Void Trials

Perseverance

"We have received a message from the ship, and it is indeed hostile. They are going to board us through the ship head, everypony arm yourselves!"

Stunned, Shetland, Saw, Press and Ciloa stared up at the speaker in silence. Then, all over the ship, panic erupted and from everywhere came the staccato of hooves, ponies impacting on the walls and ceiling, shouts from fearful ponies trying to figure out where to go or what to do.

Shetland jumped up from her bunk, but her sudden movement in zero-gravity sent her into the ceiling.  “AGH” she shouted, grabbing the side of her bed to pull herself down to the ground.

“What's the plan?” Saw shouted, his eyes darting from Press and Shetland to the speaker frantically.

“There's no plan!” Shetland shouted back at him. “This has never happened before!”

Press, took a look at Ciloa, who had grabbed the edges of their bed tight, her whole body shaking, and screamed:

“QUIET! if there´s no plan, we need to make one!”

“Where are our weapons stored?” Saw shouted

“I-in the cargo space, but that´s on the other side of the ship!” Ciloa answered.

“That doesn't matter!” Shetland said, her hooves now safely on the ground. “You two go there, get the weapons, I´ll try and hold them off until you reinforce us!”

“That´s stupid, you´re unarmed and unarmored-” Saw reached for Shetland with his hoof, but she was already at the door.

As she opened it, the screams of the panicking crew swept into the room and Shetland had to scream to overpower them. “It's risky, but we need a plan now, and this is it!” From the corner of her eye, she could see Press nod and take Ciloa by her hoof. Then she descended into the hallway.

It was chaos. From the front of the ship came ponies running towards the cargo to find weapons, places to hide, or their friends, while from the other side,ponies rushed in the opposite direction, carrying all the weapons and ammunition they could find.

And in the middle, they clashed into each other, blocking the way, screaming, they pushed, some fell, floating away weightlessly and trying to grab something to hold onto. Others tried fanatically to gather up their dropped weapons and to load them, often with the wrong type of ammunition. A loud thump from the cockpit told Shetland to hurry. She ran forward and shouted:

“Let me through, i´m a soldier! I'M A SOLDIER, DAMNIT!” However, only one earth pony in front of her seemed to understand her words and tried to make place for her, but then a unicorn, holding something big in his magic, tried to dive through the new free spot.

Shetland lunged forward, bit his tail and yanked him backwards. She was about to ignore him and make her own way through the chaos, but then her eyes fell on the weapon he was still holding.It looked like a bulky gun, almost as long as one of her legs and at least twice as thick. It had a barrel seemingly large enough to fit tennis balls. On top of it laid a big drum magazine, enough to hold at least six little balls.

An E-45 grenade launcher!

Shetland grabbed the weapon and tried to pry it from the unicorns grasp, but he grabbed it with one foreleg, the other he set on Shetland’s chest and tried to break her grip.

“Let go!” he screamed, his voice seemingly too high-pitched for his body.

”You can´t use this in here” Shetland screamed back. The E-45 launcher was specifically build so it could be used in interiors without destroying them, trading sheer explosive strength against the ability to accurately lob the little grenades behind cover, but Shetland certainly didn't want to test that theory on board of a spaceship, where it could spell everypony's doom.

Suddenly, the unicorn’s face became as pale as a skull.

Shetland followed her eyes and froze.

Around the corner came something that looked like the skeleton of a pony, if there weren´t the glass, red glowing eyes, wires hanging between the metal bones and pistons and cogs in place of the joints.

The robot raised a hoof, and hefted atop that hoof was a gun.

The unicorn recovered first from the shock, and threw himself at Shetland, trying to wrestle the weapon out of her hoof, but with a loud cracking noise, he fell beside her, holding his stomach. Out of his back poured his blood.

Without thinking for even a second, she raised the weapon and shot a tennis ball sized grenade at the machine. It impacted on its chest and exploded, ripping the robot apart, scorching the walls, but only dealing minor damage to them.

But already, a group of  three robots turned the corner, guns raised, and the crowd of ponies recovered from their shock and ran, all in different directions. Shetland aimed her weapon again, taking a step back. The robots’ guns roared, and they tore into the crowd, injuring half a dozen ponies before another shot from Shetlands weapon blew one apart and threw the other two to the sides, one badly damaged.

But then, as even more came around the corner into the hallway, Shetland shot one more time and turned to run. Even through the explosion, she could hear more of them arrive! How could they already be here? She didn't hear a single shot fired from the ship head!

She suppressed a scream as a bullet grazed over her flank and she turned for a moment, shooting behind herself before she jumped and floated over a screaming pegasus, who had been felled with several bullets to the side.

All around her ponies were running, ponies screaming, falling, dying. Shetland ran faster. She knew she could not defend them against that many without backup, where were her friends? She heard the thumping of metal hooves growing closer at an alarming rate

Another two ponies next to her dropped, they pleaded for her to save them! Shetland couldn´t look back, she breathed heavily, she ran. In front of her was a gate, which she knew was to the cargo space.  Behind it, she saw Press, in his full set of armor, barring the helmet. He stared at  her, his rifle levitating beside him. His face turned pale.

“RIGHT BEHIND YOU!” He screamed.

Shetland looked back. Only a few metres behind her ran several robots, faster than any  pony she´d seen before. They were not in the shape of ponies, their shoulders stronger than any pony she’d met, their heads smaller, but fitted with a frightening jaw, filled with teeth worthy of blades, and their hooves had steel claws coming out of them.

Turning back to Press, Shetland raised the grenade launcher and without looking, lobbed a grenade behind her back.

A tremendous force launched her forward and it felt like her leg had been ripped apart and set on fire. Shetland lunged forward, crashing into a tall crate with her shoulder first, but the force knocked her hard against its metal casing, giving her a feeling as if her head had been hit with a sledgehammer.

Stunned, she heard Press and Saw shouting, Ciloa bend down over her, her expression one of shock, and behind her, the big gate closed.

Shetland tried to sit up, but Ciloa´s holed hoof pushed her down again. The others and an earth pony Shetland didn't know gathered around her, their faces expressing shock, fear and worry.“D-does anyone here know anything about  first aid?” Press asked, his voice deprived of any sense of calm.

Saw shook off his hesitation and looked up. “I need any kind of fabric you can find! Look through the crates, healing potions, blood packs, stim packs, bandages- DON'T MOVE!”

Shetland had tried to sit up and look at her lower body, but as she moved her right hind leg, a pain like she had never known pulsed through her body, as if a dragon had set her leg on fire and then stuck knives into her scorched flesh. She let out a scream, loud enough to startle Ciloa and make the others rummage through the cargo even more hurriedly. “How bad is it?” Shetland pressed through her teeth and sore throat. She could not even suppress tears flowing out of her eyes.

Saw took a close look at her flank, his nostrils flaring. Shetland now noticed the smell of burnt flesh as well. “I-I need to see!” she demanded through her teeth. Saw seemed conflicted, but he softly pushed her up a few inches. She let out another shout, both from the pain, but also from the view.

Her right flank and leg were burnt and bloody, her flank and outside part of her hindleg was scorched black. Around her inner thigh, it was bloody, the skin flaking off. Her cutie mark was unrecognisable, now just black, ripped skin. Lesser burn marks reached up to her stomach and her left inner thigh, and her tail was almost completely burned, and in fact, Saw set to stomp out embers glimmering in its smoldering remnants, an act that would normally have Shetland clench her teeth, but now barely even registered.

Press came back with a first-aid-kit, and he and Saw quickly pulled out healing salves, sterilizers and bandages.  “Alright, this is going to hurt a lot…” Saw stated and started by smearing healing salve over her blackened skin. Weirdly enough, she barely felt him there, only when his hoof wandered over her reddened burns did she yelp, and Press had to keep her still. Through the agony, Shetland felt ashamed; she wanted to hold still, let Saw do his work without complications, but as soon as his hoof reached down again, pouring more salve onto her wound which only seemed to make the burning worse, her resolve melted away, and she screamed and struggled against Press´s grip.

“C-c-can't  we give her any painkillers?” Ciloa meekly suggested, pressing herself against a crate, not daring to get any closer to the scene before her.

“That could cause problems” Saw said through his clenched teeth as he smeared the last bit of salve on Shetland’s wound and started pouring sterilizer on bandages. “If she uses that leg, it could cause serious long-term effects”

Now that the treatment was temporarily over, Shetland had managed to regain her senses and croaked through her hoarse throat. “You know what causes long-term-problems? Bullets! I need the painkillers so I can fight!”

Unable to give a proper response, Saw just nodded to Ciloa, who took a syringe from the first aid kit, and stabbed it through Shetlands foreleg. Saw started to wrap the bandages around Shetland´s wound and fed her a healing potion.

After about a minute, she could feel her side cooling off. She could still feel it, it even hurt badly, but her mind wasn't clouded by pain anymore and she could think. She looked over to the door, and noticed that the foreign earth pony stallion did the same.

“How do we know this door will hold?” He asked, or rather, squeaked. On his overall was a plaquette which read “Rock Plunge.”

“It will,” Ciloa assured him, “at least for a while”

“How do YOU know?” He retorted.

“Because” she said and looked around the stacked crates. “We are supplying a mining colony. And for mining, you sometimes use dynamite. This door will hold, even if at least a fourth of the explosives here go off at the same time”

“Heh,” Shetland chuckled. “If  we can't make a plan to beat ´em, i could wire all of it together and blow up the ship. I know my way with explosives.”

“Anyone even know who they are supposed to be?” Saw blurted out.

“Pirates,” Press said with perplexing certainty.

“Why pirates?” Shetland asked, unable to look at him from her position on the ground . She ignored the urge to stand up and talk to him eye to eye.

“Because those robots are clearly stolen.” He said. As everypony but Shetland stared at him in bewilderment, he explained. “Those are standard warbots, unmodified. They follow the rules of the Neighpon contract. If our enemies did not modify them, it´s probably because they stole them and wouldn't know how to change their design. And because any nation can build ´em, they wouldn't need to steal at all. So the most logical explanation is pirates.”

“Ooh,” Saw and Shetland said in unison, but Ciloa and Plunge just seemed even more baffled.

“After the victory in Hiroshimare,”  Press continued. “All the nations of Equus made a contract detailing exactly how to limit artificial intelligence. And these bots follow those guidelines to a T. They´re inflexible and unable to stand up to fully geared and prepared soldiers,” he clenched his teeth. “If we had responded better instead of delving into chaos, we probably could have held them off without great losses!”

“THAT DOESN'T HELP US AT ALL!” Plunge screamed.

“M-maybe it will” Ciloa said. “I-if the bots outside really follow those rules, we should know them.”

A loud bang outside made the group turn towards the door. It sounded like one of the robots hurled itself against it. Fortunately to no effect.

“Well,” Press said. “Sentient A.I. is unbound by these rules, but those have to be built with a data core, so it can't save itself anywhere else. If you destroy the core, the A.I. is dead. No safety backups. All robots have to have one.”

“Except Turing, my mom's friend. But she helped design the cores and mom trusts her so she gets a pass.” Shetland said hoarsely.

“S-so…” Ciloa said, her voice echoing even more than usual. “Those things outside have these cores we need to destroy?”

“Actually” Saw chimed in. “only one. They're actually not drones, they don't have data cores, they're guided by a central core. Probably on their command bridge”

“But then we only have to destroy that one… right?” Ciloa asked, hope glimmering in her eyes.

“If only it was that easy” Shetland sighed. “It will throw all the drones it has at us. And we're just two soldiers, a wounded one, and two civilians”

Several loud clangs came from the door. They were now shooting it, still to limited success.

“W-we can't just give up!” Ciloa shouted. “”There´s a lot of weapons here, right? And armor! We can fight!”

“What we need,” Press said while he looked through more crates. “Is some way to surprise them. Take out a big chunk of them and storm onto their ship”

“I have a grenade launcher,” Shetland suggested.

“Good start, but that´ll probably not kill enough. And we can't risk bigger explosions or it will blow apart the ship”

“It's the best plan we have.” She insisted.

Plunge, who had spent the last minute observing the gate, peeked up at that. “Wait… w-what if we open the doors?”

Shetland made a grimace. “Then the robots storm in and kill us, great plan, normie”

Plunge shook his head, and with a bit of anger in his voice he retorted. “No! I meant both doors!”

The following moment would have been complete silence, if not for the metallic banging on the gate.

“L-look, i´m a technician, so I know how to remotely operate the machinery without the ship A.I. T-these levers on the wall-” he pointed at a set of encased levers next to the gate. “Open the door to inside the ship and… well…”

“Space!” Saw exclaimed, a grin appearing on his muzzle. “You want to open both doors and suck the bad guys into the void!”

“But how do we avoid being sucked out ourselves?” Press pointed out. “And can we close the door again? I would rather still have air to breathe even after we’ve won.”

“I-I'm not completely sure about the doors” Plunge admitted. “But some of the armor suits have an option to turn on magnets on the hooves, we can stick to the walls like changelings! Im sure we can find some here.”

“Hmmm,” Press said, as he weighed their options. “What if all the cargo gets stuck in the doorframe?”

“It won't,” assured Plunge. “It is all strongly fixed on the ground”

Shetland grinned. “Alright, everypony, seems like we got a plan!”

Ciloa threw a compassionate look at Shetland. “But where will you be, you can´t fight-”

“Yes, I can!” She stated, her voice raised.

“Surely, you can´t think-”

“Ciloa, I can´t stay back, we're safer in a group, and no one can stay back to try and protect me, there´s not enough of us. Also, I'm an earth pony. Not only that, an enhanced earth pony with alicorn heritage. Give me some drugs and i'll be fine!” She said with a reaffirming grin, which promptly distorted into a grimace as she got up on her hooves. “I'll be fine,” she said through clenched teeth.

Ciloa still looked worried, but with no valid counter-argument she just nodded and mumbled. “Just don't overdo it…”

Press was now branded in a complete set of what looked like a set of black knight armor, but instead of steel, they were covered in carbon plates. His face was covered by a black helmet with no opening, just a blue visor, slightly glowing. His were encased in solid carbon and unable to move and his tail was contained in an unsightly sack of black rubber and plastic. Tiny mechanisms at his joints, build to reduce the impact the armor would have on his mobility and reaction time, were covered by flexible black materials. Thin glowing lines across the armor informed the wearer and his allies whether the armor was flawlessly powered or not.

He tapped Ciloa´s shoulder. “We still need to find a suit for you.” and he led her off, just as Saw arrived to help Shetland into her armor set, which was practically the same as Press´s, but in a dark shade of violet.

Shetland took a sharp breath. Gently, but swiftly, Saw fitted the armor on her, piece after piece. “It must hurt like a bitch if you can still feel it…” he said.

“Give me a stronger one next time… and a doctor.” She said.

The banging on the gate  had stopped, which made all of them nervous. If the enemy was not waiting right outside, their plan would most likely fail.

When they were all ready, they divided into two groups, one on each side of the gate. Shetland, Press and Plunge on the right side with the lever for the gate inside, Ciloa and Saw on the other, with the lever for the outside.

Shetland placed a fore hoof on the metal wall. It just slipped off again. In her visor, a little marker appeared over her hoof.

“Eh… activate magnet?” She whispered. Suddenly, she felt a force pull her other three limbs down, much stronger than she had anticipated. Her eyes started watering again as weight was put onto her bad leg.

After a minute, they had all placed themselves securely with all four hooves on the wall. Saw seemed a bit nervous, while Ciloa appeared weirdly calm. Shetland figured that sticking on walls and ceilings was quite normal for her.

“E-everypony ready?” Plunge asked, unable to suppress the shivers in his voice. He and Ciloa placed their hooves at the levers.

“Ready” they said in unison. And they pushed down.

As the gate opened, Shetland estimated at least a dozen robots with gun behind it, and another half dozen of the fast, toothy sort. The robots sat behind cover, made of bunks, chairs and even a water tank. It seems they anticipated us making a sortie, Shetland thought smugly. Too bad robots weren't known for their creativity.

Shetland felt a pull on her back, and she knew without looking that the gate to space had opened. It made a noise almost like a vacuum cleaner. The force got stronger. The drones seemed to realize something was up, but without a tactile sense, they could not pinpoint the reason. Two of them got up from their cover, and took a step into the cargo. But then, the water tank behind them moved forward, knocking them over and they were lifted from their hooves, flying out of Shetlands view. By now, the drones seemed to have realized what happened, but it was too late, and even as one or two tried to hold onto objects close to them, they were simply sucked out of the hallway with whatever they were holding onto.

By now the wind was roaring, and Shetland felt as if a minotaur was trying to pull her off the wall. Ciloa should have pushed the lever back by now! Shetland looked to her left, and what she saw froze her blood.

Ciloa was staring at the lever, panic in her eyes. It was encased by both her green and Saws red magic, but it was stuck.

The effort of her magic visibly strained her. She seemed to gulp. Then, she pulled one of her hooves from the wall, grabbed the lever, and pushed it up again.

“HA!” She cheered, but then her expression became one of horror as her other forehoof came loose. She hung there for a second, and her lips formed the word “no” in her helmet, then she was sucked off the wall and accelerated towards the opening.

“NOOOO!” Shetland and Press screamed, but both of their screams were overpowered by Saw´s, who lifted his hoof from the wall in a desperate attempt to grab Ciloa’s hoof, but the ferocious pull lifted him too from the wall, and before the gate closed, they were both towed into the great hollow between the stars while the door closed, cutting them off from the view.

“NOO!” Press screamed as he slid down the wall. He stared at the closed door, then whirled around and ran towards the lever.

“PRESS!” Shetland screamed as she slid down. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

“WE HAVE TO BRING THEM BACK!” He shouted back, reaching for the lever, but Plunge tackled him and the force sent them both floating in the air.

“We can't bring them back, Press, t-they´re gone!”

“NO!” He screamed, as tears formed in his eyes. “S-she can´t be, w-we can still save them!”

“They were pulled into outer space, Press…there's nothing we can do…but we have to move now, or the rest of the robots can recover!”

Press let out a scream, then he pulled himself onto the ground with his magic. Shetland could hear his unstable breathing between his words as he said in a shaky, vulnerable voice

“Alright, Shetland…give me a weapon. I will make those buckets pay!” At that last sentence his voice had a tone of finality, but also growing fury. Shetland tossed him a pair of guns, a rifle and a shotgun, and without waiting for her and Plunge to arm or ready themselves, he stormed off into the hallway. Alarmed, Shetland quickly took a heavy pistol and a second shotgun, and tossed Plunge a gun, she didn't register what it was. Then she ran after Press.

Ahead of her, the sounds of combat had already begun. She floated past a jawbot which had been devastated by a close range shotgun blast. Ahead, she heard Press screaming, and the sounds of rapid fire. She doubled her efforts to catch up to him, cursing the fact that her wound prevented her from going faster.

Behind her, Plunge suddenly screamed. A robot had burst out of a side room and taken several shots at him. His shouts were caused by surprise rather than pain, as his armor’s magical shields was quite enough to withstand a few bullets. Yet it would not hold much longer, and the shaky shots from his rifle were unable to finish the attacker off.

Shetland put a bullet between its glowing red dots, causing its head to explode in a shower of broken glass, ceramic and steel.

She gestured the startled Plunge to follow as she once again took off, trying to catch up to her friend. She sailed past several more broken machines, some from Press, some from her own efforts. She tried to ignore the broken, maimed and bulletridden corpses lying on the ground, and sometimes floating. Shetland pushed away the broken body of a pegasus with only one wing left, as she heard a different scream from the cockpit. One not only of rage, but of pain.

“Oh no,” she whispered, and barged through the door.

The great round room was devastated. The normally sealed door on the side, which would lead into a station if the ship floated over Equus, had been forced open, and a long tube lead from it to the pirates’ smaller spaceship. Broken chairs, glass and body part were everywhere, the wall in the back of the room was scorched, and around that area laid the captain and eight ponies of his crew, ripped to pieces from what could have only been a grenade. That was how the robots got past so quickly.

And, leaning on the side of the room, behind a group of two robots and one jawbot, sat Press, his hooves on the sides of his helmet, trying to force it off.

Shetland rushed to his side and froze. The side of the armor covering his throat had a clean, round hole inside, through which blood poured out. Press coughed.

“Aimed at the two, then the doggie jumped me- threw off my aim,” he managed to say, his voice weak and shaky. “Managed to shoot ´em, but only after this…”

“Hold on, Press, w-we'll help you, I-I´ll patch you up- AGH!” Shetlands hoof rose to her helmet. Press had just slapped her cheek.

“I’m done” he said. “Save yourselves…I'll be with…” But he lacked the air to finish his sentence, and he closed his eyes, his lips twisting into a pained, but nonetheless content smile.

Shetland took a shaky step back. She swallowed, but it did little to remedy the dryness in her throat. “G-go on,” she said to Plunge, but mostly to herself. “W-we need to move on!”

She turned towards the tube and, without looking back at her former friend, she moved on.

The tube did not lead into the pirate ship's cockpit, but against Shetlands fears, there were no robots awaiting them. It seemed the pirates had not expected their prey to win, or at least counter-push into their ship.

Shetland rushed forward, the pirates’ ship was only a fourth the length of their victims’, not longer than 40 metres at most. She rushed through the tight hall. Only a single robot stood in her way, and she finished it off with two shots from her pistol.

She was now certain all the bots had been sent onto their ship, with only the bare minimum remaining…but where was the crew?

She burst into the command room and there it was, attached to several wire cords. The data core. it looked like a green square the size of a pineapple, with little intricate details on its surface. She looked around suspiciously, but there was still only emptiness. Was it a trap? She took another look, but Plunge shouted with panic in his voice: “THEY'RE COMING AFTER US!”

Shetland looked back. Indeed, the robots were climbing back onto their own ship. The A.I. must have been panicking. She kicked the door closed and rushed towards the data core and yanked the wires out of it. Thank Celestia her armor was insulated.

“I-is it over?” Plunge asked, his breath strained.

“I hope so” Shetland answered. But she had to be certain. She took her gun, readied herself, and quickly opened the door to the hallway. The drones had all fallen over, lying there like toys without their batteries. She shot each through the head,just to be sure, then she turned back with a victorious grin.

“We won.” Then she dropped against the wall, spreading her aching leg. The joy of victory was short-lived, overtaken by pain, exhaustion and most of all, her inability to banish the images of her friends’ last seconds from her inner eye. When she closed her eyes, she even thought she could even hear their last moments. Ciloa’s and Saw’s terrified screams . Press´s last breathless words. All those ponies she didn't know by name…

Something touched her shoulder. She looked up and saw Plunge, who looked anxiously at her. “Thank Celestia…I thought you were…”

“I was just thinking…and exhausted,” She said, her breath already stabilizing, but her voice still shaky.

“We need to search the ship for survivors, soldier mare! And make sure there really aren't any pirates here.”

“Alright…just give me a moment” Shetland gasped and thankfully accepted Plunge´s hoof.

Even after a quick search, they found nothing but two deactivated robots, which Shetland made sure to destroy before moving on. There were signs of a crew, a filled fridge, waste in a bucket, some inappropriate writings on the toilet walls, but no living soul to be found.

However, before she could ponder too much about that, she had a duty to look for anyone still alive. She promised herself and her leg some peace later. Hopefully, they could find a doctor.

Climbing back onto their ship was harder, especially since she felt the drugs starting to wear off. She now had to keep her leg in the air, as touching anything with it would cause her to scream in agony. At least walking on three legs was not too difficult without gravity.

As she carefully slid out the tube, her eyes instantly darted to Press. His body, leaned against the wall before  as if he was just sleeping, had slid down to the ground, lying in an unnatural position that could not be mistaken for anything but death. She forced herself to look away, even as tears clouded her vision. His last order was to continue the mission, and she was not done yet.

However, as she trotted through the hallways and rooms, she had the gnawing feeling of her last hopes draining away. Wherever she looked were just empty rooms, or worse, rooms full of corpses. In the canteen she saw the remains of seven ponies and a changeling, who tried to take cover  behind a table but were caught out by a group of jawbots, their weapons, or maybe their aim not good enough to drive them off. She couldn't tell. An hour of unsuccessful searching and calling for ponies to get out of hiding later, Shetland returned to the Cockpit, where Plunge was already waiting, his head in his hooves.

She turned towards the body of her friend. She gulped. “We-... you should be buried next to her. You were…” but her words failed her.

“Soldier mare…” Plunge whispered.

“If those damn pirates hand´t stopped us…” Shetland blinked, a realization dawned on her.

“Fuck! T-the line is only between the Equestrian station and the colony! They certainly did not come from our station and they were in front of us- they came from the colony! That has to be why there were just robots on the ship, the pirates are all still in the colony. We have to get there fast and save-”

“YOU DON'T GET IT!” Plunge interrupted her with an angry shout. “We're not going anywhere. We're finished!”

“What-” Shetland begun, staring dumbfounded at the smaller stallion.

“We're dead!” He screamed, his teeth grinding, his nostrils flared, as if it was solely Shetland´s fault. “Lost! Doomed! Our captain is dead, and the data core of our A.I broken!

Do you know how to fly this ship?”

Shetland took a step back. “No…” she whispered. She hadn't even thought about that. Of course they couldn't fly without a crew, or at least someone who knew how to pilot. Her mind raced. There had to be something! “Maybe- maybe there's a book lying-”

“COME ON, there is no way either of us can learn to pilot a half-broken spaceship from a MANUAL!” He shouted.  “Damnit, damnit, DAMNIT!”

“Maybe someone is still alive-”

“There can´t be! We looked through every single room. Probably more than once. There´s just us! Fuck. If you just could have done your job right, all of this wouldn't have happened!”

“What did you just say?” Shetland growled.

“Your friend said it himself. If you weren't clueless about your own tasks, you would have stopped them easily!”

Shetland’s hoof shot forward, grabbing him by the neck. How dare he rail about her and her friends’ sacrifices?  Shetland pushed down on his throat. How dare he, he did not achieve anything, he did not destroy a singly enemy! He struggled, but he could not push her off.

Shetland looked down at the stallion. His face was beet red, and he was beating on her hoof, unable to remove it, but his eyes, his eyes were empty, as if someone had snuffed out a light behind them. He had the eyes of a corpse. Shetland removed her hoof, and he fell down, coughing and breathing greedily. “G-go” he demanded between his heavy breathing. “I-I want to be alone”

Shetland turned. There was nothing for her. She limped through the hallway, pulling her burnt leg after herself. Her stomach growled. She went to look for food. In the canteen, after climbing over the unlucky defenders, she found a pack of noodles, some water and pieces of nutrient chalk. That would have to be enough.

From somewhere a shot rang out. Shetland’s head raised, her ears peeking, but there was no follow-up shooting, no screams and no steps.

He had escaped the trap.

She looked at the table, but decided it was not the right place. Instead, she trotted into the cargo. She had one last thing to do. She rummaged through the crates until she found what she was looking for. A helmet. But more importantly, a helmet which had a build in voice recorder. She set it on her head.

“I-is this on?” She asked, not expecting an answer.

“S-start recording.” She swallowed, her throat still dry, she should have taken a sip of water before this.

“H-hey mom…here, Shetland Sparkle, y-your daughter, if you still remember me that is… Maybe this ship won't be found in millennia, if ever…” She shook her head, new tears flowing out of tear ducts she had thought dry. “W-when you find this, you should know how I… d-died.” And she started talking, about the attack, the chaos, Ciloa, her friends, her fear, in no order, she rambled and sobbed into the helmet until she had no tears left.

“G-goodbye, mom. I love you,” she said. “Recording over”

She took off the helmet and set it beside her, then she opened the water bottle and greedily chugged down its contents. She would not die with an empty stomach, so she slurped up the last noodle and even chewed the disgusting, tasteless chalk.

She closed her eyes. It would be better if she didn´t see. Her hoof grasped the cold metal and she raised it, until she felt the barrel against her temple.

She sat there for several seconds, pointing the gun at her head.

“Now!” She thought, but her hoof didn't react. She trembled.

“Now!” She demanded to herself, but her shaking hoof just could not press the trigger. She threw the gun aside in a fit of rage, which quickly turned on herself. Why did she have to be so scared? There was no point, she was certain to die anyway!

She didn´t know how long she sat there, beating on herself, but her painkiller wore off more and more, and the throbbing pain forced her up again. She rummaged through the crates, weapons, explosives, tools, a painkiller syringe which she happily took, grain, steel plates and, taking an entire crate for itself…

A robot. Not a skeletal warbot, no. A robot like Turing, but more advanced-looking and shaped almost like a pony, barring the lack of a mouth. It actually looked almost like a smoother version of her armor, even with a visor covering its eyes. Or maybe that was its eyes.

She probably shouldn't turn it on, she thought. If it was sentient, it would be cruel to awaken it, just so it could realize it was doomed to be trapped until its energy ran out.

However, she simply couldn't bear the thought of slowly starving to death alone, so she reached over and tapped its head. She found a plate in the back of its head that could be unscrewed, so, after finding a screwdriver, she did so. Behind it was a little switch, which she turned on. A shock went through the mechanical body, and two lights behind its visor started up.

The robot sat up, looking around.

“Have we arrived?” It asked, its voice sounding almost like a real stallion’s, with only a faint metallic vibe. “This does not look like Eggnor 4,” It looked towards Shetland. “Greetings, my designation is Mellow Drive. You can call me Mellow. Would you please fill me in on what… happened…?” He said, his voice changing from curious to shocked as his visor darted over the corpse of a pony lying just a few metres away from the cargo gate.

Shetland sighed. She took the bottle and turned it around, trying to get a few last drops to fall into her mouth. Then she explained.

At the end of it, Mellow stared at her, horrified at her words.“There has to be some way to escape!” He said.

“Not unless you know how  to fly the ship.” She groaned, lying down on her good side. She didn't want to get her hopes up just for them to die again.

“But… maybe i can get the knowledge out of the A.I. It knows how to fly the ship, right?”

“If its data core wasn't broken, we could grant it full control and it could probably fly us back. But since it IS broken it is of no help…” Something about what he said caused a light in her head to switch on. “Oh, Celestia” she whispered, then, for the first time in hours, she smiled. She flashed a mad grin at her new best robot friend and said: “I know how we can escape!”