FTL: The last great voyage of the Osprey

There was a loud clang as the cargo bay door slammed into the ground. The cargo bay was dark, almost all of the lights were broken. Ryan sighed as he walked up the entry ramp. "Give me a sec, I'm sure I have a light somewhere. If not I have an alternative." Ryan walked into the cargo bay and disappeared into the darkness. There was a long silence occasionally broken by Ryan muttering. "No not here....Keys! I need my Keys." There was another long pause before a loud jingling sound followed by a low clunk. The next pause was shorter as the silence was shortly broken by a loud roar. "Got it!" Ryan yelled over the roaring sound. Two bright beams of light began to shine through the darkness. "Okay that should do it!" Ryan's voice was quiet over the mechanical roar which was so loud some ponies left their homes to investigate. There was another loud clunk as Ryan clambered out of the roaring machine.

"What is that...that thing?" Twilight having now just caught up with the captain was extremely confused.

"What Kazaaak? Bit rude isn't it?" Ryan laughed as Kazaaak glared daggers at him. "Well this thing behind me is a 2013" Ryan paused. "Bloody hell that was a long time ago. Anyway. This is a 2013 Rolls Royce Phantom. Extended wheelbase version. The reason it's here is because it's an artifact of earth. The car, man's best and worse creation. The reason our planet thrived and died, It's what I brought to represent my planet's people to a degree." Ryan said as a smirk formed on his lips when he saw the car.

Twilight observed the "car" as Ryan had called it. It had a rather bulky shape yet still had elegance. Two intersected "R"s made up a logo on the front with the words "Rolls Royce" above and below. Above this, on a sheet of silver metal there was a small statue of a human with wings. Twilight was slightly afraid of this machine but her curious nature was stronger. She began to circle the car observing it. It almost reminded her of a cart. Even the name's where similar but this thing functioned without anyone pulling it.

"Ah ha!" Ryan connected a few frayed wires and near instantly the cargo bay sprung into life. "Good thing they reinforce the cargo bay on these things."

The walls were standard federation white with orange trim. At one end of the room was a door which was labelled "Crew quarters" A short distance away from the car was a machine which stood on two legs. Along the walls were other artifacts such as. A pair of sharpened gauntlets for a mantis, a heavy looking metal suit, a red and gold cloak and an engraved metal sheet. There was however one more item in the room, a coffin.

"Welcome to what I like to call the "Museum" It is basically the cargo bay with a few modifications. Namely reinforcement and a slight expansion. We use it to store one artifact per crew member. These artifacts have a meaning or symbolism of our race. For example. Here we have ceremonial gauntlets used by mantis during combat. Usually worn over the claws but some underhanded fighters conceal them under claws during fights. Kazaaak, not naming any names."

"Hey!"

"Next we have a robe worn by one of the many orders of rock religion. This one I believe belonged to the followers of the mantle savior. Who were nice guys except for the fact that they crack open planets. The thing about these robes though is that they can withstand temperatures of up to and over 4000 degrees kelvin. Not to mention there high tensile strength."

"Interesting, what about that?" Twilight said pointing to the other machine in the room.

"This! This is a slug telepath walker. Kinda reminds me of an old movie. The thing about it is that it requires two pilots to fully operate. The pilot's must be able to connect though if they are incompatible the walker may not work correctly. If they can though this is a force to be reckoned with. With little radio chatter about tactics the walker can easily deceive enemies."

Mallard walked up behind Twilight and tapped her on the shoulder. When she turned around Mallard commanded the nano bots in his hand to form a flower shape which he then gave to Twilight. "Token of appreciation sufficient?"

"Aw thanks Mallard." Twilight gave a grateful smile when she took it with her magic.

"You know for such an odd race the Engi can be really adorable sometimes." Ryan chuckled. "Anyway. This is most likely one of the most symbolic things in the entire ship." Ryan said as he took a metal tablet from a display case. "This is the treaty that Horrigan made when he joined the crew. The most amazing thing though is how it's carved. Each letter and line is carved specifically so that when air blows over it a beautiful melody plays." Ryan demonstrated his point by blowing across the tablet which caused a variety of sounds to play. "Of course I'm pretty sure I did it wrong. That about sums up the museum."

Twilight looked over her shoulder to see the coffin again now that she was close several details were prominent. The coffin was oak wood with a silver trim. Which wasn't out of the ordinary. What was however was that there were several inscriptions on the side. "Ibi victoria, ubi concordia? Hey Ryan what does this mean?"

"Oh that...That is the coffin of our dearly departed slug Cremity. Each of us decided to him a parting message. Mine is written in Latin. It translates to "Where there is unity, there is victory" Of course I can't read the others but I'm sure the others can tell you theirs. Just be careful around Kazaaak about the issue. Cremity was his best friends on the ship."

"........Oh." Twilight was quiet for a second. "I'm sorry to bring up such a sensitive subject."

"It's fine Twilight. Really. He was our friend and I know he would hate it if we stopped talking about him. Besides. You should be happy right now. Not many get to see anything but the osprey's battle stations. I have an idea of what to do with Cremity though."

"Really, what?" Twilight asked.

"Well. I think Cremity would be happy here. I think that I saw a perfect place. It may be a bit sudden but I know exactly where to finally give Cremity his burial. I'll get Lucy to carry the coffin to the place at night. Now if you'll excuse me I need to get to my quarters!" Ryan said as he walked down the hall. There was quite a long pause before Ryan's voice could be heard again. "HALF ME BLOODY ROOM'S GONE!"

Ryan had managed to kill the time by getting drunk and singing cheery sounding songs with depressing lyrics. No one sung along. Luna's night was upon them however, they'd even witnessed her change day to night. The night meant one thing though it was time for something they all dreaded.

"Just here Lucy!" Ryan said as he came to a stop on top of a hill that overlooked the town. He pulled out a shovel and began to dig a hole, the others slowly joined in until the hole was done. The burial was silent, aside from the occasional sob from Kazaaak. They had all said what they wanted to shortly after Cremity died. No use in repeating it and brining up old wounds.

After the burial they started a camp fire on the hill which all of them sat around. It was mostly small talk about their respective communities. All went silent when Ryan picked up his guitar. "Now I'm a little rusty. But I have a little story to tell you. It's about a starman waiting in the sky. He'd like to come and meet us....but he thinks he'll blow our minds. " All into the the night they sung their songs. Ryan was often off with his guitar but it didn't matter. Lyrics were forgotten and pitches were wrong. No one cared they were just happy. Some of the townsfolk came up to listen too. It was so long since the crew had a moment of bliss or happiness. People died and friends were lost but right now....It didn't matter they had friends, they had peace and all was good.