Space is a Dangerous Place

Chapter 3

Over Coming Loss

Sun light pushed it's way in though the blinds over my window, I could feel the warmth on my closed eye lids. I was already awake, had been for an hour; that damn dream came back again. Every time I wake gasping for air, coat soaked with sweat.

How many bottles of hard cider do I have to drink to make these damned memories go away?

Trying to think this early in the morning with a hangover only makes my head hurt, so I didn't bother to speculate. Instead I just laid there, pretending that I could just sleep the day away and the next one and the one after that. Unfortunately, the universe had other plans for me. A hoof shook me insistantly. I opened an eye and formed my face into an annoyed scowl. I looked up to the pony shaking me, my first officer.

Long story short I bought a small house on a planet at the outer rim, there I buried Hot Wire's remains. I don't know why Rough Hooves, my first officer, followed me here, but he hasn't left my side since. I'd never tell him, but I was glad he was with me. Though, right now I wished he'd let me pretend to sleep.

“We have guests.” He informed me. There was a hint of worry in his voice, though his mug didn't show any.

“I didn't invite anyone. So, unless you did. THROW THEM OUT!” I wasn't yelling at him, I wanted my voice to travel to the living room where our uninvited guests were.

His voice changed to his first officer tone, “There not the kind you can do that to, Sir.”

“Ugh. Fine! Who are they?” I asked as I partly squirmed my way out from the entangled warm blanket, landing head first on the cold floor. Scowling all the while, dispite my clumsy landing.

“The sort you want to look presentable for.” He nodded to the bathroom indicating I needed to clean up first. I dragged my hooves across the floor into the bathroom. “Take a shower!” He commanded. I stuck my head out, mane half combed and stuck my tongue out at him. As I pulled my head back in I almost thought he smirked at the gesture.

Nah! He never smiles!

The shower felt great and helped clear my head of the nightmare. Once dried off I rummaged though my room for appropriate attire. Finding nothing good I decided to go without, not like they'll care if I'm wearing anything anyways. I checked myself in a mirror one last time to make sure my mane was right and nothing blemished my ghost white coat. Even though my coat wasn't alabaster, the slightest amount of dirt showed.

Once I was presentable for whoever was waiting for me, I cantered over to my door. As I lifted a hoof to the nob a thought hit me.

It hadn't been, what, a month since I burried Hot Wire and here I was hopping happily with a smile on my face to meet guests? Did I not love her? Am I so shallow that I've already forgotten her?

I shook me head violently.

NO! I loved Hot Wire and she loved me! Stop doing this to yourself! Wouldn't she want you to live happily? With or without her?

My hoof fell back to the floor and my head hung as tears rolled off the end of my muzzle.

I miss you Hot Wire. I miss your smile, your laugh, the little squeaks you'd make from being tickled.

A smile came back to my face.

That! Hold on to that Glimmer!

I lifted my head back up wiping my tears away and opening the door. Moving down the hallway I looked to my left out the large windows. Not far off was a small beach and the vast ocean beyond.

You would have loved it here Hot Wire. Warm up drafts for taking off, a private beach to spend time with your special somepony and the weather never drops below sixty.

My eyes turned back to the up coming archway at the end of the hallway. On the other side was the living room and whoever was waiting for me. I hadn't told anypony I knew where I was, more then likely it was some local official looking for funding for a development project. Meaning I'll have to sit through their speech on how it will benefit everypony living here and I'll be helping to make the world better for our next generation. It was a bunch of horse apples. Following that line of thought, my reaction to what I found in my living room was quite understandable.

As soon as I saw them I tried to darted into the kitchen hoping to find Rough. My hooves scraped on the smooth wood floor as they desperately tried to get traction. Once they did I crashed into him, well, I bounced off his chest and fell to the floor, but I quickly jumped back up.

“WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME IT WAS THEM?” I yelled at the loudest whisper possible.

“Because if I did you'd of just ran.” He spoke normally is if nothing was wrong.

“Damn right I would have run, but now I'm DEAD!” I was fuming.

“I would have too, but there not here for me.” My eyes widened as my ears fell, I was now alabaster white. If I hadn't of gone to the bathroom earlier I probably would have wet the floor right then and there.

What do they want with me? Did they come to personally arrest me? Or are they going to skip that and just kill me on the spot? Whatever the reason, this was not good!

“Don't keep them waiting.” Rough Hooves turned and picked up a tray with a pot of tea and cups on it.

Expertly he walked into the living room with out a single chatter of the porcelin. Only when he set it down did it make any noise.

“Tea?” He professionally offered.

“Yes, thank you.” Replied the most gental of voices.

“Please. Will our host be joining us shortly?” The second voice was crisp and cheerful.

“He wanted to clean up before meeting you both.” A well executed bold face lie.

What little color I have came back to me as I pushed my fears aside. If they where in my living room then the place was surly surrounded, meaning there was no escape. With a heavy deep breath I stood and entered the living room ready to face my fate. I slowly walked to the couch opposite of them and sat. They both looked up from there levitated teacups. Celestia spoke first.

“Hello Glimmering Stars.” Her smile was warm and inviting. Luna raised an eyebrow as she sipped her tea eyeing my up and down.

“Hi.” I managed to squeak out. Nopony said anything for a moment, it felt like an eternity. Finally Celestia broke the silence.

“Do you know why we're here?” She gestured to Luna and herself.

A million possibilities ran though my head, but all of them were guesses at best. I truely didn't know why the two rulers of known space would come to my house in the middle of nowhere. I flinched when I noticed I hadn't said anything yet. Looking to Celestia, she had only kindness and patience in her eyes.

“No.” I shook my head slowly as to not loss sight of her.

“We're here about the ambush your ship was in.”

She placed her teacup down. Her stare felt like it could see right though me, reveling all my thoughts and secrets.

“We don't know much of what happened and we're hoping you could fill us in on some of the details.”

“Like what?” I had raised an eyebrow knowing that all fleet ships not only had a black box that recorded everything that happened, but that they would have submitted a report once they had returned.

“I guess I should start with telling you that the operation in which you were attacked was not sanctioned.” Her voice took on a somber sound at the end.

“We specifically told our naval leaders not to partake in such actions. They are not in line with what we hope to accomplish.” Luna added to her sisters information.

“So, the ships that attack us had gone rouge?” I was surprised such a thing could get past them.

“They were part of a group that thinks violence is the only answer to violence.” Celestia's voice sounded regretful.

“Were?” I wanting to know what she meant by that. Celestia and Luna looked at each other with surprise and confusion on there faces. In unison they looked back at me.

“Perhaps you should tell us what happened.” Luna inquired of me.

My head hung slightly and I had to clench my eyes shut. I had nearly managed to surpress the memories of that day completely, but with that one request everything came flooding back, including the pain. Tears started to well up in my eyes again.

“I can't!” I nearly yelled at them.

“Glimmer, What happened?” Celestia's voice cooed like a concerned mother.

“I LOST EVERYTHING! MY SHIP, MY CREW, AND... AND HER!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.

With every fiber of my being I was trying to hold back the emotions from that day, when I lost Hot Wire. I had spent days repressing the pain and sorrow, but this conversation with only a few words had exposed everything. I was starting to push back the memories to where I had banished them, when something sat next to me and enveloped me in an embrace.

I opened my eyes to see a white coat and a feathered wing around me. Looking up I found Celestia looking down at me, a heavyhearted look on her face, yet comforting. She held me in her fore hooves and held on tight. She had even removed her crown.

“Let it out.” She said.

With those simple words every wall, every barrier, every effort to push back the emotion and memories of that day fell as if they were never there. In the blink of an eye I went from a struggling stallion to a crying colt. Tears pored from my eyes as I let go against Celestia's coat. With each shuttering breath I wailed in agony for the loss of my love. Tears, saliva and mucus stained Celestia's coat as she gently stroked my mane consoling me.

“That's right. Let it out. Don't stop until it's all out.”

I don't know how long I cried, but she never let go even the slightest bit. Even when my tears stopped and I just sat there breathing solftly in her embrace. It wasn't until I finally lifted my head from her chest did she let me go, but continued to sit with a wing around me.

“Better?” She asked sweetly.

I looked up at her, she was looking down to me with a warm smile. I simply nodded sniffing and wiped the remaining moisture from my eyes.

“Would you be willing to explain what you remember?”

I looked away to the table and signed collecting my thoughts.

“Perhaps you should clean up first sister.” Luna stated.

Looking to Celestia's chest I saw her coat drentched from my extensive cry and grimaced at the sight. It wasn't the most gruesome thing I had seen, but this was PRINCESS Celestia's coat we were talking about, and it was all messed up because she enabled me to finally mourn.

“Not to fret everypony. I merely need a moist towel.”

A moment later Rough held up a hot towel to Celestia. She levitated it up and cleaned herself off, then without warning my head was covered. The towel moved about rubbing my face clean. I sat there for a moment once it was lifted, stunned.

“I'm sorry Glimmer, but you needed that.”

She gave it back to Rough who took it to the kitchen. A slight squeeze from her wing prompted me to look up at her. She was looking to me patciently waiting my responce. With another sigh I started telling them the important parts.

“We disabled one of the escorts' engines before moving on the transport. They stopped when we shot over their bridge. When we were along side, three more ships come out of the nebula, the same way we did. We had an experimental shield system we stole from a research ship not long ago, but it didn't matter.”

I paused recalling the strange pulse of energy that came from the transport ship.

“The Barrier System should have given you plenty of time to mount a defense or escape.” Luna stated clearly knowing about it.

“The transport used something that knocked out our medium from the feedback. The shield fell and we were rocked by the incoming fire already in flight. We tried an emergency jump, but it didn't work.”

Again I paused, Hot Wire's face coming into view.

“Then what did you do?” Celestia asked perplexed.

“Your ship surly couldn't withstand the damage it was taking.” Luna inquired, I nodded in agreement.

“I sent my head engineering and...” I took a deep breath to steady myself. “And my mate to fix the jump drive. I told her if she couldn't fix it to order abandon ship.”

“What was her name?” Celestia gave a squeese with her wing as to encourage me to keep going. I looked to a picture on the end table next to Luna. They both looked and Luna picked it up in her magic. She then past it to Celestia. She admired the pegasus mare in the picture.

“Hot Wire.” I stated and continued. “The power regulator for the jump drive was also fried by the pulse. Unable to fix it she- she used her own body to regulate the flow.”

Luna gasped holding a hoof to her mouth. Wide eyed Celestia looked from the picture to me.

“How did she do that?” She was baffled by the idea.

“She could change the currents that flowed through her body to any other. This allowed her to work on live systems without the fear of shocking herself to death.”

“The power requirement for a jump system would have killed her instantly.” Luna stated looking at me intently.

“She converted the power down to a manageable level passing it though her body before changing it to the required levels.”

“But, those levels of power would have...” I picked up her train of thought and finished it.

“-Burn flesh. When I got to engineering I found her badly burnt on the floor next to the jump drive. I held her in my hooves as she struggled to breath, listening to her last words.”

“Which where?” Luna asked, she was on the edge of her seat biting one of her hooves.

“She asked if it worked. I told her it did and she saved us. She didn't have the breath to say it, but she lipped 'I love you' before passing away.”

I was holding my fore legs like I was holding Hot Wire, I could still see her there. I looked up from my legs to Luna.

“The last thing I remember was Rough calling over the InCom that we had enemy contact when I blacked out.” Luna's jaw hung slack looking at me in disbelief.

“What? That's it?”

“Luna! Show some respect. This is very hard for him.” Celestia lectured her sister.

“But, what happened next? Who jumped in? How did you escape with a ship that can't jump?”

“I can answer that.” Rough said sitting down next to Luna. “It was the most terrifying thing I had ever seen in my life.”