"De-shocking to Earth Space in 3… 2… 1." Hearing the CMS's onboard AI echoing those words through the Captain's bridge sent chills down Isaac Clarke's spine. Although he had jokingly told John Carver that the ship might explode before they both agree to set course to Earth, the engineer had half-expected something catastrophic actually coming true. After all, Isaac had fueled the 200-year old Shockpoint Drive with enough plutonium to create several nuclear explosions. Watching as the blue glow surrounding the ship from traveling faster than light beginning to fade around them, Isaac felt a laugh escape from his dehydrated lips as he witnessed the welcoming sign of a single white moon and the familiar blue and green planet before them.

Wasting no time from letting the sight distract him from making contact with the military, Isaac tapped open the communications application on the monitor displayed to his left from his piloting seat and began to tune into the emergency radio frequency that was made available for all spacecrafts. "Earth Orbital control, this is Isaac Clarke aboard the CMS Terra Nova, requesting clearance, over." While the transmission appeared to have been successfully sent out, Isaac raised a tired and puzzled eye brow as he received an error message on his monitor.

Noticing the confused look on Isaac's face, Carver let out a sigh before reluctantly getting himself up from the co-piloting seat to make his way over to the main piloting seat. "Are you sure you got the right channel? This ship's over 200 years old." Carver reminded as he patted the engineer's shoulder.

Isaac simply shook his head as his eyes remained fixated on the monitor. "Yeah, no. I changed it over right… Trust me. Trust me, it's right."

Despite what the engineer had stated, Carver patted his shoulder once more before turning his attention to the large primary monitor that rested between the pilot and the co-pilot's set ups. Fumbling with the channel he had primarily used while reporting to his previous employers, Carver tuned into the EarthGov channel before leaning into the microphone below the monitor. "EarthGov Command, this is Sergeant John Carver, do you read me, is anyone there?" A look of annoyance flashed across the soldier's face as the same error message appeared on his monitor as well. "Weird… Er, Isaac?"

"Yeah?"

"Did uh… Did Earth always look so… Not polluted?"

Caught off guard by the other man's question, Isaac neck straightened up as a look of an even deeper confusion found its way on his face. "Not polluted? What do you- Oh. Oh, wow." Isaac mumbled to himself as he finally looked up from his monitor to see what Carver had observed. From what Isaac could see, the Earth's atmosphere lacked any brown hazey gases that he grew up learning about. Centuries of pollution on Earth had destroyed the O-Zone, smog and other airborne pollutants transformed the Earth into a greenhouse, which had melted the ice caps and transformed the Earth into a devastated dystopian land. That's the Earth Isaac and Carver had inherited. However, the planet presented on the other side of the reinforced glass of the bridge was far healthier, had more exposed land, and not an ounce of a brown haze to be spotted.

"This is Earth… Right? Or, are we seeing some sort of hallucination?" Carver asked with a hint of fear in his voice. As harden of a soldier as he was, the thought of still being under a marker's influence brought fear onto him. "Oh God, tell me if this is just some bullshit twist…"

"I… I hope not." Isaac muttered as he felt a twinge of whatever hope he held onto beginning to fade. Knowing however that it was nothing but that same burning hope that had brought Isaac this far, Isaac let a soft breath escape from his lips before shaking his head. "Look, we made it this far… Might as well go for it."

"Go for it?" Carver asked with a look of skepticism across his scarred face. "Isaac, we haven't gotten a response, what makes you think Orbital Control isn't going to blast our asses the moment we enter the atmosphere for re-entry? Hell, I don't even know if this is even Earth! This could be just some planet that kind of looks like Earth!"

Isaac nodded, yet kept his stern look on Carver. "Yeah, this could be Earth, it could be a different place, I don't know… But I do know that our Plutonium supply is zero, and this thing probably isn't going to survive a second round through light speed. So unless you have a better plan, let's get ready to prepare for re-entry."

"I… Fuck it, whatever." Carver sighed as he raised his hands in defeat. "If we're going to land Clarke, let's at least assume that there's no ports or gravitational tethers to dock us. If that's the case, I say let's just land this behemoth the old fashion way."

"Yeah I was kind of thinking we land in the… Huh, I can't tell if that's the Pacific or Atlantic Ocean from he-… Oh shit." Isaac muttered as he felt his heart drop.

Feeling the same previous dread returning to him, Carver cursed under his breath as he lunged himself beside Isaac's piloting seat to get a better view of the flashing red screen Isaac was staring at. "Damn it, what now?!"

Quickly strapping himself in, Isaac quickly began to set up re-entry windows in the navigation settings. "Good news? We won't have to worry about picking a spot to land. Bad news? We won't have to worry about picking a spot to land." Isaac chuckled darkly as he quickly activated his EVA suit's helmet back on to protect his head. "While we were trying to get a hold of anyone, I didn't get a chance to notice that we were already drifting too close to the gravitational pull of the planet."

"Son of a bitch…!" Carver spat under his breath before activating his Special Forces' helmet; the eerie red glow from the visor illuminated the co-pilot's control board before him as hopped into his seat. "Just focus on doing your nerd stuff and guide me, I'm gonna try and fly us somewhere safe!"

"Can this thing even fucking land?!" Isaac shouted out in a state of panic as he quickly began to calculate the best points of re-entry before entering the data into the navigation system.

"We're about to find out!" Carver shouted back as he tightened his iron grip on the thrusters. With a crack of his knuckles, Carver extended his arms forward as he did his best to balance the ship's angle to match that of the yellow windows displayed on the bridge's protective screen. Both men began to feel sweat bedding down underneath their protective and temperature-controlled suits as they saw the front of their ship beginning to light up in a blaze of fire. "Damn it Isaac, this shit's not working!"

"Fuck! Just, just let me- Shit!" A loud and heavy thud vibrated the Captain's bridge and caused Isaac to slip and accidentally enter an incorrect character into the system; forcing the navigation system into encountering a syntax error and subsequently crashing the computer. "Carver, you're just gonna have to eyeball it!"

"Are you kidding me?!" Carver shouted in disbelief as he shook his head. "Damn it Isaac, this is stressing me the Hell out!" Carver screamed in frustration. Aside from the flashing red warning displayed across the panoramic screen of the bridge, Carver did his best to ignore the turbulence rattling the controls along with the entire ship as he piloted the CMS Terra Nova through thick layers of cloud that did little to cool down the burning metal and tearing shrapnel of the massive colonial ship. From the corners of the screen, Isaac felt a discomforting uneasiness course through his veins as what Isaac could only make out to be flying blurs of different spectrums seemingly flying away from the incoming ship. "Isaac, the thrusters are fubared!"

Hearing the soldier's panicked voice awoken the engineer from his trance and shot him back into the horrible reality of his situation: he was going to crash into a planet without even knowing that he had even reached Earth. "Damn, just… brace for impact!" Isaac shouted in desperation as he clenched the arm rests of his piloting seat. Clenching his jaw, Isaac felt his thoughts wandering over to Ellie. Did she even survive the trip back from Tau Volantis? Having been so sure of it before killing the Tau Volantis Moon, Isaac couldn't help but feel despair in his heart as he wondered if Ellie had met the same fate.

"What the… What the Hell?!" Hearing Carver's shouting once again snapped back Isaac from his trance of their hopeless situation. Looking up toward where Carver was staring at, Isaac felt his eyes widen in both surprise and confusion as what look like a near-distant lavender-colored speck flew its way in front of their out of control ship. In a mere few seconds, Isaac watched a purple glittering beam of light shot out from the mysterious being and enveloped what was left of the CMS Terra Nova in the same glowing purple aura. Before Isaac or Carver could make any comment about what was happening before them, both men let out a gasp of air as the sudden velocity of the falling ship came to a near sudden halt. Over the sound of metal clashing with metal and electricity being shot out from the Terra Nova's haul, Isaac felt his skin turn pale as he heard what sounded to be a distant scream of a young woman outside the Captain's bridge. With the bridge's panoramic screen completely blocked out by the glowing purple aura, Isaac had only a few seconds to think before a sudden jerk and crash caused both him and Carver to let out a painful yelp as they felt their seatbelts nearly tear off with the sudden crash landing.

Feeling his stomach turn upside only for a moment from what he had guessed was caused from being airborne, Isaac let out a painful howl as he nearly felt his neck snap back against the headrest of his seat as he felt himself and what was left of the bridge come to a rough-skidding halt. "Damn… Ugh, Carver… Carver are you still alive?" Isaac weakly croaked out as he simply rested his strained neck on his left shoulder.

The groan from the right side of him was enough proof that the soldier was just as okay as he was. "Aside from the six hour massage I'm gonna need after this shit show? Yeah, I guess I'm fine." Carver sarcastically replied while rubbing the back of his neck with a low whine. Before he could make another smart-ass comment about their situation, Carver looked up at the bridge's screen with a twinge of joy. "Holy shit… Isaac, look! We actually made it! Oh fuck, we actually didn't die!"

Hearing the joy behind the soldier's voice was perhaps something Isaac never thought he would have had the chance to hear in his lifetime. The engineer painfully lifted his neck up to see what his companion had been so fixated on. Not having believed what he was seeing either, Isaac wasted no time in undoing his seatbelt and helmet to get a better view of the natural setting before him. Before him in a mere few meters were tall and vibrantly green evergreen trees sprawled out into what made a beautiful forest. Just above the green pines of the healthy trees, perfectly white clouds were floating peacefully across the unpolluted and clean blue skies above. "Oh my God…" Isaac found himself whispering under his breath as he stood shakingly up from his seat as he beheld the wonderful sight with a childish sense of awe.

"Fuck this stale air, my suit's detecting this shit to be made up of the same breathable air on Earth, without any trace of industrial pollution!"

Breaking himself from the enticing sight of beauty that sat near from him, Isaac looked over to see Carver sprinting up the staircase behind him toward the workshop where they kept their supplies. Not to have bragged, nor did he have anyone to brag to, but Isaac had pride himself with the amount of weapons, medkits, and raw materials that they both had accumulated throughout their journey.. So seeing Carver rushing toward their armory when there wasn't any trace of hostility around them made Isaac nervous. "Carver, what are you… What's with the Force Gun?!"

"Isaac, we're like, what? Three feet from the grass? I doubt it's a good idea to try and backtrack our way out of a shipwreck." Carver explained as he aimed the large cannon-like tool toward the panoramic glass infront of Isaac. "Come on, get up here so I don't accidentally launch your ass through the glass."

"Alright just, just give me a minute to get up there." Isaac sighed as he popped his back into place.

"Come on old man, I don't got all day!" Carver teased, which earned him a middle finger from the engineer below. With the smell of his body odor and the bulky discomfort of his EVA suit beginning to finally way down on him, Isaac began to undo the straps of his suit while he made his way up the stairs and behind the excited soldier. "You're taking your suit off?"

"Just a little bit, I'm sweating my balls off in here." Isaac said admittingly. "Since we're not in any apparent danger and all, I think I'm finally beginning to realize how gross we are."

"What, this isn't the first time you've gone a couple days without showering, huh Princess?" Carver jeered as he aimed the cyan laser-sight from the Force Gun toward his target.

"Nah man, it's been too many times I've gone without showering after fighting off some fucked up things trying to eat my face off is all." Isaac chuckled before patting Carver's shoulder. "Come on man, this old man doesn't have all day either."

"Aye aye, Captain." Carver said with a smirked as he squeezed the trigger. Luckily for them, whatever that had saved the two men had done it just in the nick of time. A look of absolute surprise and worry flashed across Isaac's eyes as he watched what should have been a near indestructible glass shield shatter forward into the grass below into a million pieces with ease. "Holy shit, just one shot?"

"The fires from re-entry must have did more of a number on the haul than I thought…" Isaac mused as he reluctantly began to put his suit back onto his torso. "Let's go on ahead and take a look outside… I think whatever saved us got hit or is hurt in the wreckage."

"Oh thank God I wasn't the only one who saw that…!" Carver gasped out with a hint of relief. "I thought I was hallucinating that whole purple thing! I'm thinking it's some sort of alien or what not, and obviously wanted to make sure we didn't crash… For whatever reason, I think?"

"Yeah well, they're the reason we're still alive… Who knows? Maybe it's human… I heard it scream like one anyway." Isaac explained before making his way toward the workbench storage container. "Let's go ahead and get geared for an extraction; I'll pack some large medkits just incase whatever saved us is still alive and is worth saving." Isaac stated as he began to dump four large medkits into a large vinyl duffle bag along with ammo. "And just incase, let's both take a weapon if things end up going south." Isaac suggested as he holstered his Plasma Cutter onto his suit's utility belt.

"Considering there's no water or food onboard with us right now… I'll just go ahead and take a Pulse Rifle." Carver stated matter-of-factly as he held the blue steel frame of the weapon. "Alrighty, let's see what the damage is."

Through each painful breath, Twilight Sparkle let out a shallow breath from underneath the large chunk of metal that laid on top of her bruised and mangled body. "It's… Oh sweet Celestia, this hurts so much…!" Twilight yelped in pain as she accidentally moved her head and bumped it against the metal rubble that sat above her. Tears of pain and panic flowed freely down her cheeks as she felt the large open wounds from behind her sting painfully from where the stumps of her wings once were. Twilight was far too scared to risk knowing what had happened to her horn and why it hurt when she tried to cast a spell. Taking a shallow elongated breath, Twilight did her best to ignore the pain and instead focus on the positives. "O-Okay… It was a pretty big looking vessel of the sort… I'm sure I wasn't the only one to see it…? I'm near the Everfree for- ow… Everfree Forest… Zecora, maybe Fluttershy... Or at least Rainbow Dash will come out to explore what happened…! I just… Oh dear Celestia, is that my… is that my horn!?" Twilight found herself mutter and tremble as she saw a bloodied chunk of her horn laying just above her messy and dirtied trimmed bangs. "HELP! HELP ME! I'M- I'M STUCK!" The sudden feeling of claustrophobia washed over Twilight as her painful breathing became replaced with a sudden ringing in her ears. The young Alicorn's eyes closed as she began to sob. "Please… Anypony… Help me…"

"Hello? Is anyone there?" A gentle and calming male voice rang out in a muffled and distant tone. Hearing the male's voice quickly lit back the hope in Twilight's soul as she felt a wide smile spread across her face, despite whatever pain she felt.

"Y-Yes! Help! I'm trapped under this large metal object! I-I need help, I'm injured!"

"Don't move, just keep talking to us so we know which heap you're under!" A different, more authoritative male voice called out.

Thoughts of a party coming to her rescue made Twilight choose to ignore the tearing pain in her lungs as she began to shout and holler for her life. "Yes, hello! My name's T-OW- Twilight Sparkle! I need medical attention, I need your party to-" Twilight's eyes began to sparkle even more as she watched in excitement as the metal above her became illuminated in a bluish glow before being lifted quickly off her and set down beside her. "Oh thank the stars you found me! I was starting to doubt I was going to get out of here alive and… Oh my…" Standing about six feet above her were two armored bipedal figures with glowing visors and advanced looking objects aimed toward her. However, just as she was surprised to see her rescuers, the two armored figures lowered their weapons and took a step back with gestures of shook. 'Are… Are you two… Humans?" Twilight asked weakly, silently praying that the answer was going to be yes and not her other fear, which was that they were aliens like the ones in the film that Rainbow Dash had showed her while at the movie theater a week ago.

"Holy shit… Did that cartoon looking horse just speak English…?" Carver asked as he felt his rifle slip from his grasp. "Isaac, did that fucking thing just ask us a question?!"

"I… I uh… Um…" Isaac stumbled quietly as he stared blankly at the confusion and worry that the lavender pony portrayed in her purple large gaze. "... You said your name is Twilight Sparkle…?" Isaac asked quietly as he knelt down beside the bloodied and mangled Alicorn.

She nodded. "I am… You must have been inside that big vessel… Please, can you help me… I'm in so much pain right now and I don't think I can stand up…"

A shudder and bizarre feeling went down Isaac's spine as he reluctantly retracted his helmet to meet the pony eye to eye. "You're the one that stopped us from crashing… Aren't you?"

"I… I hope that no one else's hurt." Twilight said through a shaky voice as she laid her head on the soft grass below her. "If that's the case… You… You should save whatever resources you have and help them first… I look rougher than I actually am I think… Please save anypony else you can find!" Twilight ordered as she gave Isaac a determined look.

Hearing the selfless words of the cartoon looking pony, although extremely unnerving to Isaac, plucked at the engineer's heartstrings. Even Carver, who was about ready to walk away from the entirety of the seeing a talking pony, turned his attention toward the injured being. Retracting his own helmet, Carver quickly knelt down beside Isaac and quickly unzipped the duffle bag. "Don't worry, it's just the two of us… Come on Clarke, let's get going!"

"Right!" Despite whatever feverish dream this surely was, Isaac ignored all logic and reasoning and instead focused on cracking open the medpacs he had and begun to apply the somatic gel into Twilight Sparkle's open wounds while Carver injected the gel into what he assumed to be pony's arteries. After making sure her vitals were beginning to stable, Carver held Twilight's horn and wings back into place while Isaac applied the somatic gel on the severed appendages. Although blood and left over somatic gel was still matted into her coat, Twilight could feel her lungs beginning to take in more and more air as she tried to use her wings to carry herself back to her hooves. However, as soon as the pony attempted to stand in place, she felt herself collapse from underneath her own weight. Luckily for her, Carver quickly knelt down and scooped the Alicorn up in the same manner he would do to a large dog.

With her chest against the armored chest padding of the soldier, Twilight cradled her front hooves around his neck and rested her chin on the man's shoulder as she let out a sigh. "I'm sorry, I think my body's still recovering… If you don't mind carrying me, I can guide you back to Ponyville to get things situated. We can talk over some iced-coffee and some snacks at my library if you that's okay?"

Isaac found himself smiling back at the infectious grin plastered across Twilight's goofy face. "Ponyville huh? Are things here named after horses and stuff I'm guessing?"

"If you mean have clever puns and play on words, than yes, you'd be correct!" Twilight giggled happily as she nuzzled her head deeper into Carver's neck.

"Are uh… Are all you horses this cuddly?" Carver asked awkwardly as he felt his nose beginning to be tickled by the pony's messy mane.

"We're ponies actually, and statistically speaking, yes, we are!" Twilight stated proudly as she felt herself beginning to lull in and out of sleep. "We should uh… We should go before I accidentally take a nap…" Twilight said with a tired yawn. "The trot isn't too far, and… Excuse me…. we can all take baths there and get you two some clean, less-bulky clothes for you two to wear…" Twilight offered through a yawn as she focused on both Carver's Pulse Rifle and Isaac's duffle bag. "I'll carry your guys' stuff while I direct you two through the Everfree forest. Plus, it'll keep me from snoozing."

Confused, Isaac gave the enthusiastic pony a puzzled look. "I appreciate the offer, Twilight, but how are you supposed to help carry our stuff when you can't even use your legs rig- Oh, that's how…" Isaac muttered to himself as he watched the same purple aura that saved both his and Carver's lives envelope both items and rise in a fluid motion that made the objects seem as though there was no weight to them.

"Ready when you two are!" Twilight chimed in with the same large toothy smile on her face.

Carver shook his head from the thought of how absurd his life had become within the past few hours, yet did his best to embrace the oddities that led him away from his previous situation on Tau Volantis with open arms. "You heard the magical pony, Clarke, let's get our asses to this 'Ponyville'!"

"Um… Just one thing before we go guys." Twilight interjected with an uneasy smile.

"What's that?" Isaac questioned as he saved the coordinates of the CMS Terra Nova crash site for the waypoint system into his RIG's onboard system.

"Please try to make an effort to swear as little as possible around ponies; we don't really like those harsh words and it can really upset some of the other ponies… Except maybe Rainbow Dash or Scootaloo… But still, please try to use different words other than the F-word, or any other vulgar language please… Like, use 'buck'."

"Alright, well… Buck it, let's get our rears into gear…?" Isaac said with an odd sense of censorship. Truth be told though, Isaac secretly knew that his mother should have taught him better. It was a shame that she was a zealot who used their family funds for her fake religion.

"That's the spirit!" Twilight smiled in a gleeful manner that create an audible squeak. "Come on astronauts, let's go get some baths and grub!"

Following behind Twilight and Carver with his Plasma Cutter at the ready if needed, Isaac gave one more look over his shoulder at the mile-long wreckage that was the CMS Terra Nova. Not a single Necromorph or Marker, or thankfully a Blood Moon in sight. A sudden feeling of accomplishment and peace echoed through Isaac's mind as he imagined the wreckage of the CMS Terra Nova to be a figurative representation of his messy past and heartbreak. "Whatever happens from here on forth Ellie, I'm gonna live… For the both of us…"