They headed for the bridge, moving as quickly and quietly as they could to avoid attracting the monster. Rainbow Dash and Rarity had managed to accept their lovers' fates, and were now determined to make sure that they would not die in vain. Twilight and Pinkie had the lead, neither one wanting to leave the other's side should the creature return.

Twilight still had a million questions to ask about the creature, but Dash wouldn't talk about it. She knew that it had killed her best friend and the love of her life, but she needed Rainbow to focus on the mission. Right now, she seemed more focused on destroying that monster.

They rounded another corner and continued to follow the signs leading them to the bridge, determined to get there and hopefully send a distress beacon. The vents overhead were silent, and not one of the openings in the ceiling showed any sign of the creature's presence. But no one let their guard down, just in case the creature did show up. They rounded another corner, and spotted something that hadn't surprised any of them: one of the dead crew members of the ship. The sight of him didn't surprise any of them, what did were his wounds. He had a small, circular hole in his forehead, and from what they could see, the back of his skull was blown outward.

"What the hell...?" Rainbow spoke up.

"Was this the creature?" Twilight asked.

"No, it couldn't haver been... Its tongue... Thing was square. Or at least it looked like it was from the hole in Fluttershy's head." She cringed as the memory hit her, hard, and she could hear Rarity gasp in horror.

"Then what could have done this?"

"Not sure. Don't care, let's keep going," Rainbow said as they continued on.

Before long they reached a large door that slid upwards as they approached, revealing a cramped cabin with several stations and computers around it. Clearly the ship's bridge. Inside were a trio of dead aliens, and it was clear that they had been killed by the creature as their heads all had the same, square shaped holes in them. Twilight looked around the room, and saw what looked like communications equipment... Smashed beyond repair. She frowned and closed her eyes.

"Oh shit... Is that seriously the...?" Rainbow didn't want to finish the question.

"Yep... That's the comm equipment..." Twilight said, falling to her flank in defeat. "That was our shot... Our one damn shot..."

"We're fucked... We... We are totally fucking screwed..." Dash was losing her cool again.

"But... But isn't there another way, Twilight?" Pinkie asked, her mane falling flat.

"We have nothing to call for help with..." Twi hung her head and her ears went flat.

"Maybe there's a distress beacon?" Rarity finally spoke up.

Everyone was silent.

"Yeah... Yeah, she's right," Rainbow's voice rose a little. "All ships are supposed to have at least one onboard, maybe these aliens have the same protocols?"

"It's worth a shot," Twilight said. "Let's go..."

Beep... Beep... Beep...

"What's that beeping?" Pinkie's ears perked up and she looked around.

Everyone else heard it, too, and Twilight looked for the source of the beeping. At the far end of the room, a red light flashed at a steady pace, on par with the beeping. Twilight teleported over to it, and inspected the console. It had a curved, glass screen -not unlike their own on Equis- and the red light was a button. She pressed it down with the tip of her hoof, and heard as the message started playing.

It was full of static, but the words she could make out were enough to send shivers down even Celestia's spine;

"Emergency.....cast to all crew memb... Evangelion, we have encountered an........tile alien life form and it is killing anyo....... Those missing are to be presum........ven otherwise. If this life form is encountered, run. Don't stop for anything and don't let it see you because if it does, it's already too late. From my experience, it seems to retreat from........xtremely dangerous... Godspeed..."

The trasmission cut out after that.

"Fucking perfect, it cut out when we could've found out what that thing runs from," Rainbow said, annoyed.

"Calm down," Twilight replied, "it can't be that hard to figure out."

"Yeah? And how do you know?"

"Rainbow Dash!" Rarity spoke up. "This is not the time to panic."

"Really, Rarity? It isn't? Well let me catch you up on current events; Applejack and Fluttershy are dead, our ship abandoned us on an alien vessel with a creature that is killing on site, we have no way to contact home, and we're probably all gonna fucking die here!" Rainbow spat out. "It's the perfect time to panic!"

"Everyone calm down," Twilight said. "The situation may be dire, but this is no time to lose our heads. We can still get out of this, I know it."

"And what happens if we don't?" Rainbow asked, monotone.

"If we don't... then... we take that bastard with us," Twilight said.

"Agreed," Rarity nodded. "We need to find the distress beacon, we can send it out and warn anyone who finds it about the risk. Even if we don't survive, we can make sure they destroy this ship and that monster with it."

Twilight nodded her agreement, along with Pinkie and Rainbow Dash, and the four started away from the ruined and bloody room. They stayed close together and went as silently as their hooves would allow, checking every corner and stopping by or going around every overhead air vent they saw. Even Rainbow Dash kept her hooves on the ground, not wanting to abandon the others.

They walked until they heard a strange, metallic scraping off to their right, and when they turned they saw a circular opening in the wall that seemed to lead into the air shafts. They could easily all fit in if they went single file, but none of them moved for it.

"That might make moving around easier," Rainbow said.

"But the creature uses the air ducts to move around, as far as I can tell," Pinkie said.

"Right..." Rainbow lowered her ears. "But we don't know if we'll run into it."

"We don't know that we won't, either, darling," Rarity said. "It's probably best that we don't use them."

"Uh huh..." Rainbow started to continue their journey, as did the others... Just as the scream resonated from the opening.

Author's Note

Derp