Tree branches slowly swayed in the breeze of the morning wind, leaves descending from their wooden limbs in a flurry of dancing fronds. Shafts of light broke through the thick greenery hanging above the forest floor. Small critters scurried across the ground as the birds filled the empty forest with their rhythmic chirping, bringing an eerie yet peaceful feeling to the lonesome woods. Mornings such as these were what normally filled the desolate woodlands of the unknown.

A snap of twigs brought the bustling foragers to a halt as beady eyes peered at what broke the melodic tweeting of the fauna. Four masked ponies wearing black bodysuits beneath segments of armor slowly made their way through the thicket.

The mare in the lead wore light azure armor that had streaks of light vermillion along the accents of the metal plating, her exposed hooves revealing her light azure coat. She brought a hoof up, signaling for the others to stop behind her. As the other three ponies settled down, she brought a hoof up to her right ear. A pale scarlet aura surrounded her horn as she adjusted her earpiece. A dark gray wire flickered with the charge of her magic, illuminating the cord that wrapped around her horn, leading over to a wire connecting to a small device placed around her ear.

The helmet shone in the morning light. Two small arches facing backwards created small shadows from the mare’s silhouette on the ground. There was no mask, only a light azure visor reflecting light from her eyes. She looked up to the leaf green treetops, murmuring, “Come in, Echo. Do you read me?”

There was a moment of static before another voice crackled through the radio. “Affirmative, Ember-1. What’s your location now? Over.”

“Echo, we are approaching the distress beacon. Still about half a klick out, but we should reach the freighter sometime before the afternoon. Have there been any updates?”

“Negative. No further messages have been received from the radio on-deck, not since last Friday. Since the message we received was garbled by static and screams, we can only assume it was a distress call. It isn’t clear on what has happened. Our analysts are still cleaning up the transmission, but so far they have yet to find a clue on what caused this. Until then, speculation is all we can go on. Over.”

“Copy that. My team and I will continue on towards the ship. Over and out.” With that, she dismissed her horn’s aura and waved at the others behind her to continue moving. Her dark orange eyes gazed at the spear at her side, then looked over her fellow soldiers afterwards before she said, “Okay, ponies. Echo filled me in on more of the intel they collected from the signal, and they still have no idea what happened.”

“So is this still a rescue operation or recovery mission?” One of the masked ponies asked, inspecting his crossbow for any nicks. His light brilliant vermillion and accented cyan-streaked armor gave him a more hefty and tank-like look, but the pale rose color of his coat seemed oddly feminine. His moderate azure eyes darted over the crossbow with careful precision. The helmet he wore had no visor, leaving his face exposed. The bow itself was average size, its moderate yellow-brown metal structure brightening in the light, the light gray steel bolts reflecting the light in different directions.

She brought a hoof to her chin. “As of now, they’re still considering this a rescue mission. ”

Another masked pony spoke up, this one being another mare. “What was in the transmission, anyway?” The armor she wore showed a lithe and sleeker look than the other ponies, and it gleamed a strong aquamarine, light cornflower accents shining in the light. The carapace itself appeared to be very light; less metal surrounded her frame than the others, with wings covering the upper parts of the barrel armor. Instead of a helmet, she wore a face guard over her muzzle with a deep blue visor shading her eyes. Her strong aquamarine fur was more exposed to the sunlight than the others, turning a shade brighter, while her pale raspberry mane was completely visible with no helmet to cover her mane.

“Right now, all Echo has gotten is that there was an emergency broadcast from the ship,” the first masked mare answered. “Their distress beacon is still going off. Nopony has figured out what happened, or what caused the crew to set off the distress beacon.”

“Did anypony come up with any ideas?” the second mare asked once again.

“So far it’s been stated by control that a stowaway probably snuck on board to steal some cargo and started causing problems.” A third masked mare responded this time, adjusting the earpiece to the radio on her right ear. Like the first unicorn, she had the same type of armor; however, the plates were a brilliant tangelo with strong cobalt blue accents. Her mane mirrored the colors of the metal, shifting as her light cyan eyes gazed at the headphone. The same blue color illuminated her horn, as part of the radio-like device was encased in her magic. “Although, it’s also been speculated that it could have been a band of pirates that boarded the Nostromo.”

“Whatever, or whoever, did this is going to seriously reconsider making that choice, if, of course, they’re still on the ship,” the first mare replied. She brought a hoof up to signal silence as the group of ponies resumed their march.

“Why was it that we were sent out here in the first place? And why the Tenochtitlan Basin? It’s way too hot out here,” the third mare asked out loud, looking ahead as she walked next to the earth pony. “I mean, we’re just elite guards tasked to walk around a bunch of hallways.”

“Cause we’re all here to bust somepony’s head in because they tried to steal our supplies. What else is there to talk about, Sparkdust?” The stallion pushed his hoof into a hole under the crossbow, twisting it as a bolt loaded in at the ready.

“That is something I like to hear, Blazing Ash.” Spark held a hoof out, and Blazing gave her a hoof-bump.

“Be a little more quiet, you two,” the pegasus murmured, glancing at the two ponies, walking alongside the lead pony. “We don’t know what’s out here.”

“Lighten up, Taciturn Furtivo,” Sparkdust teased, chuckling a little as she waved her concern off. “We’re in the middle of nowhere.”

“Taciturn is right.” The lead mare turned to look back as she continued forward. “This mission is important. We all need to remain silent. We don’t know what is out here.”

“Whatever you say, Aquafrost.” Sparkdust rolled her eyes. The group continued on towards their search.

Time continued on until the sun had almost reached its peak in the sky. The group continued further into the forest. Aqua gazed across the foliage of the forest floor before bringing her head up, gazing at the blue sky. Something caught her attention. “Hey...” Sparkdust raised a hoof, staring at a faint gray smog swirling up into the air. “See that trail of smoke?”

The others turned to look and saw the same trail. “Yeah, but what’s with the smog?” Blazing Ash inquired, moving a hoof above his eyes to block the sun.

“Don’t know, but let’s hurry up. We need to find out what’s making that smoke.” With a flick of Aqua’s hoof, the ponies quickened their step and moved at a light pace. The foliage around them began to thin, before the faint sound of waves crashing along a beach made itself known. The ponies broke through and stared wide-eyed at what laid on the sandy shores. The freighter ship they were looking for rested upon the coast, its whole body tilted to the left with cargo and wreckage lying on the sand. Small orange flames flicked along with the wind, burning over pieces of the ship.

“Well… it seems we found the ship,” Taciturn murmured as she and the others scanned over the wreckage.

Aqua signaled the others to search the debris, following her fellow teammates at a slow walk. Activating her magic once more, she brought a hoof up to the radio on her ear. “Echo, this is Ember-1. Ship has been located but it looks like a wreck. Exterior has some hull damage and there are a few fires, but we have no idea what happened on the inside. Do we have permission to enter the ship?”

It was a few moments before the radio buzzed to life. “Copy that, Ember-1. We’re assessing the situation you have described to us and are proceeding with a recovery mission. If there are any survivors, make sure they are immediately given medical attention. We need find out what happened.”

“Wilco, Echo. My team and I will go ahead and investigate the interior of the ship. See if there are any surviving ponies onboard.”

“Affirmative, Ember-1. Proceed with extreme caution; we have no idea if whatever or whoever caused the ship to beach is still located inside. You have the ‘go ahead’ to engage any hostile forces. Over and out.”

Nodding to that statement she looked to her right, focusing her magic on the nearby spear swinging by her side. Pulling it from its metal pouch she levitated it to her side. As she made her way to the ship, her team members went to the cargo. Each one began inspecting the valuable merchandise, seeing if anything had made it. Blazing Ash opened the door to one of the shipments and looked inside before reporting. “The cargo in here didn’t make it. All of it has been destroyed.”

Sparkdust walked out from one of the cargo boxes and spoke up as well. “Seems the shipment in here was destroyed, too. I don’t think any of the cargo made it.”

Aquafrost sighed, looking down at the sand beneath her hooves. ‘Cargo destroyed? The advisers are not going to like this.’ She looked back up, quickly trotting over to the side of the ship. She waved the others to follow and looked to the other unicorn. “Okay, Sparkdust. Teleport us to the deck.” She nodded, and in a light cyan flash of light, the five masked ponies disappeared. Reappearing on the deck above, Ash readied the crossbow in his hooves, and the group hurried towards the door that led inside. Lining up next to the door, Aqua waved Ash to the other side. Carefully, he opened the door and saw that there was no light on inside. He gave the ‘all clear’ with a hoof wave, moving in first before the others filed in.

Aquafrost and Sparkdust filled the dark corridor with light from their horns as they proceeded. The inside of the ship creaked while wind quietly whistled through the open door behind them. Water from the sea quietly trickled in like a sea cave at high tides, creating a mess of the halls as the ponies moved through the corridors of the ship. All was quiet as they made their way up to the bridge, seeing no signs of movement. “Geez… it sure is quiet in here.” Blazing Ash murmured, looking across the dark corridors with his crossbow drawn. He moved his muzzle, latching his teeth onto a lever in the inner side of the right muzzle helmet. Lights activated from both sides of his face from holes inside his helm.

They reached another door, opening it silently before filing through. Aquafrost signaled the group to a set of nearby stairs. They quickly ascended the staircase, briskly reaching another door. Aquafrost stopped and waved for the other three ponies to line up by the entryway. Taciturn carefully turned the handle before bashing her way inside, the others rushing in behind her. The bridge was empty, however; sparks of electricity arced between some of the panels as the wind howled through the broken windows. Aqua looked around until a red splotch on the metal floor caught her eye. She moved closer and inspected the stain. “Hey… there’s blood. Means there was a struggle up here.”

“Question is: where are the bodies?” Blazing Ash spoke up, looking at the control panels.

Sparkdust moved to her left and scanned the panels. “Consoles have been fried. Somepony sure screwed with the controls.”

“But what happened? Surely, there’s something more conclusive to go on here?” Taciturn asked, looking out the broken windows.

“There’s still a whole ship to explore.” Turning to face the group, Aqua ordered, “Alright. Sparkdust, you, Blazing Ash, and Taciturn Furtivo search the rest of the ship. See if there’s anything else you three can find. We need to find out what happened, and who or what caused this.” The stallion and two mares nodded and went out the door. Aquafrost activated her magic again to radio Command. “Echo, this is Ember-1. Bridge of the freighter ship, Nostromo, has nopony here. Panels are fried and destroyed. The cargo of the ship has been damaged after a basic look over. We discovered a trace of blood and assume there was a scuffle here. I’ve sent the others to scour the ship and see if there are any survivors. What is the possible course of action now? Over.”

The radio buzzed to life seconds after. “Ember-1, this is Echo. We advise that you and your team continue on with the recovery mission. If anypony is alive, we need them looked after and ready for questioning. A lot of money was lost on this ship. Seeing how the cargo has been destroyed, we’ll send a group of reinforcements on over to assist you.”

“Roger that, Echo. The others and I will find out what--”

A second radio transmission interrupted the call, Sparkdust’s voice coming through, although she sounded different, more concerned. “Hey, Aquafrost. We found something. You really need to come and see this.”

“Roger that, Sparkdust. Standby, Echo. I need to see what my team has found.”

“Affirmative, Ember-1. Standing by.” With that, Aquafrost quickly moved back down the stairs. Activating her magic again and lighting up the tight corridors while moving the spear to her right side again as she kept it at the ready. A flash of blue magic appeared a few meters from where she stood. Trotting on over, she saw Sparkdust with a wide-eyed expression, looking down at the corner of a wall. She walked over to ask what her fellow companion was looking at until a trail of blood leading from the corner caught her eye. Aquafrost slowly moved next to Sparkdust and silently gasped at the body she saw. It was one of the crewmembers, with a bloodied hole between the eyepieces of his mask. Gashes and cuts went along the stallion’s body, and his right foreleg had been ripped out of its socket.

Aquafrost continued to stare, mouth agape as she tried to find the words to speak. Instead, Sparkdust spoke first. “I sent the other two to go on further. When we found this stallion… we knew we needed to contact you immediately.”

Aqua turned to face Spark and said, “We need to find them. Nopony should be alone on this ship. If somepony else did something like this to one of the crew, then we need to stick together.”

“That’s the thing,” the other unicorn replied. “I don’t think it was a pony that did this… and neither do the others. There’s no way a pony could defile a body like this… even a pony who went insane could never do this with their bare hooves. Look at the marks. Those were made by something with claws.”

“What, are you saying that there was something aboard this ship with them?”

“It has to be… there’s no other explanation to how this stallion here died.” Sparkdust shivered, shaking her head at the sight she and Aqua were looking at.

Hoofsteps filled the corridor outside the room, until Blazing Ash poked his head through the doorway. “Aqua, we found more bodies. But… they’re pretty torn apart. Taciturn almost hurled with how many limbless ponies we found. Most of the others have been cut open, or have some gross slash wounds on each pony.” To hear that there were more bodies was awful. She shivered, chilled to the bone as she realized that there may be no survivors. “Taciturn is still continuing the search, so I came back to warn you about it.”

Aquafrost looked down, before activating her magic. “Echo… you still there?”

“Affirmative. You’re coming in a little fuzzy, Ember-1, but we’ll manage with the reception. Have there been any developments on the situation? Over.”

“We… are confirming that there are bodies of the crew members. We’re assuming that nopony made it, as the others have found more deceased crewmembers.”

It was silent, far too long for Aqua’s liking. She waited with dreadful anticipation, sweat running down her muzzle until the the radio crackled to life again. “Reinforcements should be on their way in about three to nine hours. Continue with your search. Just check over the rest of the ship to see if there are any survivors. And secure the perimeter until backup has arrived. Over and out.”

It went quiet as the three masked ponies stood in silence. Nopony made a sound, and nopony moved. The news of the possibility that no crew members survived was disturbing, not to mention the way each one was killed. It was only until after a few minutes of silence that Aquafrost spoke up. “Blazing Ash… go find Taciturn. Sparkdust, we need to move further in and see if anypony survived… if anypony did… and then we need to get out of here and secure what can be salvaged.” The two ponies looked to each other before nodding.

Aqua watched the stallion exit through the doorway. She sighed, shaking her head before she made her way out of the room, Sparkdust following close behind. The feeling of being inside the ship with the revelation of death made this whole experience that much darker. It was nothing she had ever expected, nor was it what anypony in her group anticipated to see. Yet she wondered if whatever had killed these ponies was still in the ship, and if it was, then where was it hiding?

A blue glow down one of the hallways caught her attention. She recalled that there were no blue lights ever installed onto the ships; which was what an engineer told her, one who had helped install the lighting system on the Nostromo. Aqua motioned to Spark to move slowly and quietly before cautiously making their way down towards the source of the light. She raised a hoof up, covering her eyes as the light became more intense the closer she moved towards it. When she rounded the corner, she was stopped in her tracks. A lone figure stood underneath an ice blue shield. Aqua looked back to Spark and raised her hoof, moving up closer to the shield alone. She circled it, but the pony inside didn’t move even an inch. Raising a hoof, she tapped at the bubble, and the pony inside raised its head.

From what she could tell, this pony had a dark green cloak with white markings running over the clothing. ‘She’s not a Neighland-Industries worker. Who the heck is she?’ When the pony looked up at Aqua, she could see the mare’s face from the aura of her horn. Aqua waved but she jumped back as the pony inside screamed, then scurried up to the farthest corner of the shield, desperately trying to get away from her. Aqua stared at the frightened pony, before speaking in a softer tone. “Please… it’s going to be alright. I’m not here to hurt you.”

The mare inside didn’t seem to heed her words, continuing to whimper quietly, turning to face away from the masked pony. The shield around the mare flickered as she watched the unknown pony wobble around. The field dissipated with a last few flickers of light, and the mare tried to run away. She only got so far before tripping over herself. Moving over to the pony, Aqua gently wrapped her forelegs around the mare’s barrel. The pony beneath her struggled, but with barely any energy at all.

“It’s alright. I’ve got you. You’re safe now,” she told the distressed mare, but the cloaked pony still tried to wiggle from Aqua’s grasp. Fearing that the only survivor might harm herself, Aqua activated her magic and cast a spell. The cloaked mare continued to quietly whimper as Aqua held her until she stopped moving a few seconds later. She shook her slightly, but gained no response from her other than the soft murmurs as she drifted asleep. Looking her over, she noticed tears on her cloak with bloodstains decorating the mare’s wounds. She looked back with a barked order, “Spark, go and find the others. I’ll stay here with her.”

Sparkdust nodded before hurrying off. She raised a hoof to her ear before something caught her attention. She looked to where the mare’s shield was and kept raising her muzzle until she caught sight of… something. Her eyes widened at the mysterious structure behind where the mare had stood. There was a figure protruding from the wall with what appeared to be a head with teeth. Its clawed hands and feet lay in a curled position, with a tail wrapping around its body. Parts of the mysterious object’s back were strung up from thick columns, and its skeletal body was covered by what appeared to be black slime. What really frightened her was the fact that this thing had no eyes. With this new and more puzzling, yet startling, find, she activated her magic and began, “Echo… I found a lone mare here. She seems to be the only surviving pony on this ship. Over.”

“That is excellent news, Ember-1. How is she doing?”

“She’s sedated at the moment. But that’s not all… there’s something attached to the wall where I found the mare. Something… I can’t even begin describing it.”

The radio was silent for a while, before the pony through the radio spoke. “What does it look like?”

“An organism of some kind. Big and dark with a lot of claws and teeth. Its body is cocooned to the wall by some sort of resin.”

The pony on the other side of the radio went quiet again, and this time it stayed silent for much longer. She opened her mouth to speak but the pony on the other side suddenly spoke again. “Ember-1, we are sending the reinforcements along with a capture unit towards your location. Expect these forces to arrive by this evening. We need you to secure the perimeter, ASAP. We think you may have found something we thought we lost. Over and out.” With that, the radio went silent, and the mare kept staring at the object on the wall. Whatever it was, she didn’t know why Command was so eager to send reinforcements so quickly, but for now, she had to help this mare recover. The questioning could wait until they got back.

Author's Notes:

Thank you all for being so patient with me. It may have taken quite a long time, but now it's finally here. So. I hope you all enjoy this first chapter. Thanks of course go to my coverartist Sakura. My Editor, DiabloGuapo. And my two proofreaders, Alicorn Priest, and TehSporkBandit.

And of course. As always... I hope you all have lovely dreams...