//------------------------------// // Exploration // Story: The Xeno That Came to Equestria // by Corvo Storm //------------------------------// The Weyland Yutani vessel that was heading to the planet has been stopped by engine problems. Problems like half of the engines exploding to pieces. The remaining crew was working hard to fix the problem. To prevent anymore engine problems they were shut down while power was redirected to the other engines and emergency systems. Weyland was in the bridge holding onto a railing so he wouldn't fall over from the explosions. He wasn't happy that their trip to unknown space was stopped by half of the remaining engines going up in flames. He was so close to getting back what he wanted. He looked over at the crew in the bridge who were frantically trying the ship from going into more pieces. Preferably from becoming large pieces. He walked over to one of the crewman to see what he was doing. The crewman was keeping the only containment cell from being drained of power and releasing Sarah. He saw one of the crewmen walking toward him. The man stopped and stood straight while saying, "Sir the dropship is ready. The synthetics are ready to go to the planet to scout it out and find the xenomorph." "Good go ahead and send them out. I want all the intel I can get on the planet and the whereabouts of the xenomorph as soon as possible." "Yes sir!" the crewman said before saluting and walking to the elevator while using his communicator to give the all clear for launch. Weyland looked through the bridge's windshield and watched the planet. He then saw the dropship heading toward the planet after a few minutes. He smiled knowing how close he was to getting back the xenomorph that got away. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shadow woke up the next morning having slept peacefully. He was glad he didn't have anymore nightmares. He felt great. He felt that today was going to be a good day. He climbed out of the crevice he slept in and walked into the kitchen to see Fluttershy preparing some food for him and the other animals. He saw a white bunny that was giving him a death glare. He ignored him and went over to the pegasus to get his food. She didn't even notice him until she was startled when he tapped her on the back. She let a breath of relief when she saw it was just him. "Oh Shadow. I didn't hear you come in. Here's your food. If you want you can come with me to help the animals," she said while handing him his food. He has only been there for few days and he's already sick of eating fish. Maybe he'll go back into that one forest and hunt another large creature. He ate his fish and shook his head. He felt that the animals would be scared of him the moment they saw him. Besides he wanted to explore the town nearby. She understood and took the now empty bowl and put it with the other dirty dishes. She grabbed her bags and said that she was going to go now. He waved her a goodbye before she went out the door. Once she was gone he went over to the fireplace and began to climb into the chimney. He climbed all up to and out the top of the chimney. It was rather clean seeing as it wasn't used at all. Then again it was warm enough that you wouldn't need to light the fireplace. Pushing those thoughts aside he decided to fly to his destination. He never got to fly that often when he and the hive were out and about. He extended his 'wings' with was just extra skin under his arms that was thin enough to allow him flight. He began to flap his arms and began to get some lift. He got enough lift and began to fly toward the town. He liked how everything looked from a bird's eye view. It was great scenery. He approached the town in no time and managed to avoid the pegasi that flew around. He landed on the roof of some type of building. He looked over to one side, careful not to get seen, and saw foals playing on a playground. He saw pictures of this before and was told that these type of playgrounds were usually by schools. He must have landed on the roof of a school. He retracted his wings and crawled into a shadowy area of the playground. He was camouflaged by the shadow the building gave off from where the sun was in the sky. He watched the foals laughing and playing with each other. He watched as all the foals had fun. He looked over and saw 3 fillies sitting at a table talking to each other. He wasn't able to them that well from where he was. He stuck to the shadows and crawled closer to hear what they were saying. Once he was close enough he began to hear their conversation. It seems they're trying to find out how to get their cutie marks. He was intrigued to find out what they plan on doing. The orange pegasus wanted to try rock climbing. The white unicorn suggested store assistants. The cream colored earth pony suggested animal caretakers. What the earth pony suggested got his attention. If they were going to try that then they would meet him. Well that was a kind of possible. He decided to listen further. They chatted a bit on ways to get cutie marks before they heard a snide comment, "Why don't you get your cutie marks for being blank flanks? Oh wait you already did!" The comment was followed by laughter. The three fillies turned to see who said the comment. Shadow turned to look and saw two other fillies with smirks on their face. He had to admit, that comment wasn't nice at all. He listened in more. "What to ya want Diamond Tiara?" asked the earth pony. "Oh I don't know maybe to let you know that you'll never get your cutie marks," Diamond Tiara said. The orange pegasus spoke up, "That doesn't mean anything." "Yes it does. You are a flightless chicken, you and your family don't bathe, and you aren't special just because your sister runs a boutique," Tiara said laughing. He was getting annoyed by those comments. Something like this happened to him in his past that made him hate something like this. Tiara's companion decided to press further, "You three shouldn't even be the Cutie Mark Crusaders because you all don't have a special talent." The two bullies laughed as the three looked down with sadness on their face. "What you think Silver Spoon? Should they even try or give up?" Before Silver Spoon could reply, everyone on the playground heard a hiss-like growl. They turned to the source and saw Shadow stalk out of his hiding place. He stood to his full height with his sights set on the bullies. They turned to run but he ran in front of them when they turned around. He was hissing menacingly with his saliva dripping from his mouth. They backed away from him trying to get away. He grabbed the two the throats and brought them to eye level with him. They struggled to get away and failed to. He roared loudly into their faces before dropping them. They ran away screaming. He didn't know why he thought he was bullied before but it felt like he had felt that feeling before and he didn't understand why. He decided to leave and extended his wings and began to fly into the air and flew back towards Fluttershy's cottage. "W-well it would be best to let you all go home after an incident like that. You're all dismissed," said the adult earth pony mare. Everyone left the playground to go home and tell their parents about this. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shadow arrived at Fluttershy's cottage in no time due to the fact he didn't need to avoid anyone at all. He was told by Fluttershy that the princess was wanting to meet him. He agreed to the meet and was told that they were going to Canterlot tomorrow morning. He decided to get some sleep so he had more energy. He climbed into his crevice and began to fall asleep. Before he did Fluttershy told him that the rest of her friends will be coming with them. He nodded before falling asleep. The dreams he had that night was confusing. Dreams he never thought he would ever have.