Chapter 8: Sandstorm (Earth: The Lost Planet)

The convoy camp rests overnight on the red planet, and everypony is sound asleep. Unbeknownst to the sleeping ponies, a mysterious artificial droid with wheels and solar panels surveys the camp. The droid stops by Lyra’s luggage and examines each item within by using its claws. The droid finds Lyra’s picture with her grandmother and analyzes it closely. Lyra wakes up drowsy and sluggishly, and the droid drops the portrait back into the luggage, immediately retreating out of sight. Lyra uses her horn to light her way as she heads to the bathroom.

AJ: *sleeping* “… zzzz… Buck you, I can eat all these apples… zzzz...”

Meanwhile, a strange sort of movement appears from the horizon as wind speed gets stronger. Lyra exits the bathroom heading back to her tent when she suddenly feels wind speeds getting stronger and feels a stinging sensation from the red sand. She gets a rag to wipe her face of red sand, but the building wind immediately blows the rag away. Lyra looks at the direction of the source and sees a huge red cloud building in the horizon nearing towards them.

Lyra: “… sandstorm…!”

The sandstorm closes in and starts ripping out some tents. Lyra runs towards her tent while yelling out.

Lyra: “Sandstorm!! SANDSTORM!!! SANDSTORM!!! SANDSTORM!!!

Commander Axe wakes up in his unscathed tent and checks his alarm clock, unaware of the occurring disaster.  

Axe: “… ugh, I’m gonna kill her…..”

Axe peeks out of his tent.

Axe: “Heartstrings, go back to bed--… !!”

Axe drops his alarm clock finally realizing the red sandstorm ravaging the camp with everypony running and grabbing their scattering supplies and avoiding fast flying objects and tents.

Lavender: “PUT SOME COVER ON THOSE SUPPLIES!!!”

Axe: “NO TIME; GET US OFF THIS PLANET!! MOVE IT, MOVE IT, MOVE IT!!”

Everypony enters their crafts and the convoy begins to move on. The sandstorm ravages the crafts’ intake ports, stalling most craft in midair. Lyra runs toward Dashie’s craft.

RD: “LYRA, JUMP--!!!”

A stalling craft slams to the ground and explodes behind Lyra.

RD: “RIGHT NOW!!!”

Lyra jumps into the craft as the debris from the crashed craft narrowly misses her. The convoy escape the planet with some severely damaged craft going unstable. An oil rig craft spins out of control and explodes in a massive fireball which is immediately snuffed out by the vacuum. The force exerted from the explosion knocks the convoy off course and sends it into the void at an extremely high speed as the crafts spin out of control. After minutes of spinning uncontrollably, the crafts regain control only to see a huge light-gray sphere in their way. The crafts attempt to escape at full throttle away from the object but appear to be too close and too fast to avert their course.

Derpy: *controlling the drill craft* “No no no no NO NO NO NO!!!”

The drill craft successfully manages to slow down, but gets pushed down by the other crafts that failed to slow down in time. Everypony takes cover and braces for impact as the convoy crash lands and tumbles deep into the dark surface. The convoy has completely rested in a completely dark crater. Nopony could see a thing without a source of light. Axe lights up his horn to see.

Axe: “Alright, who’s not dead? Sound off!”

Groans were heard all over the convoy. Horns and craft lights illuminate the crash site.

Axe: “Rainbow, damage report!”

Dashie surveys the damage.

RD: “Not as bad as it could’ve been! We’ve totaled crafts 2 and 7, but the drill craft looks like it’ll still run!” *looks at her dirty wing* “Lucky for us, we landed on something soft.”

Derpy: *examining a sample of the surface* “Igneous rock and regolith… We are standing on a crater of a possible moon.”

Lavender throws a rock, and the rock keeps going.

Lavender: “It just… keeps going.”

AJ: “Maybe that’s our ticket outta here.”

The rock stops going and starts to slowly fall back to the surface.

Lavender: “maybe not.”

Derpy: “The gravity is so weak that anything that has enough force can orbit the moon with literally a big hop, a big skip and a really big jump. Even a part of the moon can escape its gravity by itself.”

Maud: *blankly* “Boulder has a problem with hopping, skipping and jumping.”

Twi: “Hold on, Derpy. Are you saying that this moon is weak and can easily break a piece upon a gravitational shift?”

Derpy: “No no no, that would take an explosive force of great magnitude.”

A springing sound is heard, and everypony shifts their attention to Pinkie working on a Jack-in-the-Box time bomb. Pinkie realizes she’s being noticed and nervously smiles with a squeak.

Axe: “If we can catapult ourselves with the gravity well of this moon correctly, we’d have a straight shot to the wormhole. Miss Heartstrings, what do you think?”

No response.

Axe: “… Miss Heartstrings? … Heartstrings???”

Everypony notices that Lyra has gone missing.