The wind blew through her hair and she sighed with relief. The night was beautiful and the stars sparkled like jewels. She could have sat like this forever, laying here in a forest glade gazing up at the sky; such pleasures though were not to be. They returned and they returned to this most sacred place.

Flinging herself to her hooves the mare starred in horror as the trees in front of her started oozing a black inky fluid. The branches starting squirming and twisting till they looked more like long black ropy things. They parted away from one section revealing the moon; it was a horrifying bloodshot gold eye looking right at her.

She ran the other way. What else would anyone do in that position?

Breathing hard she raced through the trees as the voices continued their mantra of insanity. The black fluid was flowing over the ground trying to catch her and where they past they mutated the land. Blinking back tears she just kept running till she came upon several pony shapes. Something felt so wrong about that she stopped running, leaving small furrows in the ground as she slid to a halt.

They looked up with blank white eyes and smiles.

"Oh Nocturne." Stella sobbed. She glanced around as the fluid rolled around her and more ponies came out of the liquid. They all smiled as they calmly approached.

A sharp pain filled my torso. Looking down she saw a large blade like barb protruding from it. The ponies and fluid continued to advance.

"Never!" she shouted at them as she felt herself being lifted up into the still normal branches; leaving the liquid and ponies far behind. This thing in my torso is part of a tail. She realized she was lifted up to a waiting creature. It's skin was a layered carapace black material and had a glowing neo blue mane styled after Stella's own. It's equally glowing and blue slited eyes regarded her. She almost looked like an alicorn if one discarded the tentacles where the wings were supposed to be and her tail was long and barbed. She even had a curved horn that looked more like a weapon than anything else.

"Wake up now! Not much time left!" It said in Stella's own voice.

"What?"

It lunged with an open mouth, a mouth filled with jagged teeth, and ripped Stella's throat out.

Stella rolled off the bed and onto her hooves in one smooth motion that spoke of practice. Gripping a large blunt object she struggled to get her brain working through her sleep fogged brain. Outside of her room she heard a shrill scream; any other time or place that was a cause for rapid action. Stella merely glanced at her door, almost lazily, and confirmed that it was, in fact, locked and barred.

Walking up to her fresher she gathered some water in her hooves and splashed her face with it. Looking into the mirror her eyes widened to see the creature from before standing behind her. She was shaking and Stella could hear a faint whimper.

Stella glanced behind her to look at her but she was gone; both in the room and the mirror.

It's here.

Heart pounding in her chest she raced to the door and opened it with as much speed as she could manage. Once into the hallway she glanced to the right, towards the engine room, to make sure nothing was there. Turning to the left started moving towards the bridge she stopped by the cargo room which led to the airlock. Her two crewmates were huddled near the door that led to empty space unmovingly gazing at it without acknowledging her.

By them in a bloody heap was Crimson Scalpel. She was sobbing and looked at Stella with empty lifeless eyes. "Save yourself."

Before she could ask anything one of the others perked up and reached for the controls. "The master is in! Starting the airlock now!"

Stella stared as the airlock began to work. Inside the window was nothing but blackness till one yellow eye floated into view. It gazed at each pony in turn and when it was her turn a thought floated into her head;

Crimson whimpered. Stella glanced once at her and muttered one thing. "I'm sorry."

She flew on her hooves, leaving her weapon behind, down the hall and raced into the bridge. Turning around she fumbled with the door to lock it. Taking a breath she noticed a large number of fallen blue hairs leading to the bridge. Turning to look at herself she whimpered at seeing her rotten dead wings and a long barbed black tail coming out her backend.

She lunged at the comms station. "MISSION CONTROL! TWILIGHT! Anyone reading me?!" She shouted in a shrill voice.

"Ouch! We can hear you ju-" Answered an angry male voice.

"Kill me now! It's here! We won't make it back to base!" *Sob* "Don't Leave me like this!"

"What are you talking about? Said the voice in obvious disbelief. Stella heard some shouting in the background as a loud shrill tone starting blearing. Another vary familiar voice shouted almost loud enough to be understood. "We read you Shuttle Two! Plan Y engaged."

Which one was Y again?

Before she could recall the procedures involved the intercom came to life. Ever in a bored monotone; "Emergency detach commencing. Core overload engage. T minus five minutes."

Stella heard Crimson scream even through the door. It was long and slowly grew incoherent as something was being done to her. Her cry was muffled as two more doors slammed shut and the sound of machinery came from the walls.

"By Celestia, please tell me you can go faster!" Stella asked as she started to hyperventilate.

"Disconnecting now. Just sit back. It is the core that is going to take..." Came the reassuring words of a familiar lavender pony but the rest of her words were lost as another thought came to her.

The bridge she was in was not a big affair by any stretch of the word. Barely big enough for five grown ponies to stand with elbow room to spare. Just four seats to it's name; one pilot, sensor operator, comms operator and, lastly, astrogation. So it was trivial to lean to the side and glance down the hall behind her.

Through the three doors viewing window, always kept vary tiny, was a familiar blackness and four small lights arrayed into pairs. It was advancing on her and was about to reach the first door. She whimpered as it banged onto the first door sending a tremor into the whole ship.

With a loud pop all noise from the creature stopped and it floated away. She held her breath as the rest of the ship floated away too. Its engines taking it far from her and, if the tremble below her hooves are to be believed, the bridge itself was also moving as fast as it could.

The bridge was designed to be able to be the life boat if the unthinkable happened. Stella knew for a fact there was even a small bedroom and shower accessible from the airlock. Why the airlock Stella couldn't say; Only that it was the only airlock in the ship with four doors.

Stella didn't move and barely breathed until a large ball of fire lit up the empty space in her window. A pressure on her head that she didn't know was there lifted and she felt a feeling like blood rushing to the brain. Tearing the horn blocker off her head the Alicorn started giggling manically when the voices didn't start up.

"I'm free!" She shouted with tears in her eyes.

She stopped giggling when she noticed that the horn blocker was griped by a tentacle. Glancing to her side she noticed she no longer had a wing on her right; she had a tentacle. Looking at the left wing she gave it one experimental flap and watched as it hit the deck with a wet slap. Another tentacle unfurled from her side.

She was roused from her shock when a voice called to her; "Mission Control to Stella Nebulous, please respond! Are you still with us? Our screens have you flat lining."

"I'm here. I'm-" *cough* "I'm free. The voices are gone." *cough* "At last."

She retched out blood and two shriveled blobs. Her medical training allowed her to quickly identify what they were. She took a deep breath with an extra pair of lungs she didn't know she had.

"Are you sure your fine?" Came the male voice.

It was quickly replaced by the Princess. "Hang tight shuttle two. We are a week out from you."

"I read you." Stella responded and she paused siting upright in shock. Looking down at her hoof she did something that the old her would have called insane; the irony that she likely was insane was not lost on her. She pulled at her skin and watched as it peeled cleaning off revealing black carapace underneath. Stella felt strangely calm and empty and spoke without a hint of the previous stress. "Control, I am unfit for duty. Please mark the time and take control of the ship. I am... going to shower... I'll talk to you in the morning."

"We read you. Mission Control out."

Author's Note

Well... First story I have made for the public to read. Enjoy!

Credit to BreakDown for "Princess Twilight 'Nocturne' Sparkle" in "The Overworked Alicorn". Obviously i plan to take this kinda 'oc' in a bold new direction. I might not need to give this credit but still; 'Nocturne' is not my idea.