Celestia's noon sun shone down on Ponyville wonderfully that day, despite it all. The ponies whom had seen the "shooting star" that night were ecstatic and eagerly spreading the word about the foreign object. Some ponies dismissed it. Others shared the wonder with their friends.
No matter the case, Twilight Sparkle and Applejack wore saddlebags while Spike rode with the former, buying supplies for their trek. See, Twilight Sparkle knew where the Protoss ship had crashed: somewhere in the White Tail Woods to the west. And she just had to go and find it! At best, it could provide research that would change Equestria forever! ... And at worst, it would make an interesting letter to the Princess.
"Aren't ya worried that it could be dangerous?" Applejack quipped, dropping a few bits on a store counter as the clerk made four canteens float right into the earth pony's saddlebags, which were for Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and herself. Twilight and Rainbow Dash already had one.
"Applejack, come on," Twilight replied, turning around and leaving the building while Spike reclined on her back and munched on an apple. "I think we'll be fine looking at a crashed... thing." Twilight still wasn't sure what that object was from last night, but that was the purpose of this expedition, wasn't it?
"But what about that blood on that thing in Fluttershy's yard?" the orange mare persisted, following Twilight towards the library where everypony (hopefully) was waiting for them. "I don't think some ol' space rock up an' killed somepony. Whatever made those stains could still be out there!"
Twilight nodded in acknowledgement; Applejack had a good point. It was also a point she had considered long before and fully accepted. But with the six of them, they had little to fear, she figured. "I know, Applejack, but we'll be fine! C'mon!" she said in reply, shaking her head.
"... Ah never said ah wasn't comin', Twi," Applejack pointed out, shaking her head.
"Oh, good! Then come on!" Twilight excitedly emitted, beginning to gallop off towards her home while Applejack quickly began to chase her.
---
Shortly after their arrival at Twilight's home, Spike had disembarked from his caretaker's back and went around the library to prepare Twilight's balloon. Sure, they had Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash to search from the air, but the bookworm had decided that going by air would be quicker and safer.
Upon entering the library, she saw everypony preparing and waiting for their return. Rainbow Dash was stretching and getting ready for a good flight. Fluttershy was quietly sitting in the corner of the room, clearly lost in thought and not liking where her mind was leading her. Pinkie Pie was very happily having a nonsensical conversation with Twilight's pet owl. And Rarity was fussing over her messy mane; apparently a certain cyan pegasus had seen fit to crash into her and to ruin her perfectly groomed mane.
All of the above turned to look up at the arriving mares, smiling and greeting them in friendly tones. Even Fluttershy gave her unnerving contemplation a rest to say hello. "Good afternoon, everypony~" Twilight said, using her magic to lift the canteens from Applejack's saddlebag and into reach of the mares they were for. "Please fill these. Are you all ready?"
The resounding reply was a yes. Even the shy yellow pony gave an affirming answer, despite its near inaudible volume. Twilight smiled widely and jumped a little with excitement, running back out of the library at breakneck, Pinkie Pie speeds. Even Pinkie Pie, the second out the door, couldn't catch up to her. The other four ponies could only hazard guesses... if they tried, anyways. They didn't.
With the two most excited ones out of the way, Applejack let out a sigh and removed her hat to wipe her face with a hoof. "... I hope ya'll're ready," she told the others, though seeing as Rainbow Dash flew out the window the second she opened her mouth, she really only had two listening.
"Is something the matter, Applejack?" Rarity quipped, approaching the earth pony with an appropriately puzzled expression. "It's just a meteor, right? Filled with gold and Celestia knows what else-ohoooooooo! I'm so excited!" That sudden descent into squee surprised even Rarity, the white unicorn having to take a moment to compose herself. Applejack could only laugh at that, but continued regardless. "Ah'm just sayin' Ah've got a bad feelin' is all... call it a hunch."
"Oh come now, Applejack," came the reply she was expecting. "I'm sure that... blood has a perfectly good reason for being there."
"You're soundin' aw'fly greedy right now, Rarity," the farmer observed aloud. For a moment, the Element of Generosity looked offended, but a few seconds later, she composed herself once more.
"You're absolutely right, Applejack. That was childish and selfish of me," she apologized in her normal tone, closing her eyes shaking her head - presumably at herself. "This is an expedition, not a gem hunt. Come, Fluttershy, let's not keep the others waiting."
Rarity left the library, leaving Applejack slightly surprised, but impressed. That just left Fluttershy, but it seemed like she wouldn't have to start the conversation herself.
"Um... Applejack?"
"Yeah, Sugarcube?"
"... I'm really worried... I think somepony might be hurt over there..."
Applejack had to REALLY strain herself not to express her worry over their own skins; she didn't want to terrify poor Fluttershy. So she just nodded in agreement and turned to leave, followed closely by Fluttershy.
---
A short ways away from Twilight's library home, Spike had prepared the hot air balloon the ones without wings would be flying in for the duration of their trip, the pink and purple balloon inflated and ready. The six mares approached it and the baby dragon grinned, proud of his work. "Here you go, girls!" he declared, then immediately ran to Twilight, whom smiled and nodded. She opened her saddlebag and made a big, juicy emerald float out. "You've earned it~" she told him happily, passing the gem to the little guy and watching him stare at it hungrily. She didn't normally reward him with such big gems, but for something like prepping the balloon (which was hard for a little guy like him), Twilight thought he deserved it.
Spike snatched the stone out of the air and hugged it, then walked off towards the library to feast. Twilight hopped into the balloon and watched as her all her friends got in with her, save for Rainbow Dash. Obvious reasons.
"Everypony ready?"
Another resounding yes. A yes that prompted the purple unicorn to lift off with the balloon, carrying them towards the White Tail Woods.
---
It was a relatively uneventful half hour of flight as the mane six flew west. They wouldn't ever have any issues finding the wreck, thanks to the smoke coming from the still burning wreckage. With help from Rainbow Dash, the balloon began to descend towards its destination.
It wasn't long after that before all six Elements were standing near the wreckage, eyeing it with varying degrees of excitement. Applejack and Fluttershy were in the same boat about their feelings being here, the unicorns were ecstatic and practically flew to the ruined Ark, and Pinkie Pie bounced after them while humming a strange tune in a low tone. And Rainbow Dash was flying to grab a raincloud to try to put out the flames.
Twilight had to marvel at the object... it was huge, gleaming in what sunlight reached it. Its parts were twisted in an obviously unintended manner that still struck her as... majestic. Moreover, the ship seemed awfully similar to a manta ray in shape, despite the damage.
But there was definitely one thing that bugged the lavender unicorn, as well as Rarity and Pinkie Pie: it reeked of death. She wrinkled her nose and used her magic to cover it, her and her friends' faces showing their disgust.
"Ewww! What's stinky?" the party pony said for all of them while Rainbow Dash flew overhead with a cloud or two and began fighting the fires.
"I don't know... I might as well find out now," Twilight said in turn, taking a deep breath through her mouth before stepping closer to a large hole in the ship's hull.
Despite the daylight and the many holes in the Protoss craft, the interior was still very dark. She could barely see more than a few feet in front of her. Of course, she had a fix for that. Her horn lit up and an orb of light appeared at its tip, casting a cool purple light over the darkened ruins of the ship.
She immediately regretted her decision. As soon as the light came on, her eyes shrank to pinpricks and she jumped back in surprise with an accompanying scream. Her breathing became heavy and her stomach began to churn uncomfortably. Very close to where she had been standing, a dead Hydralisk was hanging from the ceiling, its bottom half impaled on a jagged piece of metal. Its horrifying visage was blank, but it also gave a close, easy, disgusting view of its fangs and its grotesque head and eyes. It didn't help that it was still bleeding, the red liquid dripping onto the metallic floor at a steady pace.
Immediately, Twilight's friends ran in to check on the frightened unicorn, but Twilight quickly turned to them. "Waitwaitstop!" she said frantically, trying to get in their way. The sudden movement didn't lessen her nausea any. "D-Don't look! ... urp..." she then insisted, forgetting about the light still radiating from her horn. Her friends, of course, looked past her to see what had scared her and let out a collective gasp upon seeing the corpse and catching the rancid stench.
Fluttershy immediately fainted while Applejack used her hat to cover her mouth and nose. Rarity backed away and Rainbow Dash awkwardly returned to putting out the exterior fires. Only Pinkie Pie seemed to be cool about the situation.
"That's gross!" she commented loudly, trotting past her brainy friend and getting a closer look at the lifeless Zerg. As Twilight turned to look at her friend, the light illuminated more of the room and... well, that did it for her stomach. The sight of many scorched, broken, crushed, impaled Zerglings lined up against the wall with viscera spread all over the room brought a lump of hot bile up into Twilight's throat. She immediately turned her head and shut her eyes, letting it out with several disgusted, distressed noises.
Applejack, now more concerned about her friend, began breathing deeply and approaching Twilight, trying to ignore the smell and the death that threatened to empty her own belly. "You gonna be okay, Sugarcube?" she asked in a concerned tone, rubbing Twilight's back with a hoof.
Once Twilight finished vomiting, she groaned, spitting at the taste and shaking her head out. "... I-I think so... Ughhh... Sweet Celestia, it's..." she started, then just walked back out the way she came. "... I need a moment..."
Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was now taking that opportunity to explore the ship. For whatever reason, the overpowering stench and atrociously gory display didn't affect her as much as it had her friends, so she decided to look around more. The ground beneath her suddenly felt squishy as she went deeper into the dark ship, letting out a disgusted "ewwwwww..." as she stepped out of it. A hole in the ceiling showed it to be a dark purple layer that covered the floor, but it also appeared to be... disappearing, receding... Without the Zerg to sustain it, the Creep was beginning to vanish.
Pinkie Pie backed up into the light and took off her saddlebags, then pulled out... a gas mask? Considering its size, it shouldn't have ever been able to fit, but then, Pinkie Pie had never been one to make sense. Anypony that would try to make sense of her would just be wasting their time.
"And don't you forget it, Mister."
... Right...
Extra awareness aside, the pink pony left the ship with the mask firmly clutched in her teeth, approaching Twilight Sparkle and putting it down next to her. The nauseous unicorn looked at it, then at her friend, then managed a smile as she put the thing on. "Thanks, Pinkie..." she muttered, using her magic to adjust the mask before taking a deep breath. Then she rose, starting back towards the ship and steeling herself. "... I'm going back in to look around..."
And so she did. She reentered the destroyed Protoss ship and did her best to ignore the gory displays that surrounded her. She recast her light and walked into the same room Pinkie Pie had stopped in, spying Rainbow Dash flying away through another hole in the ceiling; she probably needed another cloud. Immediately, she saw the Creep, noting its recession and watching it intently. Her horn glowed a little brighter as she produced a quill and notepad from her saddlebag, beginning to record what she was seeing.
She poked the floor coating slime and grimaced at its squishy texture, taking note of it. Even as her hoof drew near it, and even as it died away without its creators, the substance felt warm. Twilight swallowed and began to walk over the Creep, her expression clearly disgusted as she crossed the gross, gooey... carpet. She entered through another door and found herself bathed in light from a large window at the other end of the room. Sure, it was dirty on both sides, but the extra rain water from her flyer friend's work helped a little.
This light helped her to see... just how horrendous the room was. Closest to the window, she could see a huge creature that had been... for lack of a better way of putting it, crushed, burned, and sliced in half. Her eyes followed the trail of red straight to its corpse, and noted just how far the spray must have been. "Thank Pinkie for gas mask," she scribbled on her notepad before readying a new page and taking more notes.
Of course, she needed to move further into the bridge, but as she did, she had to avert her eyes very quickly. There were so many dead creatures lining the floor in this room that she nearly screamed and passed out. So much blood - on the walls, on the ceilings, on that huge creature near the front, even on the Creep. "Therapy," came another note to self.
Twilight dimmed her light to reduce her exposure to the horrific scene around her, trying to tell herself that she was safe as she crossed the room and distanced herself from the front of the Ark. But as she half-blindly trudged through the bridge, her front right hoof knocked something hard, small and glassy. The impact made her jump quite a bit, a terrified yelp escaping her lips and being muffled by her mask. Thankfully, the light from the window was enough to find the culprit without use of her spell. She picked it up with her magic and examined it closely.
It was a metallic cylinder with glass rounding the middle, a strange black liquid contained within. On each end of the tube, there were foreign symbols that she couldn't make out. The unicorn carefully slipped it into her saddlebags and continued on, leaving the bridge.
Once out, she cast her light again and... smiled a little. The new room seemed quite clear of death and viscera, so the unicorn took a few ste- NEVER MIND. Charred bodies everywhere! Twilight grimaced fiercely, looking to the other end of that room for a hole and dashing to it. Then she immediately jumped out of it, ripping the gas mask off once she had landed and breathing heavily. She shut her eyes and collapsed onto the ground next to the ship, her entire body shaking.
Having a concerned, cyan hoof touching her shoulder didn't help much. Rainbow Dash's touch made her jump quite impressively. Her pinprick-ed pupils snapped onto the rainbow maned mare, standing in a wary manner. "You okay, Twilight?" she quipped, folding her wings as she felt a few lingering drops of water hit her back. At least the fires were out now.
Twilight Sparkle calmed down once she saw who it was, sitting on her haunches and bowing her head. "... I... I don't want to go back in there again..." she uttered in a voice just barely loud enough to be heard. "... E-E-Everything in t-there is dead..." the bookworm then stammered, swallowing hard and then magically whipping out her canteen to take a long drink. "... D-Don't let Fluttershy go in there... she'll never sleep again..."
Hearing this, Rainbow Dash nodded and came along side the distressed pony, helping her to get up and to walk around the ship. By this time, Applejack and Rarity were looking at the hull of the Ark, shooting ideas about how to peel off that gold between each other. Pinkie Pie was still humming that strange tune and Fluttershy was near a patch of upset earth, examining it intently.
When they saw their brainy friend enter sight, though, they all ran over to see what was wrong. All but Fluttershy, anyways. They began bombarding the scarred mare with questions, but instead of answering them, she threw her notepad down on the grass to let them read it. She didn't want to repeat what she had seen.
Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash gathered around the notepad and peered at her writings. Pinkie Pie uttered a cheerful "you're welcome" at one point, but said nothing else like her friends. Twilight watched them read, but noticed Fluttershy's absence... Her eyes went wide again; had Fluttershy seen the inside? She got back on her hooves and looked past the other's heads, seeing the yellow pegasus standing several yards away and looking at something.
Twilight ran to her shy friend, seeing her glance back as she approached. "Fluttershy? Is everything alright?" she quipped, stopping next to the Element of Kindness while the sounds of four sets of hooves approaching them filled the crash site.
"... Y-Yes... I just..." Fluttershy began, looking away for a moment. "I saw this patch of dirt here... like something came out of it." She looked towards said patch of dirt, letting Twilight see it. "And there are these tracks over here... M-Maybe somepony is still alive?" she posed in that same sweet, meek, unassuming tone she always used when she wasn't around new ponies or angry. "... Oh... but what if they're hurt...? It looks like they were hurt..."
Twilight turned her attention to those markings in the grass as the rest of the Elements arrived, watching the lavender unicorn approach those tracks and slipping the notepad back into her saddlebags. They were understandably disturbed now, but seeing Twilight distracted them. "... I've never seen tracks like these before," she mused aloud.
"Me neither..." added Fluttershy, spreading her wings and flying a few feet off of the ground. She could see the strange tracks extending from there, and deeper into the White Tail Woods. Twilight looked back at the rest of her friends, taking a deep breath before speaking.
"I think we should follow them..."
All ponies present agreed, to which the Element of Magic nodded. The mane six began to follow the trail in a brief period of complete silence.
The walk, though, was calming. They all knew these Woods as the site of the Running of the Leaves in autumn, but hadn't had a reason to enter them otherwise. It was an interesting thing, especially for Applejack and Rainbow Dash as they made a point of trying to recognize points that the race had taken them to. Pinkie Pie just continued to hum while Rarity tried to figure out what the hay that song was. Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle led the group, keeping tabs on the tracks and leading the other four mares along without a word.
---
The cocoon had grown... it was beginning to root itself on the ground, to steady itself... The Drone within was preparing for the final stages of its new mutation, writhing around inside in apparent agony. The process wasn't exactly pleasant, given the rapid growth and mutation. But it lived for the Swarm, control or not. And without this one little Drone putting itself through hell, the Swarm could not grow.
And so it squirmed and struggled within its self made cocoon, preparing to fulfill its soon-to-be singular new purpose: multiply...