At the exact time when Five returning to the Pocket reunite Applejack and Pinkie Pie, in a village thousands of miles away, life was going on as usual.

This particular village was far to the west, on the borders of Equestria, a colony on the small amount left that remained a true frontier. Most of it consisted of prefabricated modules, remnants from a time decades earlier from when such a style of construction was considered popular and futuristic. After constant use, however, they had grown old and started to fail. Acid-plate paint was starting to peel in places, and the HVAC systems that regulated the internal temperature failed most of the time. Aside from that, every fixture and architectural design seemed old- -and not in a charming way.

The ponies of that outpost did not mind the state of their homes, though. They took good care of them, and had for years. They did not mind trading a bit of aesthetic appeal for lives reminiscent of a simpler time. They had come for many reasons, but the most common among them was to escape the endless noise of the megacities or the danger of the dome-cities that encroached into more aggressive territory. Some of them had even been born on the firmament colonies and come longing for the sensation of grass beneath their hooves.

Night was falling. Not literally, of course- -the sky had been perpetually darkened for so long, the only pictures of the sun that anypony had ever seen were in books or poorly rendered hologram simulations. Most ponies, however, did not react well to constant darkness. Day-night cycles were critical, and the city had been fitted with powerful halide lights to produce a sensation of “day”. When “night” started to come, the lights would slowly begin to turn off until the village was dark.

The ponies all seemed to know this. They were finishing up the last of their chores and returning to their homes, or to the local bar. The town itself was bristling with a little bit extra of excitement- -there were only a few weeks remaining Harmony Day, a celebration in remembrance of how the Six had united Equestria and defeated the monster crystalline monster Nil in ancient times. Like most holidays, ponies really just used it as an excuse to get drunk and sing songs.

As they stopped to talk in the street and walk home, however, a distant sound suddenly rained across the plains. Instinctively, they all looked up. At first, they thought they were seeing a meteor shower- -until they realized that the streaking lights were not crossing the firmament, but coming through it- -entering though one of the holes that had once held a Celestial Sphere.

The air raid siren- -so quiet for so long, save for its noon tests every day- -began to sound. There were still ponies old enough to remember the Invasion, the last time that things had come from the Beyond, and how many ponies had died in that war.

They immediately began to panic, but the elderly among them remembered the endless drills from their youth. They took command, stepping out of their homes and rising from their beds.

“To the underground shelters!” an old stallion called, standing on his hind legs and motioning to the panicking villagers.

“Look!” said another pony, looking up at the falling object. A beam of energy had suddenly ignited from somewhere in the far distance, and thousands of guns had opened fire. The magic and defense guns of Thebe poured into the falling object, striking it without so much as a warning to turn back. It burst into a massive explosion as the beam of magic surged through it with enough force to punch a temporary hole in the firmament behind it, which rapidly sealed.

The threat had been mediated, and the ponies of the prefab village cheered, clapping their hooves together. The falling debris of the enemy ship was burning through the air like fireworks- -a perfect display, considering how close Harmony day was.

“Praise Thebe!” called one of the ponies.

“Praise Thebe!” called many of the others. Some, however- -those who knew better- -only sneered at their more ignorant countryponies.

“Warning,” boomed the female voice of the village’s AI through the loudspeaker system. “Danger of Debris impact assessed at thirty percent within specified radius. Please report to underground shelters and await further instructions.”

The ponies suddenly started to panic again. Few of them had realized that when something large was destroyed in the upper atmosphere, it still fell- -and in this case, it seemed to be falling directly toward them.

Most of them were already underground when the ground shook from the impact. The few that were above felt the ground shake- -but luckily, the impact had been a good distance from the village center.

One of the ponies above- -an old stallion, who, despite his age, still bore a stern expression that seemed to exude strength and command power. He put his hoof on the shoulder of a younger Pegasus beside him who was following his wife underground.

“Cliff Diver,” he said. “Summon the militia.”

“Why, Mayor?”

“We have a job to do. Get your gun.”

“Right, sir,” said Cliff Diver. He leaned in and kissed his wife.

“Daddy?” said the little filly at his wife’s side. “Miss A-I said to get underground.”

“Daddy has a militia job to do. Don’t worry.” His wife nodded and ushered their daughter into the shelters- -just as another pony came up from the ground.

“I want to come too,” said a slightly older filly.

The mayor shook his head. “No,” he said. “You are too young for this job.”

“You’re checking the debris for survivors,” she said, frowning. She pulled out her own version of a scanner- -one she had built from prepared from scrap kitchen appliances. “And if we get a live Incurse, the reward alone would pay for a new school roof.”

“And how, little Epicenter, do you expect to help us catch an Incurse?” sneered Cliff Diver, patting her head. “You don’t even have your cutie mark.”

“If there were an incurse,” said the mayor, not amused, “there would be little chance of capturing it. But there isn’t. Nothing could have survived a direct impact like that.”

“So there’s no danger.”

The mayor sighed. “No. And you are of age for the junior brigade.”

“So I can come?” said Epicenter, her eyes widening.

“Yes, but you will not receive a weapon.” The mayor looked up at Cliff Diver. “Move,” he said, motioning for the Pegasus to do his job.

“R-right,” said Cliff Diver, rushing away to collect the other militia members. He himself went to prepare the rover, and Epicenter followed him, beaming and bouncing with audible squeaks. She had finally been given her first mission- -and a chance to see something that came from Beyond. In addition, she was pretty sure that something this awesome would virtually guarantee that she would receive her cutie mark.

The rover moved quickly over the grass and soil, bouncing and jumping. Epicenter held onto part of the roll cage, trying desperately not to vomit as the vehicle shook and accelerated with reckless disregard toward safety.

“First time on a vehicle?” said the unicorn sitting next to her. Epicenter knew him at least in passing- -he was a miner, or some kind of surveyor. He was a brandishing a laser rifle, even though his magical power essentially made him a living mining drill.

“No,” lied Epicenter as another bump nearly launched off her seat and into the dust below.

In the distance, a plume of smoke became visible from where the wreckage had barely overshot the village. Epicenter felt a chill of excitement in her spine- -she had only ever read about the Beyonders in books, and only seen pictures of their technology beamed over the Ponynet when the satellites aligned properly. Now, she was actually going to see something real. She calmed herself, and determined that she would accept even something as limited as a simple meteor. Perhaps they would even let her take a piece.

Leadfoot, the driver, pressed the accelerator and the rover accelerated, diving off a short, ramp-like rock.

“Nice one,” said Leadfoot’s brother, Leadhead.

“Come on!” cried Cliff Diver, who seemed oddly terrified. “You guys are gonna kill us!”

“Nope,” said Leadhead. “We aren’t dead.”

“Logical conclusion,” said Leadfoot over the roar of the engine. “We can’t die.”

“Dumkoffs,” said Stone Boring, nearly dropping his rifle over the bump.

The vehicle suddenly skidded to a stop, and Epicenter cried out, thinking that it was crashing. She even felt it tilt as the two wheels on one side lifted up- -but then they slammed back into the ground.

The seven of them disembarked, and Epicenter found that she was shaking badly. Ponies, in her belief, were not meant to ride in cars.

“Radiation levels?” asked the mayor, drawing his own weapon, a large plasma projector.

“Six percent above background,” said the equidroid among them. She stepped forward, observing the bits of flaming material singing holes into the endless tall grass of the frontier plain. Epicenter had very seldom seen the village AI use one of its independent bodies. She had seen them several times in storage, but moving, they looked completely different. Pony shaped, but made of ceramic armor over delicate electronics and motors with large, glassy eyes. In a way, it was unnerving in its own right- -and, to Epicenter, impossibly cool.

“Safe to approach?”

“Most likely.”

“Right,” said the mayor, holstering his gun and taking out a small scanner, attaching it to the straps of his militia uniform. “Fan out find the main body.”

“Right,” said Epicenter, producing her own makeshift scanning unit.

“Epicenter,” said the mayor. “Stay with Leadhead.”

“Yes, sir,” she said, suppressing the urge to rebel against being treated like a child. Just getting to see the long streak of debris that had fallen behind them was already amazing to the point of distracting her from that perceived slight.

The mayor nodded and they started to walk around the debris, with Epicenter standing beside the tall earth pony beside her, scanning the wreckage carefully.

“Look here,” said Stone Boring. “I have located a metal plate.”

“Clearly,” said the AI, nearly sarcastically.

“It appears unusual,” said Stone Boring. “In that the material is only mildly burned, and appears to show greater corrosion than expected for something in a vacuum. Also, the insignia…”

“Insignia?” said Leadfoot, suddenly leaping over the flames and still superheated pieces of wreckage. “Why didn’t you say so?”

“Because it was not interesting.”

Epicenter suddenly felt an urge to join them, to see the insignia, but Leadhead seemed not to care and kept moving forward. Even the AI seemed curious and took a look. All she managed to see was an elaborate and indecipherable symbol.

“I am cross referencing it against known Incurse insignias, as well as the current database of approved Beyonder crafts.” She paused. “None found.”

“Here,” called the mayor, waving them over to a spot farther away. Leadhead began running, and Epicenter followed.

It was the main crater, where the object had landed. It was wide, but not nearly wide as it should have been. It seemed to contain a large plate of material that was still smoking, which Epicenter could imagine as part of some kind of spacecraft.

The mayor went first, sliding down the border of the crater but being careful to stay at a reasonable distance from the debris in the center. The others joined him, with Cliff Diver fluttering down on his wings and the rest sliding- -or tumbling, as was the case for Leadhead.

Each of them unhooked their scanners and extended the antenna- -save for the equidroid, whose scanning apparatus was built into her already. They slowly began to move around the perimeter.

“Are you getting anything?” said Cliff Diver.

“No,” said the mayor, sounding relieved. “There is no Incurse signature.”

“You could say it’s just a piece of ship,” snorted Leadfoot. They all glared at him. “Same, though. No signature.”

“None here,” said Cliff Diver.

“Nope,” said Leadhead.

“Perhaps traces,” suggested Stone.

“Not detecting,” said the AI.

Epicenter suddenly froze, causing Leadhead to bump into her.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, grabbing her to prevent her from falling.

“I- -I- -I’m getting a signal.”

“On that thing?” said Cliff Diver. “That thing couldn’t detect Incurse if it bit you in the plo- -”

“It’s not- -not Incurse,” said Epicenter. She had suddenly started shaking, and found it difficult to speak. She adjusted her settings, but it all came to the same thing. The very thought of what she was reading was inconceivable and horrible- -and she could almost not bring herself to say it, to bring that impossible and terrible idea into reality.

“What is it?” demanded the mayor.

Epicenter closed her eyes. “I am reading…a heartbeat.”

“A pulse?” laughed Cliff Diver. “You have to be kidding…”

The other did not seem to think so. Leadfoot was the first to reset his scanner. Theirs were not intended to look for life signs and Incurse at the same time- -if it had not been for Epicenter’s self-made scanner, none of them would have ever known.

“What the Tartarus?” he cried. “Mayor, she’s right!”

They all switched their scanners and all gasped and stared at the wreckage in horror. No doubt, their thoughts all came to the same conclusion- -that something had gone wrong, that the incorrect ship had been targeted, that something form the space program had been shot down by accident. No Beyonder yet encountered had a physiology remotely akin to ponies- -none of them had hearts. It could only be coming from a pony.

“If there is a pulse, there is a survivor,” said the mayor. “Come on, move! Get that thing off him!”

They moved toward the wreckage, but none of them could get close enough to touch it. The heat it was giving off was far too intense.

“Radiation levels unsafe,” warned the AI.

“Can you get close?” asked the mayor.

“Yes, but one body is not strong enough to move this. I can attach a rope to the rover and- -”

Before she could finish, the wreckage suddenly moved. Not slowly, or with warning- -it simply lifted across the ground and flew in a seemingly unending arc, as if an explosive had been detonated beneath it. All of them jumped back in surprise, but none of them looked to see where the debris landed. Instead, they looked into the center of the crater.

A figure slowly rose, one that caused them all instinctive fear. It was completely alien in nature, unlike anything any of them had ever seen on Equestria. Unlike a pony, it stood on two legs, and was far taller and thinner than they were. Standing like that, it looked wrong- -its belly did not stick out as a ponies did when she tried to stand, and its legs lacked the necessary number of joints.

Its body was clad in an unfamiliar kind of armor made from a material that appeared to be some kind of metal- -but it was badly damaged. If the creature was assumed to be symmetrical, and at least somewhat pony-like, half its body had been torn away. One of its arms and much of its torso had been removed, and the resulting wound was dripping red blood. The flesh of its insides were exposed- -as well as a number of components that were clearly not flesh.

None of them spoke, because none of them knew what was going on. They were unsure of what they were seeing. Among them, none had ever seen a Beyonder. Even the Incurse were a mystery- -no pony actually knew what they looked like, just that they were the enemy.

The creature said nothing, but its head slowly turned. Epicenter imagined that it had a face- -but she could not see it through its thick mask. The mask-face, though, was in its own way terrifying. It was flat and featureless, with a pair of wide, glowing eyes that seemed to have no feature aside form a kind of internal light.

“What- -what is that thing?” said Leadfoot, reaching for his weapon.

“Don’t. Move,” said the mayor sternly.

“It is clearly injured,” said the AI. “Extrapolating from pony physiology, it will die shortly if not repaired.”

“That is not a pony,” said Cliff Diver.

“No, but it is injured,” said the mayor. He sounded nervous, and Epicenter knew why. She was familiar with the defense guns that protected Equestria- -and knew that this creature, whatever it was, should have been turned to dust. The mayor was not concerned for the creature, but terrified of it- -especially since they had just seen it toss several tons of metal with one stroke into the distance without any visible effort.

The mayor slowly stepped forward. Epicenter breathed heavily- -she had expected wreckage, perhaps, in her wildest hopes, a fragment of working technology- -but now she was witnessing first contact with a new Beyonder species.

“Hello,” said the mayor. “Are you able to speak?”

The creature looked down at the mayor, and then slowly down at its badly damaged body, as if it had been unable to determine that it was injured from feeling pain alone.

“Yes, yes,” said the mayor. “You are hurt. We can help you, if you come with us.”

It looked down at the mayor, but allowed him to get closer. Their eyes seemed to meet, but then the creature turned toward the distance, toward where the village was.

“Something’s wrong,” said Cliff Diver. “I don’t like this…”

It looked down at the mayor again, who was now smiling. It was a caring expression, one that could be nothing other than genuine. Epicenter saw that, even for this strange creature, the mayor truly did care.

The air seemed to vibrate. All the scanners suddenly surged, beeping out a warning.

“Detecting magic surge,” warned the AI urgently.

There was no time, though. The mayor’s body shattered into a cloud of blood and tissue, his bones and flesh, as well as his clothing and weapon, torn apart into tiny individual pieces. Epicenter gaped, her mind unable to comprehend what had happened- -he had been there, and then, just as suddenly, he was gone.

The other ponies reacted quickly, raising their weapons. The sound of gunfire and laser discharges rang out across the crater. Impacts against the creature’s armor had no effect whatsoever, but any impact against its flesh damaged it as much as it would a pony- -except that it did not seem to notice.

It turned toward its attackers, the remains of the mayor still suspended magical in the air. It reached toward Leadfoot, and the pony was suddenly drawn toward the creature. He cried out, firing wildly- -and striking Cliff Diver instead, how cried out as one of his wings went limp.

The creature did not stop, and did not hesitate. It grasped Leadfoot’s head, and with one swift motion crushed it into pulp. Leadfoot’s body then evaporated into constituent components, just as the mayor’s had.

“Brother!” screamed Leadhead in anguish. In his rage, he ran forward, screaming, firing his back-mounted gun at the vulnerable parts of the creature- -only to have his body torn apart before he even reached it.

“No way,” said Cliff Diver. He threw down his weapon and tried to run up the edge of the crater, finding that he would just fall back down whenever he tried.

“Coward!” cried Stone Boring. He threw down his own weapon and lowered his horn, which glowed with a dirty yellow light that rapidly heated to high-purity white. Then he fired.

A complex, nearly crystalline shield surrounded the creature, absorbing the magic, even as Stone Boring kept up the blast, increasing its intensity.

“You want to try me?” he called, laughing. “I can drill through stone all day!”

Then the shield collapsed. The result was impossible, however, at least to Epeicenter’s eyes. The beam, instead of cutting through, fed back toward Stone Boring. Before he could react, his horn exploded in a sudden surge of blood and bone fragments, taking most of his head with it.

The creature turned its attention to him, and a beam of arcing, electrical magic shot from it. Where it impacted Boring Stone, his body shifted and tightened, twisting as it resolved into crystal. He only had a moment to scream before the crystal destabilized, shattering, leaving nothing behind but dust and the remnants of his upper body, which were promptly drawn toward the creature and disassembled.

Now surrounded by galaxies of blood and bone, the creature seemed to take inventory. Different parts moved, seeming to organize themselves by type and nature. Blood and bone and various types of flesh were put in categories separate from fragments of cloth and plastic, which in turn were kept separate from mechanical components from the weapons, which had not been torn so much as carefully disassembled.

“Engaging defense protocol,” said the equidroid, her head and neck beginning to part to deploy whatever weapons she had within her- -only for her body to be promptly pulled apart, not by violence but by technical, rapid disassembly- -and added to the creature’s collection.

The resulting tissue then began moving, swarming toward the creature. It poured into its wound, and Epicenter watched as its flesh was rebuilt from that which it had taken. Organs were replaced, and muscle was knitted together with the same type of magic that had murdered Stone Boring. Its torso rapidly began to repair, and then its arm, the white bone of the ponies being reconfigured to new and alien architecture.

As its flesh rebuilt, so did its armor, surrounding the new would with the pieces of the equidroid and the various weapons. It was not just armor, though- -it went deeper, merging with the machines within its own body, permeating the flesh that it built, fusing within it.

It rapidly completed its repairs, forming a strange-colored, five fingered hand, which was rapidly encased in metal. It flexed its new fingers and arm, and then turned its attention toward Cliff Diver, who was still trying to make his way out of the pit without his ability to fly.

“Please!” he said, sliding back down. “I- -I have a- -”

The creature took no mercy. It lowered its arm, and its arm shifted, contorting into a weapon. With a burst of light and a sizzling sound, Cliff Diver’s head burst into slop that rapidly fell around him. The creature had not even needed to use his flesh.

Then it made a sound. Epicenter froze in horror. The sound it produced was heavily distorted, but it was not words- -if anything, it sounded like laughter.

Then she managed to move herself. She dashed across the ground as fast as her short legs could carry her, toward Cliff Diver’s body. She tried not to look at his head, or rather lack of it- -not that in her surge of adrenaline it would have stopped her.

She grabbed his gun and pointed it at the creature. The creature looked down at her and raised its hand. Before Epicenter could figure out how to work the trigger, the creature snapped its fingers, and the gun was gone- -replaced with a bony serpent that somehow seemed horrifyingly spine like.

“No!” cried Epicenter, struggling against the creature that surrounded her, not knowing how it had appeared- -or why a creature that could turn a gun into a snake would have bothered to use living ponies to repair its damaged flesh.

The creature stepped forward, balanced delicately on its two legs.

“No, please!” she cried. “I don’t want to die!”

A blade extended from one of its wrists, one that seemed to be crawling with something. With its other hand, it reached down, picking her up by her neck, lifting her to eye height. As she choked and gasped, she stared into its face- -and saw that the flat helmet was not entirely opaque. Behind the part that produced the illusion of glowing eyes, something was moving through the semi-transparency of the plate. Something deformed and broken- -something with a wide, toothless smile.

Then she felt the blade in her chest, and looked down to see blood pouring down across her white coat. As soon as she saw it, she passed out. The last thing she remembered before consciousness fully left her, she remembered hitting the ground.

Slowly, Epicenter opened her eyes. She hurt all over, and wondered if she had been lying on her sheets again. Except, somehow, she was cold, and her mattress felt so hard.

Confused, she looked around, trying to find her alarm clock, and winced at the pain of moving. Then, as she turned, she suddenly screamed. The burnt stump of Cliff Diver’s neck brought her back to reality, forcing the memories that her sleeping brain had tried to forget back into crystalline focus.

“No no no!” she screamed, pulling herself away from their mutual pool of blood, leaving bits of her coat in the dried, red-brown pool beneath her. Just moving, though, was painful, and she recalled that she had been stabbed.

In terror, she looked down at her chest, and saw that it did indeed have a gaping wound- -but not one that bled. Instead, it was simply open, and badly inflamed. It was clearly infected, and Epicenter could see almost linear black lines spreading form it just beneath her skin. Somehow, though, she was still alive.

There was something else she noticed as well. Farther down, something on her coat was different before. At first, she had tried to dismiss it as blood- -but she could not. She turned her rump, and looked down at her new cutie mark: a bright red “0”.

Then she burst into uncontrollable sobbing. They were dead- -all dead. She had watched them die, for no clear reason- -and she had somehow survived. She looked back at the only body that was remaining and screamed, the sobbing returning once again.

“His- -family,” she choked, her mind confused. Then she suddenly stopped. She remembered how the creature had momentarily looked toward her village, as if it had understood that something was there.

“I- -have to warn them,” she said, standing. It was tremendously painful, and the sobs seemed to want to return so desperately, but her sense of duty overwhelmed them and let her force both of those aspects deep within herself. She was the last of the militia- -and she had to warn her friends and family.