P.O.V. Twilight Sparkle.

“Alright people, the minute I get you home, the minute I can start my repairs,” said Excalibur.

“Do you need any help?” I asked.

“Unless you know how repair a highly advanced intergalactic space ship. I’m going to have to decline your offer Twilight,” he said.

“Oh… right,” I said sheepishly.

“Hey it’s alright. I’m glad that you are willing to help, but I think this is a little out of your league Twilight,” said Excalibur.

“Yeah, you’re right,” I said sadly.

“Anyway,” he grabbed his helmet and placed it on a nearby table, “It’s going to be a few minutes until we land, might as well make yourselves comfortable,” he said to everpony.

Excalibur ran his… I guess I need to find out what he calls his hooves, through his mane as he took a deep breath. Once he was done, he placed his hooves on the table.

I walked up next to him. I remembered that I had that little toy of his.

“Hey Excalibur?” I asked.

“Yes Twilight?” he said while looking at me.

“I was wondering if you explain something for me?”

“Depends on what the something is,” he said.

I used my magic to grab the little thing from my saddlebag.

“I was wondering if you could tell me what this is,” I held the little object up in front of me.

He looked down on his left hip and grabbed it; looking back he took it from my grasp.

“Where did you get this?” he said quickly.

“Uh… my brother got it from you,” I said nervously.

“Well… I can understand disarming me, but taking my property is something completely different,” he explained.

“I’m sorry,” I said nervously.

he closed his eyes, “*sigh* its fine Twilight. I shouldn’t be taking this out on you, you didn’t know,” he explained before opening those dark brown eyes.

“Its fine Excalibur,” I looked at the little object, “so what is it?” I asked out of curiosity.

By now everypony had surrounded us.

“Well to be honest… I don’t know what it does,” said Excalibur as he looked at the small object.

“Really? But it’s yours?” said Rainbow.

“Yes, but I only had it for a few minutes before I landed here,” explained Excalibur, “I haven’t had time to examine it.”

“So what do you think it is?” I asked.

“It could be anything. It could be a toy, a bomb, a useless paper weight,” explained Excalibur.

“So you don’t know what it does?” asked Rarity.

“Just because the Orokin made it, doesn’t mean I know what each and every little thing does,” said Excalibur.

“So what do you think it is?” asked Fluttershy.

Excalibur held it up in front of his face, “It looks like a toy to be honest,” he put it down, “I’m gonna have Ordis search for it in the data files and see what he comes up with.”

He placed the little object on the table and we watched as a small light started at the top and ended at the bottom.

“Ordis, see what you can find on this little object,” said Excalibur to the ship.

“Yes Excalibur.”

“Thank you Ordis.”

Excalibur walked over to the window and crossed his forelegs. I decided to join him while my friends sat around behind us. I could see Ponyville coming into view. I was about to ask Excalibur a question when a big boom filled the ship, causing it to shake.

“What was that?” asked Applejack.

After regaining his footing Excalibur said, “Ordis, what hit us?”

“I’ve lost power to the right rear engine,” responded Ordis.

“Alright,” Excalibur was so calm, “close the flaps, and reroute all power to the rest of the engines.”

“Yes Excalibur.”

“Excalibur?” asked Fluttershy.

He turned to look at her, “Yes Fluttershy?”

“Are we going to die?” asked my yellow friend nervously.

He kneeled down in front of her and put his right hoof on her shoulder.

“No. As long as the rest of the engines hold out we'll be fine,” he said reassuring her. She smiled.

BOOM!

The ship began to shake violently, Excalibur looked surprised.

“Okay maybe.”

“Excalibur, I’ve lost all power to the left rear engine!” said Ordis in a panic.

I could feel the ship going into a dive.

He stood up, “EVERYONE GRAB SOMETHING SOLID AND HOLD ON!” ordered Excalibur.

We all shuffled around and tried to find something solid. I grabbed the table on the right side of the ship. Excalibur grabbed the edge of it and stood up.

“Ordis, reroute all power to the forward engines and make this crash as soft as possible!” order Excalibur.

“Yes Excalibur!”

By now Spike, Rarity and Pinkie had joined in next to me. Applejack, Rainbow, and Fluttershy were hugging the table on the left side of the ship. Fluttershy had started to cry while the rest of us hoped for the best.

“Ordis, you see the courtyard in the middle of the town!?” said Excalibur.

“Yes Excalibur.”

We must be headed right for Ponyville.

“Land us there!” screamed Excalibur.

“Yes Excalibur.”

I could hear the front of the ship roar as Ordis made an attempt to slow us down and make our landing somewhat soft. It was a tense few seconds... it felt like an eternity. When we hit the ground there was a loud crash, I could hear rocks hitting the metal ship. Excalibur struggled to stand, but I lost him when he shot forward violently. We slid for I don’t know how long, but we eventually came to a stop. All of us began to moan and struggle to release our grips on our tables.

I could hear Excalibur grumbling on the other side of the table, “If you’re dead raise your hand.”

“I’m good,” I said.

“Me too,” said Rarity.

“I’m here,” said Rainbow.

“That was fun!” screamed Pinkie, who was a little happier than should be.

“Huhuuu,” mumbled a scared Fluttershy.

“I’m here,” said Applejack.

“Did anyone get the cutie mark of that Pegasus?” said Spike as he rose from the floor.

We all got up and walked out from the tables to see Excalibur rising from the floor.

He glanced up quickly, “Good you’re alright,” said a relieved Excalibur.

He looked around for a moment until he found his helmet, which he slipped over his head.

“Ordis, what’s the damage?”

“Both rear engines are not responding. Other than that I cannot detect any further issues Excalibur,” responded the ship.

“Well I guess it could be worse,” said Excalibur.

“So what do we do now?” asked Rarity.

“For you guys,” Excalibur pointed to everypony, “you can go home, for me, I have to drag this thing out of the ground and park it. Then I have to repair both rear engines, on top of my original repairs.”

“Are you sure you don’t want us to help you?” asked Rarity, element of generosity showing herself off.

“Unless you have a really big crane, there’s no way this ship can move… unless…” he paused, “Ordis do you still have power to the stabilizers?”

“Yes Excalibur, I do.”

“Well that makes things easier,” said Excalibur, sounding a little relieved, “lift this bird up and lower the landing gear.”

“Yes Excalibur.”

The ship roared to life as we began to life up. I notice the ground rise up out of the window. I also noticed a large crowd scattering when we rose up.

‘This might be bad,’ I thought to myself.

The ship hovered in the air for a moment before lowering back down. When the roaring stopped I could see many of the towns folk coming out of their hiding places. I heard the ramp lower behind me, turning around, I saw Excalibur descend the ramp. I chased after him.

“Excalibur! You may want to be careful,” I sad frantically.

He continued walking, “Why's that?” the rear ramp to the ship opened up as he walked down it.

“Because-” I began but it was too late.

“MONSTER!” screamed one of the Ponyville residents.

By now Excalibur had reached the bottom of the ramp, he looked to see who had screamed. I heard a magic attack, Excalibur threw his forelegs up covering his head. A light blue magic attack hit him in the chest causing him to launch in the opposite direction. I heard glass breaking before I ran outside.

“Twilight! Get out of there!” screamed Amethyst.

I looked at her, “WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR!?” I barked in retaliation.

“That thing ponynapped you!” screamed Amethyst.

I could hear broken glass behind me. I turned around to see Excalibur climbing out a broken window.

“Twilight, if I hadn’t just made a deal with the princesses,” he stepped on the ground and pointed at Amethyst, “I’d have her head mounted on my wall!”

I sat down and waved my forelegs frantically, “Excalibur, she didn’t know!”

“Now hold on there partner,” said Applejack as she and the rest of my friends ran in front of Excalibur.

“It was a simple mistake,” said Rarity, trying to diffuse the tense situation.

He looked at my friends and relaxed a little.

I looked back at Amethyst, “He’s not going to hurt anypony!”

“Then perhaps you can help explain who and what he is?” asked Mayor Mare as she began to step out from the gathering crowd.

I looked at the mayor, “Mayor,” I looked at Excalibur, “this is Excalibur, he’s a friend.”

He looked at me, then the mayor and finally my friends, “I got it girls.” He stepped between them and walked up to the mayor, who was now standing right next to me.

He took a knee, “My apologies for the dramatic entrance mayor.”

“I-it’s q-quite alright,” said the frightened mayor.

“HEY!” screamed a voice from the gathered crowd.

Everypony looked at the crowd as a familiar mint colored unicorn stepped through.

She ran up to Excalibur, “I know you!”

He looked at me then back to her as he stood up, “I’d question that.”

“Lyra, what are you talking about?” I asked while raising a hoof.

She looked at me and pointed a hoof at Excalibur, “In the woods!”

“Lyra!” hollered Bon Bon as she ran up to the mint colored unicorn, “what are you doing?”

Lyra turned to look at the candy maker, “I told you they're real Bon Bon!” said an enthusiastic Lyra.

Excalibur kneeled down to look at Lyra, “What are you talking about?”

She turned to look at him, “During one of my trips in the Everfree! There is a giant metal thing with dead creatures inside that look a lot like you!” she said.

Excalibur looked at me then back to Lyra, “Take me there.”

My friends and I, and Bon Bon followed close behind Excalibur while he followed Lyra through the Everfree forest.

“W-why did we h-have to c-c-come i–into the forest again?” asked a rather scared Fluttershy.

“You do realize that I didn’t force any of you to come with me?” said Excalibur, "Then again why did I let you come with me?" No pony answered.

“Now you tell me,” replied Fluttershy.

“It’s alright Fluttershy, I won’t let anything hurt you,” said Excalibur, reassuring my shy friend.

We made it about 20 feet when the bushes began to rustle. We all froze. Just like our adventures before, a Timber Wolf jumped out.

“EEP!” screamed Fluttershy.

“TIMBER WOLF!” screamed Rarity.

We all began to shake as fear took its hold.

Excalibur wasn’t even fazed, he just stepped forward and approached the animal.

“Excalibur, what ar-”

It snarled as it jumped at him. I expected it to rip him limb from limb. I closed my eyes and feared the worse. But I never heard the tearing of flesh. I opened my eyes to see Excalibur’s right arm shoved halfway down the beast’s throat.

SHING!

I saw three metal claws protrude from its back. With one swift jerk he lifted the animal over his head, slamming it on the ground. He opened another set of claws on his left hoof and shoved them into the animal. He removed his right arm and jumped into the air. He brought his clawed hooves down in rapid succession, ripping the wooded beast to shreds. Now what really surprised me was each time he removed his claws; the wood began to disappear into thin air. I didn’t question it though, I was caught in the moment, he killed the beast without even trying!

It was kind of hot. He’s so strong, and protective, and why do I have these thoughts!?

“Told you I wouldn’t let anything hurt you,” he said as he rose to his feet.

He raised his hands to the side of his head as his claws closed into his hooves with a definitive shing.

“So Lyra, how much closer are we?” he asked while looking at the mint colored mare.

“Just up ahead actually,” she informed.

He motioned for her to continue, “Lead the way.”

As she trotted past him I heard her say, “That was so cool!”

Bon Bon stepped forward as she followed Lyra. Excalibur followed close behind. Now I don’t know how far we walked but next thing I knew we crested a hill, stopping in front of a rather large gorge.

“Down there,” pointed Lyra.

We all looked into the dark abyss; I could make out this large, square, metal shaped object with large round things on each corner. But the forest had taken its toll; the massive thing was full of holes and covered in vines.

“Looks like a Corpus shuttle,” said Excalibur, he grabbed his Soma before looking back at us, “all of you stay here, I’m going to investigate.”

“Hey you’re not going leave us here… are you?” asked Lyra.

“Lyra!” whispered Bon Bon, “I don’t want to be here any longer, can we please go home?”

“Fine!” mumbled Lyra, “good luck everypony!”

“Thank you,” said relieved Bon Bon.

The pair turned to leave, leaving the rest of us alone.

“I suggest you do the same and go,” said Excalibur.

“Why?” asked Rainbow.

“Because it’s not safe,” replied Excalibur.

“Oh no! We’ve done crazy and stupid adventures before, were sticking to you like glue!” replied Rainbow.

“Dash… you’re an idiot,” replied Excalibur.

“HEY!”

“Excalibur, we’re here to help you,” I interjected, “now we are going with you.”

He looked at all of us, “Are all of you thinking about joining me?”

We all nodded our heads, well, all except Fluttershy.

“Um… I’d feel safer if I just stayed here,” mumbled my yellow friend.

“Oh come on Fluttershy, it’ll be fun!” screamed Pinkie as she grabbed Fluttershy.

“Oh… uh… I don’t think-”

“Unless you want to stay out here with the Timber wolves?” said Pinkie with a more serious tone.

“I’LL GO!” screamed Fluttershy, before she sunk down to hide behind her mane.

“We’re joining you Excalibur,” I said confidently.

He took a second to think about it, “Alright… I won’t force you to stay,” he turned around, “but if you get killed, it’s not my fault.”

We walked down the large embankment, well except Pinkie who rolled down the hill. Anyway, once we made it to the bottom we stood in front of the massive ship.

“Yeah it’s a Corpus ship alright,” said Excalibur, “that’s a bad sign.”

“What’s the problem?” asked Rarity.

He looked at the white mare, “It means my thought about being the first and only outsider on this planet was wrong,” he paused, “But then again. I’ve never seen anything about your planet in any of the Corpus data maps.”

“Well this thing does look like it’s been here a while,” I said.

“I would have to agree. I know for a fact that if this ship had reported your planet, I’d be fighting to expel them from your atmosphere,” he said.

“So how do we get in?” asked Applejack.

“Find a hole I guess,” replied Excalibur with a shrug of his shoulders.

We walked down the massive metal beast. After a few minutes Excalibur found a rather large hole and alerted us. Once we caught up to him we stepped inside. It was pitch black, so Rarity and I used light spells to illuminate the way. As I walked, I almost tripped over some debris; I don’t know how Excalibur saw it.

“Excalibur, how can you see?” I asked.

“Night vision.”

“Night vision?” I repeated.

“My helmet has the ability to allow me to see in the dark,” he said.

“Ah… so how- EEP!” I screamed when I saw a scary creature looking at me. My friends screamed in terror when I screamed.

Excalibur spun around and pointed his weapon at the creature before relaxing.

“It’s alright everyone,” he walked over and pushed the creature with his right leg, causing it to fall off its perch, “its dead.”

“What is that thing?” I asked.

“A Corpus Crewman,” he said, “one of the shuttle operators,” he kneeled down to look at it, “and he’s been dead for a while.”

He stood up and turned around, “I doubt that any of the crew are still alive, but their robotics might still be online. All depends if the power cores are still online.”

He began to walk forward, followed by the rest of us.

“Here let me look at something,” he said as he placed his weapon on his back.

He tapped a square, flat thing on the wall. It lit up, so he played with it some more. A few seconds passed, then the lights came on, we all jumped but relaxed once again.

“There we go!” he said as he looked at the ceiling quickly before looking back at the screen, “the power core is running at 13%. But it’s no big deal, as long as it keeps the lights on, were good.”

He began walking again.

Now that I could see, I noticed that the massive ship was made out of metal. Where do they get this much metal? I could also see white metal square boxes that were just as tall as Excalibur scattered her and there along with the bodies of the dead crew. I could also see that this hallway was extremely long.

We walked through about three doorways, and one of them we had to crawl through the opening. Once we reached the fourth doorway. Excalibur stepped through, that’s when we heard a door open behind us. One of these odd looking bulges on the wall opened and out stepped a metal creature. It looked at us and took a defensive stance. I heard a fwoosh as Excalibur shot past us and opened his forelegs. The creature began to attack with these light blue magic attacks. They hit Excalibur in the back as he stood there.

“Excalibur!” we all screamed in unison.

“I’m good!” he looked back at the creature, “damn chicken walkers.”

As he stood there and took the attack. He grabbed his sword with his right hoof and let his foreleg drop to his side. This is where he impressed us yet again; in one swift spin he turned around and began to block the attack with his sword. Not even my brother could block a magic attack like that, and most magic travels mush slower than that thing.

We watched in awe as the attacks dissipated into sparks as he approached the creature. He began to glow blue as he approached, but it was gone within a few seconds. Once he was in reach, he grabbed it by the horn and held it as its attacks hit the ceiling. He placed his sword on his back and grabbed the creature between its legs. With a powerful tug he ripped the horn off and dropped it. He lifted the creature in the air as it sparked and bleed as it struggled in his grasp.

“Filthy piece of trash,” he threw the creature on the ground, landing with a loud metal thud. Before it could get up he grabbed his sword and shoved it through the animal. It squirmed under the blade, but slowly came to a stop as its life left its body.

SHING!

He removed his sword and placed it on his back; he looked back at us and asked, “Is everyone okay?" we all shook our heads, “Good,” he began to walk past us, “and that’s why I didn’t want any of you to come.”

“What was that thing?” I asked as we began to walk with him.

“A Corpus Moa, their robotic sentries designed to protect the ship and crew. They must have come online when I turned the power on,” he said.

“How many more are there?” asked Spike as he looked around frantically.

“I don’t know. The Corpus tend to carry dozens of them when they carry cargo,” he said.

No pony responded, we just walked in silence.

Maybe coming her was a bad idea?

“Hold up,” Excalibur ordered as he put a hoof out, “I got A target.”

“What is it?” I whispered.

“I don’t know. I need to get closer to find out,” he said.

He grabbed his weapon and readied it as he walked forward slowly, we followed close behind at the same pace. We entered a rather large room; it looked like half of Ponyville could fit in this one room. It was filled with large metal crates and small round tubes. Excalibur scanned the room with his weapon as he looked for the target.

“Over here,” he said as he walked to the left.

He walked over to a wall and lowered his weapon.

THUD!

“EEP!” I screamed as I nearly jumped out of my hid.

"AHHHHH!" screamed the rest of my friends.

All of us looked at the wall, but instead of metal it was made of glass. On the other side was a rather ferocious looking creature. It growled as it scratched at the glass barrier.

“WHAT IS THAT THING!?!” screamed Rainbow.

“It’s an Infested Ancient,” said Excalibur.

He pressed a little button next to the glass, one of those little screens appeared.

“Well it appears that the containment cell still works,” he said.

I couldn’t read the language, but apparently Excalibur could.

“Excalibur what does that say?” I asked.

Without missing a beat he began speaking, “Test subject number 2218, subject is extremely dangerous. Do not attempt to remove from containment without a proper containment team. Uh... yadayadayada... subject is to be transferred from Eris system to Jupiter system,” he paused, “looks like the Corpus intended to experiment on it.”

“Why would they do that?” asked Rarity.

“Because they want power,” replied Excalibur as he looked at my friend.

That creature growled, which grabbed his attention.

“You’d like that wouldn’t you,” said Excalibur.

“Reeee huuuuu.”

“You think I’m that stupid to release something like you on this planet?”

Apparently he could understand the creature.

“I don’t care what Lephantis or the Golem think, you we a miserable mistake,” he said.

“Raaaaa.”

“I told the Orokin not to dive into genetics after they made us. They wanted you to fight with us, but you turned against us.”

Were these things created to fight with Excalibur?

“I am you, but I’m what happens when the Tennogen virus works,” he paused, “I’m immune, this planet isn’t.”

He is one of those things?

“Reeee.”

“You know what I think? You all deserve to burn,” he said coldly.

He pressed a little button on the screen, which caused the room the being was in to erupt into flames. The beast moaned in agony as the flames flooded the room, within seconds the screaming was over. I was wide eyed, not only could he talk to the creature but he sounded rather cold about it.

He stepped away and began to walk away. I ran up to him, my friends stayed behind and tried not to vomit.

“Excalibur, what was that about?” I asked.

“You know that rather ugly looking weapon you saw a few days ago?”

“Yes.”

“That’s what it came from.”

THAT BONE MADE WEAPON CAME FROM THAT CREATURE!!!

“The infestation only have one mindset. Eat and reproduce,” he said, “if that thing had been released it would’ve turned everything it could sink its teeth into one of the infested… I’m glad it wasn’t set free when this ship crashed.”

We walked over to a set of metal things much like the one he messed with earlier, except there were more screens and it was much more bulky. Excalibur pressed another button causing them to light up. As he looked at the screen I asked him a few questions.

“So… you are one of those things?” I asked nervously.

He looked at me, “I am what happens when the Tennogen virus works,” he looked back at the screen, “when the Orokin began to make bioengineered animals to fight along with us… well... that’s what they became.”

That’s scary. If humans could make space ships, metal defense creatures, Excalibur, and those things… what else could they do?

“Huh… well it would appear that this ship was attempting to make a void jump,” he crossed his arms, “but failed and ended up here. The reports say that the crew starved to death or were dragged away in the night by mysterious creatures,” he looked at me, “little did they know that a town was less than a few miles away.”

The rest of my friends joined us. He interacted with the screen again.

“That’s odd,” he said.

“What?” asked Rainbow.

“There’s another test subject on board,” he scrolled through the screen yet again, “Oh no,” he sounded scared.

“What?” I asked.

“The file here says that test subject 2231 is extremely dangerous, but it’s the abilities listed that has me worried,” he said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

He looked at us.

“It’s a Tenno.”

Author's Notes:

The plot thickens.

Who could it be?

NO SPOILERS!