Last Time We Take A Cruise

"How goes the test, sister?"

"I fear I may have made a mistake with this decision, Luna. I have done what I thought best under the circumstances but I still cannot remove the fear at the back of my mind. She might be an agent of chaos, or she might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, as these others with her were."

"They are in the utmost protection, are they not? You yourself have designed this test, and they will not be harmed while it is ongoing. Have you not said so yourself?"

"They are indeed safe but my concern isn't what physical harm falls upon them, but that on their minds and souls... What if I accidentally turn them into what I'm trying to prevent them from turning into?"

"You will not, sister. I have absolute faith in you."

"Faith will not be enough when lives are on the line... especially the lives of the ponies I love."

"We will find a way, sister. Trust me. Trust yourself."

Celestia and Luna were standing inside a sealed room, designed to look as though it were a void, with nothing but darkness aside from the rectangle floating in front of the two sisters. It displayed an image of the insides of a ship, and currently, there was plenty of activity in it. Luna left her sister to her devices, and as she turned her back to the alicorn watching the images, she failed to see that in the darkness she smiled sinisterly and chuckled very softly to herself.

"Wait, WHAT?" Tracer shouted in surprise, hearing the report from down below. He frantically scrambled at the controls, mashing buttons without a discernible pattern to untrained eyes, activating several controls and bringing his newly - placed communications system to life. "Any ships nearby who have received our distress call, keep distance; I repeat, keep your distance, we have a possible explosive on board."

"Good job, guardsman." Zod nodded appreciatively at Tracer's quick thinking, and then immediately spoke up to the two down below deck. "We don't know for sure if we have a bomb on board, so we need to find out as quickly as possible. Get info out of this guy ASAP. Use any means necessary."

Sunshine replied over the speaker, "Should we bring him up to the bridge? Isn't that a bit... Unsafe?"

Lamplight stretched out a hoof and caught a bit of warm shrapnel falling from the busted ceiling. "Safer than here, I guess, with all this burning metal snow." He pulled on the rope, and began towing the unconscious pony upward. "Come on, I can drag him face - first if you'd ask me to."

"No, you interrogate him there. No time to bring him up here, and that's even if you use any means you have to. Remember, you're holding the lives of many in your hands."

"First thing, you're the only guy here with these 'hands' you speak of," said Lamplight, still dragging the pony up the stairs, not too gently. "Secondly, we're going to die of either fire, or smoke, or sharp stone falling on us - again, why does this thing have stones anyway? - unless we get out of here."

"Screw it, just go and hoof it up here as quickly as you can."

"No need for that," interrupted Sunshine, helping Lamplight tow the prisoner up one deck. "We'll just take him somewhere that's not on fire." Arriving at the next floor, which wasn't a health hazard from heat or smog, she took the prisoner to the wall and shoved him against it. "Now we just wait for him to wake up. You hit him pretty hard."

"Yeah, got it." Lamplight took a seat on the wall and watched Sunshine watching the prisoner for signs of consciousness. Up above them the others were still working frantically, not only looking for traces of explosives and attempting to bring the ship back to a stable condition, but also sending out warning after warning, this time trying to push away any rescuers. They were waiting for news about the purported bomb, and as the unicorn started to stir, Sunshine wasted no time in trying to get the news out.

"So, it all ends here for you," said the unicorn, his tone calm yet betraying a small hint of his fear, the reason of which was unknown to all but him.

"Shut it. Where's the bomb?" asked Sunshine, shoving the unicorn and making him wince. She spent no time at all beating around the bush. The unicorn however had no interest in leaving the bush yet though and simply grinned that unsure grin of his and said, "You think I'll actually tell you? Your doom is sealed! Final! Just like Equestria's!"

Zod called over from the intercom. "You're going to answer our questions, or I will come down there and... well, I have a hankering for a brain pie. Care to donate?"

"Wait, wait, wait... Let me take care of this one." Lamplight stepped forward and leaned in closer to the unicorn, and his slight trembling grew the slightest bit more prominent.

"All right." Lamplight approached the unicorn. "First, I don't what the hell you're thinking, but Equestria's doom's been approaching from the very start, and we're still alive. You're not going to change that - no one's going to change that! Not you, not your boss, no one! I don't think you understand that, because if you did you would know how pointless your actions have been.

Let me ask you a question. Why did you do it? And don't give me that 'I was told to' crap. No, this 'boss' of yours has some power over you. I can see it - why are you sweating? Is it because I'm getting closer? This boss guy of yours... Let me guess, the usual? He has your family , your friends, everyone you love - in exchange for your loyalty, he'll keep them safe? And I thought my jokes were bad. Truth is - they're gone! Nothing will change that, but you can get back at that bastard that sent you here."

The unicorn trembled a bit and kept on smiling. "It doesn't matter... Equestria will fall!"

"In due time... But for now, here's what I'm proposing. Either you tell us of your free will where the bomb is, or we force it out of you. Tell us, and you're going to be protected. Force us... Well, here's an overview... The authorities are going to scour your mind with every possible spell, every existing trick until you spill the beans, and once you're burnt down you're going to die, forgotten, useless. And that's not even including what we're going to do... I myself feel in the mood for strangling you with your own insides.

Oh, and there's some further incentive," Lamplight said, bringing out the sharp rock he picked up from the engine deck. "How about you tell us right now, or I do this." Lamplight then gashed the unicorn in the stomach, making him wince. "All over your body. You're going to open up like never before, and... Well, you heard me ramble about the intestines. That wasn't a joke. So if I were you, I'd speak up while it's still possible, while I'm not drowning in your blood yet. What do you think? WHERE IS THE BOMB?"

The unicorn broke down in fear and said, shaking, "I - its o - on the b - b - b - bridge, under the floorboards! B - but you'll never b - be able to defuse it! Its a slip - space bomb, and it's taking up the whole floor!"

"When did I say defuse, exactly?" Lamplight hit the unicorn on the head, making him fall unconscious again. "Sunshine, keep him here!" he said as he rushed on upwards.

Sunshine spoke into the intercom before following suit. "We have the info, and you're not going to like it. You're all standing on the bomb."

Rune was still vigilantly standing at his self - assigned station, and his head quickly jerked up, indicating to everyone that he had news. "Something large is approaching, and a bit fast... Could be a ship..." He squinted and looked again, confirming that it was indeed their possible salvation. "Yup, it's a ship. Everyone! We have a ship!"

Zod quickly relayed the news to Tracer on the other side of the console. "Rune says we have a ship nearby. Get us in contact, and get us in contact fast! They have to know about the bomb."

"Roger that, sir... Hailing them... Now." Tracer activated a button and set the microphone in place in front of his mouth. "Incoming cruiser... This is the Princess Platinum. We're on collision course with a large star and our engines are badly damaged. We have a popsicle - AHEM - a possible bomb on board, and a saboteur in custody."

The speakers came to life again, this time relaying Sunshine's tired voice. "We have the info, and you're not going to like it. You're all standing on the bomb."

"Make it good news next time you call, please," Rune replied, getting somewhat panicked again.

"All of us... Everyone! Check under the floor! The bomb's below it!"

Lamplight burst into the room. "No time for that! Way I see it, we have two options. Option number one: we get an expert up here, and have him cut the bomb in places where it matters, but unless you have a spare expert around here somewhere, I don't think we can do that. Option two - and this is my personal preference - we tie up that unicorn, leave him here, run to the pods, and escape while someone plays rock music in the background. Oh, and Rune, try to tell the other ship to get anything that can pull this bridge off the ship - preferably a tractor beam - ready."

Rune turned around quickly. "Do you even have any idea how much this ship cost?"

"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" asked Lamplight in return, raising an eyebrow. "Look, I'm all for saving this ship but there's no point dying for something that wasn't even alive to begin with. Unless you have any better ideas, I'm heading off to the pods and you can enjoy your wasted martyrdom."

"We help save this ship. and we become heroes!"

"We die unknown heroes or live unknown villains, and there's really no difference between them."

"Slow down, guys, no need to decapitate the dying ship. I've got a solution." Sunshine's voice interrupted the slowly escalating argument and cut it off early. Zod replied in the silence, "Walk us through it then. Get up here."

It took a bit of time for Sunshine to appear at the bridge, by which point everyone was extremely tense and doing their own things with an air of panic. Rune was mashing buttons with more than necessary force, Tracer was in a trance - like state of forced calm, Zod was sweating somewhat, and Lamplight was observing the floor, poking it in various places.

"Okay, here's how it works," she said, not breaking stride towards the command controls as she pushed the unconscious prisoner she dragged up to the side. "Based on what I remember, slipspace bombs utilize the same technology as slipspace faster - than - light travel. The difference is that it only sends half of its target to a new place, so the poor target is ripped, usually in half."

"That's reassuring. At least half of us will survive if we stand on opposite ends of this deck then," said Lamplight dryly, still inspecting the floor and picking up a splinter, putting it under intense scrutiny.

"That aside, this ship does have slipspace engines, and those are always independent of the normal engines. We can activate it at the same time as the bomb, but with only half the functional area, and only after linking it to the bomb. That way, it acts like a normal jump... Problem is, I'm not sure how to link the two."

"I can help with that," said Tracer. "I know how to link them... It's standard for our training." He went to work, and began to direct everyone else to their proper places and actions. The star grew slightly bigger with every minute that passed, and by the time that work was finished, they were speeding more towards it and they could feel the heat suffuse through the walls even more.

"All right, everyone, we don't know where this will spit us out...." Sunshine held in one hoof the detonator, acquired from the sleeping bomber, and one hoof on the button to activate the jump drive.

"Just you know... If we're going to die... I wish i'd dragged that unicorn on his face." Lamplight tensed up, preparing for the leap of faith.

"Go right ahead," answered Zod, laughing. "Kill the maniac. He deserves it." Holding in his chuckling, he said to everyone else, "Well, it was nice knowing you all. I hope we end up somewhere that we can be found... If not, I can't think of any better ponies to starve to death with."

"I'm touched," said Rune in a bit more tone than was normal based on how he spoke the past few hours.

"Well... Let's do this. Sunshine, go on."

"Wait," said Tracer. He breathed deeply, inhaling the possibilities up ahead, and opened up the ship - to - ship channel for his final broadcast. "All ships in the vicinity of the Princess Platinum, please steer clear of the slip... And always remember to bring something to play with at all times... It might not save your life if there's a bomb on board but it does make it more fun." He chuckled at his last message, as he attempted to lighten the sinking feeling in his heart that was telling him he might not see tomorrow. "You have been listening to Guardsman Tracer, speaking for the inebriated crew of this ship... Princess Platinum, signing off. Good day, and good luck. " He killed the communications systems after his sign off and salute, and nodded to Sunshine.

"We're going in 3... 2... 1..." She pressed both, and the star, the approaching ship, and the darkness from the windows stretched out, speeding past them.

Then everything was black.

The windows blurred with streaks of white, red, blue, and orange light from suns and stars passed by incredibly fast, made possible only by the extreme advancements in arcane technology made by pony civilization. Unicorn magic combined with earth pony innovation and Pegasus atmospheric and aerodynamic knowledge to make faster - than - light travel, accessible to all. The finest vessels in all the world, these ships were, and the foremost among them was now burning through the void, struggling to hold on.

The battered bridge bore bloodied but unbowed burned - out bodies breathing blearily. All of them were exhausted and drained by the hectic and uncalled - for wake - up call they'd just received. The ship's shaking and noise wasn't helping either, but what made the situation look so bleak was the fact that debris streamed past their windows as well.

"All right, I'm tired of watching the ship fall apart. I'm going to the mess hall for some food, and then kick the prisoner." Sunshine stood up and began to walk to the stairwell, and heading towards the fourteenth deck, where they stored the prisoner earlier during the beginning of the jump. It wasn't far - in fact, it was only a two - minute walk away. "Anyone coming with me?"

"Count me in. I did say you get first kick, right?" said Lamplight, following Sunshine.

"Yeah, you did. Oh, dear Luna, what I wouldn't give for a drink right now..."

"Any way I can convince you to give me the first hit rights? Like, say, a drink"

"Hmmm.... Nope, I'll get one myself."

"Shame."

On the other side of the room Zod was speaking with Rune about the possibilities of their travels under the Random Number God's will. "I swear, if we land somewhere full of hostiles, I'll be so pissed..."

"Considering everything that's happened, I wouldn't be surprised," said Rune, although it was clear that he didn't approve of the notion at all. The two looked grim and resigned as they considered the likelihood of landing somewhere full of enemies.

Zod noticed the two get up and briefly heard the words "mess hall" and "kick the prisoner" and got up himself. "Wait for me. I'm coming with you guys, and that prisoner's going to learn how hard a Kryptonian can hit. Rune, you coming along?"

"No, I have to go somewhere else first," he said, a little flushed, as he ran off somewhere else as his body remembered the stress he'd been under.

"Oh well. Tracer, you coming?" asked Zod, on his way to the mess hall.

"In a bit, sir... I have to make sure the ship won't fall apart while we eat first."

"Suit yourself." Zod left and made his way to the hall. There was nothing in the path there that was worth noticing - nothing at all. Naturally, he thought nothing of it as his mind was on food. He arrived at the dining area where Sunshine and Lamplight were already seated at one table. Sunshine was eating fried hay very rapidly, causing Lamplight to say in a mix of amusement and alarm, "Slow down, girl - you don't want to choke, do you?"

Lamplight heard footsteps and looked up. Seeing Zod approaching them, he asked, "Zod, you getting anything?"

There were no staff anywhere in sight, and the fresh food was unguarded, so Zod simply pulled out a cheeseburger made with synthetic meat and a bottle of alcohol. Sitting down and leaning back far on a chair at the same table as the two, he said, "Yeah. These 'cheeseburgers' are excellent." He snapped his neck to both sides and added, "When this whole thing's over, first thing I'll do is take off this damn armor... Oh am I ready for some sleep."

"Nah, not me... First thing I'll do is hit Cloud Kicker. She said this thing would be a fun romantic experience. She is so wrong." She finished off her fries and set to work on her sandwiches.

"At least you met some cool people... Right?" asked Zod.

"Yeah... Rune and Lamplight are awesome. Oh, I guess you are too, in your own way." Sunshine nudged Zod playfully, teasing him.

At that moment a loud belching rang from upstairs as Rune finally stopped swallowing the stress in his throat, and let it out in the form of an acrid mess that thankfully was not acidic enough to eat through the bathroom and drip down to the dining area below.

"I think one of you guys should check up on Rune - either he's transforming into some sort of monster, or he's throwing up so much that I can hear him from here," said Lamplight, taking a drink from his glass with an air of indifference.

Zod considered for a bit. He looked up, then back down at his burger. Shrugging, he said, "Eh, he'll live." He took several more bites of synthetic meat and then replied to Sunshine, with a rather considerable delay. "I'm hurt... What about Tracer?"

"I don't know him that well," she said, shrugging. "I can hardly remember who I kissed while I was drunk. I do know I kissed someone though."

Tracer chose that exact moment to show up, shouting down the hall, "Everypony, save some food for me!" At his side was Rune, still wobbling a bit in his stride. He appeared to have no interest in the food, and instead rushed on down to take a seat and stop the ship from spinning around his head.

"Speak of the devil, and he shall appear." Lamplight turned quickly and tossed a sandwich aimed at the face of the new arrival, who deftly caught it and began to munch. Consuming the entire sandwich like a pony possessed with savagery, Tracer wiped his mouth and asked, "Where's the beer?" unwilling to undergo the consequences of sobering up.

"We just witnessed first - hoof the effects of beer on interstellar travel. I'd recommend you not try it again, but if you must, it's up there," answered Lamplight, pointing up behind his back.

"Thanks." Tracer went to the beer so fast it appeared as though he teleported, and upon procuring his poison of choice he sat down and drank it.

Sunshine and Zod were already headed towards another deck. Noticing that Lamplight was still seated, Zod turned around and asked, "You're not going to come and take a kick at this traitor? Sunshine and I are."

"Didn't realize it was that time already... Wait up, I'm coming." Lamplight stood and followed the two.

"Count me in. Nopony tries to kill us and gets away with it... Beer can wait." Tracer got up as well and followed suit. Rune did the same but none noticed him follow since he was silent.

"Oh, back so soon?" The unicorn managed to shore up some confidence while he was stowed away elsewhere, staring defiantly into Sunshine's eyes, oblivious to the fact that she wasn't alone, but signs were still there betraying his fear. Those signs were hidden beneath eyes discolored.

Sunshine simply responded with a glare of her own, and if looks could kill the two would have died at the staring match already. "Why did you do it?"

"The boss told me to," was his grinning answer, which was then met with a hoof to the face.

"Never start with the head... They go numb," Lamplight said from the corner of the room, watching, the others beside him as well. The unicorn visibly shivered at the sight of everyone staring at him.

"Oh sorry," said Sunshine, kicking the unicorn in another place that the sun normally doesn't shine upon. He recoiled in pain from the kick. His assailant smiled. "There. Much better."

"Hah. Much better, yes. Who's next? I'd like to go last."

Tracer said dismissively, "He's just a lackey then... Not worth it."

"Lackey or not, he deserves a royal beating. You want to go next?"

Zod answered by standing up and giving a kick of his own, much more powerful than the one before it. "You will answer our questions, or I am going to use my vision to fry your brain. Trust me, it's not pleasant." The unicorn practically cowered and began to whimper a bit before biting back his lip.

Tracer followed up with a sharp hit of his own, slamming the prisoner against the wall. "So who is this boss, and why did he want to destroy the ship?"

"I don't want to be the bad guy here, but he didn't want to kill us specifically," said Rune, still just watching, obviously repulsed to some extent.

"Yes, he just wanted to kill everyone in the ship. You're not helping his case," quipped back Lamplight, also watching at the side.

"The guy knows he's beat, no need to rub it in. Remember, if you escape, I was against this," Rune told the prisoner. He walked away from the scene and headed back up to the bridge.

"Only way he's going to escape is if he walks out a corpse."

When the unicorn didn't answer after a few minutes, despite being well enough to toss out a few insults, Zod kicked him again, fracturing three ribs. "Well, let's see who he wanted to kill specifically. Why did you bomb this ship?"

"I'm not... telling..." The unicorn coughed up blood and began to tremble uncontrollably in pain. Whatever was making him confident, it wasn't holding on that well.

"Well, we gave you a chance," said Sunshine, sighing in exasperation. "Who wants to finish this?"

"I will. It will be the most painful five seconds of his life, as well as his last." Zod stood up, ready to kill.

"Wait... How do you plan to do it? I have a few particularly... messy ideas." Lamplight grinned at the unicorn, who shook at remembering the conversation, his eyes back to their normal color.

"I plan on using my heat vision to melt his head and possibly implode it."

The unicorn ignored the discussion as best he could and said another of his scripted lines, in that flickering gaze of his switching from hue to hue. "The plan is far from ruined..."

Tracer teased the unicorn in reply, sarcastically pretending to cower in fear and saying, "Watch out, we've got a badass here."

"He's not the badass," spat Sunshine in contempt. "He just works for one. Sooner or later we'll meet this boss of his."

The ship lurched and a greater amount of it dislodged itself and flew past the windows, now showing a massive area tinged with blue. It was water, although wherever it was that the ship had arrived, there was soon to be a massive foreign vessel on it. The skies were darkening - it was night.

"We're coming out of slipspace." Sunshine headed up to the bridge upon confirming that the lurch indicated arrival.

"You want the honor of killing him? If we're finally coming out of slipspace, I'm going up to the bridge to whatever's on the other side."

"I'd like that but first... He and I are going to have a little chat. Isn't that right?" he asked the prisoner, nudging him and getting his hoof moist from the cold sweats breaking out of his nervous hide.

"All right, he's all yours. Tracer, come with me, we're going up and seeing what we've gotten ourselves into. Lamplight, make sure he suffers for me."

"Yes sir," said Tracer, falling behind Zod. The two headed up, leaving Lamplight alone with the prisoner. Once the room was empty aside from the two of them, he walked to the intercom and turned it up, and the whole ship could hear the prisoner's sobbing as he became himself. He slowly dragged the unicorn to the middle of the room and circled around him.

"Now... I told you some things already earlier... I'm perfectly sure you remember them, from the way you're trembling. Here's the deal. You're not leaving this place alive anymore, obviously, unless you resurrect yourself somehow. But there is a catch - you can get your ticket to your grave quickly or slowly, depending on how you cooperate.

Naturally, we're not interested in you per se, just those that you know. Which means there's a chance I might get merciful today - a low chance, but a chance nonetheless. That chance gets lower and lower the more you make me wait, so I'll ask one last time... Who do you work for?"

The prisoner's eyes briefly lost color and his voice became a monotone - much more so than his previous voice which was still that of a pony. "I can't keep up this game anymore. He and she have joined forces to overtake Equestria after previous failures. I do this because we are their children. We have woven our way into their ways, completely hidden and trusted. In fact, I had the most wonderful time on this ship. I must say, the highlight of which was a glorious kiss I shared with a certain mare. Now then, I must go. My brethren need me to die."

"That can be arranged, but you haven't answered my question," said Lamplight as the prisoner turned back to his frightened self. "Who do you work for?"

"I don't know! I swear, I don't know anything! Have mercy on me! That wasn't me you were talking to!"

"We'll see..." Lamplight brought out a coin and showed it to the prisoner. "Heads, I show no mercy. Tails, you live." The unicorn began to plead some more, his courage having gone with whatever put it in him in the first place. "I really don't know anything! Have mercy!"

"You really don't know anything, do you? It seems you deserve enough mercy for me to flip the coin..."

Up the coin went and back down it landed on Lamplight's hoof. He gave it a glance and smiled. "No mercy... Not tonight." Lamplight drove the sharp rock into the prisoner's stomach, slowly ripping him open and bleeding him dry. The intestines he pulled out and entwined around their owner's neck. The sounds of him choking to death were broadcast throughout the ship, but neither of the two cared about the others listening in.

Lamplight leaned in as the unicorn gasped his last breaths. "One last thing... Dead tongues still speak. You just need to know the language. We'll get the information out of you some way or the other."

He turned his back on the dead pony strangled by his own body, and walked up to the bridge.