"Watch your step now, everyone. I may have said she was of sturdy construction, but this ship is still unbelievably ancient." Daring Do cautioned as the six prepared to venture inside the alien wreck.

The entrance was a large, perfectly rectangular opening on the side of the hull. The ponies had navigated a length of catwalks and scaffolding to reach it, given the vessel's immense height. In all, the visible portion of the craft stood around at least four stories tall.

Everyone stood in place and gawked quietly for several seconds.

"So, how ancient exactly?" Pinkie Pie inquired. "One thousand? Ten thousand? A hundred thousand?" She started bouncing, anticipating a guessing game in the making. "Ooh, I know! Is it amillion years?"

"My archaeologists aren't sure exactly, Miss Pie. The best we've been able to triangulate is anywhere in the frame of five hundred thousand to five million years old." Daring Do finally replied, running a hoof inquisitively over the metal frame of the entrance.

Pinkie Pie gasped. "Darn, I nearly had it right!"

This merited a friendly chuckle from the pegasus adventurer. "Close enough." Daring Do said, patting Pinkie's shoulder.

"This ship in some ways is like Princess Celestia." Rarity remarked suddenly.

"How so?" said Applejack.

Rarity scanned the surfaces she could see from vantage point, as well as the exterior. "Well, it just seems so larger than life, what with its incredible age and thickened mystique."

"Yeah, I hear ya on the larger than life part." Applejack agreed, looking at the exterior from her point of view.

Being the first of the group to intrepidly set her hoof forward, Rainbow Dash ventured further inside. What greeted her eyes was a long and gloomy hallway, illuminated only by the welcoming gleam of portable spotlights and lanterns. Further on, lantern-based illumination was augmented by the faint bluish glow of alien light sources that symmetrically lined the floors and upper bulkhead walls.

Rainbow put a hoof to her lips and whistled. "Anyone home in there?" The only response she received was her own echo, to her slight discomfort.

Daring Do chuckled. "Nobody's been in here since dawn, we all have the place to ourselves."

"Umm, who's going in first?" Fluttershy asked.

"Erm, after you." Pinkie Pie said to Applejack.

Applejack shook her head. "Oh no, no! It would be rude for me to go in first! How 'bout you sugarcube?" She turned her green eyes on Fluttershy, who retreated under her mane.

"N...n..no thanks."

"Aww man, I can't believe you three are afraid of a hallway! So it's a little gloomy, it's not like a bunch of monsters are lying in wait inside or something! Ya darn scaredy cats!" Rainbow Dash jeered, her bravado growing.

Daring Do watched their exchanges with a hint of amusement. "Why don't you go in then, Rainbow Dash? I've already been in there at least seven times, so I know what to expect."

For Rainbow, this was enough. "Alright, I'll take point then." She trotted inside, and one by one the others followed her. "Here..here we go."

The metal felt strange on Rainbow Dash's hooves. Even through the hoof wrappings, she could sense an unnatural cold radiating from the plating, which sent sharp daggers of chill through her lower legs. The others noticed the temperature change as well.

"What on earth? Did we just find an alien portal linking the darn infernal Badlands to the Frozen North? Horse feathers!" Applejack muttered.

Pinkie Pie got some of the worst of it, shivering uncontrollably as she went on. "D...d..do you g..guys suppose this p..place needs a Winter Wrap...Up? Huh?"

"More like a giant furnace! It's never been this cold in the past." Daring Do said. "I'll have to get the engineers to get in here sometime and punch holes in the ship's dorsal structure, and cut windows into the sides."

Rainbow Dash's eyes widened at the prospect of managing to cut holes in such a massive structure, while Daring continued. "That way, the top decks will get some sunshine, and the sides will get that warm magma-heated air trickling in whenever the ash storms die down."

"It would also cut back on our electricity bill." Daring Do added jokingly.

While everyone continued onward, bantering about the interior environment and temperature, one of the party was trailing far behind.

Fluttershy was even more effected than even Pinkie Pie. The cold of the metal was like an impassable wall. Every time she tried to take another step further inside, she let out an involuntary squeak. Her friend's shapes were quickly disappearing up ahead. Without them, the metallic corridor was as silent as a tomb.

The pegasus wondered whether she should call out to them or keep trying to catch up. Fluttershy did not have enough time to decide. Something made a sound behind her.

Whatever it was, it touched her back and almost made her jump out of her own coat. "Fluttershy, what are you doing standing around here?"

It was just Twilight and Spike. Fluttershy felt her heart skip a beat, more from relief than fear. "Are you okay?" Spike inquired, his eyes widened.

Five seconds past before Fluttershy finally found her own voice. "Oh, I'm fine I, I guess. It's just the atmosphere of this place, it doesn't seem very safe at all."

"C'mon Fluttershy. You'll be fine, me and Spike will look after you. I'm sure whatever built this ship might have just preferred cold environments, nothing to fret over."

"But it's so cold in here, I couldn't even keep up with the girls."

"Look, tell you what, I'll cast a cloak of warmth spell over you. How does that sound?"

Fluttershy seemed to agree with the idea, a strong part of her still wanted to explore the ship and learn about its builders. "Okay, I guess."

"Good." Twilight itched slightly at her chin, then ignited her horn. For a brief moment, a red magical shell winked into existence around Fluttershy's body, before it became invisible. "Let's go catch up!"

The two ponies, with Spike on Twilight's back, galloped onwards to catch up with their friends. Going several feet, Twilight and company came at an intersection. Luckily for them, one of the two forks was sealed off. The alien door's controls glowed red, and a crudely hand-painted sign, obviously placed there by one of the dig crews, read 'restricted area-Engineering Bay currently unsafe'

The other fork had its door opened, and a welcoming green light hung above them, set into the crown of the doorjamb. Following Twilight, Fluttershy found another hand-painted panel sign, this one with the words: 'To Elevator Shafts, Bridge, and Communications'.

"They must be on the bridge, Twilight." Fluttershy said, keeping pace.

"Sounds like where I would start too, let's hurry up then."

As they went, Spike took note of the architecture. "Say, Twilight, these hallways and doors are pretty huge! Do you think these were big aliens who built this stuff?"

"I don't know Spike. That would be a reasonable hypothesis based on the observable evidence we currently have available. Very good." Twilight replied. Spike turned around to look at Fluttershy and beamed.

"I think the builders most have been bipedal. These doors could only be opened by somepony standing on their hind legs and reaching for the buttons with fingers." Fluttershy said, partially lost in thought now that the cold was no longer effecting her.

"Whoa, you mean like me?" Spike said, astonished at the possibility.

Fluttershy smiled sweetly. "Yes, but much bigger, Spike." The blue alien lighting on the ceiling above her cast her face in a slight glow, causing her eyes to radiate and twinkle in the almost otherworldly gloom.

"Alright, we're at the vessel's bridge." Twilight declared, bringing the trio to a halt.

"How do you know, Professor Psychic?" Spike quipped.

"Because, the sign says so!" Twilight snapped back, nearly causing the dragon to fall off her back. Both Spike and Fluttershy looked at her fearfully.

Realizing what she had done, Twilight's eyes widened. "Oh, I'm sorry you two, I just don't know what's come over me!" She itched at her muzzle fiercely. "I haven't been feeling right for almost half an hour now, maybe I'm just dehydrated from all this walking."

Fluttershy's fear changed to worry. "Let's hurry up and go talk to Daring Do about getting you some water then. If you think you're too sick to explore with us, then it wouldn't do at all to have you limping around and suffering!"

"If you need us to get you to the first aid tent back at camp, just say so!" Spike added.

Twilight wasn't willing to let some flu bug or head cold get in the way of potentially making the greatest discovery in the history of ponykind. "Really you guys, I'm fine. Just a little bit of water and I should be good to go!" She gave Fluttershy the best smile she could muster.

Fluttershy seemed only partially convinced, but nevertheless chose to believe her friend. She advanced ahead of the hesitant unicorn. The door to the bridge opened up for her, and they all entered.

Rainbow Dash, Daring Do, and the others noticed them in an instant. They were all clustered around a bank of control consoles that lay at the far end of the room. It was situated at the nose of the alien ship, and a single curving window above the consoles gave a view of nothing but ashen rock. Tables around the room and nooks in the walls held devices and instruments whose true functions or purpose the ponies could only hint at.

Massive pilot's chairs, each one larger than two ponies combined, rotated frantically as Rainbow rushed frantically past them towards Fluttershy. "What the heck were you doing back there? We were worried we lost you!"

"It was too cold, so I stayed towards the entrance." Fluttershy murmured back. Rainbow Dash nodded in understanding, then finally noticed Twilight and Spike.

"Hey guys. You've missed some interesting stuff, even if it is for...well, eggheads." She darted back towards one of the chairs, still spinning, and caught it still with her foreleg. "Look at the size of these things! The E.T.'s must have been giants!"

Spike threw his hands in the air, jumping off Twilight's back. "That's what I think too! The more time I spend in here, the more I want to know what they must look like!"

"Perhaps this, might shed a bit more light on mystery, darling!" Rarity proclaimed, pointing her hoof at a specific piece of technology she had just noticed. Everyone besides Twilight and Daring Do crowded in to examine it.

Twilight asked for a canteen of water from Daring Do, giving Rarity's find only a passing glance in the process.

It was a flat metallic surface, but with one notable feature: the outline of a large hand possessing four digits and two opposable thumbs sat prominently at its center.

"Definitely bipeds." Fluttershy said.

"Perhaps they had all hands instead of hooves or feet, and walked on all fours like us!" Pinkie Pie suggested with a grin.

"That wouldn't make any sense at all, Pinkie! How in tarnation would they be able to balance on their hind legs when they gallop, erm sprint, whatever?" Applejack asked.

"Like a monkey maybe?"

"Well, maybe. I think ya just got me there."

"But what non-erect primate species would possess two thumbs on each hand?" Twilight said skeptically, having taking a long swig of water. "It would be a completely unnecessary vestigial limb."

Nobody had an answer to that, save for Daring Do. "Until we find a specimen of the crew, alive or dead, they might as well have been a race of living rocks for all we know." She waved them out of the room. "C'mon folks, next stop is the cargo bay."

Everyone filed out of the bridge and out into the triangular vestibule. To either side of them were twin doors with signs reading 'elevators'. Daring led them to the door on the left.

"Elevators, but where the heck are the actual lifts?" Rainbow Dash inquired, looking into the shaft with confusion.

"Yeah, about that...We're not entirely sure if we should actually call them that. They carry you up and down, but not in the way you or I would expect." Daring Do stepped into the shaft, much to the other's chagrin. "Observe. Lift, down! Cargo Deck!" Instantly, Daring Do was levitated downward.

Perplexed, Twilight next stepped forward into the tubular shaft, peering upwards. Another deck laid above her, before the space terminated at a circular ceiling, which had a smaller circular opening cut into it. A small beam of quietly humming blue light emitted out from the aperture.

"Unbelievable, a form of gravity manipulation, non magical!"

"Are you sure about this, Twi?" Spike questioned warily.

"You better belief it, Spike! Well, here goes nothing then." Twilight said, entering the gravitational field. "Lift, down. Cargo Deck!" Obediently, the technology responded to her request, lowering her and Spike both.

Her voice quicky growing fainter, Twilight shouted up at them, echoing as she did so. "C'mon girls, its perfectly safe! Just don't go more than two at a time!"

Reluctantly, they all went after her. First Fluttershy, with a little 'encouragement' from Rainbow Dash, followed by the flier herself. Soon after, Applejack and Pinkie Pie entered the lift simultaneously. Pinkie Pie enthusiastically said. "Cargo Deck!"

They did not move, and hovered in the field. "Lift down." Applejack dead panned.

"And...Cargo Deck!" Pinkie Pie added. Her cheering as she descended could be heard all the way from the bridge.

The two earth ponies landed gently down at the cargo deck, resting atop the ship's ventral structure. Much to them and the others' surprise, this floor was far more illuminated by the alien light than previously visited areas.

Daring Do lifted her wings and wave them around dramatically like a salespony hawking their wares. "Well then. Ladies, behold!" She motioned towards the massive metal door sitting ajar in front of them.

"This area is what we call simply, the Cargo Deck Lobby. We obviously don't know what the aliens called it, since we can't access their mainframes yet, and the only way to enter this deck beyond the two gravity lifts is via the Engineering bay, which we cannot yet access either."

To the side of the open vault door was a much smaller room, separated from the lobby by a screen of glass, where another bank of computer consoles sat and another large chair rested. They holographic interfaces were dormant, awaiting interaction or commands from their likely long gone creators. Alongside the alien tech were bits and pieces of Equestrian origin the archaeologists, diggers, and engineers had left behind when their shifts ended, such as bits of scaffolding, more lanterns, field kits, tools, and yellow hard hats with goggles.

"Will you guys be able to access all that stuff soon, you think?" Rainbow Dash inquired.

"Sure, as soon as we get the proper explosives, muscle, and necessary equipment." Daring replied.

Dash grinned. "Awesome. I'd enjoy seeing how well this cold, evil butthead metal would stand against a couple pounds of TNT!"

"But what about the artifacts that could be damaged?" Twilight shouted in outrage.

Daring Do chuckled at the unicorn thinker. "Don't be ridiculous. This species obviously built their stuff to last. Only the hull will be damaged, and hey, we already have plenty of scrap to analyze, anyhow!"

The adventurer started walking forward. "Let's go see where they kept the rest of the booty, shall we?"

Rainbow Dash followed her in an instant, leaving behind a slight rainbow trail in her wake. Pinkie Pie hurried after the pegasi, bouncing. "Hey Dashie, wait up!" She called out.

Applejack watched them go and scoffed in mild exasperation. "Hero worship, ain't done nobody any good no how. C'mon girls, Ah'm itchin' to find out what else besides a bunch of containers of space salt and pepper these Extraterrestrials were shipping!"

"You and me both AJ." Twilight agreed, following.

"Perhaps they were hauling clothing, wouldn't that be interesting." Rarity said, sauntering in the other unicorn's wake.

"I bet the aliens had impeccable fashion sense, Rarity!" Spike suggested.

Fluttershy hurried after the unicorns, not wanting to be the odd one out again. Joining her friends inside, Fluttershy chanced a look around. The cargo hold was easily the largest section of the wreck, and for good reason. While just as well illuminated as the entrance lobby, the hold was still fringed with darkness in its farthest reaches, concealing its remaining secrets in shadow.

"Umm, girls? I've kinda got a bad feeling about this..." Pinkie Pie said, fear creeping into her voice faster than she could even bounce.

Daring Do raised an eyebrow at her. "What makes you say that, there's nothing harmful in here, or else we would have..."

Twilight lost her control against whatever was happening to her and snapped again. "Pinkie Pie, you always have a damn bad feeling about something!" Her normally pleasant voice degraded into little more than a bark.

To make matters worse for her, the itch had returned. "This bucking ITCH! Gnah, AHHH!"

Spike jumped off her back in an instant as Twilight started flailing about, itching frantically at her muzzle. "Twily!"

"Twi, what the hay is happening to ya?" Applejack shouted. Next to her, Pinkie Pie watched Twilight with a bizarre combination of confusion and worry.

"Daring, we might need a doctor in here!" Rainbow Dash shouted.

"Uh, right! You all stay put, I'll be back with our head field physician!" Daring Do vanished through the vault door.

"Twilight, you're starting to scare us darling!" Rarity murmured, slowly backing away as if Twilight were becoming a rabid animal.

While the others slightly seemed to keep their distance, Fluttershy surprisingly rushed towards the distressed mare, seizing her with her wings. "Oh my goodness, oh my goodness! Hold still Twilight, I need to get a good look at you!" She looked at Rainbow Dash and Applejack. "Help me out here, now!" Her voice had an uncharacteristic amount of authority in it that was quite unlike the norm.

"Let me go Fluttershy!" Twilight growled. "I'm alright, it's just an itch!"

The duo rushed over. "Hold her hind legs down so she can't buck one of us! I need to get a good look at her face, chest, and forelegs!" Fluttershy instructed, ignoring her friend's fierce protests.

Reluctantly, both mares grabbed hold of the nearest leg in both of their own. This bought Fluttershy precious seconds to perform an impromptu medical examination. What she saw confounded, amazed, and frightened her all at the same time.

Spreading out from Twilight's hoof, up her leg and neck, and ending in her muzzle, was a massive rash, just barely visible beneath the unicorn's lavender fur.

This was no ordinary rash, for it glowed with a faint green light. The light was most intense at Twilight's hoof. It was almost as if something were slowly working its way through Twilight's circulatory and lymphatic systems, attacking her immune system and inducing the intense itch.

"Celestia have mercy, what is that stuff on her neck?" Applejack inquired, finally seeing the rash at an angle.

"It's nothing, just please let go of me!" Twilight said in a pleading voice, calming down slightly. Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked at each other and Fluttershy with uncertainty. Fluttershy herself sighed in resignation.

In her normal soft voice, she said. "You can let her go girls." She relinquished her own wings from Twilight and backed away timidly. "Whatever it is, it's spreading through your body fast, Twilight!"

"I can control it, trust me." Twilight retorted in a shaky voice. Her mane was now frayed and erratic in places, and the glowing rash seemed to retreat slightly back down into her foreleg where it had started, pushed back by a spell Twilight was casting. "Let's just continue on searching this damn hold and find out what..."

Twilight was cut off by a loud metallic banging coming from the immense bulkhead wall to their far right, at the edge of the cargo hold. The girls and Spike tensed up, fearing potential monsters lurking about.

Instead, another resounding bang tore through the room, before a section of the bulkhead gave way under a gout of magical fire. Harsh sunlight spilled in, fighting intensely with the ancient alien lights that still miraculously functioned. With the new light, there accompanied a small cloud of smoke, ash, and dust from the ship.

Through the cloud, two unicorns and two earth ponies in explosive-proof suits and goggles trotted in, accompanied by Daring Do and a medical pony clad in white medical robes that clashed with the surrounding grey and black ground. "Miss Sparkle, are you alright?" Daring cried out.

"Yeah, mostly." Twilight shouted back.

"C'mon, you need to get a check up now! If you were exposed to any organic material on board this vessel, we need to know about it now!" The physician shouted urgently. "To the tent with me now, double time it!" He ordered again, stamping his hoof impatiently.

"You should probably go and do as he says, Twilight." Fluttershy suggested.

"Fine, fine." Twilight said in resignation. She parted from her friends and stepped out through the hole, which itself had apparently been an exterior loading bay door of some kind, emphasis on the past tense. Daring Do watched her pass her and nodded in approval, then looked to the stallions standing idle next to her.

"Alright gents, time to collect the other artifacts we have on today's quota! Girls, do you suppose you could help us out?"

Despite Twilight's strange behaviour, most of them were still willing, and even eager to continue exploration. They helped the dig crews haul out several more cylinders of the alien powder, as well as more interesting items of noteworthiness.

Daring Do sat down in the main command tent an hour later, writing down on the manifest the numerous new finds brought back to camp. At her back, Twilight was present, having been dismissed from the infirmary tent by the doctor with advise on plenty of bed rest and a special potion of herbs to fight the strange rash.

The unicorn was now working on injecting a powder sample into a test subject one of the resident scientists had graciously retrieved for her-a hardy breed of indigenous mole that thrived in the volcanic soil. Meanwhile, her friends chatted with each other nearby.

As for Daring Do, she continually scribbled away, reading her words aloud. "One cylinder containing alien egg of unknown origin, containment tier one. One metallic crate containing a spiraling onyx black statuette, possessing runic etchings not resembling any languages on known linguistic records, containment tier five." She sighed in boredom, wishing for alien gemstones. "One cylinder of luminescent organic yellow liquid, vapor emitting. Containment level two. No further findings to report today. End of artifact manifest, priority mail to Canterlot."