The Fallen Star People

by MrPants1100

Local Fauna

The Fallen Star People
Chapter 4: Local Fauna

The little orange creature sat motionless at Lieutenant Davids’ feet. If he had to choose, the weirdest part about it would definitely be the coloration. If his night vision was to be believed, light orange fur stretched across the majority of its body. And stranger still, long maroon hair sprouted from its head and hindquarters. Davids wondered for a moment if it was some sort of camouflage for the creature, but unless these things lived in Disney World they would be pretty easy to spot.

Davids spoke his descriptions into the small microphone on his helmet as he continued his survey. His eyes swept over the creature as he cataloged it as best he could. He counted no less than six limbs, including a pair of miniature wings, which technically made it a mammalian insect.

Just like the Draconis. He thought before shuttering. While it was true that his enemy was also an unholy combination of exoskeleton and exothermic flesh he highly doubled they were related to these things.

With his observations complete he shifted his weight nervously from foot to foot. He hoped he didn’t kill it. After cutting down its pursuer he had assumed it would run back into the forest. He was a little confused when it stayed rooted to the ground afterwards, but seeing as it was literally rooted to the ground, he did the only sensible thing he could think of. Cutting the gnarled wood had been easy with his laser, but he did not expect the creature to look up at him and then faint.

Slowly he approached again and carefully poked it with his boot…In his defense, many scientific truths were discovered by poking things. He hooked his toe under an orange legs and freed it entirely from the burnt remains of the root. As far as he could tell the creature was uninjured. Perhaps it has a distant relation to the fainting goat? It looked a bit like a goat, and it had fainted, so he added it to his report on its anatomy.

He was about to poke it again (For SCIENCE!) when he heard a noise from about 20 meters away. Looking up two small figures became highlighted on his HUD. Instantly he recognized them as the others he had seen at the landing site. At least the orange one would be among kin if he left, so it wouldn’t be in too much danger. Then again, looking to the pile of smoldering wolf he figured he might as well bring lil’ Orange back to her family.

He tucked the laser back to the side of his backpack and reached down to pick up the creature when he remembered something. Wait a moment…I’ve seen this before. Then it hit him. This was the opening shot to every B-horror film from the past two decades. Lone astronaut finds a strange alien being/egg/artifact/whatever and brings it right up into his face and then…BAM…blood everywhere, roll title.
Screw this.

He straightened up and reached for his laser again but stopped when he thought about saving lil’ Orange then just leaving her comatose in the forest. Sighing he reached for his side arm, if he was going to do this he was at least going to be smart about it.

**********************************************

Both Crusaders looked helplessly at one another as Scootaloo was hoisted into the air by the gloved appendage. The creature picked their friend up and pointed something in its other hand at her head. Apple Bloom worried she may need to intervene, but before she could act the creature rose up and made its way towards them.

Neither Sweetie Belle nor Apple Bloom could move as the one giant, unmoving, unblinking, reflecting eye fell upon them. The only sound in the forest came from the crunching footfalls as the natural carpet of the forest was mangled beneath its stride. In just of hoof full of moments it stood towering before them and froze.

For a few agonizing seconds nopony moved, until in one jerky motion Scootaloo was placed a few paces away from her friends. The creature then quickly took a few steps back and readjusted its grip on the object in its right hand. It continued to gaze at the Crusaders with its shiny black eye until the two fillies rushed over to their friend.

Sweetie Belle was the first to react, and taking experience from their ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders Paramedics’ attempt, began to violently shake her friend while yelling for her to wake up.

“Scootaloo! Please be okay, Scootaloo!” Sweetie wailed. Apple Bloom quickly put an ear to Scootaloo’s chest and sighed with relief when she heard the steady sound of her breathing. With one friend stable she turned to more difficult of the two.

“She’s all right, Sweetie Belle. Ah think she jus’ got scared is all.” After a few more soothing words Sweetie fell silent and hugged Scootaloo close while waiting for Apple Bloom to make the next move. Secure in the knowledge that their friend was safe, Apple Bloom looked back up to the one eyed monster. It had taken a half step closer to where they stood.

She froze up. As she looked on, in horror, the creature edged closer and closer. She glanced at her friends, both were still unmoving, one mouth agape petrified by the sight, the other, mouth agape and drooling on the ground. She realized running now would only put her friends in danger, so she turned back to the creature ready to face anything. It had stopped within one of its arm-lengths away from them. Apple Bloom was both terrified and relieved to see that it seemed to not be paying any mind to her friends, it was looking only at her.

Very slowly it reached out one of its hands to snatch up Apple Bloom. She wanted to run but fear and loyalty held her firmly in place. The hand made for her skull and she could just imaging the hand crushing her like an egg. It was too late now, she shut her eyes and silently wished it would be over soon. As her thoughts composed a last goodbye to her sister she felt something tugging on her hair.

She opened her eyes and looked up.

The glove was a few inches above her and making a small rubbing motion… on her bow? It didn’t make any sense, but there it was. The creature had pinched her red hair bow in its fingers and seemed to be examining the fabric.

Before she could think any more on this, the creature did a few more unexpected things. It let go of her accessory and backed up again. A bright flash of light came a spot on its chest before it raised its left wrist and began to tap incessantly on it. After a few moments it appeared to be satisfied until part of its right shoulder opened up and a little bird shot into the sky, making a buzzing noise the whole way.

Apple Bloom blinked, once, twice… and then looked over at Sweetie Belle who appeared to be in a similar state of confusion.

“So…any idea wut that waz all about?” Sweetie shrugged, sending Scootaloo’s head into the dirt again. She picked her back up and dusted her off before replying.

“Well…it didn’t eat us…so that’s good, I guess.”

“I guess.” Apple Bloom agreed.

The four of them sat in uncomfortable silence as Scootaloo continued to snore softly. Apple Bloom figured any time they weren’t being eaten was a good time, but as soon as Scootaloo came back to the land of the living they were gonna get the buck out of there like Granny found your crayon art on the wall.

As she was about to tell Sweetie Belle of her foal-proof plan the buzzing bird returned. It came down through the branches overhead, sounding like Scootaloo on her scooter, when it came to a stop hovering in front of the alien.

Now that it wasn’t moving so fast Apple Bloom was able to make out more detail. It definably wasn’t a bird, it seemed to be little tube hanging under four black rings arranged at the four corners. It buzzed and hovered for a moment, occasionally dipping to one side, before it moved back to the alien’s shoulder and locked and folded itself back into place.

Neither Crusader knew what to make of this new development before the alien took out the long tube from its back and began to walk away. Both sighed in relief as it seemed to leave them alone. With one less problem they could once again focus on getting back to their sisters.

Before this could happen, however, the alien returned.

It stood before them and began sweeping its arm at them and then flicking it in the direction it had been walking. Both conscious Crusaders glanced at each other before the alien tried a new tactic.

It put one end of the ‘long thing’ in it shoulder and pointed the smaller end away. After a moment a bright green line burst into existence in the direction it had indicated. They were momentarily blinded but the message was clear.

Go this way.

There was no was in Tartarus Apple Bloom would follow an alien one step. So she looked it right in the one big eye. “No way,” she said with as much force as she could muster. After a moment Sweetie Belle, shaking like a leaf, added her own meekly formed answer.

The alien seemed to ponder this for a moment. The moment was over quickly however as it suddenly swooped in and picked up Scootaloo. She had forgotten how far it could move in a single step and before anypony could react it had the sleeping pegasus in one arm and was walking back towards the underbrush.

“Hey! Bring her back!” But it was to no avail. The creature only stopped stuck ‘long thing’ to its side and beckoned for them to follow. It did this by holding the sleeping body of Scootaloo in both hands an inch off the ground and gave her a little bounce to make it seem as if she was walking.

*Unbeknownst to either pony, Lieutenant Davids was giggling insistently at his like joke. A cheeky smile adorned his face (not that they could see it, but that didn’t make it any less cheeky) as he made trit-trot noises with his mouth. Come on ‘Giddy-Up’ I’ve got places to be!*

The puppet show over, she was moved back to her spot as the alien drew out ‘short thing’ and continued to walk into the bushes.

“Apple Bloom?”

“Ya, Sweetie Belle.”

“It just foal-napped Scootaloo.”

“Eeyup.” She responded.

“Should we go after it? What if it’s dangerous?”

Apple Bloom sighed. “I think we’d better. Ah jus hope it don’t probe us, or notin’.”

***

The sound was the first thing that was wrong. It was the sound of some critter coming at them, and it didn’t sound right. It seemed to lumber through the forest making all sorts of racket, but didn’t seem to move very fast. It was slower than anything she knew, only making the crunch of a step every second or so. Applejack knew about almost every creature in these parts, but whatever that was, was a mystery.

“Quiet, Rarity. Something’s coming.” Rarity paused her nervous discussion of hats and strained to hear the approaching noise.

Both ponies took a defensive stance and waited in silent darkness for the source of the noise to arrive. After a minute the sound seemed to be almost on top of them before the forest was suddenly silent again. Applejack and Rarity tensed against this new development. But try as they might to prepare themselves, the next noise from the trees was something they could never have expected.

“Hey, why are we stopping?”

…

“Sweetie Belle?” Rarity said, eyes going wide.

“Rarity!” Suddenly the bushes opened up and a tiny white filly ran straight into her sister’s legs. She was joined quickly as Applejack’s own sister followed suit. Both had tears in their eyes as they grasped on to their older siblings. Applejack was delighted to have both back safe and sound, but something still bothered her.

“Say sis?” Apple Bloom looked up and met her sister’s gaze. “Where’s Scootaloo?”

“…run off like that again, I was so worry-. “ Rarity cut herself off when she heard Applejack’s words. She quickly whipped her head around to either side looking for the orange pegasus, when she saw nothing she lit up her horn and illuminated to area around them.

The trees and earth around them shone with the light of Rarity’s horn. Features only shown by sparse starlight glowed a soft blue and became distinguishable from the darkness. Rocks and branches caught the light, but did not reveal Scootaloo. As Rarity put more power into the spell a new object became apparent out of the gloom.

A shining orb reflected the scene before it was joined by an outline of a body. Rarity drew in breath in a long gasp and Applejack shoved her sister behind her as more of the creature was revealed. Applejack’s eyes quickly traced over this new threat ascertaining the danger before she saw what was tucked under its left arm.

Seeming to notice her outrage the creature stepped forward. The two mares tensed as it broke through the bushes to tower over them. Applejack wished she had brought her rope and doubted whether she could fight it or not. As it turned out she needn’t have worried about a confrontation as the creature simply squatted down and gently placed its orange bundle on the ground before retreating out of sight.

Nopony moved for almost a full minute before Rarity snatched up Scootaloo in her grasp and placed her on her back.

“Applejack. I think our time in the forest is over. Let us get back to camp, now!” She said before marching back the way they came. Applejack followed quickly and pushed Apple Bloom alone ahead of her keeping an ear out for any sound of the creature.

“Apple Bloom, what in tarnation was that thing? An’ how’d it get ahold of Scootaloo?”

She only half listened when her sister started to talk about how it came from outer space and shot out death rays with its mind. She wasn’t interested in her sister’s imaginative explanation. However, her sister’s outlandish claims were only one reason she didn’t pay attention, because something behind her drew far more of her focus.

Just at the edge of her hearing came a sound that filled her with dread.

Crunch-Crunch. Crunch-Crunch.

***

Davids chuckled to himself as he made after the retreating creatures. It was exhilarating to be on his own interacting with such a strange new species. The more he observed them the more excited he became, no longer did he think of them as mindless beasts, the bow and the hat had seen to that, but also the way they moved and seemed to communicate gave him a sense of intellect.

And then there was the magic. That was the only way he could explain it. Whip a moon around a planet? Magic. Create light and lift a creature? Magic. It was beyond what he thought could be possible. The white one (he called her Snowball) had been able to create bioluminescence and levitation! Any thought he had of leaving the group alone were dashed aside in order to learn more about this strange ability.

Following closely behind he began assigning names to the different individuals to keep track of their actions. Lil’ Orange, Snowflake, Bowie, Snowball and Cow Boy. Fortunately their coloration meant he wouldn’t lose track of them. He thought for a moment more about their coloration and behavior and decided they were most likely a family unit.

He couldn’t back up his assumption, but it did explain much of what he saw. Snowball was almost definitely the mother of Snowflake and Cow Boy seemed to take what appeared to be a masculine defensive position to protect the group. He added the information to his notes, but he had been wrong before about their intelligence and made a note that he might have gone pi radians in the wrong direction with his assumptions.

As he looked to his map he realized the group must be getting close. His drone had mapped out the visible and thermal spectrum for this area, and if his assumption was correct the creatures had almost made their way back to what had appeared to be a campsite. The thermal imaging for that area had shown enough heat for a fire in the middle of a clearing, and the visible had shown various unnatural shapes that seemed to be structures.

He made sure to stay out of sight of the group as they moved into a lighter part of the forest and hunkered down to avoid being detected by Cow Boy. You would think someone was spinning a hat given how often its head would swivel back and forth. The creature shooting back glances the entire trip but didn’t appear to spot the pursuing pilot.

Davids stopped as the group broke through the last of the trees and rushed over to an area lit up with firelight and surrounded by three tents. If he followed it be impossible for him to stay hidden, his bright white suit was made to be seen in case of emergency and, with its bulk, made stealth impossible. Scouting out from a distance would not yield nearly as much data as a close encounter, however.

He sighed. They had seen him once, what was one more time? Before he moved from his position, as an after-thought, he reached into one of the oversized pockets on his suit and pulled out his backup plan. After a few seconds the flat rectangle hung rigidly under the barrel of his laser. He hoped he wouldn’t need to use it, but in a pinch it would be his best option.

With his weapon and science equipment ready, Davids moved slowly towards the light.

***

Scootaloo had awoken just before the ponies had returned to camp. Instantly she had jumped up and started screaming before Rarity could calm her down. While she was happy Scootaloo was alright, Applejack couldn’t help but feel that she liked the filly better when she wasn’t making so much noise.

As she sighed the forest gave way and the campsite finally came into view. So far the creature hadn’t reappeared, but she threw back another glance back just in case.

I swear that thing was following us. It didn’t appear to be hostile and it had returned Scootaloo so it seemed alright, but on the other hoof, why would it be hiding from them if it wanted to be friendly? Applejack pushed these thoughts from her mind as she made her way into the light of the camp. She scrubbed the worry form her face and turned to take charge of the situation.

“Alright, Rares! You get the tents folded up and I’ll pack up the bags. We’ll break camp and be on our way back to Ponyville in an hour.” She stomped her hoof for emphasis before Rarity saluted and began taking down the closest tent. Applejack turned to get her own saddlebags when she was stopped by six large eyes.

“What’d you want us to do Applejack?” Her little sister asked eagerly. The other crusaders wore looks of apprehension and restlessness respectfully. None of the little ponies knew exactly what was going on that had the adults in such a panic, but the idea of being left out of the action was still troubling.

“Ah want you three to just wait right here for us to finish, then we’ll all go back to Ponyville together.” Her attempt to be soothing was greeted by a trio a sighs.

“Look, ah know ya’ll want to help an all, it’s jus…” She struggled to find the right words. Coming out and saying ‘There is an unknown and possibly dangerous creature lurking just outside the firelight and I don’t want you to die’ might be a bit extreme. On the other hoof, it wasn’t in her nature to lie to them about the danger. So she settled for something in between.

“Ah think you three have had enough excitement fer one night. How about you jus’ let me and Rarity break camp while you rest?” The crusaders nodded sadly but didn’t put up a fight over it.

Applejack smiled as she began to pack away the gear they had brought. Now at least they could get out of the forest and regroup. Once they got their hooves back under them and didn’t have to worry about three missing fillies they could begin to deal with the mystery creature. Her only regret was leaving so soon, if they could stay longer she would have waited until all ponies were present.

She didn’t have to wait long, however, as the final member of their group came soaring in overhead.

“AJ! Rarity! There you guys are! They’re over here, Twilight! I told you they’d come back.” Applejack flinched at the outburst. She hadn’t been expecting Rainbow Dash to fly in so fast. She pulled her head of the tent she was working in and looked up and the pegasus overhead.

Rainbow Dash hovered over the campsite with as much ease as she could fake. When she arrived with the purple princess in tow to find her friends missing she had panicked, but in a cool way. Searching the surrounding forest had been easy from the air, her wings definitely helped speed things along. In the few minutes she had been here she had already covered a few acres, she didn’t claim to be the fastest pegasus around for nothing (in fact, until that night she had been the fastest creature alive.)

Princess Twilight Sparkle caught up a bit more slowly. Her flying had been improved since her coronation, but she was still nowhere near able to match speeds with a distraught pegasus.

“Howdy Rainbow, Twilight. You two showed up just in time we could use yer help to-“

“HI RAINBOW DASH!” Scootaloo called, cutting Applejack off.

“Hey, squirt. So AJ what gives? I went to get Twilight, like you said, and then when we get here you guys were gone.”

“Well ya see, me and Rarity had to go looking for the girls after they ran off. They went to go see the shooting star from on top of a hill not too far away but when we got there-“ For the second time in as many minutes, Applejack found herself unable to finish a sentence.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you three run off again? What do we keep telling you? You’re not going to get your cutie marks by getting into trouble,” Rainbow said, glaring at the ponies in question.

The three crusaders deflated under her gaze. “We’re sorry, Rainbow Dash.” Scootaloo began. “We tried to come back, honest, but the alien chased us into a pack of Timberwolves and-.” Rainbow Dash cut her off with a gasp.

“Timberwolves! You three ran into a pack of Timberwolves?!” She said horrified.

“Well only one.” Sweetie Belle answered, lamely.

“I don’t believe this! I’m gone for five minutes and you get yourself into so much trouble. I mean really, if I wasn’t around….” Rainbow Dash paused for a moment as she alighted on the ground. “Wait, what do you mean, ‘an alien’ chased you into Timberwolves?”

Three filly heads suddenly perked up. That’s right, the alien, they hadn’t told Rainbow Dash about the alien! If she knew what they had been through she couldn’t be mad at them. So all at once they began to bombard her with everything they knew.

“Ya, the alien! It was huge and scary!”
“It shoots death rays!”
“It killed a bunny so we ran away from it-“
“It also saved Scootaloo! It burned up a Timber wolf.”
“I did something weird to me when it got close. That’s why I was unconscious”
“No it didn’t! Scootaloo just fainted ‘cause she’s chicken.”
“Am not!”
“And it has a spaceship-.”
‘Are too! You were asleep the whole time.”

Rainbow Dash sighed and looked over at Applejack. They shared their patented ‘Kids, what’ch gonna do?’ look. “So…what really happened?” Rainbow asked, if the crusaders weren’t going to give her an honest answer then Applejack sure would.

“Well to be honest, I don’t know what they were with.” Rainbow’s eyes widened at the implication.

“Wait, was there really an alien!?” She just thought the crusaders were trying to get their cutie marks in annoying adults and getting out of trouble, but if they were telling the truth…

“I don’t know. I ain’t never seen nothing like it. Had Scootaloo under one arm and looked like it had a big fish bowl on its head.” The image that came to Rainbow Dash’s mind of princess Luna in a glass helmet was quickly dispelled.

“OK.” Twilight said. “It’s an unknown creature, we know that. The ‘fish bowl’ is interesting, but not pressing. Applejack, they said it had a ‘death ray’? What is that all about?” Applejack scratched her chin before opening her mouth.

“Ya! It shoot out death rays! It used one to make a poor little bunny EXPLODE! And then used it to burn up a Timber wolf that was gonna eat me! Applejack didn’t see it, but there was fire everywhere. It was all ‘GRRRR’ and then it was all ‘AHHHH---BRRURRURREEER’.

Everypony looked over at Scootaloo in dead silence. She looked at the others and began to withdraw slightly as she realized how she sounded. The quiet lingered for a few more moments as everypony tried to come up with some statement that was reasonable enough to offset the wild claims.

Rarity was about to break the quiet when a new sound entered the clearing. It broke through the situation and made every ear perk up. Coming from the edge of the fire light it sounded distinctly like a discarded Frisbee being crushed under a heavy foot.

As one their eyes turned. It was big. The same creature dressed in white stood over the remains of the toy that had given it away. During their conversation it had been slowly approaching, gathering research data. Now it was almost at the tents. There was a scream from one of the crusaders.

Instantly the situation got out of control. The creature tensed up and leveled something at the group. A death ray!? Everypony thought at once. Rainbow Dash was the only one to react as she took to the sky, ready to fight.

“Hey! What do think you’re doing huh!?” She bellowed at the monster that endangered her friends. Its only response was to jump back and point the object squarely at Rainbow Dash. Not waiting for a response, she charged straight at it.

The moment seemed to slow down for a moment as she flew to tackle the creature. As the ponies watched on a point of sharp green light appeared on her face before a loud buzzing tone came from the creature. She screamed.

Rainbow Dash lost control instantly and flew directly into a tree a short distance behind the creature. During her whole flight the alien had pirouetted and kept the device pointed at her the whole way.

Rainbow’s scream and impact into the tree snapped Twilight out of her daze. Nopony hurts her friends! She quickly charged up her horn to knock the creature back and keep it away from the fillies. It turned at the sight of her glowing horn and pointed the device at her.

She screamed. It ran back into the underbrush.

***

The ponies had packed quickly after that.

Both Rainbow Dash and Twilight turned out to be fine. For Dash the greater injury had been from smacking into the tree. Neither felt any different after only a second. Whatever the attack was, it left no lasting pain or injury. Which isn’t to say it didn’t hurt. Twilight’s only way to describe it was having molten lead poured into the backs of her eyes. Or as though she had been given the worst sunburn of her life for a fraction of a moment. She could think of a number of nonlethal spells the guard used that would cause enough pain to stop a pony, but nothing quite like what the alien had done.

Everypony was glad they were uninjured, but they all decided to pack only what they absolutely needed and leave. Rarity even volunteered to leave much of her gear behind in favor of speed. And she didn’t even take her newest ‘expedition’ outfit from out of her tent, so the situation was obviously dire indeed. She just threw everything into her still-standing tent and sealed it before harnessing herself to her cart and pulling the remaining necessary equipment.

The ponies moved as fast as they dared down the slopes back to their homes. Nopony said a word, except for the crusaders who were in various states of shock. They moved with purpose and made it back in less than an hour, a new record.

The whole time they all tried to wrap their minds around what had happened, and as she led Twilight was already composing the first lines of her letter to the princess.

***

“Shit! Scheiße! Дерьмо! Merde!” Davids cursed as he hurdled another pile of smoldering creature. Thus far he had killed three of the branch laden animals. In the distance he heard more howls and realized with growing dread that the graphene superconducting battery for his weapon was running low. This did not bother him much, however, as he a far more pressing issue in his mind.

Good going! Absolutely great! That was obviously the best way to make first contact. He stopped his sarcasm long enough to move down of steep dirt slope before continuing. I mean, really, what were you thinking?! Land in the middle of the woods, find some campers and start shooting at them! Brilliant!

He looked down at his map again, he was close. OK, so the flying one charged and the purple one had started the bioluminescence, but still, that could not have gone worse. He took a moment to slow down and actually consider what he had done. Yes, he had screwed up and probably angered the locals, but it definitely could have been worse.

If he had not taken the time to attach the active denial system to his laser he would have two dead aliens on his hands. They were still pissed off, but having microwaves bounced off your skull was less lethal than a focused high energy beam. The active denial system would still hurt like a bitch, though, and he knew any further attempts at contact would have to account for his mistake.

Before he could think more on his blunders he made it to his destination.

A dozen new fires surrounded Magdalene, the undercarriage turret seemed to have no trouble finding targets. Perhaps the first batch of barbecued forest life had attracted larger creatures. Either way he knew now that the forest was far from safe.

Quickly he ran to the ship and made his way onboard stowing everything he didn’t need in flight. Within minutes the turret was retracted and began his final check before firing up the VTOL engines.

The quiet of the forest was suddenly broken as the thundering sound of directional thrusters fired down into the ground. Leaf litter exploded into flame as the front end of the fighter pointed itself into the air. Within seconds the ALLOX solid state boosters fired and the vehicle shot forward.

From his new vantage point Davids looked out and tried to see a suitable place to land. No mapping had been completed on this area and he was utterly alone. He shivered for a moment before continuing. He knew his craft could not return to orbit on its minimal sum of fuel, but landing anywhere else on the surface would be a great boon to his endeavors. As he scanned readout and images a flashing display caught his eye.

Oh no…

His fuel was at less than 50% and dropping, his fighter was meant for the easy flying of space and couldn’t handle the drag and gravity. As he watched the number fall he knew what he needed to do.

With one motion the craft went silent as the engines were cut. He began to glide to the ground slowly and searched for a landing site with greater earnest. Any fuel he used now might be crucial later, he didn’t think he had burned up so much in his descent, but now he needed to save every bit off it.

He spotted a flat grassy hill close-by, free from trees and flat enough to land on without use of his precious fuel. He was so caught up in his landing that he didn’t even notice the few specks of candlelight coming from the sleeping town just a little ways farther into the valley.

The lone pilot sighed once more as the final checks were made. Landing was perfect, and now the fighter was set up to burn anything dangerous that came in the night. He tried to send his reports but it didn’t go through.

Everyone he had come to know and love was on the opposite side of the planet, thousands of miles away hurtling through space. Radio contact would be impossible for hours and in that time, he would be alone.

So absolutely and completely alone. For a moment, no one in the whole universe was so cut off as he. Every other human being had someone close by, someone they could talk to and he did not. The Monet was still struggling to make orbit somewhere in the black and everyone else he knew was even more removed.

He sat up higher in his chair suddenly and craned his still helmeted head in all directions as he looked out of the digital canopy around him. With such complete darkness the stars shone down upon him and with well-trained eyes he scanned the heavens for his target.

There. A small white star stood just above the horizon. It looked so ordinary sitting still amongst other brighter stars. With a push of a few buttons crosshairs appeared over his view of it and confirmed the name of that star. It might have been any star, but he wanted to be sure. With three little letters the point of light gathered new meaning. From this distance it was barely discernible, its reach blocked by parsecs of space. From this distance it was just one of millions of stars. From this distance it seemed so insignificant. But from 51 light years away Davids looked back at the little dot his HUD had labeled. Sol.

After nearly half an hour he turned away. The antenna went down and his radio was turned off, he would not be transmitting tonight anyways, what was the point of listening? The canopy was the next to go and he was suddenly completely immersed in darkness. Davids undid his straps and shoved the controls out of the way and leaned back in his seat.

And for the first time in a long time, Davids cried himself to sleep.

Author's Note:

Here it is...Ponies meet human..human shoots ponies...ponies forget to properly secure their food and end up having their camp raided by raccoons.

Oh yeah, the plot. So first contact has been successfully butchered, what will happen as they see more of each other?
Expect more vaguely described Sci-Fi tech as The Sol Federation and Equestria meet.

With love of a greater mass than 30 tapeworms,
MrPants1100

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