The Stars are Not Our Friends

by Zangetsu675

Chapter 5: Pain and Healing

------------------------------------------Planetside Desert Drop Zone---------------------------------------

------------------------------------------(A.K.A. San Palomino Desert)--------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------Orbital Day 7 : 1106 hours----------------------------------------

Everything hurt. Her wings felt like they had been broken in twenty different places. Her ribs ached. Her legs felt like a mass of throbbing jelly filled sacks of pain. But worst of all was her hide. She felt as if a million dragons had engulfed her in flames. She could smell the scent of her burnt coat. As she lay there in the settling dust, she knew that she was alive, if just barely.

The sound of a thousand hooves striking the ground droned closer and closer. She could hear them now, these beings who came from the stars. They spoke with muffled voices she could not make out, due to both her hearing being damaged by the roar of the rockets and the strange way their faces were shaped. They had Grey plates all over their bodies with a strange blue hide underneath. Their heads were like a yeti’s, only smaller. Three eyes peered out of those strange faces, one large one in the center and two more angular ones on either side of that. Each eye seemed to glow with a brilliance matched only by the light of the crystal caverns in the northern mountains. These beings didn't seem to have a mouth either. In her semi-coherent state, Twilight wondered if they even ate.

Each one stood tall on two hind legs, taller than even Celestia. Their front hooves, oddly enough, were shaped like that of a Minotaur, only with an extra small digit. Many of them carried objects she did not recognize. Twilight started to panic as they touched her, and one of the creatures responded by placing a tube like object up to her neck. She felt a small prick, and then faded into unconsciousness.

------------------------------------------Planetside Desert Drop Zone---------------------------------------

------------------------------------------(A.K.A. San Palomino Desert)--------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------Orbital Day 7 : 1106 hours----------------------------------------

The rest of Recon 1 had seen only their commanding officer run headlong into the citadels drop zone, grab something, and start running back only to disappear in a flash of light. Then he had reappeared fifteen meters west of the group, holding a horse like creature, except they were falling from 20 meters up. As the group rushed over both the sergeant and the creature he had picked up hit the ground with sickening thuds. It was then that the Staff Sergeant stepped up for the first time in the mission.

“Evans, get on comms and get a medivac drop here stat! Jackson, pop a distress beacon and try to flag Recon 7 down for help! Owens, Help me get these two back to the point! We need to stabilize them on the double!” Staff Sergeant Woods barked. Everyone scrambled to do as they were ordered.

The Sergeant and Corporal Owens first lifted their commanding officer and carried him back to the larger stone they were using for shade, and laid him on a bed roll from one of the packs. They then ran back and attempted to do the same with the small lavender horse, but it began to struggle. Owens quickly pulled out one of the tranquilizer needles they had been issued and injected her in the neck. This put the being to sleep almost instantly. By the time they had carried both of them back to the ‘camp’ a drop ship was landing and several medical personnel were rushing over.

With speed that only came with training and experience the medical team moved both of the injured back to the dropship and placed them into large tanks filled with an odd teal gelatinous substance. Instantly, Sergeant Valencio's armor released itself from his form and the blue nanofiber suit dissolved. With his gear out of the way the entire crew could see that the sergeant’s body was covered in angry lesions, blister, and sores. The equine creature was not in much better shape. Most of the coat covering its body was burned clean off, and its wings were bent unnaturally with gaps of feathers missing. Yet before their eyes these were all starting to heal.

“My God! How did these two survive all of this!” one of the medical team exclaimed.

“I don’t know about the horse thing, but Valencio made it cause he’s Valencio.” Woods replied fiddling with the ring on her left hand.

------------------------------------------Planetside Desert Drop Zone---------------------------------------

------------------------------------------(A.K.A. San Palomino Desert)--------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------Orbital Day 9, 1246 hours----------------------------------------

Twilight felt like she was floating in the ocean. The pain was gone, her coat felt cool and smooth, and she let herself float there. Then she remembered. She had come back to ponyville only to see the sky burning as a huge thing fell from the the sky. She had tried to teleport closer, but had overshot it. She remembered the pain from the heat, the fear she had at being crushed by such a huge thing. She also remembered the strange creatures. The one that had saved her had moved faster than she had thought possible. With all that momentum, it was no surprise that when he had grabbed her while on the move he had broken three of her ribs.

Only then did Twilight realized that she should have been in pain. Why did it not hurt? She slowly tried to open her eyes and almost freaked out. She was suspended in some kind of liquid, yet she was not drowning. She could see some more of the alien beings outside of the liquid. Were they trying to kill her? Why was she here? Twilight’s might instantly thought of the cocoons that the changelings used and panicked. One one the creatures came over quickly and a drain opened up below her. The next thing she knew, she was out on a cold floor surrounded by these strange beings. Twilight couldn’t take it any more, and she screamed like a filly.

------------------------------------------Ponyville: Castle of Friendship-------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------Orbital Day 9 : 1300 hours---------------------------------------

Princess Celestia sat in the main hall with the five other elements of harmony and spike.

“Why would she just go off like that? It's just not like her.” Rarity said, sounding worried.

Looking around the room Celestia noticed that they all held the same worried look for their friend. “Do not worry my little ponies! I am sure Twilight is alright. Let’s just wait to hear back from Shining Armor and his team.”

“I just don't understand why that egghead would do something so stupid! She’s supposed to be the smart one.” Rainbow Dash looked to be holding back tears of her own while she comforted Fluttershy, who was crying softly into her lap.

Celestia sighed. “That is most likely my fault. I sent her back here once it became clear that we would gain nothing more from plotting the course these alien beings took to get here. I fear that she thought that she had failed me, though.”
"She must have wanted to redeem herself to you." Spike mumbled.

Soon they had all lost the will to even speak, so they sat in silence.

------------------------------------------Ponyville: Castle of Friendship-------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------Orbital Day 9 : 2100 hours---------------------------------------

A loud knocking came from the front gates of the castle. A second later they swung open while surrounded by a golden aura to reveal a coalition of day, night, and royal guards led by Prince Shining Armor. Walking into the main hall the guard troop stopped in front of Princess Celestia and saluted. “Princess Celestia! We believe to have found Princess Twilight's location! She seems to be within the beings camp in the San Palomino Desert, under strict guard.” Shining Armor reported.

“WHAT!?!? THEY DARE HOLD HER PRISONER!!!! I WILL TURN THEM TO ASH!!!!!!” Celestia raged, her aura flaring up around her. Celestia seemed to loom over every pony in the room. Anger flowing from her like heat from a flame.

“LET ME AT ‘EM! I’LL SA------ MHMMFM!” Rainbow Dash began before the other elements pulled her out of the air and placed their hooves over her mouth. Each one held a terrified look at Princess Celestia’s reaction. Every pony in the room did.

Shining Armor shrank back slightly, but spoke up again anyways. “I am not so sure you should do that Princess. We currently estimate over one hundred and fifty thousand of these beings that are already on the ground, and more keep coming in these of flying ships. My men watched a group come in. These are soldiers. And they seem to have a great many engines of war. Each soldier holds some kind of staff, so we can assume that they can all do magic.Not only that, but it seems that they can fly without wings and even their engines of war can fly. And as i said, more just keep coming down.”

Celestia’s aura slowly dimmed as she calmed down. “What else did you learn about them Shining? Do they seem to have any kind of organization?”

“Actually yes. they seem to all hold a few of them in particular above the rest. Unlike the rest who go around in what we can assume to be some kind of armor, these ones wear something akin to our stallions formal suits.They all seem to have been in command for many years and the low ranks follow their every command.” The white stallion said.

By the time Shining Armor had finished speaking Princess Celestia had returned to her normal composure. “Very well. Captain Armor, I hereby order you to find a way to communicate with these beings. Your top priority is to get your sister back safe and sound while avoiding a war. Take however many squads you deem necessary.

“ Yes Ma’am!” Shining Armor and his entire troop said in unison as they saluted and turned to march out the gates.

----------------------------------------------------I.C.S. Maria-------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------Main Bridge-------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------Orbital Day 9 : 2200 hours----------------------------------------

“FOB operations are underway and on schedule. All supply ships have returned unharmed; however, the mission was not without some unexpected events. We have one injury from our forces and one civilian injury. Not reported loss of life at this time. Our personnel are caring for both of the injured. Apparently all injuries were sustained when the native appeared in the drop zone and our good Sergeant went out to rescue it. “ Captain Valelor reported.

Admiral Malcolm looked slightly perturbed. “It just appeared?”

“Yes sir. The logs from Sergeant Valencio’s Recon Mk 4 suit clearly show the creature appearing in a sudden burst of light. Our boys in the lab surmise that it may be a form of teleportation or spontaneous wormhole transmission”

“So, these beings have the ability to do such things. Captain relay this to the entire fleet and all ground units : ‘Step up security measures and set motion sensors to detect life forms as small as an earth cat.’” We don't want anyone snooping. Now if you would excuse me, I will be heading down to the surface to personally commemorate and chastise the good Sergeant. Captains Stratos, Riggs and Vance await me; and I don’t like to be late. ” Admiral Malcolm said with a dry smile.

Author's Note:

Hey let me know if all the time jumps and character shifts are confusing to anyone.
I welcome feedback.
depending on the feedback the format of the story may change at a later date
Redact: alright. chapter is placed back up. again dont be afraid to give me feedback.

Comments

[TheMajorTechie]

Yeah, it's definitely confusing me...

[Zangetsu675]

6575257 Do you have any suggestions on what i could do to make it easier to read?

[TheMajorTechie]

6575265 Maybe try to explain what's going on with a little bit more detail.

[Magnificent Bastard]

I'm enjoying the fic so far and it's not really confusing to me; however, Celestia did seem a bit ooc, she doesn't seem to be the type to fly into fits of rage.

[Zangetsu675]

6575555 if the person that was like a daughter to you was being held by an unknown force and you had no way of even knowing if she was still alive, would you not be enraged when you found all of that out?

[Zangetsu675]

6575697 i would say that as a mother figure to twilight her response is not angry enough as she actually listened to reason and pulled her roll as a ruler to the fore front

[Magnificent Bastard]

6575697 I'm not saying she wouldn't be angry, I bet she would be absolutely livid. I'm just saying she wouldn't express it in such an obvious way. Celestia is a thousand year old politician, I'm sure she would be able to tone down her emotions quite well. Other than this I think you're doing a great job and I'm looking forward to future chapters.

[Cross Lament]

6575697 I would hazard that Celestia would be more concerned than outraged, unless it were obvious to her that they had intentionally harmed her (former) student. Being the Xanatos Gambit politician type that she is, schooling her reactions in most cases would be second nature to her.

Then again, she is also facing the stress of a potential invasion of hypertech aliens many millions strong.

Hopefully someone will fall victim to the ponies' innate supercuteness and calm Twilight down with a friendly hug or ear-scratch.

[Zangetsu675]

6575731
6575758 ill keep both of you guys words in mind for the future. for now she slipped. lets just see her again soon.

[TheSpaceDuck]

I am so far enjoying this story!

[Zangetsu675]

6578536 Thank you for pointing that mistake out. it should have been 20 million years

[Zangetsu675]

6605793 this is true. it will all be explained later. for now if you want spoilers to some things go look at the comments on my user page here: http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Zangetsu675
second page of the comments to be exact

[Dark Shade 75]

Okay, that scene with Celestia's rage came completely out of left field. Even when her city was being taken over and her subjects all having who knows what done to them during the Canterlot Changeling invasion, she merely looked irritated. Burning with literal fire in a rage is so out of character for her, that I couldn't take any of the scene seriously.

[Dances With Unicorns]

(One one the) creatures (came) over quickly and a drain opened up below her.

Then, one of the strange creatures walked over quickly and a drain opened up below her.

[Dances With Unicorns]

And as (i) said, more just keep coming down.

And as I said, more just keep coming down.

Take (however many) squads you deem necessary.

Take however as many squads you deem necessary.