Missing In Action: Galaxy

by GordonFreebrony

Chapter 1: First Contact????

“Hurry up, Spike!” Twilight said, her head turning back towards her assistant, “Now that we have Owlowiscious, you can finally stay up to watch the meteors!”

“Then why… *pant* am I *pant* having to drag the *pant* picnic supplies?” Her assistant huffed.

“We’re here, Spike!” Twilight said again as her number-one assistant flopped to the ground, breathing heavily. “Can you set up the picnic while I get the telescope?”

A thumbs-up from the face-down dragon was enough for Twilight, who grabbed the telescope in her magic and set its tripod base on the ground. She placed the telescope in it and then began to fiddle with multiple knobs and wheels over the whole contraption.

Spike finally picked himself up, before pulling out the picnic blanket, setting out the plates, placing the basket in the center. He then uncovered the punchbowl and set it upon the underside of the now flipped wagon like a makeshift table.

“All ready!” Spike said to Twilight.

“I can’t wait for the shower. I heard from Celestia that Luna planned to do something special for this one!” Twilight said excitedly, “I even brought out my prototype telescope! It should be able to take pictures of the meteors! Have I told you the specifications yet? I mean, I have the 550p camera hook—“

Spike ignored Twilight, having heard this exact same speech at least three times. Instead, he took to scanning the small meadow to see who is going to show up. Twilight had decided to pick a new spot, on a rather high hill, just for her and her friends. Down in the meadow leading up to the hill, a small white shape was visible, walking with a pale yellow one. They were too far away to make out any real features, but Spike knew who they were.

After a half an hour, the rest of her friends had arrived. They sat talking and laughing, partaking of Spike’s delicious cookies and punch. Pinkie had brought a series of cupcakes, the unique, award-winning flavor practically making the mares mouthgasm.

Finally, the moon sank below the horizon, allowing the full beauty of the stars to shine through.

“Almost time, girls. Celestia said it would start just after moonset!” Twilight babbled excitedly.

The chatter died down into an expectant silence, each pony, and the dragon, turning their heads towards the sky. The silence stretched, the excited faces of the ponies beginning to droop.

“Twilight, was this, umm, was this the right night?” Fluttershy said, her voice wavering and then all but disappearing.

“What was the Fluttershy? Did you say something?” Twilight said, turning her head away for an instant. At which point a huge burst of red made her whip her head around. A huge, red ‘A’ was in the sky, followed by another series of letters almost too fast to catch, each with their own color. Altogether, they spelled out, ‘A GRAND DISPLAY’.

Twilight set her telescope to the correct position, cursing herself for forgetting to turn the camera on. However, soon the telescope was recording the brilliant display. Meteors rained down in brilliant flashes of color, the crisscrossing patterns showing brilliant scenes of splendor. The banishing of Nightmare Moon, the ‘Stoning’ of Discord, and then a grand finale of a battle between Six fairies that looked a lot like the friend’s cutie marks, and a huge creature.

How the princess had been able to make it was lost on the group, their thoughts completely entranced by the dancing lights above them. Then, the six fairies grew very close together, and a huge, flaming, red streak cut through, smashing through the gigantic beast of meteors. It was a brilliant finale, electing cheers from the six ponies loud enough to wake the sleeping baby dragon curled up on the grass. In their jubilation, most of them missed the thud that echoed out from the nearby Everfree forest. However, one purple unicorn felt it through the ground.

“I wonder what that was,” Twilight murmured, cleaning up the small picnic, “Ah well, I’ll figure it out tomorrow.”

Unbeknownst to her, three little fillies were making that same promise to themselves, before falling asleep in a pile on their clubhouse floor.

________________________________________________________________________

“Applebloom, what brings you near? Are those your friends whom you’ve brought here?” Came the deep voice of Zecora, Ponyville’s resident Zebrican potion-maker.

“Well, Zecora, we’d stayed up last night and we saw a huge mert- met- mot- meteor, that’s right, land here in the Everfree! We were hoping that you could lead us there, we want to get our Meteorologist? Cutie marks!” The excited filly shouted, while her friends nodded encouragingly.

“I would love to help, but remember this: would it be you that your parents will miss?” Zecora said.

“Huh?” The three fillies said in unison.

“What I mean is, before your mission, did you seek your parent’s permission?”

“OHHHHHH…” The three fillies said.

“Well, not exactly, but come on! Let’s go find it before some creature gets to it. Or maybe we’ll have to fight one off and get monster-fighting cutie marks!” Scootaloo shouted, pulling along the Zebra.

“Wait young filly, why such a rush? It’s not so bad as to make such a fuss.”

The three fillies ignored Zecora, however, preferring to pull her along with them.

________________________________________________________________________

Shephard woke slowly, shaking his head. He ran a quick diagnostic, showing that the armor, while dented and damaged, was still mostly operable and airtight. He changed to an external video feed, which succeeded in blinding him with white static. He closed his eyes and waited for the suit to choose a working visual sensor array.

Finally, he could look around, and saw that he was still with his squad in the escape pod. The pod itself was half-buried in dirt, a large crater surrounding it, presumably made when the pod crashed.

“Squad, you awake?” Shephard said, coughing as blood rushed down his throat.

“Ugghhh… I am now, boss. Was there any need to shout? Man, what did we drink last night?” Jackson said, his deep voice booming over the mic.

“Can you two keep it down?” Carter asked irritably, “I’m trying to sleep.”

“Five more minutes…” Chekov mumbled into the mic.

“Guys, we crashed, remember? We need to pop the top and get some Intel as to where we are. Blade, can you try to splice together the pod’s controls, see if we can’t get better sensors, or at least access to its database, if it’s still intact?” Shephard said.

“Sure thing, Brian,” Carter replied.

“Boomer, pop the top. We need to set up a perimeter. Chekov, do an inventory of our equipment. I need to know what we have.”

“Yes, sir,” The two indicated soldiers replied.

Soon, the squad was out of the pod, performing their respective tasks. Carter was working on the pod, leaning down under the dashboard and mixing wires. Boomer was patrolling with a handheld scanner. Chekov had removed everything from the pod and stacked them in an orderly pile, each and everything labeled. Shephard was working on an Emergency Comm. beacon, which should have launched when the pod jettisoned.

“Fuck. Seems something zapped our E-comm. We won’t be phoning home anytime soon.” Shephard said to the squad.

“Looks like the pod was sabotaged too, boss.” Carter said from under the dashboard. “Either that, or we burned up more than we should’ve in the crash. I can only get a few sensor arrays online, and those that are are on the fritz. The datacube’s mostly intact, however. It’s just getting to it is the problem.”

“Well, we can always cut it out and plug it in directly, right?” Chekov spoke up from beneath the load he was carrying.

“It’s not as simple as that. You see, the surrounding core was damaged, and only diagnostics have access. I would need to splice that off and… You know what, now that I think about it, that’s actually a good idea. Besides, it’s probably the only thing worth keeping in this junk-pile of an escape pod.”

“Guys, something’s up with the scanner. I’ve tried diagnostics and everything seems fine, but it keeps telling me that everything here has its own energy signature. It’s as if the whole place is made of tech. Hell, even the microorganisms in the air have it.” Jackson said suddenly, looking up from his handheld device.

“Mine says it too. It’s almost as if…”

“Movement! Unknown species or intent.” Jackson interrupted, raising his gun in the direction. The other squad members did the same.

The sound of voices met them, although the language was unknown to the group. Although something about it stirred in the back of Shephard’s mind, as if he had heard it long ago. He ignored that sentimental thought, instead focusing on his team’s safety.

“Weapons tight. Engage Cloaks. We don’t want to anger the locals, at least until we know their true tech level.” Shephard ordered his team. They responded instantly, each one dissolving from view.

Only to reappear a moment later in showers of sparks.

“Sir, Cloaks are down. Must have been damaged in the crash.” Chekov spoke up.

“You don’t say.” Carter replied sarcastically.

“The diagnostics should have shown that though. Must’ve been that damnable experimentals that Intel made us use. How close are the targets?”

“Fifteen metros* and counting.” Boomer said.

“Alright, let’s play diplomats!” Shephard said.

________________________________________________________________________

“Come on Zecora! We’re almost there!” Scootaloo almost shouted.

“Wait up Scootaloo!” Sweetie Belle whined, attempting to catch up to the group.

“Come on, you’re so slowww!!!” Scootaloo replied.

“Fillies, please, I must…” Zecora started.

“Girls, I think we’re there. Look!” She pointed a hoof at the mound of fresh dirt in front of them.

“Come on! We should totally… Woah.” Scootaloo began, stopping with an air of wonderment.

“What are those things?” Applebloom said.

Sweetie Belle just sat there in silence, amazed at the sight before them. In the crater, a large conical object stood, with a stack of boxes and other strange objects next to it. Standing around the thing were four strange metal statues, looking almost like metal insects. Their eyes glowed blue, and their carapace was mostly black, with dark red streaks accenting the overall appearance.

Zecora, who had been attempting to stop the fillies, took advantage of the sudden silence and began to talk as she ascended the small dirt hill.

“”Fillies, please, we should go home. I have a feeling we are not…” She trailed off as her eyes fell into the clearing. “…alone.” She added as a whisper.

________________________________________________________________________

“Sir, the targets are approaching the crater’s edge. What should we do?” Jackson said over the mic.

“Stand absolutely still. The Cloak’s not working so our best bet is to wait and see. If they are technologically advanced, they’ll recognize the armor for what it is, or at least they should. If not, they’ll probably think we’re some sort of statue. Hopefully, they’re not hostile.” Shephard responding, his eyes darting back and forth across the visual link displayed on his HUD.

As he was talking, three small creatures appeared over the edge of the crater. They were quadrupedal and covered with fur. Each also had a tail and a large splotch of hair on the tops of their heads. The cranial structure itself was vaguely triangular, with large eyes and small mouths. They also had two slits above their mouths, presumably nostrils.

The orange one, who had been saying something, stopped in its speech, slowly taking in the crater. It had a purple tail and head hair, and what appeared to be vestigial wing-like structures on either side.

Another one said something, this one with a yellow coat and reddish hair. A third one, white with purple-pink hair, also stood, its mouth hanging open. It also had some sort of pointed protrusion in the middle of its forehead.

Then a fourth one, which had also been saying something in a rather deep, melodic voice, stepped forward over the ridge. It was at least three times the size of the other three, and it had alternating stripes of black and white going through both its coat and hair. Its neck was covered in gold rings, with a few in its ear-like structures and one on it’s right foreleg.

“Well, this ain’t the strangest species we’ve seen. Heck, they’re positively cute compared to the Gliserax.” Jackson said over the radio, being careful to keep himself still.

“I know what you mean,” Carter replied, “I wonder if they’re one of those tri-gender races. It would explain the structures on the orange one’s back and the white one’s forehead, and the lack thereof on the striped one and yellow one.”

“I wonder if that striped one is the parental unit of the other three, it would explain the larger size.” Chekov said.

“We can probably find out, if you’d turn your translators on!” Shephard said angrily as the four creatures in front of him began to babble in their strange language.

“Uhh, sir, this may be a bad time, but the translator matrix was in the pod. Near the nose. Where it burnt and was subsequently crushed.” Carter said, speaking slowly.

“Great. Back to square one. Maybe we can—“ Shephard began, before getting cut off by Chekov.

“Sir, one of them is approaching me. It’s getting closer. What should I do?”

“Hold your ground.”

“Sir, it’s going to touch me. Holy crap, it’s got enough power in it that even my suit is saying something’s wrong.” Chekov said as the white one reached out to place its right foreleg on his boot. He panicked, taking a hasty step back. The effect was instantaneous.

________________________________________________________________________

“Well I’ll be. Maybe they’re aliens!” Applebloom said suddenly, turning to her friends.

“Aliens, no way!” Sweetie Belle replied after breaking out of her stupor.

“Yeah, look at them. They aren’t moving. They’re probably just statues.” Scootaloo said, disappointed.

“Yeah, but then why would their eyes glow?” Apple bloom countered.

“Maybe it’s an ancient enchantment. It has to be!” Sweetie Belle shouted. “I mean look, they can’t be alive, they’d be moaning on the ground. Half their eyes are smashed in, look. That one has two glowing, when it should have, uhhh….. one two three four…” She counted quickly under her breath, pawing the ground to keep count. “Six. They each should have six glowing eyes. And look at their bent antennae and smashed legs. They have to be old statues!”

“Omygosh you’re right! Maybe that thingy behind them leads to some ancient ruin full of treasure and booby traps!” Scootaloo replied, “It’ll just be like Daring Doo!”

“I dare ya to touch one!” Applebloom said suddenly Sweetie Belle.

“Yeah, you’re not scared, right Sweetie Belle?” Scootaloo said, leaning in.

“Nah, they’re only statues. I got this!” She said, walking over to the closet statue.

Suddenly, Zecora snapped out of her state of surprise, calling Sweetie Belle back.

“No, Sweetie Belle, touch not the statue. We don’t know the wrath that may be aimed at you!”

However, Sweetie Belle ignored Zecora, reaching a hoof forward to touch the hoof of the thing, only for it to pull away from her.

“AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!” She screamed, running back over the small hill, followed closely by Zecora and the other Crusaders.

________________________________________________________________________

“Good job, Scope, we’ll probably have the whole tribe of these things against us.” Jackson said, facepalming

“They’re hiding just on the other side of the ridge. They’re probably still curious. I wonder if they speak or understand Common.” Shephard said, eyeing the minimap-like sensor ring he had set up on his HUD after activating his hand-held sensor.

“Sir, I’ve got another visual on them. They’re back on the ridge, eyeing us.” Carter said suddenly.

“Got it. I’m going to try something.” He looked over towards the dots on his HUD, walking forward slowly with his hands up, before kneeling down. He turned on the external speakers, before speaking really slowly towards the semi-cowering creatures.

“WE… COME… IN… PEACE…”

Author's Note:

*Approximately equivalent to a meter.
Sorry for the short chapter, I finished it a while back so as to get my editor to get all four of the stories' new chapters out, unfortunately, he had computer and life problems. Ah well...