What happened to Ironstar, we're in space already and he was outside with no spacesuit. Surely he didn't survive, and if he did, what injuries. The cargo bay wasn't closed, and the spacecraft was launched with the cargo bay open, was Ironstar still in Equestria or was he in the cargo bay?

We were officially in low Equestrian orbit after slight RCS maneuvers and only 1m above the atmosphere to avoid radar detections. Yes, radar also works in space. An enormous Pentagon Space space cruiser was approaching us, orbiting in a retrograde orbit. For a size comparison, it was approximately 100 times larger than this spacecraft.

The fur on my neck shrivelled, later spiking up. I was shivering, not because of the space cruiser that seemed like the Death Star in PONY-WARS, it was because the spacecraft we were in was freezing. I should've put on my helmet, but it was not with me for the time being. The cruiser had guns and missiles and lasers that looked like they were capable to destroy any planet with ease.

Pointing its guns at us, we had to do something, it was going to fire at us. Thank goodness I had experience in flying aircraft, and since I'm that pony that knows orbital mechanics, rendezvous and whatnot, I was easily able to dodge all its laser attacks, piece of cake really. Since the cruiser had a velocity difference of 4000m/s, it got out of the way in about 1 second or something like that.

The airlock suddenly busted open, it was Ironstar. Miraculously, he resisted very fast spin, being in a vacuum and 100 m/s acceleration. This is the new definition of Ironpony, the others were just merely puny assholes compared to this one. Fantasy or fiction can always be reality, just like this as fiction has events like this. Real life also has events like that.

Everyone was bewildered as nopony could absolutely survive these conditions. He had to get at least some credit, I mean, how could he not get some credit. To my calculations, the cruiser is going to strike us back in about 17 minutes, so I guess we'd better move now. Talking about moving right now, the cruiser warped over above us. We're fucked.

'How the hell are you alive? We thought you went with the fiery mass of debris on the airfield,' Flame Rider asked, astonished by the extreme feat that Ironstar did.

Ironstar then swivelled into his luxurious commander's chair and replied, 'Well long story short, I’m skilled fuckers!'

Not very polite but whatever, we all curse a lot time to time. Checking on his dashboard, Ironstar slowly checked the spacecraft's damage and status, fatigued and discoloured. The space cruiser started to shoot us, but the tungsten made spacecraft that we were in easily protected us from any bullets.

Ironstar then exclaimed, his voice echoing, 'Oh shit, we can't enter warp speed while being shot at!'

Impolitely nudging me out my seat, he flicked a couple switches that didn't have any labels, making a cyan dome appear around us. The dome acted like a defensive feature, blocking all bullets and lasers shot at us. 'Look!' Lone Wind alerted everyone.

Ponies from our team were right behind us, and they acted like a line of defence, not that it would be useful at all. From my count, there were only 10 Galaxy Voyagers available, no other spacecraft able to be seen. 'Squadron 7, 6, 2, 1 reporting for engagement towards enemy target?' an officer radioed me.

'Granted!' I shouted.

'Sir I rather die trying then hide away like a bitch, don't reply to this message.'

I'm not a stallion, and the pony called me sir, so I had to reply, 'I'm a fucking mare you asshole!'

The next second, 300G acceleration killed me, as in not dead, but feeling like I was dead. My brain felt like it was ripping off and my blood rushing out of my body. Thank goodness none of that happened and that everyone endured the immense acceleration.

'Warp travel is very painful for those who have never experienced it before,' Ironstar stated as he pressed a large red button.

A blue dome appeared around the spacecraft, the space around it starting to bend. From what I saw, the cruiser was bent out of reality, space shifting around us. I couldn't feel anything in the initial part of the warp, but once we got faster and faster, near light speed, a painful feeling struck me.

Light speed is 299792458 m/s, and that's fast. Going to another galaxy at that speed would take at least a few million years, and that everyone would be dead, no stasis chambers in this place. Hitting light speed, my chest felt like it was poked by a thousand needles, and at 10000 times light speed, it felt like all my bones were shattered at the same time. At least I didn't have to endure that for long, one second later, we were there, orbiting a dead looking planet.

Still feeling the intense pain, I was at least able to relax myself, the pain going away after a few seconds of relaxing my tense muscles. I just don't get how travelling faster than light is possible, as nothing that has mass can travel faster than C, or light speed. It could just be the warp drive manipulating space around us and not actually changing our speed, but the pain, that didn't make sense.

Peeking out the window, the dead planet was orbiting a red dwarf star that looked like it was near the end of its life. The planet was all brown, complete with a low amount any green patches and barely any water. From what I could see, the water's colour was all sludgy. The landscape from up where we were looked like ant holes, spewing out what seemed like molten lava.

'Welcome to Unicron,' Ironstar announced embarrassedly, 'This is where the bullshit happens.'

I facehoofed, bullshit, what bullshit. Pointing to a megastructure in orbit, he explained, 'That's where the cure is.'

'Then what are we waiting for,' Flame Rider excitedly cried out, putting on her spacesuit simultaneously.

The structure was about 4 km away, but it was clearly visible from our end, and so Ironstar pointed the spacecraft to the orbital megastructure. Right before he throttled up the engine, I blocked him. 'Point retrograde,' I commanded, 'Then burn only about 3m/s.'

'Why?' he questioned as I told him that.

'We want to make our orbital period shorter, not longer dumbass.'

'Whatever you say.'

Doing that little retrograde burn meant that we were able to rendezvous with that space station with a relative velocity of only 7m/s and a seperation of 39m. A quick work of docking was done, and we were now able to enter it. Only problem, alien ponies. There were crowbars, guns and a pan. That should be enough to defend ourselves from something like laser rifles.

I grabbed a pan and the others grabbed guns. My thought with the pan is that it could be useful as a shield for deflecting bullets. Who knows if it would work or not, but better safe than sorry. I strapped it to my left flank and also grabbed a crowbar. The others grabbed the guns so no guns for me. I guess I'm the one doing the melee damage.

Starry and Lone Wind remained in the docked spacecraft as the others including me ventured into the vast space station. A sign appeared in front of us. It read, 'Welcome to Pentagon Space International Research Labs.'

This was the place Ironstar got kicked out of, but one year has passed, and the ponies might've forgot about him, at least I hope they forgot about him. Nobody was guarding the place, and we were able to move around easily along the neverending tubes and modules. Many rooms were also able to be found, and passing through some, we found one that had a label, a sinister label.

Leech Infection.

'Eww,' Donut complained in disgust.

'Let me do something,' Ironstar added.

There was a computer that had a terminal on the screen, and with a few taps on the keyboard, which looked weird, Ironstar was able to 'hack' it. Information was displayed on the screen about the infection.

Leech Infection
Description: Microscopic Leeches, an essential part of any disease, used to increase infection rate. Not to be used for killing the host.
Effects: Bleeding of the victim, rapid reproduction of leeches via victim's cells.

After some taps on the keyboard again, Ironstar had confirmed that it was used as part of Plague 03. So that was why ponies that were getting infected had intense bleeding. Nopony was brave enough to go in and check the place out even though we had spacesuits that could protect us fine from diseases.

We floated around the place once more, losing our sense of direction a few times because of the maze like tunnels. Dead ends greeted us with doors that would lead us to dangerous rooms, some with 'DANGER! DO NOT ENTER!' written on it. Most of the doors' descriptions had either toxic gases or bio-weapons. Yes, biological weapons, why the fuck did they need them.

Hours of navigating took place, all of us getting fatigued until a door that said 'Main Control Room' appeared along a corridor. Finally, the main control room. Can't believe how anyone's able to navigate around the place. No foes were seen, no other creatures. Quite strange for a somewhere like this. This place was a lot like an abandoned space station, but if it was, why?

Pulling out my crowbar, Ironstar used it to force the jammed door open. It was a 5cm thick hunk of metal, reinforced with lead for protection against radiation. Busting in, lifeless ponies were scattered on the floor and ceiling, almost like glued to the floor and ceiling. Dried up blood was also apparent, splattered across the place. Grabbing my crowbar, I smashed some of the ponies, no signs of life.

Analysing the dead ponies, I concluded they were most likely murdered, as marks indicate that a knife was the tool used. The frosty metal floor could also be used as a murder weapon. Who would murder these innocent ponies? On second thought, are these ponies even innocent? Whatever the reason was, that wasn't very important, the important thing was to look at the files kept in this room.

Turning around, I saw Donut cracking a computer. I could barely hear what she was mumbling, 'Leech infection, weathering decay, horn cancer, alicorn shock syndrome, rainbow arthritis, inverted shadow disease.'

Who would engineer diseases like that, why would someone engineer diseases like that. Plague-03 was a bad enough biological weapon like disease, horn cancer, alicorn shock syndrome, really? Who in Celestia's name even engineered them. I took out some food via some part of my spacesuit, and started to chew on it to stop myself from vomiting. My spacesuit could hold 3 days of food and water, nice eigh?

Donut was searching the files on the computer again, this time with Ironstar. I really don't want to see what it contained, I don't want to puke. The place was already dirty enough, imagining my mucus and stomach fluid on the floor made me want to fuck myself up even harder.

Flame Rider murmured to everyone, searching frantically for something, 'Oh shit, someone’s coming.'

Sounds of footsteps crashed into my head, a tingling sensation filled my mind. Suddenly, the sound of an explosion echoed around the place, creating an eerie aftermath. 'Close all possible entrances!' Ironstar commanded, thrashing around the place and blocking the doors with anything he could find.

Loud thumps of someone trying to get in filled the place. We remained silent, trying to stay invisible. Again, I heard Donut mutter disease names, 'Apoplexia fuscus, dark stroke, verminous softening, rheumatic weakness, confidential folder. Wait, confidential shit yeah.'

Confidential shit, what was it, a one of a kind mass destruction biological weapon capable of rapid infection and high lethality? Whatever it was, it wasn't important for now, Flame Rider, Ironstar and I were dying from exerting all our energy at blocking the door. One by one, we collapsed, Flame Rider first, Ironstar next and me last. My head went dizzy, sweat poured out my fur and I blacked out instantly.

'Planetshine, Flame rider are you here?' I heard the anonymous creature say. I knew that voice very well, it was Starry Night. She came for us along with Lone Wind. How do I know, It's obvious. Starry was still in the vegetable state, so Lone Wind had to go with her.

I yelled back, puffing, 'Starry Night, is that you?'

I was now conscious, just need to be wide awake the others already awake. Lone Wind collapsed right as he entered, floating to a wall. Trying to regain consciousness via the wall, he completely collapsed with no sign of life other than his heartbeat. Flame Rider grabbed Lone Wind by the hoof and stood him back up the right way.

'What happened Starry,' she asked.

She answered, 'It's a long story. Lone wind had been worried sick after you guys didn’t return, so he grabbed me by the hoof, stuffed me in a spacesuit and towed me into the satellite network. Of course, he had almost no equipment, so it took him ages to find traces of where you went. After he found a trace we sat down for lunch. Lone wind fed me through a tube while he enjoyed his delicious sandwich using a mechanism from inside his suit. We were suddenly approached by a hoard of alien ponies that had appeared to have weird deformities due to chemical exposure. Lone wind ran, hitting my head against multiple corners and random debris on the floor. He finally smashed my head over a destroyed spacecraft and then I woke. But wait there’s more. When I woke, Lone Wind hid me and explained who he was, and what we were doing here. We had lost most of the deformed Alien ponies through there was this one unique pony. He had a dick on its head which looked like a horn at first, but if you went through the mane then you could clearly see that it was a dick. So, I was freaking out and without a second thought, stabbed him in the dick. He fell to the ground and died. I got pretty bruised from getting dragged from the floor, though Lone wind had broken a hoof, so I carried him here, to central control.'

Long story short, got here while stabbing a pony that had a dick as a horn and Starry was now able to move. 'Wow, is the dickhead ok?' I joked, bursting into laughter. The others giggled too, but only a little, I was a giggling a little too much.

'Ironstar have you heard of the Plague-03 live pony trails?' Donut called out, her face in a crooked mess.

'Uh, nope, never heard of it,' Ironstar replied, perplexed.

Everyone except Flame Rider floated to where Donut was, staring at the computer screen. She scrolled through half the page that was talking nonsense and proceed on with the gross content. It was a video, a very disturbing video. This was the Plague-03 live pony trails. This was the video documenting Plague-03.

A pony was seen in the camera's frame, bound and gagged. She was a pastel aqua mare, complete with a turquoise mane. She was also chained to the wall, unable to escape. A mysterious alien pony came up, holding a needle with an awfully familiar looking liquid inside. What seemed like a panic attack struck the victim, its body twisting into seemingly impossible positions until kaboom, she exploded.

From what I saw, she was dead, her body exploded, thick, fresh, juicy blood was splattered everywhere. My stomach churned, I felt like throwing up. With nothing to stop the fluid from my stomach from ejecting out my mouth, I desperately took off my helmet and ejected the vomit out. I quickly put my helmet back on as I was paranoid about this place. The others didn't seem very paranoid as they all had their helmets off.

A scream emerged from somewhere in the research lab. Looking behind me, Flame Rider had blood on her muzzle, though she already knew that. Panicking, she tried to get the blood off, frantically wiping it. Samples of the blood was collected and later quickly analysed. It was blood hybrid with something else, fresh from the host's body.

Analysing it even further, it was mixed with a pure form of acid, frosium acid. Ironstar described it was an acid so strong, one drop of it could melt a hole through anything, even a moon. It had a PH rating of under -10000, very acidic. More screams emerged, followed up with leaks of blood and screams.

Author's Note

Next chapter might come a bit late.