Holding cell

Used by Mars’s security forces, these cells are meant to isolate potentially violent individuals in case of emergencies and can be found in most sections of the base.

Trixie’s eyes opened slowly while she tried to figure out where she was and why it wasn’t inside her wagon... She was lying in some ugly room instead, the walls and ceiling made of worn metallic tiles covered in chipped painting. A large, metallic door stood near a corner. It bore the UAC logo...

Trixie jumped to her hooves as everything came back to her: the failed teleportation attempt, the strange place she had landed in, the humans chasing her, the impossibly nightmarish surface... She tried to remember what came after her escape attempt, but there was nothing but the barren landscape and the sudden lack of air.

“It’s waking up.”

Trixie turned her head in the direction of the voice. Behind a large glass window, a human seemed to be observing her. It was standing in what looked like some sort of office: a couple of desks and chairs, piles of paper and a few machines that were foreign to the unicorn. The human walked forward a little, almost leaning her face against the glass.

Trixie had a hard time reading the creature’s expression. For all she knew, it might have been predatory hunger, fascination, fear, curiosity... She just couldn’t tell with those strange, immobile ears and small, sunken eyes. The human behind the glass seemed a little smaller than most of those Trixie had seen until now, although it was still taller than her. It had a dark brown mane framing is round face and flowing down to its shoulders. It also had a feminine-sounding voice. Probably a female… She was wearing a white coat, like a nurse or a scientist.

“Ha, let’s see.”

The second voice was much deeper, and definitely not a female... Trixie gulped as a huge human appeared, easily two heads taller than the female and noticeably broader, wearing the same kind of white lab-coat. He had a very pale skin and short, brown-reddish hair covering not only the top of his head but also his face, forming a neatly trimmed beard. Trixie backed up instinctively, only to find a wall blocking her retreat from behind.

“Hard to believe this is real, huh?” the male asked the other human. “It looks equine, but definitely not like any kind of horse I’ve ever seen. So familiar and so different at the same time...”

“The security team said it seemed intelligent,” the female added. “I wonder if–”

“What do you want with me?” Trixie asked loudly. “I demand you let me go this instant!”

The humans gawked at her.

“Well,” the male said quietly, “that maintenance worker wasn’t kidding. It can really talk.”

“And it speaks English? How can that be possible?”

“A very good question... Looks like we have a lot to learn,” he said with an eager smile. Facing Trixie, he spoke slowly and articulated each word carefully. “Can you understand me?”

“Of course I can,” the unicorn answered, “I’m not stupid... Or deaf!”

The female laughed a little. “Oh yeah, she definitely can talk!”

The male human scratched his beard in thought. “Okay, let’s try a different approach... I am doctor Anthony Tailor. Do you have a name?”

The unicorn blinked a few times, watching the humans curiously. "Trixie," she finally answered.

"Nice to meet you," he said curtly. “This is my colleague, doctor Samantha Carlsen.”

The female smiled and gave her a little nod. “Please, just call me Sam.”

Watching them through narrowed eyes, Trixie took a few steps forward until she stood right in front of the window. She tapped it a few times with a hoof, raising an eyebrow at the dull and very un-glassy sound it made.

On the other side, another human, clad in the same green armor she had seen before and only a little shorter than the big man, stood up and stared down at Trixie. She could not see the creature’s eyes behind the smooth helmet it wore, making it all the more intimidating. Doctor Tailor made a move as if to stop it, shaking his head. The guard shrugged and sat down near the door, far enough that Trixie had to lean against the window to see it..

“This glass is bulletproof,” the bearded man said calmly. “You would only waste your time trying to break it.”

“Am I a prisoner here?” Trixie asked after giving the window a last tap.

“I wouldn’t say that,” he explained while stroking his beard. “We are simply being… careful.”

“Careful? Are you seriously afraid of me?”

“We’re not taking any unnecessary risks,” he answered. “You’ll have to understand that at this point, we don’t know who you are, what you are, what you can or cannot do… You might even carry diseases that could be lethal to us.”

“What? Trixie is not some kind of wild animal!”

The man sighed. “That’s not–”

The woman interrupted him. “Let me explain, Anthony.” He only shrugged and let her talk.

“You see,” Sam started, “every living creature hosts millions of bacteria and various other organisms. It’s completely natural and those are usually completely harmless, or even beneficial to their host. However, you are obviously part of an unknown species and thus may carry with you organisms that could potentially make us sick… The opposite is true, of course. You run the risk of getting sick at our contact.” She lifted her hands in a soothing gesture as soon as she saw the look of panic on Trixie’s face. “Don’t worry, there’s a good chance that nothing will happen, but it’s better to be safe than sorry, don’t you agree?”

After a few seconds of thoughts, Trixie nodded.

“We’re already running some tests,” the man said. “We should know very soon if there’s any danger.”

“Tests?” Trixie tilted her head to the side.

The large human hummed in confirmation. “We took a few samples from you while you were unconscious. They’re already being studied in the labs.”

“S– Samples?”

“Blood, hair, saliva… Nothing much, really.”

“We’re trying to figure out just what exactly you are,” Sam continued. “We didn’t think we could actually ask you…”

“We’ll want to record this,” doctor Tailor added. “I’ll go get a camera.”

“Sure, sure…”

Trixie’s gaze simply switched back and forth between the two humans while she was trying to follow the conversation. The man walked away, his female counterpart following him with his eyes. As soon as he left the room, she faced Trixie again with a huge, manic grin that made the unicorn take a step back by reflex.

“Eeeeeeee! Can you believe it?” she asked the guard next to her. “A unicorn! A real-life unicorn! And she can talk… and she’s so cute, don’t you just want to hug her? I wanna hug her! Eeeeeeee! This. Is. So. AWESOME!” The woman jumped in place a few times.

Trixie blinked dumbly at the sudden outburst, while the guard only shook its head.

“Come on,” she continued, “don’t just stay there, come say hello!”

“Fine. If it’ll calm you down…” The tall armored human approached the window, making Trixie cower instinctively again. “Hello, tiny horse thingy...” It spoke with a feminine voice that carried a weird accent.

“Seriously?” Sam asked with a nonplussed expression, only making the guard shrug. “Come on, you’re just scaring her... Take your helmet off, show your face.”

With a sigh, the guard complied. Using her nimble fingers, she unlatched the strange piece of armor and took it off from her head. Under it, Trixie discovered a surprisingly delicate face topped by a brush-like blond mane. The gentle features were offset by a pair of icy blue eyes, observing Trixie with a sort of strange detachment.

“Hmmm… That doesn’t seem to help,” the female doctor said, tapping a finger to her chin. “You’re just too creepy, Crash.”

The guard shrugged again.

“Your name is… Crash?” Trixie said, one of her eyebrows raising.

“That’s only a nickname,” Samantha said. “Her actual name is too hard to pronounce.”

“Huh?”

The blond woman smirked. “Katja Kraśzajczenski. Nice to meet you.”

“She’s Polish,” Sam added, apparently expecting that explanation to mean anything to Trixie...

“I’m Swiss,” the guard corrected her. “My family comes from Poland, but they left two hundred years ago.”

“Oh, right. Sorry… But enough about that, we’ve got a unicorn in front of us!” The scientist waved her hands in Trixie’s direction, smiling broadly. All that got out of Crash was a noncommittal “huh-huh”.

“Come on, don’t be so grumpy.” Sam pointed at Trixie. “It’s a unicorn. A real-life unicorn! It’s every little girl’s dream!”

“I’m not a little girl,” Crash answered with a shrug. “Are unicorns supposed to look like that anyway? Why is she so... blue and so… short?”

“Hey!” Trixie glared at the guardswoman. “Trixie is not short! Trixie is petite... and her size is still well within the average for a mare.”

“Uh… Sorry?” the guard said, raising an eyebrow.

Trixie nickered and turned her nose up. “Trixie will forgive you… This time.”

The armored woman turned to Sam. “Can you believe this?” The doctor only giggled in reply, making Crash roll her eyes. “What’s with the third-person speech anyway?”

Trixie was about to answer when the large male came back, carrying various pieces of equipment in his arms.

“I’ve got everything,” he declared as he approached. The guard woman went back to her post, while Sam instantly wiped the grin off her face and helped him set up several devices, all of them pointed at Trixie...

Seeing the uncomfortable look on her face, the large man began explaining their function: “Don’t worry, these are only cameras. This one records regular pictures,” he said while pointing at a boxy-looking thing set on a tripod, “this one works in the infrared spectrum, this one in ultraviolet… I’d like to take an x-ray later, if that’s possible.” He kept going on about the different machines, Trixie already tuning out his incomprehensible yammering.

“Everything’s in place,” Sam declared a couple of minutes later.

“Let’s start then.” The bearded scientist brought a chair and sat down next to the cameras. He pressed a button on one and started talking.

“This is doctor Anthony Tailor recording, the date is November fourteenth, twenty-one forty-five. Unidentified life forms were spotted yesterday in the hydroponic farms sector. The one you can see right here has been captured by Mars Security–”

“Who are you talking to?” Trixie asked, trying to look around the room to see who might be hiding behind him.

“... To whoever will watch this recording,” the man answered before clearing his throat and continuing his speech. “As you can hear, the specimen is capable of speech... The marines who apprehended it have also reported that it was able to operate some machines around the base, specifically an airlock control panel. It apparently attempted to escape to the surface, but Mars Security found the specimen unconscious inside the airlock when they opened it.”

“Could you stop calling Trixie a specimen?” the unicorn said with an exasperated tone.

“Please stop interrupting,” the doctor answered while Sam stifled a giggle behind him. “I’m simply trying to keep a scientific approach to all of this, so don’t take it personally… Now where was I? Right… A second specimen was sighted, but Mars-Sec has been unable to capture it for now–”

“Star Trail is still running around?” Trixie cowered under the glare she received from the tall human. “Sorry…”

“I will answer your questions in a moment, if you would just let me finish…” He cleared his throat again. “At first glance, the specimen appears to be equine, although this could be proved wrong. The closest species I can think of is the common horse, but major morphological differences are obvious, especially in the shape of the skull and of course the presence of a horn. The specimen’s coloration is equally surprising. Whether it is natural or not remains to be–”

“Of course it’s natural! Why would Trixie dye her coat?”

The man cleared his throat loudly. “Blue is not a common color in nature and especially not in land animals. Actually, I’m almost sure that there isn’t a single land mammal with blue hair on Earth.”

“What? There are lots of blue ponies! And some dragons too.”

“Dragons?” Sam blurted out. “Sorry, doctor Tailor… Keep going.”

During the following minutes, the man did his best to state what facts he knew about Trixie and voiced a few hypotheses. He also groaned and moaned many times, being interrupted by the curious blue unicorn too often for his liking.

“Alright, this is becoming… frustrating,” he said while letting out a long sigh. “Here is what I propose: for every question you ask me, I’ll ask one in return. How does that sound?”

Trixie nodded. “That is acceptable.”

“Great. I’ll let you start.”

The unicorn tapped a hoof to her chin. “Trixie’s first question will be… Where are we?”

“That’s easy enough to answer,” the doctor said, reclining a little in his seat. “You are currently in the UAC’s research facility on Mars. To be precise, this room is an isolation cell set next to the Gamma laboratories area.”

Trixie blinked a few times while trying to process the information. “I’ve never heard of a place called ‘Mars’...”

“Oh… Well, Mars is the fourth planet in the solar system.”

“Planet? Wait… What? I’m on another planet? Is this… your homeworld?”

The two doctors exchanged a glance. “The short answer is: ‘no’,” Sam said. “Our homeworld is planet Earth.”

“Earth? But that’s where ponies live…”

“We’re probably not speaking of the same ‘Earth’,” the woman said.

Doctor Tailor nodded. “This leads to a question of my own: where did you come from?”

“Uh… Earth,” Trixie answered lamely. “I was in a small city called Hockton... Equestria?”

“Equestria? What is that supposed to be?”

“You’ve never heard of it?” Trixie’s eyebrows raised. “It’s the biggest country on Earth… The nation of ponies, ruled by Celestia and Luna, the princesses who raise the Sun and the Moon every day and night. How can you not know of it?”

The two humans stared at Trixie for a while, before looking at each other. The woman simply shrugged while the man scratched his head.

“We’re definitely not talking about the same ’Earth’,” doctor Tailor finally said. “We must be using the same name for two, very different planets.”

“Maybe,” Trixie said. “Wait… You said something about a ‘short answer’. What did you mean?”

Sam took a step forward. “Well, without going into too much detail, here’s what we know: today, Mars is uninhabitable. I believe you’ve seen the surface for yourself,” she said, making Trixie shudder at the memory of the hellish world. “Nothing can survive out there, but the UAC built this facility in the hopes that Mars could be transformed into a hospitable world one day, much like Earth– our Earth.

“While building Mars City some thirty years ago, the construction crews stumbled on ruins left by a very ancient civilization. From what we can tell, they looked a lot like us,” Sam said while motioning at herself. “They had also mastered technology far more advanced than what we have today. In particular, they had found a way to travel to distant worlds. These ancient martians appeared to be the ones who colonized Earth in the first place.”

“That’s only a theory,” doctor Tailor added. “A theory based on very little fact, Sam. If such an advanced civilization had settled on Earth, where did all their technology go? Why were early humans just banging rocks together if they knew how to travel through space?”

“Humans,” Trixie said to herself, making the two doctors watch her. “Are you really humans?”

“Yes,” doctor Tailor answered. “Why do you ask?”

“Why? Because humans are– were supposed to be a myth! Imaginary creatures…”

“So are unicorns… Are you a unicorn?”

“Whu– Of course I am!”

The woman turned to her colleague with a triumphant grin. “What do you make of this, doctor Tailor? This can’t be a coincidence: if those martians traveled to other worlds, they must have met the unicorns. What if today’s legends used to be tales from these very real travels?”

“It’s possible,” the man answered. “But possible doesn’t mean it’s true.”

“No, no. You’re right, of course… There is a lot more to uncover.”

“This, I can agree on,” he said with a nod. “Let’s see… I have another question: you said your name is Trixie, right?” The unicorn nodded. “Is that it? Just one word? No family name?”

“A… family name?” Trixie tilted her head to the side. “ Well, I guess there’s my herd’s name: Lulamoon.”

“A herd?” the man leaned forward. “Interesting. Do ponies live in herds?”

Trixie turned her eyes away from the humans. “Well… Most don’t.”

“Oh? Please tell us more,” he continued. “I’m very curious about your social structure. Some ponies live in herds, then?”

“The… mustangs do.”

“Mustangs?” Sam asked, scratching her chin. “Well, I’m not sure what you call mustangs, but I suppose it doesn’t mean the same thing as it does on Earth… Our Earth, I mean.”

“Oh… Well, it’s just the name for ponies coming from Mustangia.”

The man hummed in thought. “Didn’t you say that you came from Equestria?”

“Mustangia is a part of Equestria. In the southeast.”

“Great! Tell us what you can.”

“Really?” Trixie’s eyes widened. “You… want to know about mustangs?”

“Why not?” the man asked back. “Everything you can tell us about your culture is interesting.”

Trixie’s lips tugged upwards. Nopony cared much for the mustangs. Most ponies were happy to ignore them. Some hated them... Those who didn’t still tended to look down on the nomadic herds, regarding them as uncivilized primitives…

“You’re in luck, then,” Trixie said, a full-fledged smile growing on her lips. “The great and powerful Trixie shall regale you with tales of her native lands!”

The next minutes passed by very quickly: the humans listened intently, not letting a single word of Trixie’s slip by. Meanwhile, the unicorn rediscovered the pleasure of live performance. Her audience may have been very small, but they drank each of her words and reminded Trixie of just how much she loved the attention.

At the end of her tale, Trixie summoned a shower of magical fireworks from her horn, earning the most awestruck expressions she had seen in several years.

“What was that?” the large man asked, rubbing his eyes as if to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. “Did your horn just…”

“Oh, do you like Trixie’s magic? Then, how about this…” The unicorn sent a small ball of magic in the air above her, which burst to take the shape of a neon version of herself, shining an electric blue light. Trixie smiled as she saw the humans’ eyes glued to her little display. Revelling in their wonderment, she bowed down theatrically and with a flick of her horn, made the image above her do the same.

Sam slowly shook her head. “Wow… Is this some kind of optical illusion?”

“An hologram, maybe,” the man said quietly. “How the hell did you do that?” he asked the unicorn.

Trixie pretended to shine a hoof on her chest and took a moment to admire her work. “This is nothing,” she said with a smirk. “The great and powerful Trixie is the most magical unicorn in Equestria, after all…”

“Magic? Look, I’m a scientist, Trixie. I’m going to need something more believable than just ‘magic’...”

“What do you mean?” Trixie asked with a frown. “I’ve been practicing magic ever since I was a little filly…”

“It’s probably some sort of biochemical phenomenon,” Sam said with a pensive look. “Calling it ‘magic’ is just a matter of semantics… Just look at this.” She pointed at Trixie with an excited grin. “That horn is not just for physical defense. It must be connected directly to her brain, like any other limb and she can control it to do… Well, whatever this is.”

“Well, that’s one theory,” the man answered with a shrug. “I’m curious to know what that horn is made of, in fact. I’d bet that there is a lot to learn…” He turned to the woman. “If we could reproduce it, can you imagine the potential developments? It could be revolutionary…”

The two humans turned their eyes to Trixie. She gulped under their enthusiastic grins.

“Hypothetically speaking,” the man said softly. “Would it be possible to remove your horn? I mean, if we were to cut it, would it grow back?”

“What?” Trixie scooted back into her cell, but was quickly reminded that the wall was very, very close to her. “No, it wouldn’t!” she blurted out. Truth be told, Trixie was not completely sure about that, but she was certain that she didn’t want to take the risk…

“Hmmm… That would have been too good to be true, I guess… Could we remove only a part of it then? Or would that hamper your–”

“Leave Trixie’s horn alone!”

“Okay, okay…” He put his hands up defensively. “We won’t take anything apart, I promise…”

Sam nodded before speaking up. “We can still examine it using non destructive methods. Sonography, x-rays… An MRI scan would be ideal, I think.”

“True, but we don’t have that kind of equipment here. We’d have to transport her to Earth first.”

“Wait a minute!” Trixie stomped her hoof on the ground. “You will take Trixie nowhere!” She thought for a second. “Unless it’s back to Equestria… Then you will take Trixie there!”

The couple of humans stared at her for a while, before exchanging a glance between themselves. The man spoke again with a soothing tone.

“Please don’t take this the wrong way. We only wish to learn as much as we can from your species… But don’t worry, we will be reasonable. We’ll even help you get back to your world if we can. Maybe in exchange you can let us study you for a while... In any case,” he added, “do you know how you landed here? I don’t suppose you took a shuttle…”

The unicorn calmed down a little and walked closer to the window, then sat down on her haunches. “There was a slight… incident with a teleportation spell.”

Doctor Tailor almost jumped out of his chair. “Teleport– Did you just say teleportation?”

“Yes… Trixie was experimenting a new kind of spell with Star Trail. That good-for-nothing foal was supposed to take care of the destination... Instead of sending us across town, he managed to send us to another planet!” Trixie snorted. “That would have been impressive, if it had been on purpose…”

“You… teleported…” he repeated dumbly. “Just like that? You decided to teleport and you did…”

“Well, it’s not that simple,” Trixie answered with a snort. “The spell was quite complex. That’s why it took two unicorns to perform…”

“So, you can’t just leave on your own?” Sam asked, making Trixie nod in confirmation.

“Well,” Doctor Tailor said while standing up, “the UAC has been conducting experiments on teleportation for years now, but I doubt we could just send you away. I think your best chance is to wait until we find your companion. He can’t hide forever…” After checking his watch, the man pressed some buttons on all the machines he had set up to record the discussion. “I have other matters to take care of now, but I’ll try to think of a way to help you, Trixie.”

Trixie and the two women watched him leave the room. As soon as the metallic door slid back into place, Samantha turned to Trixie, giving her a wide and excited grin.

“This is like a story out of a sci-fi book!” she said in a high-pitched voice. “An alien from another world, with mysterious powers…”

“Let’s hope not,” Crash said with a chuckle. “The aliens always end up invading Earth in the movies…”

“Well, we’re not on Earth...”

“Oh, thanks! That’s reassuring.”

Sam laughed softly. “Come on, Crash. Nothing’s going to invade anything. Besides, our fearsome tiny alien horse is locked up in there.” She tapper the window a few times. “I think we’re pretty safe for now.”

“Does this mean you’re not letting Trixie out?”

The scientist gave her a kind look. “Sorry, Trixie, not yet… But I promise I’ll do everything I can to get you back home. In the meantime, could you show me what else you can do with that horn of yours?”

“You wish to see more of Trixie’s sensational magic?” Trixie turned her head in a practiced move, flipping her mane gracefully and taking an air of importance. “Well, I can understand that… but Trixie is starved. Bring Trixie food if you want her to perform!”

“Food?” Sam blinked a few times, then slapped a hand on her face. “I didn’t even think of that… Yeah, I think we can find you something to eat. What do you eat, by the way? We don’t have any grass or oats on Mars…” She tapped her chin with a finger. “We have various vegetables, would that do?”

Trixie nodded and the woman went to leave the room, until Crash called after her.

“Hey! If you’re headed for the kitchen, can you bring something for me too?”

“I’ll see what I can find!” Sam answered without turning around. “Be right back.”

Trixie was left alone with the blond woman standing guard near the door to her cell. Crash did not even give her a glance, simply sitting down on a chair and pulling out a flat, rectangular object from one of her pockets. Rather than try to start a conversation with her, Trixie decided to use the quiet to put some order into her thoughts. After giving a glance at the basic cot in her room, the unicorn shrugged and lied down on it.

Humans… As crazy as it sounded, she was stranded on a strange world inhabited by humans, who may be related to other humans who lived in Equestria ages ago… And as it turned out, they were kinda nice! Her magic had really impressed them, they didn’t know of her humiliations in Ponyville, didn’t care about who she was at all...

“This could be a second chance,” Trixie thought. Her career may have been dead in Equestria, but in this new world, there were no Ursas in sight, minor or major. No one to mock her or ruin her shows. No Twilight Sparkle to upstage her… Maybe staying here would be a better choice after all. Maybe not indefinitely, but she could stay with the humans until the ponies would forget about her.

A little smile appeared on the unicorn’s lips as she made herself comfortable on the bed and let her mind wander, imagining crowds of the strange looking aliens clapping and cheering for her. Her mood improved even more a few minutes later when the brown-haired woman came back, carrying various items, at least some of which looked edible.

“I had to raid the fridge,” Sam said, “but I think I’ve got enough food for everyone.”

Trixie instantly jumped to her hooves and rushed forward, saliva already pooling inside her mouth. Meanwhile, Sam stared at the guard who watched her back with a neutral expression.

“So… How about opening the door?”

Crash gave Trixie a suspicious look before turning her eyes back to the other woman. “I don’t know… I can’t risk her escaping.”

“Oh come on… We’ve got to give her something to eat.” Sam nodded at the food loaded in her arms.

“Hmmm… Maybe if we got more guards...”

“Seriously?”

“I heard she was really hard to catch,” Crash said, pointing at Trixie with a thumb. “I’m not letting her out on my watch. Being posted on Mars is bad enough, I don’t want to end up in sewage processing.”

The two women kept arguing, but Trixie was too focused on the food to care about their bickering… At least until she realized that they were too busy talking to actually bring it inside her stupid cell.

With a huff, Trixie lit up her horn and concentrated on the whole pile that Sam was carrying. The pink haze of her magic wrapped itself around it and a couple of seconds later, the food disappeared and reappeared in front of Trixie. The two women shouted in surprise, but for the hungry unicorn, the only interesting thing was to find out what she could eat.

Using her magic, Trixie levitated the different items in front of her eyes. Boxes, bags, cans, all of them with pictures of food on their sides, although some were completely unknown to her. There were only a few fresh (or fresh-looking) products: a loaf of bread and a couple of carrots. With a shrug, Trixie took a bite out of one. They tasted rather bland, but she was too hungry to be picky and kept nibbling at it while looking at her treasure pile, trying to decide what to eat first.

“What the…” Sam watched through the window, mouth agape. “Did– Did you just teleport… Are you making these… levitate?”

“Hmm?” Trixie simply kept munching while the scientist was close to freaking out.

“She took everything!” Crash bumped a fist on the window. “Hey! What am I supposed to eat now?”

“Seriously?” Sam gave her a flat look. “You’ve got a unicorn breaking all laws of physics in front of you and you’re worried about your snack?”

Crash paused for a moment. “Well, when you put it like that… Yes!” She banged her fist on the glass again. “Give it back!”

“No magic, no food,” Trixie said with a little laugh, making the woman growl angrily.

The unicorn finished her carrot and climbed back on the bed. After making herself comfortable, and while Sam kept babbling about levitation and Crash about her food, she examined the cans more closely. “Pineapple...” Trixie muttered as she read the label. “Maybe for dessert. Baked beans… Corn… Huh?” She blinked a few times. “Potato chips… chicken... flavored ?” Trixie stared at the bag with a puzzled expression. “Why would you have food flavored like– No…” Her eyes widened.

“Hey! Give us something or I’ll come and get it myself!” Crash glared at Trixie through the window. “You know, it’s been years since I’ve had a good horse steak...”

“Wh– Wha– Don’t eat Trixie!” she blurted out. “Trixie…” Her eyes shifted around quickly as she tried to think of something. “Trixie tastes awful!“

“Great…” Sam glared at Crash with a frown. “Do you see what you did now?”

The blond woman only shrugged and muttered something, making Sam sigh before she turned her eyes back to the shuddering unicorn. “Calm down, Trixie, nobody’s going to eat you. She’s just kidding. Right, Crash?”

“I haven’t decided yet...”

Sam gave the guardswoman another glare, but quickly went back to cajoling Trixie. “Well, I won’t let her touch you anyway, don’t worry… You just send us back a few things and everybody will be happy here.”

“O– Okay…” Trixie tentatively nodded.

“Are we good here?” Crash asked roughly. “Pass the chips, then.” She held a hand opened, waiting for her order. After a little flash of pink, the bag appeared in her palm. “Now that’s some cool service,” the blond woman said with a chuckle. “We should open a restaurant, I bet we’d make a fortune!”

Samantha slowly shook her head. “I can’t believe you… Do you have any idea how long we’ve been trying to master teleportation? The resources the UAC has invested into it?”

“Honestly? No.” Looking bored, she squeezed the bag until it burst open with a loud pop. “I’m a UAC marine,” she said through the chip she had just stuffed in her mouth. “Not knowing things is part of my job description...”

Sam watched her with a disbelieving expression for a while, until she sighed and shook her head.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Crash said with a small grin. “You need people with their feet on the ground in this base. If it were only eggheads like you, the whole place would blow up in a week…”

“Oh please,” Sam answered, taking on a hurt expression. “It wouldn’t take us that long.” Crash snickered and the two women soon broke into giggles. They both sat down and started to munch on their snacks while exchanging a few jokes.

The girls’ silliness helped Trixie calm down a bit. Turning her attention back to her hoard, she scanned the various boxes. One caught her eyes and, after a few seconds of efforts, was opened by her magic. Inside of it, she found squares of golden biscuits, filled with some sort of paste. The smell was odd, but very enticing...

“Peanut butter crackers...” she muttered, reading the label.

Trixie hummed in thought and levitated one of the crackers in front of her eyes. She took a tentative nibble…

The unicorn’s eyes widened in wonder. The fat, creamy butter. The salty and crunchy cracker… Both complemented each other so perfectly that any other food she had eaten before was as tasty as rotten hay in comparison. Trixie shuddered and let out a shaky moan of pleasure as she chewed on the heavenly snack. As soon as it was swallowed, she stuffed another one in her muzzle.

One short minute later, the whole box had been devoured and a tear of joy was leaking from Trixie’s eye as she ran her tongue over the last bits clinging to her teeth.

Sam stared at the blissful unicorn, blinking a few times in shock. “Wow… I didn’t think anyone could like peanut butter crackers so much.”

“Hah!” Crash laughed and nudged her. “Thank God for junk food, huh?”

Trixie, her eyes glinting in excitement, almost pounced on the next box and made short work of the rest of her hoard. None of the following snacks came close to the incredible peanut butter crackers, but they were still good enough to be gorged upon...

A few minutes later, the unicorn lied back on the bed, rubbing a hoof on a belly that she hadn’t felt this full in a long while. Outside of her cell was a big pile of empty boxes, cans and wrappers that she had teleported out, the only remains of her feast.

The two women stared at Trixie with looks of disbelief.

“Geez…” Samantha scratched her head. “Can you imagine if she wasn’t pony-sized?”

“As hungry as a horse…” Crash said while Trixie burped loudly.

“And here I thought you were a big eater…”

“Meh... I exercise all the time, I need the energy. What’s your excuse?”

Samantha stared at Crash through narrowing eyes. “Are you implying something?”

The guardswoman laughed loudly. “I’m not implying. I know you’ve got dozens of candy bars stashed in your drawers.”

“Those are for… emergencies. My blood sugar level goes too low sometimes!”

“Define ‘sometimes’...”

“That’s– Wait, why am I even discussing this? How about you mind your own business, corporal?”

“Are you actually trying to pull rank on me? You’re a scientist! And not even an important one...”

“What? Are you–”

With a groan, Trixie rolled to her side and shouted at the women. “Could you two stop arguing? Trixie wants some quiet! If you two want to fight, do it somewhere else.”

The women watched each other a moment with an amused expression. “Nah, we’re not fighting,” Sam said. “Just some friendly banter...”

“Friendly?” Trixie asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, we’re buddies.” Crash wrapped an arm around Sam and pulled her close, almost toppling the smaller woman over.

“Hey, easy! I’m not wearing body armor!“

Crash let her go, but only after muttering “wimp” under her breath.

Trixie observed the two women for a moment. A big, grumpy, rough and tough guard on one side. A passionate, curious and kind scientist on the other. “Do you two even have anything in common?”

“We… uh…” Sam gave the guardswoman a questioning look, but only got a shrug as an answer. “We both like old movies?”

“I’m not a big fan,” Crash said with a thoughtful expression. “I like them, but that’s it.”

“Huh… I guess there’s not much then?”

“We’re both chicks.”

“Yeah, I think that’s it...”

“Chicks?” Trixie stared at them, blinking.

“This base is staffed by over a thousand men and about a dozen women,” Sam explained. “So we tend to be close. I have no idea why the UAC did this.”

“Me neither,” Crash said. “There has never been many gals in the marines, but the ratio here is ridiculous… Not that I’m complaining, mind you.” She smirked as she finished her sentence. “A girl on Mars never has to sleep alone if she doesn’t want to.”

Sam gave her a flat stare. “Classy.”

“What? It’s the only good thing about this damned place.” Crash leaned her back against the wall, her hands behind her head. “The job sucks, the food sucks, the pay may be good but there’s nothing to spend it on here and don’t get me started on the outdoors… So, yeah, every time I feel like it, I go find a soldier and have my rifle cleaned. If you had some sense, you’d do the same.”

“Why don’t you let me take care of my own business? And that was a terrible metaphor…”

“No, you see, to clean the barrel you need to–”

“Yes, I got the idea, thank you!” The scientist rolled her eyes and sighed, only making her friend laugh loudly. “Why do I even bother talking with you?”

“Fine, fine. I’ll behave, princess…”

“Good. What would Trixie think otherwise?”

“Trixie doesn’t really care,” the unicorn said from her bed. “As long as Trixie can get some peace and quiet.”

“Ah well…” Sam stood up and stretched her back. “I’ve got some other things to take care of, anyway. I guess I’ll leave you two alone for the night.”

“Night?” Trixie looked around, but without any kind of window to the outside, she had no idea where the sun was in the sky… “What time is it?”

“Almost six in the afternoon. And, to my greatest regret, I have some non-unicorn-related work to do today.” The woman sighed. “Back to the grind... Have a good night, I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” With this being said, she headed for the exit and left, while Crash muttered a quick farewell.

Trixie rolled on her back, staring at the worn and ugly ceiling. Her thoughts rolled around her head as she tried to make sense of her situation. One question in particular came again and again, without getting a proper answer: should she try to go back to Equestria or stay with the humans? As the only unicorn in their world, she would be treated as a goddess by those strange creatures… Then again, if she went back to Equestria with tales of her travels to another world, she could finally receive the respect she deserved on her own planet… All of this was assuming that she wouldn’t get eaten by a hungry human... She shuddered at the thought.

After a few hours of mulling these questions over, Trixie’s eyes eventually shut and she drifted to sleep.

“Whoo-wee!” Applejack hollered as Trixie paused in her story. “That’s one heck of a journey you been through, Trixie. If Ah hadn’t seen them humans by myself, Ah’d think you were making this up.”

“This is fascinating!” Twilight Sparkle had a grin on her face that made Trixie a bit nervous. She leaned a little closer. “You’ve actually visited a human world! I’ve got so many questions to ask… I need to make a list!”

“Chill out, Twi.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “What’s so cool about these giant monkeys anyway?”

“First, they’re not monkeys. Second, don’t you realize what this means? Almost all of Ponykind’s oldest legends speak of humans. Stories like... how the demon Tirek was defeated by a human warrior, for example. Everypony thought they were some sort of imaginary creature, but Trixie has just proven that not only are the humans real, but they are also able to travel from world to world! Don’t you see how big this is?”

“Did you see how silly they looked?” Pinkie said, laughing as she tried to imitate a human walking on two legs.

Rarity giggled. “Well, I guess ‘silly’ is one way to describe these creatures.”

“And scary,” Fluttershy added, barely loud enough to be heard.

Trixie glared at the yellow pegasus. “If you’re scared after that, you should just leave now.”

The timid pony mumbled something that no one understood, but her friends quickly jumped to her defense, both chiding Trixie and encouraging Fluttershy.

“Fine, what do I care?” Trixie said with a shrug. “Unsurprisingly, I woke up the next morning...” With her magic, she brought back the images accompanying her memories.

Trixie awoke with the strange, uneasy feeling of being observed. She slowly cracked her eyelids open, getting used to the artificial light shining on her. She turned her head in the direction of the large window and jumped back against the wall.

Behind the glass, a broad-shouldered man was observing her, his head tilted slightly to one side. His skin was sickeningly pale and what little hair was left on his head was grey and cut short, so that he seemed practically bald. In the middle of the man’s wrinkled face, two sunken eyes were staring at Trixie, the left one having a strangely clear iris while the other was a milky white all over, obviously blind.

“Wh– Who are you?” Trixie asked, holding a hoof to her chest in a futile effort to calm her heart.

The man did not answer, only staring at her.

“Oh, you’re awake, Trixie!” Samantha walked next to him, smiling innocently. “This is Dr Betruger. He is at the head of our teleportation research here on Mars. If anyone can help you get back to your own world, it’s him!”

“Re– Really?”

“You said that you teleported here?” Dr Betruger asked, speaking slowly and deliberately.

Trixie gulped and tried to calm herself down. “Y– Yes. It was an accident, though.”

“I see… We have also had a few... setbacks in our attempts here, but I think we are very close to success now.” The doctor’s voice was somewhat smooth, but his tone gave Trixie the faint impression of something much more vicious and aggressive hidden underneath the gentle appearance.

Sam turned to face him. “Maybe Trixie could help you,” she said. “She seems to have some kind of innate ability to teleport. By working together, I’m sure we could find a way to send her back home.”

“Yes.” Dr Betruger smiled, showing more teeth than Trixie would have liked to see. “This could be just what we need for our final breakthrough…” Something in his expression, his eagerness, made cold sweat form on her brow.

Before Trixie could say anything, doctor Tailor entered the room and froze when he saw who was in front of him.

“Doctor Betruger…” He spoke through clenched teeth. “I didn’t expect to see you here. What brought you out of Delta?”

“Doctor Tailor…” The old man slowly turned to face his colleague. “It seems that you’ve found something that belongs to me.”

“Belongs to you? If you’re referring to her,” he pointed at Trixie, “I’m afraid that you’re mistaken. This is an intelligent, sapient being that doesn’t belong to anyone but herself.”

“I don’t have time to waste with misplaced philosophy. This specimen teleported its way over here. I don’t need to remind you what subject I am working on, do I?”

“And how did you learn about her?” doctor Tailor asked with a frown.

“Doctor Carlsen contacted me last night.”

“Sam?” the bearded man asked, his eyes widening. “Why’d you… Never mind, we’ll talk about this later.” He stood from all his height, looking down on Betruger, who only looked back with the hint of a smirk on his lips. “Listen, doctor Betruger, I don’t tell you how to run things in your laboratory. Don’t try to do that in mine. Now if you don’t have any other business here, I’ll ask you to leave. I have a lot of work to take care of.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean to bother you,” Betruger said with an amused tone. “I’ll leave as soon as we’ve arranged an escort for my specimen.”

“I don’t think so.” Doctor Tailor glared at his colleague. “Trixie is still under quarantine. We need to make sure there is no danger before we let her out of this cell. A contagion from an unknown pathogen would be devastating in a closed environment like this station. Keeping Trixie at hand is vital, especially with the other unicorn still running around.”

“The other unicorn?” Doctor Betruger narrowed his eyes.

“Yes. There is another one that Mars Sec hasn’t been able to capture yet.”

“Interesting… But your worries are unfounded. The Delta complex has all the installations needed for a quarantine. I’ll be taking this specimen now and you can transfer the other one when you’ve found it.”

“That’s enough,” doctor Tailor growled. “Trixie is staying right here, whether you like it or not. If you want to boss people around, you can go back to Delta. You are not the boss of this research station, Malcolm.”

Betruger stared at him a few seconds before answering coldly. “You’re right, I’m not.”

The creepy doctor slowly walked towards the exit. “Not yet...”

As soon as he was out, doctor Tailor faced Sam, making her wince with his glare. “What’s the big idea? Why did you call that nutjob here?”

“Nutjob? Doctor Betruger is a brilliant scientist! And I was thinking of Trixie,” she said, pointing at the unicorn who was silently observing the exchange. “I was trying to find a way to send her back to her home. The teleporters in Delta might be the only way.”

“Maybe, but there are still a lot of questions we need to answer before involving someone like Betruger.”

“What do you have against him?” Sam asked, raising her hands in the air. “I know he seems… odd, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s one of the best physicists on Mars.”

“It’s not about looks. I know his methods, he only cares about results. Do you have any idea how many accidents happen in the Delta complex every week? He doesn’t give a damn about the people working for him as long as his research’s making progress!”

“Come on, doctor Tailor. This is just some silly rivalry… We’re all in the same boat.”

“What?” The man blinked a few times. “You think I’m jealous of him? You think I’m making this up? Doctor McNeil blew the whistle on him a month ago. Betruger had her shipped back to Earth before the end of the day. The UAC board is sending a representative to investigate his work. This isn’t a little workplace competition.”

“I– I’ve never heard of that…”

“Of course, the UAC has been keeping this under wraps. I don’t know any of the details, but Betruger must have gone too far... That’s all the more reason to be careful with him: he’s running out of time and he knows it. There’s no telling what a desperate man will do…”

“Come on,” Sam said quietly. “It can’t be that bad. Don’t you think you’re blowing things out of proportion?”

“Maybe,” he answered with a sigh. “Maybe… Maybe Mars is finally getting to me. Everybody ends up crazy in here…” After shaking his head, he turned to Trixie. “I really hope I’m not imagining you… Anyways, I’ve done a few analyzes on the recordings we made yesterday. You are quite the mystery...”

Trixie walked closer to the window. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I was expecting to learn more about that… ‘magic’ thing, but I stumbled upon something else. I wondered how it’s possible that you speak English. While that would have been just plain strange, the reality is even stranger. Because you don’t.”

“Huh?”

“I… don’t understand,” Sam added, scratching her head.

“She does not speak English. I’ve looked at the sound recording and I found something that I can’t explain: when Trixie says a word, the sound waves are completely different than when I say it. What we hear is not what she says…” An excited grin appeared on the man’s face as he turned to face Sam. “Do you realize what this means? There is some kind of… of universal translator at work here. If we can figure out how this is happening…”

“We could reproduce it,” the woman finished for him. “Instant, flawless translation… This is huge!”

“Exactly.” Doctor Tailor smiled at Trixie. “There is so much we could learn from you… In fact there is something I wanted to give you, it might help us experiment a few things.” He reached into a back pocket and pulled one of those tablet that Trixie had seen the humans look at a few times.

“This is a personal data assistant,” he said, holding the thing closer to the window. “Everyone here on Mars has one, they’re useful for everything, from taking notes, to watching videos… I’ve got this one set up for you, although your account is limited for now.”

Trixie quickly teleported the device to her, making the man jump in surprise.

“Wh– How… What was that?”

After she was done giggling, Sam answered him, simply saying “teleportation.”

“Holy… She can do that? Oh man. Betruger didn’t see that, did he? No, he would have flipped out if he did…”

“So… How does this thing work?” Trixie asked, examining the device in front of her.

Doctor Tailor gave her an amused grin. “It’s pretty simple, you just need to tap the screen on the menu icons. In fact, I want to try something. We know that you can understand us, but I want to check if this applies to written text, too. Let me send you an email.”

The man took his own PDA and tapped on it for a few seconds. A short moment later, the device Trixie was holding beeped and a small icon flashed, along with a short message.

“This says I have received an email…” With the humans’ directions, she accessed her inbox and found the message, marked sent by Dr. Anthony Tailor. “It reads,” she said to the two scientists, “this is a test.”

“So you have no trouble reading our alphabet at all… This is quite impressive,” the man said with a smile. “Let’s try writing, then. Send me an answer.”

A few more minutes were necessary, but Trixie eventually managed to create a message of her own and send it.

“Huh.” Doctor Tailor’s stared at his PDA with raised eyebrows. “Well, your grammar is… interesting, to say the least.”

The unicorn turned her nose up. “Well, Trixie did what she could with what you gave her. Find Trixie a quill and some parchment if you want her to write properly.” She huffed a little to emphasize her point.

“Let me see,” Sam scooted closer to him, trying to get a glance of the message. “Oh wow… It’s uh… phonetic writing maybe?”

“Looks like it,” the man answered. “More or less… Well, I suppose having her write in flawless English would have been even more disturbing,” he added with a shrug.

“Oooh! We should get her a pen and some paper,” Sam said with a broad grin. “I wonder how that would turn out!”

“We spent the next few hours trying different ways to communicate,” Trixie said. “These scientists were really thorough, trying to figure out why we could understand each other.”

She sighed. “We took a break after a while… That’s when– When… it began.” Trixie shuddered and fell silent, her eyes stuck on the ground near her forehooves.

“Trixie… Are you alright?” Twilight Sparkle sounded worried.

“Yeah… It’s just…”

“Take your time,” the young princess said soothingly.

Trixie nodded and inhaled deeply. “Let’s just get this over with…”

She yawned and jumped to her hooves. She walked closer to the window, watching the two scientists who were reading figures and taking notes, both of them hunched over a computer screen. Crash was still sitting near the door, her feet propped on a nearby desk and lazily flipping through the pages of a magazine.

“Hey you,” Trixie called, making the guardswoman turn her head in her direction. “Trixie is famished. Be a nice host and bring her more of these peanut butter crackers.”

“Yeah... no. I’m not your servant or your host or... whatever.”

The blond woman tried to get back to reading, only to see the magazine disappear in a cloud of pink magic. She blinked a few times before facing Trixie with a scowl on her face.

“Hey! Give that back!”

Trixie smirked. “I’ll trade it for crackers.”

Crash only gave her a glare. Keeping her narrowed eyes on Trixie, the guardswoman grabbed another magazine that was laying near and slowly opened it. As soon as she had taken her gaze off of Trixie and back on the paper, it winked out of her hands.

“Fine,” the woman said, crossing her arms. “No reading, then.”

Trixie observed the woman for a moment. She made no sign of moving... Just as the unicorn was deciding to “motivate” Crash a little more, she spoke up.

“If you take anything else,” she said, staring down at Trixie. “I’ll come in to get it and I’ll show you how humans discipline unruly horses.”

“You wouldn’t dare…”

“You just wait until I find some ropes...”

Trixie did not answer her, opting to ask the other, nicer woman instead. Thankfully, Samantha proved much more understanding and went to find something to eat.

Grabbing one of the magazines she had borrowed, Trixie jumped back on the bed, lying on her back and lazily kicking a hoof in the air. “Guns and nachos,” she muttered to herself. “What the hay are these?”

She had barely began reading an article when the lights in the room suddenly switched off all at once, plunging both Trixie’s cell and the nearby room in darkness. Only the dim light coming from a few computers’ LEDs remained, painting a strange imitation of a night sky.

“Generators down again,” Crash said with a groan. She turned her flashlight on, but it was barely enough to light a small corner of the room. “For a high-tech research station we sure got shitty equipment…”

Trixie jumped when a whooshing sound echoed through the room and fiery orange lines and symbols suddenly appeared on every surface. The walls, the ceiling, the floor, all were covered by an intricate pattern that went beyond any kind of magic she had ever seen. It only lasted a second or two before they disappeared, but in the middle of the room, a pillar of flame suddenly rose, causing the two humans and one unicorn to shout in surprise.

The flames disappeared rather quickly too, but in their place remained a ghostly yellow skull. A human skull, floating in the air and wreathed in flames, its features frozen in a vicious grin.

“What the–”

Before doctor Tailor had time to say anything else, the skull screeched and darted in his direction. It landed straight in the middle of his chest, but seemed to go through as if he wasn’t there at all and disappeared through the wall.

The next second, the man was lifted into the air, ghostly energy appearing and vanishing around him in mere seconds.

Everything became quiet for an instant, until a sinister laugh was heard echoing and some of the lights went back on, taking only a part of the darkness away.

“What the hell is going on… Doctor?” Crash turned her flashlight towards the large man standing still at the other end of the room. He turned a pair of yellow, glowing eyes to her.

“... Doc?”

The doctor only moaned as an answer and walked a few clumsy steps in Crash’s direction.

“What’s wrong? What– Gah!”

She ducked down at the last second as the big man swung one of his arms, barely missing her head.

“What are you doing? Stop–”

The next swing hit Crash in the side and sent her tumbling into a desk. The woman fell on the ground, followed by a computer screen and a few files. Trixie shouted out of fear, making the possessed human turn to her. He moaned and banged his fist on the window, making the unicorn shiver as she expected the glass to break. It did not give out, but the doctor tried again and again, beating a rhythm that resonated inside the small cell, filling Trixie’s ears until she heard nothing else.

A pair of arms suddenly grabbed him from behind. Almost too fast for Trixie to see it, Crash threw the man over her shoulder and sent him landing on the floor a few meters away. Trixie shuddered when she saw him rise back up, apparently unaffected.

With an angry roar, Crash jumped and swung her flashlight, hitting him right on the head. The improvised club made a sickening “thock” noise as it striked... The former doctor stayed still for a moment... only to reach up and grab Crash’s neck with his hand the next second.

The woman shrieked, but quickly gathered her wits and wrapped her own arms around his, pushing and bending his elbow in an unnatural way. The man still didn’t seem to feel any kind of discomfort, simply trying to punch her with his other fist. With a cry of rage, Crash swung the flashlight on his head again. And again and again, until a wet cracking sound was heard and blood started to flow out of his head. She still gave a few more hits for good measure, splattering red all over the floor.

Completely unable to take her eyes off the scene, Trixie watched Crash finally stand up and take a few deep breaths. After a short moment, she turned around and quickly walked back near the cell door.

Trixie barely registered the woman taking her helmet and putting it on, the unicorn’s eyes still mesmerized by the liquid pooling under doctor Tailor’s head.

“HQ, this is Corporal Kraśzajczenski. One of the scientists in Gamma Labs just attacked me. He went berserk, I had to kill him…” The unicorn blinked and focused back on the guardswoman, her face now concealed behind the greenish visor. A few seconds passed before Crash spoke again. “The whole base? What’s going on?” Another short pause… “Copy that. What are my orders… Roger that. Out.”

“What happened?” Trixie asked, rushing to the window and angling her head to try and see the woman in the corner of the room. “Who were you talking to? Why did he attack you?” Trixie pointed at the man lying on the ground. “Did you… Is he?”

“He’s dead, yeah…” Crash grabbed some sort of weird object that Trixie did not recognize, opened it up and slid a long slab of metal inside before slapping it closed again. “Something’s attacking the base. I’m heading to the marine headquarters to regroup with the others.”

“You– You’re leaving? What about me? What if one of those… things comes here?”

“The cell is locked, you’ll be safe. Don’t worry, we’ll get the base secure in no time.”

Each one of Trixie’s hairs rose up as the woman turned and ran towards the exit. “Wait! Don’t leave me alone…” She screamed as the door closed. “I’m too young to die!”

As the last echoes of her own voice died down, the unicorn became aware of the noises around her... Although the room was somehow quiet, she could hear faint shouts and screams in the distance, as well as what sounded like explosions, distant and muffled by the walls. The lights flickered from time to time, never coming back on at full strength and casting shifting shadows that had her twitch and turn her head from side to side.

“Calm down, Trixie,” she told herself, taking a few deep breaths. “Everything will be fine, those humans know what they’re doing…” Another deep breath managed to slow down her heart to a reasonable level.

A bone-chilling screech undid all those efforts in a second.

Even though she had only spent about a day with humans, Trixie was quite sure that none of them could produce that kind of screech. Something in the primal parts of her brain simply knew that this was the sound of a predator… Cold sweat running down her back, she quietly stepped back to the cell’s cot, wondering if she could properly hide under it. Another idea hit her as she spotted the PDA she had been given earlier. It took a little while, but the unicorn managed to send an email simply reading “HELP” to Samantha.

Trixie spent the next few minutes curled up in a ball. She shuddered and squeaked every time she heard more screeches and hisses, seeming to come from inside the walls. When she heard the noise of a door opening, she jumped in the air.

“Trixie?” The unicorn was as grateful as ever when she saw Sam’s face appear on the other side of the window. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” she answered with a relieved sigh. “I’m fine, but… The doctor…” She lifted a hoof meekly to point at the body. Sam’s eyes followed it and she froze.

“My God…” She covered her mouth with her hands. “What– What happened?”

“There was some sort of… evil magic... It made him crazy. He attacked Crash and she– she…”

“Oh God…” Sam took a few shuddering breaths. “Something happened, I don’t know what. The whole labs are in chaos but I– I didn’t think anyone had died… This is crazy.”

Trixie was about to answer, but footsteps echoing from somewhere nearby froze her for a second. “There’s something close,” she told the woman, trying to keep her voice down. “I have a very bad feeling… We need to get out of here.”

“I– Maybe… We could get to the nearest security checkpoint, there’s a squad of marines…” She nodded as she kept speaking. “Yeah, they can protect us. That’s what they’re here for!” Sam took another deep breath. “Alright, let me open the cell first.”

The woman walked to a computer, making sure not to step in doctor Tailor’s blood on the way, and started typing. Trixie gulped as she heard another hiss and silently prayed that Sam would go faster.

“Okay,” she said, her eyes still locked on the screen. “That should unlock–” the power went out again, plunging the room in darkness. The same creepy laughter from earlier echoed and when it died out, Trixie heard a mixture of screeching, the thuds of many objects being knocked down, crying and screaming... So much screaming... from a feminine voice, that lasted for one second, then five, then ten…It finally drowned into gurgles...

When silence came back, the lights turned on again.

Where Sam had been sitting a moment ago, a large creature was now standing. Its skin was dark, making it hard to see properly in the semi-darkness. What Trixie could see, though, was that it was standing on two legs like a human, although much taller and with a heavy, muscular build... The thing turned around, allowing the unicorn to see a grotesque face, with no nose and at least five pairs of black, beady eyes, reminiscent of a spider. The imp spotted Trixie and screeched, showing her a row of very sharp-looking teeth in the process.

Frozen by fear, the unicorn could only watch in horror as the creature held out a claw and summoned a ball of concentrated fire that bathed the room in orange light. As if it had been a foal’s toy, the imp chucked the fireball at Trixie... Time seemed to slow down as she saw the projectile approach, soaring lazily through the air and heading straight for her.

It took Trixie a little while to realize that she wasn’t dead… The ball had hit the window and left a black stain, but did not break it. The imp screeched angrily and crouched on all fours.

Trixie screamed when she suddenly found herself face to face with the monster hanging onto the glass, its maw opened only a few centimeters from her. She scooted back until her back was pressed against the wall, while the imp climbed down and observed her, wondering how to reach its prey. It clawed the window a few times, but the reinforced glass held firm and only showed a few scratches.

Trixie breathed rapidly... Fortunately for her, the humans had designed a very secure cell and although she was trapped inside, she was relatively safe from anything going inside. She tried to calm herself and think of a solution.

The lights turned brighter as more power came back in the room. A beeping sound was heard from the door’s direction and, with a whoosh, the metal panel suddenly slid open, executing the command Sam had given it a moment earlier.

Trixie turned horrified eyes towards the imp. It may have been her imagination, but she was sure that she had seen some sort of smile on the thing’s lips... It walked calmly towards the door while Trixie frantically backtracked as far as she could, unfortunately finding the cell’s corner behind her.

The creature ducked to go through the doorframe, then stopped inside and stared at Trixie with its many eyes. Now that it was standing only a few meters away, she realized just how gigantic the monster was compared to her, almost reaching the ceiling while she barely stood halfway there.

With a hiss, the imp summoned another fireball in its hand. As if it was savoring the moment, it waited a few seconds before throwing it at Trixie.

She jumped to the side and avoided a direct hit, but the ball burst as it hit the wall, sending a wave of terrible heat over the unicorn and blackening the tip of her tail...

While Trixie was fumbling, trying to get her hooves under her, the imp prepared another fireball and tossed it at her.

The unicorn screwed her eyes shut in fear and, by pure reflex, she activated her magic... After a few seconds of not burning alive, Trixie opened one eye and yelped as she saw the orange orb, wrapped in her pink magic and floating mere centimeters away from her muzzle.

When the imp screeched, she reacted on instinct and pushed the fireball with her magic as strong as she could, straight into the creature. With a cry of pain and fury, it went flying backwards and bounced on the wall, then flopped on the ground, unmoving. Under Trixie’s wide eyes, the thing slowly disintegrated in a faint orange glow, like a piece of paper consuming itself in a fire. A few seconds later, scorch marks were the only remaining traces of their fight...

Trixie stood in place for what could have been either seconds or hours, trying to wrap her mind around what had happened. She had never seen anyone get killed before... Even during the ursa minor incident, nopony had gotten hurt. Now, in just a few minutes, one human had been clubbed to death under her eyes, a monster had attacked her, she had destroyed it, but not before…

Breathing shallowly, Trixie slowly walked out. She hadn’t seen Sam since the creature had appeared. She had to check if she was still alive…

Every step was a challenge against herself, all of Trixie’s instincts telling her to turn tail and run. After what felt like a very long walk, the unicorn stepped out of her cell and approached the desk where Sam had been working. The desk itself hid the woman from her view, only one of her feet visible from Trixie’s position. She prodded it with a hoof, getting no reaction... Trixie took a deep breath and stepped forward.

Blood. She had never seen so much blood at once...

Sam was lying on her back, eternally immobile now. The creature had carved deep slashes in the woman’s body, tearing it apart as if it had been made of paper. A huge gash on her chest had bled on her lab coat, tinting it a dark red. Claws had dug three trenches across her face, letting Trixie see a few teeth through the woman’s torn cheek. One of Sam’s hand was wrapped around her neck, a last, desperate attempt to stop the blood from flowing out of her punctured throat. Her other hand was lying a meter away from her body, cleanly cut off of her arm.

Trixie hardly paid attention to the puddle of blood she was stepping in, her eyes unable to leave the woman’s expression. Eyes bulging out and mouth twisted in a silent scream, Samantha Carlsen’s face clearly told that her last moments were ones of absolute horror. It was hard to imagine her resting in peace...

Trixie turned and walked away, almost falling to the ground from the shaking of her legs. Uncontrolled, panicked sobs escaped her as she mechanically went back to her cell. Trixie grabbed her PDA with her magic and considered sending a message to Crash, the only being left that she knew on Mars, but after opening her mail box, she found herself unable to think of even one word to write.

After letting a desperate whimper escape her mouth, Trixie headed out for the door, with nothing but the human device clutched in her magic and the hope that she could find the security checkpoint Sam had spoken of before the creatures could get her...

Author's Note

There we are. I've gone over this chapter three or four times by now. I guess it's time to publish it or I'll never stop modifying it...

The invasion starts! People die! Trixie manages to kill an imp somehow! Exclamation points! I'm excited!

I like Betruger as a villain. He's as cheesy as they come (seriously, half of his lines in Doom 3 are a variation of "mwahahaha"), but he's so creepy that it actually works. He's also got some legitimately good taunts... "Death will not be your end... Your soul will burn in Hell forever!" While you're in Hell in-game. Creepy...

As usual, I'll be happy to read your impressions and thanks for reading.