The Singleship

by Driverless

Chapter 1

It was mid-spring, the time of year where the biting cold of winter and long since faded but the heat of the summer months had yet to begin. Twilight sat on the balcony of the library, the feint breeze felt cool against her fur and did wonders to relax her as she settled into an arm chair. Twilight eased back into it as she prepared to read Starswirl the Bearded’s thesis on the existence of multiple frontal planes for the 15th and a half time, the sun was just starting to set bathing Ponyville in magnificent golds and reds. The leaves of the tree she occupied rustled above her as the sky darkened, the pale light of Luna’s moon rising was the only thing keeping her book illuminated.

As the night wore on with Twilight’s head never even looked up from what she was reading, at around 1:30 Twilight noticed that it was getting progressively easier to see the words; perplexed she turn her head upwards just in time to hear an ear-shattering boom, a ball of fire lit up the sky as it sailed straight over Ponyville towards the surrounding countryside.

Twilight had half a mind to put up a quick shield spell as the shock wave from the sound barrier being broken hit Ponyville. If her ears weren’t ringing Twilight would have heard the sound of every window in town shattering and loose objects thrown to the ground.

“Sweet Celestia!” Twilight exclaimed before turning to where the object had headed just in time to see it impact the ground with an roar as several thousand tons of dirt and rock were thrown into the air. “SPIIIIIKE!” she screamed as she ran back inside just in time to see the dragon come out rubbing his eyes.

“Twilight, what was that?” he asked before looking at the scene in the library seeing the shattered windows and books that had been thrown to the floor. Sighing to himself knowing that he’ll be the one to clean it up.

“Spike, I need you to send at letter to the Princess right now!” Twilight manged to sputter as she caught her breath, Just as Spike was getting a quill and parchment together he felt his throat tighten as he ejected a letter from his mouth. Twilight snatched the scroll and read it fervently on it was a single sentence.

I’ll be right there.

Having done her due diligence Twilight magicked Spike up onto her back she ran out of the library, outside lights were already coming on and ponies started coming out of their houses to see what all the commotion was about.

“Twilight, what’s going on?” Spike asked as he bounces on her back as she zig-zagged through the street.

“Something big is happening Spike, something fell from the sky.”

“What? Like a meteor?”

“I don’t think so, it came in too fast to be a meteor, it should have bled most of it’s speed when it entered the atmosphere.” Several minutes later they had reached the outskirts of town and saw a pillar of smoke rising from where the object had impacted no doubt starting a number of small fires. As the duo reached the impact site Luna was already there looking at the rather sizable crater.

“Ah, Twilight Sparkle how good of you to join us, tis a rather impressive sight is it not?” Still trying to catch her breath she breathlessly answered an affirmative and stared into the crater. It was easily several hundred meters both wide and deep. At the center of it was what looked to be a near perfect cylinder or it would be if it wasn’t in several pieces.

It looked to have been around 200 meters long and had two long coils of what looked to be wire sticking out of both endcaps that connected to two very large cones. The cables were both thicker then Twlight’s barrel and was unlike any metal that she had ever seen. As Twilight was gawking Luna continued.

“As you can see what ever this object is it is most definitely artificial in nature and could possibly be dangerous, I suggest we wait for sister to get here with a guard regiment before we continue any further.” This snapped Twilight back to reality.

“The guard isn’t really necessary is it?” Twilight asked while looking at the object

“Unfortunately yes, until it’s determined what this is and why it’s here we should treat it cautiously, it could be a weapon for all we know,” said Luna hesitantly while glancing at the growing crowd of ponies that came to see what had happened. She turned to face the crowd and in the royal Canterlot voice said.

“Everypony, please return to your homes, it is not safe here. You will be informed once we have assessed the situation!” The arrival of Celestia and a backing of guards reaffirmed this statement and the crowd began to disperse.

“Princess I hardly think this thing could be a weapon, I know for almost absolute certainty Equestria’s enemies don’t have anywhere near the sophistication to build something like this let alone launch it at such speeds."

"We couldn’t even do something like this,” Twilight stated while examining a bit of the cabling that had draped over the crater edge.

“Be that as it may Twilight, my sister is correct,” Celestia said as she strolled up to the two of them. “Until we know what this is I think it’s best if we exercise extreme caution.” The guards went to work establishing a parameter and putting out the nearby fires, as they were doing so the Princesses and Twilight started down the embankment towards the structure. As they got closer it became apparent just how big it was. They carefully approached the largest and most intact section and peered inside.

After conjuring a few spheres of light they were able to see inside. It most definitely was a place inhabited or at least once inhabited by somepony. Everywhere they turned there was some console or device of unknown origin or purpose as well as the remains of objects that weren’t bolted down and were vaporized at impact. Lights and some kind of glowing panels were all over the structure still being powered by some yet undetected source of energy.

Twilight knew it wasn’t magic or at least, any magic that she knew of. The impact would have set off a massive discharge of magic and the area would be absolutely saturated in it. Here there was nothing, after a few minutes of looking around they came across something different, it was a pod situated upright against one of the walls. Judging by the red smear on the glass front and the sludge collecting at the bottom there definitely was someone in here, liquefied upon impact. Twilight turned a rather embarrassing shade of green and backed off to go catch some air.

“I think this may have been a ship,” Celestia offered.

“That would be our conclusion as well sister,” Luna said while doing a walk around of the pod. It was roughly six and a half feet tall about the height of your average Minotaur but much much thinner. Off the top of her head Luna couldn’t think of any intelligent species that would fit in this thing.

“There isn’t any visible source of lift though, or any control surfaces, I have no idea how it would fly,” Celestia mumbled to no one in particular.

“We might have the answer to that sister,” Celestia turned to her sister as she continued inspecting the wayward visitor.

“We were aware of the object well before it was visible with the eye,” Celestia’s eyes widened

“You don’t mean-”

“Yes I’m afraid, I first sensed it when it first came past our moon, it was traveling at a speed I didn’t even know was possible. Within minutes it entered the atmosphere,” Luna went silent for a moment. “We might be dealing with something far beyond our comprehension,” she finally said.

“Who ever this individuals people are why would they build this ship to withstand such enormous stress but not protect the passenger?” Celestia asked.

“Perhaps the ship was more valuable then the pony,” Luna mused while Celestia weakly chuckled.

“We should go see if Twilight is okay.”

“Yes, it’s probably best before she wanders off.”

The two walked out of the structure and went off looking for Twilight. Finding her off to the side she was leaning against a piece of debris catching her breath, as Celestia reassured Twilight Luna caught her up to date with what she knew about the object. Upon hearing that the object was not of this world her eyes lit up, starting to prance around she blurted out theories about what the purpose of the craft was, where it came from and what it’s builders were like. “Twilight, settle down,” Celestia softly offered putting her foreleg on Twilights withers. “There will be plenty of time for theory crafting later,” She offered

“You’re right Princess, now we need a science team down here right away.”

“Oh, I’m so excited!” Twilight squeed

Celestia nodded and cocked her head to her sister. Seeing her meaning Luna flew off back over to the camp the guards were now putting up. Twilight was already busily racing around taking notes from a notebook she had conjured. “Princess look at this!” Twilight called Celestia over while looking at a hunk of the wreckage.

Twilight’s horn lights up and she directs it at the wreck. “Princess, this cone that’s attached to the cable is made of pure Tungsten, it’s the purest Tungsten I ever come across.” Celestia check the cone as well and sure enough it is what the unicorn says it is. Exacerbated Twilight continues. “Given how expensive Tungsten is I have no idea why they would use it making a giant cone. The cables themselves are made up of some super rigid kind of Carbon and I no idea where to start with whatever the main structure is made of.”

While Twilight rambled Celestia wandered around to the front side of the cone where the cable continued. Looking at the end she saw it was uneven with stray fibers poking out.

“Twilight, come here.” The purple unicorn stopped her speech when she saw that the Princess was absent from her side and looked up. Heading over to where Celestia was standing she took a look at the end of the cable.
“It looks as if it’s been cut.” Twilight said.”

“My thoughts exactly.” Replied Celestia. Peering at it more closely Twilight then turned her head toward her mentor.

“That means there was something else attached to this end." Nodding in agreement Celestia turned her head to the lip of the crater where the other end of the cable lay.

Sensing her teachers thoughts Twilight lit her horn and teleported up to the other end before coming back. “It’s separated at that end too,” Her eyes shining in excitement again she exclaimed “That means there was more to the ship!” Twilight suddenly trialed off before her eyes widened, she dashed back over to the lip and towards the site camp. She burst through into the main tent where Luna and a few guard commanders were coordinating the wreck site.

Spike was also there sitting on a stool looking bored. “Princess!” Twilight breathlessly exclaimed. “Have there been any other impacts since we got here?” Luna turned to the guards currently present and they all shook their heads. Turning back to Twilight she responded

“Nae miss Sparkle, we have had no other reports of any similar events. Have you found something?” Deflating Twilight took a seat at the planning table as Celestia finally caught up and stepped into the tent.

“Not really, I just saw that there was probably extra parts to the ship attached to where the two cables terminate and thought that they may have broken apart while it was in the air.” The word ship caught the guards and Spike’s attention.

“Ah, well you’ll be happy to hear we have put together a team and they’re coming in from Canterlot. We can expect them within the next two hours.” After filling in Spike and the guards on what they found Twilight and the Princesses started coordinating with the guard to get a chain of command and a set of procedures when working on the site. Eventually their diligence was interrupted by the sounds by the sounds of chariots landing. The team of scientists had arrived.

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