“Geez, all that money we waste on space exploration; just think how many bombs that would buy!”-Craig Bruce

June 15 2530
7:30 PM local time
Aboard UTF heavy frigate Blackjack
Orbiting planet Epona
Commander Sarah McFarlane

Epona was the strangest planet that she had ever looked upon, hell this might have been the strangest planet that humanity has ever looked upon.

A sort of distortion field heavily blocked any attempt for the Blackjack to observe this planet from orbit. Photos were blurry and they could record any audio or radiation coming in from the planet. But from what the crew of the Blackjack had gathered, this world defiantly was not a natural occurrence.

Its sun was only 30,000 years old, but a star that young could not have been this bright or large. In fact it’s composition was nothing like a natural star. Also, the star was too weak and small to emit any gravitational forces but Epona remained in orbit.

Sarah was so lost in thought that she forgot to prep shadow squad on their mission.

Shadow squad was an elite group of commandos from the 23rd counter terrorist division. The members of the 23rd were selected pre-enlistment.

To be a part of the 23rd however, the candidates needed to have a very specific mental condition. A disturbing disease that stripped its members of one of the most important emotion. It was this condition that made them so feared, but so efficient in combat.

Once selected would be given the best training and gear and would be often handed the most daring of assignments. They were second only to supersoldiers.

A unique assignment that the 23rd would receive was also to see what is was like to be on planets suitable for life first hand. If the planet proved bearable, it would be colonized. These missions were pretty rare as terra forming still remained the popular way to colonize a planet.

On these missions, the 23rd would also scout planets for intelligent life. Even if the hypothetical natives on the planet were not highly intelligent, humanity would not make an attempt to colonize planet because of the Columbus protocol which prevented humans from colonizing a planet if it was already inhabited.

So far though, no such event had occurred. Quickly snapping back to the real world, she looked at the dossiers of shadow squad one more time before letting them in.

Shadow 1: Johnson ***** codename: Scarecrow

Requested primary weapon: M590 LMG

Requested sidearm: AA 30 Shotgun

John is a naturally born leader leading his to be squad mates since elementary school. His tact and planning has allowed his squad to reach numerous victories some of which impossible. He is also the strongest and largest of the group. This has allowed him to also be the squad heavy and CQB expert. Sadly, he can be very controlling to his subordinates, worsened by his mental condition.

Shadow 2: Sergio ***** codename: X-ray

Requested Primary Weapon: M816 carbine

Requested Secondary weapon: MP17 SMG

Unlike the others, Sergio is only average in terms of strength and he does not often take part in tasks that involve strong labor. Instead Sergio is outfitted with an AP 30 drone that he uses to highlight enemies, scout for activity and engage the enemy from the distance. He is also the squad’s diplomat as he has a talent for being able to negotiate with the enemy and making deals. Be aware though, he has an explosive temper that can throw him off concentration.

Shadow 3 Robert “Rob” ***** codename: Scorch.

Requested Primary weapon: SCAR Z rifle

Requested Secondary weapon: AT 9 rocket launcher.

Robert has a tendency to watch the world burn, perfect for a demo man. He is controlled for the most part though. Still, it is more than advisable to keep him away from anything that is flammmable or explosive outside of combat. There have been incidents. He tends to be rather impulsive as well. He is also the group’s sportiest member so he is able to do tasks requiring great speed and strength with ease.

Shadow 4 Tyson ***** codename: Over watch

Requested Primary weapon: M90 Sniper Rifle

Requested Secondary Weapon: P80 Personal Defense weapon

Tyson is academically the group’s smartest member but is not shown to be keen on making decisions so most of the brain work is handed either to John and mostly Sergio. He is also the definition of strong and silent as he rarely talks but when he does, he is known to say something important. This attitude is not fueled by his mental condition however, and appears to be a basic personality trait considering how out going the other 3 are. He still refuses to share his thoughts so who knows what he’s planning inside.

Sarah reread the dossier one more time and ordered the guard to open the door to let the squad in. Each squad member was pretty tall, the shortest being X-ray who was around 6ft 4 and tallest being Scarecrow who was 6ft 6.

They each wore a black bandanna, glasses that had a HUD built onto it and had a hood covering their hair so Sarah couldn’t really see what each member looked like underneath their mask. Not that she was supposed to anyway. They each wore a bullet proof vest that had a magnetic plate on their back which allowed them to holster their weapons. They also carried a wrist mounted computer that allowed them to do various things like cloak, activate kinetic barriers/over shields and radio. Sarah also noticed X-ray’s drone hovering nearby.

Each member then snapped to a salute. Shadow squad could be so well disciplined at times but they were completely informal when they weren’t being ordered around.

“At Ease” replied Sarah with her light midwestern accent. “Shadow, the council of Extra Terran Colonization has requested that you four go explore and scout this planet.”

“We know. Standard Procedure?” inquired Scarecrow.

“Not quite” replied Sarah. “Gentlemen, I don’t know how to put this but, were dealing with a very obscure plant here.”

A crew member then approached the squad and lit up a holographic display of the planet. Mountains, ice caps, forests and deserts were shown on its surface.

“Planet looks normal.” pointed Scarecrow.

“This planet is only a couple ten thousand years old, and yet we are getting signs of a breathable atmosphere and what might be life.”

“That’s impossible, unless the planet was artificial.” muttered X-ray.

“Someone call the young Earth Creationists.” chuckled Scorch.

“Exactly” sighed Sarah. “There even seems to be an artificial distortion field. If this planet truly is unnatural and an alien made installation, then we may be getting signs of intelligent life. Maybe even a first contact”

One could hear a feather drop.

“So what’s the plan?” asked Scorch.

“You all have been briefed on what to do in first contact situations, if I’m not mistaken.”

The members of Shadow Squad nodded.

“Good because those lessons might finally be of use to you. First you 4 will exit the frigate via a VTOL drop-ship and touch down on the planet. Once you're there, you'll scout the planet for the usual; hostile plants or animals, and possible locations for settlements and far land. Remember if you do find intelligent life, try to go through the first contact process, but if that would be impossible, just try to observe their routines and call for evac."

"Wait, how would we call for evac if there's a distortion field?" asked Scarecrow.

"Our local scientists are trying to adjust communication frequencies to by pass it. The Blackjack will still be orbiting over Epona and besides, you still have your distress beacon. It uses level 9 radio technology so it’ll still be able to send a broadcast past the distortion field if you run into any trouble."
....
After going over more protocols, Shadow squad headed to the armory. The naval crew member in charge of the armory felt very uncomfortable with the presence of the 4 commandos. The 23rd was not a force to be reckoned with. Each squad had an abnormal body count (due to their borderline psychopathy) and high success rate.

The 23rd squads also were infamous for the ghost like, predator ways they handled missions and their ability to handle legions of soldiers. The biggest thing that made everyone afraid of the 23rd however, was that each member in the unit could not feel remorse. Such a basic feeling was stripped from them. No matter what they did, they had no regrets.

Because there was nothing to hold them back, the 23rd was known for lashing out far more often than a normal human. Coupled with their augmentations, this lead to disturbing occurrences. No one wanted the 23rd pissed off.

The bald Indian crew member tried to avoid eye contact and slowly took a sheet from the squad’s leader. Written on it was the weapons the squad requested to be equipped with for the mission. The crewman signaled the rest of the staff in the armory to fetch the weapons and equip them with the desire attachments. The squad helped themselves to some explosives in the mean time (especially Scorch).

Once they were fully equipped, the squad finally reached the drop bay. Inside were hundreds of interceptors and fighters that the local air force unit would pilot to aid the ship in combat.

After passing through the bay, the squad found found their VTOL craft. Crew members were preparing the VTOL for take off and had already loaded it with necessities for planetary recon such as food, ammo and sleeping bags. The navigation engineer had already punched in the flight codes for a point on the planet, so all the crew had to do was sit back and enjoy the ride. The members of Shadow squad entered in the ship and dismissed the crew.

The VTOL’s doors closed tight.

"X-ray turn on the auto pilot." ordered Scarecrow. X-ray nodded and turned on the auto pilot. Suddenly the VTOL flared to life and immediately exited the hanger into space.

As the the VTOL exited the ship, X-ray went over diagnostics. Being the squad’s tech expert, vehicles were his responsibility. The navigation data said that they were 2 hours from touching down on the surface of the planet. Once he knew everything was clear, X-ray turned around and looked upon his fellow squad members.

Overwatch was silent as always and was watching the view of outer space as the VTOL approached Epona. Scorch on the other hand was playing a game on his laptop while Scarecrow was busy reading some 21st century novel. X-ray sat down, got out his tablet and started browsing the web. The beauty with 26th century technology was that pretty much every electric device had a back up solar cell so electronics running out of battery was nearly impossible as long as it was pointed to the sun.

After a few minutes, Overwatch spoke up for the first time in that day. “You know, I never get tired doing planetary recon missions.”

“I agree” replied Scarecrow, face still glued to the book. “Seeing the new scenery, exploring vast biomes, meeting those weird critters that may or may not eat human, it’s all good.”

“And for once, the chances of meeting extraterrestrial life is high.” exclaimed Scorch, taking a brake from his game.

“Yeah but if we did meet other life, we’d probably spend the entire time just observing them from a distance.” chimed in X-ray. “There would be no point in interacting with them, they wouldn’t know our language and our appearance would have a huge effect on their evolution. It would disturb the natural order of things.”

After discussing some of the things they would probably see on their journey, the members of Shadow squad fell back to their silent, anti social ways.

X-ray looked out a window and saw the Blackjack getting smaller as the VTOL went further away from it.

He took a deep look at the Frigate. It's huge size was completely dwarfed with other starship classifications like Cruisers or Carriers. Since there was no drag in the vaccum if space, all weapons aboard starships were magnetically powered from cannons to atomic warheads.

There were also onboard Tesla Cannons which used powerful electric shots to disable enemy barriers and render electronics on board useless. Not to mention a series of magnetic plasma cannons were stationed on board as well that replaced the need for conventional missiles.

Each Starship was essentially a planet killer, if they weren't always busy engaging others in orbit.

June 15 2530

8:25 PM local time

Ponyville, Equestria

For the majority of ponyville, it was peaceful night in the small community. it was the point in the day where ponies would return from work and enjoy a good night with the family. They would talk about their day, have dinner and engage in any other friendly activity.

One however, an alicorn by the name of Twilight Sparkle, had no interest in a relaxing night, for she was occupied at work with her astronomy kit. The alicorn was busy recording stars and writing down reports on her observations, jotting down coordinates on a huge star chart that hung on the wall.

She wasn’t always an alicorn however. She was originally a unicorn, and the personal assistant of princess Celestia herself. Then a faithful day came where she was called upon by her mentor to make friends and become the elements of harmony, so that she could defeat and reform Nightmare Moon.

Then she and her 5 best friends went on a series of adventures across equestria from Discord, to the changelings and the Crystal empire. Not only would she and her friends be heroes, but they would also learn valuable lessons on friendship and harmony.

Then the day came, where she was tested to the full of her abilities. She succeeded and even surpassed the famous mage, Star Swirl the Bearded. As a result, she was transformed into an Alicorn by Celestia, and was crowned a princess. She was given the option to move to Canterlot alongside the diarchs, but she declined. Instead she stayed at ponyville inside her tree house, which had been converted to a large study with elaborate needs for a studious princess pony like her.

She had been princess for three months now. She was happy of her accession and new powers but she was still annoyed by how everypony was treating her. Twilight wished that some pony other than her friends would talk to her like an equal instead of a goddess.

Suddenly, a little dragon, by the name of Spike who was also Twilight’s number one assistant crept into the room.
“So Twilight, got any plans for tomorrow?” asked Spike.

“Not that I know of.” replied Twilight. “If I don’t end up with any princess work I’m probably going to catch up on my spells and maybe end up helping Fluttershy with the animals with this new technique I’ve been working on.”

“Anyway, I made you dinner!” cheered the purple dragon. “It’s your favorite, hay pancakes!”.

Hearing those words was perhaps the only force in the universe that could drive Twilight away from work, as she immediately flew to the kitchen with her new wings (almost bumping into Spike) and looked at the banquet that Spike set up.

When she became a princess, she was offered high class meals and chefs even a rich pony could never dream of having. However, she didn’t feel like she could get used to such things yet and was happy to live alone with her little dragon brother.

“Thanks Spike!” said Twilight, licking her lips as she looked at her meal with utter greed.

“No problem sis.” replied the number one assistant. “I need to work hard. When you get married and have kids I’m going to have my claws full. I need to start practicing now.”

Twilight blushed at his statement. Spike could be such a charmer at times. She then turned her attention to her food and took a bite out of her meal.

“Hey Spike” said Twilight with her mouth half full. “Have you ever wondered what lies beyond our planet?”

“You mean rocks, stars and hopefully space gems.” said Spike full with glee.

“No, I mean if we’re the only things alive in this world. Have you ever wondered if there’s any life out there?”

Suddenly Spike froze with a face full of terror. Twilight looked at him with a sense of concern.

Aboard the VTOL approaching Epona

“Did you guys just feel a tingling sensation as if the universe just touched you?” asked Scorch.

“Yeah” said Scarecrow looking around the ship. “This is weird.”

But before Shadow squad could continue pondering what just happened, they immediately turned their attention back to their electronic devices.

Back in Ponyville

“Umm....Spike?” asked the alicorn.

After a moment passed, Spike snapped back to life but breathing heavily.

“Twilight.” said Spike with a sense of fear. “You did not just ask that right?”

“Ask what?”

“That if we were the only ones in the universe.”

“What is so bad if I ask a question like that?” said Twilight with a hint of annoyance.

At this point Spike was beginning to sweat and tremble. “Twilight have you read the books or seen the comics? Whenever somepony asks that question, aliens always invade the next day and everypony dies. You’ve doomed us all!”

“Spike you are being ridiculous.” sighed Twilight.

“I gotta hide or else the aliens are going to blow me up.”

“Spike..”

Before Twilight could finish her sentence her assistant ran up the stairs in total fear. Twilight could not help but face hoof.

Author's Notes:

By the way, if you can't decide how Shadow looks like, check the cover art. They look like the soldier depicted on that but with black clothes.

June 30, 2013: Edited to remove some parts that are not scientifically accurate. All comments from the previous version will likely be removed since they are no longer valid.