"War... War never changes." - King Sentium of the Frozen Kingdom.

***Chapter 2: The Meltdown***

I'm sleeping, but then I get woken up by something... Something that makes allot of noise. I don't know what, but is seems to be over. I look on my LEC, it is 5:37. I turn around, and close my eyes. It's probably nothing. But then, I hear a loud explosion. Everything around me shakes. I got startled and get up in my bed. Not 5 seconds after that the alarm starts to sound and all the lights go on. I start to hear laser cannons. I look out the window. I see an Night March star explorer firing at us. The cruise fires back, but our weapons, 4 simple space trash busters are nothing compared to their rapid fire zappers, laser cannons and controllable rockets. Then there is the fact that they are protected by an magical shield. My heart started to beat fast. I feel scared, more then I ever did before. "Shit!" I yell and jump out of bed and quickly put on my college suit. I hear other ponies panic.

The male robotic voice starts to speak. "Attention. This is WaSP speaking. The Watchbot Steering Program. This spaceship your currently are located on is under attack by an potential enemy or is under friendly fire. Please remain calm and take your LEC Device with you for possible evacuation. DO NOT start to pack all your stuff. This WILL slow you down and result in you losing time you probably need to escape. DO NOT attempt to leave your room just yet. That could result into chaos and definitely slow you down. DO NOT try to open doors who have the red alarm light activated. This could mean that on the other side is a fire, or there is a hole that caused the pressure to fall away. The captain will speak to you any moment and give your further instructions. I repeat, stay calm at all times."

I knoe WaSP just told us to be calm, but I was everything but calm. I take my LEC and walk to the window and see that some parts of the ship are on fire. There are some holes to. Sadly, I'm not able to see if there are any fires near my room... Or holes. I take a deep breath to calm myself and wait for the captain's words.

Then, after a minute, the captain starts to speak. "Attention, this is your captain speaking. We ARE under attack by an enemy spaceship of the Night March. Just like WaSP just said, stay calm, this is not a drill. Everypony is instructed to take their LEC Device, leave their rooms and follow the watchbots to the main lobby. Once in the lobby, staff will give you further instructions in how to leave the cruise safely. Calling help from the outside is a no go. The enemy ship is sending out a signal that blocks any from of communication on our side. Again, stay calm and follow the instructions. This is not a drill."

I shake on my legs, I'm so scared. I keep thinking about my family. Even worse then dying is knowing they will have to live on without me. My mom and dad... They would be heart broken. Terrified I step out of my room. All the students who have an room within the same hall stand outside. I look into their eyes. I see the same fear. Then a watchbot starts to speak.

"Everypony, follow me to the main lobby for evacuation. Form a line and stay calm. The watchbots have anything under control. Please, do not use any floatpads. They may show some errors in situations like these."

Everypony does as told, still in panic but luckily nopony is running around like a hyperactive squirrel. As we move on there are some rooms with the alarm light on. Its scary. did those ponies made it out?... We hear and feel a gigantic explosion. Then we hear some alarming news.

WaSP speaks again. "Critical breach in sector C. Initiating lock-down."

Sector C?... Isn't that the sector next to ours?... Some start to run in blind panic.

The watchbot tries to calm us down. "Do not run. Please, help to maintain order."

A random male Pegasus stallion responds. "Have you gone nuts?! Sector C is an living sector just like this one! There are ponies trapped there and they WILL die! Who says that us awaits not the same fate if we wont move now?!"

The watchbot repeats his dialog, as programmed. "Do not run. Please, help to maintain order."

"Ow, fuck this!" The Pegasus male flies away as fast as he can. More start to follow and within a few seconds almost everypony is running or flying.

I hate to disobey a watchbot, but I do not want be left behind... So I decide to follow the rest and sprint to the main lobby. I'm almost there, but then I got past an gate that blocks sector C on my right side. There is a body, it looks like a younger female unicorn, around 16 years old, tried desperately to crawl underneath the gate when it closed. But she only made it half the way... Blood flows from hes open torso, mouth, nose, ears and eyes. It is horrific to witness... I had to vomit over the floor. I hear bonking coming from the other side. I get closer. Hesitatingly I hold the left side of my head against the gate, listening what's happening on the other side. I hear screaming and yelling.

There is a stallion bonking in the door. "OPEN THAT FUCKING DOOR! WE'RE STILL IN HERE!"

A mare is with him, she cries. "The stench of dead is horrible... All the burning buddies, Including the one of my own brother over there... ...And the fire... The oxygen is dropping... ...Breathe, I CAN'T BREATHE!" The mare seems to have dropped on the ground.

Now the stallion starts to cry two. "NO, HELP! HELP US! THE FIRE, ITS GETTING CLOSER. EVERYPONY ELSE IS DEAD!"

I respond. "Alright, hold up! I'll get you and that mare out of there."

The stallion laughs from joy. "Really?! Thank you! Thank you so mush! Haha! You hear that Crystal? We're saved!" The mare doesn't respond anymore. I'm not even sure if she's still alive... I try to hack the gate with my LEC, but the system is to advanced. I try it over and over, but no result.

The stallion gets impatient. "Why is it taking that long?! WE'RE GOING TO DIE HERE!"

I start to as cry as I to realize that I wont be able to get these poor ponies out... "I'm so sorry! I can't open it!"

The stallion yells at me. "DAM IT, NO! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO US! SAVE MY MAREFRIEND! LEAVE ME, BUT GET HER OUT OF HERE!"

I drop in front of the gate in the pool of blood. This is horrible... Its like I just landed in a horror movie... What supposed to be the time of my life ended in an big nightmare. One more time I talk to the stallion while still crying. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! But I can't open the gate... There is nothing I can do to get any of you out of there! This may sound cruel, but at least wont your marefriend feel any pain..."

The stallion is silent for a moment. "... Your right..." He sat down and leans against the door. I could hear him doing that. "I guess this is it then... Who ever you are, thank you anyway... No worries, crystal. I'll see you again, soon... I love you..."

I start to see smoke coming from the gate followed by the screams of the stallion who burns alive. By The Six, it smelled horrible... I cover my ears, hoping to block away the horrible screams, but it doesn't work. I cried even more now, it feels like forever and I hope his suffering will end soon. Then its got silent... He's dead... Shocked and confused I move on. I just witnessed the death of two ponies... It wasn't till then that I start to realize I haven't seen Fauna or Flora yet. I'm very worried about them... I hope that both are still alive... I enter the main lobby, covered in the young mare's blood, and just in time. There sounds an loud zoom. Everypony gets quiet, and a female staff member starts to speak.

"Alright, listen up everypony! The captain ordered us to lead all of you to the evacuation capsules. They are behind those gates. Move calm and steady to it. DO NOT run past the leading staff member. If you will, the remaining watchbots are forced to shoot you down. Why you ask? Because in there the capsules WILL start to move around on their own. If you go off path, the capsules will try to avoid you and may fly into other students. In other words: If you endanger somepony else, you'll get shoot. I hope that's very clear. Now move along!"

I move along, following the staff member. Behind us follow the other staff members, but no captain. Of course, the captain stay behind with his ship. There are watchbots all over the place, making sure nopony did anything stupid. we heard another big expolotion. WaSP speaks once more.

"Critical breach in sector F. Initiating lock-down. Warning, ship's engine damaged heavily, cooling systems offline, overheating had start. Meltdown in 5 minutes."

The staff member leading stops for a moment and speaks. "I know this looks bad, but remember what my colleague said not long ago. Sprint away, and you'll be shot." He walks further.

Meltdown? FUCK! Could this get any worse?! We enter the evacuation room. once all the ponies are in, the gates behind us closed. WaSP speaks for one last time.

"One life form detected in control room, force ignore by code 1912. Remaining life forms save in evacuation room. Initiating full lock-down. Warning, 3 minutes remaining until meltdown. Setting full processor capacity in watchbots and evacuation capsules. Disabling voice now."

The evacuation capsules start to move. Fast. The captain plays some music to calm the students, but that doesn't help allot. They all open around us, there is room for at least 20 ponies in each one. Ponies start to enter and capsules start to move away. They flew out an energy of field that covers the opening to space. That most be there to keep the oxygen and air pressure in the right condition. Slowly everypony was escaping. Now that I think of it, it goes to slow... At this rate, will only half of the ponies will make it... I look at the field and so outside. I saw parts of the ship, but also dead bodies floating around. Some even burned, or incomplete... I almost needed to vomit, again... But I knew to hold it in. I heard fellow students cry, some covered in blood, missing a ear or a other non fatal body part. There is a female Pegasus in front of me. she misses her left wing, while her right wing is burned. She bleeds heavily and the blood spurts out of the place where her lift wing used to be. She drops on the ground, she lost to mush blood. I really want to help her but I have to move on, or I will die... This is not about evacuating anymore. Its surviving. A watchbot connects to the intercom to warn everypony.

"1 minute left till meltdown."

I lost hope at that point... I'm gonna die here... Its over. I make my self ready for the end. I see my hole life flashing by. From the first time I walked to this very moment. Then I got pushed into a capsule by somepony. I look, and see the friendly face of that stallion I helped to find to library the in the disco. He smiles at me, then he sat down. Knowing he will not make it and he accepted that fact. "Thank you..." I said as the door of the capsule closes. I quickly sat down and poot on the seat belt. The capsule starts to move and flew out, its completely full. I survived... I can't believe it... I got saved by him... He gave his live, for me?... We soar past dead bodies and spaceship parts. Before I had time to take a breath the meltdown started. It begins with 3 smaller expositions, followed by a gigantic one. I see from a window that 3 capsules try to escape from it, but its no use. Then I realized the following thing. We're not save yet... The expolotion is expanding! The autopilot tries to take us away from it, but we get hit anyway. Our capsule flies away with the force of the explosion. We hit a part of the cruise and stand still. I look out the window again and see capsules everywhere. All the autopilots seem to be disabled. All the ship parts fly past us, but not everypony is that lucky... I look around in the capsule and ask: "Is everpony okay?!" The responses where mainly a sad nod. Then i heard two familiar voices.

"What the fack was that?! What are we gonna do now?!"

"I don't know... I knew I should have stayed home..."

It where Fauna and Flora! I made my self loose, jumped up and run to them. "Fauna, Flora! Your still alive!" I yelled.

Fauna and Flora look up. Joy shines from their faces knowing I'm okay. We group hugged and cry of joy. "I'm happy your okay!" Said Fauna.

"We thought you where dead." Adds Flora.

"I was almost dead, But somepony pushed inside at the last moment in his place... I will never forget him." The other ponies look at us. Most of them are in deep shock. One mare in the back keeps crying, very loud. It kept going. A stallion is annoyed by it.

"Ow, for the love of Candance! Shut up, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!"

The mare stops crying out loud, she holds it in. An other mare tries to comfort her. Hold up a second... I know that voice... I look at the direction the voice was coming from, it was that same stallion that tried to do stuff with Flora at the disco. Well, shit. From all the ponies that could be in here, we bump into a sexual harasser. I whisper to Flora and Fauna. "That harassing stallion is here." They respond with a nod. They already knew. Its strange... The Star Explorer doesn't leave, but neither attacks the capsules. Its kinda frightening.

"What now?" Asks a male Pegasus.

"How are we gonna get out of here?" Adds a earth pony mare.

I am normally not a leader type, but I felt that I needed to keep order. I stood up and went standing on a desk to get everyponie's attention. "Everypony, calm down! We can get out of this, if we stick our heads together there might be a way!"

The harassing stallion protests. "Who made you the leader, smart ass?"

I respond calm. "Nopony did, I'm not your leader. I just say if we think strait we might be able to get out of this."

"Do you have an plan?" Asks unicorn a mare.

I nod. "Actually, I might have. Is somepony here able to hack?"

A white male Pegasus with gray mane and tail and purple eyes with glasses raise his hoof. "What do you want me to do?"

I point to the computer. "Could you hack all the other capsules and connect them to us? It will be allot saver if we can communicate."

He nods. "Should be no problem I believe... I could try to break into the VVC Ports and set the output to our capsule using the local IGW Connection. But only we will be able to talk, the visions should be fine."

"That is good enough for me." I said.

The white Pegasus makes him self loose, walks to the computer and starts hacking. "This might take a moment."

I looked around. "Alright. Who here can handle spaceship weaponry?"

A yak stands up. "I do."

"Okay. Go sit in the copilot seat. Capsules like this are mostly armed with a normal zapper. You probably know what to do from there."

The yak walked to it and sits down. He had the zapper under control in no time.

"I see where your going, but who will control the capsule?" Asks a earth pony mare.

I took place at the captain seat. "I have learned for this. Allot of simulations, flying with my hovermoter and even flying with my grandpa's self made fighter."

Again, the same stallion has something to say in attempt to take me down. "How do we know your not lying to us?... Who are you anyway?"

"My name is Stella Sparks. And if anypony here thinks he or she might do it better, here is their chance." I stood up from the seat.

Nopony responds. Even that stallion is silent now.

I take the seat again without saying anything.

The white Pegasus with glasses gasps. "I believe I did it! Let's see... Patch... Capsule 33... Force port... And enter!"

A screen moves down. It turns on. We see the inside of every capsule that is still online. I try to communicate. "Hello? Can you hear me?"

Most of them respond and try to talk.

"Your all connected to an local network. We are able to talk and see you. But that is as far as it goes. Wave if you hear me."

They wave. Some are smart enough to write stuff down.

"It works! Yes!" Said Fauna happy.

I start the capsule again, ready for the next move. "You, white Pegasus. Are you able to hack the autopilots of the other capsules and make them follow us? Also, what's your name?"

The white Pegasus whipped his glasses for a moment. "My name is Firewall. Nice to meet you Stella. And, yes. That might be possible. But I have to change their PCH, Pilot Control Host. But with that they wont be able to use their zappers."

I turn to the screen again. "Any other pilots out there?"

They all shake their heads or write no.

Then back at Firewall. "Do it."

He begins. "On it."

Again, my attention went to the screen. "In a few moment we'll activate your autopilots. Please, remain in your seat."

The responses are positive.

"Your actually pulling this off, don't you?" Asked the female unicorn.

I smiled a bit. "Yes, yes I do." I might just have gone trough allot. From witnessing the death of ponies to seeing decapitated body parts, which will haunt me in my dreams. But it really boost my spirit to finally experience something positive. This seems also the case with the others. Finally, joy. We might live after all! But the mare in the back still cries. I decide to talk to her. "Hey there, are you alright?" The mare looks at me.

"No... My little sister died on the cruise! We where in sector C when there was an explosion. We flew trough the hall and ended close to the door... When we heard there was coming a lock-down, so I quickly jumped out. I tried to pull my sister with me... But... She only made it half the way when the gate closed, and... I killed her! I can still hear her scream!" Once again she starts to cry out loud. Almost everypony feels bad for her, all but that same harassing stallion.

I have seen her sister, that young unicorn mare... It most have bin very traumatic for her to see how her sister got cut in half by that gate... I have her blood on me... I sit down. "I am truly sorry to hear that, but look. I don't want you to stop grieving, take all the time you need for that. But we most focus on our own survival. Just keep your head in the game, alright?"

She nods. "Okay..."

Firewall jumps up and cheers. "I did it!" All the other capsules start to follow ours. My plan begins to take off. I walk to the captain seat and sit down. I waited a short moment for all the capsules to catch up with us. And then the star explorer starts to turn away from us.

"Hey look, their leaving us!" Said Flora happy.

I took a close look, and my joy changes back to fear in one second. "No, their NOT leaving us, they are preparing to release their fighters! The docking gates are on the back side of an star explorer! Everypony, hold on tight!" I go at the maximum speed of the capsule. I want that the world would know what happened, so I started to record everything. Gates open on the Star Explorer, and around 20 of the 250 fighters are released.

"I don't wanna die!" Yelled a Pegasus stallion.

We are fast, but not fast enough... The fighters open fire, bit by bit I see more and more capsules disconnecting from the screen. The yak fires back, but our zapper dose no shit on them. Now there is wild panic. Screaming, crying from all sides. Now we are at a point that we are the only capsule left. I made an unexpected move, turning around, flying past them. 14 fighters fell for it and crashed into one another. The remaining 6 shoot aggressively at us.

"I love you sis!" Yelled Fauna.

Flora embraces her sister. " I love you two Fauna!"

Then, it happened. We got shot in one of our main boosters. We became steer less. We enter the gravity field of an nearby planet. The fighters stop following us, knowing we will die anyway.

I look into the camera of my LEC. It record the whole thing. I started to say my last words. "Mom, dad. If you ever see this... I love both of you! I never could have wished for better parents. I had a great life, and I'll always be there with you." The ship catches fire from the outside, everything starts to shake.

"Everypony, get ready for impact!" Said Firewall. Fauna and Flora keep holding with closed eyes. They cry softly.

I cry as I speak the words I never wanted to say to my parents. "Farewell..." I stop the recording. I pressed send. And thank Twilight. It did send somehow... At least my parents know my fate, and soon the hole galaxy. I close my eyes and wait. Just like everypony does, waiting for their death... then, it happens... BAM! Everything went black.

Author's Note

SPOILERS!

Story may contain pony.