of a hard time.”
“Anything else?”
“Not at the moment sir.”
“Thank you Vadik.” Vadik saluted the captain then turned back to Titas at the control console.
Canderous was scratching his head at all of this. Nothing has been explained to him ever since his rude-awakening. “Sir, if may ask, just...what is going on exactly? Why all the sirens and legions of marines running around?” Canderous asked.
“Some sort of beast has been circling our base for the past hour or so now, tripping every perimeter sensor that it passes by, but it’s a quick little bastard. With the treeline being so thick, it makes it next to nigh impossible for our ground sensory array to get a lock on it, so we have to rely on visual sightings for now.” the captain explained.
“So that’s why we have what amounts to a bunch of rampant ants running around?”
“Pretty much. We just have to wait till someone get’s luc-” the captain’s words were cut short by the shouting of a marine high up in a nearby guard tower.
“It’s moving away! Down the northern front gate path! It’s fleeing!”
“Just the opportunity we need! Canderous!” the captain shouted back.
“Nice.” said Bendak.
“Canderous!” the captain grabbed Canderous by the shoulders and forced a signalling device into his hands. “I want you to go after that thing and find out what it is! Keep that signal tracker on so we can keep track of where you and where the creature goes!” The captain shoved Canderous out of the tent.
“Lower the gate!” the captain shouted. The front gate fell to the ground with a loud thud. Marines started to line the walkways of the guard towers and inward walls, keeping their weapons poised and ready at their sides.
“Canderous! This is our only shot at this! Now go, GO!” The captain aggressively pointed in the direction of the lowered gate. Canderous did not waste a single moment. He scrounged up from off the ground and sprinted through the open gap. He continued in a straight line down a dirt pathway that was formed between the treeline directly in front of the gate. He could faintly hear the sound of an extra set of feet running along the hard ground in front of him. A short time later, he could faintly see the running form of the creature in front of him. He noticed how the creature had four legs and a tail, just like the creature that he and Bendak encountered last night, only slightly bigger.
“Alright. Let’s just see what you’re made of...” Canderous vowed to himself in between haggard pants for air.
~~~~~
“Ok, day one, journal of Stylish Pics. Discovered an alien species, took a few pictures, now running for my life!”
“Get over here you little bastard!” shouted the voice of the far away creature that was currently chasing her.
“Argh! Can’t a photojournalist get a break once in a while?!”
~~~~~
Celestia’s carriage was the first to touchdown in the middle of the sea of guards, tents, and dozens upon dozens of eager researchers and astronomers. As Twilight slowly stepped out onto the sunny field, she found that she could not take her worried eyes off of the floating giant ahead of her that practically radiated pure evil. Her friends seemed to have the same disturbed feelings. A few journalists had arrived and started taking pictures of Celestia and forest, wanting to spread the news of royalty’s concern for the alien-like object in the sky. Celestia walked up to Twilight and her friends and motioned them to follow her while the legions of royal guards kept the desperate news writers at bay.
“Tia! Over here!”
Celestia and the others turned to see Luna smiling and happily waving them over from a nearby round table. Luna was gathered there with a group of very old, bearded astronomers. Celestia and the others made their way to the table, where everypony but Celestia and Twilight bowed before the princess of the night.
Luna giggled. “It’s alright girls, you don’t bow for a friend like Twilight, so why bow for a friend like me?” Luna said with a smile. The girls smiled along with her, then rose from the ground.
“So Luna, what is the current situation so far?” Celestia asked.
Luna’s cheerful expression dipped down to the floor, along with her head. “Well...” Luna started, “Not to good. At all. Everypony in Ponyville is horrified, most of them having already fled to Canterlot to seek shelter.” Celestia did not looked surprised.
“But there is another set of bad news...” Everypony looked worried.
“And what would it be?” Celestia asked.
“Two ponies have gone missing from the town. One of them was a journalist from Manehatten. The other...was Applejack’s little sister.”
Applejack’s eyes went wide and she gasped with sudden shock. “Missin’?! Ma’ sister’s missin’?!” she shouted.
“Your brother, Big Macintosh I believe it was, came by not too long ago, wanting to speak to me. The guards would not let him through at first, but I advised them to let him in. He told me about how Applebloom ventured near the furthest edges of your apple orchard. He also told me that he heard voices along with some faint screaming. He searched all night throughout the orchard to find her, but to no avail.”
Applejack looked horrified but angry nontheless. “If I find out whoever took ma’ little sister I’m gonna...”
“Do you think that it has something to do with...” Twilight swallowed a hard lump in her throat before continuing, “...that?” She pointed a hoof at the floating monolith, which still managed to send a few extra chills down her spine.
“Possibly.”
“Oh dear...” Fluttershy quietly uttered.
“Your majesty! Something approaches from within the forest!” A nearby guard shouted out while masses of guards lined up to create a barrier wall of gold-plated steel and muscle, ready to intercept and detain any possible threat to the royal sisters.
~~~~~
“How’s he doing? Where is he?” The captain asked Titas.
“We’re still tracking him,” Titas replied, “But he’s going pretty damn far.”
“How far?” Bendak asked while leaning in closer to the console monitor.
“He’s nearing the breakage in the treeline that the two of you visited last night...but something isn’t right...” Titas explained while he leaned back in his chair and rubbed his chin.
“How so?” The captain asked.
“Well, through the magnetic interference higher up, we can’t see much of anything, but earlier this morning, we detected several heat signatures clumping together at the treeline breakage. The heat signature grew larger as the hours passed, not in intensity, but in size.”
Bendak thought for a few moments. His brow furrowed downward in a suspicious way. “Can we see what the heat signature looks like now?”
Titas shrugged his shoulders. “Sure.”
“Bring it up. Quickly.” Bendak hastily commanded.
The holographic map above the console expanded outward and started to shift forward, passing over the sea of green signatures and mountain grid maps until it slowed to a stop at the treeline breakage, where a massive red blob covered up most of the hologram’s visible area.
Titas whistled. “Damn. That doesn’t to good.”
Bendak retracted his head away from the console screen. He started to pace around the tent, thinking. “Now why would a little creature like that want to flee in that particular direction towards the heat sig? Unless...” Bendak’s eyes shot open and his mouth hung open below his chin.
“Shit, aw’ shit, aw’ shit, Captain!” The captain turned his head to meet Bendak’s wild gaze.
“Yes Bendak?” The captain replied.
“I think Nord is about to walk into a trap.” The captain’s wondering expression grew into one of surprise.
“Are you sure Bendak?”
“Does that look unsure to you, sir?” Bendak replied as he pointed at the hologram where a green dot was about to run head on into a red blob.
“Right. Gather a defender squad, assist Canderous! Go go go! Hurry!” The captain urgently commanded while furiously gesturing towards the front gate.
“Yes sir!” Bendak charged out from underneath the tent and started off towards the gate. “Jackson! Picses! Garvish! You two, you three, and you there as well! Follow me! Nord’s in trouble! Adacus, lower the gate!”
At Bendak’s resounding words, the entire outpost went into a frenzy. Vadik could be seen working furiously at the sensor array building, the captain ordered around several groups of medics and marines via shouts and cursing, and Titas was angrily chugging down another hardy swig of whiskey from a metal flask he held in his hand.
Once every man in Bendak’s defender squadron was assembled, the gate was released, and Bendak and his squad charged out through the opening.
“Let’s hustle men! No stopping! Move move move!”
“Yes sir!”
~~~~~
“This thing...this thing’s fast...” Canderous wheezed in between tired breaths, “but...not as fast...not as fast as me!”
Canderous was closing in fast on the creature that had been eluding him for quite some time. His chest burned from lack of oxygen and his forehead was dripping with sweat, but he dared not give in to the suffering he was inflicting upon himself. He pushed himself even harder. As he got closer he could clearly make out the similar features on the creature’s body, the legs, the tail, the head and whatnot. The only thing out of the ordinary was the awry coat colors. This one had a blue coat, while the one he had encountered the other night had a tan coat.
The forest exit was coming up fast, and so was his chance of catching the creature. He was glad that he was not wearing the big and heavy armor that the marines wore. The creature’s head turned to look back, but it soon snapped forward once it caught a glimpse of how close he was. The exit was only a mere few feet away. In a last ditch effort to elude it’s pursuer, the creature lunged forward towards the light of the exit.
“Oh no you don’t!” Canderous shouted. With one last shot at victory, he bent his knees and held his arms out, palms open.
He pounced.
~~~~~
“Here it comes...” said Luna as she poised herself.
“Get behind me everypony, quickly!” Fluttershy was already cowering behind Celestia’s tail. Twilight and her other friends soon joined her. Frightened screams could be heard through the excited air.
“Help! Somepony save me!” A blue-coated mare with a tan mane lunged out from the blackness and dropped to the ground, where she then buried her face within the fur of her shaking legs. About half a second later, another creature, something much bigger and much more frightening lunged out from the dark hole, teeth bared, front legs outstretched and face red-hot. It landed hard on the ground mere inches away from the frightened mare, who then screamed and ran towards the wall of guards, which scooted to the side to let the frightened pony pass, then reformed back in line, their defensive scowls making them look even tougher.
“W-w-what is...that?” Fluttershy squeaked.
~~~~~
“Fuck...” Canderous grunted as his chest continued to heave from exhaustion. He lay on his stomach, his face to the ground and his temper flaring up knowing that he could not catch the creature that had just eluded him.
“Damnit, damnit, damnit...” He clenched his fists, uprooting a few blades of grass beneath him and holding them tightly in his sealed palm. He raised and pounded his fist on the ground, angry at himself. Seeing no other reason to stay facedown on the ground, he slowly got up to his knees, pausing for a moment to allow his lungs to take in fresh air. His breathing started to normalize. After taking a minute to rest he rose to his feet and dusted the dirt and debris off of his jacket sleeves.
“Well...that was uneventful...” He said to himself.
“You there! Halt!”
Canderous’s heart stopped cold. His breathing became rapid once again. He started to question himself. Who could have shouted at him? Bendak? Titas? The captain? No, he did not recognize this voice.
“In the name of her royal highness, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, we order you to drop to the ground and surrender! Any aggressive actions will be meet with defensive force!”
No, this couldn’t have been happening. No way, just no way. There were no other humans on this planet other than himself and an average sized landing force of the Federation Navy. Wanting to confront those who were ordering him to surrender, he slowly rose his head in the direction of the angry voices.
What he saw, could never have been unseen.
“Woohoo! Aliens! Anypony up for a welcoming party?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After two weeks and several frustrating rewrites later, me and Jonsey have finally finished the prequel to first contact. The NEXT chapter will contain First Contact itself, along with an epic diplomatic meeting of the two species for the first time.
Enjoy it you smarmy grass-eating, fiction reading pony...things...or whatever the hell you are...
-Nord and Jonsey