My Little Yamato

Chapters

Chapter 1: Uchuu Senkan
Chapter 2: Yamato
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19: Waterborne

Chapter 1: Uchuu Senkan

Celestia’s warm sun shone down upon the quaint village of Ponyville. It was a Saturday, meaning that the town’s foals could run around happily enjoying themselves with games of tag and hoofball in the park.

Also enjoying the fine weather and peacefulness of the park were six mares and their pets catching up over their weekly picnic.

“These sandwiches are great Fluttershy!” Twilight exclaimed “What did you put in them?”

“Oh, um, just some seasoning.” Fluttershy replied with a soft smile.

“Well I think they’re divine. How’s yours, Rainbow?” Rarity asked, looking up to the tree where the blue pegasus had perched herself. She was met with a soft snore as response.

“Ah swear if that there girl spent half as much time flyin’ as she does snoozing, she’d be in the Wonderbolts already.” Applejack said with a smirk.

“I’m sure Dashie loved it!” Pinkie Pie called from somewhere behind them having momentarily suspended her tug-o-war with Winona to speak, before darting down and grabbing the old rope with her teeth and resuming their game.

“Uh, Pinkie don’t you think thats somewhat unhygen-” Rarity’s concern was cut short when a shout interrupted her.

“Twilight!” Spike called out as he crested the small hill they were sitting on, his claw clutching a scroll.

“This just came through,” he puffed, trying to recover his breath from the run all the way from the library to the park.

The purple unicorn immediately set down her sandwich and took the scroll from Spike in her magical grasp.

One look at the wax seal stamped on it made Twilight slightly worried. It bore the same crest that all letters from the princess had, but this one had the word ‘Urgent’ written around the seal’s edge.

She opened it quickly and began to scan the document, remaining deathly quiet while she read. All the others looked on, waiting for some kind of justification to the scroll’s apparent urgency. Even Pinkie stopped her games to come over.

“What’s up?” Rainbow Dash said as she gracefully floated down from the branch she had been napping on after being woken by Spike’s shouts. Twilight looked up from the scroll with a frown before reading aloud.

Dear Twilight Sparkle

I apologise for the inconvenience the request may bring, but please realize that this is of dire importance. I ask that you bring yourself and the other element bearers to Canterlot within the next twenty-four hours. Feel free to bring whatever you believe you will need for a prolonged stay. Do not concern yourself with train tickets as plans have already been made.

I’m also sorry to state that Spike and your pets will not be able to accompany you. I shall personally see to it that somepony is sent to take care of them.

Do not hesitate my dearest student. This is possibly the most important event in Equestrian history.

Signed Princess Celestia.

“The hay?” Dash started. “She wants us to just up and leave? What about our jobs and families?”

“I’m sure that the princess has a very good reason for summoning us on such short notice,” Twilight responded as she tucked the scroll into a pocket on her bags.

“Sorry girls, looks like we’re going to have to cut this one short,” she said as she turned to them. “Go home, get your things, and we’ll meet at the train station in two hours.”

Twilight began to walk back towards the library. The remaining five ponies let out a collective sigh. This summons was a massive inconvenience to them all but it was just that; a summons. It couldn’t be ignored and they all knew that Twilight wouldn’t rest until they were all standing before the Princess.

With that they all said their goodbyes to each other before collecting their pets and returning to their homes.

* * *

Rainbow Dash landed with a huff outside her cloud house hovering at the edge of Ponyville. She was surprised when she found a tan unicorn already waiting on the ground below to collect Tank and after giving her a lecture of the do’s and don’ts of tortoise care (and a sneaky goodbye kiss) Rainbow relinquished the green reptile to his new caretaker.

The athletic pegasus quickly mounted the stairs to her bedroom and made her way over to the closet. After shifting several scarves and rainbow colored socks out of the way she retrieved an old suitcase covered in Wonderbolt stickers and other such memorabilia from her childhood. Rainbow cracked the worn lid open and smiled as she remembered some of the vacations she had been on with this case at her side.

Rainbow paused as she thought. Maybe she could just consider this trip as a vacation. After grabbing the essentials and a few personal effects she gave her house one last goodbye before shooting out of her bedroom window towards the train station.

* * *

Twilight Sparkle danced nervously from hoof to hoof as she waited for the remainder of her friends to appear. Rainbow Dash had arrived fairly early, as had Applejack and Fluttershy. And now they were all waiting on Rarity and Pinkie.

“Where are they?” Twilight wondered aloud.

“Don’t fret, sugarcube,” Applejack smiled warmly. She drawled, “Ah don’t think that a few minutes is gonna worry the princess too much.”

“A few minutes!” Twilight screamed. “Did you know that every minute lightning strikes somewhere on the planet three hundred and sixty times! Every minute twenty-one thousand pizzas will be made! A minute can make all the diffe-”

“We’re here!” A upperclass voice called from behind her. The normally level-headed Twilight turned and immediately calmed upon seeing Rarity and Pinkie strolling leisurely up to them, the latter carrying the former’s mountain of luggage.

Twilight was about to explain the importance of punctuality when the shrill three chime whistle pierced the air and the colorful express train rolled into the station.

The six mares were suddenly engulfed in a cloud of steam as the engine drained the cylinders with a hiss. while it didn’t affect most of them, the modest dress Rarity had donned instantly became damp.

Twilight couldn’t help but giggle at the seemingly fitting punishment for her friend’s late arrival.

* * *

After being allowed free admittance onto the train by the conductor as he had been informed prior of Celestia’s requests the six friends were underway as the train came up to speed heading up the steep grade towards the Equestrian capital.

Even though the train ride was peaceful and uneventful Twilight couldn’t stop thinking about the letter.

‘Do not hesitate my dearest student. This is possibly the most important event in Equestrian history.’

Twilight simply couldn’t wrap her head around that last sentence. how could whatever they were going to find trump the things they had already seen? How could something be more important than the founding of Equestria? Or the return of princess Luna? Or even the rediscovery of the elements of Harmony?

If they were taking a leisurely train ride to Canterlot it obviously couldn’t be that important. Having decided that wasting anymore brain power over this wasn’t going to get her anywhere she decided to lean back in her sleeper car bunk and take a page out of Rainbow’s book.

* * *

The walk from the station to the castle was fairly uneventful after collecting their luggage a pair of guards had approached the six mares stating that they were to be their escorts. They made quick headway to the castle, with Pinkie Pie actively trying to squeeze information from the two guards but receiving only silence for her trouble.

Before long, the elements of harmony and their two escorts had arrived at the doors to the throne room. Needing no invitation and her curiosity getting the better of her Twilight entered swiftly followed by the others.

“Princess!” Twilight said with a happy shout quickly bowing before rising and bounding over to her mentor to embrace her in an affectionate nuzzle which the Sun goddess happily returned.

“It’s a pleasure to see you too, my student,” the princess replied with her warm voice “As well as all of you,” she continued, looking upon the rest of the bowing mares.

“Now I know you must have many questions as to why I’ve called you all here,” Celestia said knowingly and was met with furious nodding from the ponies before her. Even the guards seemed somewhat curious but retained their stoney exterior.

“Come, my little ponies. We have much to show and very little time.” Celestia turned towards the corridor where the elements were stored.

The walk to the door where the elements were locked up was performed in complete silence up until the point when Celestia inserted her horn into the ornate door.

“Uh Princess, why do we need these?” There was worry and concern deep within Rainbow’s voice as her element necklace was levitated over her head.

“Do not fret girls. Believe me when I say that neither you nor Equestria is in any danger.”

“So why do we need them?” Rainbow repeated.

The princess smirked as she looked towards the concerned pegasus. “All in due time.”

Celestia glaced quickly from left to right before dropping down to their height and whispering, all humour in her voice gone.

“What you six are going to see today is the single most heavily guarded secret in all of Equestria. I implore you that you must do exactly as I say. No one is to know of what may happen tonight.” She said with dead seriousness.

The six bearers were slightly taken aback by how serious their ruler had delivered her request but quickly responded

“You have our word princess.” Twilight answered speaking for all of them.

Celestia’s smile returned full force as she stood back up to her full height. “Thank you all. Now come along. I believe you’ve waited long enough.”

The six colorful mares now equipped with their respective elements fell into line behind their leader as she lead them through the maze of castle passageways, the silence only interrupted by the clip-clop of twenty-eight hooves against polished marble.

Their stroll through the grand castle slowed as they reached a new section, one that neither Twilight nor her friends had ever seen before. The light grey dim as the windows grew few and far apart until there were none at all.

They had walked deep into the castle to the point where they were starting to enter the actual mountain itself where windows would be useless.

The small herd continued until they had arrived in an astonishly different hallway. It was not polished white like the rest of the castle. Instead, much of it was still bare stone. Lanterns hung from strong hooks bored into the rock face.

A thick coat of powdery dust lay over everything and long wheel tracks in the dust of the floor crisscrossed from many hundred of carts being hauled to and from one door at the end of the room.

“P-princess what is the p-place?” Fluttershy asked in a voice barely audible over the sound of their hooves.

“Two hundred years ago I decided to expand the castle deeper into the mountain to make room for more suites intended for visiting ambassadors.” Celestia responded

“Some workforce. Two hundred years and they still aren’t done.” Rainbow scoffed

“Do not be so hasty in your assumptions Rainbow Dash.” The princess retorted.

“Not to be rude Princess, but Rainbow does have a point.” Rarity added.

“On the contrary, I personally requested they stop work,” Celestia remarked.

“Why?” All six mares questioned simultaneously.

“Because of what they discovered,” the princess answered cryptically

The small group quickly closed the distance to the door where all the cart tracks had originated from before stopping.

“Now Twilight, I know how you act around new things you haven’t seen before, but I ask you control yourself for the time being. You will have plenty of time to study everything later.”

“Don’t worry princess, I- we will all be on our best behaviour.” Twilight responded turning to face her friends with an Am-I-Right? look.

They all nodded frantically and looked to the princess with giant smiles that would have put the cutie mark crusaders to shame.

“Excellent,” the princess replied as her horn lit and the heavy stone door swung open revealing a naturally forming cave leading downwards and curving down to the left. Small lanterns hung from support beams spanning the ceiling.

Celestia had to crouch to fit through the narrow opening but an average pony could walk comfortably.

The seven equines walked for roughly fifteen minutes through the twisting passage, the only interesting features being the lanterns that hung at evenly spaced intervals. Rainbow Dash didn't know where they were going or what they would find but she knew one thing for certain.

She was bored.

Finally after what seemed to be an eternity to the fast-paced pegasus, the tunnel miraculously opened into a truly massive cavern. The seven ponies stood on a ledge that looked over it. The far wall was easily five hundred metres in front of them and stretched for nearly a kilometer from left to right. The roof of the cavern was high above them supporting many stalactites that hung menacingly above them. The floor, while closer, was still a fair drop below them and sported some nasty looking boulders scattered around it.

But that wasn't what caught their attention.

Embedded into the floor of the cavern was the strangest thing Rainbow Dash had ever seen.

The first thing she noticed that it was Big. Roughly three hundred meters in length and nearly forty wide. And that was just what she could see as most of its massive grey bulk was buried under the stony floor.

Secondly, she noticed that roughly in the middle of the thing there was a large grey what looked like a tower. Long, green, rectangular windows that were folded in the middle making a sideways V shape were mounted in two separate rooms above one another that stood high above the cavern floor.

Square braces protruded from high up on the tower out over the sides. Each brace filled with curved metal bars with a pole running horizontally through them resembling a kind of meshwork.

Lastly Rainbow took in the three large boxes on the long flat part in front of the odd tower. Each box was nearly the size of a house and had three long tubes extending from them that tapered slightly near the end.

The front and rear-most box were mostly covered in stone, but the middle one managed to avoid the same fate. The three large tubes on this one poked upwards and out of the stone at a strange angle towards the chamber ceiling.

They instantly reminded Rainbow of cannons on the royal Equestrian navy’s ships.

She remembered it vividly as her Uncle used to work on them and had once taken her aboard the R.E.N Cockatrice. In its time it was the greatest, and most powerful warship to grace the seas. But one look at this thing in the floor of the chamber confirmed that it was over twice as long and far larger.

Now that Rainbow had made the connection she started to notice more similarities between the Cockatrice and this object. Both had the same basic profile; narrow at the front, wide in the middle and short and stubby at the back. They both had a tower where the bridge would be so that the captain and crew could easily keep their eyes out for any hostiles and to look over their vessel.

Casting a glance over towards the front of the thing again she found the final piece of evidence to confirm her theory,

An Anchor. That, however, was where the similarities ended. Large fins poked out at weird angles all over the ship as if someone had glued gigantic sword blades all over it. And perhaps the strangest of all a large hole dominated the furthest most forward part of the hull which Rainbow could only imagine would be less than helpful on a craft that was supposed to be watertight.

Towards the back; instead of propellers and a rudder there was a giant cone with a large, open end which looked as if someone had attached a waste-paper basket to the rear of the vessel.

“Princess...” Twilight asked after everyone had the chance to take in the peculiar sight. “What is that?”

Celestia couldn’t help but allow a sly grin to cross her face. “That my little ponies...”

“...is the Yamato.”

Chapter 2: Yamato

“Yamato?” Applejack said struggling to push the foreign word out of her mouth. “What kinda name is that?”

“It’s huge!” Pinkie chimed.

“It’s terrifying.” Fluttershy whispered.

“It’s amazing!” Twilight all but screamed.

“It’s hideous...” Rarity said as she scrunched her nose at it

“It’s a ship.” Rainbow Dash said turning to the princess. “Isn’t it?”

“It’s more than that, my young pegasus.” Celestia replied warmly, earning her an odd look from all those surrounding her. “It’s a starship.”

“What!” Twilight shouted. “A starship? Princess don’t take this the wrong way but there’s no possible way that that thing is capable of interstellar flight! We don’t even possess the technology to put even a small object higher than a few thousand metres! Let alone an entire spacecraft! In fact there’s no way that something that big and bulky would even fly! How could we build a starship”!?

The scholarly unicorn finished her rant with a huff before she realize that she had just straight up called her mentor and subsequently her country's ruler a liar and promptly froze in place as she waited for her inevitable punishment.

“We didn’t.” The princess replied without missing a beat.

It took Twilight a few seconds to fully comprehend that A. she wasn’t being fined for shouting at her monarch and B. That the princess was implying...

“No! No no no no no!” she repeated as a smile began to show on her face. “You can’t mean.”

“I’m afraid so, my pupil. This ship is not of Equestrian origin.”

A collective gasp went up from the rest of the ponies as they to cottoned on to what the princess was implying.

“ALIENS!” Pinkie Pie squealed at the top of her lungs, her high pitched wail bouncing around the massive cavern.

“Thanks Pinkie!’ Dash said sarcastically as she tried to remedy the ringing in her ears.

“S-so..” Twilight stuttered still not having completely collected herself after what she had just learnt.

“I’m sure you all have many questions and I believe it would be easier to answer them from a more...upfront location.” Celestia said as she waved a hoof down towards the Yamato.

* * *

After another yet mercifully shorter climb down through the carved stone paths of the cavern they emerged on the floor of the rocky space. Now that they were on level ground the six mares finally noticed just how massive the craft actually was. Its giant tower loomed overhead casting a shadow over them in the little light there was inside the cavern. Its hull stretched for hundreds of metres from left to right and the massive barrels of the middle cannon hung over their heads as they approached.

Wanted to get a closer look Rainbow took off ahead of the group up a small rocky hill. Applejack began to call out to stop her but was quickly silenced when Celestia simply giggled at her enthusiasm.

As Rainbow Dash crested the small hill she suddenly found herself no less that a few dozen metres from the Yamato. Its massive cannons pointing majestically upward as if they were reaching back to the stars from which they fell from.

Now Rainbow was not a modest pony by anyone's standards, but as she stood just a stones throw from the imposing ship she felt very, very small.

Shortly after, the others joined her on the small mound and shared her expression of wonder and amazement. Even Rarity was able to appreciate the unspoken might that the ship seemed to exude even in its dormant state.

“Come, I’m sure you would all rather speak inside than out here in the stale air.” Celestia said as she strolled past them towards an extremely heavy-duty door at the base of the tower.

As they stepped inside they immediately had to readjust their stance as the ship’s odd angle meant that the decks where sloped making walking anywhere somewhat difficult.

The inside of the Yamato was vastly different from the exterior. Where the outside was dull grey and utilitarian the inside was warm and clean. The walls were painted in a soothing white with light grey streaks running across them. It seemed to be more like a high end hotel rather than a spacecraft except with less minibars.

While the ship was well lit it didn’t take a genius to figure out that the ceiling lights weren’t operational. All light within the ship was being supplied by arcane lamps that were normally found on building sites. Cables snaked from doorway to doorway, running up and down corridors and hanging suspended from upper decks.

Before anypony was able to question what they were for, a brown earth pony with an even darker brown mane bolted past them narrowly avoiding them. He shouted something in acknowledgement to them but none of them caught what it was.

“Who was that?” Rainbow asked

“Oh, just a researcher.” Celestia replied

“You mean there are others on this ship?” twilight added.

“Yes of course. We’ve been researching the Yamato for a long time now, How else do you think I knew of its name”? Celestia questioned as she stopped at one of the doors.

The element bearers looked on as they saw their ruler raise her forehoof to a strange panel beside the door. Gently pressing her hoof to it, the door quickly slid open with a quiet ‘whoosh.’

The princess stepped inside, the other ponies quickly filled in afterwards. The room was fairly elegant. a long polished wood table ran down the centre, with large, tall chairs on either side. An empty bowl sat alone in the middle of the long table devoid of any flowers it might once of held. At the head of the room, a small recess in the wall was filled with an interesting model, a closer inspection revealed that it was a scale model of the very same ship they were currently inside of.

The princess took a seat at the head of the table just in front of the model the remaining ponies quickly found their own.

“I’m sure you're all confused as to what exactly is going on. and I believe I owe you some answers”. Celestia said.

Nopony responded but they all nodded in agreement.

The princess of the sun took a deep breath as she began to recount her tale.

“Like I said, two-hundred years ago, some of my workers broke through into this cavern. None of them thought much of the Yamato thinking it was some strange rock formation but they were all sworn to secrecy nonetheless. After the initial shock of its discovery we decided it would be best to keep its existence a closely guarded secret. After a few months the magic council decided that it was not harmful nor a threat to Equestria or its population. So we decided to learn from it”. The princess recounted.

“It took us seven months alone before we finally found a way inside, the most advance unlocking and lock picking skills did nothing against the ship and we didn’t want to risk damaging it with explosives”.

“Once we were inside however we were amazed at the things we discovered”. she said a smile slowly crossing her features before turning to look at the six ponies before her.

“The things that are on this ship. The things we learnt, the things we saw, things we wouldn’t even be able to begin to comprehend let alone build. The most amazing things i have ever seen were found aboard this very vessel. The technology was so advanced our own seemed pathetically laughable. But that didn’t stop us”. She finished with a smirk.

“Huh? What's that mean”? Rainbow asked.

“Well... Do you know that Equestria went through an industrial revolution roughly one hundred and eighty years ago”?

“Yeeeeah...”? Rainbow replied.

“You can thank this very ship for that. And most of the electrical appliances you probably have in your house right now”.

“Like what”? Pinkie asked.

“The electrical lamp, coffee, the coffee machine, the hairdryer, the oven, Arcade machines, Records, Film and several classified items I’m afraid i’m not allowed to discuss”. the princess listed.

“The hairdryer came from here!?” Rarity exclaimed. “Well I suppose it’s not all bad...” she finished as she looked over the room with a new found admiration.

Applejack couldn’t help but snort at Rarity’s sudden change in attitude.

“Okay, so I get that you’ve been reverse engineering the stuff you found in here and that's really important and stuff, but what does that have to do with us? Or these”? Rainbow asked with irritation as she pointed her hoof at the necklace she wore.

“I’m glad you asked. Come, we shall walk and talk.” Celestia rose from her chair and headed for the door.

“You see, after so many years of research we discovered that the Yamato is in nearly mint condition and after so long we finally decided that it would be the right time to raise her.”

“However, this presented a problem,” the princess said with a sigh as her brow knitted. “The Yamato runs off a source of power unlike any we’ve ever seen before. It is so immensely powerful that even if every unicorn were to band together they would only equate to a fraction of what this ship is capable of.”

Twilight fumbled slightly over her own hooves as she heard this but remained silent.

“Because of this, the engine requires phenomenal amounts of power in order to even start it. Sadly, we do simply not posses the means to supply such vast amounts of power.” Celestia seemed dejected before immediately perking back up again to look at her subjects.

“That is where you six come in. Around your necks hang the most powerful objects in all of Equis. If the Elements of harmony cannot activate this ship I fear nothing will.”

“Whoa nelly, hang on there, Princess,” Applejack interrupted.

“You wanna use the elements of harmony, which we know almost nothin’ about, ta kickstart an alien starship we know even less about”? The orange mare questioned. On one side she was excited about the prospect of seeing such a mammoth machine rise to power once again but her common sense overrode her curiosity. She needed to know this was safe before she would let any harm befall herself, or perhaps more importantly, her friends.

The princess merely nodded eagerly in response.

“Count me in!” Rainbow shouted from behind as she pushed her way to the front of the group and stuck her hoof out at them, earning a half shocked; half annoyed glare from Applejack

“Me too,” Twilight said solidly as she placed her hoof atop Rainbow’s. Twilight had no reason to doubt her mentor’s judgement.

“Ooh Ooh Oh! Me three!” Pinkie said excitedly as she too slammed her hoof down upon her two friends and gazed back eagerly at the remaining three.

“Oh alright, fine! I suppose the prospect of a new adventure is appealing,” Rarity said as she placed her hoof delicately into the shake.

“Please be mindful of the hooficure,” She whispered to the others.

“U-um me-me too,” Fluttershy squeaked out from underneath them as her hoof placed itself on the underside of Rainbow’s hoof.

The five bonded ponies turned to their remaining member looking at her expectantly. Applejack glared at them a moment longer still trying to sway their minds, but after seeing the excited look in their faces she eventually caved and added her own hoof the the pile.

“Ah’m in too,” She said in a defeated tone that didn’t quite hide the slight vibe of excitement she carried.

A collective cheer went up as the six multicolored mares threw their hooves skyward, laughing at the silly exchange.

The sun princess smiled warmly down at the six friends who all shared an excited look.

“Thank you,” she said simply, raising her forehoof to another panel, letting a door in front of them slide open.

* * *

“This is the Wave Motion Engine!” Celestia bellowed loudly over the din of worker ponies scurrying about over the scaffolding and framework of the massive engine room.

To say that the engine was impressive would have been a gross understatement. The truly massive horizontal cylinder lay quiet in its chamber. Thousands of pipes all of varying sizes protruded and crisscrossed the massive engine. Large orange tanks the size of an average living room were fastened to its sides, their purpose unclear.

Two enormous flywheels sat behind one another, their location and the fact nearly every pipe seemed to coalesce around them made them the centerpiece of the room.

Sheets of glass that displayed numbers and readings lined the walls and protruded from floor mounted brackets. More than once Rainbow or Applejack would have to pull their purple unicorn friend away from them as she risked getting saliva all over the delicate equipment.

Twilights gawking was soon interrupted by the arrival of a new pony. The same earth pony that had blasted by them earlier. Now that he wasn’t sprinting past she managed to get a decent look at his cutie mark, an hourglass.

“Ah, Doctor!” the princess called happily.

“Girls this is the Doctor, second in command only to myself when it comes to the Yamato,” she stated.

“Doctor who?” Rarity asked.

“Just the Doctor, pleasure to meet your acquaintance!” he said jovially, his voice carrying a strong accent that sounded vaguely trottingham-esque.

“Likewise,” Twilight answered for them all extending her hoof to him which he took in an eager shake.

“Lets get straight into business. I’m sure Celestia informed you of your reasons behind being here?” the brown pony asked, his casual usage of the princesses name earned a cocked eyebrow from Twilight, but she let it slide.

“Yes, something about the elements being needed to activate the ship?” she said.

“Correct. The wave motion engine is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. It collects tachyon particles in the vicinity around it and converts them into thrust to move the ship. It really is quite fascinating!” he cried with enthusiasm.

“Unfortunately,” he continued, “in order to do this it needs a truly astonishing amount of electrical power. The ship does make its own but in order to even begin to charge we need to activate it first. Basically we want to power the engine so it can power the generators to power ship!” Needless to say, this stallion was a little eccentric.

“Okay, so what do we need to do?” Twilight asked, deciding to appoint herself the mouthpiece of the group.

“Simple! We need you to use the elements-” he paused pointing a hoof to her tiara “-to supply the power. Once that's done we sit and hope for the best.”

“Hope?” Rainbow questioned.

“Well we’re not entirely sure that even the elements will be able to do it. After all, they are magical energy, this ship is electrical we’re not even sure the two are compatible”.

“One way to find out.” the daredevil pegasus replied with a smirk.

* * *

“Now are you positively sure you can do this?” Celestia asked the six mares as they moved into position on the catwalk closest to the huge flywheels.

A chorus of ‘yes’, ‘positive’, ‘you betcha’s’ and ‘Oh yes princess!’ was her response. Knowing that they weren’t having second thoughts, she politely stood back giving them the space they needed.

It wasn’t hard to tell the princess was nervous. Six of her country's national treasures were about to inject a huge amount of power into an enormously powerful and dangerous alien spacecraft. If anything were to go wrong she would never forgive herself.

“All unauthorised researchers please vacate engine room bay two.” A voice called out from the P.A. its tone indicating obvious excitement.

Rainbow Dash looked to her friends who flanked her on both sides. Excitement and nervousness being the two most prominent emotions showing on their features. And though Rainbow would never admit it, she felt nervous as well. She huffed as she adopted a wider stance. “Come on girls, lets do this”.

With a nod they too took a more braced stance as Twilight closed her eyes, allowing the vast magical energies to flow through her. After a few moments the familiar weightlessness that came with the elements use filled her and she began to slowly raise into the air. Followed shortly afterwards by the others.

An unnatural wind began to blow around them as their manes and tails whipped back and forth wildly. The mares began to form a circle around Twilight as they slowly orbited her. Their short vertical journey ended when they leveled out halfway up the side of the dormant orange engine.

A blinding flash lit the room as Twilight opened her now completely white eyes. The wind increased tenfold And Rainbow Dash began to feel the power leave her syphoning straight into her purple friend.

A brilliant beam of rainbow energy shot of from Twilight's horn. It didn’t arch upwards like it had previously instead it shot across the short distance directly into the side of the machine. Waves of colorful energy washed over the engine engulfing it in raw magical power.

And just as suddenly as it had begun it stopped. The four of the six mares fell back onto the catwalk while the two pegasi caught themselves and gently floated back down. Nopony however took their eyes off of the Wave Motion Engine.

As the shimmering coat of rainbow energy faded they all looked on hopefully. None more so than Celestia who didn’t even blink through the whole exchange.

The last of the energy faded and the room plunged back into eerie silence.

Twilight was heartbroken. After all that, after all the energy and power behind her and her friends being pumped directly into the engine it had done nothing. Not even the Elements could match this alien vessel, Twilight felt weak, useless even.

“I-I-I don’t underst-” Her stammering was silenced by a sharp groan from above her. Her head snapped up as did all others intent to see what had just made the intruding sound.

Nopony spoke as they waited. Waiting to see what would happen.

Another shriek accompanied by the smallest movement of the smaller of the two flywheels.

A gentle hum resonated throughout the room and the massive engine above them groaned once more.

The flywheel spun just a fraction, barley more than a few inches. Then it spun again, and again. soon it had completed one full, very slow rotation.

The gentle hum became louder and more prominent. the soft vibrations now evident to all those nearby.

The flywheel made another, much faster revolution, each time it completed one it started another spinning faster and faster.

Soon the hum and turned into a dull roar and the massive wheel rotated effortlessly. Dials and monitors around the room lit up displaying an impressive array of data. the once dormant lights suddenly exploded into life bathing the engine room in proper lighting.

A massive roaring cheer of approval sung out from ponies in the engine room, several researchers embraced in friendly hugs while others bumped hooves. One even popped the cork on a champagne bottle and soon the entire room was filled with partying scientists, much to Pinkie Pie’s delight.

Twilight let out a relieved sigh that she didn’t realize she had been holding as her friends joined in the cheering behind her.

A white, regal-looking hoof invaded her vision and helped her to her hooves before she was embraced in a warm nuzzle from her mentor.

“I’m so proud of you Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia said warmly.

“I’m proud of all of you,” she said a bit louder addressing the ponies behind twilight.

“And you too my loyal researchers,” she called over the balcony to the ponies below her. Some of whom were too elated to even respond.

“Go and get some rest girls. You’ve earned it.”

Author's Note

The Yamato lives again! what does it have in store for those poor naive ponies?

Chapter 3

Rainbow sighed as she heaved herself through the alien corridors of the Yamato’s interior. The pegasus feeling the familiar drain that using the elements placed on ones body.

Fortunately, however, she no longer had to watch her step as when the engine had come back online the ‘artificial gravity,’ as the Doctor had called it, had reactivated. The sudden shift in the pull of gravity from underneath her had been an interesting experience to say the least.

Luckily due to her sporty nature and naturally fast reactions she managed to avoid falling on her face. Others ending up becoming intimate with the floor panels, much to Rainbow’s amusement.

With a tired sigh she pressed her hoof to the pad beside the door to the room she had been ‘allocated’. The tall door slid open quietly allowing light from the corridor to spill in.

Giving the room a quick once over, she noticed that it was fairly spacious. A huge bed sat in the far left corner and a counter-top table ran down the right side. In the left wall a few feet in front of the bed was another door leading to what Rainbow assumed was a bathroom.

Three large, evenly spaced windows adorned the far wall, however the heavy tinting (that one of the researchers had told her could be toggled on and off.) blocked any view that might have been outside. Not that it mattered, this part of the ship was most likely buried under several feet of stone.

She smiled when she noticed her luggage that she had completely neglected since the train station sat next to the bed. Rainbow silently thanked whatever guard had the foresight to deliver them here for her.

Grunting as she heaved the suitcase onto the massive plain of a bedspread before her, Rainbow noted how such a bed would've been designed for a creature far larger than herself. Shrugging the minor detail off she hastily popped the latches on her small suitcase.

Inside, the minimalistic pegasus had nearly managed to pack her whole house into the one port. Taking up the majority of the space within was a small, fluffy white cloud. She was relieved to see that it hadn’t condensed into a raincloud on the trip over.

Placing it at the head of the bed, fully intent on using it later she promptly returned her attention to the rest of her effects.

A few Wonderbolts posters had found their way inside and Rainbow wasted no time in hanging them systematically around the room; after all there’s no place like home, and these posters helped.

Finally she lifted an ornate wooden box from the bottom of the pile. The wood had once been polished and varnished to an unmatchable shine, but over time it had lost most of its luster. Each of the bottom corners of the box had a small brass brace on it, adding to the overall feel of specialty the box gave. On the top of the lid a small brass plate was screwed down firmly, inscribed with, ~R.Dash. 982~.

Rainbow smiled as she lifted the box out. Carefully she unlatched the simple lock and gently opened the box’s lid. Inside held every feather Dash had ever shed, not counting the ones she had lost in flight or hadn’t noticed. It was an old tradition for a pegasus to keep as many of their feathers as they could. During foal hood, they would be given an ornate box with their name and birth year inscribed onto the top to store them in.

The boxes varied from pony to pony and they were all treated differently. Some displayed their boxes in full view within their homes while others kept them hidden and locked away as if they were only for their eyes.

Rainbow didn’t quite understand why some ponies did that. She had shown Fluttershy hers long ago and she remembered when she had seen Fluttershy’s later she was slightly jealous at how much fancier hers looked.

With a sigh she closed the lid and placed the box over on the opposite counter. Feeling the weight of her muscles she eyed the bedspread deviously.

‘I’m sure one little nap wouldn’t hurt’. She thought to herself before launching herself over the room and colliding hard with the soft mattress.

Burrowing her face into the cloud pillow, she allowed a tired smile to cross her face as she slipped into unconsciousness.

‘Not as soft as a cloud bed. But pretty darn close’. Was her last thought before sleep overcame her.

* * *

“Dashie...Daaaashieeee.”

“Not party time, Pinkie, only sleep.” Rainbow mumbled into her pillow.

“Silly Rainbow, it’s always party time! But not right now, the princess wants to see us in the mess hall!” Pinkie replied excitedly.

With a resentful groan the sleepy pegasus rose from the now tangled bed sheets “Urgh, okay I’m coming. This better be importan- ...Pinkie. How did you get in here? I thought I locked the door?” Rainbow questioned. She knew Pinkie had strange traits but even she wouldn’t be able to get through six inches of alien doorway.

“Come on dashie, shes going to assign us to our roles!” Pinkie said, dodging the question entirely while bouncing in place before she turned tail and exploded out of the room.

Two hooves found their way to Rainbow’s temples as she rubbed away the approaching headache that came with trying to add logic to Pinkie Pie.

Rainbow contemplated going back to sleep for a little while before a strong growl from her stomach politely asked her to get a move on.

‘Mess halls have food right? Well let’s kill two birds with one stone’. Rainbow thought. Briefly considering how Fluttershy might react if she heard somepony use that saying in conversation before realizing something.

Where the buck’s the mess hall?!’

* * *

After a few minutes of wandering aimlessly and stopping to ask for directions Rainbow finally found her way to the mess hall. Barring the engine room, the Mess was the largest room she had seen as of yet.

It was located towards the front of the ship and spanned the width of the hull. Huge windows were mounted in two massive semi-circular rooms on each side of the mess that protruded slightly from the Yamato’s exterior.

On the rear wall a counter was set up with various bowls full of food. Warm lights hung over them and a sheet of glass sat between the containers and whoever stood on the other side. Quickly deducing this was the cafeteria, Rainbow swiftly made her way over to it.

After piling a tray up, Dash found her way to one of the many bench/tables scattered around the edges of the room. Now that her stomach was being dealt with she turned her attention to the numerous other ponies whom she had ignored upon entry.

Dozens of ponies filled the room, either mingling or chowing down with more ponies entering by the second. As Rainbow observed them she noticed that very few of them seemed to be the scientists and researchers she had seen in the engine room.

The ponies in the Mess hall however seemed far more fresh faced and jovial. A stark contrast to the bland, calculating eggheads who had only shown emotion when the engine had started.

Rainbow’s thoughts were cut short when a tall pegasus stallion blocked her vision and sat down opposite her.

“Hello?” he said, waving a hood in front of her. “You seemed kinda spaced.”

“Huh? Oh yeah, I was just wondering where all these new ponies came from.”

“Well, we’re the crew. Hand picked from the royal guards, bakers, athletes, tinkerers and researchers. You should know, you’re one, too,” the white stallion replied.

“Huh I guess so.” Rainbow said absently as she shovelled more food into her mouth. she hadn’t really given it any thought but now she thought about it she assumed that she was a part of the crew.

“So what did you get chosen for, then?” Rainbow asked redirecting the conversation entirely.

“Oh, you might say I’m a little bit of everything.” He said blushing faintly and running a hoof through is short, two-tone, grey mane.

“Hey speaking of what to call you I never got your name.” Rainbow exclaimed

“Apollo.” The pegasus said extending a hoof in greeting.

“Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in all of Equestria. I’ve got three Sonic Rainbooms under my belt to prove it as well,” she replied smugly while reaching out to shake.

“Pleasure Ms. Dash,” Apollo said politely.

“Hey don’t call me that! Ms. Dash is my mothe-”

“Dashie!!!” A familiar bubbly voice called from across the room.

“Dashie, huh?” Apollo said cocking an eyebrow and struggling to hide a giggle that was forming behind his lips.

“Shut up,” Rainbow promptly retorted. “Well, looks like I’m wanted. I’ll catch you ‘round okay?” Dash stood, leaving her tray behind for now.

“I look forward to it.” Apollo replied with a mock salute.

Rainbow smiled as she turned and pushed her way through the crowd to find Pinkie, and give her a piece of mind for interrupting her lunch.

* * *

A few moments later Rainbow found her way over to a quieter corner of the Mess just underneath one of the massive windows. Gathered around a similar table to the one she had just been at were her friends, the princess, and the quirky stallion know only as the Doctor. Twilight seemed to be talking up a storm to the poor colt, question after question was being asked in rapid succession about the Yamato, its technology, the previous ‘occupants’ and everything else that had to do with it.

Rainbow couldn’t help but grin as a look of relief washed over him as she approached.

“Ah excellent! The colourful one is here! Now we can get down to some serious business.” The odd stallion exclaimed.

Twilight seemed more than a little disappointed at the interruption but agreed nonetheless.

“Correct Doctor,” the princess chimed. “Now that you're all here I wish to assign you all your roles that you will be performing whilst aboard. Now seeing as none of you have had any military training I’m afraid it’s going to be a case of ‘learning on the job’. But no matter. You are all devoted individuals and I’m certain that you will pick it up quickly.”

The princess smiled warmly. “Now I have personally selected the roles that you will perform. Each task compliments your strengths and personalities, I’m sure you all will act them out to the best of your abilities.

“Fluttershy,” Celestia said turning to face the pony in question. “I’m putting you in the Biology department. Your experience with flora and fauna is unmatched. You will be researching and studying anything... peculier we may find.”

“Y-yes princess.” Fluttershy squeaked.

“Rarity. I wish to place you in Morale Lifting, a department of my own creation.”

“Um, of course princess, but. What exactly is Morale Lifting?” Rarity asked.

“On prolonged journeys, as I’m sure you know, ponies tend to get rather homesick. I wish for you to go around the ship and add a touch of Equestria to the Yamato’s rather...Bare appearance.”

“Oh, certainly princess! Why I couldn’t think of a greater role!” Rarity cried as she went about listing all the things that simply had to change.

“Applejack, you are going to be head of resources. It will be your duty to ensure that the ship has a steady supply of both food and water as well as other utilities. The last thing we need is three-hundred hungry ponies stuck on one ship.”

“Don’t wurry ‘bout a thing princess. Can’t be any harder than feedin’ near two-hundred heads ah cattle.” Applejack said tipping her hat in place of a salute.

“Pinkie I’m going to be placing you in the same department as Rarity but with a few tweaks. Your ability to bring a smile to nearly any pony's face is an invaluable skill and I believe putting you on the ship’s local radio network would help make everypony aboard much cheerier.”

“Okie dokie loki!” Pinkie chanted.

“Twilight, I’m putting you as Navigational Officer. You have already proven to me your outstanding map and chart reading skills.”

“You can count on me princess,” Twilight said matter-of-factly.

“And lastly Rainbow Dash.” Celestia turned to the blue mare. “You’re head Tactical Officer. I have been told that during your stunts, you’ve had to make complex, split second decisions while under immense pressure. I believe you will be perfect for this task.”

“Oh yeah! I can’t wait to fly this bad boy!” Rainbow squealed, remembering how a certain starship had needed a stone faced, yet daring pilot to fly it one of the science-fiction comics she’d read after she discovered her newfound love of reading.

“Uh, I’m sorry Rainbow Dash, but that is not the Tactical Officer’s duty.” Celestia replied kindly.

“I- Uh what?” Rainbow mumbled.

“I’m afraid that duty falls to the Navigational Officer. Twilight will be the pilot.” Celestia said softly with a sympathetic frown.

“What? But wouldn’t it make more sense to have a Pegasusfly the big spaceship? I mean Twilights probably only ever read about real flight. No offense.” Rainbow quickly added as to not hurt her friends feelings.

“Hmm, yes I know what you’re saying and I thought the same at first as well, but knowing how pegasus behave, you would likely try and fit the Yamato into your flight style. And needless to say, I don’t believe that it could handle your... Intensity.” Celestia stated.

“Are you questioning my flying ability?” Rainbow Dash asked with a level voice that didn’t quite hide the seething rage that was starting to bubble behind it.

It didn’t matter if she was silently threatening her monarch. Calling any pegasus's flight skills into question was a big no-no and more often than not was a leading case of broken snouts among the pegasi population.

“Not at all Dash. Here, come with me. I believe it will make more sense if if show you just what being the ‘Tactical Officer’ entails.” The princess kept her voice calm so as to not aggravate the pegasus further.

After the two had departed the Mess the Doctor slowly crept up to another pony who was eagerly waiting in line at the cafeteria.

“Things seem to be progressing well. The girls are taking the whole ‘Aliens are real and you're on one of their spaceships’ routine quite well,” He said confidently

“They’re all cheery and bright now Doctor.” The other pony replied. “But I can’t help but feel that they’re going to see things that will change them. You know how I was the first time I saw how... Violent the universe really is.”

“Yeah. You didn’t come out of your house for nearly two weeks,” The Doctor replied somberly.

“Hey, chin up Doc. I’m all better now. See?”

“That you are,” The Doctor replied kindly.

“Now If you’ll excuse me, I have Muffins to devour.” Derpy eyed the treats behind the glass.

* * *

Reluctantly Dash hovered out of the Mess, lagging slightly behind Celestia. The thinly veiled insult still hurt and Rainbow decided to continue brooding till the Alicorn spoke.

“Believe me when I say I don’t judge your flying prowess for a single second. Infact I had considered you my first option for the Yamato’s pilot, but as I said I highly doubt that it would be able to take some of the tricks you would likely try and put it through.”

Rainbow simply huffed angrily in response, clearly not pleased with so easily being read and not able to deny the accusations against her. After all the first thing she was going to try and do after launch was see how many corkscrews the ship could do.

Nothing else was said on the lengthy trek through the ship. Countless doorways were passed, elevators became a common means of travel as they descended through the decks, and they had turned enough corners to make the Canterlot royal garden’s maze jealous.

After what felt like an age the duo finally emerged in yet another massive room. This one however was definitely the most astounding.

Firstly, The gravity had shifted back to its original orientation, indicating that either the artificial gravity in here didn’t work, wasn’t turned on or didn’t have any.

Secondly, the entire room seemed to be a huge horizontal cylinder and lining the circular walls and ceiling were the second strangest machines (the first being the Yamato itself) mounted in bays that were built into every available surface they’d fit.

The machines seemed like huge metal birds with graceful swept wings and an aggressive looking head. More fins not unlike the ones on the Yamato’s exterior albeit smaller were mounted to it and on the rear another of the strange waste-paper basket-esque thrusters sat.

“These are fighters.” Celestia started. “You see, the Yamato was designed for fighting, it’s actual designation is a Battleship. I refrained from telling the others this as I didn’t want to frighten them but I suspect that they have their suspicions. After all, those large cannons aren’t very subtle” finished grimly

“We’ve also learnt that the Yamato seemed to excel at what it did, decimating entire enemy fleets in a few moments. Having said that, however, it did seem to struggle in some regards.”

“How so?” Rainbow inquired still fairly upset about why she’d been given this job.

“Due to its large size and fairly cumbersome cannons, the Yamato struggled to combat smaller, more agile craft. That is why these fighters are aboard. Think of them as more agile, nippier ships that can pursue smaller vessels in high speed maneuvers.”

“Like my tricks.” Rainbow added now finally starting to catch what Celestia was getting at.

“Precisely. These fighters are far more akin to a pegasus that the Yamato which I like to think is like a fat dragon.” The princess giggled.

“Not only will you be in charge of your own squadron, and your own fighter, The Tactical Officer also is the head of combat, meaning if it ever came to it you would be in charge of engaging the enemy. Either through these fighters or using the Yamato’s own weapons.”

“So this is why you chose me for this? My quick thinking in high pressure situations makes me a good fighter?” Rainbow questioned.

“That and your ancestry as a warrior race helps too.” The sun goddess admitted sheepishly. “So what do you say? Tactical Officer Dash?” Celestia extended a hoof.

Rainbow took one last look back towards the sleek bird-like fighters that were perched around the hanger before looking back up to her princess.

“Lets do this,” she said confidently, extending her own hoof and bumping it against Celestia’s in a matter very unfitting of royalty.

“Splendid!” Celestia exclaimed happily as she gestured towards the doors they entered through. “Now, lets get this thing out of my basement.”

Author's Note

I was planning to launch the Yamato in this chapter but i soon realized this would make it far too long and would more than likely take away from some of the epicness of the launch if i had tried to cram it in so

Next Chapter I pinkie promise

Chapter 4

After the Princess and the pegasus had finished their chat the rest of their small group was collected from the Mess and taken through the ship’s innards once more.

Following their short journey through the ships innards the seven girls, plus one Doctor, had arrived at the large double sliding doors of the ship’s main elevator, a huge moving platform that travelled vertically through the ship from the command bridge to the third bridge which hung suspended from beneath the Yamato’s hull.

The rumble of the elevator grew louder as it approached from above before silencing itself and allowing the doors to slid open.

“Convenient!” The Doctor exclaimed.

The short elevator journey back upwards was filled with excited babbling emanating solely from three individuals.

“Oh oh ooh! I Can’t wait! this is gonna be so super-riffic!” Pinkie cried.

“Indeed. I can’t even begin to imagine the things this ship is capable of,” Twilight responded giddily.

“It’s always fun to see ship launches. I remember watching the Arcadia launch in very similar conditions,” The Doctor said, receiving a quirked eyebrow from Twilight.

“Similar conditions? How many boats have you seen be launched from underground?” she asked.

“Who said they were boats?” The strange stallion replied as the elevator halted and began to file out, leaving twilight to ponder what he meant.

The room they emerged into once again threw the poor ponies for a loop. Unlike the engine room that had been intimidating and confusing or the mess which had resembled some high end sci-fi restaurant. This room was something else entirely.

At the front of the room the massive green V-shaped windows they had seen from the outside dominated the far wall providing a view of the cavern outside.

Immediately in front of the windows was a row of very advanced looking desks, each one absolutely covered in dials, switches, levers, buttons and monitors as well as several pony adaptations. Each desk came complete with huge, mechanical looking chairs that swiveled on a single point.

Several more of these desks were placed around the room. Some lined the left and right walls while two more sat as islands in the middle of the floor. In the very centre of the room a strange glass ball sat in a small mount, its purpose unknown.

Immediately to the right of the door they had just entered through was a far larger desk. It sat elevated at the very rear of the room, the large chair providing an excellent view of the entire room.

Finally the sloped ceiling seemed to be a massive monitor stretching from the front wall to the back. A faint grid permanently etched onto it provided a grid reference to whatever may have been displayed on it.

Dash was so enthralled looking around the alien bridge she very nearly tripped over on a pile of Arcane batteries that had been pushed to one side, no longer being needed for power after the engine had come back online.

Sheepishly she re-joined the rest of the group who were all gazing intently at a picture on the back wall just to the left of the elevated desk.

“The hay is that?” Applejack spoke up, pointing a hoof to the strange image.

The picture itself was very well made, precise brush strokes gave it the feeling of being almost real something that only a master painter could achieve. What the picture was displaying however perplexed all of them.

It was a creature of some kind,.that much was obvious to them all. The basic features were all there eyes, ears, nose but that was where the similarities ended.

The creatures head was far smaller than it should have been for its body size. Its eyes and ears were tiny and its muzzle was completely wrong. An impressive white beard sprouted from arounds its mouth and chin but its main was blocked by a formal looking hat with a symbol of an anchor on it.

“Captain Okita,” Rarity read aloud having seen the small golden plaque on the bottom of the portraits frame.

“These aliens sure had some weird names,” Pinkie added.

“I’m sure they would think the same of us,” Celestia said. “To answer your question, Applejack, I believe that was the original captain of the Yamato.”

“He sure is weird lookin’,” Applejack said quietly.

“Wow,” Twilight exclaimed under her breath. “An actual portrait of a real Alien.”

Twilight’s amazement was overshadowed when a timid voice spoke up from behind her.

“Um, princess, I was just wondering. If this ship is from outer-space why is everything written in Equestrian?” Fluttershy asked innocently.

Celestia knitted her brow, frustrated she couldn’t answer the one question that bugged her the most.

“I’m afraid for that we have no answer,” the monarch said glumly. “Several of the scribes who recorded information from the ship have put forward some theories but sadly nopony has come up with a straight answer.”

Dash said nothing as Twilight launched her own theories about the language match at the princess. Instead, she continued to gaze up at the painting. The face and shape of the creature was strangely soothing and comforting, like the feeling she would get from looking at an old friend or parent.

Little did she know everypony else in the room had experienced the same feelings. Minus one strange brown stallion that looked towards the portrait with a sad smile as he recalled fond memories of a race that he had countless adventures with.

“Oh, um, princess,” Fluttershy spoke up, interrupting Celestia's conversation with Twilight.

“Yes Fluttershy?” The monarch asked sweetly.

“I was just thinking, you said to us you wanted to keep the Yamato a secret. Well, won’t ponies notice it when we launch?”

Celestia opened her mouth to reply but was swiftly interrupted by the Doctor.

“I believe I can answer that one, Buttershy!” he exclaimed not noticing the slip-up of her name. “I have placed several very high level Perception filters all over the Yamato’s exterior, What they do is basically make the Yamato seem uninteresting or unimportant, and thus not worth worrying about. In fact they almost force you to look away.”

“So its like invisible?” Pinkie said excitedly.

“No, not at all its nothing like invisibility but if thats what you want to think then yes I suppose it is invisibility,” he quickly responded.

“Wait, if you put these Perception thingies all over the Yamato why did we still notice it when we walked in?” Dash questioned.

“Simple. I hadn’t turned them on yet. Why do you think I was running around like a madpony when you first saw me?” The Doctor answered.

Dash opened her mouth to send out a retort but was rudely interrupted by the door to the bridge suddenly sliding open allowing entry to a familiar white pegasus.

“Apollo?” Dash spoke up as he approached the group. Now that he was standing Dash was able to get a better look at his features.

Height wise he was probably nearly a head taller than Dash herself was, not that that was much to boast about, Dash was fairly petite even by mare standards. His coat was a snowy white just a few shades darker than Celestia’s and finally his cutie mark was that of a ladder and a fire axe crossed over.

“We meet again Dashie,” the stallion said smugly causing rainbow narrowed her eyes in response to him using her pet name.

“Ah excellent; you’re here.” Celestia said addressing the newcomer. “Everypony, I would like to introduce first officer Apollo.”

“Whoa wait! First officer?! As in second in command?” Dash questioned.

“Well, I did say my role was a little bit of everything being First Officer means you have to be able to do all tasks.” Apollo replied.

Dash simply gave out an exasperated sigh.

“No offense to Apollo here, but wouldn’t the Doctor here be ah better choice for first mate?” Applejack questioned slipping into stereotypical pirate terms.

“Oh no no no I couldn’t spend all my time up here on this boring old bridge I’m needed down in the engine room where my talents can be put to good use.” The Doctor answered.

“Well, I’m sure you all will have time to get to know Apollo personally. After all he is the one who will be teaching you how to perform your duties.” Celestia said matter-of-factly.

“Can’t you do it, princess?” Twilight said sadly.

“I’m afraid not, Twilight. I’m needed elsewhere and I lack the spare time to teach all six of you how to carry out your roles. But fear not, I believe you will all rise to the occasion.” she said sweetly as she turned to leave.

“Well then.” Apollo spoke up after the sun goddess had left drawing the attention of the six mares back onto himself. “Lets get cracking.”

* * *

“So that’s the throttle, that’s the yolk and that’s the trim?” Twilight asked, pointing to each control in turn.

“Correct.” Apollo leaned over her chair in order to verify her.

It had been a few hours since the girls ‘rapid crash course in Alien spacecraft flight lesson’ as Apollo had put it had started and so far both Dash and Twilight were now up to speed on the dynamics of their respective jobs.

Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity and Fluttershy had all been taken away to their respective locations to be trained by other crew members until Apollo could see them, their jobs not being quite as urgent as the other two.

Dash sighed as she laid her chin back on the top of her chair, having spun it around so it was facing backwards using the back of it as a comfy headrest. Even though her station was smack dab in the center of the room right against the windows the view was fairly boring, dust caked the bridges windows and the little light in the cavern made seeing anything further than a few dozen meters futile.

The Doctor had excused himself a while ago saying something about monitoring the power fluctuations of both ships, (whatever that meant) leaving dash completely bored with nothing to do except sit and wait.

Instead, the fidgety pegasus busied herself reading her own instrument panels. She had to admit even though it looked daunting and complex at first, the controls were fairly easy to get the hang of after Apollo had explained them.

She was absentmindedly monitoring the power levels in the Yamato’s weapons systems when a electronic whine sounded from behind her. Spinning herself around to sit in the chair properly she saw a panel descending along a vertical track on the back wall.

Atop this platform was the chair for the captains command console, and seated within the chair was one very different looking Princess Celestia.

The tiara had been discarded in favour of a hat very similar to the one the creature wore in the portrait and a heavy black blazer with gold highlights was wrapped around her barrel.

Apollo flicked an ear at the noise and turned to face the Solar monarch with a grin and a salute.

“Captain on the bridge!” He shouted before started to giggle under his breath.

“That old uniform looks good on you princess, or should I say Captain Celestia.”

“Whoa, wait, captain?” Twilight questioned.

“Who else did you expect?” The new captain replied jokingly.

Twilight didn’t have a response for that, instead deciding to agree with the white stallion. “Well, I mean Apollo’s right. It does suit you.”

“I thought if I was going to finally launch this ship I would at least get into the role,” the princess chided.

Rainbow spared a quick glance over at Rarity who seemed to be making a whole range of faces at the princess/captain’s new apparel choices.

“We’re just finishing up here. I believe we’re green for launch. Right girls?” Apollo asked, addressing the two mares. Both of them nodding in response.

“Are you certain, girls? I do not wish to postpone the launch any longer but if either of you don’t feel up to it we can put it off another day,” Celestia said in a motherly caring tone towards them.

“We’re ready, Princess.” Twilight answered for them both.

“Please Twilight,” the princess chuckled. “While aboard this ship I’m Captain Celestia.”

“Aye, aye, captain.” Rainbow cut in.

“Very well,” Celestia answered with a sense of finality. Closing her eyes the alicorn took a deep breath to calm herself before leaning down to an intercom.

“This is Captain Celestia. All X.O are to report to the bridge. Initiate launch protocole Two-A-A-double-oh-nine.”

A distant alarm blared to life as ponies inside the ship rushed into action. Moments after Celestia's announcement half a dozen or so new ponies that neither Twilight nor Dash had seen before invaded the bridge.

“All Executive Officers reporting!” One shouted up to the captain in a very militaristic manner.

“Very good. To your stations.” Celestia replied.

At once all ponies present made their ways to their respective terminals, filling the previously vacant seats that edged the room.

“You sure you're ready?” Apollo said quietly to Dash.

Dash whipped her head around to face the stallion. She tried to stay strong and braved faced but her eyes betrayed her showing a great deal of nervousness within them, but Apollos calm smile eased her worries and her butterflies were soon replaced with a determine fire.

The First Officer noticed this and gave a smirk in response before turning and seating himself in his own chair just to the left of Dash.

“Deep breaths Twilight,” Apollo called across Dash to Twilight. “Just do it exactly like I told you.”

“Running final diagnosis, Engine output; stable at forty-six percent,” one pony called.

“Recommend power transfer to second flywheel,” another said monotonously.

“Return stored power to the Wave Motion Engine. Activate secondary flywheel,” the Captain commanded.

The lights in the bridge dimmed and flickered for a few moments until a new humming sound joined the drone of already present whines, groans and growls that emanated from the Yamato. The bridge crew suddenly exploded into action calling out dozens of commands and reports.

“Secondary flywheel active. Engine output is eighty-nine percent and climbing.”

“Transferring power into movement thrusters and sub-engines.”

“Hull integrity one-hundred percent.”

“All systems green!”

“Engage Gyros level the ship!” Celestia commanded powerfully.

An almighty crack resonated throughout the entire cavern as the behemoth ship crushed and shattered any stone that tried to hold it. The Yamato shuddered as power refilled its previously dormant systems breaking the ancient stone that had trapped it in its dark prison for so long.

Hundreds of tonnes of earth and soil were pulverized kicking huge plumes of dust into the air as the ship righted itself from its keeled-over position, the askew cannons returned with a mechanical whine to their flight position.

“Yamato stabilized. Awaiting further commands,” somepony said causing all eyes to turn hopefully to their captain.

Celestia took another deep breath to calm herself, the fear and nervousness she felt when first discovering the ship returning.

“Raise the ship! Launch the Yamato!”

Twilight wasted no time in grasping the large yolk firmly and pulling it back hard.

The remaining stone that imprisoned the Yamato’s hull was swiftly destroyed allowing the long bow of the ship to emerge from the rock. Servos whined and thrusters roared as the ships systems worked in unison to release the Yamato from the strong stone.

The vibrations were so impossibly strong the city of Canterlot above them was violently shaken as if the mountain itself was trying to get up and walk away.

“Fire explosive charges!”

A series of magical mining explosives were quickly set off, running down the length of the Yamato obliterating the last of the stone that held the ship in place.

With the sudden loss of resistance the mighty vessel lifted high into the chamber, exposing its red underbelly for the first time in centuries. Brilliant jets of blue flame shot out from ports all over the Yamatos hull giving it the lift it needed.

During all of this Rainbow Dash struggled not to cry out in amazement at the display of sheer raw power and absolute awesomeness that she was now a part of.

The last of the dust cleared and settled back to the cavern floor leaving only in its place a huge, imposing red and grey battleship, that hovered high above the cavern floor proudly.

“Activate sub-engines aim for the cavern wall,” Captain Celestia said firmly.

“Wait what? we’re just gonna ram out way out?” Dash asked worriedly, not too keen on the notion of being a pancake.

“Do not fret, the structural engineers have ensured me that the Yamato could survive much worse.” Celestia said matter-of-factly waving off any concerns.

Dash turned to Twilight and nodded as if to say ‘Do it. I trust you.’’

Gingerly twilight grasped the smaller lever on top of the larger throttle that controlled the two smaller engines that hung beneath the ships stern. Through just the one piece of metal Twilight could almost feel the sheer unmatched power the Yamato had to give.

It was more that she had ever know. More than the Elements, more than the crystal heart, more than even Celestia herself could achieve and it was all there at the end of her hoof.

And it scared her.

Nevertheless she slowly pushed the lever forward, and was immediately thrown back into her seat as the powerful dual thrusters propelled the ship forward on two columns of angry orange flame. Their thrust and heat so great they turned the stone behind and below them into molten rock.

The vibration within the ship grew ten fold as the pointed bow of the ship thundered ahead closer and closer to the cavern wall.

“Brace!”

Author's Note

Well there we go the first of the techno-babble that is going to litter this fic.
But anyways i would like to now ask you guys a favour.

this fic is going to be more or less episodic with each chapter of few chapters being a different scene/adventure for the ponies much like the original SPY series was.

So i ask you my readers to see if you can come up with your own scenarios to put the ponies and the Yamato through

I've got a few in my head already but more will always be appreciated. rules:

Nothing to grimdark- i'm fine with blood and scaryness but lets keep this fic PG alright?

Keep in the spirit of SBY- meaning no giant mecha robots or stuff from other animes

No crossovers with other fictions- There's already MLP, SBY and Doctor who in this fic alone anymore would just be stupid

lastly for anyone who hasn't seen the series and doesn't know what the launched looked like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt3Rftjn0lw

Chapter 5

An ear splitting crack resonating throughout the surrounding countryside as the mountain wall directly beneath Canterlot burst open like a party popper. The heavy stone city above groaned under the sudden absence of its support but the impossibly strong enchantments that helped it stick to the mountain held it in place.

A huge plume of ancient dust shot out of the new opening as well as dozens of house-sized boulders that were effortlessly thrown high into the air, their massive weight forcing the to bury themselves into the soil where they landed.

All the while the impressive bulk of an ancient alien battleship continued to travel skyward, eager to return to its place amongst the stars. Its graceful curves silhouetted against the late afternoon sunlight giving of an aura of not only power but also beauty that no other machine could achieve. The unmatchable roar of its mighty engines easily dominating the eardrums of any creature within earshot.

“Yamato clear of Canterlot mountain. No damage detected,” one of the bridge ponies said aloud.

Celestia gave a huge sigh of relief as one of her major worries evaporated, allowing her to concentrate on the next command.

“Doctor,” she said calmly through the intercom “We’re we spotted?”

“I can’t tell for certain, the perception filters I put on were unbelievably powerful, but it would have been hard to miss that," the Doctor's voice stated.

Before the princess-come-captain had time to respond to the snarky comment, a powerfully urgent alarm blared to life within the bridge. It’s obnoxious two tone horn instilling panic into the crew.

“Verify alarm!” Celestia commanded powerfully.

“Obstruction detected at twelve o'clock!” another pony called, not looking up from his monitor.

A quick glance out the forward window confirmed the alarm as the huge snow-capped peak of the mountain opposite Canterlot quickly filled the windows.

“Raise elevation angle to thirty-five degrees! Activate primary engine!”

Twilight nodded nervously as she turned back to her controls, the mess of levers and switches starting to become a little daunting to the small unicorn. Wrapping her hooves around the large Y-shaped yolk she pulled back hard, forcing the Yamato's bow skyward.

As soon as the navigation ball hit the desired angle her left hoof shot down to the large dual lever throttle. This time her efforts were put on the larger bottom throttle control, sliding it forward along its tracks.

Instead of the previous kick she had felt this time her efforts were greeted with nothing.

“Primary engine not responding!” Apollo called from the left.

“Doctor!” Celestia cried.

“The engine is fine; it's the thruster!” was the response.

The blood drained from Twilight's face as the Yamato continued to approach the foreboding mountain rapidly.

“Won’t we just blast through it like we did before?” Rainbow Dash asked frantically.

“Not a solid mountain!” a mare called from the back of the room.

Twilight paid the conversations behind her no mind as she tried time and time again to force the thruster into life, never once, as Dash noticed, pushing the throttle beyond fifty percent.

Like lighting, Rainbow exploded out of her chair over to her purple friend and placed her own blue hoof atop Twilight's.

Twilight looked up at the pegasus, fear etched deep in her face. Rainbow simply smiled as she slowly pushed Twilights hoof forward.

Together as one, both Rainbow and Twilight pushed the lever until it met its stopper at full throttle.

The huge grey thruster at the ship's stern suddenly coughed violently into life as the increased demand from it spurred it into action. The heater rings within warming to a healthy orange glow before the heat and pressure became too much and was forced out the back in a massive tendril of angry orange flame.

The temperamental ship suddenly picked up altitude rapidly. Just in time as the bulbous bow cleared the snowy peak with just a few meters clearance. As the impressive bulk fully crossed the peak, the mountain instantly became stripped of its icy covering due to the huge amounts of thrust and heat from the ships business end.

A collective sigh escaped the bridge crew, Celestia herself slumping back into her chair.

“You can’t be scared of it Twilight,” Rainbow said softly. “You’re in charge of it, not the other way around.”

“Deploy wings,” Celestia interrupted from the rear.

“Deploying wings,” Twilight responded, eager to end the little heart to heart Dash was trying to give her. Not that she didn’t appreciate her friends advice but more so because she didn’t want to agree with it.

The two huge swept wings that the hull had concealed up to this point quickly made their existence known, folding out to their full extension, adding to the majestic profile of the Yamato. Their presence instantly aided the Yamato’s climb, allowing the mighty ship to rely less on its ancient thrusters.

“Wings at full span and locked,” Twilight finished, finally allowing herself to slump back into her chair, letting out a huge sigh as the stress of the prior situation left her.

The dwindling sunlight cast long shadows over the ships deck. Long lines of dark shadow cast from the imposing cannonry on the upper deck crisscrossed the vessel.

The luscious, flat, green landscape wizzed past far below them, having cleared the mountain ranges into a much flatter plain. The shuddering roar of the primary thruster having dimmed to a much more soothing rumble allowing the huge ship to level out at a comfortable cruising altitude.

The crews brief respite was of course interrupted by the cheery voice of the Doctor calling up from the ship's intercom.

“Ah-ha, That is excellent!” he cried. “I just got a reading indicating that the Perception filters just burnt out at one-hundred percent efficiency!”

The ponies of the bridge crew looked to one another with happy smiles at the news. Emoting for possibly the first time since they had entered the bridge.

“Thats great Doctor. Care to explain what that means?” asked the princess.

“It means that anything that saw the Yamato had its perception successfully altered! We were practically invisible!

“That is good news. Twilight ascend to eighty thousand feet and await further instructions. Let’s stretch this thing’s legs.”

“Ascending to eighty thousand feet,” Twilight echoed, giving the ship some throttle.

The mountain-shattering vessel eagerly complied and almost instantly shot skyward, only being kept calm by the insane amounts of complicated systems aboard to keep it level.

“Captain, current flight plan predicts that we will pass by Cloudsdale within just a few hundred metres,” another X.O called.

“It matters not, The Doctor said that the Perception filters are working at full efficiency,” Celestia responded proudly.

“Were,” The Doctors voice said.

“Pardon?”

“They were working at full efficiency, until they burnt out. The filters are no longer operational.”

“Cloudsdale on approach,” the same pony from before chirped.

“Adjust course and recalculate ascent path!” the newbie captain said panickedly.

“Not possible. If we adjust right we’ll hit Cloudsdale. If we adjust left the thrusters will obliterate it,” Apollo said firmly.

“What if we pitch down?” Twilight added.

“This thing doesn’t turn on a dime, we don’t have enough room to change now.”

“Uh guys,” Rainbow interjected, Waving of hoof for the others to look, not taking her eyes off the sight before her. “We’ve been spotted.”

True to her word, dozens upon dozens of multi-colored blobs flooded up and out of the cloud city like a swarm of angry wasps. Or in this case curious pegasi.

The mass of multi-colored winged equines quickly swamped the intruding vessel, Each one equal parts curious and cautious of the strange craft. Despite being known for their impulsive nature not one dared to put any less than a good dozen body lengths between them and the imposing ship.

They were however close enough for Rainbow Dash to see their expressions, most of which seemed to convey either, shock, excitement, anger or most commonly just plain confusion. Much how she most likely would have reacted had she not currently been on the object of their concerns.

A quick glance down at the city below showed that hundreds if not thousands more pegasi had vacated their homes and flooded the streets looking up at the huge gravity-defying monster, Having not being quite as bold as to fly up and join the other, more courageous pegasi.

As the behemoth ship thundered past the sheer amount of air that the massive battleship displaced was enough to shift the even larger but much lighter city into a slightly faster rotation upon the bed of clouds which it sat. In much the same way a pegasus could get a cloud to rotate if they flew around it fast enough.

“Increase speed,” Celestia said glumly, showing obvious signs of embarrassment and humiliation and the wildly incompetent slip of her country's greatest secret.

Thankfully the pegasi that had swamped the ship had enough sense to stay clear of the huge finned engine, meaning that when the powerful column of flame erupted from within it, they were all well out of harm’s way.

The Yamato quickly picked up more speed and altitude, easily leaving the less fit ponies in its wake. The digital airspeed indicator displayed an impressively large number that only continued to climb.

Soon only the most devoted and stupid pegasi continued to try and keep level with the ship as it began to ascend into the thinner atmosphere.

Finally, realizing that they couldn’t match the Yamato’s growing speed the remaining ponies peeled of.

“Approaching Mach one,” Twilight said proudly

“Whoa what? Nuh-uh not possible. I can barely get that fast in a dive let alone something this heavy in a climb!” Rainbow accused.

“The numbers don’t lie.” Twilight smugly pointed a hoof towards the airspeed which was now displaying numbers well over the sound barrier and still continued to build.

“The-they must be faulty! This ship is pretty ol-”

“Mach two.”

A faint giggling from Dash’s left could be heard, despite Apollos best efforts to muffle himself.

“No it can’t, I didn’t even hear the boom!”

“You wouldn’t. You're going Mach two as well.” Twilight retorted, her statement making it almost impossible for the pegasus to reply.

Rainbow looked between Twilight and the speed once more before slumping back into her chair and crossing her forelegs with an angry huff.

“Captain?” Apollo spoke up, looking back towards their ruler. “Don’t worry about it, they all would have found out eventually. Besides we’ve got more important things to worry about,” the stallion said, knowing just what buttons to push to get the Captain back into business mode.

“You're right, I will schedule a conference to explain later but right now... Twilight, set a course for the Moon. I wish to see how my sister’s housekeeping skills have changed in her absence.”

Twilight snorted and shook her head at the rapid turnaround of her mentor.

“Aye, Aye, Captain.”

Author's Note

Because I don't want to keep calling the other ponies aboard 'that pony' or 'a different pony' I'm opening to taking suggestions for names.

Names only please I don't really need their eye color, cutie mark, allergies to certain brands of soap etc.

Chapter 6

Rainbow Dash sat alone in the small semi-circular domed observation room at the back of the bridge tower that overlooked the missile stack. Her tail was draped over the back of the soft lounge that ran around the curved wall, absently swishing back and forth.

She had excused herself from the bridge soon after they had cleared the atmosphere and had been told of this small room by one of the XO’s on her way out. The climb out of the atmosphere had been eventful to say the least but now Dash was treating herself to a truly beautiful sight.

The receding blue marble of Equus hung in the darkened void of space. Its beautiful spectrum of blue, green and white gave it an aura of pure peacefulness and radiance.

She was so enthralled by the sight that when Applejack entered the room behind her she very nearly jumped out of her feathers.

“Give a mare some warning before you go sneaking up on them like that!”

“Heya R.D,” Applejack said slowly.

“You alright?”

“Yeah I’ve jus’ been thinkin,” she trailed off as she hopped up onto the lounge.

“About?”

“Why are we here? This I mean,” The apple farmer said gesturing around the room.

“Celestia asked us to come and help ou-”

“Thats not what I mean.” Applejack quickly cut her off.

“What ah mean is that; Why would Celestia: The ruler of an entire nation simply pack up and decided to launch a spaceship that she’s known about for years?”

“She needed the Elements to start the Wave Motion Engine. I thought you of all ponies would have been paying attention,” Rainbow replied, bopping Applejack on the head as she finished.

“We’ve had the Elements for nearly three years now, what made her suddenly decide to do this now?”

“Well-uh.”

“And another thing; What does she need a Tactical Officer for? Who are we gonna fight? Equestria hasn’t gone to war since the Minotaurs attacked, and that was decades ago.”

“You’re getting awfully worked up about this,” Rainbow stated.

“Ah just can’t help but feel that the princess isn’t telling us everything,”

“How can you be sure?” Dash questioned.

The element of honesty simply gave the pegasus an Are-you-serious look.

“Ah. Right.”

“It just doesn’t sit well with me that she kept the Yamato a secret for so long and now. Just the way she talks I can tell she’s hiding something.”

“Whatever it is,”- Dash said putting her hoof over Applejacks shoulder -”We’ll find out together.”

* * *

A mere few hours later, the Yamato was already within the lunar orbit thanks to the hugely powerful thrusters. Final preparations were underway as the altimetre dropped, the powerful movement thrusters along the ship’s keel working hard to stop the massive ship from slamming into the satellite’s dusty surface.

The insane force being ejected from the thrusters on the Yamato’s belly easily shot huge plumes of ancient lunar dust high into the dark sky as the massive craft made its slow descent to the relatively flat landing area.

Eventually the Yamato’s slow downward creep ended with a slight judder as the giant rested, balancing perfectly atop the suspended third bridge that hung from the middle of the Yamato’s belly.

“All crew are to change into their atmospheric survival suits. there will be one in each dormitory locker. We’re going sight-seeing,” the captain said cheerfully into her microphone.

“That goes for all of you, too,” Celestia gestured to the XO’s including Rainbow who had returned to the bridge during the landing.

The ponies of the bridge crew looked at one another excitedly before exploding into the elevator at the room’s rear, eager to go explore.

“I think thats the most emotion they’ve shown yet,” Dash chided.

“Be nice Rainbow, you're going to be seeing a lot of them.”

Dash simply gave a snort as they made their way to the exit until a huge feathery wing impeded her progress.

The impatient pegasus simply looked up irritatedly at the owner of said wing.

“There’s no air on the Moon so I’m afraid you won’t be able to fly,” Celestia said softly causing Dash to deflate a bit. “But it is one sixth of Equus’s gravity. I’m sure that you can find some use for that.”

It took a few moments for the words to sink in but soon a sly smile crossed the dare devil mare’s face. “I’m sure I can.”

* * *

With a loud hiss and the loud clunks of several hidden locks disengaging, the two huge deck ramps at the rear of the Yamato’s suspended third bridge crept open. Light flooded through the widening crack, illuminating those who stood behind eager to disembark.

Once the decks had locked into position and the all clear was given, the ponies at the head of the mass began their descent, all of them filled with trepidation and excitement. One particularly excited young unicorn colt immediately shot past the others and with a great leap, he launched himself off of the ramp into the soil.

“That was one giant leap!” he exclaimed giddily.

As Rainbow Dash met the end of the safety of the Yamato she tentatively met the alien soil. Her hoof sunk beneath the soil and with a small squeal she quickly ripped it back out. Ponies quickly brushed past her eager to play in the dirt that they had all seen but never once touched.

Not wanting to seem like a coward, Rainbow quickly joined them. Now that all four hooves were making contact on a different cosmic body the weight of her situation finally became apparent.

‘I just travelled through space on an ancient alien spaceship and now I’m standing on the moon! The actual moon! I can’t believe Luna lived her for a thousand years!’

The pegasus mare squealed within her suit, grateful that nopony could hear or see her.

“Amazing isn’t it?” A voice crackled through an interior speaker into her ear.

“Ah! wha- Apollo!” Dash yelped not expecting to hear another's voice right beside her head.

“Hey you're lucky you’re gonna go down in the books as the first element bearer to walk on the moon. Me? Well, nopony gives a rat’s about the eleventh pony that set foot there.” Apollo said gesturing to the ten other ponies that had disembarked prior to the both.

* * *

Within the hour the three-hundred or so ponies aboard had emptied the Yamato and we’re now frolicing on the previously alien surface. Each pony had a varying suit attached to them, their colors differentiating depending on what section they happened to be from. The helmets were fairly uniform, they all possessed a spike on the forehead for a horn even if the pony wearing happened to lack one. The helmet made use of the extra space by attaching a large spotlight to the left of the small spire.

The non-pegasi crew seemed to be occupying most of their time by seeing who could jump the highest in the lowered gravity. The pegasi seemed more interested in finding out why their wings wouldn’t work and greeting the soil with their helmets.

Finally Celestia herself exited the Yamato wearing naught but a single oxygen mask and basic radio. Her Alicorn heritage allowing her to survive in the hostile conditions.

Unfortunately she had not inherited the ability to breathe without oxygen as her sister had. Celestia had no idea why Luna could go without air for so long but she suspected in had a lot to do with her insanely large lung capacity that came from many years of using the Royal Canterlot voice.

As she watched her country's finest play around like foals in the new environment her heart warmed. Seeing such braved faced souls who had all wholeheartedly agreed to join her on this ridiculous quest having fun, simply brought a smile to her ancient muzzle, even if it was hidden by an oxygen mask.

That was until she noticed that a rather large group had crowded around a familiar rainbow pegasus underneath the Yamato’s bow.

“Fillies and gentlecolts I welcome you all to the first ever; Yamato leap!” Rainbow Dash cried through the open channel comms.

“I, Rainbow Dash, will become the first pony ever to jump up and over a spaceship’s deck... Without wings!”

An applause sounded throughout the surrounding ponies, muffled slightly by the suits.

“Don’t any of you worry; I’m a professional,” she smirked confidently. “Don’t try this at home... Not that you could,” she quickly added.

With that the gathered ponies stepped back a few paces to give the mare room.

Dash looked up at the colossal vessel above her. Now that it was out of its stony prison it seemed even larger than it had first appeared. The anti-fouling red paint that only went halfway up the side seemed to stretch for miles overhead and for a single moment, Dash felt doubt creep into her stomach.

That sliver of doubt however was soon crushed by the huge amounts of overconfidence Dash had for herself.

With an almighty kick the small pegasus launched herself upward created a dust cloud where she had stood. The massive hull quickly zipped past. The anchor coming slightly too close for comfort until eventually, her light frame cleared the railings atop the hull and sailed over the forward deck in a elegant arching pattern. The miniscule gravity soon retook its hold on her and she gently began the return journey to the surface.

Unbeknownst to her, or anypony else. one of the huge cannon batteries suddenly moved the smallest fraction, its sights locking on and following the rainbow mare’s path.

After a less than rapid descent Dash stuck the landing on the other side of the Yamato and was quickly met with a huge applause.

“Thank you, thank you. You're quite welcome,” she boasted, reveling in the attention.

Just as Celestia was about to chastise her for the recklessness of the stunt, and congratulate her on pulling it off so perfectly. Twilight immediately invaded.

“Princ- Captain! Theres something you should see!”

* * *

The scholarly unicorn soon lead a small team consisting of herself, Celestia, Rainbow and Apollo to a large crater. Its location was odd in that the Yamato was visible from it, but remained hidden from the Yamato’s location.

“I was exploring the geology when I came across these things,”

Adorning the craters interior was an assortment of hundreds of different pieces of furniture, sculptures, toys and other various items. The vast assortment of trinkets varied in detail, the oldest ones seemed fairly basic and quite crumbly. Most likely as they had been made with the topsoil instead of the more densely packed dirt underneath.

The more recent sculptures, (recent being fairly generous) fared far better against the harshness of space. Their bodies were more defined and expertly detailed, something only a lifetime of practice would be able to achieve.

Within the small crater sat a modest cottage, made of the same composite as everything around it. The roof had since caved, and one of the walls had given out but it remained recognisable as a building.

What stood out the most however was the huge black slab jutting from the craters centre. It was a perfect rectangular prism, all the faces had been expertly cut and trimmed.

Etched into the very top the words ‘Years’ was carved in old equestria, followed by a staggering amount of tallies that trailed down the Monolith.

“I-This... She never told me about these...” Celestia trailed off, running a hoof up the odd black stone.

“I knew she was up here a long time but, to see it from this perspective,” Twilight gawked.

“It’s like she was just trying to live a normal life,” Dash added.

A long silence overcame the radio channel, nopony wishing to break the silence in fear of disrespecting the old owner.

“I think it’s time we headed back, oxygen will run out soon,” Apollo finally spoke somberly.

No words were said but slowly they all climbed the slope back toward the Yamato. It wasn’t until the three in front of her had crested the incline that she spared a glance back toward the small cottage.

“I’m sorry.”

* * *

After a somber trek back to the Yamato, the crew had been ordered to return to their posts, the numerous ponies dispersing to their respective areas inside the ship for takeoff. Nopony said a word within the bridge. Celestia had retired to her personal quarters at the very top of the tower, leaving Apollo to guide the launch.

Without the obstructions of a mountain overhead, plus the aid of decreased gravity the Yamato easily lifted back into the sky.

“Setting course for Equestria, primary thruster engage,” Twilight said somberly, the depressive atmosphere getting to her as well.

The engine whined before turning into a rapid beeping for a few moments till the familiar gout of thrust shot from within it. A constant burn was employed to shift the ship back into Equus orbit, were the gravity well of the planet soon took over allowing the craft to effortlessly glide back home.

The landing sequence was interrupted when the elevator delivered a familiar orange Earth pony to the bridge.

“Ah wanna see her. Ah wanna see the princess!” Applejack demanded.

“She’s in her quarters. No visitors,” Apollo replied sternly.

“This is above you Apollo, Ah wanna speak with Celestia about her lies.”

A quiet murmuring went up from the ponies that happened to be paying attention to the exchange, while others continued to keep the ship from becoming ash during re-entry.

“Get her down ‘ere now! Come on down, Captain, I know you can hear me!” She shouted upwards to the ceiling.

There was a brief pause before the elevator track on the back of the wall moved allowing one very irate alicorn to descend.

“Applejack. Explain yourself,” Celestia spat.

“Ah think you should tell us; all of us what your true intentions are!”

The captain simply knitted her eyebrows in response.

“Or then I might. I’ve been talkin’ with some other ponies down in storage, and they’ve been telling me that you’ve got big plans for this here ship!”

Celestia visibly flinched at the verbal barrage, Her eyes however remained cold.

“Ah can spot a liar a mile away, your highness,” Applejack said venomously.

Twilight continued to watch on completely mortified that one of her friends would speak this way to not only their ruler, but also their captain and her mentor.

“AJ, listen to yourself, you're saying that the ruler of Equestria is a bold faced lia-”

“She’s right Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia said softly, hanging her head in shame.

“I wanted to tell you all but I was afraid that you wouldn’t agree to it, so I kept you in the dark until I saw fit to ask you.”

“And what did you want to tell us?” Twilight asked, now curious.

Celestia didn’t respond for a few moments until she look up her somber face gone.

“Set course for the Manehatten shoreline,”she spoke, once more in her commanding tone.

“Princess?” Twilight questioned.

“If I’m going to explain myself I don’t want to have to repeat it.”

Twilight hesitated for a moment, confused as to why she had not received an explanation, but one glance at the diamond-hard eyes of her mentor forced her response.

“Aye Captain, readjust landing parameters and set course for Manehatten.”

Author's Note

Big thanks to Gideon020 for helping out with this chapter and indeed more chapters to come!

Chapter 7

The immense heat of reentry engulfed the Yamatos’ keel as it descended through the thick atmosphere. Had it been a lesser ship it may not have withstood the battering but if history proves anything it was that the Yamato was no pushover.

Eventually with the aid of forward thrusters and air brakes the behemoth craft met with the ocean just off the coast of Manehatten, the still red-hot hull making huge plumes of steam shoot into the air when it made contact with the cool sea water.

Eventually the Yamato settled, surprisingly stable in its old environment despite all its modifications. After checking for damages the mighty ship began its short swim to the shore intent of making a grand entrance.

The calm didn’t last long however, As the Yamato came within a mile of the metropolitan city it was immediately set upon and flanked on either side by two fellow warships. While both were dwarfed by the Yamato’s impossibly massive bulk, their cannons still turned to face the intruding craft.

“You are entering a patrolled area, state your name, rank and intention or will we open fire. You have sixty seconds to respond,” a voice called over the radio.

Panicked murmurs sounded around the bridge, most of which were questioning why they were being threatened by allies. Not wanting for the situation to escalate any further than it was currently, the princess quickly replied.

“This is Admiral Celestia of the Royal Equestrian Navy Yamato. Our intentions are to dock in Axial naval port.”

There was a momentary silence from the other side of the comms before a response crackled through.

“There is no ship in the R.E.N that goes by that name and the princess hasn’t used her title of Admiral for over sixteen years. Explain yourself or we will be forced to open fire.”

The murmurs increased around the bridge, none of the ponies being overly keen on being shot at. Celestia wasn’t fazed however. Calmy she leaned down to the intercom and whispered.

“Six-six-nine, Little Rock contingency,” Celestia replied swiftly, the small and seemingly random string of numbers and words causing another, much longer moment of silence.

Eventually the voice on the other end came back, this time more far more respectful and slightly more timid than before.

“Greetings Admiral, you are cleared for entry. Proceed to bay eight, The Loyalty and the Laughter will escort you.”

The cannons on the two smaller craft swung back into their forward positions, before all three ships began making a long lazy arch to starboard. Unfortunately due to the Yamato’s immense length and space faring adaptations it was less than agile in the water. This was no more evident than when the Loyalty turned slightly too tightly and came within meters of swapping paint with the Yamato, giving the crew of both ships a good look at the hardware of the other. Eventually after a near constant wrestle with the controls the Yamato finally made it to its designated dock without incident.

Axial Naval base was one of the largest military installations in Equestria and most definitely the largest on the east coast. Named after Admiral Axial Fire for his service in the Minotaur wars where he became one of the Military’s most respected figures. Everypony that served in the forces looked up to him even if they weren’t part of the navy. His selfless acts of valour are what many claimed to be the winning factor in the war.

The port itself had the dual function of being an airfield for bomber pegasi in war times. Fortunately in Equestria’s current times of peace it was used as a training field for air force recruits and as the staging for the Wonderbolts whenever they held a show in Manehatten.

Bay eight was one of the largest docks in the port, A long concrete pier ran down the left side out into the ocean, yet the right was left open, this was particularly useful for the Yamato as it so vastly dwarfed all other ships and most likely wouldn’t fit in most other ports.

Even so as the Yamato crept into its pier, a huge shudder ran through the ship, throwing the ponies aboard forward at the sudden lurch.

“Did you forget about us down here?” A pony called up through the intercom from the now submerged third bridge that had collided with the soft mud causing Twilight to blush at her misjudgment of the bays’ size.

Ignoring the complaints of the pony below them, Celestia switched the channel back to the Laughter.

“This is Admiral Celestia, I request that Axial Naval base be opened to the public.”

“...Affirmative,” came the reply.

Twilight turned to face Celestia, her face showing not one of concern but of curiosity. “What are you doing, princess?”

“Applejack’s right. I’ve been keeping far too many secrets from not just you, but everypony. I think its about time the truth came out.”

* * *

As night fell the huge field spotlights overlooking the area in front of the Yamato suddenly came to life, shining down upon the growing number of ponies gathering before the raised platform whom the princess was stood upon.

Upon hearing that Axial had opened to the public on request of the princess, curious ponies flocked to the military site. Every single one of them wishing to figure out what had prompted Celestia to make an appearance on such short notice.

Among the several hundred or so civilians were at least six dozen reporters. Even if they weren’t wearing the telltale garb that reporters normally wore and lugging around huge cameras they still would have been easy to spot, normal ponies simply weren’t that loud.

Even from Rainbow’s perch atop one of the huge field lights she still managed to pick the bloodsuckers out over the din.

“Princess can you explain why you opened Axial to the public?” one reporter questioned.

“Do you have anything to say about the strange object that flew past Cloudsdale?”

“Care to comment about the landslide at Canterlot? And your unexplained absence during it?”

Through the barrage of questions Celestia remained silent and stoic, simply waiting until the last of the ponies had filed through the gates before speaking.

Once the last bulk group of ponies were herding into position at the rear of the ever growing crowd, Celestia cleared her throat before employing the Royal Canterlot voice upon them.

It wasn’t as invasive of obnoxious as Luna’s had been, it somehow retained its warm tone yet was simply louder so that everypony could hear.

“My dearest citizens of Manehatten,” she began. “I know you must have many questions about the events that have transpired across Equestria in the past few hours.”

Rainbow paused as she said this. It hardly seemed like yesterday morning she had been napping on a tree in Ponyville.

“Firstly, I would like to address why I have opened Axial Naval Base to the public. Rest assured it is only to hold this conference and will be reinstated as a military facility once we have adjourned,” she stated.

“The reason for this is, simply this vessel here,” she said, gesturing to the Yamato behind her with a wing.

“Some keen eyed individuals may have noted that it does not fit the profile of any ship in the royal navy, not even that of the recently constructed Harmony class.”

“This is because it is not a Royal Navy ship. Nor is it even an Equestrian vessel.”

The crowd began to murmur among themselves, trying to decode the strange statement made by their ruler.

“This ship, is the Yamato. and it does not hail from Equus,” she finished slowly.

“Are you saying that this ship is alien princess?” a reporter in the front row spoke out.

“...Yes.”

A collective gasp went up from the huge crowd, reporters quickly scribing the juicy info onto their notepads. A few more melodramatics in the crowd even went as far as to faint into the arms of sompony nearby.

Celestia braced for the coming accusations, confusing and panic that would arise from this newly revealed event. yet strangely, none came. In fact almost the exact opposite occurred. Ponies stood riveted in place waiting for her next comment, occasionally one would glance upwards to the huge towering bow of the Yamato, with a strange look of respect, curiosity and apprehension.

“The Yamato has been in Equestria for longer than I have, we discovered it two centuries ago in the chambers beneath Canterlot. It was not until yesterday afternoon that we finally launched it.”

“I’m sorry I lied to you all, not just about the Yamato but about something else, something that i’m sure you all remember. The Little Rock disaster.”

Another gasp sounded with more than a few ponies taking on very somber expressions after hearing the name.

Even Rainbow put a hoof over her mouth to stifle the gasp that would have sounded if she hadn’t. She remembered it well, everypony did. In a land with as little crime as Equestria the Little Rock disaster had come as a shock to them all and was still very fresh in all of their hearts.

Several years ago, a research facility had been set up just to the west of the Crystal kingdom was now. Staffed by two families both with young fillies the site boasted some of the most advanced and up to date stargazing technology the world had ever seen. Of course no pony save for the exceptionally devoted had really cared. Nopony in Ponyville had even heard of it until Twilight had begun spouting nonsense about a new star system being discovered.

And it stayed this way until roughly two months ago, when the largest and most brutal act of terrorism Equestria had ever witnessed laid waste to the facility. Explosive charges had been set on the movement rail that helped the large radio dish rotate. They had gone unnoticed until the dish had rolled over them setting them off.

The whole telescope collapsed in on itself, there were no survivors. Not even the young fillies.

The news had rocked the entirety of the nation to its core. The papers had said it was some Celestia-purists who believed that looking at other stars was an affront to their princess.

Naturally Celestia was disgusted and appalled but this didn’t change the fact that six ponies had died as a result.

“The Little Rock disaster was a complete fabrication. There was no terrorist attack, nopony died, their all living their lives out peacefully under different names,” The princess stated sadly.

Nopony said anything as the words sank in. Emotions varied across the plain of faces, some somber, some utterly perplexed but more than a few were either angry or hurt. Even the Elements who were scattered around were shocked save Applejack who gazed sternly at her ruler, equal parts angry for lying and proud for confession.

“Little Rock intercepted a transmission two months ago,” Celestia said quickly picking up where she left off.

“At first we thought nothing of it as it was seemingly random sequences of noise. We were about to disregard it when one of my top scientists suggested we run it through the devices aboard the Yamato.”

“In return we got a message. A message from a distant star claiming that if we could return the message’s point of origin we would learn of our own.”

For the third time that evening the ponies gasped at the revelation. This was a particularly big claim, prior to a few hundred years before the unification there was no recorded history of Equestria. Not even the princesses had an idea as to when or where ponies started. Of course there were myths and legends, and the most commonly agreed upon theory was that ponies, zebras and the like had evolved from the Crystal ponies.

For some space faring message to say it knew of the beginning of their species was a monumental claim. One that could very well change Equestria and possibly the whole of Equus forever.

“This is why Little Rock was destroyed, we couldn’t risk this information being leaked, we were much too afraid of mass hysteria if it was ever found out.”

“In fact, I was planning to keep it this way until a certain pony ‘convinced’ me otherwise,” Celestia said with a smirk glancing toward Applejack.

“But I still wish to say this. I am truly, truly sorry that I kept this from you all. I don’t expect to ever be forgiven but it is enough to know that I am no longer keeping secrets from my own subjects,” She finished, her tone becoming very humble.

Several somber moments past. Celestia bowed her head low to the ground feeling the eyes of hundred of ponies burn into her. When she was convinced that no pony was about to start a riot she quickly looked up.

“And finally. I also wish to hold a Celebration in honour of the R.E.N’s adoption of the newest ship into its fleet. The Yamato!”

On her que Pinkie quickly flipped the switch that she had happened to be conveniently standing next to, The powerful spotlights turning their attention to the alien craft, as ridiculously oversized speakers seemed to pop out from everywhere around the base all begin to blare the same song.

The uplifting beat washed over the ponies within Axial, the simple addition of cheery music doing wonders to alter the atmosphere.

The entire mood of the base shifted as the happy music began to resonate through the crowd, ponies all began to ditch their sour attitude and starting swinging in time to the music.

The lies were all forgotten as the ponies embraced what was truly important. no use in brooding over what has already happened seemed to be the general consensus.

Ponies began to group into huge circles of laughing, dancing and partying. A few crowd surfers even emerged from the sea of partiers. A bottle of champagne seem to materialize of of thin air beside the Princess as she approached the edge of the pier.

“I christen thee Yamato!” She said jovially smacking the bottle against the ships hull, allowing the expensive liquid to wash down the side into the salty ocean.

The sudden swing in atmosphere came so quick Dash couldn’t help but let a stupid grin show as the music began to invade her body. Not wanting to succumb to dancing by herself on the top of a field light, she quickly glided down to the waterfront where Pinkie was rocking out on top of a mooring bollard.

“Pinkie did you set all this up?” Dash asked.

“Of course, silly! I’ve never held a party for a boat! Unless you count that time I christened that bathtub toy. But I’ve never had one for a space boat!”

“Where did you find this song? I’ve never heard anything so catchy,” Dash replied starting to bob her head in time with the infectious beat.

“Oh there were thousands of nifty songs on the Yamato’s radio, I just think this is the most splenderific of them all, its all about celebrating!”

“You got that right!”

As the two friends lost themselves to the music against the silhouette of the Yamato, a certain apple farmer was approached by a scholarly unicorn.

“Applejack?” Twilight said to her friend softly.

“Yea Twi?” The orange mare responded in a considerably lighter tone than the one she had used earlier.

“Why did you abuse the princess?” Twilight asked bluntly.

Applejack was slightly off put by the powerful comment but replied swiftly.

“Ah told ya, Twi. She lied to us. You know that just doesn't sit right with me.”

“No, if it was just that you would have been upset with her. You attacked her, I can tell you’re hiding something AJ.”

Applejack sighed as the memories bubbled forth in preparation of her upcoming recount.

“Ah told ya about how my parents died right?” She said softly.

“Mmm you said they were killed in a train accident.” Twilight responded carefully, now aware than the topic they were talking about was very sensitive.

“Mm hm. What I didn’t tell ya was about the stallion who came round to tell us all about it,” She said glumly.

Twilight, realizing that old wounds still hurt, moved in closer to comfort her friend.

“Ah was only young at the time, Applebloom had only just been born a few months ago and ah was looking after her.”

“Ah didn’t see him come in but when I heard cryin’ I came downstairs. Mac was crying into grannies shoulder, and she looked so sad. He came over to me, he was smilin’ but even then I could tell it was forced.”

“H-he said that ma and pa had gone somewhere, and that they wouldn’t be back for a really long time.”

“And for years ah believed him. I used to wait down by the gate for em.”

“It wasn’t till our old dog Gypsy died that I realized death was, it didn’t take long for me to put two an two together,” She trailed off as the painful memories surfaced.

Twilight wrapped a supportive hoof around her friend.

“Thats why ah came here to Manehatten. Ah just wanted to get away. When I came back I vowed that I’d never let another pony go through the pain caused by lies. Maybe thats why the element chose me?” She said with a sad chuckle.

“So when Ah heard that the Princess had lied to us about Little Rock, that did it. Ah was so mad and Ah-”

“It’s okay AJ. I understand,” Twilight said soothingly.

The orange mare looked over at her unicorn friend who sporting an understanding, sympathetic smile.

“Thanks Twi, ya really are a good friend,” Applejack said simply allowing the memories to be healed once again with the help of a close friend.

Meanwhile Celestia had since retreated to the Yamato’s deck, even if Axial was open to the public, the ships weren’t, allowing her some much appreciated silence.

That was until a dark Alicorn emerged from the shadows beneath the Yamato’s forward battery.

“Tia?” Luna asked.

“Eventful evening don’t you think?” Celestia responded, absently sweeping a hoof across the deck.

“...Quite. Tell me, Tia, why did you tell them? You told me you were petrified of the ponies learning the truth, why not just create a new cover?”

“That wouldn’t have helped Luna, I knew one day the truth would get out, I am glad that it was from my own lips and not some crazy newspaper.”

Celestia sighed before turning to look directly at her sister. “I’m tired of secrets. It hurt me so much to know that I was keeping things from my little ponies, especially Little Rock.”

Luna was about to respond when a wave of realization washed over Celestia, her face quivered before tears sprung from her eyes, the regal Alicorn now openly weeping.

Luna approached her bawling sister cautiously, “Tia? I understand it must have been difficult but I had no idea it hit you that har-”

“It’s not that Luna,” Celestia replied wiping the tears from her face with her hoof in a very, unbecoming manner.

“We went to the Moon, Luna. We found the crater. I-I saw the monolith, I’m so sorry Luna I..” She trailed off.

“You need not worry Tia, While I was angry at first of course, several of those craters weren’t there a thousand years ago I no longer blame you for what you did.”

“That monolith you saw wasn’t me counting the years I’d been there,” She said taking hold of her sisters face and looking straight into her eyes.

“It was the years I’d been away from you.”

Chapter 8

The sky was clear and the sea was calm in the mid-morning sun that hung over of Axial Naval Base. The clouds had been removed at dawn and the bathing warmth of the sun washed over the elegant forms of a flock of birds that cruised overhead. Ultimately it was a calming, serene scene above the port.

The same however could not be said for the ground. Thousands more ponies than those who had turned out for Celestia’s informal announcement had travelled from far and wide. In the six weeks following the Yamato’s reveal, the story of both it and Little Rock had spread like wildfire, not only over Equestria, but to every corner of the globe.

The news of Little Rock didn’t affect most of the globe as it was simply an Equestrian affair, yet the Yamato and its proof of aliens was another matter entirely. Even though Celestia feared that the Yamato’s discovery would instill panic throughout the world it was infact the complete opposite.

Because of the fact the Yamato’s existence had been confirmed from a position of power rather than that of a basement conspiracy nut, the populace had taken the news well. Apart from the occasional one or two dozen ponies whom had freaked out at the thought of an alien ship sitting in one of their cities the rest of Equestria had been more or less excited about it.

With the guiding wing of Celestia, as well as help from Luna, Cadence and the six famed Elements, the populace quickly swung in favour of Celestia's proposed idea of following the aptly dubbed ‘Star message’.

Within the week, Yamato fever had swept the country. Paintings were hung in art galleries, sculptures mounted in dozens of cities, even songs had been rapidly composed telling of the Yamato’s story. All of them fictional however, yet that did little to stop the influx of ponies who were now anxiously waiting.

For the second time in as many months Axial had turned from a prided naval installation to an all out party capital. Carnival rides had been erected between and around buildings, concession stands sprung up selling horribly delicious fairground foods and even photo stands had been built on the dockside beneath the Yamato in order for ponies to have their picture taken with Equestria’s first spacecraft.

Beside the Yamato itself the main attraction was a Wonderbolts airshow. Despite being fairly short notice the stunt fliers had assured Celestia that it would be nothing less than spectacular.

In the time leading up to the main event however, a concert was where everypony had gathered to party, including six familiar mares.

“This is awesome!” Dash exclaimed, “I’ve never been to a party this big in my life!” She finished as the band launched into an impressive guitar solo which the pegasus couldn’t help but rock out to.

“And to think Celestia was worried,” Applejack guffawed.

“Well in all fairness I can see where she was coming fr-” Twilight attempted to respond before being promptly interrupted by Rainbow.

“Oh my gosh I love this bit!” The ecstatic mare cried bobbing her head wildly in time to the powerful tones from the stage.

‘She’s my cherry pie!’ Rainbow sung to herself in her head, knowing all too well how that might appear if a mare had sung that part aloud.

‘Not that there’s anything wrong with that! Cherry Pie is a good looking mare.’

The song soon ended with that thought, earning an deafening roar from the huge crowd. The lead singer quickly accepted a rag from one of the stage hands using it to wipe the sweat from his face as he made his way to the microphone.

“Gooooooood moooooooooorniiiiiiiinngggg Axial!” He cheered, earning another roar from the excited ponies below.

“We know why you're all here! And I know it isn’t just to see us,” He continued. The crowd responded with ear piercing whistles, shouts of agreement and a cacophony of cheers as he smiled and waved his hooves to increase the cheers.

“Fillies and Gentlecolts! Let me re-introduce you to the ship of the hour! The Yamatoooo!” He cheered as a backdrop fell away in a shower of fireworks to reveal the massive bow of the great vessel as the crowd went wild.

“Let’s show this ship just how ponies Paaaaaaaaarrty!”

The iconic bow towered over the band as they started a new song, an instrumental with no lyrics but just as much power, adding to the majesty of the ship.

* * *

A few hours later after the band had given way to a bunch of researchers who began to drone on about the ship the crowd had dispersed around the base.

While some of the more dedicated individuals stayed behind to hear about which direction the toilets flushed in, Rainbow Dash had maneuvered her way to a series of sun tents.

As she entered the open-walled pavillion, she noted that a huge number of long tables dominated most of the area. Curious to see why so many tables had been erected she quickly darted to the closest stall.

At first, Rainbow thought that she had wandered into a market, the tables were loaded with dozens of seemingly random knick-knacks, and odd looking personal effects. Strangely, none of the objects sported a price tag, or any identification as to what they were.

“It’s something else isn’t it?” An older mare spoke up from behind the counter.

“Huh?”

“All these things that we pulled off the ship. It’s bizarre to think that these aliens were so like us yet so different,” The mare replied gesturing to a mane brush.

“Oh,” Rainbow said as it finally clicked, that these weren’t markets, but a museum of sorts.

“So this is all stuff they pulled off the Yamato?” Rainbow pondered.

“Mm hmm, like I said its really quite spectacular to think that they were so much more advanced than us, yet they still had to brush their teeth the old fashioned way,” She said pointing to a cup full of variously colored brushes.

“Yeah I guess,” Rainbow replied in an unamused tone. Not that this didn’t interest her, but she’d seen toothbrushes before.

“I mean, this is cool and all but we’ve got all this stuff already, got anything weird?”

“Well there is this thing.” The mare replied pulling out a strange piece of fabric, which kind of resembled a star with five tubes pointing out from one end and a large hole in the rear, vaguely similar to one of spikes claw warmers.

“I think it’s called a glauve, or something like that.”

“Eh, thats more of a Rarity thing, got anything cool?” Rainbow asked innocently, failing to notice the scowl she got given in return.

“Oh, I have just the thing,” the mare replied as she fished under the table for a moment before pulling out an odd looking box.

The ‘box’ was fairly small, not much larger than a playing card. It was roughly as thick as a pencil and one face was a completely flat, black pane of glass with a small button at one end.

Rainbows eyes widened at the sight of the peculiar object “What is that?”

“Frankly? I’ve no idea, I’ve been using it as a paperweight. All I know is that if you push that little button that bit of glass lights up,” The mare shrugged.

Now thoroughly intrigued, Rainbow scooped up the device carefully, as if it were a precious artifact, which in reality it kind of was.

With utmost care, which was odd considering the pegasus in question, Rainbow gently pushed the button in with the very tip of her hoof. As the mare had said the face light up displaying an amazing array of nine little circles. A small message at the top said ‘enter pattern to unlock.’

“It needs some kind of secret pattern to do anything else, I haven't been able to work it out,” the mare said with a shrug.

“It’s like a monitor on the Yamato, but really small,” Rainbow said turning to object over in her hoof to look at the back.

“You’ve been on the Yamato?” The mare questioned, her curiosity growing.

“Tactical Officer,” Rainbow said off-handedly without looking up from the device.

“My gosh! How exciting! I only got to wait in the labs and look at stuff when they brought it up from the cavern, but I’ve never been inside. What's it like?!” the curious mare said excitedly, leaning over the table and getting very close to Rainbow.

“It’s uh.. big,” Rainbow said, backing away from the excitable mare.

“Really what else? Oh it must be so amazing,” she gushed.

“Uh, I think I hear the princess calling!” Rainbow said quickly, eager to remove herself from the company of the increasingly obsessive mare.

“Oh, well I mustn't keep you then. You can hang onto that if you’d like, you’ll get more use out of it than me,” the researcher added.

Rainbow said nothing, choosing instead to quickly nod her head before her wings sprang open, launching herself away from the stall.

Finding herself back at the stage in front of the Yamato, Rainbow took the time to look over at the reason behind the party.

When she had first seen the Yamato, standing on the small rocky outcrop in the cavern below Canterlot, It looked strange, and weird. When she had stood underneath one of its huge cannons, while it was embedded in the stone floor, it had looked sorrowful, yet imposing. When she had stood underneath its bulk upon the moon, it towered over her and seemed to convey only, raw power and wonder.

But now as she looked at it from its height, matching her altitude with its stature, her magenta eyes directly level with the huge aperture recessed into the head of the bow, The huge length of the mighty ship extending out and away from her, there was only one thing that came to mind. Only one word in existence could accurately sum up what Rainbow was seeing at that very moment.

Awesome.

Yet, Unbeknownst to the pegasus as she gazed at the huge ship before her in awe, a different conscious was at work.

And it gazed back.

* * *

Several hours passed, the band alternated between playing well known rock songs and making way for a classical band to perform more majestic scores. The stalls set up beside the Yamato had been cleared to make way for the main event.

Cheering ponies, griffons and any other race that had shown lined the designated walkway leading to a large gangplank rising up to the ships deck, peasi flew overhead showering confetti as three hundred ponies marched down between the lines of cheering onlookers.

Returning smilies to the ponies waving their hooves, the crew slowly made their way up the ramp before filing in to the Yamato’s innards. More than a few ponies from the sidelines had tried to jump the barrier to join them, but were quickly subdued by security.

The six Elements and their ‘captain’ brought up the rear, adding to the grandeur of the ceremony. While Applejack, Twilight and Fluttershy shied away from the attention, the remaining three mares soaked it up, none more so than the colorful pegasus who reveled in the praise.

After reaching the top, five of the six made their way inside, with only one staying on the deck, intent on taking all the attention she could get.

“Come on, put your hooves up!” Rainbow cried, to which the crowd eagerly responded.

“Careful, Rainbow Dash, too much of that and you won’t be able to fit your head through the door,” The princess smirked as she passed. Rainbow whipped around, mouth agape.

‘The princess has a sense of humour?!’

* * *

A few minutes later, all crew were seated in their respective stations, eagerly awaiting the green light. From outside the loyal band came out on stage on last time.

“Allllriiiigghtt Axial! Are you all ready from the main event?!” The lead singer cheered.

“Yeah!” The crowd cried.

“Come on, I’m sure those brave ponies in there can’t hear you!” He cried, pointing back toward the ship.

“Yeah!” The crowd roared louder.

“Once more!”

“Yeeeaaah!” Their cheers were so loud they were incomprehensible, but the pounding applause from their hooves on the concrete got the message across.

“Alright! Give it up for the Yamato!”

The crowd roared again, this time however they were accompanied by multiple streaks of smoke shooting over the Yamato and continuing over their heads. Seeing their cue the band launched into one last powerful ballard.

The signature move of the Wonderbolts finally signaled to Celestia that it was time to get the ball rolling. Giving a curt nod down to Twilight, the purple unicorn slowly maxed the throttle.

From outside, the spectators below gazes were torn away from the Wonderbolts back to the huge ship that was now quaking violently. Before any of them had time to grow concerned, the Wonderbolts, shot back overhead. In the same moment, the hugely powerful thrusters on the Yamatos belly opened up.

Huge plumes of seawater and steam shot high into the air, just as the Wonderbolts passed, creating a brilliant mixture of smoke,steam and water. The dockside immediately became swamped with the displaced liquid, the Yamato not allowing it to return into the bay.

Once the majority of water had been cleared, more jets opened. The increased thrust began to lift the heavy ship skyward. The onlookers all took an instinctive step back as the hurricane force winds slammed into them, billowing their manes and coats wildly.

The roar from the engines easily deafened any cheers that may have been sounding from excited ponies who watched on in awe as over three-hundred metres of ship lifted effortlessly into the air.

The massive craft continued to rise. Water spilled from every surface, drenching those below. Gun barrels and anchors bristled in the mid morning sun. A sharp eye could easily make out all the micro movements the ships many thrusters made.

Over the din of thrusters, a pained mechanical whine sounded, announcing the reveal of the two colossal wings that unfolded from just above the anti-fouling paint.

Two say that it was a sight to behold was truly an understatement of universal proportions.

Slowly, the Yamato began to pitch over to the right slightly. The movement allowing the behemoth ship to spin in mid air. After completing a complete one hundred and eighty degree about, the bow pitched up, facing back over the ocean.

The elevated position gave the crowd back on the dock a good look at the Yamatos business end, to which multiple photographers immediately snapped up.

More jets, this time on the stern, roared into action, pushing the ship forward away from the excited ponies, giving it just enough room to really open up.

All three mighty boosters warmed to an orange glow, the air in and around them heating until the point where a column of flame and power shot from each.

The effect was instantaneous, the Yamato immediately began to climb, its speed ever increasing as it ascended on its upward path. The Wonderbolts quickly re-entered the picture, none of them quite expected the feeling of being punched in the gut as they closed in but stayed strong.

The trails of smoke began to spiral and corkscrew around the ship as it rose, creating a kind of smoky, black tunnel which was promptly obliterated when the thrust from the engine touched it.

The Yamato continued to accelerate, leaving the Wonderbolts to peel off and return to the port. A few moments later, the double thunderclap, resonated from each end of the ship as it shattered the sound barrier.

Faster still, the speedometer within the ship began to tally up more and more machs, the brilliant, cloudless, blue sky slowly faded as it dimmed to a smoky black and Lunas’ stars began to reappear.

From the ground, the Yamato became no more than a red dot, impossibly high above them. The look of awe never left any of their faces. Equestria had just witnessed its first taste of space travel.

And they liked it.

Author's Note

would you believe this chapter was the most difficult to write?

Chapter 9

The shiny blue marble of Equus hung behind the conical stern of the Yamato in the depths of space. For a second time, Equestria’s first Spacecraft left what was its ‘home’.

Now that all of the crew had been through launch before, and knew what to do, and what not to expect from the ship, far more of them took the time to look out the craft’s windows.

The stars didn’t twinkle. That was probably the most jarring difference. They just sort of... sat there and shone, like a really dim candle. The other off-putting trait of the darkness of space was it was so quiet.

Obviously, the ponies within the ship couldn’t actually tell that over the gentle purr of the engine, but they could sense it. It was uncanny, sitting there in their miniscule can, not knowing what lay beyond the light.

Some ponies felt fear. Others felt alone. Others didn’t have time to be looking out the windows as Celestia was being particularly demanding.

“All X.O to the Tactical Command Room,” the captain's voice called over the P.A.

‘That’s a new one,’ Rainbow Dash thought to herself as she galloped through the ship. Celestia had been commanding the Officers since the launch and even the athletic mare was beginning to feel the burn from running from one end of the ship to the other.

So far, all tactical decisions had been made fairly casually in the bridge. Now, however, they were going to use the room actually designed for such things.

Shrugging off her current task of ‘Making sure Pinkie Pie didn’t eat all the biscuits’ as unimportant, Rainbow veered into a branching hallway.

In the six weeks between the last flight, Dash, as well as everypony else had been rigorously trained in their roles. Infinitely more in depth than Apollo’s personalized crash course, the training actually made time to teach crew the innards of the ship.

By the time training was over, Dash could navigate the ship backwards with a blindfold. Which she had done, after one too many ciders and a round of Truth or Dare with Applejack.

Annoyingly the pegasus was forbidden from flying within the ship's corridors. While there was a gym complete with a small track where she could fly, it irritated her greatly that she couldn’t at least glide from point A to B.

Still, she did outrank most other ponies on the Yamato, and she knew this full well.

Rounding a bend, she saw a rather spindly looking colt with a snot green coat and a huge pair of dork glasses. The young stallion seemed to be paused in the center of the hall, picking up a stack of papers that he had managed to drop.

Not wanted to be blasted by the captain for being late, she neglected to stop and help the colt, and instead took a running leap over him.

The colt seemed shocked, in both being nearly tackled and that a pretty mare was so close to him. He promptly hit the deck, as she sailed overhead, using her wings to extend her glide.

“Sorry!” she called back.

The geeky colt, seemed entranced for a moment that a mare (an element of Harmony no less!) had actually spoken to him, He was so mesmerized that the failed to notice the hoof of his superior come down on the back of his skull.

“Kerbal! Quit gawking and get those papers to accounting! We can’t get any more mops without them!”

Dash snickered to herself as she flew away from the scene. She was so preoccupied looking back at the poor colt that she failed to notice the body of Apollo emerge from a side room and collided with the unsuspecting stallion.

“Oof!,” Apollo grunted as he suddenly found himself going sideways.

“Ow,” Dash grumbled, rubbing the spot on her head she had collided with him at.

“You’ve got a hard shoulder ya know!” Rainbow chastised as if it was his fault.

Apollo picked himself up of the polished steel floor before turning to her.

“Hello to you, too,” he smirked, before lifting himself off the ground into a low hover.

Dash gasped, “You’re not allowed to fly!”

“You’re right, but who's gonna stop the First Officer?” He chuckled.

Dash couldn’t help but let an unbelieving smile cross her face, at Apollo literally flying in the face of the rules he had a part in installing.

“You’re weird,” Dash said, flying up to join him.

“I’ve been told,” Apollo chuckled as he made his way to the T.C.R.

“Coming?”

“Thank you all for coming so promptly,” Celestia said with a smile at the ponies gathered in the large room deep in the armoured core of the ship, “We’ve recently managed to ascertain the function of this room as a form of strategy center, where the senior crew can plan their next move for military operations.”

Twilight looked around the dark room curiously. “I don’t see any maps or charts here, Admiral.”

Celestia smiled. “Doctor.”

“Voila!” The Doctor stated with a flourish of his hoof as the floor suddenly illuminated and displayed the Equus System.

“Amazing people, the creators of this vessel, it uses no magic but highly advanced technology, centuries if not millennia ahead of ours, to control light!” He moved through a floating image of the ship orbiting the planet, causing it to warp slightly before resuming its normal state.

“We’ve found some remote controls that can allow the user to supply the appropriate information, but lacking certain physical compatibilities...” He waved his hoof again, “We’ve had to get creative.”

He raised his hoof and indicated a brace on it. “First off, any non-unicorn will need these in order to carry them. I’ve had several made, and they’re in my pack.” He shrugged off the bag in questioned and opened it to reveal more of the braces. “One each please, no pushing, there’s plenty for everyone.”

Once everypony without a horn had strapped a brace to a forehoof, the Doctor continued, “With this, we can hold the devices since they were clearly made for beings with graspers much like Minotaurs or Griffons. Now then...”

He pulled out one of the devices from a pocket on his vest, placed it in a holder on the brace and demonstrated that it was securely held in place.

“As you can see, moving your hoof around will not dislodge it. You will need to firmly take hold of it with your other hoof to pry it off. Don’t worry, you won’t break it,”

Taking the statement as a challenge, Dash, promptly began to violently shake her hoof in an effort to prove the Doctor’s claims wrong. With the rapid flailing of her hoof doing little to shift the device, all she got was some strange looks.

“Rainbow, stop playing with that,” Twilight said under her breath to the mare next to her. With a huff, Rainbow Dash stopped flailing around before she blushed slightly at all the stares.

With a polite cough, Celestia regained control of the discussion, “Thank you Doctor, once again you have made our jobs in operating this vessel a little easier.” She turned her attention to the screen. “As the good Doctor mentioned before, this is advanced technology, but that is not why you are all here.”

Her horn glowed, causing another device to glow as well before the image before them zoomed out to display a simple diagram showing three large dots; two of them orbiting around the central one, and a small ship icon barely an inch from the middle dot.

It was obvious that the central dot was Equus, and the other two represented both the sun and the moon respectively, yet that was not what Celestia wished to show.

The display zoomed out again, much further this time, until it displayed only a single dot and the ship icon was indicated by a small annotation.

Celestia indicated with a wing, “That is why you are all here.”

There on the display, far from their home planet, was a single white ring with a large dot orbiting along it as Celestia began speaking, “One of the Yamato’s critical systems is something that the databases call the Warp Drive, an engine system that allows this vessel to cross vast stellar distances in the space of seconds. Today, we are going to test the drive by going to that planet.”

Twilight approached the dot with a quizzical expression. “What planet is this Admiral?” she asked, eyeballing the animated dot curiously.

Celestia smiled slightly. “That is the Dark Star.”

Everyone save for the Doctor and Celestia stared in shock at the dot as she started speaking again.

“Of course it isn’t really a star, it is a planet much the same as Equus. They only called it one because they couldn’t tell what it actually was,” Celestia admitted sheepishly, remembering she had disagreed to rename it when Starswirl had discovered it was actually a planet.

“Uh, Captain, not to be a pain, but haven’t you heard the stories about that place?” one of the crew spoke up.

“Of course, but they are just that. Stories.” She smiled, before her expression became more serious. “But they are stories that are found in all civilisations, ours and others, all myths and legend have the Dark Star in one form or another.”

She indicated the dot again. “We know that it is real, but the distance from Equus is so vast that we would ruin our world and our magic simply trying to reach the halfway point. We need to travel so fast that light cannot match us if we are to find out the truth about this world.”

“The Warp Drive...” Twilight spoke out loud in realisation, prompting another smile from Celestia as she continued, “You want to use the Warp Drive to reach and study the Dark Star.”

“Exactly,” Celestia confirmed. “Starswirl the Bearded and many other mages of renown all put forward a theory that the magical leylines on Equus are fed by the Dark Star. While they have never been able to prove it in their lifetimes, this mission should prove or disprove their theories once and for all.”

“Moreover...” Her horn glowed and the display changed to a detailed image of the Yamato’s interior. “The Warp Drive is a key element to this ship’s systems, connected to a single, massive component of unknown purpose. We have already activated the Wave Motion Engine in order to supply it power,” she continued, looking over the both Twilight and Dash.

“With this mission we will know if the Warp Drive is operational, as the operations manual data indicates that automatic cut-offs were designed to prevent the Warp Drive engaging if parts were damaged or missing,” Celestia stated, before indicating with a wing towards the bow of the ship.

“After that, there will only be a device the logs called the Wave Motion Gun.” A small portion of the imagine blinked, indicating the area she spoke of.

“Only when all three are operational will this ship be ready to truly explore the stars.”

Dash smirked as she remembered this tidbit. She had felt privileged that she had been told of its function before the others, after all it fell under her jurisdiction.

“But that is for another time.” Celestia’s words snapped Dash out of her daydream. “All command crew are to ensure that their respective areas of authority are prepared for the Warp Drive test. I want all crew in their EVA suits in case of hull breach or other emergency, and I want full preparedness drills done; fire, hull breach, ammunition explosions, even boarding attempts. I want all crew ready in six hours.”

“Aye, Aye Admiral!” They chorused in reply, before filing out to begin their tasks.

Twilight turned to leave with them, but not before taking one last glance back to the projection, which had switched back to the map, complete with a timer counting down to warp.

A sense of trepidation and dread crawled into her stomach as she looked back at their destination. An annotation had been attached to the dot. Displaying, rather ominously; DARK STAR.

Somehow, she felt as if this was not going to end well.

“For the last time, Pinkie! These have to last us for the entire journey. I don’t care how desperately you need them!” the guard wrestling with the pink menace growled.

“But how am i gonna throw parties without cake! Or sweets! Or, or any food!” Pinkie cried.

“Simple. You won’t!” he barked.

“Whaaaat!” Pinkie gasped comically, backpedaling away from the stallion as if he were radioactive.

“N-no parties?” she whimpered as if it what she had just said was blasphemy.

“No, Pinkie. No parties.”

A telltale lip wobble indicated the coming torrents of salty tears.

“Oh for... Give me strength, Luna,” The guard mumbled under his breath. He didn’t know which one he disliked more. The crying or the over-the-top bubble headed obliviance.

Growling to himself, he began dragging Pinkie Pie away from the Supply Room, “Come on you, if you won’t stay away from the supplies, you can stay in the brig until you calm down.”

With that said, the guard dragged the pony away as other crew members moved out of the way, some sympathetic, but most with the same exasperated annoyance in their eyes at the pink pony’s antics.

“It’s weird isn’t it?” A technician pony spoke to his partner.

“Huh?” The mare responded. Pulling her head from an open panel in the side of a fighter, a wrench in her jaws muffling her speech.

The two aeronautical technicians had been tasked with making sure each and every fighter was in functioning condition. The job was complicated and boring, but getting to do it while floating around in zero-gravity made it worth it.

“Well I mean neither of us are pegasus, yet we’re the best qualified to fix these things,” the stallion said, tapping his hoof against the small ship.

“I find it strange that these things exist at all,” the mare responded, taking the wrench from her mouth.

“I mean, these things are alien, and we’re disgracing them by rubbing our grubby hooves all over them.”

The stallion rolled his eyes. He’d forgotten that his partner thought so very highly of the species that built the Yamato.

“I find it amazing that some creature out there managed to get something this big and cumbersome to fly,” her eyes seemed to twinkle as she said this.

“Can you imagine what it was like for them? Seeing a creation of their own soar through the air? It’s like if you or me managed to get our living room couch to fly. I would love to have seen how they got this far.”

“What do you mean by that?” the stallion asked.

“Well they couldn’t have gone straight from ground pounding to spaceship could they?” she deadpanned.

“We did,” he replied smugly.

“What I mean is that; how long do you think it took them to go from their first flight to space travel?”

“I dunno. Sixty years?” he offered.

“Sixty! That’s your guess? Only sixty years?” The mare cried crawling over the fighter to look him in the eye.

The stallion gave her a strange look. “You’re weird, Lyra. You know that right?”

Six hours later, the X.O had done as they had been requested. Each pony under their respective station was suited up and bracing. The Doctor stood in the small observation room that hung above the engine, eyeing the machine critically.

‘Please work,’ he thought to himself.

The bridge crew sat in their seats within the control center of the ship. Heavy straps anchored them to the high-tech chairs, each of them were intently focused on the readout in front of them.

Nopony spoke a word, all intently waiting on the timer, displayed on the screen on the ceiling to reach zero. Being part of the weapons systems, Rainbow Dash really had nothing to do other than watch the clock.

Tearing her eyes from the screen above her, her attention shifted to the display before her. It irked her that she had no opportunity to test her division’s functions yet. After all, what was a weapons officer without weapons?

Watching the boring, predictable read out from the screens had become a decent enough way to calm herself before the warp. The endless scrolling of the same message;

‘-ERROR- NO CHARGE- WEAPONS-’

Rainbow rolled her eyes. Of course the weapons had no charge, they had been offline since launch. Yet the computer faithfully scanned the systems and displayed the same message.

That was until something changed.

‘-ERROR- NO CHA@&##$R^RAI##INB=)OWDDDA*%%SH-’ The machine garbled.

“What the?” Dash recoiled, in shock. She was certain the random mash of code had just spelled out her name.

The monitor had gone back to displaying its previous message, the system seemingly unaware of the small hiccup.

Rainbow desperately began to scroll back up, trying to find the message. But the influx of the same boring message began to mount to quickly for her to pinpoint just the one.

“Prepare for warp. T-minus thirty seconds,” the P.A blared, accompanied by a blaring siren.

Dash’s eyes shot back up to the huge screen above her. Sure enough, the display read only a few scant moments left.

Frantically, Dash readjusted herself in her seat, making sure the straps were taut and her helmet was tightly secured.

“T-minus twenty seconds.”

The ship began to rumble around them as the Wave Motion Engine began to pick up. The two flywheels spun faster and faster, drowning the engine room in a noisy haze.

“T-minus ten seconds.”

A light shined brightly out in the reaches of space directly ahead of the Yamato’s bow. The shaking intensified, causing loose items to jiggle around. Dash lifted an enclosed hoof to shield her eyes from the pinpoint of light that was growing off the bow.

“T-minus, five. Four. Three. Two. One.”

“Warp!” Twilight shouted as the ship chimed to the timer. The throttle was jammed into full and the engine responded by roaring angrily.

The flywheels spun faster than ever before, buffering the air around them. A glow emanated from between them and their mountings blinding those inside the bay.

The normal, orange cone of flame, turned into a vicious tail of blue and white power. Three pretty trails of sparks outskirts around the flame adding to the brilliance of the volcanic thrust coming from the massive thrusters at the rear of the ship.

Finally, The bow collided hard into the wall of white light. Time seemed to slow as the light engulfed the ship with a strange, alien roar, before the light finally engulfed the ship completely.

The light wall shrunk, swallowing the Yamato, until there was nothing left except a small spear of light that quickly dissipated.

Time slowed to a crawl, and though the other ponies onboard the vessel could not perceive the experience, Celestia could perceive it, and in that moment she saw something.

Figures, faded and similar in shape to the few intact pictures that had been found of the crew, moved about the bridge. Some were seated where Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and the other bridge crew were seated, operating consoles with considerable ease, while some moved about, turning to her position.

It was then that Celestia felt something, a presence, and she turned her head slightly to see...

Time resumed its flow in a flash of light as the Yamato exited Warp Space, ice peeling off the ship in a glittering cloud, and Celestia blinked.

“Admiral?” Celestia’s head jerked to stare at Apollo, who regarded her with a cautiously neutral expression. “Are you alright?”

“I...” Celestia shook her head, “I’m fine, First Officer, the jump just interacted strangely with my magic, that is all.”

Apollo nodded and turned back to his console, apparently satisfied, while Celestia smiled reassuringly at Twilight’s worried stare.

Even so, her gaze flicked ever so slightly to her left, as if trying to see something in the edge of her vision, before she turned to the task at hand, “Status Report!” she barked.

“Engineering reports all green. No anomalies to report in the Wave Motion Engine, and the Warp Drive performed perfectly!” came the report from the pony at the Engineering console, “We did it Captain! We have arrived exactly two hours away from the Dark Star!”

Celestia’s smile this time was genuine and proud, “Well done, my little ponies. Twilight, set course for the Dark Star’s orbit.”

Twilight Sparkle nodded, pitching the Yamato toward the strange, black planet, resuming its travel.

She couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of dread well within the pit of her stomach as the smoky world filled the Yamato’s window.

Author's Note

Wow! some actual story!

Chapter 10

The landing motors mounted into the Yamato’s belly opened with a snarl. The brilliant blue cones gently lowered the heavy, ship to a graceful landing on the blackened soil.

Black ash whipped around the two tone colored hull. The jets slowly cooled, then shut off completely, leaving the Yamato to rest quietly on the alien surface.

“Landing sequence, complete. Position locked,” one of the bridge crew chirped.

“So this is the Dark Star, eh?” Dash said, looking out the window from her central position in the bridge.

The landscape was black and gray, as if all the color had been sucked out. The sky was very much the same, with angry black ash clouds circling in the planets jet stream. Lightning flashed and muted thunder sounded. The occasional boulder stuck up obnoxiously out of the ground.

“Doesn’t look like much,” she added.

“Constant volcanic activity I’d say,” the Doctor chimed enthusiastically as he entered the bridge.

“I have to agree with the Doctor there,” Twilight began. “Look over there, right in the distance.” she pointed with a hoof.

Most ponies, Rainbow included, squinted their eyes, looking far into the dim sky. Sure enough, out there far on the horizon was a rise with an orange glow illuminating the dim sky around it.

“A volcano? Twi how did you see that? I can barley make that out!” Dash pointed out.

It was definitely worth noting that pegasi had far better eyesight than most other ponies. Dash knew her vision was perfect (As was everything else on her body as far as she was concerned.) so there was no way she was going blind.

“I can see it just fine,” a unicorn spoke up from the rear.

“Yeah, same here,” another added, also a unicorn.

“Hmm,” the Doctor mused, as the unicorns and non unicorns began to debate about their eyesight.

Waving Celestia over, with a few flicks of his hoof, the captain lowered herself from her chair to speak with him.

“Notice how all the unicorns can see the Volcano?” he asked.

“Yes. Do you have a theory as to why?”

“More like a hunch, but I’d wager it has something to do with those leylines you spoke of.”

“How so?” Celestia questioned.

“I can’t be sure yet, but I’d like to send out a probe, get some data.”

Celestia looked back up, out towards the horizon. Of course she could easily make out the spewing mountain, any alicorn could. But there was no way anypony apart from a few pegasi could see that far, especially in the fog and falling ash.

“All right. Prepare for terrain documentation.”

Ponies were abuzz with activity in the lower reaches of the ship’s belly. A single torpedo-like probe was being loaded into a small airlock on the underside of the craft. Unlike most else on the ship, the probe was actually pony designed.

The original ship lacked any probes. Whether or not it had used them all, or run out, or even had them to begin with, meant the ponies had to design their own. Which is why they were deploying it from an airlock rather than the ships massive torpedo tubes.

This being the case, they were extremely basic, despite being state of the art. The launch body was more or less just a metal tube. When the tube was released, the top would unscrew magically and the actual probe would emerge.

The probe was an even greater oddity. Directly linked to a unicorn waiting back on the ship, the small floating camera could be easily maneuvered remotely. The stronger the unicorn, the longer the range.

The outside airlocks opened, and the probe body dropped into the dirt unceremoniously in a cloud of dust. The top end of the cylinder unwound, and the small glowing ball floating out.

“Parasprite one away,” the unicorn controlling the ball stated.

The shining beacon in the otherwise foreboding landscape quickly began to float away from the Yamato. Its limited flight capabilities allowed it to lazily hover at speed over the blackened earth away from the comforting safety of the mighty ship.

Once the probe had gone out of range of the ships cameras, (Half of which had been obscured by a film of ash) full control was transferred to the unicorn controller.

In this state, she was completely invested in the image, unable to move, speak or even blink. The probe relayed messages straight into the unicorn who at the same moment had a neural transcript running.

A neural transcript was a basic spell, that converts any thoughts the caster had to a nearby paper. With both spells running, an average unicorn could keep the probe running for just under half an hour.

Once the clock had reached that mark however, Parasprite one was still moving.

“Are you sure she’s okay?” Twilight whispered to the Doctor as they watched on.

The Doctor eyed the mare critically. “I’m not sure, I’ve never seen anypony last this long in any of the tests. This mare alone managed a maximum time of twenty-six minutes,” he recalled.

Twilight approached the caster carefully. Of course the mare made no attempt to move. Quickly moving around her, Twilight found the transcript.

“Atmosphere contains high concentrations of hazardous materials. Surface temperature one-hundred and twenty six degrees celcius. Wind Speeds exceeding one hundred and thirty kilometers per hour,” she recited grimly.

“I hear it’s lovely in spring!” the Doctor joked.

Twilight eyes widened when a new influx of data sketched itself onto the parchment.

“Magical energies averaging, nine hundred Swirls per hectare!” she screeched.

“What?” the Doctor questioned, making his way over to her.

“Look!” she cried, hoofing the paper into the Doctors chest.

“Huh, well isn’t that remarkable,” he smiled as he read over the data.

“Remarkable! Doctor, Equus has a mean of one-hundred and eighty Swirls! Three hundred tops in places like the Everfree! This amount of magic could overcharge a unicorn to alicorn levels!”

“Or kill them,” the stallion added bluntly.

“How is this possible! There must be a malfunction in the probe-”

“Remember what Celestia said about Starswirl’s theory on the Dark Star?”

“Huh?”

“Well he theorized that the Darkstar was the source of Equus magical power. That it sat on a Universal Leyline and regulated the energy back into Equestria. Like a dam.”

“So what you’re saying is; Not only do the Leylines exist, but that the Dark Star is actually keeping Equus safe?”

“Precisely! It would explain your heightened eyesight, and why she”- He said pointed to the mare -”Is still going. We’re parked right on top of a giant magic sponge,” The Doctor smiled.

“The probe is linked directly back to her, and it’s out there soaking up all that magic. Theoretically, she could keep going till she starves.”

Twilight's eyes widened. This mare was in extreme danger. Not only did she risk frying her own horn, but if the probe encountered a high concentration of magical energy, the backlash could kill her.

“We have to stop her!” Twilight cried, racing over to the mare.

“I wouldn’t do that!” the Doctor called after her. Forcibly removing a unicorn from a cast where they weren’t in control could do untold mental damage.

Twilight wouldn’t listen however, and frantically began to stop the cast. Knowing there was no way to force the mare to stop, she did the only thing she could think of.

Using a fairly advanced spell, Twilight latched onto the mare’s spell, and forced her own magic into the probe. With two consciousness fighting over the fragile probe, the floating ball easily overloaded.

With a pop, Parasprite one dropped the the surface of the planet. Both mares recoiled out of the spell, with one faring much better than the other.

In the short time Twilight had been inside the probe she felt her head swim, painfully from the influx. The other mare however had been in there for nearly forty minutes.

She collapsed to the floor, breathing heavily and sweating profusely. She was unconscious, that much was clear. Exhaustion had set in and her horn showed clear signs of beginning to burn out.

“Get her to the infirmary!”

Two ponies quickly invaded the room, hoisting the mare up and taking her to be treated. Once Twilight was sure that the mare was in good hooves, she turned her attention back to the scrying paper.

With two unicorns fueling the spell, the transcript spell had become supercharged. Instead of writing down statistics it had achieved enough power to take a ‘snapshot’ of the landscape.

The picture clearly showed buildings.

“So explain to me again...” Applejack started to ask as she struggled into the heavily modified EVA suit, “...just why we’re going down there and why we needed these here suits to be modified?” She glanced up at Twilight who was also getting into a modified suit, “With less science-talk please.”

Twilight smiled, “I’ll try, Applejack. The simplest explanation is that the suits have been modified to act as buffers against the magical saturation. While that high level of magic could give somepony a boost, it’s more likely to cause a pony to explode, especially unicorns since we have a direct link with our horns.”

Applejack nodded, “See how easy that was, sugarcube? So why us? Why not send R.D out? She looked rarin’ to go flying out there last I checked.” She managed to shrug on the shoulders and bite the bit that would cause the suit’s own internal magic to seal it up.

What she said about Rainbow Dash had been true; the pegasus was excited to see if the massive levels of background magic would allow her to manipulate the massive electrical storms created by the ash in the air, or go even faster in a Sonic Rainboom.

It was also for those reasons that Celestia quite firmly denied her repeated requests and now the mare was probably sulking in her quarters.

Applejack shifted in the suit, “Tarnation! Did they really need to make this so bulky? Ah feel like I can barely move in this thing!” She fidgeted in order to shift the weight of the modified suit around so she could maneuver about more easily.

Like Twilight, the already bulky suit had been considerably beefed up.The entire body had been enlarged in order to make room for more advanced life support systems, as well as the several dozen servos in the joints to help the wearer move easier. The visor had also been narrowed in order to make room for the thicker pipes that fed the respirator.

It was still a far cry from the power armour in popular sci-fi comics, but it didn’t make it any less awesome.

Even with two small mares as the pilots, they still managed to pull off the ‘Big Mac’ look quite well. Another reason Rainbow wanted to go. The pegasus would have been elated to wear a suit that screamed awesome as much as this one did.

“I know it’s a little difficult to move in, but with the environment outside the science teams have reported that we would have needed to modify them simply to deal with all the corrosives in the air.” Twilight said as she picked up her helmet, “Ready to go?”

Applejack picked up her own helmet and clipped it to her side with a smile, “Ready, sugarcube. Dash may have been the first Element to step on the moon, so it’s high time we got an achievement under our belts as well.”

“Then let’s get out there.” Twilight said with a nod as they left the locker room, passing crew ponies who all stopped to wish them luck, shake their hooves, and generally send them off with a smile.

As they approached the elevator, they saw their friends and Princess Celestia standing in front of it. Rainbow was the first to approach and speak, “Good luck out there, you two.”

“Aw shucks, thanks R.D.” Applejack replied, “Don’t worry, we’ll try to do this in a way that’s twenty percent cooler than anypony else could do it.”

Rainbow’s smile completely faded. “Not cool.”

Before things had a chance to escalate further between the brash pegasus and the armoured apple farmer, Celestia quickly approached Twilight, “Good luck Twilight. Don’t take any unnecessary risks out there, head straight back here if things get too dangerous.”

Twilight nodded, “I’ll be careful, Admiral.”

With that said and after the goodbyes from the others, the pair entered the elevator, and as the door closed and they began their descent to the third bridge and the surface, Applejack blushed, “Ah didn’t think she was still that torn up about not being able to go.”

Twilight shook her head, “She’ll be fine. Besides, there’s plenty for her to do here, and the work on the ship’s fighters is nearly complete as well.”

Applejack turned her head to look at Twilight, “Yeah? Ah heard that they already did all of them.”

Twilight shook her head with a smile, “They found two larger fighters that have their own hangar space and apparently a separate launch system as well. One of the ponies I spoke with who works down in the hangar section thinks that one of them is reserved for the Tactical Officer and one for perhaps an elite pilot.”

She indicated her suit, “But no, the work isn’t done yet. Like these suits, all of them have to be modified for ponies to use. None of the buttons, levers and the control sticks are made for us to use, so a new cockpit has to be designed and the fighters refitted with the new systems.”

Applejack nodded, “Makes sense. Ah assume that’ll be done back home?”

The elevator chimed as it reached the bottom of the shaft as Twilight nodded, “There’s talk of a crash-advancement of technology in order to get it done. Kind of like making the forge to make the hammer to make the plough sort of sequence, we need to massively increase our industry just to support the Yamato.”

The doors opened as Applejack hummed thoughtfully, the pair exiting to approach the airlock that separated the landing ramp from the rest of the ships, “Makes sense. Ah just hope we do this right then, a lot of folks is watching us real careful after all.”

Twilight nodded, “I know. The Yamato is a powerful vessel even without a means to support it, and that can make others nervous.” She grabbed her helmet, “Okay Applejack, helmets on.”

As one they slipped the helmets on over their heads, Applejack already having left her hat behind at the locker room, and locked them into place with a series of loud clicks. At that moment electrical connections were finished and the suits began to feel lighter as servos came online with loud hums and whines, joint locks secured them into place with clicks that were both audible and felt even through the thick suits, vacuum seals engaging with a hiss as the hum of the ship became more muffled.

Applejack checked the watch and gauges on her left forehoof like she was trained, and pressed the red button to synchronise the internal systems, watching the dials shift and the timer set itself to two hours and thirty minutes.

“Applejack, radio check please.”

The farmpony nodded, “Applejack, loud and clear Twilight. You read me all right?”

Twilight’s head moved in an exaggerated nod, “Read you loud and clear.” She turned her head away slightly and Applejack watched her check her timer.

“We only have two and a half hours of air available. We have to reach the ruins and get a clear picture of where we can safely enter them in at least one hour so we have enough time to get back safely.” She stepped forward, “Twilight to Yamato, excursion party is ready to depart, open airlock.”

“Roger excursion party, opening inner door now.” With a hiss the thick bulkheads that separated the airlock chamber slid apart and the pair moved with considerably more ease into the chamber, and Applejack was now a bit more thankful for the pony who had added the servo-gears onto the suit.

“Excursion party is in the airlock chamber.” Twilight reported.

“Roger that. Sealing inner door. Captain sends you her blessings.” With that said, the doors sealed behind them and Applejack heard the muffled clunk of heavy locks being shifted as the the crew of the lower bridge went to work, “Excursion party, we are opening the outer doors and lowering the boarding ramp. Standby.”

With a loud thud the locks on the outer doors were released and the doors hissed open to reveal the boarding ramp and the blackened wasteland beyond.

The first thing Applejack noticed was that it was loud. Even with the suits muffling all sound, she could hear the screaming of what had to be tornado or hurricane-force winds out there as ash was blown into the airlock chamber, and from their position she could see the crack of lightning in great sheets before thunder rumbled through her bones.

Ignoring that, the pair quickly pressed the button that would engage their internal oxygen tanks and the timer began to tick. As they trotted down the ramp, Twilight could feel the force of the wind, and she looked up at an ominous-sounding groan.

The ship was being shifted in place, rocked by the wind buffeting it, and each time it shifted a loud groan sounded through the air that was felt more than heard. Twilight was about to say something to Celestia when she heard Applejack’s cry, “Woah nelly!”

She whipped her head around to see Applejack on the ground and the farmpony had sunk slightly into the soil, or rather the thick layer of volcanic ash that acted as soil, from the weight of her suit, “Applejack, are you okay?”

Applejack waved a hoof, “Ah’m fine Twilight, just got a surprise is all. You oughta be careful, this stuff is more like snow than dirt, and that could mean drifts we could sink into.”

Twilight nodded, “Understood. We’ll take turns making a path through the ash.”

With the possibility of stepping into a sinkhole in mind, the two ponies set off, and though the suits were clearly working, the pair didn’t miss that they were not getting as tired as they would have back on Equus, something that Twilight was privately thankful for.

While she was no physical slouch for a librarian, she knew that if she had to break a path through something like this back at Ponyville she’d have collapsed from exhaustion long before Applejack. In fact, the farmpony was clearly taking the advantage the massive amounts of background magic was offering, and likely hadn’t broken a sweat yet.

“At least all this magic in the air is good for something, Twilight, we’re making good time.” Applejack commented over the radio.

Twilight checked her timer and blinked in surprise, they had managed to nearly reach the halfway point in only twenty-five minutes, “Wow, we really are. We should be able to take a bit more time, no more than an additional ten minutes I believe, to survey the perimeter of the ruins for safe entry points.”

“If you say so Twilight. Look, we’re coming up to the hill marked as the halfway point.” Twilight looked up and saw the geographical location in question straight ahead.

“Okay Applejack, remember to stick to the plan. Survey from the hill, and if it looks safe to approach, head to the perimeter marked by the wall to begin finding safe entry points. Do not go past the wall, understood?”

Applejack laughed, “Loud and clear, sugarcube. Don’t you worry none, I’ll stick close. Place like this is probably a lot more dangerous than a ruin in a Daring Do novel.”

They began cresting the hill and upon reaching the top, paused to regard the ruins.

The buildings were nothing like either of them had ever seen; sharp angles mated to gentle curves, covered in ash and pitted by the corrosive atmosphere, but...

“Dang. This place looks more like it’s been here a few decades, not...however long its been here actually.” Applejack commented.

“It only goes to show how much more advanced the builders were.” Twilight replied, “But did you notice something about the architecture? How the buildings are placed?”

“Not to my eye.” Applejack looked over the ruins again, “Something you noticed?”

Twilight nodded, “I think these ruins are from a military base. The layout is too ordered, too structured to be some form of town or city, at least as far as I can guess. But it makes sense to me, I’ve seen a few forts whenever we visited Shining on deployment, before I became Captain Celestia’s personal student. This place just screams that it’s a military base of some kind.”

Applejack managed to pull off a shrug in the suit, “If you say so Twi. Think this place is safe enough to approach?”

“Yes, I believe so. I’ll take the lead this time.” With that Twilight began carefully trotting down the hill with Applejack following in her wake as the pair approached the high wall surrounding the ruins, ash forming a single unbroken dune as it was blown against it.

Applejack whistled lowly as she gave the wall another look. Whoever these beings were, they built big, and likely had weapons that made Pony weapons look like toys.

Like those giant cannons lining the top, especially that one turning to point...right...at...

“Twilight!” Applejack’s scream saved the mare’s life as she paused and turn just in time for Applejack to tackle her behind a large formation of rocks, seconds before a crackling purple bolt of energy struck the ground where she had been standing, creating an explosion that sent a cloud of ash into the air.

The pair hit the ash and rolled apart, Twilight shooting to her feet as she stared at the smoke and ash being blown away by the screaming winds, “Wha...?” She blinked, “Applejack!”

She turned to see Applejack rising to her feet, “Ah’m okay, sugarcube. Just glad I got to you in time!”

“What happened? What caused that explosion?” Twilight asked, panting slightly from the adrenaline, before screaming as another bolt of energy lanced down near the rock formation, “What is that?”

“It’s one of them big cannons on the wall!” Applejack shouted over the crackling bellow of the giant guns, “It turned towards you as you were heading to the wall! Ah think it’s some kind of defense!”

“How?” Twilight screamed, “This place is in ruins! It’s impossible for anypony to be alive here!” She flinched as another bolt struck one of the larger rocks at the front of the formation, pelting them with falling stones.

“Ah don’t know!” Applejack shouted back over the noise, “Might be some fancy computer like back on the Yamato. We can talk about this later! We need to get out of here!” She pointed to several other rock formations behind theirs, “We’ll use the rocks for cover, put as much distance between us and that gun as possible!”

“Okay!” Twilight replied with a shout, then looked up and gasped, “Applejack! We need to go! Now!”

Applejack didn’t question or argue, she just ran with Twilight, and above them another cannon turned and fired, before another turned and fired as well. They didn’t stop, just weaved between the rocks as gun after gun turned and fired in a barrage of crackling purple energy.

Finally, as they rounded the ash hill and found their trail, already being covered up by ash on the wind, they were both panting heavily as Applejack collapsed onto the ground, “Whoo! Ah don’t know about you Twilight, but Ah’d call that dangerous in anypony’s books.” She looked up and back at the wall, “Ah think we’re safe here.”

Twilight was about to reply when the air was filled with explosions and the large hill shuddered violently as crackling bolts rained around the hill and on the hill, shaking the ground violently, and she started screaming.

“Tartarus dang it!” Applejack shouted as she checked her timer and quickly galloped over to the cowering Twilight to check her timer. They only had an hour and twelve minutes left. She began twisting the radio frequency dial on her suit, “Applejack to Yamato! Come in Yamato!”

On the bridge, Celestia had decided to take a nap, and others had left to find something to do while waiting for Twilight and Applejack to returned. Rainbow Dash was sitting at her console, busy figuring out if what she had seen during the Warp test was real or some kind of boredom-induced hallucination, when the communications console crackled, “Applejack to Yamato! Come in Yamato!”

Rainbow immediately flapped over to the console and began manipulating it like she had been trained for emergencies, “This is Rainbow Dash! Applejack, what’s going on out there?”

“Oh thank Celestia and Luna! Rainbow, listen! The ruins are some kinda military base and the defences are still working! We’re stuck behind a hill with at least...” There was an audible explosion and Rainbow heard Applejack swear something vile before she started talking again, “Sixteen! Sixteen motherbucking cannons set up in four giant turrets like the Yamato’s! We can’t move from here and they’re blasting the hill to pieces! We need help!”

“But what can I do?” Rainbow asked, fearful for her friend’s lives.

“Ah don’t know! Just think of something! And hurry!”

“Applejack? Applejack!” Rainbow desperately tried to raise her friend but the console was silent as she dropped to all four hooves and paced, “Oh geez, oh geez, what the buck do I do?”

She headed back to her console, maybe she could get someone to pilot the Yamato over to pick up Twilight and Applejack? But they were under fire and if those guns were blasting through a hill, what would they do to a ship full of ponies?

She looked at her console as if it had the answer.

-ERROR. NO CHARGE. WEAPONS-

“I know that you bucking ass!” Rainbow hissed to it, “I know you don’t have any charge.” She was about to say something further when the message changed.

-RAINBOW. CHARGE. WEAPONS.-

Rainbow blinked and the message was gone, “No! Wait!” She desperately tried to find it, but it was gone in the flood of error messages, as if it had never been there.

She blinked, scrubbing tears from her eyes, she couldn’t do a bucking thing! Fine thing being Tactical Officer when she couldn’t have the weapons...activated.

Her eyes hardened, she was going to get in trouble for this, but her friends needed her. She picked up the intercom unit and fixed it to her hoof brace. Taking a deep breath, she took action.

“All Crew! This is Tactical Officer Rainbow Dash! Battlestations! Battlestations! Begin charging the Shock Cannons for immediate discharge!” Her other hoof slammed down on a button at her console and immediately the interior of the ship was plunged into red lighting as a siren began to shriek, “This is not a drill! I repeat! This is not a drill! Charge all Shock Cannons for immediate discharge!”

Chaos filled the ship as the shrieking alarm woke sleeping gunnery crews who immediately heard the order and leaped into action as Rainbow Dash sat down at her console, removing the intercom unit, and began manipulating the controls.

In the Engine Room, the Doctor blinked, “Well, this is unexpected, but I suppose we had to test them at some point!” He turned to his subordinates, “Let’s give the mare what she wants! Allons-y! Direct power to the Shock Cannons!”

The gunnery crew filled their seats. The monitors in front of them lighting up. The Wave Motion Engine kicked up a gear, flooding the weapons systems with power.

“Guns One and Two! Rotate and lock on to the Excursion team’s position! Adjust upwards by two degrees!” Rainbow Dash commanded.

The previously dormant cannons, that had been dead weight up until this point finally coughed into life. With an almighty groan, the house sized gun batteries swung their long barrels over the side of this ship.

A powerful blue glow began to charge, deep within the barrels. Rainbow’s console, locked onto something behind the hill that Applejack and Twilight had crested.

‘-WEAPONS- CHARGED- STANDING BY-’ the screen blinked.

‘Awesome.’

“Open fire!” she screamed.

The menacing blue glow within the barrels, unsatisfied, grew until the point where it was blinding. A rumble was heard all throughout the ship, sounding like the gale force winds outside.

Both batteries unleashed their fury. Six brilliant blue beams, three from each cannon, exploded violently from their muzzles. The recoil was so powerful, even the Yamato’s impressive bulk was nearly pushed over.

The beams shot across the desolate wasteland. The sheer power that bled off them was enough to carve huge trenches in the ground far below them. Dust kicked up in huge clouds, making it look like a sandstorm had arrived.

Even the small hill between the ship and the ruins stood no chance. With an bone jangling explosion that was probably heard all the way in Ponyville, the mound of ash and stone was no more.

The entire hill was utterly annihilated. Hundreds of tons of earth were thrown carelessly into the air, much like they had been when the Yamato launched. But even a mountain did little to stop the Yamato’s unmatchable might.

The beams continued, having lost little of their power. The black sky was suddenly turned to a blinding white as what looked like pure energy rocketed over the heads of two very surprised, armoured ponies.

The shots raced into the compound. The cannons mounted on the walls paled in comparison to the utter destruction the ancient ship wrought.

The ruins were utterly decimated its destruction lit up the black sky, brighter than any volcano could hope. The beams had struck so hard that everything in a twenty metre radius has literally melted. The cannons were no longer a threat.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash sat dumbfounded on the bridge. Her jaw hung agape and her ears were splayed flat against her head.

“I think you overcooked it there, Dash,” the Doctors voice called up from the intercom at her.

“Uh huh...,” she blubbered.

Back at the hill, Applejack carefully helped Twilight to her hooves and they both stared at the destruction behind them. The hill had six neat trenches on top where the central beams in the barrage had struck it, and behind the hill...

Applejack shook her head, “It really is a warship. Nothing peaceful could make this kind of a mess.” She turned to the silent Twilight, “Come on, Twilight, I think we’ve had enough excitement for one day.”

“Applejack...” The farm pony paused in her walking as Twilight spoke in a quiet voice, “Did we do the right thing? Reactivating the Yamato, I mean. Was turning it back on worth all this danger?”

“I don’t know, Twilight.” Applejack replied, “All I know is that we have to be responsible ponies with that ship. She was made for war after all, something like this...” She waved a hoof at the destroyed wall, still glowing white-hot from the power of the beams, “Something like this probably shouldn’t be a surprise. All I know is...”

She resumed walking, “All I know is that now, we can’t deny it to ourselves.”

After a few seconds continuing to stare at the ruined wall, Twilight followed after Applejack back to the Yamato in silence.

They remained silent during the walk back.

Author's Note

Oh yeah! I the Yamato is back in action!

And this is the part in the fic were things start getting a bit more sci-fi.

Also big thanks to Gideon020! he did write most of this chapter.

Chapter 11

Twilight and Applejack returned to the ship after their adventure outside to the mysterious alien base, finding a most amusing sight. Neglecting to disrobe from their suits, the pair re-entered the Yamato to overhear Rainbow Dash receiving a stern lecture from Celestia. Apollo stood off to the side, not wishing to interrupt.

“And furthermore, not only did you endanger the lives of the gunnery crew, but also that of Twilight Sparkle and Applejack!” Celestia spoke sternly, down at the pegasus, whose head was low, making her appear very small next to her superior.

Not wishing to get in the middle of Celestia’s lecture, The two returning ponies, stood off to the side, trying to remain as casual as possible. Not an easy feat when both were clad in motorized armour.

“However, this is exactly the reason I chose you for the position of Tactical officer,” Celestia added in a far warmer tone.

“Come again, you highne- Captain?” Dash asked.

“You did what you felt was right. If you had not activated the weapons when you did, your friends may very well not have returned,” The captain motioned to the two suited ponies.

“It is for this reason why I give you a commendation. And my personal thank you.”

Dash looked up at her superior, not quite sure whether or not the sudden shift from scolding to praise was genuine.

“Thank you, Captain,” Dash said, feeling safe enough to stand back up properly.

“Now return you your posts. I think we’ve had enough of the ‘Dark Star’ for now.”

“With all due respect, Captain,” Apollo spoke up. “Do you not wish to at least investigate those ruins some more? This is an unrivaled opportunity.”

“I have to agree with Apollo there, Captain.” Twilight stepped forward, the servos in her suit whining loudly. “Who knows what we might find in there.”

“Exactly, who knows what you might find in there,” Celestia responded.

“Huh?”

“You saw those weapons better than anyone, that place is dangerous, I will not allow you and Applejack to risk yourselves again,” she said sternly.

Noticing the disheartened look on her pupil’s face, she made her way over to Twilight.

“I almost lost you, I won’t risk it again,” Celestia said softly.

Twilight appreciated the sentiment, and returned the warm smile. But she would be damned if she gave this up.

“Maybe we can send more out. When we were suiting up one of the ponies said that they had made at least twenty modified EVA suits,” Twilight reasoned.

“That is true,” Apollo added. “As of this moment there are twenty three heavy EVA suits, and five have had their servos installed.”

“I’ll go with them! With me on their side, nothing can touch em!” Dash chimed in, fluttering over to join the others.

“Ah gotta say, even I’m a mite curious about that place,” Applejack added.

Celestia looked down at four sets of pleading eyes looking back at them. Who knew a ruler of one thousand years resistance could crumble so easily at the pleading of some of her friends.

“...Very well. But I want you to take some form of defense,” she reasoned. “Apollo, you know more of the armoury then myself. Do you have any idea what you might be able to use?” She asked, turning towards the white stallion.

A childlike grin stretched across his muzzle as the request was asked of him.

“Oh, I think I’ve got just the thing.”

“Sweet land of Equestria! What in tarnation is that monster?” Applejack gaped at the massive weapon sitting on one of the massive shelves of the ship’s armory. It was certainly nothing like any pony weapon that had ever been designed or built; even with the industrial revolution started by the Yamato, pony weaponry had barely changed in the centuries.

At the most basic level, the Town Watch and Militias still carried single-shot crossbows that had likely seen action during the wars that raged before Equestria’s uniting first from the Hearth’s Warming War against the Windigoes and then the coming of the Princesses to establish modern Equestria after Discord’s Reign of Chaos with their Unity Conquest, before the Minotaur Wars marked the start of the, mostly, peaceful reign of the Equestrian Diarchy.

Many of those weapons were heirlooms, and Applejack knew that because her parents and Granny made sure to keep them trained and practiced in how to maintain, load, and shoot the large crossbow hanging over the fireplace. Old Black Smoke was said to have seen all of the wars in Equestria’s history, and it probably had.

As Applejack studied the weapon, she could tell right away that it used some kind of fancy bullet for ammunition, and that meant it was a gun. Not a Shoot Stick like the Regular Army, but an actual gun like those used by the Frontier Rangers and Royal Guard.

Of course, trying to compare the black powder flintlocks and caplock rifles of the Rangers and Royal Guard to this monster weapon was like trying to compare a statue of the Captain to the real thing. It always fell short.

Not even the larger cannons used for sieges and dealing with large monsters compared properly to the weapon on the shelf as Applejack took in the finer details.

Three large barrels dominated the design and while Applejack was not as mechanically inclined as some ponies, not even as interested as Applebloom was on occasions, she could easily pick out the fact that the barrels rotated from somewhere in the main body of the weapon, where it took only a small jump of logic to figure out the rest.

The large exposed belt was clearly an ammunition feed, taking the large bullets into a port on the side from a large hopper opposite the weapon, and the arrangement easily told Applejack that the hopper was also a counter-weight to the weapon.

All in all, it looked big, mean, and yet for the life of her Applejack had no idea how such a monster weapon could be used by a pony.

Apollo’s voice brought her out of her studies of the weapon, “That, Applejack, is the Compact Assault Combat Cannon Mark Seventy-Seven.” He pointed to a stencil on the side of the weapon’s body that declared quite proudly in white paint CACC-77 to anyone who cared to look.

“We were planning on some sort of nickname, but your friend Pinkie Pie found it earlier and solved the problem for us.” He pointed to pink writing underneath that declared with equal pride Party Cannon to any who cared to look, “I don’t mind it, but some of the others wanted to call it the Devastator or the Fury.”

Applejack shook her head, “Pinkie’ll say that all cannons are useful for are parties. But I know I don’t want to be invited to whatever party that cannon will be a part of.”

Apollo nodded, “True, but it’ll be what the larger excursion party will be bringing just in case there’s any active defenses inside, or possibly hostile defenders. Which only leaves the question of which pony gets to carry and use it.”

“I volunteer!” Rainbow Dash immediately held up her forehoof in the air, flapping above the group to gain more visibility, “I’ll take it! As Tactical Officer it’s my responsibility to protect the others!”

Celestia chuckled lightly, eyes dancing with sly humour. “I’m more than certain that you would be more than enthusiastic in making use of the Party Cannon, however the pony who will be carrying and using this weapon will be Apollo.”

“What! Why do you get the cool weapon?” Rainbow demanded as Apollo smiled.

“One, I trained with the prototype and the first production model, which also happens to be this weapon. Two, we scavenged ammunition supplies from the ship’s fighters for this weapon, and we can’t let that ammunition go to waste.”

“So why not train me then? It can’t be that hard to use.” Rainbow pressed as she watched Apollo remove a modified EVA suit helmet from a nearby box.

“This helmet is from one of the modified, powered EVA suits for Pegasus usage. Take a look.” Rainbow Dash took the helmet and blinked at the weight as Apollo nodded, “We’ve had to pack a lot of new electronics into it, just allow a pony to fire this monster. Key to it is what the engineers and technicians are simply calling the Firing Bit.”

Everyone save for Celestia cocked their heads in confusion as Apollo took the helmet back and flipped it over to show a visible extension that would clearly go into a pony’s mouth, “This. A simple pressure trigger but the helmet has to transmit the firing signal from this into the suit’s connection to the gun, and then the gun has to successfully fire.”

“It seems simple enough.” Twilight mused, “But I’m guessing the usage is more complicated?”

Apollo nodded, “Exactly. This weapon is designed to be slung over a pony’s back and plug into the suit, and it swivels slightly left, right, up and down, by following its wielder’s eye movements, to allow the weapon to remain on target but the real problem is the recoil.”

He stared directly at Rainbow Dash, “Even if you were trained to use it Rainbow, all it would take is a short burst lasting only a few seconds to send you flying into a wall. You simply are too light and small to carry, aim and most importantly, brace effectively to manage the recoil of what the technicians say is thirty-five millimetre ammunition.”

Rainbow tried to retort, but fell silent. She couldn’t fault Apollo’s reasoning; the gun was huge and so was the ammunition, and while Rainbow was proud of her physique and athleticism, she could easily see that a pony would need to be a lot bigger than her to be able to wield that weapon.

She floated back to the deck, “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” She agreed, before she made a ‘hmph’ sound, “That doesn’t mean I have to like it!”

Apollo shook his head with a grin, “Don’t worry Dashie, I’m sure we’ll get something more fitting for you up and running soon. Who knows? This little excursion might give us access to something that can help with that.”

Dash tried to hide her blush at the thought of that, even as a small voice wondered what kind of weapon could match what she could do with the Yamato’s guns.

The suit up was fairly straightforward, Because Twilight and Applejack had kept theirs on, they were only checked for damage while Rainbow and Apollo were fitted.

It was then it became apparent to Rainbow just how much her small stature was a hindrance. The barrel of the suit had far too much space on either side of her body. While a pain for the fitters, Rainbow enjoyed having the extra wing room.

What she wasn’t so keen on, was the padding that had to be placed under her hooves in order for her legs to properly fill the suits limbs. By the time the helmet was fitted, she had managed to ‘grow’ another three inches.

Thankfully, the attention was taken off of her when the overhead crane jangled into position over Apollo. Hanging below the crane was the CACC-77, or as it was far more suitably named, ‘The Party Cannon.’

The chains quivered under the weight of the armament. Dash cringed within her suit, she wasn’t even the one that was going to carry it, and it looked painfully heavy. Apollo didn’t even flinch, or at least, it didn’t look like he did inside the suit, Rainbow couldn’t tell.

The fitter ponies carefully guided the huge weapon into place on the stallions back. Rainbow saw his legs bend under the strain, and a grunt sounded through the suit. The servos kicked into gear and she saw Apollo stand back up to his full height.

The latches on the inside of the brace clicked and locked into position on the outside of his suit. Apollo shifted from left to right, causing the gun to swing around slightly, always reorienting to the forward position.

The barrels of the weapon spun as bullets traveled along the open belt until the first bullet entered the weapon and with a loud click the barrels jerked to a stop.

A technician checked the empty belt section that allowed the weapon to load the first round and expertly removed it from the weapon before slapping Apollo’s side twice and the pony nodded in his suit.

“Locked and loaded,” he chimed through the radio.

The howling winds on the surface buffeted the four ponies as they trudged through the ash towards the complex. With twice as much suit to carry equipment, each pony (minus Apollo for obvious reasons) had been outfitted with spare air canisters.

Applejack had offered to carry Apollo’s seeing as she had to muscle strength to carry the spares. When the posse had neared the hill that the Yamato had ‘removed,’ the time they had lost carrying the extra weight had been more than made up for by walking through one of the trenches the Yamato had carved into it.

Being in the centre of the utter decimation and destruction caused Rainbow to lag behind at the damage she had caused. An entire land formation had been altered from sheer force alone. This wasn’t just a trench, it was a valley.

She was so taken in by it, she didn’t realize the other had arrived at the other side and were waiting for her.

“Dash, you okay?” Apollo asked through the comms.

“Y-yeah it’s just. I did this... It’s a lot to take in,” she stammered.

“Well if working on the Yamato has taught me one thing it’s this,” Apollo replied, looking back to the ship on the horizon. “She’s got one nasty temper.”

What remained of the journey was fairly silent, save for when Twilight nearly fell in an ash drift. Keeping a cautious eye out as they entered the compound, Apollo let out a loud whistle.

“Geez Dash, you really did a number on this place,” he remarked, looking around.

“I made it safe!” she retorted.

“You made it melt,” Twilight jumped in.

“You made an entrance!” Applejack called, looking down inside of a ruined building.

The group brought themselves over to the apple farmer. Sure enough, the decimated building had given way to a staircase, leading down under the ash and soil.

“Ladies first,” Apollo joked.

“Giant gun wielding ponies before beauty,” Dash responded, fluttering her eyelids behind her visor before realizing how futile the gesture was.

Apollo snorted, making his way through them and mounting the broken wall with some difficulty, before trudging down the stairs.

“It’s clear! The stairs can take the weight.” he said as he jostled the heavy weapon around on his back.

“I’m glad these suits have got reinforced spines, otherwise I might be seeing a whole lot more of Fluttershy,” he commented off-hoofedly, as the girls made their way down.

The name of her oldest friend being spoken caused Dash to pause. Last she had seen of her yellow friend, she hadn’t been coping too well with the stressful environment of the medicinal wing. She could only imagine what the sound of the cannon fire might have done to her.

Even though the surface of the Dark Star was dark, there was still enough light to navigate around. Underneath the ruins however, very little light reached into the basement.

The lamps on the suits, warmed into a sweeping glow, covering the dark corridor in warm light. The needle on the power gauge inside the helmet wavered slightly, before coping with the extra strain and normalizing.

“We’ve got an hour of air in the suits, plus two more for the canisters. With the drain from both the servos and the lights, we’ve got about three hours left of battery power,” Twilight summarized.

Dust and ash speckled their visors as they slowly made their way deeper into the alien tunnels. It was a jarring experience to go from the howling winds of the surface to the near deathly quiet underground. The only sound, being that of the ‘Whine, chunk, chunk’ of their suits mini-motors.

Even though she would never admit it, Rainbow Dash was grateful for the huge cannon on legs walking beside her. Not that she was scared or anything, but the oppressive silence was starting to get to her.

Eventually, after rounding a corner and descending another flight of stairs, their expedition was halted the ancient enemy of progress.

A locked door.

The ‘door’ was less a door and more a sliding wall. Easily a few feet thick and over a dozen tonnes the door was not going anywhere soon. It had withstood both the ravages of time, and the fury of the Yamato, it was plain to see that it was one tough cookie.

“Well that’s brilliant!” Rainbow Dash said exasperatedly. “What now?”

“You’re pretty good at levitatin’ Twi. Wanna give it a crack?” Applejack offered.

The unicorn hesitantly nodded, before a glow kicked up from behind her visor.

“I’ll try.”

The specially designed ‘horn space’ on the crown of her helmet began to glow as it channeled Twilights magical energies. A purple glow wrapped around the doors size and began to tug it upwards.

GROOOAANN, CRE-CRE-CREAAAK

The heavy door protested loudly. Its loud manifestations of discomfort sounded through the chamber, sending chills through the spines of everypony present, much the same way nails on a chalkboard would.

Twilight only managed to lift the mighty door a few inches before a loud clunking echoed from somewhere above it, and it’s upward journey quickly halted.

Beginning to sweat, Twilight harness the latent power that the Dark Star fed into her. Even with the beneficial supercharging, the door only moaned loudly under the added strain.

Pushing harder, the door let out a worrying series of pained creaks. The ceiling around the top of the door began to warp, but the door itself refused to budge.

An acute pain built within Twilight's horn. She had only ever come close to burning her horn out twice. Once when she discovered her Cutie mark, and the other when she had lifted the Ursa Minor out of Ponyville.

Not wishing to damage her horn, she reluctantly let go of the door. The huge steel construct fell back into its previous position, sounding a colossal bang through the entire room.

“Jeez Twi! Give a mare some warning next time!” Rainbow called from her position behind Apollo.

“Scare ya did it Dash?” Apollo smirked, unable to look around due to the Party cannon blocking his vision.

“I wasn’t expecting it was all!” her voice cracked, and her cheeks blushed under her helmet.

Heavy panting cut the chatter as Twilight spoke up. “It’s no use, the bearings have seized. Without them, I’m basically trying to lift the whole building above us up as well.”

“You did well Twi, we won’t hold it against you,” Apollo replied reassuringly.

“Well what now? We can’t go forward, and most of the other buildings looked pretty empty,” Applejack said, clearly annoyed at having to return to the Yamato so soon.

Apollo sized up the door, before speaking. “Twi, did you manage to figure out how thick it was?”

“Huh? Of course, its actually only about ten inches thick,” the unicorn replied, having ‘felt’ how large the door was when lifting it.

“Hmm,” the stallion mused. “I don’t think it’s gonna be a problem much longer.”

“What are you up to. Apollo?” Rainbow asked accusingly.

The gun-toting stallion responding by kicking his suit into combat mode. Retinal scanners within the helmet fired up, locking onto his eyes and maneuvering the huge gun ever so slightly.

“You might wanna stand back,” He suggested, to which the mares wisely agreed.

Apollo’s hooves shifted into a wide stance. His head ducked slightly and the suit locked up. The three point mount began to rotate, the small motor beginning to whine.

The cannon swiveled to point dead center on the door. The pitch of the whine increased and the barrels spun into a blur.

Of course Rainbow was bracing herself. But for a second time that day she vastly underestimated the alien technology they possessed.

The dark corridor was filled with blinding light from the muzzle flash. The sound was like tearing fabric, with the undertone of a constant buzzing. The force from the gun kicked up a layer of ash around the room, coating the walls.

The damage was something else. The bullets came so thick and fast that it was almost a laser. Even though Apollo had trained with the gun even he struggled to keep it on target. The bullets struck the door wildly, unable to keep focused.

This mattered little however as the sheer force from the weapon punched through the door with ease, turning the door into an oversized sieve.

The stream of fire stopped, and the barrels began to slow, their mouths glowing orange and acrid smoke wafted around the room.

“Dude, that was awesome! You gotta teach me how to use it!,” Dash squealed with fan-girl enthusiasm.

Twilight stood there dumbfounded. “That’s horrifying!” she said in disbelief.

“A weapon capable of such utter destruction, that can be carried into battle!? That’s terrifying!” she said with genuine fear in her voice.

Apollo turned towards her, his eye movement still commanding the cannon. Through his emotionless visor, and with the massive cannon unintentionally pointing at her, she felt herself go weak in the legs.

“A necessary evil,” he replied, before turning to Applejack.

“Would you kindly, AJ?” Apollo said, motioning to the door.

Applejack said nothing as she approached the ravaged door. Finding a particularly weakened section, she spun round and delivered a powerful buck to the door.

The damage, plus the suit’s servos and the latent magic meant the construct didn’t stand a chance. A small segment of metal blew inwards, allowing an access point for the team.

Aside from the light being let in through the hole, the room was almost completely pitch black. The lamps were invaluable, but failed to pierce more than a few body lengths into the dark.

All the while, Twilight kept glancing over to Apollo. Or more specifically, the large gun he sported. She knew Equestria had guns, such as flintlocks and muskets, and that they had obviously been reverse engineered from the Yamato, the idea of using one didn’t sit well with her.

Applejack remained impartial. She understood the necessity of weapons, and would gladly use one if it meant keeping both herself and her friends safe. But she wasn’t overly enthusiastic about them either. Big Macintosh had always been the one to gush over Old Black Smoke.

Rainbow on the other hoof, was on the entirely opposite side of the field. Never before had she seen so much concentrated awesome in one machine, (Other than the Yamato itself, which was less awesome, and more scary powerful.) and she desperately wanted one for herself.

Not that she was any psycho-lunatic, but if Apollo wasn’t around, her friends needed somepony to protect them. And Rainbow Dash would do anything to keep her friends safe.

Eventually, the group made their way into a mostly untouched room. The ash and dust had failed to penetrate this far down, leaving the room in almost pristine condition.

As the group stepped into the room, the sweeping lights quickly revealed its purpose as Twilight stepped on something that made a sharp crack. She lifted her hoof quickly to reveal a broken piece of strange jewellry. Her light then shone onto what to her eyes was some sort of carrying case, filled with a random assortment of bizarre objects.

“Huh, don’t think whoever made the Yamato made these.” Applejack commented as she picked up a rather strange looking cup that was pointed on the bottom.

“Now how in tarnation are you supposed to put down something like this?” She asked, carefully placing it back on the ground and everyone watched as it tipped over with a sharp clink, “See? Makes no gosh darn sense to make a teacup like this!”

“Maybe they had a way of putting it down without spilling tea, if they did indeed drink tea, and not something like blood or liquified minerals.” Apollo commented, before shining his lamps onto more objects strewn about the room and the rotted remains of what could only be some form of couch or chair.

“We’ll get some of these on the way out. Twilight, collect the most intact and place them somewhere near the entrance so we can recover them later.” He ordered and Twilight nodded, trotting around the room to pick up the cup Applejack was now deliberately playing with, trying to get it to stand on the tapered point on the bottom.

Along with a few pieces of strange jewellry, some kind of crystal that made a soft chiming sound, and what she assumed was some kind of piece of cutlery, not a random piece of junk metal, it took only a few seconds to gather and place a small, neat pile of artifacts near the entrance and mark it with a flare crystal.

Confident that the massive background magic would keep the flare alive while they were spelunking, the group headed through an open doorway that wasn’t choked with rubble and ash, the only sounds being the whir of their suits and the heavy hoof falls of their movement.

Most of the doors were locked, with no visible means of opening them, and with time and air at a premium, the group was forced to simply leave them alone. The ones that were open were often empty or as to be expected from being buried under ash and rock, caved in.

One loose door nearly spelled disaster, when Rainbow managed to tug it loose the group was nearly buried in a flow of silt-like fine ash that flowed more like water than mineral detritus, and that prompted the next loose door to be carefully opened at a distance by Twilight.

Thankfully no ash came rushing out and the group made their way inside to reveal row upon row of empty shelves and a few scatterings of…

“Weapons…” Twilight said in a hushed voice as Rainbow moved near one of the objects and poked it with a hoof. Obviously, the device did nothing except shift slightly, much to Twilight’s relief.

“Now this...this is awesome.” Rainbow stated with a smile in her voice. Before anyone could stop her, she wrapped a forehoof around the barrel of the weapon and hefted it up so that it was illuminated by the lights, “Look at this! I bet you could fight a dragon with this thing!”

She was not far off the mark, Applejack mused to herself, the massive weapon was longer than Rainbow, but no where near the behemoth size of the Party Cannon.

Where the CACC-77 was huge, bulky and stubby. This gun sported only one barrel, which was massively long, and perfectly machined. Four long spines extended past the barrel, and the light that shone onto the space between the spines shimmered and warped just enough to be noticeable.

A large port was visible on the side and Rainbow shifted the weapon to look at it, “Aw, looks like there’s no batteries!” She was about to put the weapon down when an idea entered her head, “Hmm, I wonder…”

“Better not be planning something stupid Rainbow.” Applejack warned as Rainbow set the weapon down and began looking around the shelves, going from one to the next, until she suddenly whooped in victory and came back carrying a cylindrical object that gave off a purple glow through one end.

“Found it!” And before Twilight, Applejack, or Apollo could stop her, Rainbow slammed it home into the port. Instantly glowing lines spread out from the port across the entirety of the weapon and it began to unfold and shift as a soft hum began to sound in the room.

Panels shifted to reveal exhaust ports behind the spines as the removed panels began to spin along the barrel while three long fins suddenly flared and the weapon began to float off the ground, purple light coming from their rear as they shifted backwards and locked into place with loud clicks.

At the rear, the back section opened up to reveal four cylinders that also began to spin in a circle, but at a slower speed, crackling purple electricity arcing between them while the cylinders began to emit a purple glow through slits in their sides as something began to spin inside each of the cylinders as well.

Finally, sections shifted away to reveal complicated looking grip underneath and a side area reformed into a series of intricate lenses and small spines attached to a small red globe as the weapon floated near Rainbow Dash and emitted a soft green light that traced across her suited body as everyone held their breath.

The resulting series of chirps and beeps it suddenly sounded nearly scared everyone out of their suits and even Apollo reflexively locked the Party Cannon onto it as the grip suddenly changed into something that a pony could comfortably use while long cables snaked out and locked onto Rainbow’s suit.

And then...nothing. The weapon remained silent save for the humming it was now constantly emitting. Rainbow curiously tugged at one of the cables and noted that they didn’t budge, “Huh, guess I get to keep it,then.”

“Tartarus damnit Rainbow Dash, could you not go out of your way to activate some weird alien doohickey that could more than likely kill us all! I think I nearly aged to be as old as Granny watching that thing do...that!” Applejack demanded as she waved a hoof at the alien weapon, which chirped and shifted to point at her, “Dang it! See!”

“Aw, you’re just jealous that I got a big alien gun before you did!” Rainbow stated as she grabbed the grip assembly and aimed the floating gun towards the far wall, “Besides, this thing probably doesn’t have any ammo to fire! Watch!”

She yanked the trigger and before everypony watching, the small cylinders suddenly increased speed until they were a purple blur as the gun whined loudly and motes of light suddenly flew into the space between the barrel spines as a purple dot formed, before with a bass shriek, a crackling bolt of purple energy was fired, the weapon rocking back as the fins glowed brighter to handle the recoil as the bolt struck the wall and exploded, sending a cloud of dust and ash into the faceplates of the group as an unlucky shelf collapsed with a deafening crash.

It had taken barely seconds for the gun to do all that as Rainbow stared in silence, before swallowing noisily, “Okay, I guess it does have ammo.”

“Well, you wanted a big gun Rainbow Dash, now you’ve got one.” Apollo stated blandly, before waving a hoof at the door, “I guess you won’t mind taking the lead then.”

Rainbow was now very glad that no-one could see her face as she lead the group out of the room and back into the hallway.

The rest of the journey had been fairly quiet. With their air and power supply diminishing by the second, the party only had half an hour before they had to return. A few rooms after the armoury, they entered a very utilitarian space.

The floor was metal grating, the holes within showing through to the dirt underneath. Four huge machines sat in each corner, filling the room with their obnoxious size. A quick inspection showed that they were in fact generators. Against all probability, two were still running, albeit with some loud knocks.

“Look here,” Apollo called from the side of the room, gesturing to an open panel.

Within, many switches and buttons were housed. Even though all the labels were in some odd language, it was fairly obvious to assume that green meant ‘on’ and red meant ‘off’.

And the box very clearly displayed nearly all of its switches set to the off position.

“It looks like a circuit breaker,” Twilight said, looking over the panel.

“What makes you say that?” Applejack asked.

“I’ve read about them. In large, fancy buildings, like the hotels and casinos in Las Pegasus, they use electric lights in place of arcane candles. Whenever there’s a power surge, the circuit breakers are tripped, stopping all the lights from being damaged,” She recited in a perfect lecturers tone.

“So how does that help us?”

“If we turn them back on, they might restore power to some of the facility. Maybe even life support systems!”

Applejack put a hoof to her helmet, “So how do we turn it back on then?”

“Like so!” Twilight smiled, as her magical glow enveloped every unpowered switch and flicked them.

The generators in the room groaned in protest as they began to be sucked dry by the dozens of lights and monitors activating. Sadly, a quick glance at the gauges inside the helmet told them that it had not infact activated any means of breathable atmosphere.

This did little to dampen Twilight’s mood however, as she experienced the same glee she felt when she had been allowed access to the Yamato’s systems.

“Oh look! Data!” she salivated, moving over to a nearby computer.

“Careful Twi! We don’t want you doing anything stupid. We’ve had enough of that for today,” Apollo said, shooting a glance over to Rainbow, who was still babying her new toy.

As expected, Twilight ignored him, and began to frantically tap away on the terminal in a way that only a pony who had spent countless nights upon one instead of sleeping could. It was difficult for the mare, the interface was entirely different, and she was unable to read anything it displayed.

Perseverance won through though, as random clicking eventually brought up a series of images.

Most of the picture were of little interest. Being of rock samples or boring regions of deep space. That was until she found one particularly familiar looking one.

The photograph displayed a blue marble, hung in the middle of space. Patches of organized white clouds and random green continents covered it.

It was plain to see. It was a picture of Equus.

Scrolling through even further, she noted that the amount of pictures of her home began to increase. With every new picture, the camera taking the photograph got closer and closer to the planet, until it could easily see the lights of cities at night.

“W-what is this?” She stammered. “Were they. Were they watching us?” Her voice quivered through the radio.

Apollo approached, to stand beside Twilight. It was obvious to see that she was understandably creeped out. Like if you found pictures of yourself in someone elses photo album that you don’t remember taking.

The stallion stood silent for a moment, weighing his options. “I think it’s time to go.”

“W-what! why? We’ve still got ten minutes. Don’t you wanna know why they were watching us?” Dash asked.

Apollo looked back over to Twilight who was now looking around nervously. While he did want to figure out this rather unsettling discovery, the safety of his crew always came first. Both physical and mental.

“Excursion team to Yamato. This is First Officer Apollo, beginning our return now.”

The return back was a speedy one. Apollo had read the files on all of the elements and although Twilight was an exceptionally skilled mare, she had been known to fly off the handle at the littlest things. Relying on her to open doorways in abandoned alien ruins when she was jumpy was not ideal.

Rainbow Dash had managed to secure some more ammo for her gun. Delivering a power-armour aided stomp to a locked box she had overlooked before she found more of the strange purple batteries.

Upon re-entering the Yamato, the four had quickly stripped out of their stuffy suits. Rainbow’s rifle was reluctant to let go of the armour, but once Rainbow had stepped out of the suit, the gun automatically detached, and laid still, chirping until she picked it up.

The artifacts that the expedition had recovered had been unceremoniously dumped outside the research labs, leaving Twilight to retire to her room.

“I’ll be in my room, if you need me. Tell Celestia it was an... Eye opening experience,” She had said. Now, Apollo, Rainbow and Applejack had to face the snore-fest that was debriefing.

“So there was nothing dangerous within the compound?” Princess Celestia inquired.

“No ma’am, aside from Rainbow ‘Danger’ Dash here,” Apollo smirked. Having been the ‘defacto leader’ of the team, he answered most questions, with Applejack verifying his claims.

“Hmph,” Rainbow pouted, clearly not enjoying having all her old boasts thrown back at her as telling jabs. The pegasus tried to contribute to the session as best she could, however being prone to hyperbole as much as she was, most of her claims were taken with a grain of salt.

“And you said Twilight has not joined us because of ‘disturbing imagery’?” The captain asked.

“Pictures of Equus, ma’am. She seemed thoroughly unsettled by them,” Apollo confirmed.

“You wouldn’t think a couple pictures of her home would creep her out that much,” Rainbow muttered under her breath.

Unfortunately for Rainbow, the princesses keen hearing picked up on that, causing the conversation to swing over to her. “And I believe you found something as well.”

“Huh?” Oh yeah, I picked up this neat gun and it like ‘attached’ to me or something. It was really cool,” Rainbow smiled.

“Yeah I don’t think I want to learn how to use the Party Cannon now, I got my own,” she said, looking over to the weapon which was propped against the wall.

“Hmm indeed,” Celestia responded. “I can only imagine that such a unique weapon needs a name? You can’t just keep calling it ‘the gun’ now can you?”

“Yeah I’ve been thinking about that,” Dash said, still eyeing the rifle.

“What do you think about, Violet Tempest?”

“Fitting,” Apollo commented, looking over at the purple highlights on the gun.

“So what now Cap’n?” Applejack asked.

Celestia looked down at her crew, a determined look in her eye.

“We keep travelling.”

Author's Note

Alternate chapter title- MOAR DAKKA.

if anyone is still unsure about RD's new gun, think alien anti-tank rifle

also i'll be uploading a blog post featuring all the guns that will be making an appearance in this fic so look out for that!

Oh and from here on in things get serious.

You have been warned.

Chapter 12

The ambient hum of the dominating powerhouse that was the Wave Motion engine resonated gently throughout the Yamato. The departure from the Dark Star had been a bit hair- raising. During liftoff, a strong gust of wind had impacted the ship’s broadside, and had threatened to make it keel over.

Of course, it was nothing insane amounts of power couldn’t fix. The huge holes drilled into the ash from the stability thrusters would likely be there for a long time.

And so, the mighty ship was now cruising happily through the blackness of space. Having just completed its escape burn from the strange planet, the booster had been shut off, allowing the engine to focus its charge on the upcoming warp.

Rainbow Dash was oblivious to the ship’s happenings, though. She was far too preoccupied with the strange artifact she had picked up from the market pony at Axial.

“Come on! Do something!” she grumbled at the miniature screen in her hoof, that constantly mocked her with its nine little buttons.

“Argh! Open up!” she shrieked, attacking the device with a series of random patterns.

‘Incorrect pattern. Please try again in thirty minutes,” It displayed, almost smugly.

“Hey Rainbow I-” Apollo said from the doorway to her room, before he was quickly silenced when a small black projectile slammed into the wall just beside his head.

The stallion looked down briefly at the object, before glaring up at an increasingly sheepish looking Rainbow.

“That was rude,” he said flatly.

“Don’t you know it’s rude to come in to a ladies room without knocking?” Rainbow chided.

“Yes, but your door wasn’t locked. Why? You doing something I shouldn’t be seeing?” he smirked.

Rainbow’s eyes narrowed. “What if I was?”

Apollo’s eyes did the opposite and widened slightly. “Didn’t think you were that kind of mare Dash,” he joked as he moved over to the star filled window.

“What? I’m not entitled to some privacy?” she returned, following his path with her head.

“Yeah alright. But in all seriousness Rainbow, I came in here for a reason,” he said, continuing to look outside.

Sensing it was something serious, Rainbow dropped the dirty talk and listened in. “Yeah?”

“You saw how Twilight was acting after she saw those pictures,” he began, turning to face her. “I haven’t seen her since then. We might have to call in somepony else to initiate the warp, I think she is freaking out. Big time.”

“Yeah, I mean, she didn’t look too good. But they were only a couple pictures of Equus! I don’t know why those affected her so badly,” Rainbow admitted.

“Well that’s why I came here. You’re one of her friends, and seeing as you’re currently doing such valuable work,”- he motioned to the box. -”I was hoping that you would be kind enough to talk to her.”

“Why can’t you do it?” Rainbow shot back.

“I don’t know how much experience she’s had with stallions. Being as much of a recluse as she is, I can’t imagine it would be a lot. She might have seen something in those pictures that we missed, and it's affecting her on a personal level. If i go in there, she could lock up and not talk about it,” Apollo explained.

Rainbow dismounted her bed, heading for the door. “Okay, gotcha, go talk to Twi. But I just have to ask, why are you so interested in us?” Rainbow added.

“Perks of being First Officer. While the captain may look after the whole ship, I get to look after the executive crew. Don’t think it’s just you and your friends, I know every X.O by heart.” Apollo revealed.

“That Doctor guy is weird,” he added.

“Well, when you put it that way...” Rainbow pouted in mock hurt, “I thought I was special.”

“Those puppy dog eyes don’t work on me, Dash,” he said as he moved towards the door.

“Pfft, yeah right,” Rainbow giggled, flicking her tail in Apollo’s face as she passed, causing him to scrunch his nose in annoyance.

“I’ll have that shaved off if you do that again!” He called after her as she galloped down the hall, giggling madly.

The door to Twilight’s chamber glided open. The interior was very much the same as Rainbow’s. The bed, kitchen, window and bathroom were almost exactly in the same location. The only major, and most obvious difference was the enormous amount of ‘stuff’ cluttering the room.

Back in Ponyville, Rainbow was considered the slouch, what with having food packets and socks tossed carelessly on furniture and over doorways, Twilight, or at least Spike, kept the library immaculate.

On the Yamato, the roles seemed to have flipped. Rainbow’s room had been kept clean on account that she had spent less than twelve hours total in there. Twilight however, seemed to have crammed a lifetime’s worth of electronic and paper garbage into the tiny space.

Partly disassembled constructs lay all over the room. bundles of cables both thick and thin were snaking over the floor, around the bedposts and up the wall. One of said walls, was completely covered in various documents and pictures, all with a tack pushed into them with a different colored strand of yarn spanning between them.

In the center of all the chaos, was one Twilight Sparkle, who was currently going through, what Pinkie had once described as; ‘full freak out mode’.

The poor unicorn looked deeply disturbed, jumping around the room, ranting to herself under her breath. Without Spike around to help regulate these ‘situations’, her sanity had gone downhill fast.

Recovering from her shock of seeing the room in such a state, Rainbow spoke up. “Uh, Twi?”

The slightly batty pony either didn’t hear or was too preoccupied to take notice of her pegasus friend, continuing instead to mumble to herself.

“Twilight!” Rainbow said a bit louder, jumping up and waving her forehooves to get her attention.

It worked too well.

Twilight’s head whipped around to her friend, before snagging the mare with her magic, a small ‘eep’ sounded on Rainbow’s part, before being shoved, muzzle first, into the wall of pages.

“Oh, excellent, you’re here Rainbow Dash! I needed a second set of eyes to help out! Oh! Before I forget!” She said in an almost sadistically, happy tone. A magical tug forced a small feather to come free from Rainbow’s wing.

“Ow! Hey, not cool! Give that back!” Rainbow shouted, squirming in her suspended airspace.

“I’m sorry Rainbow Dash, but I need a pegasus feather to test the weather factory conspiracy.” She giggled as she took herself and the feather over to the other side of the room, leaving Dash to study the wall.

“Did you know that there is evidence to support the rumour that rainbows are made from magical essence? Specifically, from ponies?” Twilight commented, as if what she said hadn’t been worryingly creepy, still ignoring that she had her friend in suspension.

In any other situation, Rainbow would have corrected her about the rumour. Right now however, she could only think of one thing. Getting her feather back.

Rainbow thrashed more violently in the grip of Twilight’s magical hold and snarled as she tried to free herself, “I don’t give a flying buck! Twilight Sparkle, you will give my feather back before I remove your teeth through the back of your head!”

If there was one thing that was guaranteed to piss off a pegasus more than doubting their flying skills, it was taking one of their feathers without permission. Keeping feathers was a way of preserving memories, and the giving of a feather to loved one was considered more heartfelt than actually declaring their love for that pony.

It was a literal sharing of themselves, and because of that, stealing or taking a Pegasus feather from the owner was seen in many pegasus-heavy populations and pegasus cities as a form of sexual assault. It was for this reason as well as the anger running through her blood that Rainbow doubled her efforts to get free.

If she didn’t set Twilight straight, there was a chance that the oft-naive egghead would tell someone about what she did and if there was a pegasus nearby, there was no question that they would immediately become violent.

“Oh,so that’s where I left that!” Twilight exclaimed, foolishly releasing Rainbow from her grasp to pick up some random article from beneath a small bench.

Rainbow wasted no time in rocketing across the room and colliding with the back of her friend with the fury of a locomotive. “Give me back my feather before I do something really stupid!” she cried, holding her friend in an immobilizing grip.

“Ow! Rainbow that hurts!” Twilight cried out from beneath her, relinquishing the small blue feather from her hold. It didn’t flutter for long, as Rainbow’s hoof immediately shot out and snagged it from the air.

With her property now safely in her grasp, she sat on her haunches and held it to her chest as she fixed on Twilight with a hard glare.

“The hay is wrong with you Twi! First the Dark Star and now this?!” Rainbow growled.

The impromptu wrestling match seemed to shake Twilight from her whacky state. The harsh words seemed to only hit home harder, and the unicorns bottom lip began to quiver.

“I-I’m so sorry Rainbow! I don’t know what I was doing! I- I was- I’m just scared!” She blurted out, a dry sob threatening to release the tears she was obviously hiding.

Instead of comforting her, like she probably should have, Rainbow decided to choose to take the path more travelled, and turn the heat up.

“You basically groped me! I know that you know pegasi customs! Scared or not, you should know better than that!” Rainbow returned, still clutching the precious feather to her chest.

Instead of responding, Twilight shrunk under the scrutiny. The sound of a saddened whimper escaping her.

A brief silence fell over the two. The only noise being that of Rainbow’s angry breathing, and the always present hum of the ship around them.

Finally cooling down, Rainbow spoke up again. “Apollo asked me to come talk to you. I didn’t think you were that bad, but nopony in their right mind would try and pull a stunt like that if they had their heads on straight. What's going on Twilight?”

The unicorn looked up at the pegasus. “I’m scared,” she squeaked.

Rainbow softened. “Of what?”

Twilight cast a glance around the room. “All this.”

“It got me thinking,” she continued. “Celestia lied to us about the Yamato. She lied to us about Little Rock. It got me thinking, what else is she hiding from us?”

“I didn’t think much about it ‘till I saw those pictures. It was like those old UFO photographs, except from the other end. If all those conspiracies were true, what about the others?”

Rainbow remained unconvinced. “You really think that’s reason enough to go psycho crazy bonkers?”

Twilight looked up sadly at Rainbow. “It’s as if you’ve heard what some of those theories are.”

“Ever heard of the Rose Well Incident?” she added.

“Twilight you can’t... You can’t think that every idea that comes from those little tinfoil hat wearing nutjobs are true! Yeah, aliens are, or at least were real. So what? Did you think we were the only ones here? It all needs evidence, Twilight. You, of all ponies should know that. Besides, did they ever turn up anything from the Rose Well incident?”

“That’s just it Rainbow! A meteor falls to Equus, and it’s cordoned off by a heavily armed military force only days later? And then there’s the official statements! One pony says that there was an artificial object in the meteor, perhaps extra-terrestrial, and then barely a day later another pony replaces him and says that there was nothing in it!”

She had started pacing again, but Rainbow knew that this time Twilight was just venting, though she remained vigilant for more feather yanking, “And then there’s the base! It proves the theories were correct! There was an alien base on the Dark Star like Light Throat wrote about! And they were watching us!”

Twilight turned towards Rainbow, “What if she was right about them being in contact with Celestia? What if the Princess lost contact and raised the Yamato in order to find out what happened to them? If she kept the truth from Little Rock from us, what else could she have kept secret? I’m her personal student! I thought I knew her!”

And there we go. Rainbow suppressed the urge to sigh. If there was one thing that would set Twilight off, it was her relationship with the captain. Every pony had secrets, so why wouldn’t Celestia?

Yeah, it had hurt a little finding out that Little Rock was a lie, but the scientists and their families were alive and they had been working on the Yamato, so it wasn’t that bad. But to think that the captain was talking to Aliens and had been taking orders from them?

Rainbow knew Twilight was trying to justify this side of Celestia that she had clearly never seen before, but this was just going to lead her into a spiraling loop of depression. So Rainbow Dash stood up, walked over to Twilight who looked on the verge of tears again, and quickly swept her friend up into a tight hug.

“It’s okay to be scared, but the captain’s not just your teacher, she’s the ruler of our nation and her own pony, Twilight. Everypony has secrets, even Celestia, the trick is to accept that we’ll never find out everything about the ponies we know.”

Twilight sniffled into her friends chest. “But how can you ever trust them?”

Rainbow sighed. “I don’t know Twilight. I really don’t.”

The familiar cloud of ice exploding from the outside of the Yamato’s hull, signified its departure from warping. Fortunately, Twilight had felt well enough to come to the bridge and fulfill her role. Now, the ancient ship was in an even older region of space.

And it was boring.

There was very little in the way of anything interesting nearby. The last planet had been the Dark Star, now that they were bordering the edge of the decidedly small star system, they had entered the debris cloud.

Leftover rock and ice from the formation of the system had been pushed out the edge of the sun’s grasp, surrounding the system in a huge ball of rock.

Most large ships might find the obstacle hazardous, or even lethal if they tried to maneuver through it. Yet most ships weren’t the Yamato.

Eyeing the field of space flotsam from out the large windows, Celestia spoke. “Ready shock cannons. Low charge for obstruction clearance.”

Hearing the mention of the the devices that fell under her jurisdiction, Rainbow’s ears perked. “Captain, should we not test the type threes? We’ve already had a successful test of the shock cannons, we should see if the other armaments are working,” Rainbow pointed out.

“An excellent point, Officer Dash. Load the type three rounds into gun three, prepare to fire upon asteroids,” The captain commanded.

A quick nod of the head showed Rainbow’s confirmation. “Gun three. Load type three rounds and await targeting parameters,” Rainbow said, tapping upon her console, locking onto to three rather chunky asteroids.

“Come on! You heard her!” The team leader of the gun bellowed. Each gun housed three crew, while the two cannons nearest the bridge were smaller than the rest, the crew treated them no different.

One of the other crew within the armament, slammed his hoof down on his spartan console, starting a rattle from below him.

Winches and conveyors grabbed and picked up the bullet type ammunition much like battleships back on Equus did. The three thousand pound explosive rounds were hoisted upwards through the belly of the ship until they were inside the gun.

The small gap between where the crew sat and the breeches of the barrels, produced three, huge bullets. The door of the breach unlocked and opened, allowing entry to the type threes.

Thankfully, the crew inside the house were wearing their standardised, pressure suits. So that they did not suffocate when the breaches were opened. A series of clanks sounded, indicated that the rounds were in place. The breach doors swung close behind them.

A quick transmission from the bridge gave the gunnery crew their target. With a powerful whine, the small turret swung over to Starboard and the barrels pointed towards their targets.

“We will fire them in sequence. From left to right,” Celestia decided. “On my count.”

“First fire. Three. Two. One. Fire!”

A meaty bang thundered around the ship. Because the type threes were bullets, the kick was far more pronounced that the shock cannons. An angry black and orange cloud spat forth from the muzzle of the leftmost barrel, the neck of the weapon slamming back into the housing, absorbing the force.

It would have been impossible to follow the projectile. One second there was an asteroid. Next there wasn’t. The only remnants of the rock being that of the cloud of ice shooting out from where it had been.

“Second fire. Three. Two. One. Fire!” Celestia called again.

The middle barrel fired this time. Not having had time to recover completely the gunnery crew was still in a daze. Another cloud blasted the foot of the bridge tower, billowing forth, almost reaching the lower bridge.

The second, larger asteroid went out completely differently than the first. Where the first one had been obliterated, the second sheared in half. One side spun in place, while the other rocketed off to impact into a nearby asteroid, causing both to shatter.

“That was awesome!” Rainbow squeaked quietly to herself, causing Apollo to snicker under his breath.

“Third fire. Three. Two. One. Fire!”

A colossal, bone mashing bang threw the ship downward. The crew aboard the Yamato were ferociously thrown around in their seating or to the floor. Several of them smashing their heads against something.

Another black cloud erupted from the cannon. This one however, seemed far larger and worryingly off centre from where it should have spouted from. Alarms began to blare throughout the bridge. Those who had not been injured frantically scurried to solve the problem.

Rainbow Dash was not fortunate enough to be among them. A nasty gash on her forehead, leaked crimson into her fur and mane. A rather sharp corner of her station sporting a splatter of blood.

The voices in the pandemonium around her were muffled as blackness encroached her vision. The last thing she heard clearly before passing out was.

“We’ve got fatalities!”

Rainbow Dash stormed out of the infirmary, ice pack securely fastened to her head by means of a bandage. It had only been two hours since the incident and the doctors had managed to get Rainbow to come to rather easily.

“Rainbow, you have a concussion! You really shouldn’t be walking around,” Fluttershy sang out after her, flying up the hall to her.

“Sorry shy, but I gotta find Apollo, or the captain. I need to know what happened.”

“I don’t know where Celestia is, but Apollo was in the infirmary,” Fluttershy offered.

“What?”

“Yes, he was making sure no one was badly hurt. The he went to intensive care.”

“Alright, where's intensive care? Down the hall around the corner right?” Rainbow replied, wincing slightly as the ice shifted around on her wound.

“Yes Rainbow, but there’s something you should know,” Fluttershy said quietly to her friend.

“Apollo came to intensive care because he was carrying you.” the yellow pegasus revealed.

Rainbow blinked. “Well he was sitting right next to me, it makes sense.”

“I’m not so sure, Rainbow. He looked really worried,” Fluttershy pointed out.

“He was just being a good friend. I know I would carry you if you hit your head” Rainbow concluded, walking away to intensive care.

The door to intensive care slid open with a quiet swoosh as Rainbow stepped inside. It was strangely darker in here than the rest of the ship, and had the lingering smell of anesthetic. The circular room had a small sunken rotunda in the middle, where long, hospital beds were arranged, with a small pole terminal in the centre.

Off to one side, a window displayed a brightly lit operation room. It looked impossibly advanced compared to a hospital back on Equus. After all, liquid submersion vats were not a standard in any emergency room.

Two of the beds in the centre were occupied. A pair of ponies lay upon them, one stallion, one mare. Both had cords snaking out from under the bedsheets into the floor, which presumably hooked into the terminal. The ever present IV bag was hung on a pole protruding from their bed heads.

Sitting on a bench fastened to the wall, was Apollo. His face was sombre, yet calculating. The first officer looked up as Rainbow entered, through his expression changed little.

Motioning with his head, he gestured for Rainbow to come over. Once the mare had come within whisper range, he spoke.

“You alright?” he asked quietly.

“I’m fine,” she swatted away his concerns with a stern tone. “What happened back there?”

Apollo sighed. “The last round was faulty. The charge detonated inside the barrel, there was no way the breach would have been able to contain it.”

“So the-.”

“The explosion backfired into the gunhouse. They had no idea what happened,” he pointed back to the ponies in the centre. Who, upon closer inspection, were covered in severe burns.

“I-they, uh.” Rainbow faltered, tearing her attention away from the injured ponies. “Weren’t there three ponies in the gun?”

Apollo closed his eyes, bowing his head and letting out a long sigh. “There were.”

Rainbow gasped quietly, bringing a hoof in front of her mouth. “So he- he’s....”

“He was standing behind the breach when it happened. I’m sorry Rainbow. He’s gone.”

Rainbow felt tears begin to build behind her eyes. A pony had died, under her jurisdiction. He had been doing what she had asked of him, and now he was gone.

Rainbow Dash was never one to let others see her cry. Especially not a colt, but this was far worse than missing out on any cider. Her ears pressed flat against her head and she shut her eyes tight, looking down towards the floor.

She was shaking, she could feel it. Before she succumb to choking sobs, she quickly turned tail and bolted out of the room.

“Rainbow! Rainbow, wait!” Apollo called after her, breaking into a gallop after her. The two began to sprint down the halls, Rainbow blasting past ponies without so much as an excuse me, leaving Apollo to apologize in her wake.

Despite being very fit, Apollo simply couldn’t keep up with the athletic mare. After a while, the gap between them grew and Apollo slowed, out of breath, watching Rainbow’s tail disappear around a corner ahead.

A curious onlooker approached the first officer. “What was all that about?” she asked.

Deciding to respect Rainbow’s wishes of not being seen crying, he replied. “Her friend is in the infirmary, she just found out.”

“Oh, that’s terrible!” the pony replied. “I hope she gets better soon!”

Apollo sighed, “Me too.”

The door to Rainbow bedroom slid open. For the second time that day, Apollo entered into her room, this time however, to console the mare within.

Rainbow was lying on her bed, head in her hooves. She wasn’t crying, or at least, didn’t seem to be. The covers on the large bed were messy, obviously a result of much tossing around.

“Rainbow?” he said softly, moving to the bedside.

No response.

Sighing, his wings sprung open and he flapped up to sit beside her. A comforting hoof found its way to her shoulder, rubbing around in small circles to sooth her.

“Rainbow, don’t beat yourself up over this. Nopony could have know that was going to happen.”

A murmur sounded from the mare, before her head shot up, whipping around to stare at him angrily, with puffy eyes.

“It was me who wanted to test those rounds! If we had used the shocks like Celestia said, he would still be alive!” she screamed, voice cracking.

The stallion sighed, bringing a hoof up to her forehead. “You did well to run all the way from I.C to here with that. Where’s your ice pack?” he asked concerned.

“What about that stallion’s family? What if he had kids?” she weeped, ignoring Apollo’s question.

Apollo grimaces as he pushed a forelock out of the way to reveal her injury. “You didn’t do yourself any favours ditching that icepack. And where are the stitches?”

“I’m fine!” Rainbow cried, swatting his hoof away.

“No, you’re not Dash. You can’t blame yourself for what happened, everypony on this ship knows the dangers and they take responsibility for it themselves.”

“That stallion knew the risks he was taking when he stepped into that gun. You’re no different. Just because he answered to you does not make you responsible for his death.”

“I didn’t even know his name!” Rainbow shrieked, sitting up fully to emphasise her point. “I made him out to be some no-name gunnery crewpony! I didn’t even bother to actually talk to him, and now he’s dead! I’m the Chief Tactical Officer, and I didn’t even give the effort to find out about the ponies I’m in charge of!I didn’t even get to ask what his name was!” Rainbow shouted, a new wave of tears coming through.

She didn’t get a chance to continue though, when Apollo pulled her into a hug. Letting the mare adjust to the sudden closeness, she began to cry softly again, when he spoke.

“Nopony is going to hold this against you Dash, but seeing as you are, i’m going to have to tell you something,” he sighed.

“If you blame yourself for this, it is never going to go away,” he stated.

“Hm?” rainbow murmured.

“You’ve seen my cutie mark yes? A ladder and a fire axe?” he asked, feeling her nod against his chest. “Did you know that, before I came on the Yamato, I was a firefighter in Bittsburg?”

“Huh?” Rainbow sniffed, already beginning to calm down.

Seeing that his tactic of opening up the her was working, he continued. “You remember the big fire that nearly wiped out half the city a few years back? I was right there in the thick of it, directing everypony,” he recounted softly to her.

“That’s what landed me here. On the Yamato. Celestia herself recognized my efforts and asked me, in secret, to come work on this. Turns out my leadership skills are second to only the princess herself,” he chuckled.

“Y-you were a fighter in those fires? That’s amazing, you’re a hero-”

“Don’t say it Dash, I’m really not. I stood there in the middle of the city, pointing other firefighters to the action, I didn’t do anything,” he said firmly, but not harshly.

“If I had my way, every other fighter would have been praised.”

“But, without you so many more ponies would have died. Even if you weren’t there at the action you were just as important. You saved all those ponies,” Rainbow said, even managing to smile weakly.

“I saved ponies yes. But not all of them,” Apollo sighed.

Seeing Rainbow was now curious, he continued. “It was way back when I started out as a firepony. Just a few months into the job we got called to a house fire.”

“Pretty standard really. Parents out for the night, and the kids were left at home. two fillies if I remember it right. The older one was trying to cook. I forget what, I think it was hay fries.”

“There were only three of us on that call, two pulling the wagon and me. The others stayed behind to put out the fire, and I went inside to get the girls,” Apollo retold, his voice growing more and more saddened with each word.

“I managed to get the older one out, but when I went back in for the other, the roof collapsed. I barely got out myself, but the filly. She... She didn’t.”

“Apollo I-”

“I blamed myself for years over that. Everyday I’d be thinking; ‘How could I have saved her? What could I have done differently?’ I very nearly went mad over it.”

“It took me a long time to figure out that, no matter what I did, somepony was going to die in that house. The parents, and the sister never blamed me, yet If I could go back and do it again, the pony that would have died in there would have been me.”

“I-I had no idea, Apollo, I’m so sorry,” Rainbow said.

“Don’t be sorry for me, Rainbow. I came to terms with it long ago. If anything, feel sorry for that filly that never grew up. Or her parents that lost their daughter. The point I’m trying to make here Dash is that you can’t blame yourself for something you had no control over.”

Rainbow sunk back into the stallion’s chest while reflecting on the new information she had just received. She still felt awful for the poor gunpony, but knowing that nopony blamed her was comforting to say the least.

Rainbow may have battled fearsome enemies in the past, and even been a bit gung-ho, but she had never witnessed death, at least not so pronounced and close to home. It was a fine indication that no matter how tough her exterior seemed, she was still an innocent little filly underneath.

Yet here she was. Surrounded in metal. Dependent on a device that was designed to do nothing but kill and destroy, how could she ever feel safe knowing that?

Neither pegasi knew how long they sat there on Rainbow’s bed. One was busy thinking of recent events, and the other was focusing on the first, making sure she was calm.

After a long time of simply being there in the silence, a sound made their ears prick up. A few moments later, they heard it once more but it was louder,this time a series of staccato pops that suddenly had Apollo on his hooves and Rainbow looking at the door with trepidation, “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.” Apollo replied as the pops were now joined by shouts. Both of them grabbed their ears as alarms began to blare and the lights switched to red emergency lighting as the shouts were now joined by screams and yelling.

The two ponies watched the door as the sound of hooves on metal came closer and it hissed open to reveal a pony in converted ship body-armour and armed with a converted assault rifle, “You two! Get ready!”

“Wait! What’s going on?!” Rainbow asked as the armoured pony moved to leave, prompting the pony to turn back.

“We’re taking control of the ship! That accident was the last straw! As of now, we’re declaring a mutiny!”

Author's Note

Oh conflict! I know this is what you guys have been hanging out for so here you are!

Chapter 13

Rainbow felt her blood turn icy as she stared down the barrel of the mutineer’s gun. Having seen first hoof the devastation one could wrought, having a firearm pointed at her was truly terrifying.

“Okay.” Rainbow blinked and turned her head slightly to see Apollo approaching,

“Just get that gun out of the Tactical Officer’s face, she’s not going to do anything.” Apollo cautioned. When the pony hesitated, he sighed, “Look, she’s one of the Elements of Harmony. If you want this to succeed, you’re going to need their help, so just lower the gun okay?”

“Well...I guess you’re right. Sorry about that, but Miss Skyline was pretty sure that she’d put up a fight.” As the mutineer lowered the gun, Rainbow Dash tried to say something when the words died in her mouth as Apollo surged forward and slammed a hoof into the pony’s throat, before spinning around and bucking him right in the face as he started gagging, sending the mutineer flying into a wall with a loud thump before crashing down.

Rainbow flew over and quickly checked the mutineer, “Is he…?”

Apollo shook his head, “No, I learned a few tricks, one of them being how to hit somepony just hard enough to knock them out. But we’re in trouble. If they’re looking for the Elements of Harmony, then that mean your friends could be in danger.”

“What! We have to save them!” Rainbow blurted out as Apollo stripped the pony’s armour and weapon from him and trotted back to her, “How are we going to fight them?”

Apollo tossed her the armour. “We don’t.” he replied, strapping the helmet around her head. “We avoid them at all costs until we can get to the bridge, and find out what's going on,” he finished, fastening the bullet-proof vest around the mare.

He looked around and frowned, “But we can’t simply go through the halls together. One of us needs to do some sneaking around.” He glanced at Rainbow, “And that’s your job.”

Rainbow blinked, “What do you mean ‘my job’? What can I do that you can’t?” Rainbow hovered so she could cross her forelegs and Apollo simply pointed with a hoof at the ventilation ducts, causing the rainbow pegasus to blink and then her widened with the realisation, “Oh…”

“Yeah, I can’t fit, which means I can’t sneak around and avoid detection while getting the info we need on this mutiny. Those vents weren’t made specifically to fit whoever built this ship, but they are large enough that a slim pony could crawl through them and find out what’s going on.” He flew up to one of the vents and began working to remove the cover.

“So what do you want me to do? I can’t exactly fight all those mutineers by myself.” Rainbow asked with a small amount of trepidation in her voice.

“You won’t have to. They’re likely keep anyone who resists locked up. If you can find them and release them, they’ll fight to regain control of the ship. Which is what I hope they can manage, because there’s no telling what the Captain might do.”

That was the reminder to Rainbow that their Captain was also the most powerful being on this ship and if she was pushed far enough, especially by threatening Twilight…

Rainbow shuddered, before she realised something, "Hey. Why am I wearing the armour though? You’re the one with the gun!" she asked.

Putting a hoof on her shoulder, Apollo said softly, "Because I want you to be safe."

Turning away, Rainbow said nothing as she decided to crawl into the vent to conceal her burning cheeks. If everything went downhill from here, at least she knew that Apollo had her back.

With a squeak, the mare managed to slide herself into the tight passage. Now that she was inside, she was able to get a true sense as to why she was going it alone. Even though her athletic, trimmed body was fairly small, the cool, metal walls of the duct still grazed the sides of the armour.

She thought about ditching the heavy protecting gear, to move more quickly, but decided against it. Should she emerge from the vents into the middle of a firefight, the bulky armour would prove invaluable.

Feeling a soft breeze fluttering through the hairs on her tail, she pushed on.

Crawling through vents was easier than Rainbow thought it would be, although she was certain that someone would hear the scratching that the armour was making as it dragged through the air vent.

Shifting around a corner, Rainbow began to hear the sounds of voices coming from a nearby grate. Crawling towards the conversation that was in progress, Rainbow risked a glance out of the slitted opening, to see who was talking.

“So, we’ve got control of the Armory, two of the Elements of Harmony are in custody, and we should have the rest of the crew locked up in a few minutes. Any word on the ones that escaped?” The pony asking the question looked like one of the gun crewponies, talking to a scientist who was holding a pistol in the distinct glowing grip of telekinesis magic.

“We’re still looking for the Doctor and his mare, and we’re still missing Loyalty, Kindness and Laughter. Last I heard we managed to locate Honesty in the supply area, but she’s injured a few of us already, and well... you know Miss Skyline’s orders.”

The crewpony nodded, “I know, don’t harm the Elements of Harmony, But has she got to remind us every minute? Bet you she’ll chew out the ponies who grab Honesty, no way that mare’s going to be brought back without bruises.”

The scientist shrugged, “Not my problem. I’m just more worried about Princess Celestia. I mean, what if she decides that this mutiny isn’t worth keeping the paint intact? She could just incinerate everypony and be done with it.”

“Yeah.” The crewpony nodded in agreement, “I suppose that’s why we’re grabbing the Elements. She may decide to fry us, but with the Elements as... Well, as hostages, she should stay her hoof from killing us all.”

The scientist nodded as he turned away, “Yeah. I just hope Miss Skyline manages to convince the Princess to bury this ship again. Something like this just doesn’t have any place in Equestria. Just put this thing back in the ground, where it won’t tempt others.”

Rainbow stopped listening and continued crawling through the vent, her eyes wide. She wasn’t just being looked for, she was being hunted. With far more care than before, she inched her way through the dark maze.

Without a map of the vents, she was working on guesses and hunches based on what parts of the ship Rainbow could see that guided her. The first place she visited was the vent in Twilight’s room, and Rainbow grimaced at seeing the signs of a struggle.

It made sense though, Twilight was the one who piloted the ship, so they’d need her alive and uninjured in order to return home. So if Rainbow could rescue her, they’d be stuck in space until Princess Celestia dealt with them.

Not much of a plan, but it was good enough for Rainbow as she moved to find the other Elements of Harmony.

First things first, find Fluttershy, there was no way that she was going to handle having a gun in her face very well and Rainbow wanted to make sure that the cripplingly shy and soft-spoken pegasus was all right before she went to find the others.

Last Rainbow knew, Fluttershy should have been in the medical area and after a glance through a vent grate to get her bearings, the multicolored pegasus quickly shuffled through the tiny tunnels towards Medical to see if she could find Fluttershy.

Medical was still occupied. Just because a mutiny was going on didn’t mean that injured ponies had to be forced out, and where there were injured ponies, Rainbow found that there were doctors as she looked out the vent cover to study what she could see.

There were plenty of yellow-furred hooves walking around, but she knew Fluttershy didn’t handle crowds very well and moved on. When the shooting started, Fluttershy would likely hide somewhere that didn’t get a lot of hoof traffic. One of the unused storage rooms would probably work.

Shuffling quietly through the vents, Rainbow continued on towards where she thought the storage rooms were. After a pair of wrong turns, Rainbow found the storage rooms for the Medical section of the ship and started look through the vent covers.

The first room was empty, save for a few first aid kits and spare bedsheets. Moving on to the next one as she kept her eyes and ears focused for any clues of her friend

Grimacing at not being able to see any sign of the shy pegasus, Rainbow Dash decided to take a chance and harshly whispered, “Fluttershy! Are you in here?”

Her ears pricked up as she was met with a familiar squeak in response and she smiled with some relief, “Fluttershy! It’s me! Rainbow Dash!”

She carefully listened in the quiet as a small voice whispered in response, “R-rainbow? Where are you?” Rainbow carefully tapped the vent in response and heard the quiet flutter of wings as Fluttershy spoke up just a bit louder, though that may have been because she was nearer, “Oh Rainbow, it’s horrible! First all those hurt ponies, and then fighting started! What’s going on?”

Rainbow sighed sadly, “There’s a mutiny happening, Fluttershy. I don’t know why it started. Maybe what happened on the Dark Star, maybe someponies never liked the Yamato and decided to do this to get the Captain to bury it again. All I know is, they’re trying to take control of the ship.”

“Do...do you think the Captain will let them?” Fluttershy asked and Rainbow shrugged from inside the vent, scraping her armour against the metal to make a slight noise.

“I don’t know. I mean, we’re on board and Twilight’s her student, but at the same time, she might decide that us getting some injuries is worth keeping this ship under her control. I just don’t know Fluttershy. I know she’s the Princess and all, but I don’t know her.”

“I’m scared Rainbow. All this fighting, but I know the Captain will make the right decision. I trust her. I just wish I could help out, but they want to capture me.” There was a pause, before more fluttering of wings signalled Fluttershy landing in front of the vent as she carefully opened it and pushed through a small bag, “Maybe this will help. In case you get hurt or find somepony who needs help.”

Rainbow Dash smiled, “Thanks Fluttershy. You’d better get back to your hiding place, I’m going to see if I can find out where they put our friends.”

As she crawled away, she heard Fluttershy reply, “Stay safe, Rainbow” Before a soft flutter of wings indicated, Rainbow was alone again as she crawled.

With Fluttershy safe, for now, Rainbow decided that she would go find Pinkie Pie, and considering the mare in question, that either meant she was at the ship’s internal radio station area, or in the galley, when the mutiny happened.

“Hmm, if I was Pinkie Pie, where would I be when this started?” Rainbow muttered to herself as she stared at a fork in the vent system, “She probably wanted to-” Rainbow’s ears perked up as she heard the tinny, distant pops of gunfire and immediately started turning when she frowned, “No wait, that could be something else, and Pinkie wouldn’t get into a fight. Still…”

She decided to head towards the gunfire, maybe she could at least see what was going on before she found Pinkie.

As it turned, it was Pinkie she found as Rainbow found herself staring through a ceiling vent, and she was glad for her smaller frame allowing small wing-assisted jumps to reach it, at two armed ponies trying to pin down PInkie inside the galley, only the mare was giving them a lot more trouble than expected.

“Are you trying to kill her? Pin her down!”

“You try keeping this lunatic pinned down!”

“Watch it! Behin-” A loud clang filled the air as a heavy pot smashed into the pony’s head and knocked him out, “Oh Tartarus, forget this!” As the remaining mutineer dragged his friend out, Rainbow watched as a rather serious Pinkie Pie stood up from where she had been preparing to brain the pony with a frying pan to trot over the door as it closed and begin setting up a barricade.

Rainbow decided that it was safe enough to call out, “Pinkie!”

The mare turned and looked up at the vent, before her serious expression lit up in a sunny smile, “Dashie! You’re okay!”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Rainbow replied, “I heard the gunfire and came to see if that was you they were firing on.” She looked down at the pink pony and winced, “Aw heck, you’re bleeding!”

Pinkie looked back at her back at a long scratch from where a bullet had brushed just a touch too close, before smiling back up at Rainbow, “It’s just a flesh wound! I’ll be fine!”

Rainbow shook her head, “Fluttershy gave me some bandages, let me come down and patch you up.”

“Okie dokie, then you can help me keep these meanies out of the kitchen!” Pinkie replied brightly as Rainbow opened the vent and hovered down, stretching her wings slightly to get the kinks out from all the crawling, before she trotted over to apply the bandages and some antiseptic.

“This might sting a little.” Rainbow cautioned as she wet a cotton pad and prepared to clean the wound.

“I told you Rainbow, I’ll be fi-” Pinkie’s reply was cut off as the mare suddenly sucked in a deep breath and let it out as a low hissing as Rainbow applied the antiseptic and cleaned the wound, before finishing her sentence with a shudder, “Fine. See?”

Rainbow simply shook her head as she applied the bandage securely like they had been taught in basic first aid. Once she was certain that it was on securely, Rainbow moved to help Pinkie set the barricade on the door as banging started from the other side, “Are you sure you want to stay here Pinkie? They’ll break through eventually.”

Pinkie smiled, “Too many cupcakes Dash, I’d only slow you down. Besides, I heard that they want Twilight to get this ship moving back to Equestria, and that could lead to a whole mess of trouble if they get there.”

Rainbow frowned, “So what do we do?”

Pinkie shrugged, “Dunno. Throw a party and get everypony to talk nicely?”

Rainbow whirled on Pinkie, “This isn’t a game, Pinkie! Ponies lives are on the line here!”

Pinkie paused, before her smile slipped a little, “I know, Dashie. But what can I do?”

Rainbow grumbled, “Just help me with this, alright!”

They continued working in silence and as the barricade was completed, Rainbow sighed, “That should hold for now.” She turned her head towards Pinkie, “Keep yourself safe Pinkie, and see what you can find out about a Miss Skyline if you can. You may slow me down, but you can get just about anywhere you want to, you know.”

Pinkie nodded with a shaky smile, “Okie dokie lokie.”

With a nod, Rainbow started to flap up to the vent when Pinkie called out, “Wait!” Rainbow paused and turned in mid-air as Pinkie grabbed something from inside her hair, “Here! I made this party bombs for when we got back to Equestria! Maybe you can distract some of those meanies with them!”

Rainbow smiled, dropped down and took them, before hugging Pinkie, “Stay outta trouble Pinkie.”

“You too, Dashie.” With that said, Pinkie ducked behind a counter and vanished while Rainbow resigned herself to more crawling, but with a new destination in mind.

There was only one pony with the technical know-how to stop this ship from moving, and apart from Twilight piloting it, he would be the most valuable pony in a mutiny.

Rainbow had to find the Doctor. She needed to get to the Wave Motion Engine.

Rainbow’s first clue that she was getting close after several minutes of passing ponies being rounded up and imprisoned or small fights between the loyal crew and the mutineers was the vibrations in the metal vents.

As they got stronger, Rainbow heard the bass humming of the Wave Motion Engine, a low sound that vibrated through her body mixing with a slight whining that made her ears twitch at the sound.

As she moved towards the Engine Room proper, she heard a voice filter through a nearby vent cover, “There’s no need to push her my good pony, we’re cooperating.”

“You’re going too slow! Miss Skyline wants to see you. Now.” Rainbow shuffled over to the vent cover and saw two ponies escorting the Doctor and Derpy down the hallway. One particularly unpleasant looking stallion was roughly shoving Derpy forward and Rainbow suppressed the urge to growl at the blatant bullying.

She had to help them, but what could draw their attention without revealing herself? Rainbow shuffled the bag containing her medical supplies and Pinkie’s Party Bombs forward so she could grab one of the small bombs and look at it.

It seemed simple enough, just pull the pin and throw from the look of it, but would it be enough? Rainbow took a breath, “No point in waiting around,” she whispered as she pulled out the pin, shoved the vent cover open with a scraping sound, and tossed the Party Bomb before slamming it shut as the two mutineers turned around as the fuse started to sizzle and spew smoke.

“What the heck?”

*POOM!*

Rainbow was about to get out and try to take them on when she heard a pair of loud *krak!* sounds and the thump of two bodies hitting the ground and blinked as she heard a voice quite calmly remark, “That was a nice bit of work there. You can come out now.”

Shuffling out of the vent as the smoke cleared, Rainbow surveyed the scene before her. True to their name, the Party Bomb had plastered the hallway with decorations while Derpy stood over the two unconscious mutineers with her silly smile still on her face as the Doctor approached, “Handy distraction there, right in the nick of time as they say.”

Rainbow blinked, “Ah yeah, it was. I was looking for you actually. Lucky thing I came when I did eh?” She remarked with a smile.

“Yes…” The Doctor replied, glancing at the ceiling for a brief moment, “A very lucky and convenient thing indeed.”

Rainbow looked at the downed ponies, “So did you take them out?”

The Doctor glanced backwards, “Hmm? Oh no, I don’t like to fight unless I absolutely have to. Derpy took them down.”

Rainbow blinked, “Derpy?”

Derpy simply smiled sunnily as Rainbow suddenly felt a distinct chill run down her back, “Okay...Anyway, I need your help to shut down the Wave Motion Engine. If we can stop these mutineers from making Twilight pilot the ship back to Equestria, we can make them surrender.”

“Or cause them to try and kill everyone, I mean everypony, but it’s a good plan.” The Doctor replied, “Better than some I’ve heard in the past.” He pointed down the hallway, “As it happens we’re only a stone’s throw away from where the ringleader is confronting our dear Captain now, so we shouldn’t want to miss the show.”

Rainbow moved in front of the Earth Pony before he could try to head in that direction, “Waitaminute! What about stopping them from moving the ship?”

The Doctor shrugged, “I have a feeling that we won’t be moving anytime soon.”

He turned to head down the hallway, “Come now, we don’t want to miss out! The Captain will need our support!”

Rainbow raised a hoof to try and stop them, before shaking her head and following them.

She did wonder what the Doctor meant by his last comment though.

Twilight sat in her designated spot in the bridge. Normally, she would quite enjoy being at the helm of the most powerful object to grace Equestrian soil, yet right now, she was terrified. A heavily armoured mutineer stood next to her, rifle pointed just inches from her throat.

The librarian was sweating profusely. A single mistake could see a lump of lead shooting through her jugular. The view wasn’t even much to look at either, the brilliant view of the stars was now obscured by the smoke and cloud of debris that still floated up from the damaged cannon.

Looking to her mentor for help wasn’t an option, the princess was basically fused to her seat, dozens of rifle toting mutineers surrounding her. A very illegal, magical suppressor was locked around her horn, not that she seemed to notice.

The captain sat perfectly still, gazing out of the far window. Her expression completely neutral but even from Twilight’s position a good few feet away, she could feel the heat radiating from her.

For a brief moment, Twilight theorised that she might be trying to overheat those surrounding her, but it was obvious to see that it was the heat of her rage.

A light on Celestia’s control panel lit up, one of the ponies surrounding her quickly noted it, “Course is re-adjusted. Engines primed, we’re good to go home.”

The pony holding the gun to Twilight nodded, before poking her with it, “You heard her,” they spat, in a clearly feminine voice. “Get moving.”

As much as Twilight didn’t want to, she knew the only way for the innocent ponies aboard to survive was to give in to the mutineers requests.

Putting a hoof on the throttle, Twilight eased it forward.

A horrific, grinding sound shuddered the whole ship. The engines coughed and spat but did not fire. Trying again, Twilight maxed the throttle, hoping that the technique she had used when they had first launched would work again.

Another, unhealthy grinding echoed around the Yamato, the engine profusely refusing to charge the engines, almost as if the Yamato itself was against the idea of moving.

The mare beside Twilight grumbled angrily, and the unicorn felt the cold muzzle of the gun push harder into the side of her neck.

“What are you doing? Get this piece of junk moving!” she shouted, jamming the gun into Twilight’s neck painfully.

Now Twilight was scared. Of all the times for the ship to quit on her it had to be now?

Pressing a few buttons, Twilight purged the engines, redirecting their current charge to elsewhere in the ship, hoping the impromptu reboot would kick them into gear.

Waiting a few moments, she pushed both levers of the throttle forward, hoping the sub-engines would work even if the primary refused.

The Yamato clearly did not enjoy that, a huge throaty bang caused the ship to lurch forward, followed by a monstrous grinding, roaring noise that caused all to clutch at their ears. The angry noises came and went like the movements of a steam engine. The roaring throbbing in and out of clarity like an angry cat.

Desperately pulling the throttle back, the horrific noises died out with a shriek, returning the ship to its idle state.

The gunpony beside Twilight didn’t like that. Forcing Twilight off of her chair, she clambered on top of her, gun still pointed at her face.

“What did you do!? You disgusting bookworm!” she spat, almost as if the failure to launch had turned her rabid.

“I-I-I don’t know! I did everything like I was told, it should have-” Twilight’s sputtering was cut short, when the butt of the gun came down across her face.

The sudden vicious act caused Celestia to move forward in her seat, eyes full of hatred, yet the ponies surrounding her kept her at bay. Despite being able to move the sun, she was not immune to bullets.

“Do that again, and they will never find your body,” she said in a calm, almost happy, yet dead serious tone, that made all back away from the princess slightly.

Even Twilight felt her eyes go wide at the statement. In all her years of knowing the princess, she’d never once seen her become properly angry, let alone make a threat.

The mare on top of Twilight didn’t seem phased however, for once, she was in power. “And how are you going to do that? Heh, actually, I don’t think we even need this waste of space, can’t the first officer also pilot this thing?” She smirked, pushing the gun between Twilight’s eyes.

“Say bub-bye Twilight. I always thought this ship needed a little color. I think red will do nicely,” She cackled sadistically, moving her hoof to the trigger.

“Oh no no! There’ll be none of that!” The Doctor tsk’ed as he strode confidently through the now open doorway, Derpy and Rainbow in tow.

Every gun turned their way as the mutineers nearest to the trio backed while training their guns at them. The mare on top of Twilight sneered, “And what do you think you can do egghead?”

The Doctor smiled and tapped his hoof to a thin, circular device fixed to his holding brace, “This.” There was a high-pitched whine as the mutineers glanced at one another, before it stopped at the Doctor nodded in satisfaction, “I suggest you surrender now.”

The mutineer nearest to them blinked in confusion, before deciding he had enough of the situation and raised his gun. Rainbow closed her eyes tight, then heard a *click* and opened them to find the gunpony staring at his gun, before fiddling with it, “The heck?”

Another pony raised her gun and pulled the trigger, and received a *click* of her own, and as they all received the same sound, the mare on top of Twilight grew paler and paler before she snarled and pulled the trigger of her gun that was still aimed point-blank between Twilight’s eyes.

*click*

The mare gaped, before Twilight’s horn glowed and she went flying into the monitor on the ceiling before landing with a short bounce, knocked out cold as Twilight got to her hooves, “That was...Captain, what happened?”

Celestia was about to answer when the other elevator door opened and out rushed several more ponies in heavier armour and larger weapons, before an Earth Pony wearing a lab coat stepped out after them, causing the Doctor to grimace, “Skyline Vista.”

“Doctor.” Skyline turned to regard Celestia, “The fun and games are over Captain, we have the majority of the ship under our control apart from a few tiny pockets of resistance, and access to the armoury. Return this vessel to Equestria and bury it once more. Our nation does not need an unnatural influence like this.”

Celestia closed her eyes and inhaled, before releasing a slow exhale that made the air shimmer with heat, “Skyline Vista, you should be thankful.”

Skyline raised an eyebrow, “Oh? The way I see it, I have much that can be considered grievances. First the sudden industrialisation programs, the suing for peace with the Border Kingdoms under unfavourable terms, hiding the truth of Little Rock, and then pulling this monster out from under Canterlot?”

She moved in front of Celestia’s seat, “What reason should I have to be thankful for finding out that all you have done recently is because of a message from space? That you are forcing us to advance technologically simply to supply and maintain an alien warship? That you would risk the lives of these ponies who blindly follow you into madness!”

“I would never put any of my ponies in danger!” Celestia suddenly roared, her mane suddenly flaring like the sun she controlled for a brief moment as she struggled to control herself.

“Oh?” Skyline smirked, clearly not phased, “And what about that misfire? Was that ‘not putting any of your ponies in danger’? I suppose I should indeed be thankful, the confusion of that event gave us the perfect opportunity to overthrow you.” She sneered.

“Return this ship to Equestria, Princess, bury it, sink it, destroy it. Get rid of it. End this foolishness.” She waved a hoof at the soldiers, “Look at this. We are not ready to be meddling with the technology of those who are vastly superior to ourselves. I saw the weapon that Tactical Officer Rainbow Dash came back with, heard about what it did when fired, what were you thinking that you would have us face off against beings with weapons like that?”

“I was thinking that Equestria; that Equus, could not remain untouched for long. I was thinking that our past, before the arrival of my sister and I to rule. The legends of ancient times before my birth, may be the key to our future survival.” Celestia turned her gaze back to the window, “And it is out there, Skyline Vista.”

“We know that we are not alone in the universe. We have for a long time now.” The Princess and Captain continued, “We cannot sit idly by until the day when they find us. And then what, Skyline Vista? The Elements of Harmony are not infallible, our magic is not all-powerful.”

She shook her head, “If this ship’s purpose is anything to go off of, we know that they may very well not be friendly, and if so our world could burn, our kind and those of the Griffons, Minotaurs, Dragons and others sold off to alien worlds as slaves.” She focused her attention on Skyline Vista, “Yes, I am mad, insane, for thinking that a message that may be aeon’s old is our only possible salvation against a threat that may never come, but my madness is vindicated Skyline Vista, yours isn’t.”

She leaned forward, heat radiating from her, “I bury this ship again. Then what? Under the law, what you have done is High Treason against my crown and rule even disregarding the charges of mutiny. Will you request that I stop the industrialisation programs? No. Will you demand I restart the Border Wars rather than trade with them? No. I will return this ship because I am no longer cold-hearted enough to watch those I care about slowly die of thirst and hunger, but once we are on the ground? You will never see the light of day again.”

Skyline Vista shrugged, “I will pay that price, so that Equestria remains safe. Your vindication is evidence that Equestria was being watched by aliens who either left or died out a long time ago. Nothing will come and frankly, you are a fool for daring to go out and goad a threat into finding us.”

Celestia’s mane flared with sunlight again but it slowly returned to normal, “And you are twice the fool for your treachery Skyline Vista. A fool damned. I love my ponies as a mother and will never harm you. My sister loves you as a guardian and ruler over her subjects. That is why, when we return, it is she that will decide your fate, not I.”

“I told you I don’t care!” Skyline suddenly screamed, “I don’t care about my fate! I care about Equestria, about the world! You say that danger will find us? I say that you will bring danger back! And I am not alone in thinking this! Why do you think the Canterlot Council has been resisting you? Why do you think entire companies of soldiers aren’t armed with your ‘modern’ weapons? We’ve never needed guns, never needed mines and factories, never needed all this technology, but you forced it all onto us!”

“Because it was necessary.” Celestia replied, appearing calmer than her mane and radiating heat let on, “Even if I decided to ignore that message, I would have done what I have done regardless.”

Her eyes narrowed, “I would have ordered those mines irrespective of any message because we need iron for steel, and gems and gold for trade. I would have built those factories in order to continue spreading our limited rail lines to the furthest reaches of Equestria and create links to other nations that accepted them.”

Her hoof tapped the console, “I would have ripped the guts out of this ship, ordered my scientists to reverse engineer them, and continued my programs anyway. Do you understand Skyline Vista? I would not have stopped, I would have continued on my path, and your protests would be noted and ignored.”

Celestia’s lips curled back into a snarl, “All this. All that you and your conspirators have done, all this pain, worthless. You have damned yourself and these ponies for nothing.”

Skyline Vista was snarling as well, “Then I guess we have no choice.” She raised her hoof and in that moment, Rainbow Dash decided that now was the time to act.

She yanked out another Party Bomb and pulled the pin, the hissing of the fuse catching their attention as she threw it and a pony shouted, “Bomb!” As they took cover, Rainbow dove for Celestia console and grabbed something she saw when she was alone on the bridge while Twilight and Applejack were on the Dark Star.

It was a thick, handled item, marked by a label above it ‘Master System Terminal BUS 1-001’, and Rainbow had seen Celestia insert it into her console after the ship had landed on the moon, before it took off for the Dark Star, so it had to be important.

Wrenching it out of it’s socket, it came free with an angry buzz, high voltage electricity arcing between its pins.

Instantly, the consoles surrounding them shut down as the Party Bomb exploded and sprayed decorations everywhere. The lights changed from soft white to emergency red as Rainbow scrambled for the elevator door and dove it as it slid closed, slamming a hoof on the button for the main deck.

As the doors closed, she heard Skyline Vista scream “Get that mare!”

Rainbow bounced on her hooves, ready for anything when the doors opened. She was slightly disappointed when she saw nopony as the doors slid open, before remembering that she was carrying something very important and needed to get to safety.

Taking off at a canter down the hallway, Rainbow tried to remember where the armoury was. Violet Tempest would help make them back off, she probably wouldn’t need to fire a shot, just point and watch them run.

“Hey! Stop!” Rainbow froze before she took off, a glance behind her showing a mutineer pursuing her at full gallop. She tried to flap her wings but the shifting armour forced her to fly with a gait.

A bullet zipped past her ear and she gasped in pain as she felt it nick and she sped up, running past an airlock to the ship’s exterior as she heard a bang as another bullet zipped past and struck the wall, creating sparks as it bounced off with a *ping!*

Dropping into a slide, Rainbow slowed enough to round a corner, the wall in front of her being peppered with bullets. Scrambling to her hooves, she shot off down the hall, hoping to find some end to her spontaneous plan.

Suddenly a door opened in front of her and Rainbow dove through it, only to skid to a halt and slam into an outer airlock door, “Oh no, oh no.” She turned to see the armed pony advancing menacingly towards her with a smile.

“Got you now,” He chuckled, leveling his gun with her. Rainbow desperately looked around, finding only the walls of the airlock.

“Shame,” he said, looking down the iron sights. “You were kinda cut-” He was cut off by the chunky inner airlock meshing together quickly. The sound of a clip being unloaded into the other side of the door rung out into the airlock.

Rainbow stared at the door for a long moment, trying to get her breathing under control, when it hitched again as the door opened.

She saw Skyline Vista staring at her, a random crewpony in a neck-hold while a pistol was pressed into the poor stallion’s neck. The stallion who had been chasing her lay off to the side, one of the bullets he fired had dislodged a ceiling panel, falling onto him and rendering him unconscious.

“Rainbow Dash, you certainly are worthy of the Element of Loyalty, but that loyalty in this situation is misplaced. Give me that component,” Skyline spat, desperation clear in her voice.

Rainbow looked at the crewpony, then her eyes drifted to the gun nearby, and made her decision. Skyline whipped the gun towards her but the athletic pegasus had already dove past her, landing into a rough tumble as she scooped up the rifle, leveling it at Skyline, who aimed her pistol at Rainbow.

The two mares stared one another down, the hostages eyes wide and frightful. “Go ahead Tactical Officer Dash. Kill me. Kill me and watch Equestria destroy itself out of paranoia,” Skyline goaded, with a confident smirk.

Skyline Vista kept her gun to the hostages head, holding steady, knowing she was clearly going to come out victorious.

Rainbow Dash tried to keep her gun trained on the other mare, but the adrenalin, fear and pain in her ear caused her to shudder, shaking the gun around. Rainbow may have been skilled in many things, but a standoff was not one of them.

The hostage spoke up. “Shoot her!” he cried, squirming in her grasp.

“What’s it gonna be Dash?” Skyline asked venomously. “Risk this ponies life, and try to get me? Or put the gun down and return home?”

Rainbow held the wavering gun for a moment longer, then slowly lowered it to the ground as Skyline Vista’s smile widened. “Very go-”

BANG

Rainbow could only stare dumbly as blood sprayed out of Skyline’s chest and over the floor, her grip on the crewpony slackening enough that he managed to tear himself away as Skyline Vista collapsed to the ground, revealing Apollo, a smoking rifle in his grip.

Rainbow shot to her hooves, “Skyline!” She came to the mare’s side and pulled out the medical supplies that Fluttershy had given her as she desperately tried to stop the bleeding as Skyline Vista gasped and tried to breath as Rainbow became more and more frantic, “Hold on! Just hold on! Don’t die on me!”

She raised her head to speak to Apollo, to get him to find help, only to find him staring at the scene with an impartial and cold glare, the gun never wavering from where it was aiming at Skyline Vista’s head.

Rainbow felt tears come to her eyes, “H-help her!” Apollo remained silent, “She’s dying! You have to help her!”

Apollo continued to stare silently at Skyline Vista before Rainbow snarled as the tears came freely, “Forget it then! I’ll save her by myself if I have to!”

She continued working, but the bleeding wouldn’t stop, Skyline’s breathing was getting quicker and more laboured, and her pulse was getting weaker.

Eventually, she stopped breathing and her pulse stopped. The mare, passing to the realms of the deceased.

When a liberated security pony discovered them, he found Tactical Officer Rainbow Dash sobbing over a body, covered in blood, and First Officer Apollo holding a rifle and watching the scene with a cold and impassive expression.

The attitude in the ship was sombre. No pony spoke, no pony wanted to speak, they all wanted to move on.

Upon receiving the report, Celestia sighed sadly, “A pity.” She turned her gaze to the quiet Twilight Sparkle, “Start the engines. Resume our previous course.”

“...Aye Captain.”

Without a single hiccup, the engines started smoothly. Pushing the Yamato deeper into their mission.

Chapter 14

“Watch where you’re walking!” A gruff, brown unicorn stallion spoke sternly down at the pegasus mare whom he had just collided with, and was now cowering at his hooves.

“I-I’m sorry, I wasn’t looking where I wa-”

“I don’t want to hear it! It’s bad enough they let anti-Yamato activists onto the ship, now we’ve got grovelling mares too?” he shouted angrily.

“I’m sorry, I-”

“Save it,” he ordered, holding a hoof up at her. “It’s not even worth my time,” he grumbled as he pushed past her, the ever so faint mention of ‘pathetic’ coming from under his breath.

Fluttershy whimpered, quietly to herself as she went about collecting the papers that she had dropped. She knew she shouldn’t be that upset with the stallion, everypony had been high strung since the mutiny a few weeks ago, but being treated like dirt was starting to get to her.

This wasn’t the first time the kind mare had been on the receiving end of a verbal backlash of some higher-up, and it was taking its toll on her. Being on the Yamato in constant danger had been frightening enough. The mutiny had only worried her further, especially after she heard what Apollo had done to Skyline.

To think that one pony who she had eaten lunch with, and talked quite animatedly with, had killed another pony who she had actually worked with was a surreal experience.

When she had heard of it for the first time, she refused to believe it. She had been talking to Skyline Vista just a few hours before the mutiny, when the mis-fire in the turret had occurred.

Back then, she had thought nothing of it. But looking back now, it was easy to see that as soon as word of a critical failure in one of the ships systems had reached her, she became eerily quiet.

Once the mutineer’s leader had been ‘neutralized’, the rest of them quickly surrendered. Apparently, the brig was far cozier than it appeared, as all of them seemed to be quite comfortably enjoying their sentences.

Most of them would be serving time until the mission was complete, though a few of the ‘less-than-built-for-prison-life’ were being paroled on ‘good behaviour’. After all, what good was there in having a few dozen or so ponies aboard a ship using up supplies without helping out?

Nevertheless, the rest of the crew were still very shaken up, knowing that there were ponies out there who disagreed with the Yamato and everything that it stood for.

Not only were random ponies Fluttershy had never even spoken too, were stressed out, so were her friends.

Applejack and Rarity didn’t seem to affected, mostly just ruffled from the skirmish. Pinkie appeared to be as normal as ever, but on more than one occasion, Fluttershy found her pacing back and forth down the corridors, hair dead straight.

Twilight was almost to the point of tears in the days following the attack. Being one bullet from death had scared her immensely, and only furthered her hatred of guns.

The pony taking it the worst though, was Fluttershy’s oldest friend. Rainbow Dash had taken the mutiny the hardest. Applejack had theorized that a mutiny was the epitomization of betrayal, thus, would have rattled the element of loyalty greatly.

While it may have been the cause, Fluttershy could tell that there was more to it than that. None of them had been there when she had been confronted by Skyline and all surveillance had gone down when Dash had ripped the circuit BUS from the bridge.

All Fluttershy knew that when the medical staff had arrived, they found her crying in a pool of Skyline’s blood, with Apollo standing guard over them. To think that one of her closest friends had to see that made her realize just how unprepared they all were for this journey.

Pushing aside the fact that her thoughts were very similar to that of the mutineers, she continued to ponder their current situation as she dragged her hooves down the oppressive steel hallway.

Cold, lifeless, alien metal and an ever present hum of the ship’s heart constantly reminded her that she was as far away from Ponyville as possible.

Fluttershy whimpered again, squeezing her eyes tight as she thought of her true home. She missed the blue sky, the wind blowing through the trees and her cottage creaking in the morning sun.

She missed being woken up at the crack of dawn by the call of her rooster, and feeding all the critters that travelled to her home in search of a safe haven. She missed going out to market, to buy all the food for them, just so she could come home and see their happy faces.

But most of all, she missed her Angel bunny. The stubborn, irritable, bossy white rabbit was the closest thing she had to a family in Ponyville, minus Dash. Her real family lived far north, between Canterlot and where the Crystal empire reappeared. She had only lived in Cloudsdale a short time with her sister, so that she could learn to fly, but after she graduated, she decided to move to a quieter town.

It had been hard living so far away from her parents and siblings, but she had soon gotten used to living along with dozens of animals to keep her company.

But now, millions of miles away from anything remotely familiar. she truly began to feel lonely.

The sound of rapid hoofbeats coming up behind her stirred her from her internal debate. Turning to look, she saw two, young mares galloping towards her, genuine smiles on their face and a look of excitement beaming from them.

They soon shot past Fluttershy, allowing the mare to catch a snippet of their conversation. “-said that you can see it off the bow, at about one o’clock. It looks as blue as-,” one of them trailed off as the ran out of earshot, still galloping madly.

Curious, Fluttershy began to follow. While not too extremely well-versed in sailing mumbo-jumbo she managed to grasp that whatever they were talking about was just in front of the ship, off to the right.

Deciding to see what the fuss was about would be a better use of her time than aimlessly carting documents around, she followed to the nearest window.

It didn’t take long for Fluttershy to find a spot that had a good view of the ships heading. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for other ponies to, either. Half a dozen ponies were clambering over top of one another, blocking the view to whatever they were oohing and awing at.

“Uh, um ex-excuse me. Could you please move over?” she whispered, getting no response.

“Um hello? I would like to look too, if you don’t mind,” she smiled, receiving the same response.

Noting that she was either being ignored of drowned out, she rolled her eyes before her wings sprang open, letting her flutter up over the mound of ponies to a clear spot. Settling down, she peered outside into the blackness, taking a moment to thank the creators of the Yamato that what she was doing was actually possible.

It took her a few moments to find what everypony was talking about. Against the backdrop of stars and nebulas, it was difficult to make out the tiny blue and green ball against it all.

She cocked her head as she looked at it. For a moment, she thought that it was Equus, but she knew that that wasn’t possible, there was no mention of a course correction.

She continued to peer at the strange object until the shipwide P.A sounded.

“This is Captain Celestia. Some crew may have noticed a strange planet of the Yamato’s bow. We are terming this new body as ‘Eden’. We will be making planet fall shortly. That is all.’

“Planetfall?” A pony spoke up. “Nopony said anything about this! Oh this is so exciting, even if it is last minute!”

“How is it any different to the Dark Star?” another asked.

“This one is completely new! Look at it! It almost looks like home, maybe its got life on it!” the first pony squealed, jumping up and down happily.

Fluttershy looked back out to the growing orb. ‘Eden...,’ she thought to herself.

‘...Sounds wonderful.’

The Yamato’s approach to the planet was far smoother than when it had set down on the turbulent Dark Star, and the mood on board the ship was infectious as crew took the time to watch the exterior view of the re-entry being shown from the shielded external cameras.

Here, they could all see the fiery plume created by the friction of metal meeting atmosphere, a few gasping in wonder as an arc of burning plasma shot past the camera. But even through the burning gas, the black void of space slowly but surely gave way to a sapphire-blue sky as the plasma faded and the cameras shifted to allow the watching crew a view of the planet.

Automatic subroutines immediately kicked into action, shifting the nozzles of retro-thrusters as they fired retrograde to kill the rate of descent in long spears of blue exhaust flame before the swept wings of the Yamato extended and locked into place.

Flaps opened and positioned, rotating the ship’s bow to level the great vessel in mid-air, before air-brakes opened to further slow the ship’s descent, as it’s prograde became less of a straight drop and more of a controlled glide. The sub-thrusters fired at that moment, and as the ship’s altitude became closer and closer to the ground, the ship soon stopped falling and began gently cruising along the tops of the trees.

And on board, everypony got their first look at the planet called Eden.

It was an amazing sight, large alien trees with blue-green leaves dominated the landscape, and in the distance large mountains could be seen as the ship passed over a large river with green water. Eventually, the ship’s lazy cruise brought it to a halt above a natural clearing near the river, and with flaring retro-thrusters, settled to a stop as the ship’s anchors fired into the dirt, digging in deeply, before the engines began to shut down down with a low rumble.

“Attention all crew, we have landed on Eden. Please wait until the atmosphere has been deemed safe and timetables for exploration and shore leave have been posted. Thank you.”

Fluttershy wasn’t listening, she was staring at the beautiful world out in front her through the cameras of the Yamato, and wondered what it would be like to live out there.

Huge tropical trees that towered higher than the skyscrapers of manehatten poked up through the multi-level canopy. Vines were draped down and over branches, for up close, they were bigger than bridge cables, and probably just as strong.

The Yamato however, still towered over all, its two toned, grey and red scheme sticking out like a beacon among the foliage.

In the lab, having finished delivering her stack of papers, Fluttershy listened to the scientists talk about the possible opportunities that could be found out in the jungle. Truthfully, she wasn’t really interested in all that, but she was interested in the talk about possible wildlife and that made her feel giddy with excitement..

Unless they were scary, or big, like dragons. She really hoped that they weren’t like dragons.

The intercom chimed again, “Attention all crew, the atmosphere has been deemed safe and breathable. Timetables are now being posted for the first shore-leave rotation and exploration parties.”

And just like that the lab emptied of ponies as Fluttershy remained behind to make sure the experiments wouldn’t burn or explode before following after them.

As she exited the lab and entered the ship’s corridors, she could see that there was a rush of ponies towards the cafeteria, which had become an unofficial common area apart from the observation deck with its couches and large windows offering a superb view of the planet outside the hull.

In fact, there were so many ponies that Fluttershy had to start flying above them, and even then she was nearly rammed by several pegasi zooming forward to get there before everyone else. After a few more near misses, she managed to reach the cafeteria where a large sign-board had been set up with the schedules and already she could hear cries of delight and moans of disappointment as ponies checked to see if their names were amongst the first few rotations or exploration parties.

Carefully flitting above the ponies at the door, she began making her way to the board, “Excuse me. Pardon me. I’m terribly sorry, could you please move? I mean, if that’s okay.” She carefully tried to fit between the gaps created by pegasi leaving in disappointment before she finally managed to reach the sign-board and start reading.

She blinked in surprise at the names on the first exploration team, most importantly she saw that her name was listed as ‘Wildlife expert’ in neat block letters.

“Oh my…”

It wasn’t that she wasn’t excited about going out there. It was being listed as an expert. Surely taking care of animals in Ponyville didn’t qualify a pony to be an expert in wildlife? Especially after what happened at the Grand Galloping Gala as well.

Still, she was first to go out into that jungle and find some cute and adorable animal friends!

Any other pony might have cheered, but as this was Fluttershy, what came out was a quiet, “Yay!”

She immediately fluttered back to her room, Being among the first ponies to investigate possible living alien life on another planet called for a lot of preparation. There was drawing supplies so she could sketch anything, a sharp knife to cut down any fruit for study, some Equestrian food so she could see how they reacted to a foreign food source, so many things!

As she packed what she would need for the trip, Fluttershy heard a knock on her door, and called out, “Come in!” She turned as it opened to reveal a pony in security armour, “Oh, hello. Can I help you?”

The pony smiled, “Miss Fluttershy is it? I’m Mayhem, and I’ll be heading up security for the exploration party. I’m just going around and introducing myself to the other party members.”

“Oh.” Fluttershy blinked, “Well, it’s very nice to meet you.”

“Fascinating.” The scientist muttered as she studied a large plant while other scientists looked over other items that aroused their curiosity, but above them, standing on a large tree branch, Fluttershy was more interested in finding something more alive than plants.

“Oh please let there be something alive out there,” she whispered as her eyes searched the undergrowth for the tell-tale signs of animal movement; foliage moving, sounds, anything that would be obvious through the silence of the forest. After a few more seconds, she sighed and sent a glare back at the Yamato.

They’d never find any animals after all the noise that ship made, they’d need to go deeper, but the security ponies were very firm that they were not to go out of sight of the Yamato, and it was annoying the yellow pegasus mare that they couldn’t explore deeper.

‘As if we need to be protected by those giant cannons.’ Fluttershy grumbled mentally as she looked back down to see Mayhem staring up at her, before he waved and she waved back with a wing.

At least the atmosphere was Equus-like, meaning the expedition crew could venture out virtually unclothed, aside from the gas masks they were all hanging around their necks, in case some strange plant released several thousand spores that were toxic to them.

Jumping off the high branch, she joined the rest of the crew on the forest floor. Down here, the humidity was so great it felt more like walking through soup than air. The steam from rotting plant matter created a translucent green fog that obscured everything past a few dozen body lengths.

It was then that the group heard a musical chittering, and Fluttershy turned with a smile at seeing a slender creature with long ears seemingly melt out of the undergrowth to climb on top of a fallen tree trunk and stare at them with wide, strangely coloured eyes, ears twitching minutely as the ponies shifted.

Fluttershy smiled as she studied it, it was so cute! It looked like a mix between a rabbit and a cat and though she couldn’t see it, with those sharp claws for climbing, she guessed that it should have a long tail for balance way up in the treetops.

She took a tentative step forward and noted the way that the creature’s ears twitched and focused on her. As she took another step, the creature’s eyes shifted to study her and it bobbed up and down, as if gauging the distance between them.

“Miss Fluttershy, I suggest you step back, it might be dangerous.” She heard Mayhem speak up behind her, but shook her head.

“Everything’s going to be fine.” The creature slowly began climbing down and Fluttershy smiled, “See? He’s just curious.” She moved closer as the creature stopped and stared at her, “Don’t be frightened, I’m your friend. Come on now…”

The creature seemed increasingly anxious as Fluttershy approached, its ears splaying flat against its head and its hackles raised. Fluttershy didn’t seem to notice the however, as she was far too preoccupied with trying to coax the animal towards her.

She could see that the tail of the creature was very long and Fluttershy’s eyes followed it when she suddenly heard a shout of warning, before a gunshot rang out behind her, and the small creature was replaced by a splash of something wet and warm on her fur.

She had no time to even make any sort of response when she was tackled from the right, launching her into a bush.

“Ms. Fluttershy! Are you alright? That thing could have done anything to you!” Mayhem spoke from his position atop of her. Fluttershy said nothing, only bringing her hooves up before her, and surveying the gore matting her coat.

Dark red blood and tiny chunks of flesh dotted her front, like the gristle from a squeezed orange. One of the larger parts slowly slimed its way down her leg, before falling off onto her chest.

Stepping off her, Mayhem looked at the now trembling mare, concerned that she may not have taken that particular event well. “Ms Fluttershy?”

The timid mare’s trembling caused one of her long bangs to fall infront of her face, revealing what looked like an eye, tangled into her pink hair. She began to retch violently, her previous meals making the journey in reverse from her stomach.

A chorus of ‘ewws’ sounded from the team as Fluttershy harked up the contents of her stomach in front of them all. Tears were streaming from her face, from both the event she was just audience to, and the burning of her stomach acids in her throat.

Eventually, she stopped sicking up and turned to look at her colleagues. Her face was a mix of tears, blood and vomit, sticks from the bush she had just been pushed into stuck at weird angles in her mane and between her feathers.

“I knew she shouldn’t have come along,” one of the mares on the team whispered to another, thinking that Fluttershy was unable to hear her. “She’s useless.”

That did it for the poor mare. All the harsh comments she received on the Yamato, all the pain she saw during the mutiny, the destruction of an innocent creature just mere feet from her. It was too much.

Wings snapping open, Fluttershy bowled through the ponies before her, before blasting through the dense scrub of the forest behind them.

“Fluttershy!” Mayhem screamed, immediately giving chase, ignoring the other ponies. Several other security guards joined him, however seeing as how the team had rather stupidly consisted of only Earth ponies and Unicorns, but when the chase was taken to a thick thorny bush that seemed to stretch for miles in each direction, Fluttershy easily evaded them.

“Fluttershy! Get back here!” Mayhem bellowed while the unicorns tried desperately to lock onto the mare with their magic. Without the magical prowess of Twilight Sparkle or the Captain, nor a line of sight, they failed miserably.

Whipping his head around, Mayhem shot orders at the closest guard. “Well what are you waiting for?! Get the captain on the line, immediately!”

“What do you mean she, ‘ran off’!” Twilight demanded, throwing her hooves out in front of her.

“The Security head of ‘expedition team one’ said that she reacted negatively to the neutralization of a native species,” Celestia said as she flipped through Fluttershy’s personal record.

“Neutralization? Ya mean death?” Applejack asked, wondering why the captain had needed to put it into such an emotionally devoid phrase.

Celestia nodded, “Yes, apparently, it was seen as a threat to her and was dealt with. It seems that she didn’t agree,” she said, riffling through the document, looking for any previous history that may have contributed to Fluttershy’s actions.

Finding nothing, she looked to the five mares gathered. “We can’t risk her being out there by herself. We all know Fluttershy’s views on fighting, if she were to come into contact with a hostile creature, she may very well not return.”

“Not only am I concerned for her safety, but also that of the crews,” the captain said, earning a confused look from those around. “Fluttershy is one of the Elements of Harmony. If she were to die here, they would no longer work. I’m sure you all know that the Elements only function with all six of you, and what kind of danger everypony aboard this ship would be in if they ceased to function?”

Rarity nodded before speaking. “I understand what you’re saying captain, but right now we should be worrying about Fluttershy, and making sure she returns to the ship safely. We can worry about the Elements later.”

Celestia turned to regard her. “You’re right, I’m sorry. You must realize that I have to think about the wellbeing all of my little ponies. Now, to the matter at hoof. I want you five to go out and find her. It’s obvious she suffered some sort of detrimental breakdown, and sending armed guard after her would likely scare her even more. What she needs now is friends, ponies who understand her.”

Twilight nodded sagely. “You can count on us, Captain.”

Celestia smiled warmly, before bending to their level to speak face to face with them. “As I said, I have to think of the well being of all my ponies,” she said softly, looking to each of them in turn.

“You are all important to me, please bring Fluttershy back, but be careful yourselves. I couldn’t stand to lose any of you,” she admitted.

Taking a deep breath, she stood back up to her full height. “Good luck, girls.”

The muddy soil squelched under hoof as four of the five mares stepped onto the alien terrain. Rainbow Dash stayed in the air, head on a constant swivel, looking for her old friend, hoping she had come to her wits and returned to the Yamato.

“Alright girls, the rotation of this planet is almost three times slower than that of Equus. In comparison, its about ten in the morning here, that gives us about twenty-four hours till sunset,” Twilight confirmed, looking at the timer she had strapped to her hoof.

Setting it to start, she continued. “We’re all going to be sticking together. I don’t want anypony else running off and getting lost. Not even the Yamato’s radar could get through most of this growth so it’s uncharted territory from here on it.”

“Fluttershy was wearing a tagger we she went missing. Normally, we would be able to pinpoint her, but the Yamato can’t pick her up through the scrub, so we need to wear these,” she pointed to a small clip on her ear.

“Their mobile relays for the ship, if you get within three hundred metres of Fluttershy’s tagger, it will start beeping.”

“Alright girls, hooves in!” Applejack said, holding her hoof out, allowing the others to pile their own on top.

“Three, two, one, hoora-”

A bloodcurdling screeching permeated the air around them, the painfully high pitched call of some wild animal.

“What was that!” Pinkie said, looking around curiously. Twilight's head spun, left to right, looking for the source of the alien sound before Rainbow called out.

“Up there!” The mare called, pointing to the sky, were a huge cloud of black beings were quickly closing in on them. Huge bat-like creatures crested the horizon in an angry black cloud.

An angry face like a vicious dog and over six feet long, the flying creatures screeched into the air as the flew towards the Yamato. Disgustingly long claws hung from their feet, bobbing up and down as their huge leathery wings pushed them forwards.

Their numbers were uncountable, the swarm numbered well into the hundreds, the screeching becoming more frequent as they neared.

Applejack’s eyes widened. “Get down!” She bellowed, snagging Rarity in her grasp and launching both of them into a nearby bush. Twilight quickly teleported to the safety of a huge tree root that had arched out of the ground, hoping that she wasn’t spotted.

Rainbow Dash used her impressive speed to quickly burst into a tall tree, hiding amongst the table sized leaves. Pinkie all but vanished from the scene, just in time as the first of the horrid creatures slammed into the side of the ships hull.

“What the?! What are those things?!” Applejack asked as Rarity cowered.

“I don’t know, but they’re horrid! Why are they attacking the Yamato?” Rarity replied, flinching at a particularly loud impact against the hull, “They have to know they can’t scratch that thing!”

Applejack shook her head, “I think they’re trying to drive it away, the ship must have landed in their territory! Let’s just ho-” Her eyes widened as the guns along the side of the Yamato shifted, “Oh horseapples! Cover your ears!”

The dozens of anti-aircraft guns aimed at the swarm swirling around the ship, and even though Applejack hadn’t seen them in action, she could easily imagine them being just as powerful as the main guns.

The ball mounted cannons soon opened fire with a vicious buzzing sound, far louder than the bats could ever hope to achieve. Unlike the main guns this wasn’t some massive blast, but a barrage of red bolts of energy sprayed into the swarm, causing red puffs to appear as the ponies flinched from both the noise and violence. Designed to shred spacecraft to pieces, the bat creatures had no chance of matching up to the ship’s fearsome defenses. Bat creature bodies dropped like flies around the ship and in the trees. Twilight got a good view of one as it took a bolt straight through its mid-section, cutting the creature in two.

“Okay, the ship has this handled, we shoul-” Applejack was about to finish shouting over the loud, body-shuddering buzzing made by the guns, when a rumble caused her to stumble, “Oh now what!”

The ground visibly shifted and bulged as something massive moved underneath the ground, and before the eyes of the five ponies, long tentacles burst from the ground. Each one was easily as thick as a house and as black as the night, complete with the strange star patterns.

The clearing collapsed into a deep chasm as the tentacles slammed into the hull of the Yamato and wrapped tightly around it.

The engines came to life in a frantic attempt to escape, but the grip of the monster tentacles was too strong and a pair took offense to the engine, smashing into it multiple times until they visibly sputtered and died.

A deep, bass roar that was more like a moan, so loud and deep that the ground, the trees, and the teeth in their mouths rattled, filled the air as the tentacles slowly dragged the Yamato into the pit.

The engines coughed, trying to come to life again, but the same pair of tentacles that shut them down were joined by two more, violently striking it until the engine shut down again. As if to make sure it wouldn’t try to escape, the Yamato was slammed into the walls of the pit, each impact making an earth-shaking crunch of metal on soil and rock.

Satisfied, the moan sounded again, and the five ponies watched the Yamato disappear underground. In the sky, the survivors of the swarm simply turned and left, apparently heading to new territory, as silence filled the air.

As the five ponies stared at the gaping hole that was now bored into the ground, not a single one of them could quite accurately display what just happened.

The Yamato was gone.

Author's Note

here we go! The first of the 'character development' arcs. Each of the mane six will get their own arc (Apart from Dash) and maybe a few other characters.

Chapter 15

The icy feeling of horror welled up in Twilight’s stomach as she swatted the alien dust cloud that the Yamato had kicked up when being pulled under. Immediately, she was on her hooves, blasting her way across the clearing to find Rainbow and Pinkie already peering over the edge, mouths agape, with Applejack and Rarity closing in.

Skidding to a halt, the unicorn peered over the edge to the freshly cracked chasm in the surface of Eden. A distant, monstrous groan sounded from deep within the hole, the sound of metal screeching against rock still audible.

“What,”- Twilight gulped, still not quite comprehending what she had just seen, “what was- Tentacles, the Yamato...” She trailed off, mind churning.

“I- I don’t,” she stuttered, before Applejack spoke up.

“What in the name of all under the sun was that!”

“We need to get down there! Princess Celestia is in danger!” Twilight suddenly shouted.

“We can’t go down there! Whatever that was, just took out the Yamato. The Yamato!” Rainbow said, for once, being the voice of caution.

“But there are ponies on that ship! They could be hurt! Or what about us?! What if the ship is gone? We’re stranded!” Twilight wailed, balancing on the razor edge of a full on breakdown.

“Twilight! Calm yourself! You’ve been at the helm of that vessel, you know just how tough it is! We can’t needlessly go and risk our lives for it when our friend is still out there!” Rarity spoke sternly, casting a hoof towards the dense shrubbery.

“What good will finding Fluttershy do us if we are all stuck here anyway!?” Twilight cried, looking down into the pit, hoping to see the iconic muzzle of the Yamato come flying out to greet them.

“Look Twilight, Rarity’s right. There are a good three hundred ponies on that ship, I’m sure they can work something out. The real question is, if that is on this planet, what else might there be? We all know Fluttershy wouldn’t last a day out here with that kind of wildlife,” Applejack said softly, moving to put a hoof around Twilight, to which the rest of her friends soon joined.

“The Yamato is one tough nut, I don’t reckon even a giant octopus could so much as dent that big wagon,” the orange mare smiled, soothing her friend. “We’re gonna get outta here Twi... But not without Shy,” she finished, breaking away from the hug.

“I- Okay,” Twilight sighed, before looking up at her friends.

“Let’s go find us an AWOL pegasus.”

“Now then, let’s see...this might a good spot.” Fluttershy noted absently to herself as she hopped from tree branch to tree branch with a single flap of her wings at the height of the jumps, something any pegasus could do even before entering Flight School.

She was glad for the survival training camps that all pegasus schools had. As she landed on a branch and listened carefully through the sounds of alien wilderness, Fluttershy’s left ear twitched as she heard the important sound she was seeking.

Hopping across the branches and gliding to a lower one, the butter-yellow pegasus smiled as she saw a decently sized stream cutting through the impenetrable jungle that covered this planet. Hopefully the water didn’t have any strange chemicals that would need a filter, but Fluttershy was confident boiling it would take care of germs and parasites.

With water hopefully taken care of, Fluttershy moved to the next priority, food. With the ever-present tree cover, shelter was a low priority, so finding something safe to eat would be a necessity.

With all the trees, perhaps some of them were fruit-bearing? They wouldn’t have apples or oranges, but having a breathable atmosphere meant that any fruit should be similar to Equestria, right? Fluttershy certainly hoped so as her stomach growled.

Moving upstream along the river, Fluttershy noted that some of the trees did in fact have fruit on them, at least she thought they were fruit, but her expectations were dashed as one particularly fruit-like object hanging off a branch suddenly speared a flying critter and revealed itself to be a massive arachnid-like creature that climbed higher up the tree it was on.

Fluttershy noticed a lot more of the same objects on the tree and wisely stayed away, giving it a large berth, seeking something that was edible. The main problem with that plan however, was that anything that looked like a fruit was either a very hostile predatory animal or insect or a very large predatory plant, as Fluttershy found out as she jerked her hoof back Just before receiving a sudden stabbing of large spines.

The red innards of the plant shuddered as it retracted is venom-dripping spines back inside of itself. The mare sighed, stomach still talking angrily. Turning her head over her shoulder, she looked to see if the thundering mass of the Yamato was behind her. She wouldn’t have been surprised if they had been tailing her.

Retracting into her long bangs, she sat down. She knew that her friends were probably worried sick about her, and this in turn made her conscious weigh heavily with guilt, but there was no way she was going back to that horrific ship, and all the nasty ponies aboard. Another sigh, the kind that comes just before breaking into tears escaped her. Resting her head on her forehooves, she looked out over the alien wilderness, into the soupy, green fog.

She just wasn’t cut out for space travel.

“What was the princess thinking?” Fluttershy asked to an errant stick before her.

Receiving nothing in reply, Fluttershy sighed before kicking it with a forehoof, sending it spinning into a plant growing on the ground and Fluttershy watched it, half-expecting it to explode or spray poison everywhere, but the stick simply bounced off what looked like a large pod with bright fleshy growths.

Curious, Fluttershy picked up another stick and threw it, harder this time, into the same plant, but the large pod didn’t react as the wooden projectile struck it. Feeling slightly more hopeful, Fluttershy watched as a snake-like critter slithered out of some nearby undergrowth and approached the pod.

It coiled up and lifted it’s head to one of the growths, which squirmed and moved as if alive, and simply plucked it off the pod before swallowing it whole and slithering away. Fluttershy felt a smile come to her muzzle as she softly placed her forehoof against her head, “Silly Fluttershy, alien planet, alien food.”

Carefully flitting over to the pod, Fluttershy watched as a new growth started to be pushed out of the pod, tiny squirming nubs already waving on it’s pale flesh before she turned her attention to the fully grown ones.

It certainly was alien. Fluttershy could never have imagined a fruit that looked more like a wet ball made of clear rubber with squirming fleshy tendrils as an actual fruit, let alone one that came from a giant cucumber-like pod the size of Applejack’s dog.

Reaching out, her hoof tentatively grasped the strange food. No strange bugs or paralyzing goo seeped from it, and it didn’t do anything as she gently tugged it from its stem. Taking this as a good sign, she brought it up before her face to sniff at it.

It wasn’t a bad smell, yet it didn’t make it terribly appealing either. It smelt more of dish-washing liquid than a fruit. Shrugging it off, she placed the strange pale ball in her bag, waiting until she could deem it was truly safe to eat.

Memorizing the spot where the strange plant was, she took off.

“Fluttershy!” Pinkie called aloud, her tone surprisingly cheerful, despite recent events. The five mares were trudging through the dense undergrowth of Eden’s forests. Without the intervention of industry, the plants had thrived, meaning that very little light managed to penetrate this far down into the earth.

“Yuck,” Rarity said from the rear of the group, shaking the mud she had collected on her hoof from stepping into a slimy puddle. The lack of sunlight also meaning there was a lack of grass, allowing the ground to only be scattered with mud, sticks and rotting plant matter.

Applejack gagged as they passed the carcass of a felled tree. The stench of rotting plant matter steaming into the air around them making her stomach threaten to purge itself. The occasional speckle of light that did manage to filter its way through the canopy was usually being crowded with as many plants that could fit in whatever space the rays touched.

“Have we got any plans to find her, or are we just wandering around hopin’?” She asked.

“Unfortunately, that’s the way it seems AJ,” Twilight sighed. “Until we get into clearer areas, I can’t even use any spells to hunt her down.”

“What do ya mean?”

“Our best bet is to use a scenting spell. A bit like how a dog can sniff a pony out. I could cast on on myself, but with all these other smells around there’s no way i’d be able to pick her out.”

“That’s assuming we’re anywhere near where she is anyway,” Rainbow Dash huffed, lazily flying beside Twilight at the head of the group. “I can’t believe this! How could she do this to us? Doesn’t she know we’re her friends!” The pegasus shouted angrily.

“Calm down dash, you know how Shy is. Whatever this Mayhem character did obviously spooked her bad enough into runnin’ away. Can’t say it’s not the first time she’s turned tail and ran,” Applejack responded.

“Yeah fair enough, but that was when we were at home! We’re not safe here AJ, this is an alien planet! What if she dies out here?” Rainbow said, voicing the one thought they all had, yet none wished to say.

“What if she’s already dead?”

“Rainbow!” Rarity shouted, completely aghast. “Don’t say things like that! We’re going to find her and she’s going to be fine!”

“Oh come on Rares, lets get real a minute! Look at this place! Look at whatever took the Yamato, or those bat things! Do you think that ‘Wouldn’t-hurt-a-fly-Fluttershy’ would last against one of them?!” the pegasus shouted, voice rising to almost painful levels.

“That’s enough! Rainbow what in the name of Luna is your problem?!” Applejack said, temperature fraying. The blue pegasus looked over from her position before Rarity, before fixing Applejack with a cold stare and flying over.

“My problem? My problem is that one of our friends is M.I.A! Probably dead! And were all wandering around just hoping we might find her! And even then! What if we do? What then, huh? Take her back to the ship? The ship filled with backstabbers and m-murderers!?” She wailed, her voice cracking at the end as painful memories that had been plaguing her for the past few weeks resurfaced.

The feel of Skyline’s cold blood on her fur returned, the image of Apollo’s emotionally dead stare returned to her. The sickness she felt in her gut when she saw the mare’s chest blow open came back to her, forcing the proud athlete to the muddy forest floor.

The small herd stopped dead in the tracks as one of their members struggled with her inner emotions. Applejack’s harsh glare quickly morphed into one of understanding, as Rainbow fought as losing battle at keeping her tears in line.

Moving up slowly on the almost weeping mare, she wrapped a hoof around Rainbow’s shoulders. “Come on Dash... You know Apollo had to do what he did. He was protecting you after all,” Applejack said softly, gently rubbing her friends back in an effort to sooth her.

“H-he didn’t have to kill her!” Rainbow sniffed, “She didn’t have to die! W-we could have put her in the b-brig.”

“Dash, you know that what Vista did was high treason. That’s a death sentence anyway. You’re the element of Loyalty, Skyline was everything that you’re against,” Applejack reasoned, still basing her claims on Skylines disloyalty being the cause of Dash’s pain.

“It’s not that! It’s- it’s...” Rainbow struggled before sighing, speaking in a low tone. “It was Apollo..”

“Beg pardon, Dash?” Applejack asked.

“He- It was just- He looked so cold. He didn’t even try to help her, he just... stood there,” the pegasus shuddered.

“Oh...” Applejack said, finally realizing what was going on.

“I’ve never seen something so... Violent happen, and he never even batted an eyelid. He was just so... Cold.”

Applejack sighed, motion the two unicorns to finally come over. “If this was eating you up so bad why didn’t you come to any of us? You know we’re always here to look after you, sugarcube,” Applejack said, with a sense of true emotion behind her words.

“We’re always here for you, Dash,” Twilight said, moving to hug the pegasus.

“You can always tell your friends what’s wrong,” Rarity smiled, also joining the hug.

“I- Thanks girls,” Rainbow finally said after a few silent moments, “When we get back I wanna have a little chat with a certain stallion.”

Before anything more could be said however, the bushes rustled, and the five mares turned towards the sound as the rustling became more pronounced, leaves and other low-growing plants shaking as something approached.

“F-fluttershy?” Twilight called out cocking her head curiously at the noise. The bushes soon parted slightly to reveal a long pair of black, spindly-looking feelers that waved in the air as the plants were pushed aside to further reveal a huge, nearly twice as large as a pony, black creature that looked like…

“An ant?” Rarity muttered incredulously, “Eeugh, keep that filthy thing away from me!” She shifted and the feelers twitched towards her and the ant began to approach her, “Oh...girls, I think it wants to taste me!”

“Hold on there Rarity!” Applejack shouted, charging up to the ant’s side as it stalked towards Rarity, large mandibles clashing with an audible snap as the feelers came close to touching the white unicorn, “Back off, ya varmint!”

Years of Apple bucking allowed her to quickly spin, launching her powerful legs into the side of the giant ant with a tooth jangling crack that caused it to stagger slightly, before it turned to snap at her, “Woah Nelly!” She cried as she rolled away from the jaws, “That thing’s tougher than it looks girls! Be careful!”

The large insect began to chitter angrily, mandibles snapping angrily as it approached the mares menacingly.

Looking around the impromptu battleground, Twilight spotted a large, and hopefully heavy, log and immediately levitated it into the air, “Girls! Get clear!” Rarity and Applejack immediate dove clear as Twilight hurled the log at the ant, flattening it under the wood.

“Nice going Twi! You flattened that creep!” Rainbow shouted from above, managing to regain a measure of her confidence, before she blinked in shock, “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding!”sShe shouted in disbelief.

Sure enough, the log easily rolled off the giant ant as it suddenly made a loud hissing noise, before rearing up to aim it’s abdomen at the pegasus, who yelped and dove out of the way. A jet of boiling liquid sprayed out and struck the tree behind where Rainbow had been hovering, wood and moss smoking and bubbling into mushy sludge.

“Watch out! That thing has acid!” Twilight cried as she looked for another heavy object to levitate as Applejack bucked it again, causing it to fall on it’s back, chittering angrily. Watching as it flailed and struggled to right itself, an idea came to her. Searching for a large enough rock, she came up with hurried plan. She just hoped it worked.

She turned towards Applejack and Rarity, “You two try and keep it on it’s back!” Looking up, Twilight spotted Rainbow trying to keep out of the line of fire, “Keep flying Rainbow, I need it distracted!”

“You got it!” Twilight didn’t know who responded first, the voices blurred together as she ran towards a collection of vines wrapped around a dead tree and peered through them. She thought she saw…”Ah Ha!”

There was a large boulder she had idly noticed before the fight started, cracked into three equally large pieces by the plantlife and Twilight immediately seized the sharpest-looking of them in her magic, pulling at it with all her might.

The plants resisted with their deeply entrenched roots, but Twilight quickly showed just why she was Princess Celestia’s personal student as with a cry she heaved the piece of rock out from under the vines. ‘This should be sharp enough,’ she noted in her head clinically.

She raised the rock up high and called out, “Girls! Get clear!” Taking one look at the large piece of rock being suspended in the air, Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash didn’t hesitate to run as moments later the rock slammed down into the ant’s underbelly.

It screeched as Twilight lifted the rock, trying to roll back onto it’s feet, before the rock slammed into it again, and again, over and over, until with a final earth-shaking slam, the creature stopped moving as Twilight released her hold over the rock, breathing heavily.

The rock fell to the side, and as the one with the clearest view, Applejack let off a low whistle, “Well I’ll be. I had a feeling this critter was a tough one, but dang…” Moving to where she was standing, the others saw what she meant.

Even though the rock had slammed into it enough times to nearly split it’s thorax in half, there was barely any damage to the rest of it’s body as ichor stained the rock and chitin. Walking over to it, Twilight suddenly recoiled, “Ack!” She sputtered, scrubbing at her eyes with a hoof as she stumbled back.

“Twilight, are you alright!” Rarity shouted, galloping over, before stopping much further away from the corpse, “Oh my! Look!” She pointed with a forehoof and the group, even the watery-eyed Twilight, looked at the rock to see the ichor on it smoking slightly.

“Dang.” Rainbow said as she landed, crinkling her nose before placing a hoof over it, “Smells like some of the stuff they use over in the weather factory to process the rainbows.”

“You think it smells bad, Rainbow, my eyes are still watering!” Twilight snapped slightly as she rubbed her eyes, “Must be some kind of chemical in the blood reacting to the air, to dissuade any predators.”

“What in the world could prey on something so...large?” Rarity asked as she grimaced at the smell, “Ugh, if anything, the smell is worse the further away you get from it.” She gagged.

“Yeah, I reckon it’s time we put some distance between us and it. Where there’s one ant, there’s bound to be more.” Applejack cautioned and the others nodded as she turned in a different direction, “Let’s head this way, maybe we can find a river or something to wash Twilight’s eyes.”

“No. No, I’m fine.” Twilight replied, smiling despite the red in her eyes, “I just need to get some distance from it and I should be fine. At least none of us were hit with the stuff when I smashed it, who knows what it could have done.”

Applejack was about to reply when their ears flicked towards the sound of rustling, a lot more rustling, and eyes widened as Applejack said in a low voice, “Girls, I think its time for us to high-tail it outta here!”

There were no arguments as they ran into the undergrowth in the opposite direction of the rustling while Rainbow took to the air to watch for danger or anything following them. As they moved away, she turned for a moment just in time to see more of the giant ants skitter out of the bushes to swarm their fallen comrade.

She didn’t bother to stay and see what they did, Rainbow just kept her eyes firmly on her friends and path they were blazing. Wherever one ant is, there’s always bound to be more.

Fluttershy sighed absently as she toyed with the strange fruit in her hooves. Even though she had seen the snake creature eat it, but she still had no idea if she could safely consume it. Rolling it around as she inspected it, she began to cough gently. She hadn’t yet had anything to drink. The humidity and lack of sunlight had meant that very little ground scatter was dry enough to start a fire, and she wasn’t about to risk illness by drinking the alien water. The small bag she had been carrying with her only contained a few morsels of food. She hadn’t been planning on running off so they didn’t last as long as they should have.

Rubbing her dry throat, she looked around the measly excuse for a campsite she had erected. Little more than a few vines spanning from the top of one giant root to another acted as her roof, and that was about it.

Despite survival skills being a mandatory course in Flight school, she never was any good at it. “What am I doing?” she asked quietly to herself. She couldn’t believe how foolish she’d been, running off just because she wasn’t getting on well aboard the Yamato.

Everypony was feeling downtrodden after the mutiny. Running off like that and most likely making everypony sick with worry? How could she have been so selfish? She was scared, a wimpling, reverting back into the pony she didn’t want to be. All because some alien that was likely going to attack her was killed.

Sure it was a shock to see a creature die before her eyes, but Fluttershy had seen death plenty of times. Working as Ponyville’s unofficial vet was not all sunshine and happy families. She even had to put down savage dogs once or twice, and although it was hard for her, it was the same scenario that she had just been in.

The creature had to be put down, and she had run off. She had seen foals come to collect their pet’s body with their parents and they hadn’t run away! She was worse than a foal.

This sudden realization began to burn the back of her eyes as tears began to well. Yet before they had a chance to start flowing, a nearby bush began to rustle. Startling her from her thoughts, Fluttershy flicked an ear. “Hello?”

Upon speaking, the rustling suddenly intensified, the sound of strange chittering filling the air. The clacking of some unknown entity filled the air, sounding as if two planks of wood were snapping together. The mare shrunk into her shelter, hoping that whatever it was would go away.

Finally, the bush gave way to a huge, black chattering ant creature. And it was looking straight at her, mandibles snapping.

Chapter 16

The snapping mandibles of the giant alien ant dripped with what looked like poison. The bug chittered menacingly, as if it were laughing at the tiny yellow pegasus before it. Fluttershy dared not move, paralyzed with fear. There was nopony to bail her out this time, she was on her own now.

A long, narrow leg stepped forward, the large ant intentionally making a slow approach. Whether or not it was a scare tactic developed by instinct or if it was actually enjoying watching her terrified face, Fluttershy couldn’t tell, but it was working.

The mandibles snapped again, much louder than before. Yellow, viscous, spit flying off and landing on a tree branch near her. One of the leaves that had been stuck began to shrivel and wilt.

Being assertive wasn’t going to help her out here, nor could she use the stare. From her position, she couldn’t even see if the ant had eyes to begin with.

Eyes.

A sudden string of ideas shot through Fluttershy’s head at speeds that the Yamato’s computers would respect. The mare locked up, halting her breathing to almost nothing. The ant continued to advance on her, making it difficult for to not return to shaking like a leaf.

A large leg speared the ground directly in front of her with a weighty thump, to which she couldn’t help but whimper at. From the extreme close range, she could see the minute hairs on the hard, black leg. The mare didn’t even come up to the ‘knee’.

Risking movement, she ever so slightly tilted her head down to see where the leg had struck. The bag that she had brought with her had been impaled by the sharp leg of the ant. The large creature slowly removed the bag from the ground, making sure it had a good hold on the bag, before smashing it into what it passed for a mouth.

Knives, water bottles, sketching tools and the food contained within all were forced down its venomous gullet. A few tense moments passed as the feelers on the bugs head waved around in the air. Despite not being very fond of the ship Fluttershy desperately wished the Yamato would crest the canopy and save her.

After a few tense moments, the ant finally moved away, freeing the mare from the confines of the two large tree roots on either side of her. Taking extreme caution, she slowly flapped her wings until she could maneuver herself away from both the tree and the ant.

Fluttershy’s breathing returned to near hyperventilation as she fluttered away. The ant wasn’t bearing over her, but it was still very close. This being the case, the mare was far too preoccupied with watching it rather than where she was going.

The already on-edge mare let out a piercing scream, stupidly having flown into a bundle of hanging vines. The feeling of their slimy, sap covered strands, tangling up in her wings, ruining her stealthy retreat, her screams gardening the monster ants attention, like a fly caught in a web.

The ant let out a chittering screech, rapidly closing the distance between the two like a charging bull. Fluttershy desperately wrestled with the ensnaring vine, hoping she could free herself before the creature could get her.

The horrifically familiar sound of insectine jaws snapped dangerously near her head. With the amount of struggling the mare was doing, the ant failed to accurately grab hold of her, instead snapping at the vines, hoping to snag her.

Much to her fortune, the monster’s wild snapping managed to tear and slash several key vines that had ensnared her. Wasting no time, she quickly righted herself before bolting as fast as she could in any direction the ant wasn’t.

As she retreated, the sound of an angry, chattering roar echoed in the foliage behind her. The antennas of the ant waved angrily, mandibles clicking in rage that its easy meal had escaped.

“Fluttershy!” Twilight bellowed, the voice boosting spell that Luna had so eagerly given her coming in handy as the small herd searched for the butter yellow pegasus.

The apple farmer of the group waved her hat before her face, trying to blow off some of the heat that clinged to her body in the humid undergrowth. “See anything up there, Dash?”

Rainbow Dash scanned her surroundings, a hoof over her eyes to block the alien sun before calling back.

“That’s a negative Appleja- Whoa!” she flinched at a table sized fruit spider, that was hanging just beside her.

“These things are so nasty,” she called back, quickly removing herself from the creepy arachnid. Meanwhile, one of the two other mares that were leading up the rear were having their own small crisis.

“So. Much. Filth!” the muck ball formerly known as Rarity shuddered. “I have never been so disgustingly dirty in all my life! Not even that time when I willing threw myself into a mud pool!”

“Quit ya whining, Rares, a bit of mud ‘aint never hurt no pony,” Applejack huffed.

“I’ve got mud in places I didn’t know I had!” she called back.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at the bickering pair. One of their friends was lost, their only method of transport, not to mention safe haven was gone, possible destroyed and they were bickering about getting dirty!

“Girls! Quit arguing before I come down there and make you!” Rainbow screamed, pointing a hoof as she did so.

“I ain’t arguing, I’m stating facts down her-”

*beep*

All mares suddenly silenced as a collective blip from their earpieces sounded.

A few moments passed before Twilight spoke. “Was that-”

“Sssh!” Pinkie silenced her, planting her hoof in the unicorns mouth as she did.

*beep*

Rarity perked, “It is!”

The beeping slowly increased in frequency, though not that it mattered, as an altogether different sound indicated the pegasus’s proximity.

“Oh Celestia help me!” the painful screeching of a terrified pony filled the air, drowning out any ambience the forest made.

“Shy!” Dash called, rushing over to where the sound was coming from. “We’re over here Flu-Ack!”

A nearby bush exploded, it’s projectile a terrified yellow blur launching straight into the stomach of her oldest friend.

“Rainbow Dash! Oh thank the sisters I found you! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, I don’t know why I ran off I was just so sad I couldn’t-”

“Shh,” Dash cooed, employing her motherly tactics she had developed from soothing Scootaloo whenever she came to her in tears, “That doesn’t matter now, Fluttershy. You’re safe now.”

Fluttershy shook her head in Rainbow’s chest. “No. No I’m not! None of us are! There’s a- a thing following me! It’s been chasing me!”

The rest of the group came over to console their friend. Happy that their circle of friends was back up to full strength. Twilight always wanting to be a step ahead, quickly approached the yellow mare.

“Fluttershy. I’m happy you’re okay, but you said something was following you?”

Fluttershy sniffed as she stood, before nodding. “Mmhm, A big ant creature. I was so scared, it wanted to eat me!”

The five other mares cursed under their breaths, a short explanation of their previous encounter with a similar creature filling the yellow mare’s heart with terror.

“Can- can we please go back to the Yamato now? Eden isn’t a very nice place,” she whimpered, her innocent question earning a sigh from Twilight.

“Uh, about the Yamato. I’m sorry to say this Fluttershy, but the Yamato was... Captured. We don’t even know if it’s still functional,” Twilight recounted sadly.

“What?”

“I- um, well it got grabbed by something, big. It was pulled underground while we were outside.”

“But... What about all the ponies still on board?”

Twilight’s breath hitched in her throat. “I don’t know.”

Fluttershy stared at Twilight, before a low whine escaped her throat, growing in volume until she dropped the forest floor with a wail, “I want to go home! I want go back to my cottage, back to my animals, back to my life! I don’t want be here! I want to go home!”

Twilight winced at the volume as her eyes swept the undergrowth, this wasn’t good, “Fluttershy, calm down! We need to find out what the happened to the ship, so please get up!”

Fluttershy just kept crying, the stress of her experiences finally causing a full-blown breakdown, refusing to budge as she lay there wailing. The other mares looked at each other, not knowing what to do.

Except for Rarity, who stomped forward and with a brusque application of telekinesis, forced Fluttershy to look at her. And before any of the others could react, struck her, hard.

“Now see here, Fluttershy! I know you’ve been reluctant to go on this journey, I know that you’d rather be home with your animals, and living a normal life again, but get a hold of yourself!”

She glared at the pegasus, who placed a hoof to her cheek with wide eyes, “You can cry and complain about your homesickness later, we have to find the Yamato, because quite frankly, this is not the time for crying, this is the time to get back on your hooves and push through it!”

Rarity dropped Fluttershy back to the ground, “I am filthy, stinky, and have never felt more unclean in the entirety of my life, but I am not going to start collapsing in a crying heap until I know that the only way off this planet and the ponies inside are safe!”

She jabbed a hoof towards the pegasus, now on a roll, “You’ve stared down dragons, faced Discord, and proven time and time again that you are one of the bravest ponies I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing, so be brave! We need you to be brave because if you aren’t, we are going to die here!”

Rarity’s rant finished with the mare breathing heavily as everyone stared at her, before she blushed and coughed delicately, “Goodness, while that was cathartic, perhaps it was a tad much to put on you, Fluttershy.”

“No.” Fluttershy rose to her feet, eyes closed, and after taking in a deep breath, she released it and opened her eyes, now determined and firm, “You’re right. I need to be brave. I can cry when everypony is safe.” She trotted over and hugged Rarity, “Thank you, Rarity.”

Rarity smiled as she returned the hug, “Any time, darling.”

“Um, not to interrupt the touching moment…” Rainbow’s voice drifted down from above, “But we have company incoming! A lot of them!”

“Well then, girls.” Applejack stated, “I reckon this is where valor meets discretion! But what do we do? We can’t just keep running from those varmints!”

Twilight’s expression was scrunched up in deep thought, before she suddenly stomped a hoof on the ground, “I got it!” She turned to the others, “We’ll head back to the hole where the Yamato was taken! Maybe we can lure them down to that creature, they’ll swarm it, and in the distraction we can escape this planet!”

“If the Yamato is still around, that is,” Dash muttered to herself.

Applejack nodded, “Good a plan as any! Let’s get outta here!”

As if waiting for the right cue, a trio of ants burst through the undergrowth, hissing as their jaws clacked menacingly, antennae twitching wildly as the six mares dashed into the undergrowth. After a few seconds, one of them waved it’s antennae in a searching pattern, before they stiffened and as one the three ants began unerringly moving in the same direction as the ponies, the undergrowth shaking as loud clicking and hissing became audible.

Up ahead, the six mares finally arrived back at the sinkhole created by the Yamato being dragged down into the planet, Fluttershy whimpering slightly before she shook herself, forcing her expression to harden while Twilight walked up to the edge of the sinkhole.

Looking over, the unicorn began casting an Eagle-Eye spell, hoping to find some way to reach the bottom of the shaft or spot the Yamato, when her eyes widened at what she was instead seeing along the walls.

Ants, countless ants, seethed along the walls as they worked to seal up the gaping hole. Twilight stared dumbly at the sight, before she grimaced, “Of course, a large predator providing scraps for them to feed on.” She stated quietly, “A symbiotic relationship, which means…”

Twilight’s mind raced as she tried to come up with a plan, any plan, before her gaze fell on Fluttershy flying overhead with Rainbow Dash, and it came to her like a bolt of lightning, “Fluttershy!”

The yellow pegasus turned to face her as the group stopped whatever conversation they were having as Twilight finalised the details of the plan in her mind, “Your ability to Stare, how powerful is it?”

Fluttershy blinked at the question, before looking uneasy, “Um, if I really put an effort into it, I can make animals do things they normally wouldn’t. I don’t like doing that, it demeans the animal.”

Twilight smiled, “And would using it at that level be demeaning to those ants? Because I just figured out how we could get down to the Yamato.”

She turned to Applejack, “Feeling up for some wrangling, Applejack?”

The orange mare blinked, before a thin smile spread across her muzzle, “Sugarcube, I’m always up for a good wrangling. Just tell me what to do.”

Twilight nodded, “Okay, here’s the plan…”

A small rabbit like creature quickly hopped for its life, the giant ant above it not even bothering to deal with the fluffy morsel. The giant creature had followed it’s prey deep into the thickness of the foliage, occasionally having to duck and weave it’s body in unnatural ways to fit under low branches.

Waiting with baited breath on a tree ahead were the six ponies. Having being lifted onto the branch by the two pegasi of the group, the small herd waiting anxiously for the large insect to stroll beneath them.

Applejack waited cautiously for the signal from Twilight. When the ant was in position, the two unicorns would magically freeze the creature in place, while the farmer mare tied its mandibles together with a rope she had fashioned from several spindly vines.

Sweat dripped from Applejack’s brow, from both the humidity, and the stress of her task. Not that she doubted she could do it, but this was the first time she’d tried to wrangle a creature that actually wanted to do harm to her. Not to mention it was far larger, and one hundred times more dangerous than any cow.

The studious purple unicorn sat on a branch below her, her gaze fixated on the approaching colossal ant. The two pegasi hovered higher still, waiting to zoom in and do their respective roles. Fluttershy was tasked with perhaps the riskiest of jobs, to drop onto the creatures head, find if it did in fact possess any eyes and stare it into submission, while Rainbow protected her.

Fluttershy shivered. She hadn’t been able to note any eyes on the last one, if her assumption was correct that they might not have any at all, then this entire plan could be for nought.

A hissing, chitter sounded directly below them, the ground thumping slightly with the ant’s movements. With a sudden flick of her head, Twilight’s horn lit up, signalling to the mares who were watching her it was go time.

A multicolored hue of purple and white surrounded the ant, making it hiss madly in confusion at the strange force. With practice ease that was almost muscle memory, a loop of vines darted through the air, snagging the snapping jaws and closing around them, keeping them tight.

The angry ant spat desperately at the bindings, hoping to burn through them with its acidic poison, yet unlike the leaves the vines where one of the few plants in the forest that had developed an immunity to the ants spit.

“Now, Shy!” Applejack called, watching the two flying ponies swoop down on the struggling insect. Rainbow Dash shot through the air, delivering a powerful kick to the ant’s hard head.

The short daze it received gave the slower mare enough time to touch down on its scalp, and desperately began searching for anything similar to an eye.

“Please, please, please let there be an eye!” she thought to herself, cling for dear life as the ant began to thrash its head again. More spittle flew from its mouth, seemingly frothing at the mouth with rage.

The ants head was a strange thing. Multiple plates of jaggard armour laid over top of one another, its thick exoskeleton making finding any features difficult. Fluttershy screamed, as a rather violent thrashing knocked loose her hold.

Scrambling for a hoof hold, her foreleg quickly jammed itself into a tiny gap in the top of it’s head. A pained hiss sounded from the ant and all its movement stopped. Fluttershy quickly climbed over the creature to see what she had done.

But sheer luck, the small crease she had planted her hoof in contained a beady, black eye deep within it. Her hard yellow hoof had been rather forcefully jammed into it, and without any form of eyelid, it had almost paralyzed the creature with pain.

“I’m sorry,” the animal loving mare whispered. Standing up on its head, she looked upside down into the eye slit. Giant blue eyes stared into tiny black ones, the ant began to resist the ponies less and less till the point that Twilight and Rarity could release their spell.

Stepping away from the creature, the ant tittered before its legs quivered and gave out, falling to the forest floor with a great thump. Fluttershy briefly entertained the horrific thought that she had hurt the creature, until she saw it’s feelers poking the air.

Tentatively, she approached, her friends respectfully keeping their distance, but poised ready for a fight. Placing a hoof on the hard exoskeleton between the creatures eye slits, she cooed softly to it as she stroked. The giant insect made whatever passed for it’s version of a passive moan, which still sounded menacing. “Oh it’s okay mister ant, we’re not going to hurt you.”

Sensing no threat from the now docile ant, Applejack approached Rainbow Dash. “Does she realize that it can’t understand her right? Alien and all?”

“Give her some time AJ,” Rainbow said. “She’s having a moment with the... Ant.”

“Okay girls! No time to waste, we’ve got a spaceship to find!” Twilight clapped her hooves, looking at the ant with a worrisome grin.

“Get some more vines, Applejack.”

The familiar thump of thin insect legs impacted the forest around the six ponies, all of which were riding atop the giant creature. Several dozen strands of venom resistant vines were strung around the ant, in a makeshift bridle.

Applejack sat at the helm, not really doing much however, as the ant seemed hellbent on taking them to where Fluttershy had asked it to. Rarity, Twilight and Pinkie sat further back along where its spine would be, while Rainbow flew alongside, occasionally flying ahead to scout.

Returning from one particularly long scout, Rainbow pointed a hoof accusingly at the captured steed. “You’re stare doesn’t work on aliens, Shy. This guy is taking us straight to his nest!”

“What do you mean, Dash?” Twilight asked.

“I mean it’s taking us to a big hole in the ground with lots of other giant ants coming and going!” she cried, pointing back towards where she had just returned from. Twilight made to respond but was promptly silenced by the crashing of a tree near her.

Quickly zipping to the creature’s side, all the ponies instinctively cowered as a much larger ant than their own stomped over a small tree it had just felled.Easily twice as large, the colossal creature strode past them in great paces. Thankfully, it failed to notice the multi-colored spots its brethren was sporting.

As it passed, the ponies all got a very detailed look at the mammoth insect. Unlike their own ‘mister ant’ this one was not entirely black, but had dull orange highlights between each of its armour like plates.

Every available surface seemed to sprout a jaggard barb, specifically designed to rip and tear flesh as painfully as possible. It also seemed to sport a couple more eye slits than the smaller ant, as well as a secondary pair of terrifyingly large mandibles.

The (now rather inappropriately named) ant, loomed past them, breaking a hole in the treeline ahead of them like they were little more than soggy bread. The angry creature looked equipped to give even the Yamato a decent fight.

The small, what Twilight now assumed was a worker ant, that they were riding quickly followed in the wake of the larger ant’s destruction. As Rainbow Dash had said, they were in fact headed to a deep hole burrowed into the side of a shallow hill.

Looking more like a sinkhole than an ant’s nest, the giant hole was constantly making way from hundreds of giant ants to scurry through. The giant soldier ant that had overtaken the ponies thundered forth into the gaping hole, all other smaller ants around it cowering almost in fear.

The ponies wisely clutched to the safety of their own ant, silently counting their lucky stars that they had not encountered a soldier ant prior to now. Waiting its turn, their ant finally managed its way into the nest, taking all those onboard with it.

The noise of chittering insects all around them was almost deafening in its intensity. Hundreds of thousands of black monsters all scuttered past on another in the ever narrowing tunnels, the larger tunnels seemingly reserved for the soldier ants.

Branching off into a side tunnel, the ponies began to descend into a deeper, somehow darker part of the labyrinth. Without the traffic of other ants, they began to make good headway, until another ant rounded the corner on them.

Both ants halted immediately to avoid a collision. Rainbow Dash inhaled sharply, cling harder to the side of her ant, daring not to move. The opposing ant waggled its feelers around before snapping once with it’s great mandibles. In response, the ponies’ ant snapped equally as loud, seemingly in anger.

The opposing ant seemed unconcerned, pushing past and placing its feelers on the pony-ridden ant’s side. Fluttershy whimpered almost silently, the enemy ants feeler coming dangerously close to her body.

Needless to say, if the other ant discovered the strange, fuzzy growth on the side of it’s colleague, all hell would break loose.

Mercifully, after several tense moments, the other ant pulled away, chittering a few times before moving off. The girls riding all let out a collective sigh of relief as their ant began to travel.

Even with how tense the situation was, Twilight was fascinated by what she was able to make out in the rapidly growing darkness of the ant tunnels, and her eyes swept over the sight of labyrinthine tunnels with ants scurrying through them in neat lines, carrying an array of objects.

Applejack was also impressed. Even with the threat of discovery and a horrible death over them, she could appreciate the hard work these ants were putting into their colony, much like the ones back home, noting how easily they cooperated in moving large pieces of wood, plants, fruit, and though she felt a little queasy at seeing it, meat as well. Thankfully, none of the pieces looked like they belonged to a pony. Yet.

Rarity suppressed the urge to leap off the ant as she spotted what looked like an underground lake full of water. As much as she wanted to get the filth off her body, the seamstress had work to do and ponies to save.

Besides, that water was probably just as, if not more, filthy than she was. And who knew what sort of parasites bred in those brackish depths?

Pinkie was never one to stay still, anypony could see that from the way she moved normally, but here? The pink pony stayed very, very still. Looking over at her, Applejack briefly wondered if the party pony had been replaced by a statute, because that was how still she was remaining in the makeshift seat offered by the vines.

“Gotta say, Pinkie, ya’ll are being pretty quiet over there,” the cowpony whispered as the ant made a turn down a particularly twisting tunnel, shifting her hooves to cling to the insect as it suddenly began crawling along the ceiling of the tunnel.

Pinkie smiled shakily, “It’s really hard, but I’m promising myself that if I stay really, really still, I’ll throw a party to celebrate getting off this planet.” She shuddered, before quietly singing under her breath. Out of respect, Applejack focused her attention back on the journey.

Near Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash carefully tapped her friend with a wing, “Hey, Shy, are you sure this thing is taking us to the Yamato?”

Fluttershy nodded, “I made sure to give the command in a really stern tone. I just hope it understood me.” She looked away, “I shouldn’t have run off.”

Rainbow fixed her with a harsh glare, “No you shouldn’t have,” She barked suddenly. few silent moments passed before she sighed and continued. “but considering the last few days, I guess I would have been more surprised at you for sticking around. By the way, before we went out to search for you, I found out why Mayhem shot that thing you were trying to make friends with.”

Fluttershy turned her head slightly, “What did he say?”

Rainbow shifted as the ant came back down to the floor, “He shot it becau-”

“Over there!” Twilight suddenly hissed and the group turned to see something in the darkness; flashing lights, and sparks.

The familiar smell of acrid smoke and the throaty bangs of the Yamato’s AA guns filled their senses. In a brief muzzle flash the six ponies saw the shape of the Yamato as it fired down into the massive cavern, the ant trundling along without a care as it approached the massive shape of the ship as the guns continued firing before ceasing, barrels glowing in the darkness.

“No way! It survived!” Rainbow gaped in awe. Looking up, she saw a tiny hole that was letting in light, but the illumination was only there to mark it’s location, and with her eyesight Rainbow could faintly make out shapes as it slowly shrank.

“We need to get inside.” Twilight announced suddenly, raising her voice to be heard through the echoing cacophony of hissing ants and the reverberating sound of the AA guns, before the air was filled with noise as they opened fire again, bolts of energy blasting into the horde below it, filling the air with the stinging scent of the ant’s toxic ichor and the char smell that only came with burning materials.

“The heck are we going to do that Twilight? Not like we can just knock on a door or something.” Applejack questioned as she gripped the vines around it’s head and forced the ant to approach the Yamato from another angle.

Twilight pointed at the bridge, just as the AA guns resumed another barrage of fire, “We can always knock on a window. If Princess Celestia knows that we’re alive and on the Yamato’s deck, she can send someone to open an accessway for us.”

Rarity looked up at the stuck ship, then down at the chittering, hissing horde below it, “Let’s just hope you’re right Twilight, otherwise we’ll have far more problems.” Twilight glanced back at Rarity, and the white unicorn pointed at the AA guns, “They’ve been firing less and less as time’s gone on. I think they’re losing power.”

That motivated Applejack to force the Ant to pick up the pace. The sea of ants before them only making their appearance noticed by their deafening chattering. Manoeuvring around the outside of the majority of the swarm, they eventually made it to the lowest point of the ship. One of the large fins that jutted out from the Yamatos main thruster had dug into the soil, creating a perfect ramp.

“Come on! The Yamato has to have an entrance hatch around here somewhere!” Twilight hissed, jerking her head up the slope. A quick flick of her horn and the bindings wrapped around the ants body loosened and dropped.

The mighty creature gave a shudder, snapping its previously bound jaws before moving off, having completed its task. Fluttershy whimpered as the ant moved off into the darkness.

“Thank you,” she said softly, before turning and galloping up the slope.

As much as she disliked the ship, Fluttershy couldn’t help but feel a great sense of relief wash over her as soon as her hooves were firmly planted on its alien deck. From her position at the very rear of the mighty vessel, she was grateful the two catapults that were for launching fighters were blocking her from the ants, less they try and swarm the ship.

Wasting no time, the small herd of ponies swiftly moved along the port side of the craft, putting as much of the Yamato between themselves and the ants. The parties small expedition was suddenly halted however, by the roar of the AA guns above them. The deafening snarl of the rapid fire guns was enough to drop them to their bellies, clutching their ears in pain.

“What are they firing at!” Rainbow screamed. “The ants are on the other side!”

turning her head, the rainbow mare peered out into the darkness to try and spot whatever the muzzle flashes would illuminate. Bright red rounds from the cannons sliced through the cavern air, yet all seemed to mysteriously vanish in the darkness ahead of them.

The cannon fire ceased after a few short moments, letting the ponies up. Rubbing the ringing out of their ears, they all turned their attention to whatever the Yamato was firing at.

A guttural moan, that sounded like someone was blasting a foghorn down a plastic pipe echoed in the distance. Rainbow Dash took a cautionary step backwards at the noise, wings flaring out in defense. Another few moments passed, in the darkness, none of the were able to see the huge tentacle slam down on the ship’s hindquarters.

The Yamato shrieked with the force of being struck, the weight of the appendage forcing the Yamato to keel over into an almost horizontal position. The deck of the ship quickly became the wall, and without any light to help keep them upright, the mares soon found themselves falling.

“Ack!” Twilight spluttered as she landed directly between two round AA guns. Applejack and Pinkie soon falling into a similar position. Rarity wailed in pain, her hip striking a sharpened metal segment of the bridge tower.

Rainbow Dash managed to jump into the air, saving herself from falling, yet the less athletic Fluttershy wasn’t so lucky.

“Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!” the yellow pegasus screamed as she fell. Not being so fortunate as to land on the bridge tower she instead continued to fall. A loud resonating ‘bong’ of flesh on metal reverberated over the noise of the ants as Fluttershy made contact with the railing on the opposite side of the Yamato.

Fortunately, the railings acted as a hard net, catching her before she could fall into the swarm of snapping ants now very close below her. Vollies of acidic spit began to fly up at her, forcing her to dodge the glowing blobs in the pitch blackness.

Another earthquake moan sounded behind the Yamato, this time louder and far angrier. Another giant appendage struck the ship giving the mare very little time to adjust herself. The force of the impact dislodged what little footing Fluttershy had, forcing her to fall over the side of the railing, now completely exposed.

She screamed in terror again. With a grounded Yamato above her and hundreds of angry ants beneath her, she could feel her hoof start to slip.

“Fluttershy!” the frantic voice of Rainbow Dash called out from somewhere above her. “Where are you! I can’t see anything!”

“Here! Here!” she screamed back, a splatter of ant spit impacting and sizzling through the metal just beside her.

She managed to catch the first part of Rainbow’s response, but her cries were drowned out by the horrific thump of a massive creature behind her. Turning her head over her shoulder, she could barely make out the silhouette of a giant soldier ant stomping towards her.

Her breath hitched in her throat. She desperately wanted to fly away but her wings refused to open, frozen to her sides in absolute fear. She wasn’t even sure she could fly, what with the almost pitch blackness and the never ending stream of projectiles flying her way.

The soldier ant stomped its two forward most legs into the ground before pitching its head high and letting loose a cavern shaking banshee wail. Fluttershy clenched her eyes shut tightly, the sound of the soldier ants massive legs scraping against the Yamato.

The sickly smelling air that blasted her from below when the mighty ant snapped its mandibles together almost forced her to lose her grip. She didn’t want to die, she had so much left to do in her life. The last thing she wanted was for this to be how she died.

The mare tightened her grip around the railing, tears flowing freely now. The Yamato being the only thing she could try and hold in a vain hope at safety.

Suddenly, Fluttershy felt her body get hot, a great light invading her vision even through her eyelids. Risking a glance, she peered up. To her absolute joy, several massive spotlights affixed to the ships hull had warmed and began shining onto her.

The massive ant below her hissed in pain, its eyes being cooked by the strong light. Frantically looking around, she spotted an open bulkhead door, sitting at the base of the Yamato’s tower.

In the confusion, Rainbow had managed to locate the doorway in her attempts to find her friend. Immediately throwing it open, she wasted no time in finding the controls to the floodlights mounted on the deck.

“Come on Fluttershy!” The voice of Twilight called out, sounding from the door.

The yellow pegasus felt a great joy come over her. Feeling the fear fade from her, her wings allowed themselves to open, and she began to slowly lift herself upwards towards the entranceway.

The massive black leg of the soldier ant below her suddenly flew up from her left. Quickly dodging it, she faltered with a scream, while the ant matched it with its own massive howl of frustration.

Again, another huge legs flew up towards her, halting her progress as to not get spattered. With every dodged attack, the creature let loose a roar of anger. Fluttershy screamed in pain as one of the barbs on the tip of its leg sliced across her lower back.

The burning in her wound was enough to keep her stationary for the next attack. The colossal ant threw its jagged foreleg high into the air, eager to obtain a new morsel for the colony.

Its prize was taken from it however, when a large black mass jumped in front of its swipe, grabbing the mare and taking the hit for it.

The smaller worker ant hissed in agony, the huge leg of its massive brother easily cracking through its exoskeleton. Landing hard on a solid segment of wall ahead, the ant tumbled and turned before releasing the mare in its grasp.

Fluttershy shook violently, the shock of the pain starting to kick in. She made to move past the ant until she noticed something.

Rope burns around its mandibles.

“Mister ant?” she asked quietly. The creature didn’t respond to her question, but one look at it’s eye buried deep within its armour confirmed it. And a look at it’s ruined, broken body confirmed that there was no saving it, ichor leaking out of gashes in the carapace and several limbs were bent in ways that would certainly mean it was crippled if it somehow survived.

Fluttershy also knew that the tears coming to her eyes weren’t entirely from the chemical smell of it’s vital fluids. “Thank you,” she said softly, patting the ant between its eyes as it lay there dying. She didn’t have time to nurture it, as much as it hurt to see the hapless being that had saved her die.

Taking one last glance back, she saw its entire form go limp. Biting back more tears that threatened to spill, she bolted for the ship’s door, avoiding the screeching soldier ant. It was only when she was safely inside did she allow the tears to fall.

“Why are we still here! I want this ship out of this hole pronto!” Rainbow hollered, fully employing her status as an X.O to a group of engineer ponies.

“We’re working on it ma’am, but when we got pulled down here, we got dropped on our main thruster. The shock loading was enough to not only damage the main thruster, but it also stalled the engine,” one of the orange suited ponies replied.

“So how long will it take to fix it!”

“The engine wasn’t damaged, it just turned off. We’re going to need to use the Elements to jump start it again, that’s why we couldn’t go anywhere until you six returned.”

“All right. Girls, you ready?” Rainbow inquired, more so asking the two injured ponies. Rarity responded with a weak nod, her now broken rear left leg being supported by a strange wheel contraption that trundled along beside her.

Fluttershy also nodded, wincing as the last of her stitches was administered and the bandage was wrapped around her.

A muffled moan from outside the ship made itself known, a bang of the colossal monstrosity that had pulled them into the chasm still out there somewhere. Thankfully, the secondary power source that powered the artificial gravity and life support would last a few hundred years without the main engine, so the strikes on the Yamato’s hull did little to disturb those inside.

“That thing was trying to crack us open earlier. I guess we were too tough of a meal for it, because it gave up after about an hour of stressing the hull. The Yamato ain't weak but I hate to think how strong that thing is to have been buckling the armour,” the engineer pony shuddered.

“Well we won’t have to deal with it much longer. Once we start the engine this ship is getting off Eden as fast as possible,” Twilight spoke up, stomping her hoof for emphasis.

“That might not be possible,” the pony replied.

“Like I said we were dropped on our tail. Having the whole weight of the Yamato shock loaded onto our main engine wasn’t to good for it. I doubt it functional and without it, we might not even be able to make orbit.”

“We’ve still got the subs right? Those things have some kick in them, don’t think we’re out just yet,” Twilight cautioned.

“I hope you’re right, miss. I really do.”

The familiar and uplifting sound of the Yamatos great engine filled the ship. All systems coming back online with their beeps and warbles. After starting the engine, Rarity and Fluttershy had retreated to the infirmary. Now the power was back to full strength, the onboard doctors could give them a full checkup.

Rainbow Dash shifted in her seat at the head of the bridge. The quaking roars of whatever beast that was in the darkness to the ships left still sounding aloud. The spotlights mounted on the ships deck were still active, shining their intense light down onto the swarm of ants to the right.

Each time the ‘noises’ came, the ants would retreat a few paces. Whatever was lurking in the darkness was obviously terrifying to them. She would be lying if she said she wasn’t worried, they were surrounded by creatures out for their blood, and their only means of survival was likely crippled. While the Yamato was an impenetrable fortress to the monsters, if they stayed her for long enough they would more than likely find a way in.

Rainbow sighed. The one pony she did want to speak with wasn’t even here. Apollo, being the second highest ranking official on the craft was busy helping elsewhere in the ship. He wasn’t essential to the launch so he didn’t need to be in the bridge, this made Rainbow anxious.

The pegasus felt stupid. It was plain for anypony to see that what Apollo had done to Skyline was eating her, yet instead of talking to him about it she was foolishly avoiding him. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she was scared. Of what she couldn’t place, but confronting the stallion about how he had... dispatched, Skyline Vista made her anxious.

Without any real distractions to take her mind off her internal strife, she zoned in on the conversation behind her.

“-hen the AA guns fired, the ‘thing’ out there hit the Yamato, which is why were sitting at an almost one hundred and fifty degree angle,” Twilight recounted, referencing the keeled over position that the Yamato was currently in.

“I see. All out sensors were down since we fell, I was curious as to how we suddenly ended up on our starboard side.” The princess responded, gazing out the large windows.

“Captain,” Twilight began. “Do you think we will make it?”

“I believe so, Twilight. The subsidiary engines should posses enough power to remove the Yamato from this chasm.”

Twilight shook her head. “That’s not what I meant, Captain.”

“Do you think we will make it. To the Origin?”

Celestia blinked. The term ‘the Origin’ was a proposed code name for the co-ordinates they had received from the star message. While not a secret name, it was fairly new, she hadn’t expected the name to have caught on as quickly as it did.

“Do you think we won’t?” Celestia finally responded.

Twilight sighed, “I don’t doubt that the Yamato can make it. I just... Can we make it? We’ve barely crossed the start line and we’ve already lost lives. Can we do this?”

Celestia put a hoof on her pupils shoulder. “I believe so. But we must believe in one another, we are all one on this ship, and the Yamato is our body. If we can’t work with each other, then the mission is as good as over.”

Twilight gave a closed eye nod in response. “I think I understand.”

“Good,” Celestia smiled, hearing the small two tone beep she had been waiting for from her console. “Because right now, we’re going to need all help we can get. Battle stations!”

Celestia’s loud command relayed throughout the ship. Instantly, ponies were at their places, waiting for commands.

“Battlestations? Why?” Twilight asked, looking at the commotion that had kicked up around her in just the bridge alone.

“Trust me Twilight, you didn’t see that... thing. We need to be ready for a fight. Tactical Officer!” Celestia called, earning a snap to attention salute from Rainbow Dash.

“All guns to portside, wait for my command,” she ordered, climbing into her seat while Twilight galloped over to her console.

“Aye aye ma’am!” Rainbow reply sharply, turning back to her vast console. The huge array of buttons, switches, levers and monitors all belonging to her.

“All batteries to nine O clock! Open the missile silos and await my command!” Rainbow’s scratchy voice rang out through the ship.

The large hexagonal ports mounted in the ships’ former smokestack shot open with a hiss of compressed air, revealing the nasty warheads beneath. All five of the mighty battleship’s monstrous cannons spun to their requested heading, the menacing gun muzzles eager to rain oblivion on any target.

“Go Twilight,” Rainbow nodded to the mare beside her. With a grunt, the unicorn twisted the yoke anti-clockwise. Concealed, hull mounted thrusters exploded into action. Their great blue jets of fire incinerating a few dozen unlucky ants like a young colt with a magnifying glass. The combined power of the small thrusters boosted the ship back to it’s upright position, giving the gun an even better angle.

A thought occurred to Rainbow. “Direct all spotlights to port!”

The rounded high intensity lamps mounted on various surfaces of the ships deck all rotated over to the direction the guns were pointing. With several dozen beams of light shining into the blackness, one feature stood out.

Teeth.

Thousands of jagged, pony-sized teeth, arranged in hundreds of rings going around the inside of the massive creature’s maw glinted in the burning light. The huge hole that was its mouth could easily swallow the Yamato’s bow. There wasn’t much else aside from the huge tentacles that had been assaulting the ship since landing.

Now that the creature knew it had been revealed, it made itself known.

‘GUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHH.’

The Yamato quaked with the force out the deafening roar. Even the ants that had been a constant companion to the ship began to flee. Rainbow couldn’t help but release a small murmur of both shock and terror.

Two, unbelievably massive appendages rose from the back of the colossal creature. Their star patterns similar to that of an Ursa Major reflecting powerfully off of the black skin. Reaching high into the cavern, the two tentacles slowed when the reached their full extension. They hovered in the air like two manehatten skyscrapers, before the creature let them succumb to gravity, aiming them right above the ship.

Celestia wasted no time in a counter move. “Open fire! Combat speed one! Aim for the exit!”

“Fire!” Rainbow shouted, letting the gunnery crew do their thing.

The unfathomable might of the Yamato’s main cannons roared with the fire of gods. The beams of pure Wave Motion energy striking the insides of the creatures mouth. It recoiled in pain, the insides of its teeth and gums burning and melted, dropping a few razor sharp teeth out of their place and into its flesh.

At the same moment, the thrusters kicked into high gear. The two sub engines that hung below the hull blasted the stone behind them with molten heat. The main thruster made to fire, but ultimately sputtered and died, leaving the smaller engines to pick up the slack.

Without the immense thrust the central engine provided, the take off was far slower than anypony would have liked. The Yamato managed to dodge one giant tentacle, but the second collided hard with the back of the ship, pitching the bow high into the air.

Sensing an opportunity, Rainbow called into her mic again. “Fire missiles!”

Dozens of compact explosives rocketed from the ship’s stack. With the Yamato’s inclination being as high as it was, the silos were almost perfectly aimed to strike the creature.

Explosions rang out from behind the craft, the entire chamber filling with smoke. While slow to start, the subs quickly boosted the ship out of the hole that it had been pulled through, into the blessed daylight.

Smoke shot out behind the ship, blocking it’s view back into the chasm. The subs roared with all their might, but it was plain to see that they simply lacked the force to get the Yamato out of the planets gravity.

‘GUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHH.’

“It’s still alive!?” Rainbow shouted, devoting one of her consoles monitors to display an image from a rearward facing camera.

Sure enough, a huge black mass exploded from the cavern. Propelled by some alien force, the terrifyingly huge creature launched itself after its escaped prey.

Finding a newfound determination, Twilight pushed the throttle forward to the point she felt as though it would snap. The main thruster continued to whine and splutter, but refused to fire, allowing the angry monster to gain on them.

“Come on. Come on please!” Twilight pleaded with the controls.

The treeline shot quickly past them as they sailed high over it. The sub engines struggled to push the ship past the sound barrier, the thicker atmosphere proving difficult.

An alarm began to blare, making one of the bridge crew cry out. “The subs are overheating! If we keep at this we’re going to lose them too!”

Celestia closed her eyes. She didn’t want to do it, but it was this creature or her ponies.

Snapping them open, she gave her command. “Kill thrust! Rotate ship one hundred and eighty degrees!”

“Captain?” Twilight asked.

“Now!” she bellowed, her tone indicated for utmost trust in what she was planning to do.

Reluctantly, Twilight pulled the throttle back to its dead position, before quickly spinning the ship around to face the approaching black mass.

Several kilometers separated the two, with the distance closing fast. Twilight shivered as she stared down the gullet of the creature.

“Transfer control to Tactical officer,” Celestia spoke calmly.

“What?” Dash said.

Twilight complied, albeit confused. “Roger, control transferred.”

Rainbow Dash’s console suddenly began to display dozens of new pieces of information. A much smaller yoke popped out of the console, wobbling left to right trying to keep the ship steady.

“Open firing aperture, raise the target scope,” the captain said, still eyeing the approaching monster.

Rainbow’s breath caught in her throat. Those were words she did know. “Captain. You’re not suggesting-”

“I am,” Celestia cut her off. “We’re going to use the Wave Motion gun.”

Rainbow suddenly felt very nervous. Despite being trained on how to operate in, she never once thought that she would need use it. “Aye aye. Target scope open.”

A thick sheet of holographic glass rose from the top of her console, directly at her eye level. The specially modified trigger unfolded before her chest, the small metal gun-like piece looking dead ahead.

“Begin charging the firing core!” Celestia commanded as Rainbow aligned the firing axis on the ever closing best.

“Disengaging safety locks,” Rainbow grunted as she leant down under her seat to pull at the lever. A huge clunk, and several bangs sounded in the firing room. The airlock to the Yamato’s muzzle clanking as the four locking pins slid out of the mating receptacle.

The huge firing cylinder mounted several metres behind it began to whir. All the power of the Wave Motion Engine being forced into the suspended core.

“Power at sixty percent... Eighty... One hundred.” a crew pony said, making Rainbow grab at the trigger.

“Wait,” Celestia said sternly, causing Rainbow to pause.

“Power at one hundred and twenty percent! Firing chamber reaching saturation point!”

The creature roared again, now much closer. In a few moments it would reach them.

“Ten,” Celestia began her countdown, motioning for everypony to put on their heavily tinted goggles.

“Nine,” she said, the anti-shock and anti flare defenses coming down over the bridge’s windows, plunging the room into a deep darkness.

“Eight.”

“Seven.”

“Six.”

“Five.”

“Four.”

“Three,” Rainbow grabbed the trigger firmly, pulling the small slider on the rear of the trigger out.

“Two,” The young mare began to feel the sweat pour from her, the creature approaching very quickly.

“One.”

“Fire!”

Rainbow Dash pulled on the trigger. The electrical signal shot down the wire into the firing core. The huge, horizontal orange cylinder quickly slid forward, colliding hard with the receptacle.

The sound of crackling electricity deafened all those inside the Yamato. Even with all the precautions against it, the light from the head of the ship still forced Rainbow to bring a hoof before her eyes.

In the split second following, the gun fired. The noise could be heard for thousands of miles in every direction. An absolutely massive, thick beam of blue-white energy forced itself from the Yamato’s bow.

The giant creature had no chance to escape the huge beam of ungodly energy. Its entire mass being atomised in just a few seconds. The beam did not stop however.

Punching a hole clear through the monster it raced down it a perfectly straight beam of death. Impacting the planets surface, trees spontaneously burst into flame for miles in every direction. Soil and Rock was rendered into dust, the unbelievable power from the Yamato slicing through anything that dared get in it’s way.

Creatures both large and small had no idea of their fate as their entire bodies were turned to fine ash faster than their brains could process the pain of burning. Entire building sized trees were turned into vapour, the sheer monstrous heat that bled off the beam not even having to touch them.

Thousands upon thousands of miles of land was decimated in just a few moments. An entire tectonic plate of Eden suddenly not existing anymore, being replaced only by a massive scar on the once green planet’s surface.

The beam faltered before dissipating altogether. The sheer power that bled off from it keeping the planet swallowing clouds from enclosing on the Yamato. The destruction of such a large land mass and forced so much dust into the air that it was beginning to circle the planet, blocking the sun out for a few hundred years.

Without realizing it, the crew of the Yamato had just killed an entire planet.

“I- I don’t,” Rainbow stuttered, failing to find the correct works. Looking down at her hooves, she instantly wrenched them away from the trigger, as if it were diseased.

“How could- How- How could it...” she breathed sharply, looking at the red scar of the once lush planet below them.

“I didn’t... I didn’t mean to,” she whimpered to herself. Feeling the onset of tears coming, she sprang out of her chair, galloping for the exit.

“Rainbow!” Twilight called, moving to go after her, before she was stopped with a simple head shake from Celestia.

“I’ll send Apollo after her. If what you told me about her little... episode is anything to go by, we best solve this problem before it gets any worse.”

Twilight nodded, turning back to look out the window.

An entire continent. Gone.

Never once in her time aboard the Yamato had she thought it possessed this much power. Never once did she believe that even though it was a warship, it was capable of this.

She didn’t want to admit it, but maybe the mutineers were onto something. Perhaps they just weren’t ready for this kind of power yet. It began to finally sink into Twilight’s mind that the Yamato was not some science experiment, or creation from a book.

This was a warship. And it had only one function.

To kill.

Deep in the blackness of space, a lone alien craft hovered. Relaying signals to and from its sensor groups. Suddenly, every monitor within the small craft went crazy with huge numbers of information, displaying ridiculous levels of power. Alarms briefly blared before a claw lazily tapped a button and killed the noisy alerts. A deep monotone voice demanded action.

“Report.”

“Captain! Massive energy readings from long-range sensor group seventeen! Approximate location, sector Delaz-Nine-Nine-Tor!” The crewmember manning one of the many sensor consoles inside the sensor-ship reported as it’s screen flashed warnings.

Instantly the rest of the crew began murmuring amongst themselves as the Captain tapped a button on it’s command chair and brought up the sensor report for itself, “Focus long-range arrays twelve and forty on Sector Delaz-Nine-Nine-Tor,” it commanded in a bland monotone unlike the nervous excitement of the crewmembers.

“Focusing array twelve, by your will!” One crewmember shouted as it tapped rapidly on a console with it’s claws.

“Focusing array forty, by your will!” A second shouted from a more distant part of the sensor-ship’s massive bridge as the screen changed to display an increasingly higher-resolution readout as the Executive Officer stepped up next to it’s Captain.

“Those arrays aren’t going to improve the image all that much, perhaps three more arrays?” It suggested in a voice like silk. The Captain met the Executive Officer’s eyes as nictitating membranes blinked, before nodding.

“Focus arrays nine, thirty-seven and twenty-two!” It commanded in a loud voice, monotone not changing.

“Focusing arrays, by your will!” The respective console operators shouted back as they got to work, the other operators watching the unfolding spectacle with rapt attention.

The readout began to improve, but the image being created was still too fuzzy for the warbook to match, and the Captain’s voice now held a tiny note of annoyance, “Arrays fourteen to eighteen, arrays six, seven, and ten!”

“Focusing arrays, by your will!” Was the roar in reply as more and more of the massive deep space sensors were turned towards a lonely area of the galaxy. Steadily, the image began to improve as the warbook began to match details to it’s memory, and a shape began to emerge from the blob, one that seemed faintly familiar.

The Captain would not leave identification to chance, “Focus all Arrays!”

“Focusing all arrays, by your will!”

The Executive Officer allowed a faint tremor of unease to appear, “Are you certain that is wise? We require a number of arrays for the continuing war effort.” The Captain shifted its gaze to the Executive Officer, who bowed its head though it’s own eyes remained firmly fixed on the Captain’s, “Of course, by your will.”

“Captain! High-resolution image is now ready for display!” One of the crew sitting at a forward intelligence console reported, ending the strangely charged moment between the two as the Captain slowly turned to the crewmember, who saluted, “Displaying now!”

The image changed into the image of a vessel and the Captain raised an eyebrow. The Executive Officer knew that the action was an indicator of how disturbed it’s Captain was as it stepped forward, “Warbook identification! Now!”

The outline was traced, and immediately the profiles of various ships began to rapidly flash, as the computer program began searching for an identical image, and the Executive Officer frowned as the program displayed, Not found in current database. Standard Archive Search?

“Initiate Standard Archive Search!” The Executive Officer commanded as the Captain kept it’s eyes focused on the image as more images were compared, the program running through the Standard Archives that ran back nearly five hundred years, more than sufficient for the ships that currently sailed the blackness of deep space, before it’s eyes widened as the program reported back, Not found in Standard Archive. Historical Archive Search?

“I-impossible!” The Executive Officer sputtered, “A ship not inside the Standard Archives that reach back five hundred years? Historical Archive Search! Now!”

The Captain raised a claw, “Belay that,” it commanded in it’s monotone, “Search Special Section Archive.” The computer beeped in acknowledgment as the Executive Officer turned, confusion plainly visible as the Captain continued to speak, “It is older than the Historical Archive, I know it.”

The Executive Officer took in a breath to regain it’s composure, “As you say.” It trotted back to it’s Captain’s side, leather-protected claws clicking on the metal floor as it resumed it’s normal position next it’s Captain, although closer than protocol normally allowed.

Initiating Special Section Search. Stand-by.

The crew watched, uncaring of anything else, all eyes focused on the floating holo-screen, the Captain, and the uneasy Executive Officer. It was as if history was being made. Silence filled the bridge, until a loud beep from the computer caused the crew and Executive Officer to jerk back, the Captain remaining impassive as it announced, “There.”

WARNING! Extreme Danger!

1st Generation Terron Battleship! Profile match 100%! Error margin 0%!

Wave Motion Energy presence 100%!

DO NOT ENGAGE! DO NOT ENGAGE!

“T-that’s not possible! Not even the terrons have ships that can survive that long!” one of the crew called.

“Do not speak out of line!” The captain snapped, raising his voice for the first time.

“List all first generation Terron ships,” he said after a moment of cooling down.

Searching... One result found.

BBY-001. Name: Yamato.

Author's Note

My fingers! They burn! 10 000 word chapter. Aren't you guys lucky?

Chapter 17

The heavy mechanical shutters that rolled down over Rainbow Dash’s quarters had not been lifted since they had rattled closed to protect whoever was inside, as standard procedure dictated when firing the mighty Wave Motion Gun.

Despite the systems recovering from the massive discharge of power, Rainbow Dash had kept the shutters over her window clamped tightly closed. The last thing she wanted, or needed to see was the devastation she had caused.

The Yamato was still in orbit around Eden. The technicians buzzed around the ship in a flurry, making sure the firing of the Yamato’s newly discovered trump card hadn’t damaged any part of the big ship.

This being the case, it was easy for anyone to see the massive dust cloud that was now slowly spreading from where one of Eden’s continents had been. The encroaching mass of thick, dusty cloud was quickly being picked up by the hot winds the Wave Motion Gun had also created.

The combination of effects the destruction had wrought meant that the whole, once green planet of Eden was quickly being blanketed by its own soil. Not unlike Equus had been during the time before the unification of the three tribes, when the sun had been blotted out with ice and snow.

One thing the light-hearted festive tales didn’t tell was how many ponies died of starvation or hypothermia. Or if they were especially unlucky, both.

And it was this smidgen of history that was causing the inner turmoil inside Rainbow Dash’s mind, Reducing the great flyer into nothing more than a quivering wreck. Barely holding back sobs of emotion, if only out of her own pride.

She was still struggling to wrap her brain around the vastness of what she had just done. In her short time upon the surface of the strangely hostile planet, she had encountered hundreds of species, just with her eyes alone. It wasn’t a far stretch to imagine that there were thousands, if not millions more creatures that she hadn’t seen.

And now they were all going to die.

Rainbow Dash may not have been an animal fanatic like Fluttershy, but that didn’t mean she took any sort of pleasure in the mass extinction she just caused. Sure many of the creatures she had brushed with wanted her blood but they were only doing that because that’s all they knew.

She couldn’t wish their end for following their instincts. That would be like if she disowned Tank for being slow. A thought she hated to even consider. Tank was slow because he was... well he was Tank.

She hadn’t meant to do it. She could admit to herself, and anyone who asked her that she wanted that... thing, to die, but she didn’t mean for all those other innocent beings to perish with it.

She could imagine it now. A mother bird returning from catching some alien worm to feed to her newly hatched babies. She would squawk happily as they chirped hungrily, and just as she leant down to share the grub amongst them...

Her whole world would turn into nothing but an eyeball cooking whiteness, and a searing pain of heat the likes which she could never comprehend.

And then nothing. No explanation, no consolation, just death.

It sickened Rainbow to her stomach. To know that she had brought about the sudden end of so many. Had they all been ponies, or some race that held just as much moral values and personal judgement that she did, she doubt she would have been able to keep the tears at bay.

The small pegasus sobbed dryly into her cloud pillow, the large bed taking the weight of her emotional turmoil in the form of her tossing and turning angrily.

The cautious, yet forceful knocking of somepony on the other side of the door to her room caused Rainbow to silence her shaky breaths.

“Dash?”

Rainbow inhaled suddenly. The voice of Apollo calling her name from the other side of the door made worry bubble in her gut, the same a foal would get when they learn that their parents know they stole money from their father’s wallet.

She didn’t want to speak to him. Not now. With the destruction caused by the Wave Motion Gun on her conscience and the still sore wounds caused by what Apollo had done to Skyline, Rainbow felt on the verge of being sick.

She heard the faint beep of the keypad on the outside of her room being pressed, before a small alarm echoed an obnoxious ‘Locked’ in Apollo’s face.

Had Rainbow not been so emotionally distraught, she might have giggled at the face he might currently be making. Having such a tough girl image that she took pride in upholding, it was foolish for anyone to think that she would leave her door unlocked whilst on the verge of a complete breakdown.

So when the beeps sounded again and the door glided open with a swish, Rainbow instantly froze.

“Rainbow, I’m second in command on this whole ship. You don’t think I have the overwrite codes to every door?” Apollo stated blatantly as he trotted into the darkened room.

Rainbow elected to remain completely silent, not even bothering to acknowledge his existence, hoping that if he thought she was asleep, that he might go away.

Apollo sighed as he looked over the mare. She laid silently with her face in her pillow, her forehooves under it grabbing at the small cloud. Her rear hooves were tucked up underneath her and her tail was curled around the left of her body, dead still.

"Sickening, isn't it? The difference between knowing something on paper, and seeing it with your own eyes." Apollo said, moving to look absently at something on a nearby desk.

"I know it sounds patronising, but I do understand what you're feeling right now, at least in part.”

He turned to look at the still mare. “You feel sick, like you want to cry but your pride won't let you. You don’t want to look weak in your own eyes, and after seeing all that life down there, you can't help but think, 'what if that was a pony?'”

“Am I getting close?"

Rainbow suddenly snapped around, her voice cracking and wavering as she barked at him. “Shut up!”

Apollo sighed with a closed-eye realisation. “I hit the nail on the head, didn’t I?”

Rainbow simply responded by whipping her head around to the opposite wall, hiding him from her gaze, as well as hiding the burning tears that were finally forcing their way out from her eyes.

“Dash...” he began slowly. “I don’t want you to think you have to face this alone. Nopony- And I mean that. Nopony is going to blame you for this.”

“What makes you think that’s what worries me?!” she snapped, still refusing to meet his gaze.

The stallion sighed. “Dash... None of us were prepared for that. Before today, we weren’t even sure the Wave Motion Gun could heat a jug of water. We were all surprised by what it did, you were just at the trigger.”

Rainbow took several heavy breaths before replying, her voice nary louder than a whisper. “I’ve killed so many. So many that didn’t need to die.”

“Dash-”

“No, you listen! I never wanted this! I was going to become a Wonderbolt! I was going to be the greatest stunt flyer the world had ever seen! Not some... genocidal monster!” She screamed, tears now freely streaming through the blue fur on her cheeks.

She glared at the stallion, who looked back at her only with concern, until she felt a warm droplet hit her forehoof.

Rainbow murmured in her throat as she lifted her hoof before her eyes, the large wet tear drop staining her fur. She put a hoof to her face, feeling the dampness of the trails the tears had carved through her soft fur.

She blinked slowly, before she closed her eyes tightly and began to sob, her mouth open as she drew in shaking, heaving breaths.

Her sobbing was so violent, she failed to hear, or notice Apollo move from his position beside the bed, to near her. She gasped but fell into the gesture when one of Apollo’s forehooves found its way around her shoulders.

She collapsed into his chest, staining his white fur with her tears. She didn’t care if she was being weak or vulnerable. Right now, she needed a warm embrace more than anything. Rainbow felt the soft texture of Apollo’s two large wings cross against her back, leaving her hidden inside a veil of white fur and feathers.

“Just let it all out, Dash,” Apollo cooed as he stroked her mane.

“I just-” Rainbow hiccuped, “How can I keep going after doing what I just did? I destroyed a planet!”

“Dash come on. This isn’t you,” he said softly, placing a hoof under her chin, gently adjusting her gaze to meet his. “Where’s the rough and tumble mare that had ponies cheering for her when we left Axial?”

Rainbow sniffled. “I hate it! I am the Rainbow Dash! Why-” she gulped as her nose stung with the burning of tears again. “Why am I so torn up over this! Why is this my fault!”

“Dash,” he said sternly, keeping her view focus on him, despite her wanted to shy away. “This is not, and will never be your fault. You did as you were told. Orders from the captain.”

“It’s not Celestia’s fault!” Rainbow snapped.

“No no, Dash, thats not what I mean... but if you want to look at it like that then yes. It is Celestia’s fault. It’s the engineers fault. It’s my fault. It’s the fault of every damn pony who ever worked on the Yamato. I didn’t know how powerful this ship really was. None of us did.”

He sighed, looking down. “I sure wish we had.”

“You see what i’m trying to say Dash? You can’t go looking for a reason to blame yourself when there is no one at fault. You did the right thing, even if it doesn’t feel like it now. One day you are going to look back at this and realize that you didn’t kill a planet. You instead saved an entire ship full of your friends.”

Rainbow nodded slowly before a look of realization washed over her. Her features darkened as she turned her head away from him, muttering coldly under her breath.

“Is that what you tell yourself?”

Apollo was taken aback at the sudden coldness in her words. “Beg pardon?”

“Is that how you sleep at night? Knowing you killed one of your own? You couldn’t see the look on her face, she was cornered! She was terrified! She was looking for a way out and you- You shot her!”

Apollo quirked an eyebrow. “Oh... I get it now.”

Finishing his sentence with a huff, he pulsed his wings, launching him off the bed to land on the floor beside it. “Rainbow, do you know about the conduct of the Equestrian military justice?”

“Don’t give me those horseapples! I don’t want to hear it! Give me a reason. A real reason!”

Apollo turned away, looking out the rooms window, despite the large anti-flare shutters that blocked his view. “A real reason?”

“You wanna know why I did that Dash? I could go and say I did it because I wanted to save the hostage. Or that I was saving the jury the bother of a court marshalling, but you want the real reason?!” He growled angrily.

Rainbow glared back, not wilting under the stern gaze of her crewmate. With a simple nod, she gave her answer.

Apollo continued to glare for a few tense moments before, to Rainbow surprise, he slumped. Turning his head to the carpet, his entire posture lost all its statute and power, letting his voice come out in pure honesty.

“I did it because I was scared.”

Rainbow stared at him, “What?”

“I was scared that she was going to hurt... Hurt you.”

Rainbow looked at him curiously. “What do you mean ‘hurt me’? I bet you just wanted to protect the Elements of Harmony.”

Apollo nodded, “Yes okay that’s one part, I admit, but I really was worried that you would be hurt.” He glanced away briefly, “I do think of you as a friend Rainbow Dash, despite how I can act sometimes. I care about you and if I had to choose between your wellbeing and how you think of me, I’d chose the former. Every time.”

Apollo turned, making his way to the door. Rainbow’s brain slowly ticked, trying to formulate a response when the door slid open, allowing the light from the hallway to spill in.

Apollo smiled. “Just... Think about what I said. Kay?”

The door slid closed behind him after he left, leaving Rainbow to struggle with her own thoughts. Like the stallion had said, she was going to think about a lot of things she had been told. Just, not the ones that she probably should be.

‘He... cares about me?’ Rainbow blushed.

“Captain Odrick, we’ve successfully exited warp. Sensors report a large object three klyms ahead.”

Captain Lower Class Six Odrick nodded as he studied the shape in the distance, magnified to reveal the distinctive shape of an extremely old Terron battleship, “Have we been detected? Terron ships are supposed to have powerful sensors.”

A sensor operator shook it’s head, “Negative Captain, we have not been detected by the Terron vessel. Sensors may be inoperable, it may be operating on automatic subroutines. It might even be a ghost ship.”

Another crew-drone spoke up, “That’s ridiculous, how could a ghost vessel operate weaponry of such magnitude?”

“For all I care,” Odrick snapped, “it could be operated by a group of primitives that found it in a cave. Guider, put this vessel on an intercept burn, if that ship’s sensors are still operational we might fool it into thinking we’re a derelict.”

At the controls for the ship, the Guider nodded and silently commanded its vessel to briefly fire the engines as it began to move towards the slowly moving Terron Battleship.

Odrick turned his head, “Warseekers, keep your gun-slaves at their stations but do not arm weapons until I give the order.” He didn’t wait for the confirmation clicks from the cybernetically-linked weapon masters before turning to his second-in-command, “Where is the rest of the squadron?”

Shifting her head slightly, the Second stared off into space, “Attack vectors will be reached in sixteen arns. By that point we will have confirmation if the Terron vessel is crewed, Captain.”

Odrick nodded, “We had better. Only open fire if it is crewed, we don’t want to damage such a valuable prize.”

Meanwhile, as an angular black ship moved to pass by its target, on board the Yamato a white pegasus was in an introspective mood as he considered what he had just possibly implied to Rainbow Dash..

‘I do care about her, I really do, but do I feel more than that for her? Or am I just fooling myself and her? Sometimes, Apollo, you do a really good job of confusing yourself.’ He looked out the window, watching the stars as the Yamato continued to put distance between itself and the ruined planet in the distance.

By now it was still easily visible in terms of destruction, but it was steadily becoming more indistinct as the distance increased. The once green planet still maintained its fairly distant orbit around it’s super massive parent star.

After a moment, Apollo shook his head and sighed, ‘At least it wasn’t a place with a civilisation on it. Somehow, that would have been even worse.’

He was about to turn and see if there was anything being served at the mess hall, preferably something that could take his mind off recent events before he returned to his station, when a flicker caught his attention.

“Hm?” He turned back to the window, staring out at the stars, before he saw it, a series of flickering lights that were most certainly not stars.

‘What in the...’ Apollo watched as the lights became distant but visible vortexes for a brief moment, before vanishing. After a few seconds the vortexes vanished and after several more seconds of seeing nothing happening, Apollo shrugged and turned away, “Must have just been an astr-”

Sparks ignited from overhead wires as unseen energy beams struck the side of the Yamato, knocking him off his hooves as the ship rocked to the side from the impact. Alarms suddenly began to blare and a pony, one of the younger bridge crew, suddenly shouted over what Apollo suspected was an accidentally activated intercom, “Celestia’s shiny butt, what the heck was that?”

“How nice of you to notice the brightness of my posterior.” Celestia’s coolly amused voice came on seconds later, before she took control of the situation, “All hooves! Battle stations! Battle Stations! We are under attack by unknown hostiles!”

Apollo was already running towards the elevator as the ship jerked into a roll and he smoothly transitioned from a gallop into full flight. Thundering through obstacles he navigated the twists and turns of the corridors, passing ponies that were bouncing off the walls and ceiling, flailing in panic. With haste he zipped into the elevator just as the doors opened and a pony crewmember tumbled out.

Thankfully, the elevators in the Yamato only had a few buttons. Slamming down hard on the one marked ‘bridge’ Apollo began feeling the machine begin to move as the rolling sensation began to lessen.He carefully landed before the doors opened to reveal a scene of barely-controlled anarchy.

Twilight Sparkle was frantically trying to maintain the Yamato’s evasion of the unknown attackers and Apollo noted that she seemed to be barely keeping herself from having a breakdown as he dashed to his station, “Reporting for duty Captain!”

Celestia nodded, “XO, take over the gunnery station. We can’t wait for Rainbow Dash to recover sufficiently to handle her duties. Get those guns online and aimed at those hostiles!”

Apollo nodded and was about to approach the station when the doors of the second elevator opened to reveal Rainbow Dash, “Gangway! Coming through!” She shouted as she flapped over to her station and took her position, grabbing the communication unit, “All gun crews, get those Shock Cannons ready for long-range combat!”

“Rainbow Dash?” Apollo blinked in surprise, “What are you doing here?”

Rainbow turned her head towards him and smiled, “What can I say, you gave me something important to think about. I came to a conclusion,” She turned back to her station, “But right now it’s time to kick some tail! Gunnery crews, what’s your status!”

“Shock Cannons ready for combat, ma’am!” The Gunnery Chief reported over the system and Rainbow’s smile turned mean as she turned to the pony at the sensors.

“Get me a firing solution! Now!” The poor pony didn’t argue and immediately got to work as Rainbow turned to Twilight, “Turn towards them, we’re engaging the enemy.”

“What!” Twilight snapped, “Rainbow, how can you just say that! We need to escape! For all we know, they’re some kind of alien police and we’re being punished for destroying one of their worlds!”

Rainbow stared at Twilight, ears folding back, “Maybe they are Twilight, but I’m not going to let everypony here die because of me. Now turn this thing around and engage the enemy, because they’re not going to let us escape without a fight.”

Twilight tried to match Rainbow’s cold, empty stare, but found that she couldn’t, and simply nodded before turning the ship as the pegasus turned to the pony on sensors, “Firing solution?”

“Ready to go!” The pony responded.

Rainbow turned to Celestia, who was regarding the pegasus with a neutral expression, “Captain, ready to engage on your orders.”

Celestia nodded, “Go to combat speed one, Twilight. Rainbow Dash, fire when ready.”

“Aye-Aye Captain!” Rainbow managed to give Celestia an almost-professional salute.

“Y-yes Princess.” Twilight Sparkle managed to reply as she began turning the ship towards the approaching enemies.

Watching the Terron Battleship turn towards the rest of the squadron, Odrick’s Second turned to him, “Sensors, your report.”

The crew-drone turned to give its report. “Life signs confirmed. Maybe Terron, maybe Primitives, or possibly Unconquered Races. Cannot acquire more detailed readings at this range, but can confirm that High Value Target known as Terron Battleship Yamato is crewed.”

Odrick sighed, “So much for salvage rewards then. Order the squadron to close an-”

“Alert!” The sensor-drone suddenly reported, “Terron Battleship is turning to engage Squadron!”

Odrick spat a curse, “Order the Squadron to arm all weapons, bring down that ship!”

In the darkness, the six ships approaching the Yamato received new orders, and began arming the rest of their arsenal as smaller secondary gun turrets activated. The servile gun-slaves were plugged into their stations and Warseekers took control to direct their fire.

Missile ports flipped open with a nasty hiss, the hatches on torpedo launchers sliding to the side to reveal the deadly explosives beneath. The small armada picked up speed while splitting their formation, intending to surround the approaching Terron battleship.

Odrick grinned wickedly. “Open fire.”

The order raced through the crews aboard all ships. Powerful lances of energy in green, red, yellow and purple streaked across the void to strike the shields of the Yamato, causing the ship to shake as some of the crew inside screamed and tried to find somewhere to hide while others gritted their teeth and remained at their station.

White hot bruises welted the side of the ponies ship, long red claw marks from the unknown enemies’ weapons raking across the Yamato’s hull.

As the distance closed, a rainbow-maned pegasus watched the enemy with narrowed eyes, before she suddenly shouted, “Fire!”

The freshly repaired gun turrets aimed at their assigned targets whilst the Yamato turned in space to present its side to the attackers. The two rear turrets unleashed their volleys in unison, and missiles streamed from the launch tubes in the converted smoke-stack.

The guns roared inside the ears of the crews as they fired their deadly energy payloads at three chosen targets while the missiles streamed ahead in a wide spread intended to draw off any defenses.

The blue-white beams, before the eyes of the watching ponies, began to wobble and twist towards each other, until instead of nine beams there were three large cork-screwing braids of energy heading towards the enemy ships.

The results were initially subdued as the braids slammed into and through the armour, leaving glowing holes, until seconds later explosions ripped through their hulls, tearing one of them in half, the second breaking into smaller chunks and the third simply imploded violently in a cloud of vapour, its warp drive taking a hit to a vital component and exploding inside the hull.

The remaining three ships immediately began moving to evade the deadly Terron guns, but the ponies manning the weapons and the skilled pony at the sensors were already plotting their courses to make sure that no one escaped.

One of the turrets turned with a whine and fired, sending three more beams that twisted into a corkscrewing braid, punched into and then straight through the ship, leaving glowing holes as the energy beam spanned across open space.

The fleeing ship began to list before it exploded. The remaining two ships continued firing in a ditch effort. Launching every missile and torpedo in their magazines at the Yamato, prompting a shouted order from Rainbow Dash.

Immediately the laser AA guns on the sides of the great battleship took aim and flashed, their bolts of red energy lanced out to pre detonate the missiles before they streaked towards the Yamato’s hull. The rear turret adjusted its aim, swing its long grey barrels towards one of the two remaining ships.

Another powerful volley burst forth from deep within the Yamato’s ancient weapons. A long powerful lance of blue-white energy spearing a ship neatly from bow to stern, creating a geyser of vapour and flame.

The final ship turned to flee the Yamato, but it barely had time to increase speed before a final lancing braid of energy reduced it to cloud of gas and shrapnel. Odrick watched in horror from his command throne.

“Guider, keep those engines offline. Warseekers, power down weapons. Don’t attract its attention. Second, prepare message for Swarm Command.”

The Second looked at him from her position, “What will you have me relay?”

Odrick closed his eyes, “Terron Battleship located and engaged in brief skirmish. Squadron One-Eighty-Six lost, no survivors.”

The Second nodded, “As you will.”

“What do we do know Captain? We cannot evade it without the engines! And if those destroyers barely marked it, then this ship shall fare even worse!” one of the gun-slaves shouted.

“How dare you speak out of line! You’re lucky you’re even on this vessel. If it were up to myself, I wouldn’t let lowly crew such as yourself on a ship flown by the great Odrick! You are nothing more than a pathetic Thud!” Odrick barked.

He wracked his brain for a plan, before deciding on a course of action, “We wait.”

Second glanced at him, “Captain?”

Odrick nodded, pleased with himself, “We wait until we’re far enough from the ship engage warp and escape, our current drift will be more than enough to put some distance between us and that monster ship so that by the time they notice us we’ll have left long before they can even target us.”

For the first time since arriving, the Guider stared incredulously at it’s Captain, before returning to it’s duties. One does not question one’s place in the hierarchy, one just does their duty.

Odrick growled lowly under his breath as he muttered angrily. “A lone Terron ship? Despite its age the opportunity to capture such a valuable vessel should not be neglected. Wave Motion technology could prove invaluable to the war effort.”

“Sir,” the second in command spoke. “Perhaps we should return to Arkides Two. There is a regiment of dreadnought cruisers stationed there, they have a decent chance of disabling the Terron vessel.”

“Do not underestimate any craft that sails under the name of the Terrons. Have you not heard the legends? Such a race is not to be trifled with.” Odrick responded coldly.

“I understand captain, but we cannot engage such a vessel again, not without better ships.”

Odrick growled. The long sharp points that extended past the end of his foreleg clacking against the armrest of his chair.

“No. We shall not go to Arkides Two. Instead we will return to Vallynrick.”

The second gasped. “Captain are you sure that’s wise? You know the penalty for returning to the home world without permission.”

“I care not for the rules. Such an event of locating a Terron ship. An unguarded one at that, needs to be reported directly to the the Great Quads, Maybe even Sentinel Fidelitas himself!”

“Very well sir,” the Second saluted. “Scyre Zar Suul!”

The entire ship responded with a chant. “Ark Suul!”

Odrick chuckled slowly, ‘Nothing shall stop the Scyre with the power of a Terron ship with us.’

He glanced menacingly at the receding image of the Yamato on the screen before him.

‘We are coming for you.’

“What in the name of Luna’s moon was that!” Twilight shrieked loudly after the commotion ceased. Several loose panels that had been shaken out of their places were being forced back into the wall, causing a small flurry of activity inside the bridge.

Celestia spoke. “I haven’t the faintest idea. XO, sitrep, I was a full evaluation of both our ship and the ones we just encountered.”

Apollo saluted professionally. “Aye aye ma’am.”

Twilight snorted angrily, letting the frustration out through her nose. She was about to dismiss herself from the bridge when she looked over the Rainbow.

“Dash. What was that?” she asked cautiously, gazing worried at her friend who sat to her left.

Rainbow failed to respond for a few moments, resigning to sit in her station, silently stewing in her own thoughts.

“My duty,” Rainbow said slowly.

Apollo turned to her. “Dash?”

“Like I said, Apollo. You gave me something to think about. You were right, I shouldn’t feel bad about Eden. Because even though I killed all those creatures, I saved my friends,” she said as she turned to look at the stallion.

“I realized something. And now I understand why you did what you did to Vista. We’re not safe out here, there are things that want to hurt us, and I will never let anything hurt my friends.”

“It’s them or us!” Rainbow shouted in an inspirational speech, drawing the attention of all those in the bridge.

“And I won’t let anything happen to my friends,” she ended in a small voice, almost to assure herself rather than the others.

Twilight look away from her prismatic friend. The way she had worded it seemed so... belligerent. “Captain? Can we plot a course out of this system? Please?”

Celestia nodded once, a lone, stoic gaze in her eyes. “Engage warp.”

The deep whine of the Wave Motion Engine deep within the Yamato stirred angrily, pushing the mighty ship through the black void, onwards to destinations unknown.

‘We are now certain that we are not alone in our voyage. And even if those vessels were crewed or not, we now know that our journey is fraught with danger. I am certain that this will not be our last encounter with races not of our own. I can only pray that this lifeline that is the Yamato can keep my ponies safe from the unknowns of space.’

‘However, it frightens me. Is it right, or even sane to place this much faith into a vessel we ourselves know so little about? It is unquestionable that the Yamato holds many secrets, and i’m not sure if I want to uncover them.

‘Perhaps this ship was buried for a reason?’

‘Now and forever ponykind will need to remember the mistakes that can be made when wielding that which we do not grasp. But now is not the time for remembering the past.’ Her mind drifted to the after-action report given by Apollo, and the images of the unknown vessels, ‘Not when there is still danger in the future.’

‘Dangers that may yet still be lurking out there.’

The magical aura around Celestia’s quill dissipated, allowing her journal to flutter shut. With a sigh, she looked out of the large, panoramic windows of her quarters. The shrinking grey ball of Eden now sporting a horrific red scar painting the void of space.

Chapter 18

The automated protocols that were nestled deep inside Odrick’s vessel guided the destroyer slowly over the great city. Like a bloodthirsty shark stalking its prey, the black vessel hummed menacingly over the alien city, its great shadow blanketing all beneath.

The distant blue aura of atmospheric recycling towers glowed in the far distance. The massive stacks that made up their impressive height were hidden behind a never parting veil of toxic chemical haze so thick that a chainsaw could be blunted from trying to cut through it.

Countless years of endless industry had filled the planet’s atmosphere with poison, the engines from the Lesser Captain’s warship igniting the atmosphere behind it in a sickly green flame.

The high intensity lamps of the landing strip glared up at the vessel through the smog, alerting the crew to where they were to land should the systems fail. The landing gear absorbed the touchdown with a screech, billowing smoke from the tires into the paneless windows of a poverty stricken suburb, just behind the runway.

A long electrified chain link fence with sharp razor wire looped not only along the top, but also along the base and middle of the barrier deterred any unwanted civilians from entering the militarized compound.

Odrick smirked wickedly as the ship came to a halt near the vicious fence. A few low ranking gun-seekers on break were standing near the fence line, cackling madly in amusement as they threw the bodies of several Thuds onto the fence, watching their flesh buzz with the electricity.

The Lesser Captain smiled. Even on their break the gun-seekers continued to do their part for the Scyre: removing the sick and useless.

A long gangway swung out of the fog towards the ship, docking with the airlock in a flurry of sparks, allowing the crew to disembark from the ship.

A guard approached Odrick, “Scyre Zar Suul, Captain Lower Rank Six Odrick, what is your business in the capital? You have registered a priority-” Odrick interrupted the guards speech with a shove

“I have already logged my reason for arrival and arranged a meeting with Swarm Command, I have no time for a low-caste like you!” He swept forward as his Second maintained a respectful distance slightly behind him and to his side.

Odrick quickly crossed the gap between the landing area and the entrance to the fortress that held the highest ranked Scyre military leaders, from the High Captains to the Admirals and finally Swarm Command, the Great Quads and on rare occasions Sentinel Fidelitas himself. the building known as The Hive was the nerve-center of the Scyre’s dreams of hegemony.

The guards parted to allow him entry, Odrick quickly made his way to the elevator that would take him to his meeting with Swarm Command. As the pod rose on anti-gravity propulsion, he turned towards his Second. “Just think, I will be the first captain to survive an encounter with a Terron Battleship. Perhaps I will give my report to the Great Quads!”

“Caution is advised Captain. The Great Quads decide what is worth their attention, not you.” Second replied calmly, used to its Captain’s moods and ego.

“I know that!” Odrick snapped. Despite the terse reply, the Second knew that its advice had been listened to. It had been with Odrick for a very long time after all.

“So long as you know, Captain,” The Second replied as the elevator doors opened and they exited into the hallway leading to the auditorium where Swarm Command conducted the business of running the military.

“You know,” Odrick mused, “It is a pity that you are my Second, any other in your position would have reclaimed her gender by now.”

“While your reputation among females...precedes you, I have found you a skilled and honourable Captain.” Second replied, voice as neutral as the day it was given to Odrick.

“Hah! Being careful with your words? You? My sword-tongued Second? You must be more nervous about this meeting than I, and I am very nervous.” Odrick ended his statement with a laugh but they both could hear the quiver in the usually egotistical sound.

“As you say.” Second replied as the guards moved and the doors slid open silently to allow them entry.

The auditorium was filled with the sub-sonic noise of hundreds of Scyre communicating amongst each other, sharing data in such a way that all knew what the other was saying. Hundreds of conversations were being held simultaneously but there was no confusion. Odrick felt honoured to be before these, the most senior and skilled of commanders, Scyre who commanded fleets that numbered in the millions.

Finally, the subsonic orchestra died down and all eyes turned to Captain Odrick, “Captain Lower Rank Six Odrick, you have been allowed to appear before us t-”

Odrick suddenly stepped forward, “I have encountered and gained valuable data from the Terron Battleship known as Yamato. This information must be presented personally to the Great Quads, if not Sentinel Fidelitas himself!”

Second stared at its Captain in shock for the highly disrespectful breach of protocol as Swarm Command stared at him with over a hundred pairs of eyes.

Odrick seemed to remember where he was and his head dropped as Swarm Command spoke, “Your excitement at encountering and surviving the Terron Battleship has made you forget your place. You will be forgiven this transgression. Once.”

Odrick went to speak but Swarm Command interrupted him. “However, that does not excuse your request of a meeting before you are due to report. Your information had best be valuable, or there shall be consequences. Furthermore, we decide what is worth the attention of the Great Quads. Not you.”

“Second!” Odrick barked and Second stepped forward, eyes closed, before they snapped open projecting images out to reveal detailed scans of the Yamato, along with recordings of the Yamato’s weaponry and movements, “Swarm Command, this the combat data gained from the heroic sacrifice of Destroyer Squadron Sixteen. As you can see, its armaments remain potent even after all this time, but we have confirmed that though it is crewed, they are not familiar with the full functionality of the vessel.”

“These are large claims you boast, Lesser Captain. I trust you have evidence to support this hypothesis?” Swarm Command asked.

Odrick cleared his throat, “From what both myself and my crew observed, the weaponry skills were poor at best, clearly not up to the minimum standards of Terron warfare that we are familiar with.”

Swarm command responded. “You’re certain of this?”

Odrick nodded, “I believe the ship has been restored by and is crewed by Primitives, who are using it to take their first steps into the Greater Magellanic Cloud. With the permission of Swarm Command, I wish to take command of a greater-sized task force and capture this ship for the Scyre!”

Swarm Command was silent, all eyes on him and Odrick felt himself begin to sweat.

Finally, they replied, “You make bold claims about the nature of this vessel. Terron vessels are rightly feared for their power, and only those who run from battle have survived them. The Scyre tolerate no weakness in their ranks. What is it about you that is so different that you survived battle without running? We think you are a coward, who hid and took pictures while Destroyer Squadron Sixteen gained honour in death. If you did not turn on them yourself before scanning a wandering derelict inhabited by mindless scavengers.”

Odrick didn’t reply, he simply maintained his neutral expression in the face of their glares. After what seemed like an eternity, they finally said, “Very well, what do you require?”

Odrick kept his face neutral, as emotion could sour this. “I require a full squadron of battlecruisers to deal with this threat.”

“Denied.” Swarm Command stated, “We have no full squadrons to send. We will allow you a half-squadron of battlecruisers and a Carrier to deal with this.”

A Carrier...the Yamato showed no fighter coverage, so that would be an advantage. Odrick bowed low, “I accept the wisdom of Swarm Command.”

“Bring victory or die. Scyre Zar Suul,” Swarm Command ordered.

“Ark Suul,” Odrick and Second replied curtly.

If there was one thing Scyre prided themselves on, it would be their incredible efficiency. Vallynrick had barely made two rotations before the requested vessels were lined up and primed in formation.

Second sighed, its metallic umbrella keeping the corrosive rain off of its hide. It watched silently as lowly military crew, those who hadn’t yet been trusted on vessels yet, directed the final preparations. The thick, viscous rain bounced off the thick hull of the carrier that Second stood next to, hearing the deafening drumming beating off of its walls. To its right, it could see several dozen civilians gathered at the fenceline, all cautiously waiting a good few body lengths behind the electric fence as it sizzled in the rain.

It was common for those who weren’t part of the Scyre legion to watch the launching of entire fleets. Despite being the homeworld capital’s military installation, ships rarely launched from there. Instead, most larger, better equipped warships launched from other, more restricted colonies on other worlds.

The door to the fortress behind Second rattled open, the glaring yellow light washing out onto the wet, shining taxiway. With the blare of a ceremonial bugle, a long river of gun-drones marched out in a rows four strong.

The occasional flag cropped up in the centre of the four marching lines, giving an extremely formal, foreboding presence to the soldiers as they boarded their respective craft.

Had the Second been able to snort in displeasure it would have. No other base that it had been stationed at had bothered with the ceremony of rolling out their soldiers like the legion’s newest toys. Only the capital what with being directly in public view would need to maintain its image in such a grandiose way.

The four lines of marching gun-drones split, the line on the far left walking the furthest to a small dreadnought. As they marched, their path brought them closest to the fence, allowing the civilians to look directly at them in full detail. A young child, barely old enough to serve in Juvie Corps, cheered gleefully from her mothers back.

“Go get em! Scyre Zar Suul!” she hollered.

with a bout of excitement, she sprang off from her parents back, rushing to the fenceline, watching the ‘hoof’ falls of the soldiers marching by. Several of the gun-drones snorted in annoyance at the noisy infant hollering beside them, before one took action.

“Hold your tongue you filthy Thud!” he spat, his saliva arcing through the fence and landing on one of the youngling’s forelegs.

The small child gasped in disgust, wiping the offending gunk off of her leg. Her mother simply hung her head. There was no use in defending her offspring it wasn’t worth the trouble.

Second snorted in disgust, showing as much emotion as it could muster. With a flick of its head it instead directed its attention back to the ships.

Three destroyers and a carrier sat waiting for the off. Second recalled the mood that Odrick had been in when he had seen the crafts for the first time. Swarm Command had not been generous with their turnout. Instead of a half squadron of two battlecruisers, one destroyer and a carrier they had instead granted only three destroyers and the carrier.

The final kicker that had completely Odrick seething was the condition of the destroyers. Older models, kept by the capital for their looks and status. The Brut-Kar class destroyers were well regarded in their era, but as times changed the noble vessels had been pushed aside in favour of stronger, faster, more brutal ships.

Second was glad it was standing in the chemical downpour. It was obviously a nicer alternative to being stuck in the bridge of the carrier with the short fused captain.

It sighed. Soon it would be time. With luck, Odrick would be in a better mood once at his command throne.

The distant sound of the launch klaxons began to howl around the complex, signaling to all that the runway was about to become swamped with thruster fire and exhaust. Second turned away slowly, marching through the hot rain towards the large carrier.

The agile fighters that were magnetically clamped to its deck began to shudder as the massive craft beneath them stirred, the airlock doors sliding shut with a hiss and a thump of locks just as Second entered.

The thruster ports along the carrier slid open like the aperture of a camera. Powerful jets of flame began to sputter and cough, the engines forcing them to start. With a sudden kick over, the thrusters changed colour from a dull red to a blazing blue, the force pushing the panels of the hull tighter into the ship.

The navigators nested within the bridge nodded in synchronization, simultaneously pouring more power into the belly mounted engines. The old carrier groaned, its massive weight ever so slowly being taken off of the landing gear until a space formed under it.

The wheels retracted into the hull, hiding behind the thick shielding that protected the cumbersome ship from underside attacks.

As the carrier rose into the storming atmosphere, the three Brut-Kar destroyers taxied behind one another, the older model vessels not possessing the ability to take off vertically. Through the haze of the rain, the distant amber lamp changed to green, signalling the pilot of the warship to give the ship its all.

The first of the destroyers shot forward down the strip, the weaker belly thrusters firing relentlessly, trying to force the nose up. With a roaring drone, the Brut-Kar class pitched up violently, the gear barely clearing the ramshackle, poverty stricken slums at the far end of the military zone.

The flimsy, almost paper thin walls rattled dangerously, each of the three destroyers threatening to simply blow the cheap housing as the thundered overhead.

Odrick smiled wickedly in his seat, the destroyers lining up in formation around the carrier, two beside one behind.

‘It does not matter how little Swarm Command rates my worth in this mission. I will secure that Terron Battleship, and save the Homeworld from its own poison. I will not fail. Not when so much is at stake.’

The warp emitter mounted within the carrier began to whine into life, the destroyers relying on the newer ship for mass distance transport, being too small to harbor their own warp drives. The four ships ascended into the thick of the cloud layer, the emitter beginning to glow dangerously.

Second spoke evenly “Engage warp.”

The navigators nodded in sync, both turning their respective keys in their consoles, unleashing the fury of space bending energy.

The deafening blare of the emitter echoed over the capital, its ear splitting while sounding like that of a foghorn powered by anger. The gate opened with a sharp bang, its shockwave stripping the toxic clouds around it away for a few moments, allowing the capital to see the stars for but a moment, as the ships sailed through.

“No, no no! If you do it like that, you’re gonna snap the drill piece! Take it slow,” Applejack said, chiding the careless crewmembers.

The drillers snorted, starting the drill with a more gentler approach, carefully boring a long hole in the ice of the asteroid the Yamato was currently docked to. The last unexpected attack had damaged the water system within the ship. While not any major damage it meant that the ship rapidly began to lose its water supplies. The situation would be dire had the crew not been fortunate enough to wander into a massive asteroid cluster.

Despite sustaining several dents and scuffs when lazily bumping into the building sized lumps of ice, a particularly large one became a blessing.

Applejack moved over to another drill site, the extreme low gravity on the small rock meaning that she had to be incredibly careful with her jumps and hops. Slowly ducking under the massive chain of the anchor that had jammed itself into the ice, she approached the second crew.

“How’s it going over here?” She asked,watching a steady stream of slush pump out of the rear of the drill, straight into the Yamato.

“We’re good over here, but one drill isn’t gonna cut it. If that other bunch over there don’t get their heads on straight were either gonna burn out this drill, or spend all week here filling up this tank!” the young mare said through her suit.

Applejack grunted. “Alright, I’mma see what I can do, keep at it.”

The mare sighed as she sailed back over to the other group. She had been wrong, feeding three hundred ponies was nothing at all like looking after a few hundred head of cattle. The stress of the job was starting to eat away at her, subconsciously longing for her simple life of an Apple again.

However, she wasn’t one to complain. She had a job to do, and even if she had originally doubted her trust in the princess, she followed her orders implicitly. After all, without her role in it all, both her and her friends, not to mention all the others on the Yamato would perish in the depths of space.

Shaking the morbid thoughts from her head, she instead concentrated on the task at hand. Noting the now steady stream of ice and watery mush sliding through the pipe she spoke to the drillers.

“All A-okay now?”

The drillers nodded. “Yep, we got it under control now. Tanks should be green in... an hour, maybe?”

Applejack nodded, turning away to report her status. “Yamato, this is Drilling. Team One and Two are both fully underway, can you give us an ETA on when the tanks will be filled?”

“You know AJ, ETA means ‘Estimated Time of Arrival,’ what you just said technically made no sense,” the voice of Twilight responded, almost smugly.

“Har har, Twi. Now come on, how long have ah gotta stand out here? This ain’t exactly a barrel of fun.”

“Checking now AJ... About fifty minutes if conditions stay regular.”

“That would be my luck. I’ve got this gut feeling that something’s gonna go teats up.”

Twilight giggled. “That’s Murphneigh’s law for you.”

“Alright Twilight. Catch ya when I get back inside,” Applejack said before the line dropped with a small buzz.

Twilight lent back her her seat, taking off the earphones with a lip sputtering sigh.

“At least it’s a long, boring work day instead of nearly getting blown apart.” The sensor operator, Quick Glance, spoke up from her station.

Twilight rolled her head over to her, nodding, “I’m just glad we didn’t get into another fight. And I’ll be glad if we don’t get into another.”

Quick Glance giggled and Twilight glanced over at the mare, who coughed with a smile on her face, “You just jinxed us, you know that?”

Twilight groaned, “Please, not that old mare’s tale. The chances of us getting another battle are literally astronomical! I mean, look at this asteroid field!” She waved a hoof at it, “The amount of space between this field and the nearest one is so huge that if we just picked a direction we’d never reach it!”

She flopped back in her chair, “I never knew it was so big. So empty…”

Quick Glance nodded, “You know what else is empty? This ship!” She threw up her hooves, “I mean, how hard is it to rig up a radio station to the ship’s intercom? I thought this Pinkie Pie mare was some kind of genius when it came to this sort of stuff!”

“She is, but that’s more in the area of parties. Like that party after the battle.” Twilight responded.

Quick Glance shrugged, “I guess. It just feels...boring. At least with the alarms going there’s some kind of li-” The ship-wide intercom suddenly screeched to life as a pink party pony’s voice rang out through the ship.

“Hi everypony! And welcome to the first broadcast of Yamato Ship Radio! I’m your host, Pinkie Pie and boy have we got some super-splendiferous, fantastic treats for all of you!”

Twilight blinked twice. “That was awfully convenient.”

Quick Glance shrugged as music began to play, “Meh, at least now I can listen to something other than sensor pings all day. Besides, I heard you don’t try to understand that mare. Something about going crazy if you do.”

Twilight rolled her eyes again before Quick Glance spoke up again, “So, what do you think’s going on in the turrets that they need the Weapons Officer down there? It sounded pretty important from the way that engineer was acting.”

Twilight was silent for a moment, before she replied, “I don’t know. Something about one of the barrels running a little hot?”

“Well, whatever it is, I hope they fix it soon. None of us want to get into a fight, but the universe doesn’t exactly give a damn about what ponykind wants, does it?” Quick Glance groused, and Twilight found herself nodding in agreement as she looked down at the Yamato’s gun turrets.

“All I can say is that more power was being routed through this breach than those two. It shouldn’t be too much of a problem as long as you don’t go blasting asteroids apart for fun,” a gruff, elderly engineer said to Rainbow Dash, referring to the large loading mechanism that fed the mighty shock cannon.

Rainbow nodded, respecting what the engineer was telling her. “Alright so we keep the load off of this gun? That could overwork the other four turrets though.”

“Maybe but that’s unlikely. But if it makes you feel better I’ll see if I can jury rig a bypass around that barrel until we fix it,” the engineer grunted, looking towards the offending breach at the rear of the troublesome chamber.

“Okay, see to it. We don’t want a repeat of what happened with the type threes,” Rainbow stated firmly.

The engineer looked down, before speaking slowly. “Ma’am, one of my good friends was operating that turret when the misfire happened. They had to wash him out of the gun house with a hose. Trust me when I say I will do everything in my power to make sure that we never lose another life to our own ship.”

Rainbow nodded in respect, turning without another word to exit the massive weapon housing. The pegasus slumped inside the elevator as she journeyed back up towards the bridge. It still hurt when anypony mentioned the stallions who died in the misfire. She still felt responsible for their deaths, and any gruesome detail that she uncovered continued to spread the guilt on her.

The elevator dinged, snapping Rainbow out of her thoughts, making her spring back up to attention. She couldn’t appear weak, she had done enough of that in her room and even Apollo witnessing it was far too many.

With a strong face, she marched forward, until she heard the voice of her party crazed friend.

“And for all of you who missed my ‘Thank Celestia we survived’ party, don’t worry, I’m going to do my best to give you all a little mini-party! Just think, it’ll be a party, but mini!”

Rainbow smirked. Celestia was right to put Pinkie on the ships P.A. In a time like this she really needed a little bit of laughter.

“So keep smiling everypony! This is Pinkie Pie, bringing you the tunes of Yamato Ship Radio!”

Soft, soothing yet charming music slowly began to waft through the recycled air. The poofy, pink DJ living up to her reputation as the Smile Maker. The tune wasn’t overpowering, yet it wasn’t so quiet it sounded somber, it was simply happy.

The door to the bridge rattled open swiftly, allowing Rainbow Dash to return to her station.

“Long range sensors have confirmation of the target. One Terron Battleship matching the profile of the Yamato.” A sensor-drone reported as a dot blinked on a screen.

On his command throne, Captain Odrick smiled, “And what is our target doing?”

“Currently it is parked on top of an asteroid, the crew may be recovering water and oxygen for their stores.” The same sensor drone reported.

Odrick nodded, “Ready the fighters for launch! Prepare for a tactical warp and standby! The enemy is unaware and distracted by their needs, so we shall be like the cave scorpions and ambush them at their most vulnerable!”

“Ark Suul!” The crew responded in unison as Second closed it’s eyes and began relaying orders to the Seconds aboard the other vessels.

At the center of the small formation, a three-tiered vessel was a hive of activity as sleek fighters were crewed by their pilots, flight crews checking the connections to the massive multi-barreled energy cannon that was their main weapon while missiles were loaded into rotating launch drums.

“All fighters, your objective is the enemy battleship codenamed ‘Yamato’. You face a Terron weapon from times past, do not underestimate it!”

Down on the triple layered flight decks, the sickly green and black fighters were hastily being locked down for launch. Clamps mounted in the decks hissed as they firmly bit into the wheels of the crafts, making sure that weren’t going anywhere. Gun drones and pilots scurried around, desperately trying to make their way back inside out of the vacuum. Scyre ships always warped on schedule. It wasn’t uncommon for personnel to get ‘Locked out’.

Deep inside the belly of the carrier, two long rectangular boxes that stretched from bow to stern began to scream. A beam of photons bounced between both ends, as the ships engines roared into overdrive the photons began to travel faster than the speed of light.

“Opening warp channels in fifteen Rens,” Second droned.

A massive antenna protruding from the nose of the vessel began to warm, energy pulsing through it, waiting for its time.

“Ten Rens.”

The three destroyers flying alongside the carrier swiftly brought themselves in close. The destroyers didn’t want to miss the opening, only the carrier possessed warp hardware.

“Five, four, three, two one. Opening channels.”

The antenna glowed, A brilliant white laser of white energy accelerating away from the ship. The flotilla quickly sailed over the long white marker line waiting for it to activate. Once the ships were dead on the center, the single line expanded into a massive cylinder, swallowing all four ships. It lasted but a second, before instantly collapsing down to a singularity, disappearing into the void, along with it the Scyre vessels.

Inside the Yamato, Quick Glance head snapped to her screen, “What the?”

The radar pinged loudly, screaming at the bridge crew for attention. Other sensors began to shout angrily at the ponies, demanding that action be taken.

“Whoa, whoa whoa! What in the name of Luna’s sky is happening?” Quick glance shouted, showing her skill working her station as the alarms were all noted.

A brilliant flash of white light filled with Yamato’s windows, not too unlike the Wave Motion Guns blinding muzzle flash.

A worker on the asteroid outside grunted, holding a hoof up to block the light. Blinking, the spots in her vision vanished, allowing her to see the mass of shapes approaching, “Huh?”

Seconds later, an ice outcropping near her exploded, the asteroid becoming a target for ordinance. The Scyre wasted no time in launching the fighters, immediately sending them to attack. Dust and ice sprayed from each impact as Applejack looked up to see them, “Tarnation! Everypony inside! Now!”

“The Yamato is fourteen Klyms from our position. Shall we open fire?” Second asked.

Odrick shook his head. “We need to wipe out as many of their crew before we send in the destroyers. We can’t risk bringing them into range of those cannons. We shall wait until the fighters disable them.”

“Very well captain,” Second agreed, turning to the microphone. “Second squadron launch.”

The second wave of sleek ships roared, their small engines growling in the vacuum. The clamps around the wheels released with a hiss, allowing the vessels to thunder forwards, galloping off of the decks like bees from a busted hive.

“Battlestation!” Rainbow screamed into the P.A. cutting Pinkie’s broadcast short. already plugging in the firing codes for the mighty shock cannons, Celestia suddenly teleported herself onto the bridge.

“Whats going on,” she asked in a level but stern tone.

“We’ve been engaged by unknown hostiles. Possible the same ones that we fought before,” Quick Glance said, not looking up from her monitor.

An explosion rocked the bridge in a violent shudder, one of the fighter releasing a flurry of explosives on the AA cannons.

“Twilight! Full power to engines, we’ve got to get moving!” Celestia commanded.

Twilight nodded shakily, pushing a stray lock of her mane behind her ear. With a swift press of a button, the rocket anchor slammed back into the the side of the ship.

The Wave Motion Engine flared to life, a long column of fire being launched into the asteroid field around them. The massive lumbering ship began to accelerate, bouncing rocks of ice and rock off of the hull.

Twilight grunted as she heaved the yoke into a hard right, the ship groaning in protest as she forced it to avoid a massive chunk of rock. The maneuver forced the Yamato to slow to a crawl as it bent around the tight confines of the asteroid field, exposing its broad sides to the enemy fighters.

The remaining AA cannons roared with an eye watering blurr, angrily slicing at the attacking alien crafts. The spaceplanes thundered over and under the ship, never letting up their barrage of bombs and bullets.

“It’s no good! We’ll never get away from them in here!” Twilight cried, coaxing the ship to make it over another oversized rock.

“Rainbow Dash, ready the fighters. We need to protect the Yamato,” Celestia spoke clearly to the pegasus, who was shouting herself raw, giving orders down the line.

Rainbow whipped around. “Captain, the fighters have only just finished their refits. We’re not even sure they all work! Half of them don’t even have their weapons yet!”

“Then take what you can and give the Yamato some breathing space. We just need to get into an opening.”

Rainbow made to respond but quickly closed her mouth and nodded once. Her captain wouldn’t lead her astray. Without another word, her wings snapped open and she shot out of the bridge towards the hangar.

The hangar in the belly of the Yamato was in a state of panic, like one could see when an ants nest was dug up. Pilots, technicians and ponies caught in the fray galloped, stumbled and shouted. The sleek fighters were rotating in their barrel, the zero G environment helping the technicians snap them onto the long belt that would launch them.

Rainbow Dash wasted no time in finding her way to the first fighter. Poised right at the front of the belt it sat atop the currently closed hangar door, waiting for the off. Before she could strap herself in however, a familiar voice called her out.

“Rainbow Dash!”

Rainbow looked around. “Lyra!?” she gasped.

“Long time no see Dash. I’d give you a hug but were kinda busy you know,” the unicorn said, with an accompanying muffled boom.

“What are you doing on the Yamato? I thought I knew all the ponies who worked in the hangar.”

“No, you know all the pilots. They fly under your jurisdiction. I’m a technician, I fall under Apollo.”

“Figures.”

“But we don’t have time for that right now! This isn’t your fighter, you're an X.O you get a Cosmo Zero!” Lyra bounced up and down excitedly as best she could in microgravity. Her mood betraying the situation.

“A Zero? Really! I mean, yeah okay lead the way!” Rainbow pushed her, which only served to push her backwards.

“No time, hold on!” Lyra shouted before her horn glowed. With a popping zap, that sounding incredibly similar to an old time camera flash, the two mares suddenly disappeared.

The pair reappeared on the ceiling, the two rare Zero’s sitting side by side. Lyra wasted no time in slamming her hoof onto a large red button on the wall that awoke the machine.

The cockpit opened with a hiss and the wings slowly unfolded like a bird spreading its wings. The part of the ceiling it was mounted on suddenly lit up with dozens of lights mounted into the pad.

“Get in!” Lyra commanded.

Rainbow immediately flapped into the cockpit of massive machine and immediately looked over the controls for a moment before shouting over the side, “How the heck do I get into this thing?”

“Put your legs into the holes! We had to completely rebuild the control systems for a quadruped arrangement, so you’re literally going to be wearing that fighter!” Lyra shouted back and Rainbow nodded.

“Got it!” She wriggled under the harness and shoved her back legs into the holes before sliding her forelegs into place, “Okay! I’m in!” An shuddering explosion caused the Yamato to rock slightly, making Rainbow thankful she was currently in zero G, lest she be thrown into a wall.

“Okay, you should be able to just move your forelegs as part of the control yoke. Shift your hooves to operate the systems!” Lyra instructed and Rainbow remembered that she was quoting from the technical manual printed about the retrofit for the fighters.

She immediately began shifting her hooves and legs, pressing buttons and feeling the fighter’s engines start up with a soft whine that grew in volume and pitch. Pulling out a hoof, Rainbow shoved the helmet onto her head and fixed the oxygen mask into place as the canopy lowered and the instruments flickered into life.

“Control to Zero-One, standby for launch.” A pony’s voice sounded in her head, and Rainbow suddenly felt more than heard a series of staccato impacts along the hull.

“Priority one launch. Get me out there Asap!”

“Working on it Zero-One, the elevator mechanisms are giving us some trouble…” There was a loud *clank* followed by a strained whine. Slowly, the pad the Zero was mounted on flipped over and Rainbow felt the fighter begin to move upwards and before she knew it, she was looking at a raging battle in the void.

The elevator rattled to a stop with a bang, placing the Cosmo at the rear of one of the two long catapults at the rear of the ship, the large fin of the engine poking upwards to her right.

“There we go. Zero-One, your objective is to establish local area superiority for the Yamato. Do not engage enemy capital ships, leave them for the main guns. Keep those fighters off us until we are ready for warp.”

“Understood!” She confirmed waiting for the green light. In a strange almost silent moment of peace, she watched the silent battle rage above and around her, the only sound being that of her breathing through the mask.

Suddenly, the small heads up display flashed once, with a simple message.

“Good Luck Rainbow Dash -Y.”

Rainbow barely had time to register the message the catapult engaged and fired. Instantly, Rainbow felt like her front teeth were heading for a vacation with her back teeth as the Cosmo Zero flew off the short catapult and into the void.

Immediately, Rainbow’s training, brief as it was, kicked in and she began moving her legs, her movements flaring the engines to life, arming the single forty millimeter cannon in the nose of the aircraft and the missiles fitted to the wings.

“This is Zero-One! I’m engaging the enemy!” Rainbow shouted over the radio before settling the gun sight over an enemy fighter that was coming in for an attack run, “Not today!” She forced her right fore-hoof down on a button.

The cannon flashed silently but in Rainbow Dash’s helmet she heard it fire, along with the roar of the engines and the explosions as sophisticated sensors in the fighter made it seem like she was fighting in the air, not in space.

She saw the tracers strike an enemy fighter and spark against the hull, smashing large holes that billowed smoke before the fighter listed and burst into flames. Rainbow shifted to a new target as it smashed into an asteroid.

She chased another fighter into a canyon in a massive asteroid. As it weaved and rolled, Rainbow armed the missiles and locked onto the fighter. Four more that had ducked into the canyon in an attempt to escape the anti-air cannons.

“Eat this!” Rainbow crowed as she launched the missiles.

Missiles screamed from the wings of the Cosmo Zero and the cannon flashed, striking the fighter she had been chasing originally. It crashed into the wall and exploded as the missiles screamed across the gap between Rainbow and the other fighters.

Rainbow grinned menacingly, watching the hostile fighters spiral to their doom. She was so caught up in it she very nearly collided with the screaming wreckage of one of her own. The blazing fuselage careened across her nose, the oxygen inside it having sprung a leak, allowing a trail of fire to follow it in the vacuum.

Rainbow grunted, hurling the Zero upwards into a vertical climb away from the asteroid, into the fray. Despite her takedowns it was plain to see that the numerous Cosmo Falcons were losing.

“Yamato, this is Zero-One, how long till your in the clear? We’re struggling up here!”

“We’re still deep inside the field. Give us a few more minutes!”

“That thing busted through a mountain and survived being dropped down a chasm! Just bash through them!” Rainbow screamed, coming up behind another fighter.

Meanwhile, Lyra sat back in the hangar, intently listening in on the coms.

‘We’re dying up here!’ She heard Rainbow shout, causing her to throw the headphones down.

“Damnit!” She screamed, kicking a wall unit behind her, which had the effect of launching her forwards, straight into the nose of a Falcon mounted at the end of the belt.

Lyra’s eyes widened suddenly. Pressing the button on the outside of the hull and quickly clambering in. “Yamato this is Cosmo Falcon... Seventeen! Ready for launch.”

“Thats a no-go seventeen, you’re not cleared for launch, we can’t risk losing any more fighters. Seventeen hasn’t even had it’s weapons fitted yet!”

Lyra tightened the straps of the mask around her face, flipping the visor down. “That wasn’t a request Yamato.”

With a hidden grin, the unicorn reached down to her rear leg, pressing a button on the small remote attached there. A simple device that helped move the belt along while the fighters were being refitted. It also functioned as a good way to bypass launch protocols.

The long belt that Seventeen was mounted to began to rattle, pulling the blue and grey fighter backwards, engine first towards the launch ramp.

With a abrupt lurch, the Falcon came to rest on the inside of the launch ramp, waiting for the firing mechanism to launch her backwards into the fray.

“Seventeen! Seventeen this is Yamato! You are not clear for launch, you’re gonna die if you go out there! Seventeen!”

Lyra just smiled, pressing another button on her dastardly little remote, opening the door exposing the rear of her craft to the blackness of space.

“Sorry boys, they need me out there.”

With a flurry of sparks, the Cosmo Falcon shot out of the Yamato’s belly. Immediately, the mare turned the spacecraft, nose over engine, pointing it away from the massive battleship above it.

With a soundless snarl in the vacuum the engine lit up, throwing the ship forwards. Seventeen tore beneath an asteroid, using the massive lump of rock and ice as cover, coming up to the battle from below.

With a blast of ice shearing off of the asteroid, the blue and grey fighter rose higher and higher, sweeping around asteroid, coming up directly into the belly of the fearsome war. Locking onto the closest enemy, the reticle turned green.

With a smirk, Lyra pushed down hard on the firing switch. Seventeen rattled with the empty sound of hollow belts, the muzzles of the guns doing nothing except churn out a shuddering racket.

“Pony feathers! No weapons!”

Unfortunately, the targeted fighter quickly spotted her, wasting no time in chasing down the hapless falcon. Rounding on her, Lyra quickly heaved the ship into a corkscrew, hoping to find a hiding spot before the aggressive fighter was on her tail.

Blazing hot tracers rained down from above, coming mere body lengths from the falcon. The much faster fighter quickly matched velocities with the falcon, flying above and behind Lyra.

Lyra grunted in strain, throwing the falcon into the tightest right hand curve she could, the fire from the enemy behind her punching a hole straight through her left wing. The force of the impact twisted the ship into an aileron spin. The falcons reaction control systems pulsed violently, the small white jets trying to counteract the spin, keeping the ship level.

Shooting around another asteroid, the enemy fighter was proving far more agile than Lyra had imagined. The falcon screeched as its tail fin tore along the ice of an asteroid that her last maneuver had put her a little too close for comfort too. The top portion of the the vertical control surface sheared off, leaving a jagged cut in the metal.

The enemy fighter however rounded the tight zig zag with room to spare, already turning its guns onto her. Lyra scolded herself, she wasn’t a pilot! She was a technician for crying out loud! There was no way she was up for this, she didn’t even have a fighter with guns.

Another stream of red hot rounds sliced past her cockpit, forcing Lyra to heave the controls away.

The Falcon thundered to the right, sliding in between two heavy asteroids that were slowly drifting towards one another. Vibrations began to rattle through the Seventeen as the wingtips tore against the icy surfaces of the rocks.

Twisting the fighter into a hasty ninety degree roll, she flew sideways, now with one asteroid above and below her. The enemy fighter quickly followed suit, making itself fit inside the tight squeeze. Sadly for it however, the enemy craft was chunkier, its overall profile larger than that of the Falcons.

The roof of the cockpit and the belly of the fighter traded between each surface, grinding their paint along the dry ice. The asteroids drifted ever nearer, making manoeuvring inside the gap almost impossible.

The two asteroids finally made contact, crushing the enemy fighter just as the falcon shot out of the gap, the engine manifold getting a good pinch from the rocks.

Lyra wiped the sweat off her brow as best she could, pointing the Seventeen upwards towards the battle. The Yamato was slowly coming into a clearing, the amount of asteroids blocking its path thinning allowing the AA’s and the shock cannons the assist with the fight.

Unfortunately this also meant that the four enemy cruisers sitting on the outskirts of the battle could as well.

Lyra narrowly avoided a red beam of enemy fire glancing across the nose of her Falcon, its target, the broadside of the Yamato. The ancient battleship however didn’t let this slip, exchanging its own lethal barrage towards them.

One enemy fighter slipped in from behind, trying to sneakily take out the Yamato’s bridge from the back like a cowardly king hit. It stood no chance when the AA’s locked out, punching more holes through its skin than a sponge.

Lyra was suddenly awoken from her stargazing by the voice of Rainbow Dash. “Seventeen what’s your status? You look a little knocked around!”

Lyra cleared her throat, getting a reading on her sensors. “Uh, engine is alright, control surfaces are shot, and weapons are completely dead,” she said sheepishly.

“...Is that you Lyra!?”

“Maybe..”

“What the heck are you doing out here? And what happened to your weapons?” Rainbow shouted over the radio as her guns blazed and punched through the skin of another fighter, sending it spiralling into one of it’s comrades.

“Uh, turns out, this one wasn’t loaded with ammunition,” Lyra answered sheepishly. Rainbow’s response to that was not something that was said in polite society and Lyra felt her ears burning from hearing it.

She turned her fighter into a chase with another enemy fighter, herding it into range of the AA guns of the Yamato, turning away to avoid being filled with holes by the deadly barrage.

Finally, the Yamato sent the message that everyone wanted to hear.

“Cosmo-one this is the Yamato, were out of the field now. Waiting to engage.”

Rainbow wasted no time. “Give ‘em Tartarus!”

The Yamato responded with glee. All five of the deadly shock cannons swinging round and locking on. The icy asteroids sizzled and cracked when the cannons unleashed their payload against the cruisers, the Yamato taking advantage of the time the enemy were spending covering its retreating fighters.

The strange enemies fighters dropped like flies. The Mighty Yamato now viciously batting smaller chunks of rock and ice out of its way. The asteroids bounced and glanced off of the ships bow, the Yamato bearing down on the fleet with lethal intent.

The three blue beams from each battery easily punched their way through the cruisers underbellies, the Yamato rolling and dodging every returned shot with the aid of the few asteroids that still littered the playing field.

Flashing energy beams lanced out from one of the cruisers, pummeling floating rock and igniting gas pockets that tore gaping rents and craters in the asteroid, before the Yamato came into view and it’s cannons flashed once, a blue-white beam coring it like an apple from bow to stern, the ship cracking apart into sections before it exploded into a cloud of burning gas and glowing shrapnel.

Seconds after, the Yamatos side-launchers popped open, and a spread of torpedoes streaked out, leaving trails of exhaust as they turned towards their target on it listed angle, unable to bring it’s interception weapons to bear.

A shuddering explosion ripped through one of the crippled cruisers as the torpedoes hit, the force of the detonation throwing the ship sideways into its neighbouring ship. The other weakened ship struggled to maneuver out of the way of the cruiser as it slid sideways towards it. The two enemy ships collided and instantly folded into each other, bending and twisting the bruised and battered hulls as gaping rents tore open, bleeding atmosphere, munitions and fuel before containment line burst and sprayed fuel over sparking electrical cables.

The first ship ruptured, spraying flames into the vacuum before they were extinguished. The last cruiser recovered quickly and scurried towards the carrier, desperately trying to defend the massive target that was housing its superior officer. The stern of the remaining cruiser was quickly obliterated, the Yamato tearing chunks off it its hull like a whip-toting slavemaster would tear into the flesh of a disobedient worker.

Odrick roared on the bridge, throwing anything he could get his hoof on violently into the nearest monitor. “Jump!” he seethed.

Second nodded quickly, the emotion suppressants failing to cover all the fear it was currently feeling.

The blinding razor of white light quickly shot forth from the emitter on the carriers nose, swallowing both it and the old cruiser which was still desperately trying to avoid fire from the encroaching Yamato.

The two ships disappeared in a flash, leaving the mighty red and grey Yamato as king.

The Yamato droned in almost dead silence. All crew members had a job, from accessing assets lost to attending the wounded.

“Ah,” a mare grunted as a medic applied the freshly mined water to a burn. “It’s not too bad, only first degree, your coat should heal over it.” The medic said, washing more water over it.

The mare nodded with a pained expression, looking away from the nasty injury. She quickly snapped into a salute however, when she saw the returning X.O marching down the hallway.

While Rainbow would normally bask in the notion of ponies saluting her presence, she didn’t even bother to stop and acknowledge the mare, aside from a glance in her direction. The mare slowly lowered her hoof as if she were in the wrong.

Marching into the hangar bay, she quickly made her way to the technician's room.

‘Three cheers for Lyra!” A stallion called from inside, with a hollar of agreement following him. The sound of popping and the pouring of glasses sounded from inside.

Rainbow’s eyes narrowed, not even bothering to knock the door blasted open, leaving the mare standing there. The noise immediately silenced, all ponies within immediately staring wide-eyed.

“Out,” Rainbow said simply. A flurry of ponies exited the room, including one very nervous unicorn who was trying to slip by undiscovered.

“Oof,” Lyra squeaked, running into something across her chest. Looking down, the very identifiable blue hoof of Rainbow Dash stopped her.

“Heh. Heeey Tactical Officer Dash,” Lyra mumbled, recoiling away as best she could.

“Remind me again, Lyra. Just what is your job on this ship?” Rainbow asked, very, very calmly.

“Um…” Lyra rubbed the side of her neck with a hoof, “I’m in maintenance and engineering?”

“Very good, now what are you supposed to in maintenance and engineering?”

Lyra tried not to back away. Rainbow’s stance was ruler-straight and from the way her nostrils were flaring, she was not in the mood for any jokes, “I maintain and repair the aircraft.”

“Correct, you maintain and repair them. Not fly them!” Rainbow suddenly roared, “What Luna and Celestia were you thinking? Bad enough you just stole one of the fighters, but you grabbed one that hadn’t even been armed yet! How the heck could you be so stupid!”

“But everyone was in trouble, I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing while ponies died!” Lyra retorted.

“You could have killed yourself! then how would you have helped?” Rainbow shouted back, “We took losses but we were able to beat them back! All you did paint a target on yourself!”

“But I helped!”Lyra shouted back,, “I distracted them!”

“You also distracted me and who knows how many other pilots, putting them all at risk!” Rainbow snarled, leaning in close, “So I’m going to make this very clear to you.”

Their heads were almost touching, “You are going to be assigned to the Scut list, starting now, for the rest of the month unless I or the Captain say otherwise. You will not be maintaining or repairing the fighters unless specifically ordered to, and if you are ever near them without authorisation, you are going straight into the brig.”

Rainbow backed off, “Am I clear?”

Lyra mumbled something.

“Am. I. Clear?” Rainbow growled.

Lyra nodded looking at the incredibly fascinating floor, “Aye-aye Ma’am.”

Rainbow said nothing and simply turned, before walking out of the room. Leaving Lyra alone.

Author's Note

I'm really sorry about the wait on this one but its here now! A lot of backstory into the Scyre will be starting to get revealed. Now I have a question for you readers, incase you missed the blog post, I want to name all the chapters! Problem is I've got no clue what to call them, so I want your ideas! Names for any of the chapters I don't mind! Just make sure their sensible, and if possible quiet witty.

Chapter 19: Waterborne

“Five, four, three, two, one. Warp!”

The Wave Motion Engine screamed with energy, light piercing through the gaps between its panels as it pushed the ship through yet another warp.

The Yamato shuddered, ripped apart atom by atom, merging into the ripple in space time. The fabric of reality in some far off region of chosen space twisted, birthing the ship from nothingness. The massive engine at the rear of the ship blinked in flashes, reigniting and peeling the ice that clung to the vessels hull.

Rainbow Dash slumped forwards in her seat, hunched over with her head in her hooves, waiting for the nausea to fade. Gradually, the ponies sitting around the bridge groaned and overcame their own battles with the warp sickness.

“Ugh, I hate- *urp* -Ack, that so much,” the pegasus moaned, silently plotting the fastest route to the bathroom in the worst case scenario.

Celestia, who appeared, more or less, no worse for wear turned to her. “I’m afraid it’s an inconvenient side effect of warping. You’ll just have to get used to it, we have a lot more jumps to stomach.”

“Twilight, report,”she continued.

“Warp was within acceptable error margins, have landed in a poorly mapped region. As far as I can tell, there isn’t a system for light years in any direction.”

“How long until we’re prepped for another warp?”

Apollo took the reigns, already monitoring engine levels. “Depends. For a small jump? Two, maybe three hours. Another big jump like that one, which i’m guessing we’re gonna need to get anywhere soon, could take up to a day.”

“Understood. Keep sensors on low power, long range. We’ll keep an ear out for anything while we recharge.”

“Officer Dash,” Celestia began. “You are dismissed for the moment, I am certain that we won’t be encountering any threats at the moment.”

‘’Aye aye ma’am!” Rainbow saluted, making her way past the captain’s chair towards the elevators.

“Oh, Officer Dash. Do keep on your hooves, however. We were fortunate with our last encounter, but we can’t afford to be caught off guard again.”

“I understand completely, Captain,” Rainbow smiled, before calling the elevator.

“No aliens gonna get the drop on ol’ Rainbow here.”

“Miss Rarity, your drink?” the nurse asked, balancing a shiny tray with a solitary glass of water on her wing.

“Oh thank you kindly dearest,” Rarity said, her voice sincere, but frazzled, much like her appearance. Taking the glass in her magical grasp, she brought it to her lips. The door to the infirmary slid open with a near silent hiss causing the patient to pause. Setting the glass aside, she welcomed the guests.

“Applejack, Pinkie, Rainbow darling! So good to see you all,” the patient said, fatigue clear in her words.

“Heya Rares, how’s the battle wound treating you?” Applejack asked, motioning towards the cast leg the unicorn had injured during the escape from Eden.

“Oh the leg is just fine, if rather itchy. Something else, however, has been absolutely dreadful!”

“Oh no!” Pinkie gasped. “Those nasty, meanie ants haven’t come back for you have they?! Don’t worry Rarity, I know Kung Horseshoe!”

Rolling her eyes as Pinkie demonstrated her ‘praying mantis, hidden walrus,’ she turned back to Applejack and Rainbow.

“It’s these ghastly hospital gowns! I mean look at them, cyan? Who would use such a dreadful color?”

“Hey!” Rainbow growled, motioning towards her own coat.

“Oh, um but of course, it looks lovely on you, Rainbow. It really brings out your eyes. Heh he...” Rarity said, quickly covering herself, sinking back into the bed.

“Anyways, we all just wanted to see how you was doing, sugarcube,” Applejack continued, picking up her chart clipped on the foot of her bed.

Patient name: Rarity.
Species: Pony, Unicorn.
Sex: Female.

Condition: Fractured Metacarpal, left foreleg.

The rest of the chart was filled with medical mumbo jumbo that was beyond the farm mare. Setting the clipboard down to avoid a self induced headache, she looked back to Rarity, who was still sheepishly hiding from Rainbow’s peeved gaze while Pinkie attempted to keep them apart.

“Did the doctors tell ya how long till your leg heals?” she asked.

“I believe they said anywhere between two to three weeks,” Rarity recalled.

“What no way! Everyone knows Earth ponies heal the fastest and a broken leg for them takes six weeks at least!” Rainbow interjected.

“Apparently not. You know, I had my doubts about the Yamato when we first boarded, but now I see its merits. The medical technology onboard is absolutely incredible.”

“Ah tell ya, is there anything this ship can’t do?” Applejack sighed.

Rainbow looked around, surveying the chilled white interior of the infirmary. “Probably not. This ship kicks so much tail it isn’t funny.”

“Oh!” Pinkie spoke up. “Can it do a little dance? That would so superfantabulously cool if it could dance the hokey pokey and maybe a little cha-cha-cha!”

Rainbow looked critically over at her hyper friend. “Riiiiight, whatever you say Pinks. Anyway I don’t know how you do it Rarity. When I was in the hospital I went mad after like, two days. You seem so-” Rainbow rolled her hoof in the air. “-chilled.”

“Oh it’s not that bad, the nurses are very friendly. And just between us girls, I think one of the residents has his eye on me,” Rarity whispered.“Oh woe is me, how will I ever defend myself against such a rogue beast?” the unicorn dramatised, fawning herself with her good hoof.

“I think she has gone mad,” Applejack whispered to Rainbow who nodded ever so slightly.

“Excuse me, Ms. Rarity? Your eleven-hundred hours X-ray is prepped and waiting. I’m sorry girls, but Ms. Rarity is going to be busy for the next hour or so,” A nurse informed them.

“Thats quite alright, we were just checking up on her anyways. We’ll see ya soon Rares, hopefully we can get Twilight down here too.”

“What about Fluttershy?” she asked questioningly as she was helped out of her bed.

Rainbow scratched the back of her head. “Um, shy is kinda... indisposed at the moment.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, after you were taken to the infirmary back on Eden and after we escaped, she was kinda, maybe court martialed?”

“My word, whatever for?” Rarity commented, settling into her wheelchair.

“Um, for going Absent Without Leave, endangering crew members, and disobeying orders from a superior,” Rainbow recounted glumly.“She’s serving another week in the brig.”

“Don’t worry, I go check on her every day. She’s doing alright,” Rainbow finally smiled, putting an end to Rarity’s aghast expression.

“Hmm, well make sure she comes to visit me when she gets out, I feel like I haven’t seen her in an age. Ta-ta!” the mare waved as she was wheeled away.

Suddenly a small pager clipped on the brim of Applejack’s signature hat began to beep incessantly. “Ah shoot, sorry girls, looks like I’m needed. Take care now, ya hear?” Applejack said as she turned away.

“And I’ve gotta go do another broadcast!” Pinkie giggled, clopping her two forehooves together in excitement. “Fun fun! Bye Dash!” The sugary cotton candy mare bounced off, “Hey Pinkie wait!” Rainbow called out after her.

Without a response, the pegasus sat there, crossing her forehooves, pouting. “Well now what?”

The door to the Wave Motion Gun chamber slid open, revealing a familiar off-white pegasus stallion chatting with a much gruffer earth pony engineer.

“--Don’t want to use this thing until you're certain that it’s fixed,” Apollo said, his voice coming out in the form of his ‘getting stuff done’ tone. “And- oh hey, Rainbow,” he smiled as the prismatic mare waltzed in.

“ I wanna hear back from you about this ASAP, okay?” he finished, to which the stoic engineer simply grunted before trundling off.

“And what brings you into this neck of the woods, Dash?” Apollo greeted her, emphasizing the word neck with a rehearsed crack from his own.

“I’m off duty now, so I figured I’d come see what you were doing. What was all that about anyway?” she asked.

“Hmm?” Apollo quirked an eyebrow. “Oh, him. Theres a concern that there’s a bit of a bow in the saturation chamber,” he paused, pointing up at the massive orange cylinder above them, the very same one that made the final connection between the Yamato’s engine and its continent cracking trump card.

“If he’s right, and we fire it, it might not slam home into the aperture just right. And a sixty ton bolt full of wave motion energy not finding its mark and breaking something, It’s a bit of a scary thought.”

“Ugh, I’m glad I work tactics and not engineering. Everything about Wave Motion hurts my head.”

“Its pretty simple really. The engine catches ‘waves’ of Tachyon particles and it-”

“Save it! You lost me at engine.”

“Okay, well is there anything you came down here for other than to bug me?”

“Well actually I wanted to talk to you about something weird...” Rainbow trailed off.

“Oh?”

“Yeah um, come with me,” she flicked her head over towards a desolate corner of the chamber.

With a quick beat of her wings, the mare flung herself away, leaving Apollo to follow in her wake, before setting down a few feet from her.

“Okay, what’s this all about?” he asked, his voice holding the slightest twinge of concern.

“It’s nothing bad, but it’s really starting to creep me out. I didn’t really think anything of it till recently.”

“Dash?”

“I’ve been seeing... things. Things on the monitors. When I’m in my room, when I’m at my station, the last one was even in one of the Zero’s!”

“You mean like pictures?”

“No, like messages.”

“And... What do these messages say?”

“Well sometimes I get them and there’s just nonsense. Like the other day I got one that was all rejected code I think, but it kept repeating the word ‘Rain’ in it.”

“But sometimes, and this is happening more and more, is that I’m getting ones directed straight at me.”

“What do you mean ‘at you’?”

“They keep talking to me directly! Saying my name, or- or my initials! And they always seem to sign off with a Y,” Rainbow admitted, her voice getting a little worked up.

“So you think someones watching you?” Apollo asked, trying to connect the dots in his own head.

“I- I don’t know! But it’s happening more and more and It’s really starting to freak me out!”

“Alright, I’ll... I’ll keep an eye out. I don’t want to alarm you but it sounds like you’ve got an admirer somewhere onboard.”

“What do you mean?” Rainbow asked.

“Well if you're a stallion you can only keep your eyes off of mares for so long...” he admitted sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

“I mean putting a hundred or so stallions in with about two hundred mares inside a massive tin can? It’s only going to be so long before heads start turning.”

“Why me though!?”

“Well you're pretty easy on the eyes Dash. I was actually surprised when I discovered you were single,” Apollo cracked an awkward grin.

“W-well, A relationship just wasn’t a priority is all! I was going for the Wonderbolts after all, a relationship just wouldn’t work when I’m touring with them all the time,” Rainbow said defensively. Adopting her signature prideful pose, the mare pointed to her chest. “Besides, I could have any stallion I wanted. Even you!”

Apollo’s eyes widened to dinner plates as Rainbow registered what she said. With a Fluttershy-esque squeak she clapped her forehooves over her mouth.

“Is that so Dash?” Apollo smirked.

“I-um. Yeah. Yeah it is!” she said defensively.

“Wanna put your money where your mouth is then?” he asked playfully.

Rainbow smirked confidently, moving up and pushing her snout into his in a ‘in your face’ gesture. “My room, tomorrow, twenty-hundred hours.”

With a victorious grin, she turned and strutted confidently towards the door, before calling back. “Wear something nice!”

Apollo scoffed in disbelief, falling onto his rump with a unbelievable expression clear across his face. ‘That mare.’

Rainbow giggled devilishly as she rolled around in her bed that night. Dating really hadn’t been one of her strong suits, and being on the Yamato certainly didn’t do her any favors in that regard, but the feeling of butterflies was still all too prevalent.

Her giddiness wasn’t unfound either. With the two ponies little talk after Rainbow’s mini-meltdown he had revealed that he cared about her. The question on Rainbow’s mind however, was how deep that caring went.

She couldn’t deny that Apollo had his merits. He certainly seemed nicer than some other stallions she’d had the displeasure of dating.

‘Seriously, Hoops? What in the name of Luna’s great ass was I thinking?”

With a happy sigh, she settled into the massive savannah that was her bed. Silently, she plotted the perfect way to have that stallion wrapped around her hoof.

Elsewhere in the massive ship, Rarity tossed and tumbled in her bedding, fighting her way to sleep. The unicorn wished that she could chalk up her insomnia to the shuddering of the water pipes in the walls, which they had been doing ever since the Yamato’s small asteroid pitstop, but it couldn’t explain the bullets of sweat caking her forehead.

Finally, with a grumble, she just settled for staring up at the ceiling, trying to count the seams in the metal in the darkness, raising a shaking hoof to rub her throbbing temple. “Oooh, just what is wrong with me? I think I need to speak with the doctor again.”

Sighing, Rarity flopped back onto her sweat-soaked pillow and tried to get some sleep, and slowly, painfully slowly, sleep finally arrived as her eyes closed and exhaustion finally claimed her.

The lights were dim in the ship’s corridors. The artificial night light providing an eerie silence to the vessel, save for the ever present drone of the ship’s powerhouse. Each dorm room’s keypad glowed faintly red, indicated the massive steel door was locked tightly, protecting those who slumbered inside. One door however, remained green.

With a hiss, the double doors to the infirmary glided open, and out stepped an alabaster white hoof.

Slowly, the off beat clop of hooves resonated off the flooring, the shambling of a pony trudging through the halls. A gentle moan of pain sounded every few steps, the pain of exertion on a wounded leg making the pony wobble in uncertainty.

The unicorn sniffed the air sharply. Pointing her nose in the air, searching for something. Slowly, she weaved her way from passage to passage, systematically checking each and every door.

Clang. Clang.

The thump of a hoof on the cold doors echoed in the silence. At each door the sickly unicorn was met with the same silence.

Clang. Clang.

The door stood firm, its tiny red light glaring its message of LOCKED into the pony’s eyes. With an unhinged scream, the pony launched her damaged left leg at the keypad.

Down the hall, one of the impassable red lit doors suddenly turned green, letting a tired mare walk out into the hall, investigating the racket. Rubbing her eyes, Applejack spoke.

“Rarity?”

The pony turned with a hiss and glared at the interloper before it charged, prompting the Earth Pony to rear back. “Woah there! Slow down, what’s the problem?” She tried to stop the charging pony in the darkness, when quick as a snake the madpony sank its teeth into her foreleg.

“Ow! You rotten-” Applejack cried out in pain before forcing the pony off her, “What is tarnation is wrong with you? Biting another pony like that, ya’ll should be ashamed of yourself!”

Rarity’s answer was simply to moan in pain before wobbling slightly, and then spitting violently, and then collapsing to the deck as Applejack rushed to their side, ignoring the throbbing pain of the bite on her leg, “Aw horseapples, now I gotta wake up the infirmary staff!”

She began shifting the her over her shoulders, “Come on you, you can explain yourself when you wake up.”

The only response from the other pony was a low moan of pain. As the unicorn was hoisted onto her friends back, she took a quick snap at her neck. Applejack deftly dodged it and swung her hoof around to cuff the pony, who finally went silent, “Tarnation, what else could go wrong tonight?”

With a flick of her mane, Applejack hastily jammed her hoof into the buzzer that lead to Twilights dorm. A few dreary moments passed until the door slid swiftly open, revealing a saggy-eyed and bedhead-sporting unicorn.

Before the tired mare could make to scold the apple farmer, her ears perked when she noticed the unconscious Rarity.

“Applejack? Whats going on?”

“I was hoping you could help me figure that out. Mind if I come in?”

Twilight shook her head, stepping aside and motioning for her entry, “No, no, please do.”

With a nod, Applejack lumbered past, Rarity in tow. With an undignified grunt and a quick mini-buck of her hips, the earth pony dumped the unconscious fashionista in the nearest chair.

“She’s a mite heavier than a bushel of apples,” she mused to herself.

“Okay AJ, spill. Why is Rarity here?”

“Ah don’t know Twi. I was just lying in bed when I hear this knocking in the hallway. I went outside and here she was, banging on all the doors. Walking around on her bad leg I might add too.”

Glaring over at the unconscious Rarity, she continued. “I walked up to her but all she did was jump at me, snapping and carrying on. I sure hope she ain’t gonna be too cut up about me hitting her.”

“You hit her?” Twilight asked.

“In self defense! She was trying ta bite me!”

“Alright, okay,” Twilight huffed, letting a heavy exhale pass as she thought. “Maybe she was sleepwalking?”

“Sleepwalking? Sugarcube, I don’t think Rarity’s ever sleepwalked.”

“It could have started recently. I remember reading a paper that said sleepwalking can be brought on by sedative drugs. Maybe it was something the nurses gave her? Like during surgery?” Twilight offered, her sleepy mind trying to grasp at neuron paths that weren’t quite firing on all cylinders yet.

“I don’t know about that. One of my cousins used to sleepwalk and she ain’t never tried to attack someone.”

“Everyones different?” Twilight shrugged.

Applejack sighed, moving to pick the mare back up. “Let’s just get her back to the infirmary.”

Twilight nodded, rubbing some more sleep out of her eyes.

Before she could make a comment about taking some medical notes just in case it happened again, the sickly pony’s eyes snapped open and snarled at Applejack, spitting a large, bloody glob of saliva straight into the mare’s open mouth before Rarity’s teeth found the apple-farmer’s neck.

With a gurgle, Applejack fell heavily to the floor, leaving Twilight alone with the deranged pony. Rarity snorted, letting a gooey spitwad fly forth, landing all but a foot from Twilight. Rarity screamed in her throat, in a similar vein to how a cat growls when another feline encroaches on its territory.

“Rarity! What is going on with you?! Please, you're scaring me!” Twilight pleaded, backing up against the cold steel door.

Rarity said nothing, only making a shaky attempt to move forwards on her busted hoof. She snarled as the bone fragments in her leg slid against one another, immediately taking her weight back off it.

Suddenly, with a shriek, Rarity decided to forgo her front hooves all together, using her rear legs to launch herself at Twilight. Panic quickly struck, allowing Twilights flight or fight to kick into overdrive.

Snagging her friend mid leap with her magic, she viciously reversed her velocity, throwing Rarity backwards across the room. With a meaty bang, the unicorns battered body hit hard against the heavy shutters of the window, giving Twilight a much needed few seconds.

Blindly fumbling for the door controls, she helplessly mashed her hoof into the panel, letting the door swish open behind her. The sudden loss of her back support meant that she quickly found herself in a pile at the foot of her door.

Scrambling to her hooves, she all but punched the keys to let the door slam, just as Rarity regained her senses.

Breathing heavily, Twilight placed a hoof on her chest, trying to calm down as her mind raced, thoughts forming and discarding before the mare shook her head, “What...no, that was not an allergic reaction or anything like that. Something is very, very wrong here.”

Shakily rising to her hooves, Twilight looked around the empty corridor, before gasping, “Oh no! Applejack!”

Whipping around, she looked back at her door. No sound came from within but the green light on the door panel was ominous enough. The door was still unlocked, the keypad on the inside being the only barrier between herself and the crazed pony and her injured friend inside.

Dancing on her hooves, Twilight began to breath faster, heavier. Her logistic mind ran at speeds even the Yamato’s mainframe wouldn’t scoff at as she weighed all the variables.

Try to save Applejack? Twilight desperately wanted to. The bite Rarity gave to her looked vicious she could very well be bleeding out in there. Magic could be unpredictable in high tension situations, what if she couldn’t defend herself?

“Safety in numbers,” Twilight chanted quietly to herself. Backup. She needed another set of eyes.

The door gonged lowly as what sounded like a hoof strike met with it. With a final glance at the door, Twilight took off, racing down the hall, praying Applejack was alright.

The alarm blared obnoxiously throughout the entire ship, its screaming tone waking everyone aboard. Blearily rubbing their eyes as they stepped into the hallway, several crew ponies were graced with the site of the ships security forces. Armed to the teeth with the Yamato’s pilot leading the charge, they struggled to make way as the platoon passed.

“Are you sure it was Ms Rarity,officer?” the burliest of them all asked, galloping alongside Twilight as they ran back to her dorm.

“I think I would recognize my own friend trying to attack me,” she snorted.

“It may have been dark, how could you know for certain?”

“Sergeant! I know, okay? Now help me subdue her before she hurts somepony else.”

Shying away from the on edge mare, the stallion returned to his small squadron, getting information to storm the room. Quickly, swiftly, they slid into place. Two on either side of the heavy steel door, the rest poised to burst in.

The sergeant looked over the formation, giving a nod that all was in order, he slowly tapped his helmet three times. On the third tap, they sprung into action. Mashing the door panel, the four on the frame immediately shone their flashlights into the room, lighting the way for the breachers.

A thunder of hooves clattered over the threshold, tasers ready. “Room clear,” one said.

“Damnit! She must have gotten out,” Twilight conceded, swiping her hoof. “What about Applejack? Is she alright?”

“I’m afraid Applejack’s not in here.” came the reply.

“Oh I hope she’s alright,” Twilight muttered aloud.

“Ack!” a security pony gargled from the back of the room as a black mass fell on top of him.

“Hostile! Engage!”

“Don’t hurt her!” Twilight screamed, her cries falling on deaf ears. The electrical buzz of taser prongs filled the air with crackling energy, each missing their mark as the mass flew overhead, using the sergeant’s head as a springboard.

Twilight went southwards, hitting the deck trying not to get taken out by the escapee.

Author's Note

This was originally going to be much longer, however I was starting to hate how long the delay between chapters was getting. Not that I blame my co-author, but I dislike writing without him and it is getting difficult to try and be online and have the time to write coincide with each other. Never the less, I mostly enjoyed this chapter, a lot of fun things came up that will be loads of fun to start weaving into future plot points.