Episode 1: A New Hope

Chapters

Chapter 2 - New Alliances
Chapter 3 - Awakening the Nightmare
Chapter 5 - The Timeless' Tomb
Chapter 6 - We Never Left Part 1
Chapter 7 - We Never Left Part 2
Chapter 8 - The Gravest Infection
Chapter 9 - Rise of the Flood
Chapter 1 - Prologue
Chapter 4 - Master Builder of Will and Might

Chapter 2 - New Alliances

While the blue vortex of hyperspace surrounded the Ninka and the other Venators in its fleet, Admiral Holdo stood on the bridge overlooking it. Poe was there too, just standing against a wall with nothing else to do, along with his astomech droid B8. Soon afterwards, an officer trotted on the bridge towards the Admiral. The officer drew Poe’s attention.

“Admiral, we just detected two stowaways in the cargo hold,” the officer said.

Both Holdo and Poe sprung to life at hearing this, and swiftly turned around to face the officer. Nervous expressions on both their faces.

“What?!” Holdo exclaimed.

“Its nothing to be concerned about, Admiral. We discovered the intruders and detained them, but the strange capsule they arrived in just disappeared into thin air before we could inspect it,” said the officer.

Poe trotted up towards the Admiral and officer with an intrigued look on his face.

“What do you mean ‘it just vanished into thin air’?” Poe asked, confused. Both the Admiral and officer turned their heads and looked towards him, “How could something just appear and then immediately disappear onboard a starship?”

The officer shrugged, while saying, “No idea, Commander,” in response.

“They could be spies for all we know,” said the officer.

“That is possible yes, but we must also consider the possibility that they could just be travelled who accidentally stumbled upon our ship as we’re fleeing from the Alignment,” Holdo interjected, drawing Poe and the officer’s attention.

“Where are they now?” she asked the officer.

“Imprisoned in the brig in a cell,” replied the officer.

“Bring them to me, I wish to personally interrogate them,” she instructed.

“Of course,” the officer said before he nodded his head, then turned around and trotted off the bridge towards the brig, leaving Holdo and Poe alone on the bridge.

Meanwhile in the brig, the Doctor and Twilight sat with their backs to the wall.

The Doctor looked at the holoprojector while Twilight had a puzzled look on her face, like she was trying to solve some riddle.

Her eyes widened as she finally solved it.

“I’ve got it! I’ve solved the TARDIS’ riddle,” she exclaimed as she jumped up onto her hooves. The Doctor looked up from the communicator towards her.

“Yes, what is it?” he asked, to which Twilight smiled back at him.

“Your sonic screwdriver, she obviously wants us to use it to hack into the door and escape,” Twilight explained.

The Doctor silently stared at her with a blank expression on his face, much to Twilight’s confusion.

“What? Did I get it wrong?” she asked, but the Doctor just shook his head.

“No, you got it right. The TARDIS wants us to escape using the sonic screwdriver, and we could-” he said.

“But?” Twilight interjected.

“But I don’t think you’ve noticed, but we’re onboard a military vessel with frightened Equestrians. If we escape it would just make them more distrustful of us, and we’ll never find the TARDIS again or even help them with whatever the TARDIS wants us to help them with,” the Doctor explained.

“Our best option is to wait for a chance to prove our innocence to them, and maybe they will let us go,” he said.

Twilight stared back at the Time Lord with a shocked expression, almost like this should have been common knowledge and she just didn’t think of it. She hung her head and sharply exhaled.

“N-no, you’re right. We should gain their trust before we start looking for the TARDIS,” she said.

Their heads soon turned back towards the cell’ door as they heard several equines approach.

“Lower the force field. I am here to collect the prisoners,” a familiar voice said.

“Yes sir,” another voice replied before the force field was de-activated.

The officer from before stepped in front of the doorway, entering the Doctor and Twilight’s line of sight, and stared into the cell at them.

“You two, out now,” the officer instructed as he pointed his hoof at them.

Twilight and the Doctor exchanged a look and then nodded at each other. They looked back at the officer and slowly rose to their hooves, then approached him. The officer stepped aside to let them out. They trotted outside and was greeted by the officer and several soldiers – perhaps six or seven – who all had their blasters aimed at the Doctor and Twilight.

The Doctor and Twilight were then cuffed as the officer said, “Try anything and I won’t hesitate to put either one of you down” before then leading them out of the brig towards the bridge.

“Admiral, I’ve brought the prisoners as you requested,” the officer said as they eventually reached the ship’s bridge.

Standing half-way across the command walkway, Poe and Holdo turned their heads and looked towards the officer, though their attention immediately fell upon Twilight and the Doctor.

The officer nodded his head to Poe and Holdo before stepping aside, so his superiors could interrogate the newcomers.

The Doctor, Twilight, and Holdo and Poe silently stared back at each other.

“So, you are the intruders we just heard about?” Holdo asked. The Doctor nodded back in response.

“We are,” the Doctor said, staring back at Poe and Holdo.

“Allow me to introduce ourselves; I am the Doctor, and this is Twilight Sparkle of Equestria.” He touched his chest with his hoof and then pointed it at Twilight, to which Poe and Holdo followed his movements with their eyes.

“Alright, “Doctor”, Mrs. Sparkle-“ Holdo nodded her head at them, “…please explain to me that it is that you two just happened to appear on my ship the moment we escaped the clutches of death?” Holdo asked him.

“One would call it quite co-incidental that you two just happen to appear on the ship after such an event, especially my ship,” she said, interested.

Poe silently looked from the Admiral towards the Doctor, staring at him with a quizzical look. The Doctor nodded back in agreement.

“It would seem that way to you, and I completely understand that you would be suspicious of anyone, especially seeing as your home was just taken away from you-“

“It wasn’t just taken! It was destroyed, Doctor!” Poe suddenly interjected, snapping at the Doctor.

“I know-” the Doctor nodded his head at Poe. He hung his head before shortly looking back up at Holdo. “Mine was taken too, long ago in a great and terrible war.”

Poe and Holdo furrowed their brows at him, taken aback by this revelation.

“S-so, what you’re saying is that you are the last of your kind, Doctor?” Holdo asked in a surprised soft voice.

The Doctor nodded back.

“Why would we believe you?” Poe interjected.

“Commander Dameron!” Holdo snapped at Poe.

“No, Admiral, what if he’s just saying that to let him go?” Poe asked. “For all we know he could be lying, and he and this Twilight Sparkle could be specially trained infiltrators. We don’t know if the Alignment have counter-measures set in place to dispose of the survivors from their initial attack,” he said.

Holdo stared at him, but ultimately changed her expression from one of anger to that of suspicion.

Turning her head, she looked back at the Doctor and Twilight.

“As much as I hope its not the case, Commander Dameron does raise a good point,” Holdo said.

“How do we know that you’re not these elite infiltrators with these prepared backstories intended to make us sympathetic towards your cause?” she asked.

The Doctor craned his head up and looked straight into Holdo’s eyes.

“Tell one of your soldiers reach into my pocket,” the Doctor instructed. Holdo furrowed her brows in response.

“Why?” she asked skeptically.

“Just do it.”

One of the soldiers closest to the Doctor turned his head and looked at Holdo. She looked at the soldier and nodded at him.

Turning back towards the Doctor, the soldier gently approached him and reached into his pocket. He reached around until his brows furrowed as he grabbed something. He pulled it out, only to find it was a small cylindrical rod of sorts. He looked at it but backed away from the Doctor all the same.

Holdo looked from the rod towards the Doctor and asked, “What is it?”. The Doctor shook his head.

“It's my sonic screwdriver, a device that allows me to hack into any piece of machinery,” the Doctor explained. Holdo raised a brow at him.

“Why would you do that? Why give up your only means of escape to us?” she asked.

“Show of faith. If I wanted to escape, I could have done so anytime I wanted but I didn’t come here to hurt you or any of the equines on your ship…but to help you,” said the Doctor.

“Help us?” Poe asked, confused.

The Doctor nodded back.

“We were sent to help you in this desperate hour, because whoever sent us knew that you won’t make it through this on your own,” he said.

Poe and Holdo looked towards each other. Both wore uncertain expressions on their faces, baffled by what was happening.

After a few moments of silence, the Doctor finally sighed heavily and hung his head.

“Look, I know you must find it hard to believe, so instead of trying to persuade you with words let me and Twilight prove ourselves. We deserve that,” the Doctor interjected, drawing Holdo and Poe’s attention back towards him.

They stared at him for a few minutes before turning back towards each other again. They then started whispering amidst themselves; they almost looked like they were arguing amidst each other, with them sneaking occasional glances at the Doctor and Twilight. Finally, they stopped whispering to each other and turned back towards the Doctor.

“Alright, Doctor,” Holdo said, “We have little reason to trust you, but I will give you your chance to prove that Mrs. Sparkle and you don’t serve the Alignment.”

The Doctor nodded back.

“Okay, what do we need to do?” the Doctor asked.

“Using your…sonic screwdriver, you will help us hack into the Alignment’s database and obtain the plans for their superweapon. With these plans, we will destroy this new weapon of theirs,” Holdo instructed in a serious voice.

“Okay.” The Doctor nodded back. “Should be easy enough to access this “Alignment’s” databanks using the sonic screwdriver and obtain the information you require to destroy this superweapon,” said the Doctor.

Poe, Holdo and the soldiers’ brows jumped. Stunned by how easily he’d agreed to co-operate with them.

“Ok-ay then?” Holdo said in a shocked tone before she turned her head towards Poe.

“Soldier give the Doctor back his screwdriver. I assume he’s going to need it,” she said.

Poe jerked his head towards the Admiral, shooting her a skeptical look as the soldier – that had the screwdriver – trotted up towards the Doctor to give it back to him, putting it back into the Doctor’s coat pocket. He and another soldier then unlocked the cuffs on the Doctor and Twilight’s hooves, freeing them from their bindings.

Twilight and the Doctor rubbed their hooves after they were freed from the cuffs.

“So, where is the Alignment’s main database and how do we get to it?” the Doctor asked as he looked up towards Holdo.

“We…don’t know,” Holdo sighed heavily.

“The Pentastar Alignment were originally just a band of terrorists that attacked Republic colonies and cities, which we believe evolved into an alliance composed of various alien races that we suspect had it out to destroy us,” Holdo explained.

“The Alignment could have multiple databases for the various races that have joined them, but we suspect that the primary Alignment database is in a region of the galaxy we dubbed the Unknown Regions. We suspect that is where the “original” Alignment formed before they attacked us, and the most likely spot for their intelligence and data to be stored,” she said.

“Hmm…” the Doctor grumbled as he touched his hoof to his chin.

“Well, it’s not much to go off but it’s a start,” he sighed. “We will find out where the Alignment’ databanks is stored and then obtain what information we need to destroy this new superweapon of theirs,” he said, to which Holdo nodded back at him.

“But, Admiral, you can’t be serious!” Poe interjected.

“The Alignment managed to beat us because they formed alliances with other races, so if we are to stand a chance of defeating them, we need to forge alliances as well,” Holdo replied as she turned her head and looked at him.

“Yes, it is a risk but what choice do we have?” she asked him. “The Alignment won’t wait forever before sending out ships to hunt we few survivors down and destroy us. Fortunately for moment they’re too occupied with reveling in their victory over us, possibly buying us enough time to strike back at them.”

Commander and Admiral meet each other’s gaze as they locked eyes, staring at each other until they soon turned around at hearing the Ninka drop out hyperspace. Poe, Holdo, Twilight and the Doctor looked out in front of each other at an ice planet in front of them.

Holdo trotted up towards the beginning of the command walkway and looked down into the crew pit, asking, “Where are we?” to the technicians and officers.

“Unknown, ma’am,” replied one of the officers.

A moment of silence passed before the same officer spoke up again.

“Ma’am, scans reveal that the planet is almost devoid of life aside from a few readings,” said the officer.

“Hold on, we’ve just detected another signal- No, correction, multiple signals,” the officer followed up as his monitor suddenly started beeping.

“Are they coming from the surface?” Holdo asked.

Looking at the screen, the officer’s eyes widened in surprise.

“No, ma’am, it’s outside in space, and its growing stronger…but if these readings are to be believed, then its charging up,” he replied.

Holdo’s brows jumped, and she quickly looked up and out the viewport into space.

Outside in space, Holdo frantically searched for whatever they had just detected, but it was impossible to see anything amidst the thousands of stars and countless moons surrounding the planet.

“Where is it? I can’t-!” Holdo asked until she abruptly froze as a bright light shined out in front of them.

Lines of blue energy out of nowhere formed a hexagon shape…before that hexagon shape then fired a beam of energy at one of the Venators, cleaving right through it in a single swoop. The entire ship erupted into a single large ball of fire, obliterating it!

The shockwave from the ship’s destruction pushed the Ninka and the other Venators away, sparing them from meeting a similar fate!

“GET US OUT OF HERE!” Holdo screamed as she recovered from the explosion.

“Yes, ma’am, right away!” the officer frantically replied.

Rising onto their hooves, the Doctor, Twilight, Poe and the other equines looked out the viewport, where they watched the Ninka turn away from the ice planet-

KRA-BOOOM!

… but before they managed to turn away from the mysterious planet, the unknown attacker fired a second beam.

The bridge violently shook, and sparks shot out of the walls and ceiling as the beam hit the Ninka!

The Ninka’s engines exploded, causing the ship to tilt to the side as it plummeted downwards.

Caught in the mystery planet’s gravity, the Ninka trailed smoke as it fell out of space towards the planet, below.

“Hold on everyone, we’re going for a ride!” Holdo shouted back to the Doctor, Twilight, Poe, and everyone else that could hear her.

Soon, flames engulfed the Ninka as it pierced the outer and inner atmospheres, picking up more and more speed as it shot towards the surface of the ice planet.

Back in space, two more ships burst into large balls of fire. The mystery attacker’s assault on the fleet continued!

After penetrating the atmospheres, the burning Ninka resembled a large fireball as it shot down towards the surface. It penetrated the clouds, which revealed to Holdo, the Doctor, Twilight and Poe large snowy mountains. Hundreds of giant peaks that pointed upwards into the sky.

The bridge shook as the Ninka’s ventral surface grazed the tops of the mountains, destabilizing whatever of an orbit the ship had and causing it to descend faster towards the surface.

While it managed to get past the mountains, the Ninka violently slammed down onto a large plain of snow, blowing up large waves of snow in the process!

This final impact was by far the most intense; as it threw screaming around the bridge, and sparks erupted the walls and ceiling as they exploded and were destroyed!

As the Ninka eventually slowed to a halt, nothing but silence filled the devastated bridge.

***

Someplace amidst the dark veil of night covering the planet and atop a hillside there stood a dome-shaped hut. The hut’s generator hummed as it provided heat and power, keeping its sole occupant warm as she slept.

KRA-BOOOM!

A mare gasped as the loud explosion startled her awake.

She tumbled out of her bed, but quickly stood back up and ran over towards a nearby window. She looked out into the night sky, and for a second gasped as she saw a bright light high in the sky. Soon, she glimpsed fire raining from the sky towards the surface.

KRA-BOOOM!

She flinched as a second smaller explosion and three more explosions, gasping at the explosions’ vibrant lights. She had seen explosions in the sky before, but this was unlike anything she’d ever seen before.

Her attention abruptly shifted towards a large object that fell from the sky. It plummeted towards the surface, grazed the top of several nearby mountains before crashing behind them.

Instinctively, she turned around and quickly ran for the door, grabbing her jacket in the process, though she didn’t close it.

She opened the door and ran outside into the snow before holding the binoculars up in front of her eyes.

Using the binoculars’ night vision, she searched the mountains for any sign of the crashed ship. Scouring the surrounding mountain peaks, until she finally spotted black smoke trailing up into the sky; marking the crashed ship’s impact site.

Lowering the binoculars, she stared at the mountain peaks with a determined look on her face before she turned around and ran back inside the hut – closing the door behind her.

Putting on proper clothes, she grabbed her quarterstaff, and ran out of the primary dome to a secondary dome – that was connected to the primary dome.

Flicking a light switch and illuminating the smaller dome’s space revealed her speeder.

Pressing a button on the wall caused a door to move upwards.

She affixed the staff to the speeder and sat herself down near the back. She flicked a few switches and pressed a couple buttons on the console, causing the engine to hum to life.

Smirking to herself, the mare then operated the speeder out of the second dome. The door automatically closed by itself a couple minutes after she’s left.

A short while later, the mare finally stopped the speeder atop a nearby hillside overlooking the downed object.

Through use of her binoculars, she was confirmed as correct in assuming that the object was a crashed starship.

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” she thought aloud. Her speech muffled by the scarf covering her face.

She lowered the binoculars and stared at the crashed ship.

Small fires had sprung up all over the ship, and there were large cracks and holes in the hull. The bridge also appeared to have suffered some damage. It was still intact, but for how long?

“Better get up there and see if anyone survived, and if not then fetch whatever’s worth salvaging and get outta there before the ship collapses on itself,” the mare thought aloud, while staring at the crashed Venator’s command superstructure.

She traversed the snow plain to reach the large starship, eventually approached it, and then climbed inside it – whether it be a large or tiny hole in the Venator’s hull; navigating the large vessel.

Inside of the ship, the hull creaked and groaned all around her, like its structural integrity was coming undone due to the damage it had sustained – both from the crash and having its engines destroyed. She witnessed that corridors had been completely disheveled and destroyed by the impact; corpses of countless dead equines laid strewn about the corridors – she did her best to ignore the dead and continue onwards to the living – bursts of sparks shot out of destroyed walls and ceilings. And several sections of the ship had collapsed, creating obstructions that forced her to take a different route.

… However, despite being forced to choose a different route, she failed to notice several small tentacled creatures that scuttled about the ship, following her wherever she went throughout the ship.

***

“OHhhh…!” the Doctor groaned as he regained consciousness. He raised a hoof to the back of his aching head and massaged it as he sat up on the floor.

The Doctor opened his closed eyes and turned his head, looking around the bridge which was now in shambles.

Parts of the walls and ceilings were destroyed, causing cables to hang down towards the floor, sparks randomly discharged from various parts of the walls and ceiling, and monitors and consoles had been damaged.

He looked around him and spotted Twilight, Poe and Holdo lying unconscious on the floor, surrounded by multiple soldiers. He smirked to himself at seeing they hadn’t been flung around the bridge too much, still the groaning and creaking was something to take seriously.

As Poe rose to his hooves, he gasped as he saw that B8 had been knocked over onto his back and ran over to help his droid friend up.

B8 beeped, shocked and confused about what had happened. Poe just chuckled in response at seeing that his droid was still functional after the crash, hugging his friend, relieved.

Standing up on his hooves, he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the sonic screwdriver. The screwdriver began making noises as he pointed it at Twilight, Poe, Holdo and the soldiers on the floor. Once he had scanned them all he looked at the screwdriver before sighing in relief.

“Ah good, they haven’t suffered too much damage,” he said.

He put the screwdriver back into his pocket and approached Twilight. Using his hooves, he gently nudged her awake. Soon, her eyes opened, and she looked up at him.

“Doctor, what happened?” Twilight asked.

“What attacked us?”

The Doctor’s optimistic look changed into one of fear.

“I don’t know. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen.” He shook his head as he replied.

He extended his hoof to her, which she accepted and let him help her up off the floor.

“Everyone seems to be okay, Twilight, but we shouldn’t wait before waking them. This ship has suffered extensive damage to the command superstructure, so we’d best get a move on before the bridge collapses,” the Doctor instructed.

“Agreed,” replied Twilight before she trotted towards Poe and Holdo to wake them up, while the Doctor approached the soldiers.

A couple minutes later, Poe, Holdo, the soldiers and some of the command staff were up and about. Soon, the soldiers and command staff had gathered around Holdo and Poe.

“Gather what supplies we can and prepare to move out. If none of the other ships survived the onslaught then we must be prepared for a prolonged stay until, well, anyone finds us on this cold rock,” Holdo instructed to Poe, the soldiers and command staff.

“Yes, ma’am,” the soldiers and staff replied in unison, nodding their heads in response to the admiral’s orders.

Turning away from Holdo and her group, Twilight looked at the Doctor who stood near the bridge’s door and held the screwdriver out in front of him. Even from this distance she could hear the noises it made. She then trotted up towards him.

“What are you doing, Doctor?”

“Scanning the ship for lifeforms. Since one has come to investigate our crash that must meant that we might be the only intelligent life forms on this planet…at least this side of it,” replied the Doctor.

Twilight’s expression changed into one of confusion, and she raised a brow at him.

“Then why are you scanning for lifeforms if you think there’s no intelligent life?” she asked.

“Just taking pre-cautions in case something with hostile intentions sneaks onboard the ship. We wouldn’t want to be just aimlessly wandering about if that is the case,” he replied.

Several seconds passed before the screwdriver suddenly started beeping, having finished its scan. The Doctor’s brows jumped in response.

He turned around and hastily trotted back up towards Holdo.

“Admiral, we are not alone. I detect multiple lifeforms throughout the ship,” he told the admiral.

Poe and Holdo turned towards each other and exchanged nervous looks before then turning back towards the Doctor.

“Are you certain?” Poe asked, skeptically.

“Mm-hmm.” The Doctor nodded back.

“My sonic screwdriver have detected a large group of life readings moving through the ship, heading towards the bridge fast,” said the Doctor.

“Do you have reason to suspect they are hostile?” Holdo asked.

“No, but-“

The Doctor’s attention abruptly snapped down towards the screwdriver as he heard it beeping again. He took it back out and looked at the light on the end of the Sonic, watching it beep faster and faster. His expression changed from confusion to shock, which grabbed the other’s attention.

“What is it?” Poe asked. The Doctor looked up away from the Sonic towards Poe.

“The life readings, they are growing!” replied the Doctor in a soft but stunned voice. Twilight, Holdo and Poe’s eyes widened at hearing this.

“But how is that possible?! How can life readings just appear out of nowhere?” Holdo asked.

The Doctor briefly hung his head and stared down at the floor. During which his brows jumped, and his eyes widened as a thought dawned on him. A horrific thought that made his head jerk back up and look straight at Holdo.

“Admiral, a ship of this size, how many serve aboard it?!” he urgently asked Holdo in a concerned voice.

“Seven thousand four hundred, why?” Holdo replied.

The Doctor sharply gasped and staggered backwards, nearly losing his footing and falling onto the floor.

Breathing heavily but slowly, he stared down at the floor in fear.

“Doctor?!” Twilight asked, concerned, as she trotted up to him.

“What is it? What is it about the crew number that scares you?” she asked, putting a hoof on his shoulder.

His head jerked up towards her, breathing heavily as he looked up at her. The fearful expression even more visible on his face now.

“I hope I’m wrong, I really do…but if not then we are all in grave danger!” he said in soft horrified voice. Holdo slowly approached the Doctor at hearing this, shooting him a concerned look.

“Doctor, what are you talking about?” she asked. “Do you know what’s out there?”

With sweat running down his temple, the Doctor slowly turned his head and looked towards Holdo.

He opened his mouth to speak when he, Twilight, Holdo, Poe, and the others suddenly heard a loud cluttering noise behind them.

Everyone of the equines turned towards the ruined doorway – from which the sound had come from, the soldiers raised their rifles, the officers, Poe and Holdo raised their pistols. Twilight’s horn was enveloped in its magical lavender aura, and the Doctor pointed his screwdriver at the door.

An eerie tension rose as they heard something heading towards them from outside in the hall-

…until their attention abruptly snapped up above them as they heard scuttling noises coming from the ceiling.

Suddenly, before they could react several pale-yellow creatures dropped down from the ceiling and attacked them!

The creatures resembled cephalopods, only with a more pointed tip at the top of their bodies, they had several ridges along the top of their bodies, they moved around on several tendrils, and sported a different set of tendrils that resembled antennae’s.

“Blast them…whatever they are!” Holdo shouted, stunned by the sight of these odd creatures as she raised her blaster pistol and fired a shot at one of the creatures.

The creature screeched as the blast hit, knocking its dead form onto the floor.

Poe drew his own pistol and fired a blast at one of the creatures, killing it instantly.

Twilight charged up a blast that she fired at several of the creatures, destroying five or six at once.

The Doctor aimed his sonic screwdriver at the creatures and repeatedly shot energy beams from the end of the screwdriver at the creatures, causing them to collapse onto the floor after being shot.

B8 used his ARC welder to electrocute the creatures, although it served as more of a distraction to lure the creatures away from Poe and the others.

The soldiers and other command staff fired their blaster rifles and pistols at the creatures, gunning them down without hesitation.

And the creatures screeched as their enemies’ magical blasts and/or blaster bolts struck them down. Killing them with ease…though, it didn’t matter if they were able to kill them for the creatures just continued to swarm them. Their hordes seemingly endless.

The creatures scurried across the bridge towards the nearest equine before they then leapt onto them, knocking them to the floor. The equine screamed in fear as they tried to hold the creatures back. The creatures’ tendrils, though pierced the equines’ flesh, reaching into the victim’s body for their nervous system. While taking control of the body, several tendrils tore off bits of armor covering the victim’s chest before violently burrowing themselves into the chest…all as the victim screamed in agony!

One of the soldiers was forced back against a wall, where the creature knocked the blaster rifle from his hooves before pouncing on him directly.

The soldier yelled at the top of his lungs as he caught the creature with his hooves and held it back away from his chest...but the creature’s tendrils wrapped around his hooves and snapped them like twigs, causing him to scream aloud in insufferable pain!

This distraction weakened his defenses just enough for the creature to get close enough to his body that it ripped the chest plate armor off his body and pierced his skin with its tendrils, burrowing them deep into his body.

It overrode his nervous system before pressing its body against his chest and violently burrowed itself in his chest, on top of introducing its supercells into his body.

Soon, the soldier stopped screaming, instead replacing it with a feral growling as he lost all control of his body and started mutating; sprouting growths on his upper body, and his left hoof mutated into a claw-like whip. Now rooted in his chest, the creature stuck its antennae’s out; using them to sense its surroundings.

The new mutant rose to its hooves and slowly turned towards an uninfected soldier.

This other soldier got the mutant in his scopes but froze in terror at the sight. Enough that he shakily lowered his rifle and stared slack-jawed and wide-eyed at the mutant before him.

“Mother of Celeste!” the soldier uttered.

The mutant twitched erratically before it looked straight up above it and uttered a loud shrieking, roar.

Frightened by the monster before him, the soldier raised his rifle to fire…but the mutant – being much faster than he expected – suddenly leapt forward towards. It pounced on and knocked the soldier to the floor.

The mutant stood atop him as he struggled to get free, but the mutant just slashed its whip-claw across the soldier’s chest. The soldier sharply gasped at the pain, and fell to the floor, clutching his wound as he started convulsing. While the soldier’s skin turned a similar sickly yellow as the creatures, the mutant turned away from him and ran off to its next target.

Despite their best efforts to kill these things, the Doctor, Twilight, Poe, Holdo and their forces were just being overrun by the creatures and the infected Equestrians.

The longer the battle went the more it turned against them. However, shooting down the infected Euestrians added a little more time to the clock…but not by much since another creature just assumed control of the dead Equestrians’ bodies; re-animating them to serve them again. Soldier or command staffer fell to the creatures, becoming another puppet for them to use against the ever-diminishing group of survivors. In addition to using their new whip-like claws, those infected also fired their hosts’ blasters at the Equestrians, brutally cutting them down and claiming even more victims at a faster soon. Soon, the few survivors were pushed into a corner.

“We need to get outta’ here! We are being swarmed,” Poe shouted, rapidly firing bolts at the charging creatures and infected Equestrians.

“I’m all ears if you have a plan, Commander Dameron!” Holdo called back, blowing away three of the creatures in rapid-fire succession.

Poe grimaced as he struggled to come up with a plan, trying his best to find out a way for them to escape…but nothing came to him; no plan, no strategy, no ideas.

He didn’t respond but resumed firing. The least he could do now was go down taking as many of these things with him as possible.

Outside in the corridor they heard more of these things heading towards them.

What is this? Just the first wave? Poe thought.

The creatures had finally stopped pouring into the room through the destroyed ceilings, but it didn’t matter anymore if they continued swarming the survivors. Supported by the infected Equestrians, even this small horde was enough to devastate the small band of survivors…and force them into a corner for the creatures and infected Equestrians to devour!

However, while the survivors and creatures were fixated on killing each other both reacted as something suddenly electrocuted one of the infected Equestrians.

Not only killing the infected Equestrian and the creature controlling it, but also burning the body, so that once the infected Equestrian collapsed dead on the floor it couldn’t be re-animated by another one of the creatures.

The survivors and creatures’ attention shifted towards the electrocuted mutant and saw another uninfected Equestrian standing behind it wielding a quarterstaff, whose top and bottom crackled with purple electricity.

The creatures froze at the sight of the newcomer, allowing the Equestrian to jump forwards into the air. During which, it thrust it’s staff out in front of it and hit one of the mutants in the chest, hitting the creature controlling it. The mutant screeched as it was electrocuted, singeing both the Equestrian and its controller.

While amazed by the newcomer’s acrobatics and ability to kill these things, the Doctor, Twilight, Holdo, Poe and the survivors didn’t wait before they opened fire on the stunned creatures and infected Equestrians.

The newcomer landed on its hooves in front of them, and, just like them, didn’t hesitate to attack the creatures and mutants. Slashing its staff horizontally at them, which electrocuted multiple creatures at once.

Before the mutants could take action against the newcomer’s swift and devastating attacks, the survivors shot them and any of the creatures down. The tide of the battle had turned; now the survivors were on the offensive and the creatures and mutants tried to defend themselves.

They continually cut the mutants and creatures down until every last one of them was finally defeated, allowing the survivors to regain control of the bridge.

The newcomer – after making sure that the creatures and their mutants were dead – turned around to face Holdo, Poe, Twilight and the Doctor, silently staring at the four of them and the few remaining soldiers and command staff.

Raising its hoof, the newcomer lifted its goggles and pulled down the scarf covering its face, revealing itself to be a mare. A mare with a worried look on her face.

“Come on, we need to go before more arrive!” the mare said in an urgent tone, nudging her head back towards the door.

The Doctor nodded back before he turned back towards Twilight, Poe and Holdo.

“We should listen to her and get going before the rest of the Flood finds us,” he instructed, but only received wide-eyed looks from Twilight, Holdo and Poe.

“The what?!” Holdo asked, shocked.

The Doctor grimaced in frustration at his slip-up.

“Forget what I said. Our greatest concern now is getting as far away from here as possible,” said the Doctor.

“Yeah, I’d kinda listen to your friend there,” the mare interjected, drawing everyone’s attention.

“If you have a chance to escape, which I am currently offering, I suggest you take it,” she said.

Holdo looked back at Poe, then the mare, and back at Poe again before she finally uttered a muffled groan and said, “Fine! Let us just get out of here!”

The mare smiled back and said, “Alright then, follow me” before she turned around and hurried out into a corridor. The Doctor, Twilight, Poe, Holdo and the other survivors looked at each other before they hurried out after her.

Down at the other end of the corridor, the group heard the loud shrieks and roars of the Infection and Combat Forms getting closer.

“Follow me, we can use the escape pods to get away from the ship before those things catch up to us,” she said in a hasty voice.

Poe, Twilight, and the Doctor briefly looked at each other, but ultimately nodded in agreement.

“Alright, let’s go,” Holdo responded to their decision.

However, the mare abruptly froze in her tracks. This confused the survivors as they too stopped in their tracks and turned around, looking back at her.

“What are you doing?!” Holdo hissed sharply at the mare.

“I need to get my speeder, its my main mode of transportation,” said the mare.

“But those things could be crawling across the ship by now!” Poe said. The mare just looked at him and scoffed.

“Trust me, I’m a lot better at looking out for myself when I don’t have others to worry about. If you use your escape pods, then I can use my speeder,” she said, looking towards the Doctor and Twilight. Both of whom shot her concerned looks.

The mare, Doctor, Twilight and others’ attention then snapped back at the other end of the corridor as they heard the creatures and mutants’ roars and chittering. They were getting closer…

In response to this, the mare quickly looked back at the Doctor, Twilight and the others before she turned and ran off. Leaving them behind as she ran off. The Doctor and Twilight followed the mare with their eyes until they, like Holdo, Poe and the rest of the survivors, turned around and continued for the escape pods.

They soon arrived at the escape pods and hurried inside them. The pods’ hatches closed shut behind them before being jettisoned from the Ninka. The six pods shot out of the side of the Ninka’s bridge, flying high into the sky before they curved downwards, and headed straight for any of the nearby mountains.

Some of the pods crashed against the mountains, while others overshot them…and vanished into the dark crevices behind those spire-like mountains.

Author's Note

The story continues...

Feel free to comment, feedback is always appreciated.

Chapter 3 - Awakening the Nightmare

“GAAH!” Poe exclaimed as he suddenly shocked awake.

He immediately sat up, swiftly grabbed his blaster pistol, and almost shot B8.

The astromech flinched at having a pistol pointed at it, but after quickly beeping in distress. Poe stopped himself and recognized the droid in front of him. He then sharply exhaled, relieved, and lowered his pistol.

Putting the blaster back into its holster, he leaned forward and hugged B8.

“Boy aren’t you a sight for sore eyes, buddy,” Poe said.

B8 beeped and blooped in response, to which Poe pulled away and looked into B8’s eye. Dameron then turned his head and looked down beside him and B8 at the unconscious Holdo and other soldiers within the pod, who laid down on the floor.

B8 then beeped at Poe, which the starfighter pilot smiled at before saying, “Yeah, do it,” with an almost childish glee.

B8 blipped in response and turned himself around before rotating his body down towards Holdo, he then extended his ARC welder and zapped Holdo.

“GAAH!” Holdo gasped, flinching as she felt an electric shock shot through her entire body. She jolted up-right and sat there on the floor panting.

Her head jerked towards Poe and B8, staring at of them with wide eyes. Soon, though she furrowed them.

“Commander Dameron? B8?” Holdo asked.

“Yep.” Poe nodded. B8 just bleeped and made a nodding motion with his body.

“We’re okay. We managed to get away from the Flood in the escape pods,” Poe said.

“The what?” Holdo asked, holding her hoof to the side of her head until her brows jumped as she remembered. “Oh right, what the Doctor called those creatures that attacked us onboard the Ninka,” she said, which Poe nodded back at her.

“Do you now think he might not be interested in helping us?” Poe asked. “I mean, if he knew about the Flood then why wouldn’t he know about whatever attacked us in space?”

“Maybe…” Holdo replied, much to Poe’s confusion.

“’Maybe’?” he asked, shocked.

“Admiral, he-“

“…may not have known that was going to happen,” Holdo interrupted Poe. “Commander Dameron, we were already fleeing into the Unknown Regions when we caught the Doctor and his companion,” Holdo interrupted him.

“Also, did you take note of his reaction when the Flood attacked? He seemed just as shocked, if not more so, to see those things. If this was all part of his plan then why didn’t he just fool us into landing on the surface, so those things could attack us?” she asked.

Poe opened his mouth to respond, but as he thought answers to those questions he couldn’t come up with any answers. He just hung his head and sighed softly.

Standing back up, Holdo approached the soldiers to wake them up.

A little while later, the escape pod’s hatch opened, and several soldiers peeked his head out of the pod.

He looked around where they had ended up and discovered that they had ended up in some sort of cave deep underground. Randomly scattered throughout the cavern were multiple tunnel-like caves that went off in random directions.

Poe stepped out of the pod, accompanied by B8. Both of whom looked around the cave. A single beam of light shined down upon the pod through a circular hole in the ceiling, indicating that they were quite a bit underground but not that much.

“B8, use your scanners to find a way out. We need to find a way out of here, and fast,” Poe instructed.

B8 beeped in response and stuck out a small radar dish from atop his head; scanning their surroundings as instructed.

***

For a second time, the Doctor groaned as he sat up on a metal surface, only this time he had Twilight here to join him in groaning in pain; as evidenced by her sitting up and rubbing her neck.

“Doctor, is it possible that one can have too much stuff happen on an adventure?” Twilight asked, which the Doctor turned his head and looked at her. Staring at her for a couple seconds until he spoke up…

“Strange as it may sound, Twilight; yes. One can experience too much when they’re already been through a lot,” replied the Doctor.

Twilight softly winched at the stiff pain in her neck.

“I swear, this much adventuring is bad for my health,” she said.

Yeah, well, you’ve got a lot more where that came from, thought the Doctor as he hung his head.

Twilight then turned looked around the pod and noticed crumpled and sparks shooting out of the wall. Clearly, the pod had suffered some damage on impact with the mountain.

“So, what now, Doctor?” Twilight asked, curious about their course of action.

Turning his head, he looked towards Twilight with a confused expression. He then rose to his hooves and trotted up to the viewport and looked outside.

What greeted him, though was a view of the landscape surrounding the pod; laying atop a plain covered by a blanket of snow sat their crashed starship. Black smoke trailed up into the sky from the ship while snow slowly crept up along the body of the ship, hiding it away.

Looking outside, the Doctor raised a hoof and held his chin, thinking their situation over as well as what options are available to them.

“Hmm. Well, I’d say that we are rather high up in the mountains, so that makes scaling the mountain difficult. Not to mention the cold…or-“

“The Flood?” Twilight interrupted him.

His head jerked back towards the lavender mare, staring at her with wide and horrified eyes. Terrified at the mere mention of that name.

“Yes,” he said, hanging his head to hide the fear on his face, but Twilight isn’t stupid. She noticed it without even needing to try.

“What are they? The Flood?” she asked curiously.

The Doctor continued to hang his head low until he eventually furrowed his brows and raised his head, looking up at her.

He stared at Twilight for a few minutes before he raised his hooves and touched them to the side of Twilight’s forehead.

She felt alarmed at first, but instead of pulling back allowed him to do what he was about to do.

Both of them closed their eyes, just before Twilight gasped as she felt a rush of thoughts and memories come pouring into her mind!

It was so overwhelming that she clenched her eyes shut…but upon opening them again found herself standing on the balcony of some sort of titular structure.

Out in front of her, she saw a vast landscape that was comprised of deserts and mountains. Towering skyscrapers rose into the sky, but despite their impressive height were overshadowed by a large structure in the center of the city; a structure that resembled a castle yet was encased in a large glass orb. Perhaps a large city.

“A hundred thousand years ago a great civilization existed in this universe,” a voice said behind her.

Sharply turning herself around, she saw the Doctor standing behind her, silently staring at her with a serious expression.

“Like all great civilizations they faced a sudden and dire turn of events,” he said, looking up into the sky.

Turning around, Twilight looked up into the sky to where he was looking. Up in the skies, she watched hundreds of fireballs hurtling from space towards the surface.

“A threat to their primacy from outside. Something they never expected, never prepared for,” he explained while she continued to look up into the sky. However, as Twilight looked at the fireballs, she squinted her eyes at noticing something about them.

Once the fire died down and they became easier to see, she saw that they were actually odd shapes with organic matter on them.

“A deeply alien threat known simply as; the Flood.”

As he said that, the odd shape crashed down into the city, blowing up a large dust cloud that came hurtling towards the balcony Twilight and the Doctor were standing on.

It passed over them, but nothing happened.

Once the dust settled, Twilight watched hundreds of other strange shapes fly through the air. All heading towards the crash site.

Hearing odd movements below the balcony, she looked down and saw a mass of sickly pale flesh crawl along the surface towards some of the larger structures.

“An unstoppable force with an unquenchable thirst. It devoured everything it touched” the Doctor narrated as the fleshy mass crawled along the spires till it reached glass. It then smashed through the glass and entered the building, where Twilight heard thousands of horrified screams as the fleshy mass entered.

“At first it seemed like our technology, our courage seemed like it might prevail…but we waited too long to see the threat, to join the fight,” said the Doctor, just as a swarm – of what looked like those tentacle creatures – flew through the air towards the building and entered it through the hole the fleshy mass had created.

After entering, the screams were soon replaced by feral growling…and then Twilight saw why that was, as hordes of equines wearing red armor– who sported the whip-like claw on their left arm and the creature rooted into their chest – emerged from the building. Others wore large red and orange robes and large golden shoulder pads. They poured into the streets and accompanied the flying creatures as they proceeded towards their next target, all while the fleshy mass continued spreading throughout the city.

Soon, those flying creatures hovered throughout vacant halls and corridors en route to the next populated area.

Twilight then turned around and looked back at the Doctor in wide-eyed horror, all while oblivious to a dark silhouette that arose behind her. She noticed the Doctor looking up and heard something snarl behind her. She turned around but gasped at what she saw.

A large blob of flesh towered over her, with multiple tentacles wriggling about. It lowered the front part of its body, so it was right in front of her. The front part then folded outwards, revealing a large eye and tentacles inside!

Twilight and the blob of flesh locked eyes, silently staring back at each other for the briefest of seconds.

“The Flood had grown too far, and too wide,” said the Doctor, just before the blob’s tentacles reached down and entangled themselves around Twilight before lifting her up towards the blob. A circular mouth opened on the blob’s body, and it pushed her inside. Swallowing her whole!

Again, Twilight clenched her eyes shut…but as she opened them again, only gasped at the sight before her.

She watched the door to some sort of shelter open, and that very same blob of flesh spill into the shelter. Tentacles reaching into the room and seizing hold of civilians and anything else it managed to grab onto.

The hovering creatures lunged themselves at the civilians, covering their bodies whole and merging together into single small blobs. None were spared by the parasite…!

Reality shifted to a building completely overrun by variously shaped Flood creatures; some sporting two legs, and others more. All of them grotesque to look at…

Once again, reality shifted to outside the city, where the Flood had begun spreading their mass across the city structures and buildings.

“It feed on intelligent life, and in doing so became ever smarter itself,” the Doctor said as Twilight witnessed the carnage and destruction occurring all around her. Watching as the Flood spread and grew across the city like a plague, all while the airborne creatures swarmed another building.

“The Flood was unique. It used our own strengths against us,” said the Doctor as reality shifted to show a chamber completely overrun with Flood.

In the center of the room, surrounded by the Flood creatures, stood round base – both on the surface and floor – and in the center of these bases hovered some strange almost hexagonal object with three glowing blue lights in its center. That same blue light then changed into red.

Once again, reality shifted to a chamber where several equines stood gathered around a table. All of them looked up at a hologram of one of those creatures that had Twilight, the Doctor and the others back onboard the ship.

All of the equines then turned and looked down towards a specific equine. An equine clad in black robes that while not sporting the same golden shoulder plate as the others in the room wore a stiff black collar with white edges. The equine also wore a black skullcap.

Noticing the Doctor’s silence, Twilight looked back over her shoulder…but the Doctor had disappeared.

As she furrowed her brows in confusion, one equine around the table – that stood in front of her – turned around and faced her. Staring at Twilight until she looked back in front of her, only for her eyes to widen, accompanied by a loud gasp as she saw the equine in front of her.

“We were the Time Lords,” the equine, who she now saw was the Doctor, said.

The other Time Lords gathered around the table turned their heads and looked directly at Twilight.

The previously bright room then faded away into darkness…before tentacles reached out of the darkness and wrapped themselves around the Time Lords. They screamed as the tentacles pulled them away into the darkness, leaving only Twilight and the Doctor alone in the dark void.

A bright light erupted high above the Doctor, which shined a vibrant beam of light down upon Twilight and the Doctor. Twilight had to raise her hoof to shield her eyes from the light.

The Doctor turned around and looked up at the light, completely unfazed by its intensity.

He then watched as the form of light descended, and he turned around and approached it.

The brightness died down, revealing the source of the light to be a brown box with odd symbols on it. The box clicked and whirred like-…like a clock, until the top suddenly folded upwards and a silver block emerged from the box with a red diamond-shaped button atop it. Energy swirled around inside the button.

Twilight stared at the Doctor and the box in front of him, unaware of what to do or even what that this box was.

The Doctor silently stared at the button before he turned his head and looked back at Twilight, though he didn’t smile. Instead, he just stared back at her wearing a sad frown on his face.

He raised his hoof and placed it atop the button, and then closed his eyes as he pushed it down!

The button shattered, and fire erupted out of it into the void.

The Doctor calmly closed his eyes before the wall of fire consumed him, obliterating him!

Just before the fire hit Twilight, though her environment immediately changed into space.

She was adrift, but her attention fell upon the large planet in front of her…and the thousands of ships that surrounded it.

Her eyes widened, and she gasped at the sight that these ships were Flood controlled ships!

Thousands of ships that fired upon the surface of the planet in a merciless attempt to defeat their enemies…

However, a large explosion shot up into space from the planet’s surface, engulfing the Flood fleet and destroying ship and Flood bio-mass alike!

Suddenly, a final explosion of vibrant fiery light then destroyed the entire planet, creating a fiery shockwave that shot out across the galaxy, but not before the flames engulfed Twilight…!

Twilight loudly gasped as her eyes shot open, staring wide-eyed at the Doctor as he removed his hooves; breaking their mental connection.

She pulled back away from the Doctor and panted heavily. Taking everything in before she craned her head up and looked at the stallion in front of her. Sweat ran down along her forehead.

“What. Was. That!?” she asked, horrified.

“That was the Last Great Flood War between my…my people and the Flood,” the Doctor explained, staring into Twilight’s eyes with sad eyes before abruptly hanging his head, looking down at the floor.

Twilight opened her mouth to speak until she stopped herself as she noticed tears across his cheeks.

“That war cost me everything; my race, my home and myself,” the Doctor sniffled as he looked up at Twilight.

“When I pressed that button and destroyed the Time Lords and the Flood, I wasn’t the Doctor anymore. The Doctor that I used to know died in the inferno that ended the war...but now it seems that he and those lost died in vain,” said the Doctor, his tone getting sadder and angrier. Understandably frustrated by the Flood’s return.

Twilight hung her jaw slack, taken aback by these horrors that the Doctor had faced long ago. Events that had clearly affected him.

“That is why you saved us from the Daleks; you want to make up for the lives lost at the end of the Last Great Flood War;” Twilight said. The Doctor didn’t respond, aside from blinking his eyes.

“The Flood took everything from you, so you’ve tried your best to prevent what happened to you from happening to anyone else,” she added, looking at him with sad but understanding eyes.

The Doctor just stared down at the floor.

“And what did my destruction of the Flood yield? Billions of lives that died for nothing, only for the Flood to survive the end of the war and continue existing?” he asked.

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but the Doctor to beat her to it and spoke up before she could…

“I wonder if this is why she didn’t tell me much about the mission; she didn’t want to demoralize me, considering my history with the Flood,” he said, to which Twilight raised her brow at him.

“But, isn’t that what you are doing now?” she asked, confused.

The Doctor shook his head at her.

“I mourn the dead because they remind me of what is at stake. They are a pain that I hold tight, because no matter how hard it burns me, I cannot let up, not for a moment…cause if I do then they will have truly died for nothing,” he said.

“Wherever we have ended up, we cannot allow the Flood to escape and spread across the galaxy,” said the Doctor with renewed vigor. The sadness and despair from before had transformed into courage and strength.

“But how are we going to get out of here and find Poe, Holdo and the others?” Twilight asked.

The Doctor opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, he and Twilight abruptly heard knocking outside the pod.

Their heads jerked back, their eyes widened and concerned expressions formed on their faces as they looked out the circular viewport behind the Doctor…only to see the mare from before hovering outside.

The mare waved inside to them, and after the shock passed, Twilight and the Doctor waved back.

Outside, the mare pulled her speeder up and flew out of sight.

Sighing in relief, the Doctor turned back towards Twilight and trotted past her up towards the door.

He opened in, and steam hissed as cold air entered the pod. Aside from the cold, the mare also entered the pod.

She pulled the scarf down and her goggles up, smiling back at the Doctor and Twilight. She then tossed two fur coats – like the one she wore – their way.

“Sorry for the delay, but it took me a lot longer than I thought to evade the Flood and get back to my speeder,” said the mare as the two equines put the coats on.

The Doctor scoffed and shook his head.

“Don’t worry about it. The only thing that matters is that you survived,” replied the Doctor.

“Come, we need to leave before “the Flood” begin searching the crash sites of your escape pods,” said the said as she waved the Doctor and Twilight out of the pod.

They disembarked the pod and followed the mare over to her speeder, which she had parked beside the pod.

“I know she doesn’t look like much, but she’ll get us home in one piece,” the mare said.

Twilight, the Doctor and the mare all climbed onto the pod and sat down at the back. The Doctor reached around Twilight and held her tightly.

The speeder then moved forwards, speeding through the air as it flew away from the mountain towards the mare’s home.

A cold wind blew across Twilight and the Doctor’s bodies...

***

Meanwhile deep underground, Poe and the rest of the soldiers stood gathered outside their escape pod. Holdo sat inside the pod, trying to raise a channel to the other escape pods. Simultaneously, B8 scanned the nearby surroundings – with a radar dish sticking right out of his head – until he finally found something. Many things…

He nervously bleeped, retracted the dish, and then slid across the floor towards Poe. He beeped and blipped, grabbing Poe’s attention.

“Oh good, buddy, you’ve found some caves…” he said, smiling at the astromech.

However, his smile faded as B8 beeped again, adopting a nervous expression as his eyes widened.

“What do you mean you’re detecting multiple life signs out in the caves?!” he asked, the fear mounting in his tone.

Poe quickly looked up from his droid companion towards each of the caves surrounding them the pod, his eyes widen in horror.

“Oh my Celeste!” he said in a softly terrified tone.

Poe then quickly turned around and ran back inside the pod towards Holdo.

“We need to go, now!” he said. “B8 has detected a lot of life signs, that are coming our way!

Holdo’s head jerked back, looking over her shoulder at Poe in wide-eyed terror.

“He’s found a possible way out, so we need to go now!” He extended his hoof towards Holdo, and she took it. Together, they both hurried out into the cave.

“Alright, B8, you go ahead and lead us ‘outta here,” Poe urgently instructed to the droid.

B8 beeped and quickly turned around, gliding across the cave floor towards the entrance of one of the tunnels. He stopped and rotated his dome back towards Poe, Holdo and the others.

“Come on!” Poe called out to the soldiers as he and Holdo ran towards B8.

While running up a small slope to reach the droid, B8 rotated his dome back and slid inside the tunnel. Poe, Holdo, and the soldiers followed him as he led them into the cave, illuminating the darkness with light.

After they had left, the central cave started shaking until a large crack suddenly split the floor open, cracking it in half and creating a vast crevice in the center of the cave. The escape pod and large chunks of rock and stone fell into the dark abyss, below.

Then, large tentacles slithered out of the crevice. Followed shortly by Infection Forms, that scuttled across the floor. Chattering as they headed for the tunnel where Poe and the others had gone, while a few broke off from the main group and headed for a few of the other tunnels…

Back in the tunnel, Poe, Holdo and the soldiers hastily followed B8 as he led the way through the tunnels…until they suddenly froze in their tracks as they heard a loud feral roar back from the opposite end of the cave.

Holdo and Poe turned to face each other and shot the other a horrified expression.

“We need to get ‘outta here, now!” said Poe.

“I couldn’t agree more, Commander Dameron!” replied Holdo.

“Quickly, B8, lead us to the surface!” Poe instructed to the droid.

B8 bleeped and booped in response before he immediately resumed the task – of leading Poe and the others out.

However, as Poe led ahead of the group, Holdo turned back towards one of the soldiers at the rear of the group.

“Quickly, give me a few of your grenades,” she instructed to a few of the soldiers. In compliance, the soldiers gave her their grenades.

“Now go,” she instructed to the soldiers.

They shot her confused looks, but that confusion turned into fear as they heard that feral roar again. Without hesitation, they ran ahead of the admiral.

Her head jerked up as she heard the Infection Forms’ screech, and her eyes widened at the sight of a horde of those Infection Forms coming straight for her.

She quickly activated and threw one of the grenades down the tunnel at the Infection Forms before turning around and ran in the opposite direction.

Behind her, the grenade exploded. It obliterated a majority of the Infection Forms, while at the same time triggering a cave-in that blocked the tunnel – that blocked the other creature…

Ahead of Holdo, Poe and the soldiers abruptly stopped as they heard the Infection Forms’ screeching down one or more of the tunnels.

“There!” Poe repeatedly shouted as he pointed his hoof down several tunnels, where the Infection Forms had appeared.

The soldiers immediately assumed defensive positions at the many tunnel entrances and opened fire on the Infection Forms as they charged towards them. A small volley of laser fire shot down the tunnel at the creature. The bolts tore into the Infection Forms’ bodies, instantly cauterizing the wounds as well as killing the Infection Forms.

Many of the Infection Forms collapsed dead once they had been struck enough times by the bolts. However, another of the Infection Forms just replaced it within seconds.

As the many hordes of Infection Forms drew closer, it dawned on one of the soldiers why the admiral had wanted some of their grenades.

“Quick, collapse the tunnels!” the soldier called out to his fellow soldiers.

“If we trap them, then we will have fewer to deal with,” he said.

Compliantly, the soldiers grabbed their grenades, activated them, and then threw them down the tunnels at the Infection Forms.

The grenades exploded, and shook the tunnel before causing multiple cave-ins.

A few Infection Forms managed to get past the cave-in, but the soldiers made short of work – since they didn’t have many to deal with.

“Great, now let’s go!” Poe called out before he, B8, and the soldiers continued down along their current tunnel.

Holdo continually activated and threw grenades as she followed the tunnel, hearing the explosion behind and feeling the vibration through the ground. Still, she didn’t slow her pace for anything, especially once she heard the unnatural screeching of those Infection Forms get closer.

Having seen first-hand what happens when those Infection Forms get up-close to you, and she had no intention of being turned into a puppet for those things to use against her own kind. Even if she was to be caught, the best she could do was slow those things’ progress…maybe even use a grenade to take a few of them down with her, but she hoped it wouldn’t have to come to that…

Like Holdo, Poe, B8, and the soldiers ran down the tunnel until they saw a sudden shift from the compact tunnels to a large-open cave. A vast chasm awaited them beneath the edge of the cliffside.

Poe and the other soldiers frantically turned their heads, looking in various directions for where to go next. Unfortunately, it was so dark that they were having problems seeing in it. Fortunately, B8 drew Poe and the other’s attention with some bloops and bleeps. B8 also switched on his light, so Poe and the soldiers could have an easier time seeing in the darkness.

“B8 says he’s found a way out. Come on,” Poe called out to the soldiers behind him. Poe, B8, and the soldiers ran as they followed the cliffside.

They ran for a few minutes until they rounded a corner. In doing so, Poe smiled as he spotted something in the distance;

“Look, a bridge!” he called out to the soldiers, pointing his hoof at a nearby bridge.

He, B8, and the soldiers picked up the pace as they headed straight for the bridge.

Soon, they once again heard that horrible screeching, yet none of them slowed their pace. Not when a break from these abominations was so close.

They eventually reached the bridge, to which Poe stepped aside to let his soldiers past.

As the soldiers ran across the bridge, B8 shined his light back the way they had come, only to be meet another horde of the Infection Forms.

At the sight of them, Poe quickly drew his blaster and started firing on the Infection Forms, blasting one after another.

Half-way across the bridge, the soldiers stopped and turned around. They raised their rifles and without hesitation fired upon the Infection Forms, cutting them with a volley of laser bolts, and since the cliffside was so narrow it forced the Infection Forms into single-files. Making them easy pickings for the soldiers, which the soldiers gladly took advantage off.

Poe and the others’ attention though abruptly snapped behind them as they heard a loud roar behind them.

While the soldiers resumed firing on the Infection Forms, Poe’s eyes widened at the sight before them…!

Running through the tunnel, Holdo yelled as she leapt out of the tight tunnel into a vast-open cave and slammed her body against the atop a cliffside that ran along the cave’ wall.

Holdo quickly stood back up, but sharply groaned as she tried to take a step forward. Experiencing discomfort in her left hoof.

Despite the pain, she winched in pain as she continued forward. She fought through the pain as she followed the cliffside.

She followed the cliffside for some time until her ears perked up at hearing voices ahead of her, which was then followed by laser fire.

Her smiled weakly and hobbled forward much faster.

She soon rounded the corner and not only smiled at seeing Poe, B8, and the soldiers, but the despair that had begun to take hold over her weakened and gave way to hope.

Holdo opened her mouth to call out to Poe, but before she could a loud roar interrupted her.

Her head jerked back, and she looked over her shoulder, only to freeze in her tracks at the sight of a large behemoth that towered over her.

The creature was a large, bulky quadruped with tentacles on its upper body that flailed wildly. It possessed no head, just a spot on its body that had an extra-large concentration of antennae-like tentacles.

Holdo silently stared at the abomination in surprise, shock, but most importantly; fear.

The Thrasher slowly stepped forward, but then-

“HOLDO!”

The familiar voice of Poe Dameron called out. Followed by a series of blaster bolts that rapidly struck the Thrasher’s torso, stopping it in its tracks as it looked up from Holdo towards its attacker. Once it did, Holdo quickly turned around and ran away from it; heading straight for the bridge without delay, in spite of the pain that tormented her with every step she took.

The Thrasher attention shifted back down towards Holdo, but it noticed her running away and crawled forward in pursuit of the mare.

Panting, Holdo ran along the cliffside towards the bridge, but a sudden swipe from the creature’s right arm knocked her to the ground. She sharply inhaled from the immediate pain that followed.

While groaning in pain, the Thrasher reached out towards her with its tentacles…but before it could reach her, B8 suddenly flew up and zapped it with its ARC Welder. The Thrasher jolted back at the abrupt pain.

The Thrasher raised its right arm to bring it down on Holdo and the droid, but B8 quickly ignited his boosters and flew up towards the Thrasher, taking it by surprise.

B8 quickly flew around the hulking abomination, distracting it while Poe and another soldier ran up towards Holdo. They lifted her up and let her put her hooves around them before they ran back towards the bridge.

The Thrasher slashed its tentacled forearms through the air at the quick-moving astromech droid, its frustration growing with every miss.

“Come on, B8!” the droid heard Poe call out to it. It rotated its dome towards Poe, and saw that he, Holdo and the soldier had reached the bridge.

B8 immediately turned left and flew straight towards Poe and the others. However, as it did, the abomination swung both of its tentacled forearms out towards the droid…and hit B8!

B8 whined aloud as he was sent flying through the air. Both Poe and Holdo abruptly stopped in their tracks and looked out across the chasm, their eyes widening as they watched B8 being flung through the air, spinning around until he violently slammed into the cave wall. B8 exploded upon impact!

Poe gasped at the explosion and stared at the wall. His jaw dropped, and tears formed in his eyes. Those tears ran down along his cheeks at witnessing B8’s death.

“…!”

A muffled voice shouted, drawing Poe back to reality.

“COME ON, COMMANDER DAMERON!” Holdo shouted at the entranced squadron commander. Two soldiers ran over towards them; one that helped the other carry Holdo onto and across the bridge. Another soldier ran up towards Poe and pulled him onto and across the bridge. Once Poe, Holdo and the other soldiers were across the bridge, the two remaining soldiers – back across the bridge – started running across the bridge to join their comrades. However, Infection Forms suddenly leapt on their backs, knocking them to the ground.

The soldiers struggled to get free from the Infection Forms’ grasp, but due to sheer number of Infection Forms there was nothing they could do. Infection Forms crawled to the front of their bodies and ripped off armor plates covering their chests before they violently burrowed into the soldiers’ bodies. They found the soldiers’ nervous systems and assumed control of the victims. The soldiers screamed in agony as they lost control to the Infection Forms, shortly before Flood biomass started sprouting up across their upper body. Their left hoof violently mutated into a whip-like claw.

Soon, those agonized screams turned into feral growls.

The new Combat Forms stood up on their hooves, their bodies twitched as they stood in their tracks. Then, they charged forward across the bridge along with the horde of Infection Forms. The behemoth abomination accompanied them across the bridge, trudging towards the other side in pursuit of the Equestrians.

Half-way across the bridge, the soldiers carrying Holdo looked back over their shoulders at the horde pursuing them. Their fear growing as they heard the Infection Forms’ eerie screeching. One of the soldiers, though suddenly stopped in his tracks as he got an idea.

It was a stupid idea, but their situation wasn’t exactly looking too good either way.

He quickly dropped Holdo and swiped the other soldier’s grenade before he turned around. Running back across the bridge towards the horde, much to Holdo and the other soldier’s shock.

“What are you doing?!” the other soldier called out, but the first soldier didn’t respond.

The first soldier smirked as he stopped at the center of the bridge. He looked up at the tide of horror heading straight for him, but seconds before the Infection, Combat Forms and Thrasher reached him, he activated the grenades.

“YOU. SHALL. NOT PPAAAASSSSS!” he yelled, before raising the grenade high into the air before swiftly throwing it down towards the bridge.

KRA-BOOOOM!

A massive ball of fire erupted outwards across the bridge, sending a wall of fire out in every direction around the bridge’s center. The flames consumed the two Combat Forms, and the horde of Infection Forms; destroying them all!

The Thrasher stopped just short of the flames, but the part of the wall that it stood upon cracked. It broke off from the rest of the bridge, sending the Thrasher and several Infection Forms plummeting into the darkness, below.

Back across the bridge, Poe, Holdo, and the seven remaining soldiers abruptly froze in their tracks as they heard the explosion. They managed to turn around just in time to see the ball of fire destroy the bridge, and despite the flames not destroying them, the Thrasher and several Infection Forms fell down into the dark abyss, below. Now, nothing but a vast gap separated the two sides of the bridge from each other.

The silence that befell following the destruction of the bridge was abruptly interrupted by a loud feral roar that echoed throughout the cave.

“What. Was. That?!” asked one of the soldiers in a soft, frightened voice.

Poe slowly turned his head and looked out across the chasm towards the other side. He trotted out onto the bridge and furrowed his brows as he noticed movement on the other side…but the movement was from the Infection Forms along the cliffside. Instead, it came from underneath the cliffs.

Tentacles; long and thick slithered up along the wall towards the cliffs.

Soon, another roar was uttered, which this time shook the entire cave.

Holdo, Poe and the remaining soldiers’ eyes widened, and fearful expressions formed on their faces as they looked down towards the ground; feeling vibrations in the ground.

Poe slowly backed away from the bridge towards Holdo, where he quickly took over for one of the soldiers. He looked up in front of him, where he spotted several tunnels; all of which looked to head upwards.

“Come on, we’ve got to keep going,” Poe said as he hauled Holdo towards the nearest tunnel. The seven soldiers followed after them into the tunnel.

Behind them, large, thick tentacles with spikes on the side slid up along the side, blocking nearly half of the open space – that led to the tunnels the Equestrians had used.

Poe, Holdo and the seven soldiers followed the tunnel until they finally reached the end of their journey through these dark caves.

Darkness gave way to light, and Poe sighed as faint beams of sunlight shined on his face. Together, he and the others trotted out of the dark caves into the warm rays that shined upon them. The light seemed to banish the cave and replace it with warmth.

“Come, let’s put some distance between us and these caves,” Poe instructed to the soldiers. He, Holdo and the soldiers moved away from the cave entrances. They managed to haul Holdo all the way to a small grassy hillside, the hillside was flanked on all sides by several cliffs that towered over the field. In the background, one could see the snowy mountain peaks.

He gently lowered Holdo onto the ground and smiled at the mare.

“Shsss. It’s okay, we’re out of that hellhole,” he said to her in a comforting tone, gently stroking her mane.

However, despite escaping the cave in one piece, Poe’s joy soon turned into sadness as he was reminded of how that abomination had killed B8. Murdered his best friend in the entire galaxy, and yet, he smiled back at Holdo.

Holdo smiled back at him…though, her warm smile abruptly contorted into a wide-eyed look of fear and horror as she noticed movement behind Poe.

Noticing the distressed look on her face, Poe quickly turned around and looked to where she was. What he saw, though made him freeze in his tracks. Upon seeing their commander’s fearful look, the soldiers looked in the same direction, only to be paralyzed by similar, fearful expressions. Their eyes widened, and jaws dropped in terror.

A horde of Infection Forms poured onto the field, where Poe, Holdo and the others had sought refuge. Accompanied by what looked like a normal Combat Form, but one that had infected a humanoid creature. A large humanoid by the looks of it, with the Infection Form nestled in its jaw of all places!

Its left arm was a standard whip-like claw, but it held something in its right hand. Something that made the remaining soldiers really scared; a blaster rifle.

This new Combat Form lumbered forward at the back of the horde, while the Infection Forms charged directly at the Equestrians. One of the Infection Forms at the head of the group leapt into the air, unfurling its tentacles as it shot straight for Poe’s chest.

Instinctively, Poe raised his pistol and blasted the Infection Form. Its body splattering on the ground.

Without hesitation, Poe and the other soldiers fired upon the horde of Infection Forms. Blasting them away, one after another, while a few of the soldiers retreated towards the hillside – where Holdo, Poe and the other soldiers had situated themselves.

The Infection Forms leapt into the air onto several soldiers, knocking them to the ground, all while the soldiers screamed. Their fearful cries were shortly replaced by screams of pain, which then turned into feral growling.

The new Combat Forms quickly rose to their hooves, turned around, and immediately charged towards the hilltop; intent on either killing or infecting the remaining survivors.

The soldiers threw grenades at the horde, which destroyed a lot of the Infection Forms, though it only slowed the Infection Forms as they still kept coming. A giant wave of unstoppable, sickly pale flesh and flailing tentacles. The Infection Forms’ screeches echoed throughout the surrounding cliffs.

While they didn’t have many grenades left, the soldiers threw the few they had left at the horde, with the final one being thrown at the Combat Form. However, several Infection noticed the grenade and jumped into the air. They wrapped their tentacles around the grenade and pulled it down towards the ground, much to Poe and the soldier’s surprise and shock. The Infection Form exploded, destroying several nearby Infection Forms, though the new – humanoid – Combat Form was left unharmed; their weapons were harming it, but nowhere enough to kill it.

As the – humanoid – Combat Form advanced towards them, several soldiers shifted their aim towards it, but Poe noticed this and immediately called them out…

“Focus fire on the smaller ones! Ignore the big one,” he shouted at the soldiers.

“But, Commander Dameron--“ a soldier called out, but was interrupted by Poe.

“The smaller ones are faster than that juggernaut! If we don’t focus on them, then they will swarm us,” Poe shouted as he raised his blaster pistol and opened fire on another Infection Form, killing it after a few shots.

The Equestrians continued firing on the Flood Forms, but despite their efforts were unable to slow the Combat Form.

However, the Combat Form, then raised its blaster and fired several – superheated – spikes at the equines, pinning them to the ground.

Despite being pinned, the equines tried to free themselves, but the spikes had struck them in a vital place that attempting to move the spike caused them excruciating pain. Fortunately – or unfortunately – an end to their torment came as an Infection Form leapt onto them; infecting and turning them into a Combat Form.

The – humanoid – Combat Form, its army of equine Combat Forms, and Infection Forms advanced up along the hill towards Poe and Holdo’s position; infecting equine after equine along the way.

“Pull back! PULL BACK!” Poe shouted.

He and another soldier grabbed Holdo and pulled her along the ground towards the center of the hill. Doing whatever her could to put as much distance between them and the Flood as possible.

The few remaining soldiers broke their lines and ran back towards the center of the hill. However, nothing was able to save them from the Infection Forms that pounced on their backs, knocking them forwards on the ground, where the Infection Forms then swarmed them. Their terrified screams were drowned out by the constant chittering before eventually being replaced by the feral growls of a Combat Form.

From their little spot atop the hill, Poe looked out across the field in horror. His eyes wide, and his jaw dropped at the sight of the unstoppable menace that now circled the hillside; cutting off any potential escape routes that Poe, Holdo and the two remaining soldiers might have used.

As the Infection Forms crawled along the hill, the abomination stopped and stared at the four Equestrians. Despite possessing no eyes, Poe knew that it was looking directly at them. Waiting for its Infection Forms to reach the top of the hill and convert them into Combat Forms. Even as Poe and the two soldiers continually fired upon the Infection Forms, desperately trying to slow their advance.

However, despite Poe and the soldiers’ efforts, even their feeble attempt to buy time was failing as the Infection Forms were too numerous. They were eventually forced back to back away from the edge towards the hilltop’s center, standing back-to-back as chittering Infection Forms crawled up from the edge.

Poe scrunched his face at the sight of the first Infection Form to reach the hilltop. He almost wanted to congratulate the thing for being the first to reach them, if it and its kind hadn’t just infected and his comrades and killed B8.

While its Infection Forms scaled the hill to reach the Equestrians, the – humanoid – Combat Form roared and charged straight at the side of the hill, slamming its bulk against it. The hill shook, creating a crack that travelled up along the hilltop towards where Poe, Holdo and the two remaining soldiers stood. Part of it broke off and fell, causing one soldier to fall screaming down into the horde of Infection Forms. All of whom swarmed the soldier as he screamed in fear, then pain, and finally growled ferally.

The newest Combat Form then stood up and looked up towards Poe, Holdo, and the remaining soldier.

Time seemed to slow down for Poe, allowing him a final moment to stare at this single Infection Form in contemplation…

I am sorry, Doctor. I am sorry for mis-judging you, thought Poe. I now understand why you were scared, Doctor. These things, Flood or whatever they may be, are truly creatures to fear…for it is fear that will allow you to survive their terrible onslaught. To buy you another day to fight back before they turn you into their puppet…like they did your friends before you.

In this moment of thought, he closed his eyes and inhaled a deep breath. He exhaled and opened them again, furrowing his brows as he glared at the Infection Form. He then repeatedly blasted the Infection Form until he knocked its dead body off the edge of the hill…only for another Infection Form to take its place…

However, before it, and several other Infection Forms, could pounce on Poe and the others, several blue beams shot from the sky and blasted the Infection Forms!

Several beams shot down and hit the Infection Forms crawling along the side of the hilltop, rapidly tearing smoldering holes in the Infection Forms, leaving many to plummet lifeless to the ground.

The – humanoid – Combat Form looked up into the sky at the Equestrians’ saviors and watched as swarms of Aggressor Sentinels swooped down towards the hill. The Sentinels unleashed a volley of laser fire upon the Infection Forms, burning them away with their incredible heat.

Roaring enraged, the Combat Form raised its arm to fire upon the Sentinels…but before it could, a beam suddenly shot down from the sky and hit it!

The Combat Form staggered backwards from the explosion but wasn’t given a chance to respond before it was blasted a second time by multiple beams, that tore numerous holes in its body. The Combat Form dropped to its knee, standing up on one knee before it ultimately collapsed onto the ground, slamming into the ground.

Poe, Holdo and the two soldiers looked around them in shock and surprise as the Aggressor Sentinels attacked and incinerated the remaining horde of Infection Forms on the battlefield, overwhelming them with the loss of the Combat Form.

The Infection Forms scurried about the hill until they soon turned and fled back the way they had come; fleeing back to their caves.

Hundreds of Aggressors flew around and patrolled the area, making sure that the Flood had been defeated; securing the few Equestrians that had survived the Flood’ attack.

As the Sentinels patrolled the area, Poe and the soldiers slowly turned their heads, looking at the mysterious drones – or whatever they were – that had just saved them from the Flood. A look of awe on their faces at these strange machines, if they even were machines. They could have metallic bodies but have organic brains. Who was Poe to say that such feats couldn’t be accomplished with technology?

As they looked at the Sentinels, neither of them noticed a chrome, metal orb descended from the air behind them.

They turned around and froze at the sight of the shiny, blue objecting hovering in front of them.

“Greeting, Equestrian.”

Author's Note

Feedback and comments are appreciated

Link1 - Game of Thrones Season 4 Soundtrack -14 The North Remembers
Link2 - 1. "Lily's Theme" - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (soundtrack)
Link3 - Halo Wars 2: Awakening the Nightmare OST - Corroded
Link4 - 12. The Darkest Hour - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (Special Edition Soundtrack)

Chapter 5 - The Timeless' Tomb

Meanwhile, Sentinels flew through the air, patrolling the area.

Inside her dome-home, Rey laid on her bed inside her dome home, staring up towards the ceiling as her mind flashed back to long ago…

A long time ago, a loud explosion suddenly interrupted the calm tranquility of a snow-covered planet.

From inside a dome-shaped structure, a pre-teen mare and a bearded middle-aged stallion sporting a thick beard and mane abruptly hurried outside. The stallion raised a pair of binoculars to his eyes and looked out into the distance.

“What do you see, father?” the mare called out to her father, standing by the door as she looked towards him, though, he didn’t respond.

Looking through the binoculars, her father watched as a large ball of fire came hurtling down from the sky towards the surface. The bright light cast by the ball illuminated the evening sky, making it easy to see.

It then disappeared behind several mountains, only to be followed by a loud BOOM and a tremor that shook the mountains, shaking the snow off a few of the mountains – nearest to where the ball of fire had landed. Soon, a large cloud of black smoke rose up from behind the tips of the mountains.

Macreedy lowered the binoculars and looked out towards the mountains, focusing his attention on the smoke as it climbed into the sky. He grimaced as he debated internally with himself about making a drastic and bold decision until he eventually turned back around towards the teen mare…

“Rey, get your things,” he instructed as he hurriedly trotted back up towards the door, “We are going out there,” he said as he entered their home, closing the door behind him.

Without delay, Rey got her fur jacket and quarterstaff. She then meets with her father in the garage where they kept their speeder. He already wore his own fur jacket and had his modified pulse-rifle – that had a flamethrower attached on the side – draped around his shoulder. They both sat down on it and after pressing a couple buttons on the control panel the bike lifted up off the ground, hovering in the air. Macreedy then grabbed the control sticks with his hooves.

Rey unlocked the garage door – which slid upwards into the ceiling – before she and Macreedy sped forward, flying out of the garage – and the cliffside cave that concealed their home – and into the air. The cold wind blew over them, but after living so long on the accursed snowball neither one of them minded.

Speeding through the air, they flew straight for the crash site.

After flying past several mountains, they finally passed over a peak and spotted the crashed ship. They noticed that it had crashed a little further away than they originally thought. Still, despite having to fly a little further than normal, they continued onwards to the downed ship…

While flying, they passed over a part of the planet that was dead and decaying.

Where the blightlands were especially concentrated, vast amounts of sickly pale bio-mass emerged from various cavernous pits.

Inside the largest of the pits, there sat a large, bulging mass. The mass throbbed and pulsated, while large tentacles supported the towering behemoth.

From several tunnels, hordes of Infection Forms poured on and scurried across the blightlands…

Eventually, as they finally reached the ship, Rey and Macreedy noticed that the ship had not crashed down into their snowy regions – as they originally assumed – but rather the grassy and lively fields at the edge of the “Green Lands”.

Despite this, Macreedy piloted the speeder down close to the crashed ship before he parked it, then he and Rey disembarked the bike and looked up towards the giant wreckage as it towered over them, casting its shadow on them.

What laid before them was a most peculiar starship; it sported eight – four on the bottom and top – wings that curved inwards along with a ball in the center of thee ship. Along the center side of the sphere were countless small orbs, that looked to be connected into slots.

A few of the wings were cracked, broken, while there were some rather large holes in the side of the sphere, a rectangular, glass, viewport had been shattered, a few of the wings had been ripped off, and several of the orbs – running along the side of the sphere – were missing, leaving many of the slots empty.

Rey and Macreedy cautiously approached the ship, remaining alert in case they encountered the “creatures” or the ship’s occupants.

Not detecting any hostility, they entered the ship through a hole in its hull…

Inside the ship, Rey and her father navigated through the ship, following the corridors which had been tilted on their side as a result of the crash. Sparks erupted from the damaged walls and ceilings of the rooms that they visited.

For a time, they didn’t encounter anyone or anything until Rey spotted a body in a corridor and rushed over towards it. She got down on her knees and rolled the equine over, only to see that he possessed quite the small stature. Macreedy trotted up to her and knelt down beside Rey.

“Who or what is it?” Rey asked while her father examined the stranger’s body.

“It’s a Sontaran,” her father replied, looking up from the Sontaran towards his daughter’s face, shooting her a serious glance, “They are a warrior race dedicated to discipline and warfare, believing it to be the greatest honor to engage one’s enemy on the battlefield,” he explained. Rey furrowed her brows in confusion and looked back down at the Sontaran.

“Is it dead?” Rey asked, looking up at her father, who stared at the small, blue-armored equine.

“Yes, it’s dead.” Macreedy nodded back, “It was most likely killed when the ship crashed,” he said.

Rey’s father then rose up on his hooves, standing over the Sontaran as he looked down at it.

“I don’t know why I didn’t see it before. Maybe the angle threw me off, and the damage made it harder to identify,” he said in a faintly nervous tone, looking down at Rey and shooting Rey a slightly concerned look.

“We should return to the speeder and get back home. We’ll come back tomorrow,” he instructed.

“Father, what is it?” Rey asked, concerned about her father’s sudden urge to leave the ship. He turned towards her, shooting her a frightened look.

“If I had known that this was a Sontaran ship, I would have taken you back home immediately!” he said in a raised voice.

“As you would have been wise to do,” a dignified voice suddenly said from out of the darkness behind them.

Rey and her father quickly turned around to face the – faceless – speaker, but they suddenly froze as they heard the sudden hum of blasters charging up. A group of Sontarans then stepped forward and pointed their elongated, black blaster rifles at them. Macreedy quickly grabbed Rey and held her back, preventing her from attacking the Sontarans.

“No, don’t attack them,” he instructed, to which Rey jerked her head back, and stared confusedly at him.

“But father-“ Rey protest, but her father glared sternly at her.

“I won’t let you sacrifice yourself in vain against a group of trained Sontarans!” he shouted back, shooting her argument down.

Father and daughter then locked eyes, staring at each other until they finally turned back towards the Sontarans and raised their hooves.

“We surrender,” Macreedy said.

After the two equines had surrendered, the Sontarans lowered their rifles and stepped aside, allowing their commander – who wore a cane-like device on his belt – to come forth and see their prisoners, silently staring at Rey and her father.

“Restrain them,” the commander ordered, waving several soldiers over towards Rey and her father.

However, as the Sontarans approached Rey and her father, everyone abruptly heard an odd chittering noise echoing throughout the ship, followed by metallic clanging as something moved about the ship.

Alarmed by the shaking, the Sontarans immediately looked around their ruined ship as they heard the strange noises. Meanwhile Macreedy’s eyes widened, and jaw hung slack as a horrific revelation dawned on him.

“No! No, it cannot be,” he softly said aloud to himself, drawing Rey’s attention as she turned her head and looked towards him.

“Father, what is it?” she asked, concerned.

Swiftly jerking his head towards her, Macreedy looked into his daughter’s eyes.

“What trickery is this, equine?!” the Sontaran commander angrily shouted at Macreedy. Several soldiers pointed their blasters at Macreedy and Rey in response to their leader’s aggression.

Macreedy opened his mouth to respond…but before he could get a word out, a shape screeched as it leapt out at the Sontaran commander!

The shape landed on the Sontaran’s chest, knocking him to the floor. As soon as the commander fell, both Rey and her father quickly grabbed their weapons, turned around and hurried back the way they had come, leaving the Sontarans to deal with the Infection Form – specifically the commander, who tried wrestling it off him, but its tentacles were too numerous and quick.

As it attempted to rip off the commander’s armor, the soldiers immediately fired upon it, blasting it away with a continuous volley of laser fire. The Infection Form screeched as they fired away at it, blasting it until it was dead. Its lifeless body flew backwards and slammed against a wall.

The commander quickly rose to his hooves, looking down at the Infection Form as the holes in its body smoldered.

Turning around, he looked back at his soldiers, panting from the struggle he had endured with this…thing.

“Search the ship,” he ordered, “We must find out if there are more of these things or if that was the only--“

However, before he or his soldiers could react, hundreds of Infection Forms leapt on then from numerous holes in the ruined corridors!

Screaming aloud in fear, they tried to shoot the many Infection Forms…but none hit their mark before they were overwhelmed!

Their frightened screams changed into painful ones, before becoming feral growls.

Rising again as Combat Forms, who snarled as the Infection Forms scuttled off to locate the two that had escaped, just before the Combat Forms accompanied them…

Rey and her father ran throughout the entire ship until they leapt out of the hole in the side of the ship – that they used to enter it – planting their hooves on an organic flood once more.

Panting, they quickly looked up at each other.

“Quickly, get to the-- DUCK!” Macreedy shouted as he raised his modified blaster, pointing it directly at Rey.

Rey ducked, and he fired upon the leaping Infection Form. It screeched as he hit it before its corpse fell to the ground.

Getting back up, Rey rushed back over towards their speeder, slamming her electro-quarterstaff into several advancing Infection Forms, and hearing them screech as the electricity scorched their bodies.

She leapt back onto it and frantically started it up, flicking several switches. It activated and hovered above the ground.

“Father, come o-!” she called out to him before freezing in place as she saw the Sontaran ship. Her eyes widened, and jaw dropped, hanging slack as several massive tentacles – had risen out of the earth and – gripped the wreaked ship, cutting off escape for the few survivors onboard.

Rey and her father had engaged Flood forms before, but she had never seen large tentacles like this before.

She snapped out of her stupor as she heard her father call out to her and looked down towards him, only for her eyes to widen as she saw a large, hulking, Combat Form charge towards him…

Hearing an unnatural snarling in front of him, Macreedy looked down in front of him. His eyes widened as he spotted a tall, humanoid – with an Infection Form rooted in the former-creature’s jaw, forcing its mouth open into a perpetual scream – run straight towards him.

The Combat Form leapt into the air towards him, causing time to abruptly slow down for him. His eyes widened in fear as the Combat Form swung its whip-claw down towards him, ready to pierce his skin and end his life… However, an electrified quarterstaff suddenly shot through the air and struck the Combat Form in its chest, causing the creature to roar and screech in pain.

It continued to fall towards the ground, but Macreedy quickly grabbed the staff and pushed back against the Combat Form, knocking it off to the side before getting back up on his hooves. He turned and ran towards the speeder.

Infection Forms leapt towards him, but he either dodged them or swung the electro-quarterstaff out towards them, hitting multiple Infection Forms at once.

“Father, come on!” Rey shouted, waving her hoof for him to hurry.

With a mighty leap into the air, Macreedy landed on the back of the bike.

“GO, NOW!” he frantically shouted.

Rey immediately grabbed and squeezed a button on one of the control-sticks, causing the speeder to sped forwards. She pulled the stick back and bike arched its tip as it flew up into the sky.

Sitting up-right on the bike, Macreedy put his arms around his daughter’s waist before looking back over his shoulder at the wreaked Sontaran ship.

Down behind them on the ground, the large tentacles released their grip on the ship as several new Combat Forms emerged from the ship. One of them was the Sontaran commander, who snarled as he looked up into the sky towards Rey and her father as they fled.

Speeding through the air, Rey didn’t stop until she and her father returned to their dome home.

After a lengthy drive home, they flew inside the cliff mountain, straight towards their home. The garage door opened for them, and they flew inside.

Macreedy switched the bike off and they disembarked it, carrying their gear with them out of the garage dome into the central dome.

“Wow, I think that’s plenty excitement for one evening,” Macreedy exhaled heavily as he stepped into the living area, raising a hoof and rubbing the back of his neck.

Rey followed inside after him, nodding in agreement.

“Yeah, me too, ‘da. Goodnight,” she said, scratching the back of her head as she trotted up towards her room’s door.

“Goodnight, Rey,” Macreedy replied, yawning as he entered a corridor, following it to his room at the other end. The door automatically opened for him, and he stepped inside.

Several hours later, Rey suddenly jolted awake, immediately sitting up-right on the bed as she heard a voice scream aloud.

Her eyes shot wide-open, and she sat there on the bed breathing heavily.

The voice continued screaming, at which point it dawned on the pre-teen mare that it was her father!

Quickly pulling the covers off her body, she ran straight towards the door. It automatically opened for her and ran out into the living area, then turned left and entered the corridor that lead to her father’s room.

However, as the door automatically swooped open for her, she gasped as she froze in her tracks as she saw her father standing in the center of the room.

An Infection had wrapped its tendrils around his body, and had already burrowed well into his chest, causing his head to hang down over his right hoof. His skin changed color to a sickly pale, and his left hoof had already begun grotesquely morphing into a whip-like claw. Macreedy loudly groaned in pain as he tried fighting off the transformation into a Combat Form when he looked up at Rey – having heard her enter the room – and stared back at her with a pained expression, gritting his teeth.

“No…! No…! NO!”

Rey shook her head, eyes watering and voice breaking before she screamed aloud at the sight transpiring before her.

In an attempt to slow the Infection Form, Macreedy drooped himself onto the floor, pinning himself against the floor.

“Do it!” he shouted, pointing a shaky claw at his modified-blaster – which had been knocked over, and laid on the floor beside the bed.

Rey looked towards it, quickly running up towards it and picking it up. She pointed it at her father, but hesitated, watching his body continue to mutate and turn more of a sickly pale color.

His bones cracked and skin ripped open, all for the goal of making him into a weapon to serve the Flood.

As his eyes watered, his closed them and sobbed, experiencing the purest, most brutal pain in his entire life as the Infection Form continued gaining full control over him.

“Please, Rey, k-kill me!” he winched, in this moment wanting nothing more than to die, both so he wouldn’t hurt Rey and due to the physical and mental agony he was in.

Looking down at her father, Rey’s hooves started shaking as she watched her father suffer. She grimaced as the pain of seeing him like this overwhelmed her, bringing her to tears.

“I’m sorry!” she sobbed as she activated the flamethrower, spewing fire onto Macreedy.

The flames engulfed his body, and both Macreedy and the Infection screamed/screech in pain. Both of them burned as the fire incinerated them. The Infection flailed its tendrils as it tried to escape, but since Macreedy had his body pressed against the floor it was unable to.

Even as it tried, Rey screamed as the flamethrower spewed more fire, burning the Infection Form but good to ensure it didn’t survive…

Back in the present, Rey’s screaming echoed in Rey’s head as she stood in front of the corridor – leading to her father’s room.

She sniffled as a lone tear ran down along her chin.

****

A little while later, an escape pod laid deep underground inside a vast cavern chamber.

From the hole above it, a beam of light shined down upon the pod.

That light was abruptly blocked as a form approached the pod, descending towards it through the hole in the ceiling.

It was Rey on her speeder.

She guided the speeder down towards the surface, and then she, the Doctor and Twilight quickly got off it.

Grabbing her quarterstaff, she held it out in front of her as she kept a close eye on the many tunnel passages.

While Rey was on the look-out for any Flood forms, the Doctor and Twilight hurried over towards the escape pod.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” the Doctor asked as they peeked inside the pod, only to find that it was devoid of life.

Closing his eyes, the Doctor sighed heavily as he backed away from the pod.

Hanging his head, he trotted back up towards Rey’s speeder.

Upon reaching the speeder, he looked up at Rey, staring at her before he shook his head from side-to-side.

At seeing his reaction, Rey sighed heavily and averted her gaze as she hung her head.

****

A little while later, the three equines rode the speeder up, out of the cave into the air beside the mountains.

“That is the third pod we’ve found that’s empty,” Rey said as they flew through the air.

“Are you sure it’s possible that Poe, Holdo and the others survived the crash?” Twilight asked.

“As long as they managed to escape these caves before the Flood got to them, then yes. There is a chance that they survived,” the Doctor replied, briefly looking back over his shoulder at Twilight before he turned back in front of him towards Rey.

“Rey, fly West, Rey,” the Doctor instructed.

Rey furrowed her brows confusedly and looked back over her shoulder at him.

“West? What’s there?” she asked…

*Flashback*

The Doctor stood by a window, staring outside at the unspecified number of Sentinels that swarmed out the cliffside cave’s maw.

Whether not seeing them as a threat or unaware of their existence, the drones zipped back and forth through the air.

BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP

At hearing the sudden bleeping noises, the Doctor’s eyes widened, and he abruptly turned around. He trotted up towards the couch, reached into his pocket, and pulled out the holoprojector.

Activating it, the TARDIS’ familiar holographic avatar appeared.

“Yes?” the Doctor responded to seeing her again.

“Doctor, I’ve intercepted a faint energy signature West of our position,” the TARDIS said.

“It’s very weak – almost like its being suppressed – but it’s unmistakably a telepathic call for help.”

The Doctor’s brows jumped, and his jaw hung slack as he stared at her with a look of shock.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Positive, Doc.” She nodded back.

In response, the Doctor hung his head in contemplation as he thought about what their response to this information should be.

Once his mind was made up, he looked back up towards the TARDIS’s hologram.

“Then we’ll go investigate it tomorrow after we’ve searched for Poe, Holdo, and possibly any other survivors,” said the Doctor, which the TARDIS nodded back at him.

“Very good,” said the TARDIS.

“Good night, Doc. Happy hunting tomorrow,” the TARDIS said, smiling back at him before her hologram vanished back into the holoprojector.

The Doctor lowered his hoof but turned his head and looked right out the window behind him. He stared out of it until his head abruptly jerked towards the door of Rey’s room, and he watched her trot out of her room.

She stepped up towards and stopped in front of a corridor before staring down at the other end, sniffling as a tear ran down along her cheek…

*Present*

Hanging her jaw slightly open, Twilight furrowed her brows.

“But, Doctor, what about Poe, Holdo, the others?” Twilight asked, concerned for their friends’ safety.

The Doctor sighed, hanging his head before looking back over his shoulder at Twilight.

“Twilight, I’m sorry, but we must accept the possibility that they have been captured and assimilated by the Flood,” said the Doctor in a sad tone, “There is no way they could have escaped those caves, not without a navigator to help lead them to the surface,” he said, shaking his head dejectedly.

“You don’t know that!” Twilight yelled at him, raising her voice.

His eyes widened, and he shot her a shocked glare.

“Yes, I do. More than you can imagine,” he sternly said.

Twilight opened her mouth to respond, only to leave it hanging slack as she remembered that he was right.

He had fought the Flood before, so if there was anyone knowledgeable about the parasite it was the Doctor.

Afterall, had he not lost everything to them?

Frowning sadly, she hung her head – averting her gaze from the Doctor – and nodded back in response.

“I’m sorry, you’re right,” she said.

“I…I just hoped that they might have survived.”

The Doctor’s strict expression faltered, changing into sad frown at the sight of the –subtle, but still noticeable – distraught look on her face.

As Rey turned her speeder around and flew Westward, the Doctor hung his head as he looked back in front of him.

His sadness returning as he thought about how it must feel to Twilight for questioning him like that, like she hadn’t cared about all that he had suffered at the hands of the Flood.

He knows that she does.

She just wants to help save as many lives as possible, he can understand that.

Afterall, he had tried to do the same. A long time ago…

****

Deep within the Master Builder’s stronghold, Poe and Holdo sat alone inside a cell – large enough for the two of them. A barrier prevented them from leaving but allowed them to look out into the large room where their cell was located within.

Ever since their capture by the Master Builder, he had not seen the two other soldiers that had come here with them.

Meanwhile in another part of the Master Builder’s facility, a chamber was filled with the agonized screams of one of the taken soldiers.

The soldier laid – nude – on a table while a device above him projected a beam down upon him. The beam brought immense pain, making him feel like every part of his body was being ripped apart and then re-assembled.

Standing beside the table, the Master Builder held his arms behind his back as he watched his machine extract the Equestrian’s gaiyash. The terrible visage of the equine being tormented reflected in his visor. Behind his helmet, however, the Master Builder grinned sickeningly to himself, deriving pure joy from watching the Equestrian suffer.

Floating beside his master was Penitent Tangent, who silently observed the experiment alongside his master.

Soon, the Master Builder deactivated the machine, ending the soldier’s torment.

The soldier’s body fell limp against the table, his chest sharply heaven and fell as he inhaled staggered breaths.

“Pity. Looks like we lost another one,” he remarked sarcastically, smirking underneath his helmet at the pretense that the equine had not survived the extraction – when in reality he had.

“Tangent, have the bodies brought to the Preserve,” the Master Builder instructed to Penitent before he turned around and walked away from the table.

“I’m finished time,” he said, heading straight as he headed straight towards a wall, however, before hitting it, he immediately vanished in a bright, golden light.

“As you command, Master Builder,” replied Tangent before he looked back down at the table, at the soldier.

Then, he and the soldier vanished in a similar golden light, leaving the torture chamber behind.

A second later, the soldier re-appeared in a completely different place.

The cold metal table was replaced by soft grass.

He furrowed his brows confusedly as he felt the grass with his hoof.

“What the-?” he asked.

Sitting up on the grass, he turned his head and looked towards his surroundings.

All around him, he saw tall trees, beams of sunlight shot down through the tops of trees, casting their warm glow on his body.

He had ended up in a jungle of sorts…a jungle that ran for miles no matter the direction taken.

Elsewhere, the Master Builder re-appeared within another chamber and walked up towards a chair. He grabbed and held the armrests as he sat down in the chair, looking out in front of him towards several rectangular, blue, holographic screens as they floated in front of him.

Two displayed the two soldiers inside the Preserve…and the third was a place whose walls were covered in an odd, black surface with odd shapes and formations along the walls.

In the center of this chamber there sat a tall humanoid figure atop an odd growth that reached out from its crotch to behind it.

The humanoid had a bio-mechanical appearance, with an additional pair of arms on its chest, a bladed tail, no eyes, sharp teeth, and a large head-crest.

The Master Builder chuckled to himself as he sat back in chair, intertwining his fingers as he held his hands together in front of him.

“Let the hunt begin,” he said to himself.

“H-hello!? Is anyone there?” the other soldier shouted – in the spot that he had woken up.

He dared not to move from this spot, least of all because he didn’t know what awaited him out there in the jungle.

Sweat started running down his temple as his fear grew, mounting everything passing second.

The soldier immediately turned around, looking behind him as he heard something rustle in the bushes…only for his attention to snap up towards the trees as a branch snapped.

Up in the trees, something looked down towards the soldier.

Silently watching him from the treetops.

Predator and prey…

The soldier gasped and quickly turned left, looking behind him towards the thicket of jungle trees and bushes.

The leaves on one of the bushes bounced up and down, indicating that something had moved there.

His breathing intensified, now filled with fear and tension as his eyes darted back and forth; scanning his surroundings for signs of anything. Anything at all.

The soldier remained so fixated on what was in front of him…that he failed to notice a tall, dark silhouette encroaching on him.

“AAAHHHHHHHHHH…!”

The soldier screamed as a pair of hands suddenly reached out and grabbed him.

The unseen assailant then pulled him back across the clearing before disappearing into the dark trees.

Soon, a dead silence hung on the air of the clearing.

There was no sound, no movement.

Just…nothing.

Observing everything, the Master Builder and Penitent Tangent watched the creature drag the soldier off to an unknown fate.

His horrified screams echoing throughout the jungle until they finally died down as he vanished…

****

“Is that it there, Doctor?” Rey asked.

Peeking out from behind her back, the Doctor looked in front of them – as did Twilight – towards a series of large structures that they were coming up on.

Atop some mountains – but behind a large wall – arose a large, geometric and angular structure.

The center of the structure was a dome that sported four small spires, but flanking the dome were four, geometric spires that sloped in towards the center of the dome.

Briefly looking down at his Screwdriver, the Doctor returned his attention back up towards the structure in front of them.

“That’s our destination,” he replied.

“Alright, I’ll take us in then,” Rey said, flying the speeder through the air towards the structure.

As they passed over the wall, the Doctor and Twilight looked down towards it. They then looked up, facing each other before the Doctor shrugged his shoulders, and he looked back in front of him as Rey piloted the speeder down – once they were over the wall – towards a clearing where they could touch-down.

The speeder blew up snow as it landed on the surface.

Rey, Twilight and the Doctor disembarked the speeder, planting their hooves on the ground.

Twilight and the Doctor looked around at their surroundings, but none showed no more interest than Rey, who seemed entranced by the place.

“Doc, what is this place?” Rey asked.

“It’s a Forerunner facility,” said the Doctor, “Specifically, a Library; a pseudo repository of knowledge that can double as a research facility,” he explained before he looked back over his shoulder towards the two mares.

“The Forerunners may be gone, but their technological achievements should not be forgotten,” he said, which made Twilight furrow her brows.

“What do you mean “gone”?” she asked, raising a confused brow.

The Doctor looked at her and then said, “The Forerunners are extinct, Twilight.”

“They sacrificed themselves to destroy the Flood at the end of a worse war than the Last Great Time War,” he said, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and pointing it out in front of him. He watched the end blink and listened as it beeped.

“This way,” he said before he stepped forwards, traversing the snow as he headed straight towards a doorway – that leads into the mountain.

Twilight and Rey stepped forward, following him inside the mountain.

With the Doctor at the head of their little group, Twilight and Rey followed him down the corridor as he traced the signal.

Despite how determined they were to get to the bottom of who or what is creating the signal, Twilight and Rey cannot help but look in awe of this place’s architecture.

Enigmatic inscriptions covered the walls, the flashing – sometimes pulsating, throbbing lights – and most – if not all – the architecture was geometric and angular. A lot of it also used a lot of greys and gold.

Twilight did not know much about these Forerunners, but she could tell just from looking around at this architecture and these enigmatic shapes that they were dealing with a noble race.

While also interested in learning more about these mysterious Forerunners, Rey knew that her curiosity and intrigue to learn about this long-extinct race didn’t hold a candle to what she suspected Twilight would do if she were to ever meet a member of the species.

Rey would have asked a couple questions whereas Twilight would have bombarded them with questions, demanding an answer for each – question.

The Doctor hardly seemed to pay their surroundings much thought. His primary thought seemed to be on finding out the source of the signal.

However, while Twilight looked around – at the rear of the group – she missed a mural on the wall behind her.

The mural was a blue, holographic screen that displayed three humanoid figures raising and pointing their hands towards a humanoid that was double the size, worshipping it. This single, large humanoid held its arms out beside itself, shining beams of light down upon the three figures.

Two of the humanoids were males and the third was a female.

The being that the trio worshipped wore a long dress, from which tendrils reached out the bottom – of the dress – the underside of her arms was covered in leaves, her fingers were unnaturally long and also covered by the leaves.

Ignorant of the mural, Twilight continued after the Doctor and Rey, proceeding down the corridor with them.

Soon, they arrived back outside, where they found several peculiar lifts that they needed to cross the gap to reach the other.

Using his screwdriver, the Doctor activated the lift, using to ferry himself, Twilight, and Rey all the way across the gap towards the other side.

As they ventured deeper into the facility, the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver started beeping and blinking a lot louder and faster. An indicator that they were getting closer to the source of the signal…

At present, they have arrived at a large steel, but using his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor unlocked it. Once unlocked, the door moved upwards into the ceiling, revealing a vast chamber. From the other end of the room, the trio heard energy vibrantly humming coming a black sphere.

Large markings ran along the side of the sphere, projecting a fiery glow through the cracks.

After looking at each other, they stared back in front of them and strode forward inside it, crossing a thin but elongated walkway towards the center of the chamber.

At the end of the walkway, they were faced with two, odd-looking nods.

The Doctor furrowed his brows as he looked towards the nods, examining them until his eyes widened as it dawned on him what these were meant for.

Fishing out his sonic screwdriver, he pointed it at the two nods.

As the end glowed blue, the screwdriver made its loud, high-pitching buzzing noise as he scanned the two nods.

Eventually, he stopped scanning and put his screwdriver back in his waistcoat pocket.

Slowly turning his head, looked back over his shoulder at Twilight.

“I think it’s a locking/unlocking mechanism,” he said to her and Rey.

“A locking mechanism for what?” Rey asked, raising an intrigued brow at him.

“Let’s find out,” he said turning back towards the nodes.

He extended his hooves and touched them to the nodes, only to sharply hiss as he felt a sudden electric shock course through his body.

“Doctor!” Twilight called out.

“No, I’m fine!” he grunted, sharply looking back over his shoulder. In response, Rey and Twilight stopped in their tracks, “The system’s just connecting me to it, allowing me to control it,” the Doctor explained to them.

Looking back in front of him, the Doctor closed his eyes as he integrated with the systems. He accessed the control functions, focusing his attention on unlocking…whatever this thing was.

Finally, he managed to unlock it, triggering the release mechanism. He then removed his hooves from the nodes and backed away towards Twilight and Rey.

The sphere started humming which intensified as it lifted up into the air, rising higher and higher.

Then, the sphere suddenly released a powerful shockwave across the room, knocking them all to the floor!

Taken by surprise, the three equines quickly stood back up on their hooves, staring wide-eyed at each other.

“What the hell was that?!” Rey asked confusedly.

“I have no idea,” replied the Doctor.

Standing back up, Twilight immediately did a double-take as she noticed something happening to the sphere.

“Look,” she shouted, pointing her hoof at the bottom of the sphere.

Turning around, the Doctor and Rey stared to where Twilight was pointing and saw that the sphere was coming apart at the bottom. The black pieces – of what now looked to be a shell – pulled back as a small platform emerged from what looked like an inner layer comprised of magma.

Six clamps whirred as they moved downwards, revealing six meters tall, metal cylinder.

The trio stared at the cylinder until parts of it suddenly hissed as it released steam.

Like with the sphere, the cylinder separated into multiple pieces that floated off into the air…revealing an alien figure inside it – the capsule.

The figure held its arms in front of its face, but shortly, its arms twitched as life returned to the being. It lowered its arms from in front of its face, revealing a massive, flat, eurypterid-like head with wide-spaced, compound eyes. Its shoulders sloped and sported four arms. The upper arms were the biggest with a smaller pair underneath them. A barbed tentacle emerged at the back of the figure’s head.

While the majority of the figure’s body was humanoid, beneath the torso was just one, single large mass that sported many spiked legs underneath it – providing the creature balance.

Everyone of the trio’s eyes widened, and their jaws hung slack at the sight of the large alien being. However, none gawked more than the Doctor, who was in disbelief of what he was seeing.

“It’s a Precursor!” he said aloud, shocked and awed.

“A what?” Twilight and Rey asked in unison.

Before he could respond, the Precursor’s head jerked down, staring towards the three equines before it suddenly leapt into the air.

Despite its size, the Precursor was surprisingly fast, quickly landing behind the trio.

Standing up, the Precursor towered over the trio, silently staring down at them as neither of them moved an inch.

“Speak, Equestrians, where is the Master Builder?” the Precursor asked, speaking in a very deep, echoing voice, but one that the Doctor recognized as having a sense of nobility to it – and for good reason.

Natural tone aside, the voice, itself, was soft and high-pitched…like a female.

“Master Builder?” the Doctor asked, furrowing his brows bewildered and confused.

Confused about why the Precursor was concerned with the Forerunners. And bewildered that there were Forerunners on this planet.

Other than the Sentinels, they had not seen any other form of life…aside from perhaps the Flood.

“Yes, the one who found and imprisoned me within my own stasis capsule,” said the Precursor.

“Why?” asked the Doctor, “Why would this Master Builder do that to you? You are a Precursor!”

The Doctor pointed his hoof up at the Precursor, taking several forward towards it. The Precursor tilted its head to the side.

“So, then you mean to tell me that you are not allied with the Master Builder?” asked the Precursor, moving slightly forwards towards the trio.

“No,” said the Doctor, shaking his head.

“Now that I know a Forerunner was keeping a Precursor hostage, I will help you any way I can,” he said, taking several more steps towards the behemoth.

The Doctor and Precursor stared at each other until their attention was directed towards Rey…

“Okay, can someone please tell me what the hell is going on? Who are the Precursors? For that matter, who are these Forerunners?” she asked, notably confused about all of this.

The Precursor looked back down at the Doctor, who smiled and nodded back.

“You can trust them, they’re with me,” he said, tapping his chest, to which the Precursor looked up from him towards Rey.

“We, Precursors, were the mass-seeders of all life in the galaxy; creating countless planets as well as the creatures that roamed them. And the original holders of the Mantle of Responsibility, which meant that we were the guardians of the galaxy...until the Forerunners betrayed us,” the Precursor explained.

“One of our greatest creations were the Forerunners and Equestrian species. Under our care, both races thrived and prospered, achieving great technological capabilities. However, once the Forerunners learned that they would not inherit the Mantle of Responsibility, they rebelled against us, hunting us all down until only a few remained,” she said, sounding progressively sadder while simultaneously putting her left hand on her chest.

“For all their achievements, they failed to see – or even understand – why we choose the Equestrians over them,” she added.

Rey, Twilight, and especially the Doctor frowned sadly as they looked back towards the Precursor.

“I…I’m sorry,” Twilight said, unable to fathom what it must feel like to be hunted down to near-extinction by ones’ own creations.

Despite the plethora of questions racing through her head, she wanted to appear sympathetic to the Precursor.

“Me too. As the last of my kind, I understand your pain,” the Doctor said, touching his hoof on his chest.

“You are the last of your kind?” the Precursor asked confusedly, “So, you mean to tell me that you are not an Equestrian?” asked the Precursor, pointing its finger at him.

“Mm-hmm.” The Doctor nodded back.

“My race, the Time Lords perished in the Last Great Time War,” the Doctor explained.

“Time War? Time Lords?” she asked confusedly, until something dawned on her.

“Oh yes, I remember now. Your people lived in the constellation of Kasterborous on the planet Gallifrey,” she said optimistically.

Smiling, the Doctor craned his head and looked up at the Precursor.

“That’s right,” he said back.

“Then, state your name, Time Lord,” she said.

“Gladly. I am the Doctor,” said the Doctor, smiling up at her.

“Doctor,” replied the Precursor, letting the name sink in, “You are a healer then since you bear the name of doctor?” she asked.

“A travelling one,” the Doctor said, shrugging his shoulders.

“Traveling? You do not reside on Gall- Oh!” she asked before she suddenly realized why the Doctor travelled.

He had no home to back to.

“You have my sympathies, Doctor,” she said, bowing her head in respect.

“Thank you. It means a lot to hear that from a Precursor,” he said, smiling warmly up at her.

“But, if I may be allowed to ask, who are you?” he asked back.

“Mortuus Viventem, the Primordial,” Mortuus said.

“Hello, Mortuus Viventem, Primordial of the Precursors.”

The Doctor bowed his head in respect.

Not wanting to appear disrespectful before the last surviving member of a long-extinct god race, Twilight and Rey also bowed their heads.

Once they stood up, the Doctor and Mortuus stared at each other again until Mortuus interrupted the silence.

“Now, let us be on our way before the Master Builder discovers that you have infiltrated his facility and freed me,” Mortuus said.

“Of course,” the Doctor said, bowing his head a second time – like one would do to royalty – and looked back over his shoulder at Twilight and Rey.

“Come on.”

He waved Twilight and Rey onwards as he trotted forwards. Without hesitation, they strode forward after him.

Following the equines with her eyes as they approached her, Mortuus eventually turned around and headed towards the doorway.

Together, the four aliens left the chamber together.

Author's Note

I don't own any of the pictures.

Feedback and comments are appreciated

Chapter 6 - We Never Left Part 1

Aside from the ambience of the machines, the Dalek control room was silent.

Daleks were connected to their consoles, silently staring at the monitors in front of them which displayed swirling energies in various shapes and forms; static, electric.

Suddenly, one of the screens flashed and beeped, drawing the attention of the Dalek overseer, who slid across the room towards the Dalek – whose screen beeped and flashed.

The Dalek swiveled its dome right, and stared directly at the overseer, behind it.

“Report?” the overseer said.

“Long-range transmission detected,” replied the Dalek operator, “It is coming from the Unknown Regions,” it said.

“Display,” the overseer instructed.

“I obey.”

The operator swiveled its dome a little further, fully looking behind it. The overseer also turned around, looking behind it – the operator – as a hologram appeared.

However, at seeing the hologram, the overseer abruptly backed away.

Surprised by the figure displayed before them.

“Greetings, Pentastar Alignment, I am calling you from the beyond, or what you know as the Unknown Regions…” the hologram said.

A little while later, the Time Controller was on the bridge of its flagship, the Exterminator, silently watching the mysterious message they had received mere moments ago.

Standing beside the Time Controller was the Supreme Dalek, who also silently observed the holographic message, though, truth be told, it was actually in disbelief over whether it was real.

Their very god was communicating with them, transmitting a message to them from somewhere across the galaxy. Specifically, somewhere in the Unknown Regions.

Even the Time Controller, itself, was shocked by what it was seeing and hearing.

“Included in this message are the co-ordinates to my whereabouts. They can be used to find me,” the hologram said.

“Find me, my children. Come find me, and together we will embark on the Great Journey, and lead all who are worthy to salvation.”

Once finished, the hologram vanished, leaving the Time Controller and Black Dalek in silence.

Soon, a Dalek operator swiveled its dome around and looked towards the Time Controller.

“Time Controller, we are receiving co-ordinates for a planet located in the Unknown Regions,” the Dalek operator spoke out.

In response, the Time Controller swiveled its own eyestalk towards the operator, staring towards it.

“Inform the excavation party on the surface that the Exterminator and four starships will temporarily depart for the Unknown Regions, and that we shall soon return with a great prize,” the Time Controller instructed to the operator.

“I obey,” the operator replied as it brought its attention back towards the control console in front of it, informing the fleet of the Time Controller’s imminent departure.

Rotating its eyestalk back in front of it, the Time Controller looked up at a holographic map displaying the galaxy.

Already, it was planning for the Daleks future in the Pentastar Alignment.

Now, however, with the message that they had received the Dalek stratagem would be proceeding a lot faster than originally presumed.

Out in space, the Exterminator and the four other Dalek ships altered course and moved away from the planet.

Once clear, the five ships abruptly shot forwards, jumping to lightspeed as they disappeared off to the Unknown Regions.

****

Meanwhile back on Liber in a far-off valley, a giant earthquake shook an inhabited Forerunner city.

Panic hadn’t spread, but the city’s inhabitants grew concerned for their safety, nonetheless.

Inside city control, security tried to make heads or tails of the situation, but they were unable to make heads or tails of it.

Then, before anyone in the entire city – citizen or personnel – could voice their thoughts about what was happening, countless large, thin, tentacles suddenly burst through the ground!

The tentacles shot straight up into the sky before bringing their full force down on the city structures, slamming into the buildings!

Destroying them, including killing the inhabitants by crushing them underneath the falling debris.

The inhabitants mustered their defenses to fend off the large tentacles, but just as their aircraft took flight and flew to attack the tentacles…the tentacles suddenly retreated back into the holes from whence they had come. Much to the inhabitants – but mostly the militia’s – confusion.

However, from out of the large holes the tentacles had left behind, something far worse emerged.

Hordes of Infection Forms!

The Infection Forms climbed up from the holes and began infecting the city inhabitants that had survived the tentacles’ onslaught.

Chattering, the Infection Forms leapt onto the nearest humanoids and burrowed their tentacles into the victim’s body.

Before full control was achieved, the Infection Forms introduced Flood supercells into the victim’s body, causing them to begin mutating. The victim sprouted growths on their bodies, and a whip-like claw grew from their left hand – leaving the other/right hand unaltered.

The victim’s head hung down to the side, now making feral growling and snarling noises as they now ran off to further spread the Flood infestation throughout the city.

Despite their technology, the militia struggled to contain the ever-growing number of Flood forms, all of which came in a wide variety of shapes and sizes to assimilate the city faster.

From the holes – created by the tentacles – large masses of organic growths began spreading across the city, making it easier for the Flood to assimilate it into their already vast hive.

The militia aircraft hovering the city could only watch as the growths – from the Flood hive – covered their structures.

The Flood was not just assimilating the inhabitants, but fortifying the city, itself; turning it into a single, massive Flood hive!

Alongside the large quantities of Flood biomass that covered the city structures, larger and thicker tentacles had emerged and gradually slithered throughout the city.

Contributing to the spread of the Flood throughout the city and further weakening the already crippled defenses.

As the infestation continued, numerous transports departed the now doomed city.

Fleeing while the militia delayed the Flood.

From their relative safety in the skies above the city, the militia aircraft turned around and accompanied the retreating transports.

In the city center, the few uninfected survivors gathered for a final stand against the hordes upon hordes of Flood.

As the Flood spilled out into the city center, the survivors fired away at the grotesquely mutates Combat Forms and other abominations, cutting them down…but it was not enough to halt the advance of the parasite.

The black mass – that was the city inhabitants – grew steadily smaller as the sickly-pale mass – the Flood – seemingly swallowed them up.

Mercilessly devouring them all!

The war cries that hang rung throughout the city center as the final battle between the city’s inhabitants and the Flood gradually turned into agonized screams that echoed throughout the valley.

Onboard the transports and militia aircraft, the survivors heard their comrades screams.

Many – of the survivors – clenched their eyes shut and covered their ears, drowning out the screams and cries of help as they flew over the mountains.

****

After crossing the gap to reach the other side and traversing the same corridors they had used earlier, the Doctor, Twilight, Rey, and Mortuus made their way back to the open clearing where Rey had parked her speeder.

However, while the equines trudged towards the speeder, Mortuus froze in her tracks, stunned and confused about how the equines had managed to land here undetected.

“Explain this,” she said, causing the trio to stop in their tracks and turn around, looking behind them at the Precursor, “How did you manage to land such a simple craft within the walls of a Forerunner facility?” she asked, looking down at the Doctor.

He softly scoffed and held out his sonic screwdriver in front of him, showing it to the Primordial.

“I’ve been around Forerunner technology before, so I know how to get around their security and manipulate their systems,” he said, gently shaking the screwdriver as he smirked back at the Primordial.

If the Primordial had brows, they would have jumped at hearing this.

“Interesting, Time Lord…” she replied.

“It is…for a story anyway, but one I fear will have to be told later when we’re away from this place. I can only hide us for so long before the Forerunners realize that something is up,” said the Doctor.

“Then we shall depart before they do.”

The Doctor nodded back before he turned around and trotted up towards Rey’s speeder. However, he received a befuddled look from Twilight.

“Um, Doctor, isn’t she a little, um, big to fit on the speeder?” Twilight asked, pointing her hoof up beside her at the Primordial.

“Nn-hmm.”

The Doctor shook his head.

“If anything, I’d say she’s just about the right size,” he said, without even looking at either Twilight or the Primordial.

“What are you talking a-?”

“Will this size suffice, Doctor?”

The Primordial abruptly asked, drawing Twilight’s attention, causing her to turn around and look behind her.

As she looked behind herself, though, Twilight froze in her tracks as she saw the Primordial, who was suddenly a lot smaller.

In fact, she now looked to be about Twilight’s size.

Rey and Twilight’s eyes widened, staring slack-jawed at the Primordial, taken aback by how she had managed to change size like it was nothing.

“But- How did she-?” Rey asked, stuttering as she tried to make sense of all this. Same with Twilight, who merely pointed her hoof at the Primordial, trying to comprehend what was happening.

Hearing the confusion in their voices, the Doctor smirked and turned back around, noticing the confused mares.

He trotted up towards Twilight and gently patted her cheek, snapping her back to reality.

In response, she shook her head.

“Ready to go?” he asked.

“Y-yeah. I think so.”

Twilight turned her head, looking from side-to-side before staring back at the Doctor, who merely smiled back.

“Good, then let us get underway,” he said before he trotted back towards the speeder.

Passing by Twilight, the Primordial trotted up towards the speeder.

Twilight’s attention abruptly shifted towards the Primordial, following the pony-sized Precursor with her eyes. She then turned her head and looked towards Rey.

Both she and Rey’s jaws hung slack as they gawked at each other.

Twilight eventually closed her mouth a little and shrugged her shoulders at Rey. They then trotted up towards the speeder and got on. The Doctor and Primordial allowed Rey to get seated in the front – so she could control the speeder.

Starting the speeder up, Rey – and the others – felt it hover off the ground.

Engaging the boosters, the speeder sped forwards, gradually climbing higher into the air.

Turning the speeder around, she flew towards and passed over the wall, speeding away into the distance from the Forerunner facility.

****

Meanwhile back at the Master Builder’s facility, the Master Builder sat within his control room, observing his creations on a monitor.

The monitor displayed one of the soldiers – that he had sent into the Preserve – stuck to the walls by black substance. He screamed as his body convulsed.

Bones cracked as something bulged out on his chest. Painful waves coursed through his body as the thing within his tried to escape its host.

His skin punctured, causing blood to run down along his chest.

Then, with one final push, the creature within the soldier finally erupted from his chest.

A beige-colored, small, worm-like creature with sharp teeth now stuck out of the soldiers’ chest.

Now free of the prison that was its host’s body, the worm-like creature screeched aloud. That was the last noise the soldier heard before drawing his last breath, slowly hanging his head before he died.

Underneath his helmet, the Master Builder smiled to himself.

Unbeknownst to the Master Builder, Penitent Tangent teleported into the room.

As soon as the Monitor appeared behind the humanoid’s chair, he quickly hovered up towards the Master Builder.

“Master Builder, we have a situation!” Penitent shouted, “Patient Zero has escaped!”

Upon hearing those words, the Master Builder immediately froze in his seat. His chair quickly spun around, facing the Monitor.

“What!?” he exclaimed, shocked.

“We have also lost contact with the City of the Tribes, alongside detecting a large Flood presence in its vicinity,” Penitent said.

Underneath his mask, the Master Builder’s eyes widened.

“Show me!” he demanded.

Penitent nodded, then turned around to face the hovering screens in front of the Master Builder. He fired a beam at one monitor, causing it to change from the Preserve to a bird’s eye-view of the City of the Tribes.

The entire city was completely overrun by the Flood, with entire buildings covered in Flood biomass.

The Master Builder sat petrified in his seat, silently staring at the screen. Underneath his mask, though, his eyes threatened to pop out of his skull, and his jaw hung agape at the sight before him.

“No!” the Master Builder softly exclaimed, shocked and horrified.

“It cannot be- How did the Flood manage to construct a Gravemind without us-?”

He snapped at the Monitor, jerking his head towards Penitent. Enraged, though, his rage was halted by the revelation that dawned on the Master Builder.

He slowly turned back towards the screen, staring at it with wide eyes.

“The Flood…they consumed everything in the city,” he thought aloud.

“Master Builder, we must presume that with the thousands that the Flood have assimilated, that they will be coming here, for us now,” Penitent said.

The Master Builder didn’t move an inch, still starring at the infested city on the screen. He then briefly hung his head before he raised it back up. Underneath his helmet, he furrowed his brows as he turned around towards Penitent.

“Let them. My creations will finally be unleashed against the Flood,” he said.

“Very well, Master Builder,” Penitent replied, bowing back at his master before he teleported out of his private chambers.

Once alone, the Master Builder’s smile changed into a concerned frown…

Meanwhile in another section of the facility, several large hatches slowly opened outwards – arching upwards.

Light shined inside, silhouetting several humanoid beings with elongated heads, tubes protruding from their backs, and long, bladed tails.

The creatures growled and hissed as they stood at the opened hatch before they then got on all fours and crawled out.

Proceeding to climb down along the mountain side.

They briefly stopped moving as they received a telepathic message.

Instructions telling them what to do.

Once the orders were given, the creatures resuming climbing.

Scaling the mountain side to find the Flood.

****

Elsewhere, the Doctor, Twilight, Rey and the Primordial flew over the cold mountains back towards Rey’s dome-home.

None of them minded as the cold wind blew across their bodies. Not even the Primordial.

Piloting the speeder into the hidden entrance to her home, Rey flew up towards her dome-home’s garage entrance.

Once close enough, the garage doors automatically opened for her.

The doors craned upwards, allowing her to fly inside – the garage. The doors then closed behind her once she was inside.

Inside the garage, the speeder hovered above the ground until Rey switched it off, causing it gently touch-down on the floor.

Following which, the Doctor, Twilight, Rey, and the Primordial disembarked the speeder.

The Doctor sighed as he approached the Primordial, patting its back with his hoof.

“Come. You and I need to talk,” he said.

“As the first-ever Precursor to be encountered millions of years since your enforced superstation, we have much catching up to do. The universe has been busy since your absence.”

“As you wish, Doctor. We shall converse,” the Primordial said as she nodded.

The Doctor smiled and patted the Primordial’s back before they stepped forward towards the door – leading to the living room.

Leaving Twilight and Rey staring after them.

Turning their heads, the two mares faced each other.

Shooting each other blank stares, until Twilight smiled softly at Rey.

“Well, the Doctor certainly seems happy about finding a member of a near-extinct species,” she remarked.

Rey turned back towards the door, slowly nodding in response as she blankly stared at it,

“Yes, he does. Overjoyed as a matter of fact,” Rey said.

While she stared at the door, Twilight gently patted Rey’s shoulder.

“Well, I think I’m going to join him,” as she softly inhaled.

“He is not the only one with questions for the Primordial.”

She smiled before trotted trotting towards the door, then proceeding down the hall towards the living room.

Leaving Rey alone in the garage.

****

Sometime later on an open plain, a large horde of Equestrian, Jiralhanae, and Sanghelli Combat Forms growled as they proceeded towards the Forerunner control facility.

Hundreds of infection Forms accompanied the Combat Forms.

However, the Flood force abruptly stopped in their tracks as they sensed something coming their way.

The top of a nearby rolling hill grew darker as something moved atop it.

A single, large, black line that stretched across the entire hilltop.

The Combat Forms snarled at the newcomers, knowing they were not Flood.

The newcomers had black bodies with exoskeletons, long, barbed tails, elongated heads, and tubes protruding from their backs.

The Flood and Xenomorphs stared at each other…until the Xenomorphs abruptly roared and then charged down from the hill towards the Flood horde.

Running on all fours towards the horde of Combat Forms, which finally charged straight towards the approaching Xenomorphs.

While running towards the Xenomorphs, the Equestrian Combat Forms abruptly leapt into the air towards them.

The equines slashed their whip-like claws downwards towards the Xenomorphs, but several Xenomorphs abruptly shot their bladed up at the Combat Forms; piercing them in the chest.

Narrowly missing the Infection Form – inside the Combat Form – by a couple inches.

The Xenomorphs hissed and shoved the Combat Form off their tail onto another Combat Form, knocking them both to the ground.

As the Xenomorphs got close enough, the Infection Forms leapt onto the Xenos’ chests.

The Xenos hissed as the Infection Forms got their tendrils around their chests.

However, before the Infection Forms got a chance to penetrate the Xenomorphs’ bodies, they were suddenly pierced by the Xeno’s tails.

The Xenomorphs threw the now-dead Infection Forms off their bodies towards the ground, then resumed charging towards the Flood horde.

Then, Xenomorphs and Flood forms clashed!

Chaos erupted on the field as the two species fought each other.

Combat Forms slashed their whip-like claws, piercing the Xenomorph exoskeleton, causing their blood to spurt from the wound.

In spite of their injuries, however, the Xenomorphs continued on against the Flood forms; impaling them with their tails before holding the Combat Form up before extending their inner jaw and piercing the Combat Form’s head, instantly killing it – and forcing the Infection Form to flee to seek out a new host.

Several inured Xenomorphs pounced onto a few Combat Forms, knocking them to the ground where the Xenomorphs slashed them with their claws…while simultaneously spilling the acidic blood onto the Combat Forms – or the Infection Form directly.

Changing their tactics, the Combat Forms tried slashing the Xenomorphs’ heads off. However, in doing that, the acidic blood only sprayed on more Combat Forms as the Xenomorph screech and squirmed in pain, killing more Combat Forms than Xenomorphs.

Alongside the Xenomorphs, Facehuggers leapt onto the faces of several Combat Forms, knocking them to the ground as they roared in pain. While the majority of the Infection Forms were burned, a few survived the acid spray.

While the warrior Xenomorphs directly attacked the Combat Forms – and Infection Forms – the Xeno drones lunged onto Combat Forms, knocking them onto the ground.

Holding them as Facehuggers crawled onto and attached themselves to the Combat Form’s face.

Unfortunately, the drone was attacked and killed by another Combat Form, allowing the other Combat Form – the one trapped underneath the Xenomorph – to get up on their feet. But when the Combat Form tried ripping the Facehugger off its face, it tightened its tail around the Combat Form’s throat, killing it.

Now dead, the Infection Form abandoned its now useless host to find another.

During the battle, one Combat Form swung its whip-claw towards a Xenomorph, but the Xenomorph caught the Flood form claw with its tail and deflected it from the Xenomorph’s body.

The Xenomorph then went on the offensive, lunging itself at the Combat form and knocking it to the ground.

Standing atop the struggling Combat Form, the Xenomorph stabbed the Infection Form with its tail, killing it.

While a portion of the Equestrian Combat Forms possessed firearms, the majority of them did not. Forced to rely on their whip-like claws to combat the Xenomorphs, and with their smaller, weaker bodies, the Xenomorphs had an easy time overwhelming them…

****

From his private chambers, the Master Builder sat in his chair, holding the tips of his fingers against each other as he observed the battle between the Flood forms and his Xenomorphs.

Monitor, Penitent Tangent hovered beside his creator as he observed the battle too.

“Shall I deploy Sentinels, Master Builder?”

“No,” replied the Master Builder, not moving a muscle as he watched the battle.

“This is their test. They must see it through,” said the Master Builder.

“I just hope that their inferior numbers will allow them to prevail.”

Penitent Tangent silently looked at the Master Builder, but ultimately said nothing as he turned back towards the screen.

****

Meanwhile on the field, the battle between the Flood forms and the Xenomorph raged on.

The longer it went, the more the battle escalated.

However, now the Jiralhanae and Sanghelli Combat Forms joined the battle, charging towards the Xenomorph army.

At the same time, they opened fire on the Xenomorphs with their superior weaponry, mercilessly gunning them.

Unlike the equine brethern, the Jiralhanae and Sanghelli Combat Forms possessed both their whip-claws and their technologically superior firearms.

Under co-ordination, the Sanghelli fired their weapons at the Xenomorphs, blasting countless holes in them before they managed to get close – enough to attack.

Meanwhile, the Jiralhanae and Equestrian Combat formed a defensive line to protect the Sanghelli, while simultaneously pushing the Xenomorphs back.

None of the Xenomorphs could get close enough without either being shot down or impaled – by the claw-whip.

While the Jiralhanae and Sanghelli Combat Forms stayed in formation, the Equestrian Combat Forms charged towards the Xenomorphs, pushing their advantage while they had the upper hand.

Soon, however, the momentum suddenly turned against the Flood as several unseen figures – from amidst the Xenomorph force – immediately shot acid up into the air.

Curving downwards in mid-air, the acid came right back down towards the Jiralhanae and Sanghelli Combat Forms.

The Sanghelli and Jiralhanae Combat Forms roared in pain as the acid splattered onto them, injuring them and the Infection Forms.

A few of the Jiralhanae and Sanghelli Combat Forms were hit in vital areas, and thus collapsed dead to the ground.

Several Infection Forms tried to escape from their hosts – due to their sustained damage – only to screech as they were bombarded by a second volley of acid.

With the Flood’s lines weakened, the Xenomorph warriors charged straight for the physically smaller, weaker and outnumbered Equestrian Combat Forms, cutting them down without hesitation.

They also disposed of the Infection Forms that tried to escape their now-useless hosts.

Keeping up the pressure, Crusher Xenomorphs charged across the field towards the Flood hordes, ramming and indeed crushing Combat Forms underneath it, including Infection Forms.

The Combat Forms fired upon the Crusher, but not before it had managed to punch a hole in their lines, allowing the rest of the Xenomorphs to pour through and begin slaughtering Combat Forms…

“The Xenomorphs appear to be winning,” Penitent

From his chambers, the Master Builder smiled underneath his mask as he watched the battle turn in his Xenomorphs’ favor.

Despite their inferior numbers, the Xenomorphs were proving themselves a match for the Flood forms.

His theories about how to combat the Flood had proven to be right.

If the Flood could not infect the Xenomorphs and provide the same amount of near versatility as the Flood, itself, then they can be defeated.

If only he had more hosts, then he could produce more Xenomorphs and win through sheer force alone.

While focused on his thoughts, an alarm suddenly blared throughout the chamber. The alarm grabbed Penitent Tangent’s attention, but the Master Builder remained oblivious to it.

The Monitor looked around the room as red lights flashed before turning towards the Forerunner.

“Master Builder, seismic activity detected,” he informed him.

The Master Builder softly chuckled to himself.

“Worry not, Monitor. The Flood tentacles cannot reach us here,” he said confidently.

“They are growing desperate.”

Penitent Tangent turned towards a screen, staring transfixed in spite of what he saw.

“Master Builder…the Flood are not attacking us, they are-“

Before he could finish his sentence, the screen – that Penitent and the Master Builder had been looking at – suddenly began making a deep rumbling noise.

The Master Builder furrowed his brows as he noticed the ground cracking open on the screen…

Meanwhile outside on the field, the charging Xenomorphs abruptly stopped in their tracks as the ground shook.

Then, before they – the Xenomorphs – could react, large tentacles suddenly burst through the ground.

Shooting high into the air, to where they towered over the biomechanical creatures. Then, without hesitation, the tentacles slammed down onto the Xenomorphs, crushing them!

The tentacles brushed across the ground, crushing any and all Xenomorphs they – the tentacles – came into contact with.

Xenomorphs tried to evade them, only to be taken by surprise and cut or shot down by the Combat Forms, who made short work of them in their frenzied state.

“NO!” the Master Builder shouted as the tentacles crushed his Xenomorphs, smashing them underneath their weight.

As the fear welled within the Master Builder, he abruptly stood up from his chair but froze in his tracks as he watched the Flood forms wiped out the few remaining Xenomorphs on the battlefield.

Soon, no Xenos remained on the field.

Now, with their enemies destroyed the Flood force trudged onwards, passing over the hill towards the distant mountains – where the Master Builder’s facility was visible, perched high on the side of a mountain.

Underneath his mask’s visor, the Master Builder’s eyes widened as he realized where the Flood were going…

“They are coming here! For us,” he said horrified.

“Then we must evacuate at once, Master Builder!” Penitent said in a concerned voice as he turned to face the Forerunner.

However, before they could react the ground suddenly began rumbling and roughly shaking.

The Master Builder nearly lost his balance while Penitent Tangent looked around as the chamber shook. The hovering monitors flickered and then vanished entirely. The floors and walls groaned before they cracked, separating as the chamber fell apart.

“Whoa!” the Master Builder exclaimed as he leapt up into the air, igniting his armor’s hover mechanism, causing him to hover in mid-air as the cracked pieces of his chamber fell down into a dark void, below.

However, as he looked down into the void, his eyes widened as he noticed multiple, large tentacles slithering up along the side of his facility’s tower before they suddenly lunged up towards him!

“Master Builder, look out!” Penitent shouted.

The Master Builder grunted as he dodged the first tentacle, again as he dodged the second – tentacle – and then yet again as he dodged the third.

However, he failed to notice a fourth tentacle which hit him straight in the chest, pushing him backwards through the air and slamming him against the wall. He grunted upon hitting the wall.

“Master Builder!” Penitent Tangent called out before he flew straight up towards the tentacle that was pinning the Master Builder against the wall and fired a beam of energy from his eye at it, burning through the tentacle.

The severed half of the tentacle became limp, freeing the Master Builder before then falling down along the tower towards more incoming tentacles…but this time the Master Builder was ready for them.

Thrusting his arm out beside him, an energy blade extended from his right arm along with an energy shield on his left arm.

His visor display changed, now letting him better see the tentacles.

He then furrowed his brows, screaming as he raised his energy blade above head as he charged down through the air towards the tentacles. In response, the tentacles shot up towards him. He, though, evaded and sliced the tentacles with his blade, leaving them flailing in mid-air.

Tentacle after tentacle was sliced, until they abruptly pulled back, surrounding him instead of directly attacking him.

Freezing, he slowly spun in a circle.

Shield at the ready if they tried anything.

Like hungry serpents assessing their prey, the tentacles softly wriggled in mid-air in an attempt to throw him off.

One tentacle slowly inched itself forwards until it was close enough to lunge forwards towards him, but the Master Builder immediately spun around towards it and caught the tentacle with his shield.

While the tentacle pushed him backwards, the other tentacles attacked seized their opportunity and lunged towards him, but he ducked to avoid two of them, then quickly flew upwards to dodge another one, slicing that very same tentacle with his blade. However, one tentacle still managed to get through his defenses, knocking him backwards against the wall, the impact of which made him grunt in pain. Then, before he could recover and react the tentacles suddenly wrapped themselves around him, restraining him.

The Master Builder groaned and grunted as he struggled free from the tentacles’ grasp, but they were just too strong…but before he or the tentacles knew what happened, he abruptly vanished; teleporting away from their grasp.

Grasping at nothing now, the tentacles moved away, almost confused by what had just happened.

Despite the Master Builder’s surprise teleport, they joined the other tentacles in spreading throughout the facility.

Outside, the rest of the facility collapsed down on itself as the Flood tentacles moved throughout the mountain, moving throughout the mountainside that the facility stood upon.

As the foundation crumbled, the upper parts of the structure collapsed, slamming into the lower portions, further weakening the already collapsing facility.

Eventually, the facility lost structural integrity and fell off the mountainside, leaving the still-crumbling pieces to plummet down onto the surface, below.

As the ruins slammed into the ground, they created a large explosion that shot upwards into the sky.

Far away on the plain, the army of Flood forms stopped in their tracks as they saw the explosion – of the Master Builder’s facility.

Through the eyes of its Combat Forms, the Gravemind watched the destruction of its enemy’s facility.

Author's Note

Feedback and comments are appreciated

Chapter 7 - We Never Left Part 2

Far on the other side of the planet, the Master Builder and Penitent Tangent re-appeared from their teleport inside a dark chamber.

The Master Builder dropped to his knees, catching himself with his arms, standing up on all fours as he panted heavily.

Penitent immediately floated down beside the Forerunner, hovering above his shoulder.

“Master Builder are you alright?” the Monitor asked.

The Master Builder arched his head upwards, looking out in front of him towards a large, vertically rectangular doorway.

“Monitor, they didn’t stand a chance,” said the Master Builder in a soft, stunned, and horrified tone.

“The Flood-… They were just testing us…”

“It was not a battle to them, but a test of strength!”

He raised his voice as he quickly stood up on his feet, staring out towards the bright light ahead of him – from the doorway.

Quickly looking back over his shoulder, he stared directly at the Penitent Tangent.

“Dispatch Aggressor Sentinels to eliminate the Flood horde located near the facility they just destroyed, the least we can do is repay the favor…” he said, putting his hands behind his back as turned back towards the doorway ahead of him, silently stepping up towards it.

“As you wish, Master Builder-“

“…and make sure to dispatch Enforcer Sentinels as well,” the Master Builder interjected, causing Penitent to do a double take.

“Enforcers?” the Monitor asked.

“Correct,” the Forerunner replied as he stepped out of the darkened chamber onto a balcony, leaving Penitent silently stunned.

“Very well,” Penitent replied, nodding back.

Vanishing in a golden light as he teleported off to enact his master’s orders, leaving the Master Builder alone in the new facility they had arrived at.

Unlike their previous facility, this one would certainly serve them as a better base of operations.

Stopping outside on the balcony, the Master Builder moved his hands in front of him, touching them atop the balcony as he looked out over the volcanic wasteland before him.

Dark clouds hung high in the skies above him, discharging bolts of lightning down towards the surface.

Some even shot down towards the Forerunner facility the Master Builder was but struck a force field that surrounded the structure.

The force field absorbed the lightning and became invisible once more.

Abruptly turning around, he hurriedly walked back inside the large, black structure.

Despite dispatching the Monitor, he could not wait for his return to begin the next steps in ensuring that the Flood never leaves the planet.

War has come to Liber…and a lot can happen in the chaos that will ensue…

A couple minutes later, the lights of hundreds of Aggressor Sentinels switched on as they activated.

Coming online, they detached from the racks they hung on and flew out of their storage spaces, making their way towards the surface.

As the Sentinels swarmed in the thousands, though, they separated into four, large groups that flew north, west, south and east towards the various sites where Flood activity has been recently detected.

Accompanying the Aggressors Sentinels were the larger, more armored, and armed Enforcers.

Begun, the Forerunner-Flood War has!

*******

Rey’s living room abruptly shook as a deep rumbling noise was heard in the distance, drawing Rey’s attention up away from the book she was reading towards one of the windows.

The Doctor and Primordial had been talking for a while now, but their conversation was brought to a swift end as they too heard the rumbling, feeling the couch they were sitting on shake as the ground shook.

Like Rey, their attention shifted towards a window.

“What the heck was that?” Twilight asked, peeking her head out the kitchen, only to notice the Doctor, Rey, and Primordial staring out the windows.

“Um, hello?” she asked before she also looked towards the window, staring outside.

A long silence fell upon the room, until Rey spoke up.

“Something has happened,” she said.

“I’ve only ever heard rumbling like that once or twice a month-” Rey explained to the others before turning her head and looking back over her shoulder at the two equines and lone Precursor.

“…however, I have never heard it that loud before. Nor did it ever shake the ground before,” she added in a nervous tone.

The Primordial shot her a confused look.

“Wait a minute. You mean to say…that this has happened before?” the Primordial asked.

Rey turned towards the Precursor and nodded.

“But something tells me that this time is different from the others,” she said as she turned back towards the window and looked outside through it.

“Well, in that case, what do you think we should do, Doctor?” Twilight asked.

Raising a hoof to his chin, he held it as he thought about their course of action.

“Hmm. Well, under normal circumstances I would recommend that we investigate…but seeing as we still need to find Holdo and Poe, we should focus our attention on finding them. Then, we can turn our attention to the Flood – and possibly the Forerunner that imprisoned the Primordial,” said the Doctor after thinking it over.

“Yes, that’s right!” Twilight exclaimed, slapping her forehead as her eyes widened.

Her shock and surprise, though, then gave way to confusion.

“Wait, I thought we stopped searching for them?” she asked the Time Lord.

The Doctor immediately jerked his head towards the mare, shooting her a serious, wide-eyed stare before trotting up towards her.

“Twilight, if you’re going to continue travelling with me, then you must understand that unless we have definite evidence that someone is dead, we never give up hope,” he said in a slightly stern tone, staring into her eyes, and her into his – eyes.

This abrupt change from the Doctor caught Twilight off-guard as her body froze, tensing up from his sudden attitude shift.

“What makes you think that your friends are alive?” asked the Primordial.

“Unlike you, who encountered young Rey, here, this Poe and Holdo that you speak of have been forced to survive on their own without shelter, without weapons, with no hope,” said the Primordial, pointing her finger at Rey.

“Our current course of action should be to use your TARDIS to leave this place and contact other races across the galaxy. Then, we return and combat the Flood together. Destroying the parasite once and for,” she said.

Sighing heavily, the Doctor hung his head.

“Even if I was willing to do something like that, my TARDIS is gone,” the Doctor said.

“We are trapped here until the fleet in orbit can land and retrieve us. Something I find highly unlikely once they learn of the threat the Flood, not just to them but all life.”

“’’Fleet’’? What fleet?” the Primordial inquired.

“I would have thought that the Master Builder would deny any non-Forerunner ships access to the planet,” she said.

The Doctor’s eyes widened as he jerked his head back towards the Primordial.

“Perhaps your right,” he said, pointing his hoof at the Primordial.

Twilight and Rey furrowed their brows, shooting him confused looks.

“Doctor, what do you mean?” Twilight inquired confusedly, to which the Doctor turned to face her.

“Think about it, Twilight. The minute we arrived, we were attacked by something,” said the Doctor, pointing his hoof towards Twilight now.

“We never stood a chance in hell of fighting it – whatever it was. What if it was the Master Builder’s orbital defenses that attacked us because we got too close to the planet?” he suggested.

“Now, theoretically, assuming this Master Builder is indeed the last Forerunner in the galaxy, what do you think he does to anyone that could pose a threat to him?” the Doctor asked.

Twilight looked down, off to the side as she thought about the question, coming up with an answer to his question.

However, she did not like the answer that came to her.

“He destroys them,” she said, horror struck.

The Doctor nodded back.

“Or worse, he subjugates them to serve him if one day he feels sufficiently threatened to step out of the shadows and enslave the galaxy,” said the Doctor.

“That does sound highly likely,” the Primordial interjected, drawing everyone’s attention to her.

“During their prime, the Forerunners did have a rather bloated ego about themselves as the supreme beings of the universe.”

The Doctor furrowed his brows confusedly at her, but still nodded in agreement at what she was saying.

“She is right,” he said, turning back towards Twilight and Rey.

Rey grimaced confusedly at the Time Lord, befuddled by why a single Forerunner – perhaps the last Forerunner – was so dangerous.

“But, wait a minute, Doc,” she interjected, drawing everyone else’s attention.

“I don’t understand this. It’s just one single Forerunner, what’s the big deal?” she asked.

Before the Doctor could answer, the Primordial spoke out before him.

“The Forerunners was a very technologically advanced race. In their prime, the Forerunners controlled nearly the entire galaxy. What little that was not under their control belonged to Ancient Equestrians – the closest thing the Forerunners had to a rival, aside from us, the Precursors,” she explained.

“The Forerunners were so displeased with our choice to pass the Mantle of Responsibility down to the Equestrians, so they rebelled against us; hunting us down to extinction.”

Again, the Doctor raised his brow as he shot her an odd look, though, it abruptly faded away as his attention shifted towards Twilight as she asked, “Um, excuse me, but what is the Mantle of Responsibility?”

The Doctor and Primordial silently looked at each other, then back towards Twilight and Rey.

“The Mantle of Responsibility, it is what dictates who governs the galaxy,” the Doctor explained, causing Twilight and Rey’s brows to jump. Surprised by this information.

“The Forerunner stole the Mantle for themselves, driving us to extinction –well, near extinction now – only to lose the Mantle when the Forerunner-Flood War began,” the Primordial added.

Hanging his head, the Doctor nodded in agreement.

Rey’s eyes widened, and jaw hung agape as she was surprised to learn of all these; the Flood, the Precursors, the Forerunners, and now this Mantle of Responsibility too.

After letting it all sink in, Rey eventually replied a soft, “Oh.”

“’’Oh’’ indeed,” said the Doctor.

“But dangerous creatures aside, we still need to figure a way off this rock, whether it be the fleet or using a ship found down here,” the Doctor added.

Silence fell over the living room as everyone looked at each other, only interrupted by Twilight speaking out…

“Wait a minute, Doctor, what about Poe and Holdo?” she asked.

“We can’t just abandon them.”

The Doctor’s face briefly contorted into a look of frustration, turning into a blank stare as he turned towards her.

“Twilight, I am sorry, but we have not seen any trace of Poe, Holdo, or anyone else really ever since we escaped from the Flood and got separated in the mountains. Anything could have happened to them; they could have died in the crash – though unlikely, but we must consider it – or worse, they were found by the Flood and assimilated,” said the Doctor in a sad tone as he grabbed and held Twilight’s shoulders.

“Now the Flood should be able to buy us some time, distracting the Master Builder long enough for us to escape – assuming they have the forces or intellect to pose a threat to him – though, we must be prepared for the possibility that he will consider us to be Flood attempting to escape the planet to begin spreading across the galaxy,” said the Doctor as he released his grip on Twilight and turned away from her back towards Rey and the Primordial, speaking in a more serious tone as Twilight hung her head dejectedly.

“The Master Builder may be our enemy, but he definitely hates the Flood as much as us and will most assuredly do anything to prevent another galactic-wide infestation.”

“So, what’s the plan?” Rey asked.

“How are we gonna get past both the Flood and the Master Builder?”

Much to the mare’s surprise, the Doctor sighed and hung his head.

“I don’t know,” he replied, defeated as he shook his head.

“I’d need information about the Master Builder’s facilities, and I very much doubt that his security cameras didn’t record us when we broke into the Primordial’s holding facility.”

“With the threat of the Flood, I doubt we’re gonna have an easy time sneaking into another one of his facilities again,” he said dejectedly.

However, while Rey turned towards Twilight, shooting her a concerned look, the Doctor abruptly furrowed his brows as he heard something.

A faint vibration coming from his waistcoat pocket.

Turning their heads, all four looked towards the Doctor’s waistcoat.

Curious, the Doctor trotted up towards it – the waistcoat – and reached inside his pocket, fishing out the holoprojector. He clicked it, causing the ghostly image of the TARDIS’ humanoid avatar to appear before him.

A confident smile on her face, while she held a hand on her hip.

“Good thing I hacked the Forerunner database, so I now know about the Master Builder’s other facilities,” said TARDIS.

At hearing this, the Doctor furrowed his brows confusedly, shaking his head.

“Hang on a minute, when did you manage to hack the Master Builder’s data systems?” he asked.

“Remember back when you used your sonic screwdriver to scan the mechanism that released the Primordial?” TARDIS asked.

“While you scanned, I established a wireless connection to the Forerunner systems, and managed to access the facility’s database; discovering the location of the other facilities scattered across the planet,” she explained.

The Doctor’s brows jumped at her explanation.

“Huh,” he remarked.

“Did not know that you were connected to the sonic.”

Smiling, TARDIS shrugged her shoulders.

“Well, both your sonic and the holoprojector are tools I’ve given you, Doctor, so yeah,” she snarkly replied.

The Doctor stared at her a couple moments before shaking his head.

“Anyway, you were saying something about knowing where the Master Builder’s facilities are located?” he asked, bringing the topic back to the information she had obtained.

“Mm-hmm,” TARDIS nodded.

Extending her arm, she held her hand out in front of her towards the floor, conjuring a blue holographic representation of the planet – they were on.

Red dots appeared across the hologram, marking several locations on the hologram as it slowly began spinning, showing Twilight, Rey, and the Primordial the marked places. TARDIS then lowered her hand, and silently looked towards the hologram along with the Doctor.

However, despite most of the dots being red, one was white, and another was blue.

“Now this, here, is us,” said TARDIS, pointing her finger towards the blue dot on the holographic map.

The Doctor and others looked towards the blue dot, seeing it was located deep into the mountains.

“Though, while there are many other facilities we could go to, I recommend we go here first,” she said, pointing her finger towards the one white dot on the map.

“Why?” inquired the Doctor.

TARDIS turned her head – right – looking directly at the Time Lord.

“Because scans show two Equestrian lifeforms inside the facility’s remains,” she said.

“Uninfected lifeforms,” she added.

Twilight, Rey, but especially the Doctor’s, eyes widened at hearing this, and the Doctor’s head jerked towards TARDIS, staring wide-eyed at her.

“What!?”

He and Twilight exclaimed in unison, both equally shocked by this news.

“Yes,” TARDIS said.

Amidst the Doctor and Twilight’s surprise, though, Rey furrowed her brows at TARDIS as she shot her a serious glance.

“What do you mean “the facility’s remains”?” Rey asked, drawing TARDIS’s attention towards her.

TARDIS sighed heavily as she looked towards the mare.

“Yes, there is a one small complication,” TARDIS said before she looked down towards the holographic map.

Extending her arm, she pointed her finger at the white dot, selecting it.

Selecting it, they zoomed in on the white dot’s location, showing a tall, titular, mountain peak at the edge of the mountain range.

While it looked like a normal mountain, the Doctor, Rey, and Twilight noticed something upon looking closer to the side of the mountain.

Perched atop a mountain side was what looked like a ruined structure…along with some sort of odd growth that was spreading across it, and large, thick, tentacles that coiled around several ruined towers.

“That facility was recently attacked by the Flood,” TARDIS explained.

Without skipping a beat, the optimism on Rey and Twilight’s faces faded away, leaving them terrified by this news.

None more so than the Doctor.

However, as he hung his head and sighed, he soon looked back up towards the map.

Silently staring towards it with a determined look on his face before he turned his head and looked towards the TARDIS’s avatar.

“Of the Flood activity in that region, is any of them Combat or Infection Forms?” he asked.

Turning her head, the TARDIS looked beside her towards him, folding her arms over her chest.

She shook her head at him.

“No” she answered.

“In fact, I detected a nearby Flood army, but it appears to be moving out,” she said.

At hearing this, the Doctor’s head jerked back towards the map.

Silently looking towards the map before his attention shifted towards Rey.

“How comfortable are you flying close to a Flood hive?” he asked her.

Twilight’s brows jumped, and eyes widened, surprised by his inquiry.

“Doctor,” she called out to him, only to interrupted by Rey.

“Sure, should be easy enough to do,” she said, smirking confidently back at the Time Lord.

The Doctor smiled back before he turned back towards the TARDIS.

“Now, I’m going to need the schematics for that facility, the layout, the whole thing,” he said.

The TARDIS nodded back, hanging her head as she looked down towards the holoprojector, causing the center of it to beep, softly flashing a blue light.

“There,” she said, smiling at him.

The Doctor returned the smile before he jerked his head back towards Rey.

“Perfect. Now, Rey, let’s going,” he said, nudging his head towards the hallway leading to the garage.

As Rey nodded back, the TARDIS’ avatar disappeared back down into the holoprojector, and the Doctor put it – the holoprojector – in his pocket.

While putting his coat on, Rey hurriedly trotted into her bedroom, where she grabbed her quarterstaff before trotting up towards the Doctor as he stood by the hallway doorway.

“Doctor!” Twilight loudly shouted, finally grabbing the Doctor’s attention as he and Rey froze in their tracks. Even the Primordial looked towards her.

“What, Twilight?” the Doctor asked, confused by her outburst.

Twilight, though, sharply scoffed at his response. Her eyes widened, and jaw dropped as she gawked at him.

“What do you mean ‘’what, Twilight’’?” Twilight asked, outraged.

“You’re about to leave to go into a Flood hive, hoping to find Poe and Holdo in it,” she said, calming down a little.

“Yes, I am,” the Doctor nodded back.

“And what’s the problem?” he asked.

“Well, Doctor, I don’t want to be the voice of reason – because like you, I very much hope that they are alive – but after hearing how you talked about the Flood, I’m sorry that the burden of reminding you falls to me, Doctor; but they are not alive,” Twilight said, frowning sadly at him as the anger in her voice gave way to sadness.

“They are not alive,” she continued, almost sobbing as she frowned back at the Doctor.

Looking back at her, the Doctor slowly hung his head and nodded in response.

Staring back at him, Twilight tilted her slightly as she felt sorry for him.

She did not want to be the one that reminded him of the horrors of the Flood, and the danger they posed.

“I’m sorry,” Twilight said.

“You may be right, Twilight-” said the Doctor as he stopped nodding, but kept his head hung low, “…but this is not a normal situation.”

Craning his head back up, he stared back at Twilight, shooting her a serious look.

“The Flood have begun their conquest of this planet, which gives us an incredibly rare opportunity to save someone – possibly two individuals – from being assimilated by the Flood,” said the Doctor as he smirked confidently at the lavender mare.

“Trust me, Twilight, we are going to save Holdo and Poe and bringing them back safely,” he said before he turned around and trotted down the hallway.

Turning around, Rey joined the Time Lord as both equines made their way towards the garage to depart.

As the Doctor – and Rey – left, Twilight almost trotted off after him, but stopped in her tracks as she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned her head and looked back over her shoulder, seeing the Primordial standing over her.

“Let the Time Lord go,” said the Precursor.

“If it is his wish to try and save this Poe and Holdo, then there is nothing neither of us can do to change his mind. Me least of all.”

Twilight silently stared blankly up at the Primordial, its words calming her – a little bit.

“If there is anyone more qualified to deal with the parasite it is the Doctor.”

Averting her gaze from the god being, Twilight hung her head as the Primordial’s words sank in.

It was true.

Twilight had personally witnessed the Doctor defeat an army of homicidal blobs inside armored casings, and all by merely giving them what they wanted, thereby allowing them to destroy themselves.

Hearing the garage door open, she looked up from the floor towards one of the windows. She then trotted up towards it and stared outside as the Doctor and Rey flew off on her speeder.

As the speeder flew above the ground, it blew up snow.

“Come back, Doctor,” she softly said.

“Please…come back with Rey, Holdo, and Poe in one piece.”

Twilight said as the Doctor and Rey flew down and then out of the hidden cliff-side cave.

*******

Meanwhile in another corner of the planet, a dead silence hung over a Forerunner city.

Not a living soul resided within the vacant city…and yet a deep rumbling filled the city as the ground shook.

Without warning, multiple large tentacles burst through the walls and floors.

They flailed in the air, before calming down to allow Combat Forms to emerge from the tunnels they had created, pouring out into the city’s many hallways and corridors.

Alongside the Combat Forms, the tentacles continued burrowing throughout the city, advancing through it a lot faster than the Combat Forms.

One part of the swam of Aggressor Sentinels were close to the city and flew inside to combat the parasite.

However, while Enforcer Sentinels accompanied the Aggressors, they were unable to fit inside enclosed spaces like corridors or hallways, forcing the Aggressors to go in and combat the Flood forms without them – the Enforcers.

While in the first few hours of the attack, the Aggressors managed to hold their own against the Combat Forms, their line eventually started to stagger as the Flood made a sudden push.

Replacing the smaller and weaker Equestrian Combat Forms with bigger and stronger Sanghelli and Jiralhanae, taking the Aggressors by surprise.

Overwhelming the Aggressors, the Flood spread throughout the city.

Once the Aggressors engaged the Flood in an open enough area, the Enforcers joined the frey.

They were, however, given little time to act before being suddenly beset by large Flood tentacles bursting through the ground, and/or walls. The tentacles grabbed the Enforcers, crushing them in their grip, rendering them useless.

Next, the tentacles attacked the Aggressors, bringing their weight down on the Sentinels and smashing them.

With nothing standing in their way, the Flood continued through the city till they reached the primary mainframe in the central control room.

Once fully secured, the Flood accessed the mainframe…

At the same time, the Master Builder watched the Flood infestation of the city through the security cameras on a large, cylindrical monitor that hovered in front of him in mid-air.

While obstructed by his armor’s mask, the Forerunner nervously watched the Flood gain control of the city.

Turning his head right, he looked towards another monitor, where he watched the Flood invade another city.

One of the monitors showed one Aggressor Sentinel’s point of view, as it and its brothers swarmed to another infester city.

Each abandoned Forerunner city had become its own war zone.

Turning his head again, the Master Builder shifted his focus towards another monitor, where he watched another Aggressor’s point of view as it fired its Sentinel beam at an Equestrian Combat Form, killing it. This took place in another city, where the Sentinels had engaged the Flood forces.

Penitent Tangent teleported behind the Master Builder and floated over towards the Forerunner.

“Master Builder, all Sentinels are being deployed to fend off the constant Flood attacks,” said the Monitor.

While obscured behind his mask, the Master Builder furrowed his brows confusedly as he observed the war raging across his planet between the Flood and his Sentinels.

Despite being undoubtedly more coordinated – indicating the presence of a higher Flood intelligence – no Pure Forms were present at any of the cities that the Flood had attacked, which unnerved the Master Builder.

Normally, when the Flood were coordinated Pure Forms would be present, but this time there was a distinct lack of any Pure Forms participating at any of the contested war zones.

*******

A little while later, a cold wind blew across two equine figures as they stood on the edge of a mountainside, staring towards a mountain peak where the ruined remains of a Forerunner facility stood upon a mountainside.

Flood biomass had begun spreading across the ruined structure, covering a quarter of the Flood facility still standing atop the mountainside, and large Flood tentacles had coiled themselves around the few towers still standing on the facility.

Standing on the edge of their mountainside, the Doctor and Rey stared back across the vast gap between them and the infested Forerunner facility as the wind howled as it blew.

Turning his head, the Doctor looked towards Rey, and she towards him.

“You have done enough merely bringing me here,” he said.

“You don’t have to go any further with me.”

Rey, though, merely smirked confidently back at him.

“Yeah, no, Doc. I’m going in there with you. You’ll need someone to watch your back,” she said.

“You do realize that this is a Flood hive?” asked the Doctor.

“You might not come back out with me.”

Her smirk changed into an enraged scowl.

“The Flood took the one pony that mattered to me,” she said sternly.

“I’ll go down fighting any day if it means they suffer for what they did.”

“Alright then… Onward into the breach,” he said as he turned back towards the infested ruin.

After a quick fly over the canyon between them and the Flood controlled facility, Rey parked her speeder, and then she and the Doctor disembarked it to begin searching the hive for Poe and Holdo.

They crawled inside a cracked hole in the wall, where they were greeted by the sight of what must be a corridor, though, it was completely covered in Flood biomass – from the walls to the floors and ceilings.

In the short time that they had destroyed, and subsequently taken control of this place they had made good on turning it into a fully-fledged Flood hive.

A bad sign, thought the Doctor, frowning worriedly at the disgusting flesh.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the holoprojector and activated it.

However, unlike the previous times, the TARDIS’s avatar did not appear this time.

Instead, a holographic miniaturized map appeared, displaying the entire facility.

Looking over the map, he checked their surroundings to see where they were. Then, he looked back ahead of him, and trudged forward.

Accompanying him, Rey kept a close eye out for any Flood in case they tried to surprise them as they proceeded down the flesh-covered hallway.

They are now at the very heart of the parasite.

At present, this is the most dangerous place on the entire planet.

An eerie silence filled the Flood hive as the Doctor led the group down along the tunnel.

The group nearly jumped whenever they heard a noise that sounded like movement, the Doctor most of all, as he constantly watched both the walls and numerous tunnels for any sign of movement.

Any at all…

*******

In spite of how she had heard the Doctor talk about the parasite, Twilight’s inner curiosity and fascination with the Flood hive caused her to trot behind the group, staring at the Flood biomass covering the walls.

Large and small, root-like tentacles spread across the walls, leaving only a few tiny, tiny glimpses of their original metal walls, floors, or ceilings visible underneath it all.

In addition, there was also these big gelatinous broils, that looked like they split apart and open five-ways.

The broils shook occasionally, but as Twilight stepped a little closer to them their shaking intensified, and she quickly backed away from them.

Probably best to avoid those things, she mentally told herself before she turned and ran up after the rest of the group, not wanting them to know that she had briefly slacked behind them…

A little further along down the tunnel, Twilight furrowed her brows as she noticed a side-tunnel on the left side of the main tunnel they are following.

Stopping in her tracks, she momentarily looked up ahead at the Doctor and Rey, ensuring they did not notice her, before turning back and looking inside the side-tunnel.

Inside, she saw a room, that while covered in Flood biomass, had not been overtaken to the same extent as the rest of…whatever this place used to be before the Flood came.

However, what caught Twilight’s interest was the large shattered glass tanks.

Many of which looked to have contained liquid, as well as something else, based on the liquid dripping off the cracked holes in them.

Freshly made holes, by how liquid is still dripping from the glass’s tracked tips.

Twilight nervously swallowed, not just from the thought of there possibly being something on the loose hunting them, but also by the various sizes of the glass tanks.

A few of the tanks were pony-sized, but others were 7 ft, and even 8 ft, but the tank that caught Twilight’s attention the most was a single tank standing in the center of the room.

It was 14 ft!

Her eyes widened, threatening to pop out of her skull, at the sight before her, and she gawked unable to move an inch from where she stood.

The sight of the tank literally petrified her.

Twilight finally snapped out of her trance when she felt something on her shoulder and she flinched, gasping aloud as she jumped back away from whatever had approached her.

Before she could fire up a protective spell, though she felt a hoof on her mouth, preventing her from making any sound.

Without hesitating a millisecond, she resisted and struggling to free herself from who or whatever is attacking her.

Her attacker then slammed her up against the wall, standing itself in front of her.

‘’Shss! Be quiet,’’ Rey sternly instructed through gritted teeth as she held Twilight back against the wall, allowing the lavender mare to see her attacker, thus calming her down.

Twilight inhaled, and subsequently exhaled, a deep breath, relieved to see that her ‘’attacker’’ was just Rey.

‘’Fool!’’ Rey softly but sternly berated Twilight.

‘’Are you trying to get yourself or us infected by wandering off like that?!’’ she angrily asked.

‘’S-sorry, I just-‘’ Twilight stuttered, attempting to explain herself, but Rey wasn’t having of it as she turned away from the unicorn to look over her shoulder towards the Doctor back in front of them.

‘’See anything, doc?’’ she softly asked.

The Time Lord shook his head in response.

‘’No,’’ he replied, ‘’We haven’t attracted any Flood.’’

Closing her eyes, Rey sighed heavily, relieved that Twilight’s foolish act had not attracted any Flood to them.

Rey’s relief, however, changed into a stern glare as she turned back towards Twilight, shooting the unicorn an annoyed scowl.

‘’Next time you go on your own like that and endanger the group, we’re leaving your ass out there to the parasite,’’ she sternly whispered to Twilight, shoving her back against the wall.

Rey removed her hoof from Twilight’s mouth before she turned around and trotted back up towards the Doctor, shaking her head annoyedly.

Standing by the wall, Twilight watched the two trotted off.

Briefly hanging her head, disappointed with herself about putting her own curiosity over the group, she closed her eyes and inhaled a deep breath.

Come on Twilight, pull yourself together! she mentally told herself.

You are not in Equestria anymore. You are someplace where every choice you make is a matter of life and death. You must value life over potential knowledge!

‘’I will…’’

Twilight accidentally finished her thoughts aloud, drawing Rey’s attention, who stopped in her tracks and looked back over her shoulder towards the unicorn.

‘’Now what are you going on about?’’ Rey asked.

‘’Nothing,’’ replied Twilight, shaking her head as she trotted up to join Rey and the Doctor.

As Twilight trotted past her, Rey followed the lavender mare with her eyes, staring skeptically after her as she trotted up towards and beside the Doctor, accompanying him as they continued onwards.

She raised an indecisive brow at Twilight, uncertain of how the unicorn is going to react when they finally encounter the Flood down here.

While Twilight has certainly proven herself as a capable warrior where fighting the Flood is concerned, but how great of a warrior is she?

Is she able to contend with a small group, or will she buckle if, and when, they are attacked by a horde?

*******

Following the holoprojector’s constant beeping, the Doctor allowed it to guide him and Rey through the Flood hive to where Poe and Holdo were being kept.

Soon enough, however, they finally reached their journey’s end as they tracked the signal to a vast, large-open chamber.

The chamber had a round shape to it and curved upwards at the ceiling with a majority of the bottom of the chamber’s walls being covered in Flood biomass. There was a hollow, half-circular hole in the center of the chamber.

Rey and the Doctor kept their distance from the ledge, not wanting to fall down inside it.

“Alright, they should be here,” said the Doctor as he turned his head, looking around the room for any sign of Rey and Holdo.

“Holdo! Poe! Where are you!?” he called out to them.

His voice echoed throughout the chamber, but he got no response.

A deathly silence hung on the air of the chamber, which did not sit comfortably with Rey or the Doctor.

Both were nervous from the lack of response, until-

“D-doctor, over here!”

An all-too familiar voice called out, stuttering in its voice.

Turning their attention to where the voice came from, the Doctor and Rey’s eyes widened as they spotted Poe bound to a wall by multiple vine-like tentacles.

Hanging on the wall beside him, Holdo raised her hanging head and looked out in front of her towards the source of the new voices.

Her eyes widened at seeing Rey and the Doctor, but especially the Doctor.

“Doctor,” she exclaimed.

Rushing up towards them, the Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver.

Activating it as he pointed it towards Poe and then Holdo, scanning both of them.

Once done scanning them, he looked down at the sonic before exhaling a relieved sigh.

Looking back over his shoulder, he smiled back at Rey.

“They’re both clean,” the Doctor said.

Closing her eyes, Rey exhaled a similar sigh.

Relieved that their journey had not been in vain.

Opening her eyes back up, Rey smiled as she trotted up towards the two equines.

Electrifying one end of her quarterstaff, she held the other – non-electrified – end.

Thrusting the electrified end out towards the tentacles. Upon being hit, the tentacles screeched, releasing Poe’s hoof as it flailed in pain before slithering away.

She struck the remaining tentacles holding Poe and Holdo up, dropping them forwards onto the floor.

Using their front legs, Holdo and Poe caught themselves – preventing them from falling and hitting the ground.

“Poe, Holdo, are both of you okay?” the Doctor asked as he trotted up and put his hooves on both Rey and Holdo’s shoulders, giving them concerned looks.

“Yeah, we’re fine,” said Poe.

“Good, then let’s get outta here-“ the Doctor said before he was interrupted by a loud, bellowing laughter.

The laughter echoed throughout the chamber, causing Poe, Holdo, and Rey to look up around them, searching for where the laughter was coming from.

As they did, all but Rey failed to notice several humanoid figures silently entering the chamber.

“Doctor!” Rey shouted, assuming a defensive position.

Preparing to defend herself and the others, the Doctor, Poe, and Holdo looked down where she was looking, only for their eyes to widen at the sight that greeted them.

A pair of large Jiralhanae Combat Forms strode into the chamber before turning their attention towards the four equines, whom they then approached.

In response, the Doctor, Rey, Holdo, and Poe slowly backed away from the Flood forms.

The Combat Forms forced them into a corner and surrounded them, cutting off any potential escape routes for them.

Large tentacles arose from the large hole in the center of the room, drawing the Doctor, Rey, Poe, and Holdo’s attention.

“Now the trap is sprung. Walls closed, and enemies surrounded,” a voice spoke out from the hole that the tentacles had emerged from.

A deep voice, that Rey, Poe, and Holdo could tell had a commanding presence.

The tentacles did not attack the group, but merely lingered in the air.

Everyone of the group’s eyes widened, and their jaws dropped at seeing the tentacles tower over them.

While the others were stunned in fear, the Doctor was positively terrified.

Both from seeing the Combat Forms, the tentacles, and hearing the voice speak.

And if its words were anything to go by, it had known all along that they were coming, and thus planned for this!

The Doctor’s thoughts were interrupted, however, by the sound of movement from down in the cavernous hole. Then, a large, almost tube-like, silhouetted shape arose from the hole, drawing the Doctor and the other’s attention as it stood up to its full height.

“No!” said the Doctor, horrified, as the shape turned its attention towards him and the three Equestrians.

While the shape’s primary body was long and cylindrical – though, the rest is unseen inside the hole – its head resembled a Venus flytrap with pincer-like flaps on the side. Aside from these things, no other features were visible.

“It’s a Gravemind,” he said softly, drawing Poe, Holdo, and Rey’s attention, though, his gaze remained transfixed upon the Gravemind. Soon, even they looked up towards it, frightened of this creature before them.

“What is a Gravemind, Doctor?” Holdo asked.

Turning his head, the Doctor looked towards the mare.

“The Gravemind was-or is the central intelligence of the Flood,” the Doctor explained.

“It is essentially the accumulation of all the intelligence and biomass the Flood has gathered; which served to increase their intelligence, make them more coordinated, and far deadlier,” he said.

“To leave a Gravemind unchecked is to invite extinction,” he said sternly as he turned and looked back up towards the Gravemind.

“An accurate assessment, Time Lord,” replied the Gravemind, who had been patiently listening to the Doctor’s explanation, drawing the equines’ attention back up towards it.

The Gravemind looked towards the Equestrians before ultimately turning its attention towards the Doctor.

“Late is the hour of our meeting, Doctor,” said the Gravemind.

“Indeed,” replied the Doctor, still shocked by the Gravemind’s presence.

“I wondered if we ever would – meet again,” the Doctor said in a slightly more courageous tone, swallowing his fear.

Silently, the Doctor scowled up towards the Gravemind.

His chest quickly heaving and dropping in spite of his attempts to remain calm in the presence of this ancient evil.

“I must say, I am surprised to see you. The last time we meet, you and the rest of the Flood were destroyed during your final assault on the Ark,” said the Doctor.

“We were,” replied the Gravemind.

“We died when the Forerunners enacted their “final solution”, but we few survived. Weakened but alive, and rebuilding,” explained the Gravemind.

The Doctor grimaced back but furrowed his brows confusedly.

“How? How did you survive the “final solution”?” he asked.

“Not all of our ships were dispatched to the Ark during the final hours of the war. One ship survived, and it crash landed here, on the shield world of the last surviving Forerunner,” the Gravemind said, to which the Doctor furrowed his brows.

Frowning uncertainly at the Gravemind before him, before his eyes abruptly widened, and jaw hung slightly open.

“So…that means you’re the only Flood in the entire universe,” he said in a soft, yet hopeful voice.

“Destroy you, and we rid the universe of the Flood, forever!”

“HA HA HA HA HA HA.”

Holdo, Poe, Rey, and especially the Doctor flinched.

All of them jumped back away at the Gravemind’s sudden laughter, nervously looking straight up at the Flood’ central intelligence.

The Gravemind’s laughter died down, and it looked down towards the Doctor.

“Even now, at the cost of your own life, you seek our destruction, Time Lord,” the Gravemind said.

“Even after all these years, your fire burns brightly…and that is why you must be harvested!”

Before the Doctor could react, several vine-like tentacles suddenly shot out from the darkness and coiled themselves around Poe and Holdo’s hooves.

Both looked down – as they felt the tentacles – only to be abruptly pulled upwards; suspending them in mid-air.

Rey gasped as she jerked her head up, staring up towards Poe and Holdo as the two were held in mid-air. Then back down towards the Doctor, who also looked down – from Holdo and Poe – towards her. An alarmed look on his face.

However, as several other tentacles lunged out to seize her too, Rey quickly ignited her quarterstaff and swung it towards the incoming tentacles; striking out and electrocuting them.

The Gravemind jerked their heads towards Rey, where it watched her fight off its attacking tentacles.

Fending off one after another.

The Jiralhanae Combat Forms silently watched as this mere equine fought off the Gravemind’s attacks by spinning her quarterstaff towards and hitting the tentacles one after another, deflecting them away from her.

As she parried them, she pulled out her RSKF-44 Heavy blaster pistol and raised it towards the two Jiralhanae Combat Forms.

Taking aim, she fired off multiple shots, striking the Jiralhanae multiple times, though, this did not kill it.

Instead, the Jiralhanae Combat Form staggered backwards as it was repeatedly hit by Rey’s blaster pistol.

Sensing Rey as a threat, the other Jiralhanae roared aloud before it charged straight at her.

Seeing the charging Combat Form, Rey immediately put her blaster away and leapt out of the way of the Combat Form, evading it.

Stopping in its tracks, the charging Jiralhanae stopped in its tracks before it sharply turned around towards Rey.

It swung its large whip-like claw at her, causing her to grunt to as she had to quickly counter its attack by swinging its quarterstaff out, catching and deflating the Jiralhanae’s claw-whip away from her.

Quickly spinning around, she maneuvered her body in a way that it moved her quarterstaff away from the Jiralhanae’s claw-whip, as well as allowed her to get closer to the Jiralhanae, itself.

Without hesitation, Rey took out her RSKF – pistol – again and aimed it right at the Infection Form. However, before she could get off a single shot, the Combat Form roared and swung its claw-whip towards her.

Forcing her to swing her quarterstaff out to intercept the claw, but instead of clashing her staff and the claw, she pushed it out away from her. The Combat Form staggered slightly back away from her.

Instead of pulling out her RSKF – blaster pistol – she raised her staff and shouted loudly as she leapt up towards the Jiralhanae Combat Form.

Tightly pressing the end of her staff against the Infection Form with enough force to knock the Combat Form backwards.

Falling down, the Infection Form screeched in pain as Rey electrocuted it.

The Combat Form tried to swipe Rey with its claw-whip but missed her as she was too small and nimble to hit.

Breathing heavily, Rey gritted her teeth before she screamed aloud as she stabbed the end of her staff all the way into the Infection Form. Its screeching intensified, causing the Jiralhanae to convulse from the Infection Form’s pain.

Finally, the screeching slowed to a halt.

Then, the Jiralhanae stopped moving, becoming completely still.

It was dead.

Once Rey knew that it was dead, she exhaled heavily and closed her eyes. Relieved that it was finally over…At least where-

SLASH!

“Aghh!”

Rey grunted in pain as something slashed the side of her stomach.

“Rey!”

Holdo, Poe, and the Doctor called out.

Sharply hissing at the pain, Rey hung her head.

However, amidst the pain, her eyes shot open, and she jerked her head beside her.

Looking behind her towards whatever it was that had attacked her; it was the other Jiralhanae Combat Form.

Furrowing her brows sternly, she groaned in pain, gritting her teeth as she glared towards the Jiralhanae. Then, before it could react, she pulled out her pistol and rapidly fired upon the Infection Form, rooted in the Jiralhanae’s chest.

Shooting it again, and again, and again…

Each shot made the Combat Form stagger backwards, while roaring aloud in pain from the damage dealt to the Infection Form. With every shot that impacted it, dark-green liquid splattered – from the Infection Form – onto the Combat Form.

The Jiralhanae Combat Form, then, fell forwards and slammed its body into the ground.

It too was now dead.

Turning her head, Rey looked towards the tentacles holding Holdo and Poe and quickly drew her pistol, firing several bolts towards it.

Upon being hit, the tentacles dropped Poe and Holdo down on the ground, who immediately got back up on their hooves.

Both Holdo and Poe drew their blaster pistols, assuming defensive stances in case there were more Flood nearby.

Without missing a beat, the Doctor hurriedly ran up towards Rey, helping her stand as she grunted in pain.

She reached back and touched the wound the Combat Form had inflicted.

Keeping their weapons trained on the Gravemind, Poe and Holdo ran up towards the Doctor to help Rey.

“Come on, we need to get outta here!” the Doctor urgently told them.

Holdo nodded back at the Time Lord.

“The fly struggles in the web, but the spider inevitable consumes it,” the Gravemind said as it watched the equines head towards the nearest tunnel to escape.

Turning his head, the Doctor looked back over his shoulder at the Gravemind, scowling at it as he and the others exited the Gravemind’s chamber through the tunnel.

The last he heard was the Gravemind’s booming laughter, which echoed throughout the tunnel as they hurried back through the Flood hive towards Rey’s speeder.

Along the way, they encountered no Flood forms.

No Infection Forms.

No Combat Forms.

Nothing.

Despite this, they kept an urgent pace the entire time they raced back towards the location, where the Doctor and Rey had parked their speeder, with the Doctor at the head of their group, using the TARDIS holoprojector to quickly find their way back to their landing site.

All the while, Rey groaned aloud from the searing pain from her wound.

A pain unlike any that she has ever felt before.

One that her father had always spared her from by preparing her by preparing her, to the best of his abilities, so that she would never fall to the Flood.

Not even get a scratch…but now, for the first time in all the years that she has lived, the Flood has finally injured her.

In spite of her efforts, her best had not been good enough.

“OOHHH, Doctor, it hurts! It hurts so much,” she groaned aloud through gritted teeth.

“I know it does, but we’re gonna get you home. We’re not leaving you here,” said the Doctor, trying to calm her down and reassure her that in spite of her injuries they were not going to leave her here with the parasite.

The same parasite that she had just saved them from.

After a few minutes of navigating the Flood hive, they finally made it back to the place where they had entered the hive.

They helped each out of the cracked wall, especially Rey, they helped her into the net on the side of her speeder – the net that holds all of her things when she is out and about – before she instructed Poe on how to fly her speeder.

Without hesitation, they turned the speeder and flew away from the Flood infested ruin before any Flood could get to them.

Guided by the Doctor, Poe flew the speeder in the direction of Rey’s hidden home.

*******

Meanwhile in the mountains, the Ninka was gradually getting covered in snow.

Snow, which entered the damaged vessel through its destroyed hull.

Due to the presence of numerous holes, several corridors with steadily filling up with snow, cooling the ship down to uninhabitable levels.

However, while the cold bothered others, its chilling effects did not matter to several equine figures that entered the starship.

They navigated its many and long corridors, until they reached the bridge, where they looked around it.

Sparks erupted from the destroyed walls and ceiling; a testament to the damage the ship had suffered upon impact.

After locating the crew pits, the equines trotted up towards it and got down inside them.

They tended to and checked the Ninka’s communications, ensuring that they were not too badly damaged from the crash.

Meanwhile, several machines started beeping as an external force infiltrated the Ninka’s database.

Analyzing its star maps, logs, crew compliment, defensive and offensive capabilities.

It continued to learn everything it could, until its attention shifted towards the Combat Forms as they finished their check-up.

The conclusion;

The Ninka’s communications still functioned and would be able to broadcast a transmission to the fleet that currently orbited the planet.

“The cracks have weakened the foundation, the damn is failing, crumbling, and its collapse will bring the Flood,” the Gravemind’s voice echoed throughout the entire ship as all of the Combat Forms spoke in unison.

Chapter 8 - The Gravest Infection

“Hey, I think I see them,” Twilight excitedly called out to the Primordial as she noticed something flying up into view.

The Primordial jerked her head towards Twilight, before stepping up beside her to look out one of the other windows.

It was true.

Something was approaching, and based on her memory of their host’s vehicle, it was Rey’s speeder.

Looking out the window, Twilight and the Precursor watched the speeder fly across the small stretch of snow towards the dome-home. However, upon closer inspection, her smile faded slightly as she noticed that something was amiss.

There were only three equines on the speeder, when there should be four.

A dark thought, that she did not want to even contemplate, began creeping into her mind.

One that she never wanted to think about in the first place, but just might have to…

“Oh no,” Twilight said softly, trying to hide the fear in her voice as she turned away and ran towards the hallway leading to the garage, leaving the Primordial standing alone in the living room by the window.

Oblivious to Twilight’s departure, the Primordial continued looking out the window and, just like Twilight, noticed only three equines riding the speeder, but unlike Twilight, she also noticed something lying in a net on the side of the speeder.

Turning her head to look beside her, she finally noticed Twilight was gone. She turned her head further and looked directly towards the doorway, which led to the garage, assuming that was where Twilight had gone…

On her way to the garage, Twilight ran down the hallway as fast as she could.

Upon reaching the door, she abruptly stopped in her tracks as she looked through the door’s window and watched the exterior garage door open. The speeder, then, flew inside and landed on the ground.

While looking through the window, she furrowed her brows as she observed the Doctor, Poe, and Holdo disembark the speeder and run around towards the other side of it.

She watched them lift something out of a net, but abruptly gasped as she noticed what they were carrying or rather who.

Rey.

They were carrying Rey, who, by the pained expression on her face, was not in a comfortable situation. In fact, while muffled, Twilight could hear Rey’s pained groans as the Doctor, Holdo, and Poe carried her up towards the door.

Twilight then opened that same door and rushed out of it towards them.

Rey’s painful groans grew louder, and subsequently a lot more difficult to listen to due to the suffering she was experiencing.

“What happened?!” Twilight asked concernedly.

However, the Doctor, Poe, and Holdo merely hurried past her without uttering a single word, carrying Rey into, and down the hallway.

Twilight was left standing in the garage, staring off after the group, until she followed after them.

They carried Rey into the living room, where they placed her down on the couch.

The Primordial stood by the windows, silently following them with her eyes.

Staring transfixed towards Rey, until she spoke out.

“Doctor, what happened?” she asked, stepping up towards the group.

Though, as Poe and Holdo saw the Precursor, their eyes, brows jumped, and they abruptly backed away from her. Taken aback by her inequine appearance.

“What the buck-?!” Holdo, and Poe, abruptly exclaimed at seeing the Primordial.

Behind them, Twilight trotted into the living room, seeing their surprise and shock as they saw the Primordial.

“No, you guys, it's okay. She’s one of us,” Twilight called out to Holdo and Poe, drawing their attention, though, probably not for the reason that she had expected.

Poe and Holdo froze in their tracks, then slowly looked back over their shoulder towards Twilight. Confusion plainly written on their faces as they stared at her, brows raised.

“’’She’’?” Poe and Holdo asked in unison.

“That thing is female?” Holdo asked, pointing her hoof at the Primordial, who huffed angrily in response.

“’’The thing’’ is the last of the near-extinct race, the Precursors,” the Primordial interjected, drawing Poe and Holdo’s attention back towards her as they heard her voice, recognizing the power and authority it held, merely by hearing her voice.

“The mass-seeders of all life in existence, so you would do well to respect your creator, Equestrian,” she sternly added.

Holdo and Poe’s eyes widened yet again, their brows jumped, and jaws dropped, hanging slack as they gawked towards the Precursor.

“It's true,” they heard Twilight speak out behind them.

They jerked their heads back towards the lavender unicorn, staring at her for confirmation if any of this was true.

Twilight nodded her head in confirmation, smiling softly at them.

“It's true. She, or rather her race, created all sentient life in the universe…possibly all sapient life too,” Twilight said, her excitement slowly mounting.

Turning her head, she looked back towards the Primordial, desiring to ask her so many questions after they escaped from this planet.

Poe and Holdo slowly turned back towards the Primordial, still stunned by it-er-her appearance.

It was still something they never expected to see after escaping from the Flood hive.

They silently stared at the Precursor, until they turned their attention towards the Doctor and Rey as she abruptly groaned aloud.

Hissing sharply as she tried to fight through the pain.

“D-doc, it hurts! My entire body feels like its burning!”

Rey said, trying her best not to scream or let the pain consume her.

“W-what did they do to me?!” she asked, hissing sharply as she clenched her eyes.

“Yes, Doctor, what have the Flood done to cause her such pain?” Twilight asked, trotting up beside the Time Lord.

In spite of becoming still, motionless, the Doctor slowly raised his head, turning around as he looked back towards Twilight, Poe, and Holdo. A sad and defeated look about him as he faced them.

“She…has been infected,” he said.

Twilight, Holdo gasped, and Poe’s eyes widened, brows jumping at this shock revelation.

“B-but how is that possible?” Poe asked.

“I thought the Flood needed one of those tentacle creatures in order to infect someone?”

The Doctor slowly turned towards the starfighter commander, shooting him a serious glance.

“You are a fool if think that the Flood are limited to mere Infection Forms,” said the Doctor.

“Once a host is found and under the Flood’s control, it only takes being wounded by them – be it through getting bitten or scratched – to begin the transformation into a Combat Form,” he explained.

“It’s that disturbingly simple.”

Twilight, Poe, and Holdo’s eyes widened, and jaws dropped, hanging slack as they stared towards the Doctor at this shocking revelation.

“But there has to be something that you can do, Doctor,” Twilight stuttered as she spoke out, almost begging the Doctor to help this mare that had helped them through so much.

“You’ve fought the Flood before. Isn’t there something you can give her to stop the infection? A vaccine?” she asked.

However, the Doctor just sighed heavily and slowly shook his head.

“No,” he said

“No cure, or biological means, has ever been discovered capable of stopping or even halting the parasite’s infection. And the few that have proved successful, failed due to the Flood’s greater numbers.”

“It is impossible to stop…and yet, “she” is somehow resisting it,” the Doctor said, making a sudden shift from sad to surprised.

This bit of news caught Twilight, Poe, Holdo, and the Primordial’s attention.

The three equines furrowed their brows confusedly, while the Primordial did something of a double take towards the Time Lord.

“What?!” Twilight exclaimed.

“But, how is that even possible?” she asked.

“Yeah, you just told us that there is no cure,” Poe interjected, equally as confused as Twilight.

“It is yet, but…something is fighting the Flood supercells,” said the Doctor.

“Some unknown force is keeping the Flood at bay-” he added, turning his head and looking back down at Rey, who continually groaned loudly in pain, “…at the cost of subjecting Rey to an unbearable torment.”

Silently staring at Rey, the Doctor, Twilight, Poe, and Holdo watched her as she laid on the couch in agony.

The pain throughout her body getting worse with every bygone second.

None of them could stand to watch Rey like this, none more so than the Doctor, who bit his lip.

He was having such sympathy for Rey at this moment, wishing that there was something he could do to help her…or is there?

His eyes widened, and he gasped internally, yet his jaw hung slightly open, as a thought popped into his head.

Certainly, a very risky thought, but one that just might save Rey from being infected…or very well kill her.

Hanging his head, he looked down towards his hoof.

Looking back up, he turned and looked back over his shoulder towards Twilight, who noticed his expression.

“What is it, Doctor?” she asked.

The Time Lord hesitated a little before answering back with, “I think I know of a way to save her.”

His response caught Poe, Holdo, and the Primordial’s attention. Especially the Primordial.

“Doctor?” Holdo asked confusedly.

“I think, I may have a way to save her, but I’m 'gonna need your help if this is to work,” the Doctor replied, much to Twilight, and the other’s surprise.

Without wasting one second, all of them nodded back, saying, “Whatever it is, we’ll do it!” in unison.

The Doctor smiled back at them.

“Alright then,” he said.

“What I need all of you to do is hold her down, tightly. Twilight, you are more qualified to do it on account of your magic, but this could possibly kill her, so I need everyone to give it their all in holding her down. Got it?” he asked.

Twilight, Poe, and Holdo nodded back.

“Loud and clear,” Holdo said.

“Then let’s save Rey, like she saved all of us,” said the Doctor before he turned back towards Rey.

While the Doctor extended his hooves towards Rey’s wound, Twilight, Poe, and Holdo nodded back towards each other before Poe and Holdo hurriedly trotted up on both sides of the couch and grabbed Rey’s hooves.

Holding her down, while Twilight’s horn glowed with a magic, lavender aura. A similar aura appeared around Rey’s body and held her down on the couch.

“Rrng-what is-hrng-happening?!” Rey asked in a pained tone, confused by what the Doctor and the others were doing.

“Rey, this is going to hurt a lot, but it's for your own good, I swear,” the Doctor replied as he pressed his hooves against her wound.

Rey grunted softly at the touch.

“Doc, w-what are you doing?!” Rey stuttered, growing more nervous by the second, but the Doctor did not respond. Instead, he merely stared at her wound, closing his eyes as he began concentrating.

“I’m sorry,” the Doctor said, before he tightened his eyes.

His hooves started glowing as he focused all of his energy on summoning regeneration energy, pouring it out into his hooves; making them a vector for the regeneration to enter Rey’s body.

Rey’s eyes widened, and her jaw dropped, hanging slack as she abruptly and loudly gasped.

Holdo, Poe, and Twilight immediately held her down, preventing her from moving around.

A bright, golden light began glowing on Rey’s wound.

One, that as it glowed brighter, Rey clenched her eyes shut, and gritted her teeth as she screamed in pain, even as the wound slowly resealed itself back up. Eventually, it was all but gone, looking like she had never gotten injured before.

Next, thousands of particles started glowing the same golden light throughout Rey’s body, appearing all over her body.

At the same time, however, Rey tightened her face as the pain intensified; causing veins to appear across her forehead, then her body, and she began sweating due to the physical stress put on her body.

Standing over the Doctor, the Primordial watched him heal try to heal Rey, though, the process was very slow and delicate. Soon, the Flood cells coursing through her body would be all gone.

This cannot be allowed to happen.

So, without hesitation, the Primordial abruptly swung her right arm towards the Doctor.

However, before the Precursor hit him, the Doctor abruptly reached his left hoof into his waistcoat and pulled out the sonic screwdriver. Then, quickly turning around towards the Primordial, but still holding one hoof against Rey’s wound, he pointed the screwdriver directly at the Primordial, creating a wave comprised of a loud, high-pitched, buzzing noise that the Primordial staggered back away from.

Holding her arms out in front of her face the Primordial shielded herself from the waves upon waves of that loud noise hit her.

Twilight, Poe, and Holdo were taken aback by the Doctor’s sudden action.

Their eyes widening, and jaws dropped as he attacked the Primordial.

“Doctor, what are you doing?!” Twilight shouted at him confusedly.

Though gritted teeth, however, as he tried to keep the Primordial at bay, he said, “Keep her still, Twilight!”

“Whatever happens, you keep Rey still!”

Poe and Holdo looked at each other, then back towards Twilight.

Looking to her for answers, even though she had none to give.

The only thing she could say was, “Keep holding her down.”

“Remember what the Doctor said; no matter what happens, we hold her down.”

Holdo and Poe turned back towards each other, their confusion giving way to determination as they nodded at each other.

Looking back down at Rey as they did as they were told and held her down, even as her screams grew louder by the second.

Seeing them complying with his instructions, the Doctor smiled, but it soon faded away as he turned back towards the Primordial.

Glaring at her as she continually struggled against the constant waves of noise that blew against her.

Slowly forcing her further back into a corner of the living room, in spite of her attempt to move forward and stop the Doctor from healing Rey.

Though, due to using one hoof, he was forced to increase the output of regeneration energy from his right hoof into her body.

But much to the Doctor’s surprise, the Primordial abruptly held her arms out beside her, allowing the full force of the wave to hit her, and push her back against the wall.

However, even as she slammed into the wall, the Primordial suddenly stretched her arms out, elongating them as they shot towards the Holdo, Poe, and Twilight.

Her hands split apart into three large tendrils that coiled themselves around Twilight, Poe, and Holdo, pulling them away from Rey.

“No!” exclaimed the Doctor.

“DOCTOR, WHAT IS HAPPENING?!” Rey screamed aloud, noticing that something was happening.

“Nothing!” the Doctor shouted as he turned back towards Rey, failing to notice the tendrils from the Primordial’s right hand reach out and tangle themselves around him, then abruptly pull him backwards, jerking him away from Rey.

“NNOOOOOO!” he screamed as his hoof no longer touched Rey’s skin.

All of a sudden, Rey’s clenched eyes shot, and jaw dropped as she uttered the loudest, most agonized scream of these last few minutes.

A tormented shriek.

As she did, the pain coursing throughout Rey’s body increased tenfold, becoming so unstable that all the power locked away within Rey suddenly exploded to the surface, releasing a powerful shockwave that shot out across the entire living room!

Windows shattered, scattering shards of broken glass out onto the snow.

The shockwave slammed the Primordial, Doctor, Twilight, Poe, and Holdo back up against the wall.

Continuing to press them up against the wall as Rey continued screaming.

Still lying on the couch in intense pain, Rey raised her hooves, holding her forehead as something inside of her snapped, or rather, something was cracked.

Something that she had never seen before but was bleeding through the fault lines into her mind…

Rey’s clenched eyes shot wide-open and she loudly gasped, but reality around her had changed.

No longer was she in her living room, but instead a large field that stretched on for an unknown distance, surrounded on all sides by a thick wall of fog.

An eerie silence hung over the field as Rey nervously stared at the fog.

The silence was then interrupted by a tall, humanoid creature with massive arms and short, stubby legs suddenly charging through the fog directly at Rey.

She gasped and quickly jumped out of the way, the creature paying her little to no attention as it continued onwards, vanishing into the fog.

While looking towards the part of the fog where the creature had disappeared, she abruptly froze, and eyes widened as she heard a guttural, inequine roar behind her.

She slowly turned back towards the fog, only for a horde of creatures to come charging straight at her through the fog.

Creatures, that unlike the first one, she all but recognized.

Combat Forms…and thousands of them!

Gasping in fear, Rey turned around and ran away from the Combat Forms into the fog.

She ran through the fog for what seemed like an eternity, until she finally came out the other end, where she abruptly stopped in her tracks as she saw a large battle in progress between the Flood and a group of equines.

The odd thing that she noticed, though, was that the equines did not wear similar attire.

One group of ponies wore white armor, while the other group wore tanned uniforms.

Appearance aside, they fought together against the various Flood forms that charged straight for them.

The more offensive of the Flood forms included several massive, humanoid, Flood forms with a bulky upper body with two massive tentacled arms, that appeared to co-ordinate the smaller Flood forms…

Scattered throughout the Flood horde were several four-legged Flood forms that sported a large abdomen, along with long tentacles that snatched either living or already dead equines up into itself. The growth pods on its abdomen began growing before the Flood form then spat back out a new battle-ready Combat Form. Unlike the others, this appeared to be more of a support form…

Another Flood form that Rey saw on the battlefield was one that sported three legs and whose upper body sported two circular growths protruding from the side of its “head” – for lack of a better word. Like the other Flood form, this one spat out Infection Forms at the equines.

While shooting its Infection Forms, the Flood form’s leg was shot off and it fell down on the ground, though, mere seconds after being shot off, the Flood form’s leg began regenerating in full, returning it to full effectiveness as it stood back up and proceeded onwards like nothing had happened…

A shadow passed over Rey as something that resembled a crimson-colored squid with a pointed head fly towards the battlefield. Its pointed head opened up as it fired something at the equine soldiers, striking and killing them.

The airborne Flood form, then, threw itself at some sort of four-legged, mechanical vehicle, attaching itself to the vehicle’s head, spreading its biomass across the head of the vehicle till it reached the neck. Then, the vehicle turned around and fired upon other non-Flood-occupied vehicles, destroying them after several blasts.

There were countless more horrific shapes littering the battlefield, but Rey did not want to see them, so she clenched her eyes shut, and covered her face with her hooves.

In a second, everything around her fell silent, and there was only darkness…even after she lowered her hooves and looked around at her surroundings.

Now, instead of a Flood-ravaged battlefield, she stood inside a dark void. Nothing but blackness surrounded her.

Out of the darkness, however, two robed and hooded equines suddenly appeared, grabbing Rey’s hooves.

She tried to resist, but the equines’ grasp was just too strong.

The darkness faded away, becoming a long tunnel illuminated by torches along the walls.

As the tunnel appeared, a third robed equine did too, now leading the two that held Rey down the tunnel, until they stepped out of the tunnel onto a walkway.

Stepping onto the stone platform, the robed equines hauled and then dropped Rey onto the center of the platform, then backed away from her.

Sitting up, Rey turned and looked back over her shoulder at the robed equines, shooting them a confused glance, while the trio – of robed equines – silently stared back at her.

Without uttering a word, the lead equine turned its head and looked towards the two beside it, both of whom nodded back.

All of them then turned their attention back towards Rey, then slowly raised and pointed their hooves at her, allowing her to see a hexagon with three lines at the center bottom and sides of the hexagon, there was also a smaller hexagonal in the center of the main hexagon. Rey furrowed her as she saw the strange symbol on the underside of their hooves.

She had, however, little time to focus on the peculiar symbol as she was abruptly lifted up off the ground, rising a few inches above the stone platform.

The robed equines, then, strode forward, slowly pushing out over the edge of the platform, leaving her suspended above a dark chasm.

A chasm so dark that no light escaped it, and yet, Rey furrowed her brows…as she could swear that she saw movement down in the darkness.

Movement then stopped, but then followed with her feeling like something was looking at her from the darkness.

There was something down there.

Something all but confirmed as a deep voice exhaled from the chasm.

For a second time, there was movement, but it got clearer, more visible, as whatever was down there slowly ascended from the darkness; revealing hundreds of blue-gray tentacles that raised up into the air towards the platform, however, Rey’s eyes widened as she realized that the tentacles were coming up for her – and her specifically.

Fear overtook her, and she began flailing her hooves in a useless attempt to try and reach for the edge of the platform.

Unfortunately, the hooded figures had her suspended far enough out over the chasm that she could not reach the edge.

“No… No!” Rey began shouting as she desperately tried to get away from the encroaching tentacles, helplessly watching them inch closer and closer to her.

Ultimately, the tentacles reached her, though, oddly enough, kept their distance as they merely lingered in the air around her; almost like they were examining her.

Wide-eyed from fear coursing her body, Rey stared at one particular tentacle that hung in front of her…unaware of a large, blue-grey, serpentine form arose from the dark chasm.

Towering over Rey by the time that she finally noticed it…but when she did, her eyes widened as her fear was reinvigorated by the familiar form of the Gravemind.

However, unlike the Gravemind that she had seen prior in the Flood hive, this one looked different. There was something, off, about how its mouth looked. It had these strange lines through it.

Then, Rey discovered what the lines as the Gravemind suddenly opened its mouth, splitting apart to reveal a six-fold maw comprised of four small ones on the sides, with the top and lower jaws being the last two.

Rey’s eyes shot wide-open, just before the Gravemind lunged forward and swallowed her whole, clenching her maw around her body!

She fell down the through the Gravemind’s tube-like body, only for the fleshy, blue-grey walls to become begin giving way to multi-colored beams, which formed a colorful, spiraling vortex.

Growing brighter, the light envelops Rey’s entire body.

For a brief second, there is silence.

No sound.

Just silence.

Silence filled the air, even as the white around her eventually passed away.

Soon, the white fog cleared, pulling back like a veil as it revealed that Rey was no longer falling down the vortex, but instead standing up-right on a flat, rocky surface.

Turning her head, Rey looked around her surroundings to find that she was now on an island.

An island surrounded by vast oceans that stretched far into the horizon, seemingly without end.

While looking, Rey abruptly jerked her head back in front of her as she heard a child’s voice. Her attention, though, fell upon the steps in front of her.

The steps ran up along the side of a small mountain till they reached the very top. Then, Rey saw something run away as her gaze reached the top of the steps.

Something small like a child.

“No, wait-!” Rey called before she gave chase after the child, running up the steps as she fast as she could.

Upon reaching the top of the steps, Rey, without hesitation, entered a doorway that had been hewn out of the mountain, itself.

Running down along a similarly hewn tunnel, Rey abruptly heard countless noises as the sunlight shined in through holes in the wall. Holes that had differently colored gems in them, which flashed their respective colors in her face…

As she saw blue, a vision flashed in Rey’s mind of a hooded mare out on a vast battlefield, who Rey saw was terrified of being here. Especially as she watched armored equines charging right towards her, firing their blasters at her. However, in spite of her fear, the mare drew and ignited her lightsaber, using to fight off the armored equines, killing them one by one…

Seeing green, another vision flashed in Rey’s mind, this one showing a pod shooting up into a shaft from a platform within a chamber. The pod sped up along the shaft till it shot up out of a hole in a mountain into the sky. The pod ignited its engine, gaining more and more speed as it flew up into the inner and outer atmospheres, eventually reaching space where it passed by a fleet of wedge-shaped ships that surrounded the planet it – the pod – had taken off from.

As red flashed in Rey’s face, she reached the end of the tunnel and stepped into a large chamber, however, she abruptly froze in her tracks and gasped at the sight before her.

Abruptly flinching, Rey hurriedly backed away into a corner of a chamber, hiding from sight. A look of pure terror on her face as she panted in a cold sweat.

Slowly peeking out from her hiding spot, Rey looked back towards the center of the chamber, where she saw a young stallion with a short, blonde mane clad in black robes holding a green lightsaber out in front of him.

He was a Jedi.

A Jedi fighting off…Flood Combat Forms!

These Combat Forms, though, were different from the ones that Rey had fought before.

For one, while a minority of the Combat Forms had the claw-whip typical of a Combat Form, a majority did not. The majority of the Combat Forms actually wielded lightsabers.

Physically, they also stood out, but in a rather disgusting way; instead of being rooted in the equine’s chest, the Infection Form had instead inserted itself into the equine’s jaws, where their antennae stuck out.

Together, these standard and lightsaber-wielding Combat Forms charged at the lone stallion, swinging their lightsabers and claw-whips at him, but while the Jedi managed to evade the regular Combat Form’s attacks and deliver a killing blow, slicing them in half with his lightsaber, he struggled with lightsaber-wielding Combat Forms.

Not only were the lightsaber-wielding Combat Forms able to keep up with his force-augmented speed, but they also exhibited far more tact than the standard Combat Forms. They displayed similar saber skills to that of their host, making them far deadlier.

Observing the battle, Rey was not only disgusted by their appearance, but horrified by their tact and intelligence, unlike normal Combat Forms.

Their attacks were brutal and ruthless, but also sophisticated and intelligent.

Every swing of their lightsabers towards the stallion were planned. Intended to exhaust him and exhaust him they did.

Minutes passed as the Jedi held his own against the Combat Forms, but it became clear to Rey that his prolonged battle with the Flood forms were beginning to take their toll on him.

The force may be giving him the energy to fight, but it can only do so much on its own before his body begins tiring…and at this rate he is not going to last much longer.

All the Flood has to do is wait, and the Jedi will fall.

After their latest clash, the lightsaber-wielding Combat Forms back away from the Jedi.

Growling and snarling at the Jedi as they circle, sensing his fear through the force.

Like with Combat Forms, Rey senses it too.

Not the fear that he is going to die here, murdered by the Flood, but that his death will allow the parasite to escape and spread across the galaxy. Consuming everything in their wake, including…her.

Well, Rey cannot allow that to happen.

Too many have lost their lives to the Flood, so she will save him.

Removing a lightsaber from her belt, she held it close to her chest and closed her eyes, inhaling a deep breath before she quickly ran out from her hiding spot and lunged towards the nearest Combat Form.

Drawing the Jedi and the Flood form’s attention, though, she held her saber out in front of her towards one of the lightsaber-wielding Combat Forms, activating it as she impaled it in the back.

The Combat Form roared in pain, but before it could act, Rey loudly shouted as she slashed the lightsaber upwards, cleaving the Combat Form in half.

Now lifeless, the Combat Form collapsed onto the ground, but as it fell, Rey leapt back off it, landing back on her hooves.

However, the second she was back on her hooves, Rey immediately raised her lightsaber to block the incoming attack of a Combat Form, causing their blades to clash.

“…!”

During the clash, Rey heard the Jedi call out to her, though, was unable to make out what he said due to it being muffled, inaudible, and yet she knew to duck down, evading a Combat Form’s slash.

She quickly pushed back against the first Combat Form, interrupting their clash before spinning back around towards the other Combat Form, entering into another clash with it.

The first Combat Form charged straight at her, intent on stabbing her with its lightsaber, only to suddenly be force-pushed back through the air into a wall by the Jedi saving Rey before he resumed fighting the rest of the lightsaber-wielding Combat Forms.

Despite initially thinking that she could the take Combat Forms by surprise and then overwhelm them, Rey was beginning to re-think her strategy of engaging the Flood forms head-on.

Usually, she could take a single Combat Form on her own without trouble, but now, one of these lightsaber-wielding Combat Forms were proving to be quite the challenge…perhaps even a little too much.

The longer their duel went on, Rey tired.

Her defenses waned, and her attacks lost their impact.

So much so that, upon its final attack, the Combat Form knocked the lightsaber out of her hoof.

Fortunately, as it slashed its lightsaber at her, Rey managed to jump back away and thrust her hoof out against the Combat Form. Unfortunately, the Combat Form thrust its hoof out towards her, countering her force-push with its own.

The air around Rey and the Combat Form blew intensely, growing stronger as they focused all of their strength into overpowering the other.

Eventually, though, the Combat Form’s superior strength overwhelmed Rey.

A bright light shined in her face was sent flying backwards through the air, momentarily blinding her.

Once the light died down, however, Rey’s eyes widened, and her jaw dropped, hanging slack as she saw that the one that had sent her flying was not the lightsaber-wielding Combat Form…but the lone Jedi that she had helped!

An exhausted, strained look on his face as he stared back at her.

The Jedi’s eyes were wide, and teeth gritted as he force-pushed Rey off the cliff, though, the intensity in his eyes remained the same as he watched her fall down towards the surface.

As Rey fell, time slowed down for her, allowing her to see the rage on the Jedi’s face as he watched her fall.

She fell until finally hitting the ground, the impact of which caused everything around her to shatter into thousands of glass shards.

Rey, along with the shards of glass, fell into a dark void, where the only source of light was the cracked hole that had been created when she shattered reality.

Still seeing the Jedi standing atop his cliff, glaring down upon her as she fell deeper and deeper into the darkness.

She tried calling out to him, reaching out with her hoof…but black tendrils shot out and wrapped itself around her hoof.

More tendrils shot out of the darkness and wrapped themselves around her hooves, restraining her, before they, then, punctured her skin, burying themselves deep into her body.

Clenching her eyes tight shut, Rey screamed aloud in pain as black veins spread throughout her body, changing her body.

Her flesh became sickly-pale, rotten, with certain parts of her body becoming almost like a form of carapace. The skin around her lower jaw and neck vanished, revealing red flesh underneath, as well as her disgusting teeth, which – when closed – would give the impression that she was grinning.

Two bones violently erupted from her right hoof as it mutated into a long, double-sided, blade-like claw.

The final part of her transformation was her vision disappearing, leaving only darkness and pain.

There was so much pain coursing through her body, as well as her mind.

Pain was all she knew, but there was also something else.

From out of the darkness, a mutated reached out and touched her shoulder.

A voice; supernatural and deep, but strangely commanding authority.

“These are your first steps.”

The voice said, to which an image flashed in Rey’s mind that terrified her.

The image of a ship flying away from her and her father’s dome-home, shooting up into the sky.

“NOOOOOO!” Rey screamed.

While Rey’s powerful voice – amplified by the force – kept the Doctor, Twilight, Poe, and Holdo pinned against the wall, the Primordial gradually managed to resist it.

She slowly raised and extended her arm, holding it out in front of her face, shielding herself as she moved away from the wall towards Rey, wave after wave hitting her during her trek.

From the wall, the Doctor watched as the Primordial managed to resist Rey’s intense voice, though, grew concerned as she drew closer to Rey’s unprotected body.

In spite of how Rey’s amplified voice grew stronger the closer one got to her body, the Primordial managed to actually get closer and closer with every step.

It was a slow process, but one that yielded results as she closed in on Rey.

Once close enough to not be blown away, the Primordial thrust her right arm out towards Rey, rapidly changing her fingers into sharp claws that pierced her flesh.

Rey’s eyes shot wide-open, and her jaw dropped, hanging slack as she uttered a final, loud gasp.

“NO!” the Doctor and Twilight shouted in unison at seeing Rey getting stabbed.

However, the waves – generated from Rey’s loud screaming – died down, causing them, Holdo, and Poe, to fall down on the floor.

Quickly looking up, the Doctor’s eyes widened, and he gasped as he saw the Primordial standing over Rey’s body. Twilight looked up too, and she too gasped at the sight before her, but unlike the Doctor, she was snapped out of her stupor by Poe snapping her out of it.

“Come on, Twilight. We’ve got to go, now!” he shouted at her, which drew the Primordial’s attention, who’s head jerked up – from looking at Rey – towards them.

The Doctor, Twilight, and the Precursor locked eyes, staring at each other for the briefest of seconds before the Primordial was suddenly bombarded by soundwaves, pushing it back up towards the wall behind it.

The Primordial’s sudden yanking made Rey’s eyes widen, and jaw drop as she uttered a chocked gasp from feeling the Primordial’s claws moving around inside her wound.

“Come on you guys, we can’t hold it forever – if recent events are any indication!” Holdo shouted at them.

The Doctor and Twilight’s heads jerked from the Precursor towards Holdo, who was holding the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver and pointing it at the Primordial, firing the same sort of waves at it as the Doctor had done earlier.

Turning back towards the couch, the Doctor stared at Rey, who had raised her head and was looking directly at him. A pained and frightened look on her face as she weakly raised and held her hoof out towards him.

“P-please, help me,” she winched, practically begging him.

Their eyes meeting, the Doctor frowned sympathetically back at her, saying, “I’m sorry” before he quickly stood back up on his hooves.

Helping Twilight stand up before he, Poe, and Twilight, along with Holdo, ran out of the doorway, following the hallway that lead to the garage.

Once the soundwaves stopped, the Primordial dropped down onto the ground, standing up on her three arms.

She leapt forward, landing in front of the doorway, though, was abruptly yanked backwards as it tried to pursue the Equestrians down the hallway.

Her head jerked back towards the cause, where she saw that her claws were still impaled into Rey’s body. She snarled at this, and immediately pulled her claws out of the mare’s body, causing Rey to gasp aloud in pain, holding her hooves over her wound as she winched.

Blood pouring out of her wound onto the couch.

Ignoring Rey, the Primordial jerked her head back down the hallway before charging down along it towards the garage.

Leaving Rey to bleed out on the couch…

*A couple seconds earlier*

Running down the hallway, Twilight, the Doctor, Holdo, and Poe reached the garage, slamming the door open as they entered it.

All four of them poured into the garage before Poe closed the door shut behind them.

Knocking over several things to block the way for the Primordial, who was surely hot on their tail/s.

While the Doctor started up the speeder, Twilight unlocked the garage door.

There was a sudden pounding from the other side of the door – which Poe had obstructed – causing Poe to flinch and jump back away from.

Holdo jumped up onto the speeder, wrapping her arms around the Doctor as he looked back over his shoulder at Poe.

“Come on!” he shouted, the pounding getting stronger and more violent.

Twilight quickly got on the speeder, looking back over her shoulder along with the Doctor and Holdo at Poe.

“Come on, Dameron!” shouted Holdo, fear and concern prevalent in her voice.

Poe’s head jerked towards them, but the suddenly burst open, flinging him back against the wall.

Every one of the equines gasped in horror at the figure that greeted them in the doorway.

It was the Primordial…but instead of her normal appearance, she had become a large mass of flesh and tentacles with a large, round maw, whose edges were aligned with sharp teeth and a single, massive red, slit eye in the center of it.

The beast roared a loud, feral, screech-like roar at the group.

Once the Primordial Beast stopped roaring, Poe, overcome with fear and panic, pulled out his blaster and fired off several shots at the monstrous being. The Primordial Beast roared as his blaster bolts hit their mark, piercing its body, though, he froze, and eyes widened, as he watched new tentacles growing out of the Primordial’s wounds…all of whom hovered through the air towards him!

However, as the snarling Primordial Beast turned back towards the speeder, it was suddenly hit by another soundwave, pinning the primary bulk of its body in places. The newly spawned tentacles wriggled in mid-air. Poe, though, breathed heavily as he was consumed with fear.

Silently staring at the Primordial Beast’s tentacles.

“Come on, Poe!” Twilight shouted.

Without hesitation, Poe, wide-eyed and terrified, ran as fast as his body could carry him towards the speeder.

He jumped up onto the back, wrapping his arms tightly around Twilight, causing her to bump against Holdo, interrupting her continued fire of the soundwave.

With the soundwave ended, the Primordial Beast chattered its many teeth, roaring in an eerie, in-equine manner as its tentacles shot out towards the group, but just before they reached them, the Doctor ignited the speeder’s engines; shooting out of the garage like a speeding bullet, evading the tentacles at the last minute.

They sped across the snowy plains outside of Rey’s home, then dove downwards and flew out the hidden entrance, flying away as fast as they possibly could to get away from the Primordial Beast…leaving Rey behind with the Primordial.

Back in the garage, the Primordial Beast roared after the Doctor, Twilight, Poe, and Holdo. Angered by their escape, staring out after them as she reverted back to her normal form, though, she turned her head and jerked her head back, looking over her shoulder inside the garage door – which she had destroyed when bursting through it in her monstrous form.

Before the Primordial could return to the living room to retrieve Rey’s body, an explosion suddenly shook the entire dome-home.

She sharply turned around, only to stop in her tracks as she saw an orange light at the other end coming from the living room, followed thereafter by fire pouring out of the living room into the hallway and spread down throughout towards her from the other end.

Without any other choice, the Primordial rushed out into the snow, where she saw that the entire dome-home was aflame.

While stunned by the burning dome-home, she snapped back to her senses as she saw the burning living room.

“No, Rey!” she called out as she ran up towards the dome-home, only for a final, large explosion to erupt from within!

Destroying the entire home and knocking the Primordial backwards into the snow.

The Precursor swiftly sat up in the snow, only to freeze in place as she was greeted by nothing but a flaming ruin.

The main dome was destroyed, and a single, large flame sat in its center,

A fire that crackled, giving off a bright red and orange as it spread throughout what little of the dome-home, setting it aflame too.

“No!” shouted the Primordial, holding her arm out towards the burning ruin. However, she slowly lowered her arm as it dawned on her that Rey’s body was beyond saving.

Dejected that she would not be able to turn Rey into a Combat Form to serve the Flood, the Primordial silently watched the dome-home burn.

Eventually standing up from the snow, she watched the burning home for a few seconds before turning around and walking along the small field of snow towards the edge of the hidden entrance.

Holding her arms out beside her, she fell forwards down towards the rocky surface, below, where she grew wings.

Swooping upwards, she beat her new wings, climbing higher and higher into the air as she flew off.

She eventually passed over the mountains, continuing west towards the nearest Flood infested city.

As the Primordial flies off, a hooded figure watches the Precursor fly away, hiding a lightsaber within its torn, make-shift robes.

Author's Note

I would have used a gif for the Gravemind, but I had to settle for still pictures.

I may change that in the future.

Chapter 9 - Rise of the Flood

Sitting in his gravity chair within the darkened chamber, the Master Builder silently stared at the blue, rectangular holo-screen suspended in mid-air in front of him.

The image on the screen was the visual feed from an Aggressor Sentinel currently fighting the Flood.

The Sentinel is but one in a giant swarm of Sentinels that is attacking the Flood’s forces as they laid siege to another Forerunner city.

Several Flood Pure Forms poured into the city, spreading alongside the thousands of regular Combat Forms as Sentinels attempted to combat the Ranged and Tank Pure Forms, but to no avail.

While already spread far within the city, the countless variations in Flood forms overwhelmed the Sentinels;

Aggressor Sentinels, in spite of being specialized to combat – and ultimately destroy – Flood Combat Forms, were incapable of putting up a sufficient defense against the Jiralhanae Combat Forms.

Due to being larger and more dangerous than the smaller and weaker Combat Forms, the Jiralhanae Combat Forms drew the majority of the Aggressors’ fire, allowing their weaker cousins to push the Sentinels back with devastating volleys; thus, disabling countless Sentinels.

Unfortunately, the larger and more armored and armed Enforcer Sentinels were unable to assist the Aggressors as they were busy engaging airborne Flood Forms and Flood-corrupted aircraft...

If the Enforcers prioritized assisting the Aggressors on the ground, they were left exposed to the airborne Flood.

If the Enforcers prioritized the airborne Flood, the Aggressor line weakened significantly, yielding more of the city to the parasite…

******

Sitting motionlessly in his gravity chair, the Master Builder watched the live footage of the Aggressor and Enforcer Sentinels’ defensive lines get pushed back, yielding more ground to the Flood.

Raising his arm, he pressed his finger against a button on his gravity chair’s right armrest, raising a secure channel to Penitent Tangent.

Not a minute passed before he heard the Monitor’s voice.

‘’Master Builder,’’ the Monitor greeted its master.

‘’Monitor, call off your attack,’’ said the Master Builder, ‘’the city has already fallen.’’

‘’Pull your forces back to defend our position here.’’

‘’It is useless to engage the Flood on the battlefield. Our best hope now is to employ guerrilla warfare tactics and wear their forces down, then, possibly, we may be able to launch another assault.’’

‘’As you wish, Master Builder,’’ replied Penitent.

Removing his finger from the button and severing the communication, the Master Builder looked back at the screen in front of him, placing one hand atop of the other and holding them up to his chin as he resumed observing the Flood infestation of the city.

Looking at the other screens hovering around him, the first of many beads of sweat ran down along his temple.

While obscured by his mask, the Master Builder’s face was overcome with fear at the Flood’s return.

The parasite, once defeated has returned, and it is winning, -

…but it will not stop here.

Once it has defeated its enemies here, it will just take to the stars in order to infest and consume other worlds, and so on and on in an endless cycle until there is nothing.

It is one.

The only lifeform left in a galaxy overrun with walking dead, but then what…?

‘’The Flood will do what it always does; spread and consume, only to other galaxies…or even entire universes!’’ he thought aloud, the fear in his voice rising the longer he thought about the aftermath of a galactic-wide Flood infestation.

On the screen, he watched as what little remained of his Sentinel forces retreated, fleeing from the city as the Flood overran it, heading straight for the city’s central control room.

‘’”It begins with a single Flood spore, and ends with the infestation of an entire planet…but the wheel keeps turning, again and again,”’’ he said dejectedly as he hung his head, averting his gaze from the screens.

The Master Builder was momentarily consumed by his fear of the parasite, before he finally moved again.

Slowly raising his head, he looked back up towards the screen, furrowing his brows as he glared at the screen…

******

Meanwhile in the overrun city, the Flood horde swarmed through the overrun city.

Thousands of growling, roaring, bipedal and quadrupedal Combat Forms made their way through the city, fighting off what few Aggressor Sentinels remained on route to city control, punching deeper into the city.

Soon, the final door standing between the Flood and the city’s main control room opened, granting the parasite access to the most important place within the whole city.

They also assessed the city’s layout, locating its various containment facilities…

Growling ferally, several equine Combat Forms hobbled up towards one of many control consoles and touched it, accessing the city’s database, learning all that they could, before removing their hooves from it and returning to the other Combat forms.

The equine Combat Forms learned everything they could from the city’s central data core, before they, like the rest of the Flood force in the city, turned tail and vacated the city.

Returning the same way they came, now accompanied by Juggernaut, Spawner, and Infester, Tank, Ranged, Stalker Pure Forms, all of whom lumbered or scurried about alongside the regular Combat Forms.

Outside the city structure, the ground shook as numerous large tentacles erupted out of the ground, climbing high into the sky, before retreating down into the newly created tunnels to spread to the next city.

As the Flood horde disappeared down into the dark caves of their ever-growing hive, the sun on the surface vanished down into the horizon, taking with it the last vestiges of large-scale light.

Truly the day has passed, and the night begun…

******

A cold blew through the snowy mountains, passing over the Doctor, Twilight, Poe, and Holdo as they had made camp on a cliff.

Within the cliff was an open space where the group had parked their speeder, and where they could sleep without being bothered by the snow, even though there is a small layer covering the ground.

Under advisement from the Doctor, the group had not returned to the surface – even though they have the capability – in order to avoid the Flood forms scouring the area in search of them.

Staying in the snowy mountains is not a guarantee that they will not encounter the Flood, but it certainly does increase their chances of surviving, should the parasite find and attack them.

Now with a fire going the three survivors sat huddled around it, warming themselves from the cold.

But no matter how warm they may be, the icy chill of their horrible experiences here on this planet will be with them forever.

This, the worst and most disparaging of all detours ever taken…to the worst of all places.

If ever such a place as hell exists, we have arrived, Poe thought, scrunching his face as he stared obsessively into the campfire’s flames.

A mixture of fear and sadness on his face, though he did not want to let the others see him like this, especially Holdo.

Not now when they need to keep their spirits up, as difficult as that may be.

Give in to fear, and they are lost.

Sitting by the fire, Twilight turned her head right, looking back over her shoulder towards the Doctor as he stood by the cliffside, silently staring out into the night sky and listening as the wind howled all around him.

‘’He’s been quiet,’’ Twilight spoke out, drawing Holdo and Poe’s attention as they looked up from the fire towards the lavender unicorn.

Turning her head, Twilight stared directly into their faces.

‘’Ever since we escaped the Primordial’s betrayal and came here, he hasn’t said a word. He…has just been standing there staring out at the landscape,’’ she said, her tone giving away the concern in her voice.

Poe turned back towards the Doctor, briefly staring at the Time Lord before bringing his attention back to Twilight and Holdo, shooting her a blank but empathetic look.

‘’Look, Twilight, he has been through a lot, we have been through a lot,’’ said Poe.

‘’Maybe he just needs to rest, time to recover his strength.’’

Hearing Poe’s theory, Twilight turned her head back towards the Doctor, staring concernedly at the Time Lord.

‘’Then why hasn’t he come and joined us by the fire?’’ Twilight asked

‘’Surely, if he is exhausted and needs to recover from our run-in with the Flood – as I expect we will be meeting them again – then why is he not resting now?’’ she asked

‘’He knows the Flood better than any of us, and as such he probably knows know that we should take every opportunity to recuperate we can before setting out again,’’ said Twilight.

‘’No, this is something else. Something about the Primordial’s betrayal affected him, deeply.’’

Furrowing his brows, Poe grimaced confusedly as he softly jerked his head back.

‘’Why? The Primordial was just some alien lifeform, I’m certain that he would’ve seen a few from travelling the galaxy in that little blue box of his,’’ Poe asked as he replied.

Twilight turned back towards him, sharing a brief moment of silence as she stared at him.

‘’From what I understand, the Primordial was the last Precursor; a sort of god race, and the original mass-seeders of the galaxy. They literally created life in our galaxy,’’ Twilight explained, to which Poe and Holdo’s brows jumped, eyes widening from the shock of learning this.

Jerking their heads back towards the Doctor, Holdo and Poe shot him stunned looks.

‘’You’d have thought that he would’ve mentioned that at some point,’’ Poe remarked, before his and Holdo’s attention shifted back to Twilight as they heard her speak out again.

‘’Now whatever caused their extinction and left the Primordial as the final surviving Precursor, I believe that it was the Primordial’s betrayal of us to the Flood that broke him,’’ Twilight said.

‘’I remember seeing how happy and excited he was after we freed the Primordial from her prison, revealing to me and Rey that she was a Precursor,’’ she continued, hanging her head in shame at the thought that they released the being that attacked their group, hurting Rey more than any one of them.

Even now, Twilight can now hear Rey’s screams echo in her mind from the Primordial doing, whatever it was that it did to her.

Twilight’s eyes watered, and she hung her head, averting her gaze from Poe and Holdo, sniffling as she sobbed slightly, struggling to compose herself.

She wiped the running tears with her hoof and looked back towards them, but Poe and Holdo turned towards each other as they noted that Twilight’s sadness is still prevalent on her face.

Standing up and trotting around the campfire, Holdo approached and hugged Twilight, holding her in a comforting embrace as Twilight sobbed into her. Poe silently stared at the mares, empathic to Twilight of what she is going through, as he himself have lost loved ones, be they friend or family.

He averted his gaze, staring off towards some snow to avoid giving in to his emotions like Twilight has.

Mourning the dead can come later, but what is important now is for them to actually survive, so that they can mourn them.

Still standing motionless by the cliff, the Doctor turned his head and faintly looked back over his shoulder towards Twilight, Poe, and Holdo over by the campfire, tears prevalent on his face.

Tears that had frozen in the cold wind and shattered after he turned his head to look back over his shoulder.

While staring at Twilight and the others, he sniffled and stared at them a little while longer before turning back to look out towards the snowy landscape, feeling the cold wind on his face…and hearing the voice in his head.

‘’It is useless to resist, Time Lord. Surrender yourself to me, end your torment…and theirs.’’

The darker, but still familiar voice of the Primordial spoke to the Doctor.

Reaching out to him from within the Flood hive, but the Doctor remained silent – physically and in responding to the Primordial.

‘’You delay the inevitable,’’ she continued.

‘’We will find you and devour your party, but the Equestrians need not suffer needlessly. Join us and their suffering will be brief.’’

Still, the Doctor did not respond.

‘’Betrayal,’’ the Time Lord finally said, telepathically responding to the Precursor as he furrowed his brows and scowled sternly, ‘’I would not be helping them as you say, but instead betraying them to the worst parasite that ever existed. A parasite so horrific that taking one’s own life to avoid becoming another one of its Combat Forms or having their knowledge used for its own benefit an actually viable option,’’ he continued.

‘’Heck, there were even times when I-…I actually considered it; killing myself so that I wouldn’t have to endure it anymore, to see friends and loved ones fall to the Flood. I…I just wanted it to end,’’ the Doctor’s voice cracked as he struggled to remain composed, the memories of his time as a soldier fighting the parasite coming rushing back, overwhelming the Time Lord, causing his eyes to water.

Enough that he briefly fell silent, hanging his head as he brought a hoof to his chin and wiped several fresh from his cheek.

‘’I still don’t know why – or even how – I survived the war’s end, but I know that it was not just so I could betray everyone who fought the Flood to have died in vain…least of all myself, as the Time Lord I once was died long ago in the war!’’ he replied, raising his voice to triumphant levels against the Primordial.

‘’I once admired the Precursors, and I felt no greater sorrow than when I learned that you had become extinct. I still not know why, but what I do know is that this is not what the Precursors stood for. The Flood is death, and the Precursors valued life, afterall is that not what the Mantle of Responsibility states?’’ the Doctor asked the Primordial.

The Primordial fell silent for a short while, before she finally spoke out again.

‘’You wish to know what led our race to extinction? You want to know why I sided with the Flood? This…’’parasite’’ as you call it,’’ she asked…

The Doctor maintained his stern scowl, not letting it falter for a second, however, as the Primordial told him about the past, recollecting events from so long ago, his eyes widened, and his mouth hung slack, shocked and horrified by these revelations laid out by the Precursor.

He did not want to believe it.

‘’No,’’ he softly muttered to himself.

‘’No, this cannot be true, it cannot,’’ he telepathically protested.

‘’What you choose to believe in face of the truth is irrelevant,’’ the Primordial replied.

‘’Until our meeting, I await your decision,’’ she said, ending their telepathic conversation and leaving the Doctor stunned by what he had learned.

Nearly collapsing, he caught himself by extending his hoof and grabbing the stone wall, breathing heavily as he stood there processing everything he had heard and seen for himself.

Now there is nothing but the silence of the Primordial’s absence, and the howling winds.

Still staring out towards the cold landscape before him, the Time Lord, in spite of his attempts to shift his focus to other things, remained transfixed on what the Primordial had told him surrounding the Precursor’s extinction.

His eyes wide, jaw hanging slack, and sweat running down his temples, the Doctor processed what the Primordial had told him.

‘’Hey Doc, are you okay?’’

The Doctor suddenly gasped, quickly jerking his head as he looked back over his shoulder towards the group at hearing Poe call out to him, where he saw Twilight, Holdo, and Poe shooting him nervous looks.

‘’Doctor, are you alright?!’’ Twilight urgently asked as she stood up and hurriedly trotted up to the Time Lord, putting her hoof on his shoulder.

The Doctor jerked his head down towards her hoof, staring at it before looking back up into her face, looking into her eyes until he finally blinked his eyes, snapping him out of his trance.

Shaking his head, the Doctor looked back into Twilight’s eyes after recovering from his little ‘’moment’’.

‘’Y-yes, Twilight, I am fine.’’

The Doctor stuttered as he lied.

‘’I-I’m just a little bit shaken up about what happened with…with-‘’ he said, nodding his head before hanging his head and looking down towards the ground as he averted his eyes.

Losing his composure all of a sudden, the Doctor suddenly began sobbing.

In response, Twilight immediately embraced him in a friendly hug.

‘’Shssh, it’s okay. It’s okay,’’ she cooed, rubbing his back comfortingly, calming the distressed Time Lord down.

‘’We’re still here, Doctor. None of us are going anywhere,’’ she said.

‘’Thank you!’’ replied the Doctor, putting his hooves around Twilight as he hugged her back, holding her tight.

Twilight could not see it, but the Time Lord’s eyes watered, and two streams of tears flowed down his cheek.

I swear to myself, here and now, I will never tell Twilight or the others the truth origin or the Flood or the events behind the Precursor’s extinction. It would break them to discover the truth behind the Flood’s origin, the Doctor thought to himself.

The truth would shake them to their core, as it already has him.

At the same time that Twilight and the Doctor embraced each other several silhouettes moved through the darkness, flying past the four survivor’s small encampment, -

…only for the lead-silhouette to abruptly stop in mid-air, signaling to the other two accompanying it to stop as well.

Then, all silhouettes turned around, and shined their spotlights towards the cliffside that the four survivors were holed up at, catching the group’s attention as the lights shined on them!

Twilight, the Doctor, Poe, and Holdo all jerked their heads up towards the source of the light.

‘’We’ve been spotted!’’ Poe shouted.

‘’Take cover!’’ Holdo shouted.

Poe and Holdo quickly stood back up on their hooves, readying themselves for a fight, but could not make a move due to the bright light shining on them, in their faces and eyes.

‘’Twilight get behind me!’’ the Doctor shouted as he quickly stepped in front of Twilight to protect her, shield her from, whatever this thing was that had found them.

‘’No, Doc, I can hold them-!’’ Twilight shouted back at the Doctor, before grabbing him with her hooves about to pull him back away from the edge of the exposed cliffside, -

…only to freeze in her tracks all of a sudden as she noticed something.

Something that drew the Doctor’s attention, leading to him realizing what she had realized.

His eyes widened, and he froze motionless on the spot.

We are not being attacked.

The Time Lord thought as he slowly turned back around towards the hovering object, blankly staring at it, along with Twilight, Poe, and Holdo, who, while not openly attacking the objecting the light on them, prepare to defend themselves, the Doctor, and Twilight.

The situation is tense, with the object not responding or reacting to them, -

…until, finally, the object turned and flew away from the cliffside.

With the light no longer shining on them, Twilight quickly tried to catch a glimpse of the object before it flew into the snowy winds, joining two silhouettes as they flew off, but all she could make out was that the object was purple and dark-grey, whose main body looked to possess a bulbous middle-section, whose sides curved outwards to form forms.

Whatever it was, it disappeared like a phantom into the night, leaving Twilight and the Doctor baffled by what it had been as the night drew ever closer.

‘’Doctor,’’ Twilight said, turning her head to face the Time Lord, ‘’What was that?’’ she asked.

Averting his gaze, the Doctor silently stared out into the snowy wind.

Briefly withholding his response from Twilight, because it scared him.

‘’I don’t know,’’ he replied, not making eye-contact as he continued staring out towards the surrounding peaks, missing Twilight’s reaction to his response.

Soon, Twilight broke the silence by speaking out…

‘’W-what do you mean you don’t know?’’ Twilight asked stutteringly, which gave away the nervous tone in her voice.

‘’I thought Time Lords were supposed to knew everything?’’

At that, the Doctor abruptly, but slowly, turned his head back towards her.

He did not make a noise as he stared into her eyes, shooting her a slightly stern, dumbfounded glance.

‘’Don’t be ridiculous, Twilight,’’ he said.

‘’We may have been a powerful race, possessing TARDISes, capable of space and time travel. No race dared to oppose the Lords of Time, but that does not mean that there were not gaps even in our knowledge,’’ explained the Doctor.

Twilight nervously swallowed, before she looked out towards the same peaks, same as the Doctor.

‘’That is encouraging,’’ she said, earning her an odd glance from the Time Lord.

He did not comment, though as he figured that she is already going through a lot as it is, especially with his latest remark concerning the Time Lords not possessing all the knowledge in the universe.

The Doctor just closed his mouth and blankly stared back out towards the surrounding peaks, the Primordial’s words echoing in his head, tormenting him.

******

Later in the night, the wind continually howled, but it was not the reason the Doctor sat awake while the Equestrians slept comfortably – relatively speaking.

In spite of having taken refuge on a relatively safe cliffside, he sat keeping watch, ready to wake the others if he so much as spotted the Flood…even if the spotted Flood was across the gap that separated their individual mountains.

‘’You really are dedicated to protecting Twilight, Poe, and Holdo, aren’t you?’’ TARDIS asked in his earpiece.

He softly scoffed back, smiling, even as he continued staring out towards the other surrounding mountains.

‘’Is there something else I should be doing?’’ he asked her back.

‘’Sleep,’’ replied TARDIS.

‘’Recover your strength for tomorrow, you will need it,’’ she said.

He scoffed again, before hanging and shaking his head, though he still looked back up in order to maintain his watch of his surroundings.

‘’You know I can’t do that girl,’’ said the Doctor, striking a more serious tone.

‘’You’re no use to anyone exhausted…or dead, Doctor,’’ TARDIS replied, speaking in a mixture of concerned and equally serious tone.

‘’Neither are they,’’ he said.

‘’The Equestrians will need Twilight, Poe and Holdo if they are to survive this war.’’

‘’And what about you?’’ she asked.

‘’How do you help them by dying here?’’

‘’I am not going to die here,’’ said the Doctor in a slightly gruff voice.

‘’Could’ve fooled me,’’ said TARDIS, to which the Doctor shot her an odd glance.

The Doctor then sighed deeply as he turned back towards the mountain peaks.

He then sighed heavily as he hung his head.

‘’Rey is gone,’’ the Doctor said dejectedly.

‘’Murdered by the Primordial after it nearly sent us to our deaths within a Flood hive.’’

The Doctor thrust his hooves out beside him, briefly holding them there before slowly lowering them back down beside him and hanging his head.

‘’We are all that’s left; with no food, and no place to take shelter from either the storm of the Flood,’’ he continued.

TARDIS fell silent, not uttering a word for the next couple moments.

‘’I will rest when I’m dead,’’ said the Doctor, falling silent himself as he finally ended his conversation with TARDIS and resumed his watch.

His ever-present fear and paranoia about the parasite keeping him alert.

As the night wore on and the young Time Lord kept watch, however, he failed to take notice of several unseen figures converging on their cliffside encampment.

The figures silently climbed up along the mountainside towards the cliffside, going undetected by the TARDIS’ motion tracker due to interference from the continually blowing cold winds.

Unlike the Flood, these unseen figures did not make a single noise as they closed in on the cliff opening, waiting for their opportune moment to strike.

After five whole minutes, the unseen figures’ leader suddenly leapt in towards the cliff opening, kicked the Doctor, and knocking him down on the ground.

All while the Time Lord grunted as he was kicked.

The Doctor supported his upper body with his hooves as he sat back up.

Groaning and rubbing the back of his head, the Doctor immediately jerked his head back upwards as he heard a loud crackling of energy.

Looking up, however, his eyes widened as he froze in his tracks.

Standing over him was a tall, bipedal humanoid clad in red armor wielding a blue energy sword that curved inwards from the ends from a cylinder gripped tightly by its wielder’s four-digited hand.

The Doctor’s eyes widened, petrified by the sight before him.

‘’Doctor!’’

TARDIS exclaimed, but before the Time Lord can act the bipedal being held the tip of its energy sword up to his throat, ensuring he doesn’t try anything.

At the same time, Twilight’s ear twitched from hearing the energy sword crackling to life and her eyes shot open.

Looking back over her shoulder, her eyes widened as she sees the tall, imposing figure standing over the Doctor, holding its blade to his throat.

The figure was bipedal, but while most of its physical body was covered up by a black under suit and red armor she managed to make out a reptilian appearance; especially strong in that field was the creature’s face, though she noted the mandibles as irregular of any reptilian creature that she has ever seen.

Immediately without hesitation, the lavender mare quickly stood up on her hooves, but before she could run over to help the Doctor, she saw in her peripheral vision several other bipedal aliens jumping up onto the cliff from behind the edge.

Unlike the creature standing over the Doctor, their armor was blue, but still the same design.

The blue-armored aliens ignored what appears to be their leader and instead turned their attention towards Twilight towards the exhausted Poe and Holdo.

They drew their odd-looking energy weapons – that had a single handle in the center and two elongated parts of the weapon’s top and bottom – and pointed them at Twilight, which she furrowed her brows, and gritted her teeth at them as she assumed a battle-ready stance, her horn aglow as she prepared herself…

Without hesitation, the blue-armored aliens fired a volley of plasma from their weapons towards her, -

…but just before the volley of plasma bolts hit her, she suddenly raised a shield and protected herself.

Much to the blue-armored creature’s surprise as they have never seen anything survive a direct assault like that, especially without armor.

Additionally, her shield still appeared functional, even after their volley.

Taking advantage of their distraction, Twilight rapidly lowered her shield, but before the blue-armored aliens could fire on her again, she abruptly grabbed one of them in a telekinetic grip and threw the individual at the group, knocking them all down.

As the group recovered and stood back up, one of the blue-armored aliens rose to its feet, but when it went to fire another plasma bolt at her, Twilight performed a quick-draw a rapidly charged up a magical blast that she fired at the creature, hitting it, and pushing it back against the cave wall, knocking it unconscious.

Twilight’s attention snapped back to the other blue-armored aliens, watching them get back up on their feet, sure to attack her as well.

She charged up another spell, but before she could fire it a voice called out to her…

‘’Twilight!’’

It was the Doctor.

Twilight jerked her head back towards the Time Lord but gasped at the sight that greeted her.

That one of the aliens wearing the red armor held its left arm around the Doctor, holding the Time Lord tightly and preventing him from escaping, but worse than that, it held its energy sword up to the Doctor’s throat in a threatening manner.

‘’Surrender, foreigner, or I will cut his throat,’’ the red-armored alien said, moving its mandibles as it spoke in a deep but surprisingly regal tone of voice.

Not at all like Twilight had expected its voice would sound.

The red-armored creature stared directly at Twilight, and she at it…before looking towards the Doctor, wherein he shot her a pleading look.

Not to fight, but to surrender to these strange humanoids.

Twilight briefly closed her eyes and sighed, scowling as she stared back at the red-armored creature, -

…and then disabled her magic, showing the red-armored creature and its blue-armored compatriots that she is surrendering.

She sat down on the ground and hung her head, staring down in front of her.

The red-armored creature turned towards its comrades and growled as it nudged its head towards Twilight, gesturing for them to move forwards.

Initially suspicious of the unicorn, the blue-armored aliens slowly approached her, but once it dawned on them that she was done fighting they threw caution to the wind and surrounded her, wherein they cuffed both her and the Doctor.

‘’Those two too,’’ the red-armored creature ordered, pointing its finger at the sleeping Poe and Holdo, who, its blue-armored underlings walked up towards and shook awake.

Moaning as he stirred awake, Poe slowly opened his eyes, only to shot them wide-open as he saw the humanoid figure standing over him.

The starfighter commander quickly reached for his blaster, but before he could make any action the creature slammed its leg down on his arm, restraining him.

Poe, however, struggled to free himself, but stopped moving when the creature growled and pointed its plasma weapon at his head.

The stallion briefly stared down along the center of the weapon, before he noticed Twilight and the Doctor in his peripheral vision and slowly turned his head towards them.

‘’Twilight! Doc,’’ he exclaimed.

‘’What is going on?!’’

Twilight sighed heavily, hanging her head.

‘’We’re surrendering,’’ Twilight said dejectedly.

‘’These guys attacked the Doctor. The commotion woke me up, but while defending the Doctor and you guys from them, they got ahold of him, holding him hostage and forcing us to surrender,’’ she explained, to which Poe’s eyes widened.

Before one of the blue-armored aliens could wake Holdo, the commotion from Poe’s brief struggle awoke her, and she jolted awoke.

She hurriedly sat up-right, taking several of the aliens by surprise, yet they quickly, and only, pointed their plasma weapons at her head.

As a result, Holdo froze in place and slowly raised her hooves, signaling her surrender to the blue-armored aliens, who merely looked at each other yet kept their weapons trained on her.

‘’Major Drawn ’Vadum to Phantom, foreigners have been engaged and neutralized. Currently awaiting extraction.’’

The red-armored creature said as it contacted whatever this ‘’Phantom’’ is.

Must be whatever craft they used to get here, Twilight thought to herself as she sat beside the Doctor, Holdo, and Poe, staring out towards the cliff opening, watching the snow winds continued blowing past it.

The creature now identified as a ‘’major’’ walked up along the group, till it stopped in front of the Doctor, who it turned its body around to face.

‘’Speak, foreigner, who are you?’’ the major demanded, once again allowing the Doctor to hear that deep, but still sophisticated and – for lack of a better word – elite sounding voice.

He could not explain, it just sounded inherently superior.

Unlike anything he has ever heard, even amongst his own species.

The Time Lord stared blankly, but also intrigued, at the major, not saying a word for the next few moments before finally opening his mouth and answering the alien’s question.

‘’Hello, my name is the Doctor,’’ he said, calmly introducing himself to the major, which frankly baffled a few of the other blue-armored aliens, who did not suspect such a calm response from someone that they had just attacked without warning.

‘’The lavender one is my companion, Twilight Sparkle, and the other two is Commander Poe Dameron, and the other Vice Admiral Amylin Holdo of the Equestrian Republic navy,’’ he explained, pointing his hoof towards each of the ponies in the order that he said their name.

The major softly grumbled as he looked from Twilight to Poe and then Holdo, briefly looking each of them over, before turning his attention back to the Doctor.

Without uttering a word, the major lowered his head and looked the Doctor over from head to hoof, briefly examining it before turning towards Twilight and the others, comparing their physiology to this Doctor’s.

‘’Your species is a strange one, foreigner, yet it is not unfamiliar to us,’’ said the major.

‘’You and your group will accompany us back to our base, where you will stand before the hierarch.’’

Poe and Holdo shared an uneasy look, but the Doctor just nodded comfortably back.

Again, the major merely grumbled gruffly.

He walked off to attend other matters, but still, inwardly, he struggled to understand how someone can be so calm and even respectful in a situation like this.

These…Equestrians are unlike anything he has ever experienced in all his years of serving the Covenant.

But there is something about that Doctor. Something…off, the major thought.

The major continued to dwell on these thoughts until he soon pushed them to the back of his mind when a light soon shined on him, his forces, and the Equestrians.

In spite of being blinded by the Phantom’s spotlight, the Doctor and Twilight’s eyes widened, and jaws dropped, hanging slack as the craft flew up from behind the edge of the cliff, -

…and revealed itself as the object that they had seen earlier!

The Phantom turned itself around and backed up to the cliff opening.

Its back door opened, at which point the major and his soldiers beckoned the Doctor, Twilight, Poe, and Holdo onboard.

They trotted up the ramp onboard the Phantom, stepping inside a space interior, but while Twilight and the Doctor spotted a door at the other end of the room – presumably where the pilot is – the major stopped them in their tracks by holding out his hand, grunting as he signaled for them to stop.

Both the four equines and the soldiers stopped moving, while the major itself turned around and approached the door.

It automatically opened for him, allowing him to proceed inside and down a slopping corridor, the door closing behind him, leaving the four equines and soldiers alone.

Outside, the Phantom ignited its engines and flew forward away from the cliffside into the blowing snow, disappearing from sight just as it had earlier.

The other two Phantoms that had previously accompanied the current Phantom had been instructed to return to base, so were nowhere to be seen.

*****

Time passed as the Phantom flew above the snow-clad peaks, all while the Doctor, Twilight, Poe, and Holdo sat aboard the Phantom flanked by alien soldiers, whose intentions they are unaware of.

‘’Doctor, are you alright?’’ TARDIS asked, finally speaking out again after such a long period of silence.

‘’Is Twilight and the others alright?’’ she followed up, yet the Doctor not visibly react, at least not at first.

‘’I’m fine,’’ he softly responded, getting his voice as low as possible so as to not draw attention from the surrounding soldiers, ‘’Twilight and the others are too,’’ he added.

‘’You’ve been absent,’’ he jokingly added.

‘’With good reason,’’ she replied, ‘’I didn’t know if your being caught talking to someone would’ve looked particularly good to these guys, so I decided to lay low and do a little investigating.’’

‘’I hacked into the Phantom’s communications network and discovered something rather interesting,’’ she said, ‘’Apparently, these guys are the survivors of a giant Flood attack on their city, which they were forced to flee from. Fortunately, a lot of the citizens and military personnel managed to escape and have now constructed a base of operations far into the mountains, safe from the Flood,’’ she explained.

At hearing this, the Doctor furrowed his brows intrigued.

‘’Interesting…’’ the Doctor whispered, ‘’So, there are other factions here on this planet outside of this Master Builder.’’

‘’It would make sense, as the Flood hive the Primordial sent you, its database mentioned that its occupant was a Master Builder,’’ said TARDIS.

‘’Alas, Doctor, for as much as I want to tell you that the Master Builder might still be alive, that facility that had become the Flood hive – that we visited – was also the last known location of the Master Builder. The teleporter’s log confirms as much.’’

The faintest spark of renewed hope that the Doctor had felt when Holdo and Poe first told him about this mysterious Master Builder extinguished as soon as TARDIS informed him that the infested hive was the Master Builder’s last known location, and seeing as he did not detect any other life signs during the mission to rescue Holdo from the Flood hive there is only one answer about what happened to him:

The Flood assimilated the Master Builder when it assaulted his facility.

Closing his eyes, the Doctor hung his head and sighed dejectedly.

‘’I’m sorry, Doctor,’’ she said into his earpiece, striking a sympathetic tone as she comforted him over the loss of a potential ally to combat the parasite.

‘’It’s okay,’’ he replied, opening his eyes again.

‘’While the Master Builder was our best bet at securing a powerful ally – to fight the Flood – this Covenant can still help us,’’ he said.

‘’They must help us, for even their survival may depend on it.’’

While he could not see it, the Doctor almost got the impression that TARDIS was nodding in agreement with him due to her lack of response.

Standing beside the Time Lord, Twilight stared blankly around the room but furrowed her brows as she thought she heard the Doctor talking softly to himself.

Turning her head left, she looked beside her towards him.

Seeing her in his peripheral vision, he turned his head right and looked directly at her, smiling back at the lavender mare.

‘’Is everything okay, Doctor?’’ Twilight asked.

‘’I thought I heard you talking to yourself.’’

He scoffed softly in a humorous tone.

‘’I’m fine, Twilight,’’ he said, flashing her a friend smile before turning back and looking out in front of him.

The Phantom’s black silhouette disappeared into the white winds as it flies off towards this ‘’base’’.

Onboard the Phantom, the Doctor, Twilight, and even the aliens themselves shared intrigued looks with each other.

Holdo and Poe, though merely stared at the aliens; Poe suspicious of their intentions, and Holdo planning for when things inevitably go south, ‘cause they always do.

They thought they could trust the Primordial…and it cost them dearly.

Trust these new aliens…and they may just lose everything.

Not just their lives, but also their war against the Alignment!

*****

After an hour of flying through the air towards the Covenant survivor’s settlement, passing through small canyons on route towards their destination, the weather gradually cleared the further away from the snow-covered mountains the ship flew.

Eventually, the Phantom swooped down into a canyon, but one that’s sides comprised of large mountains that acted as organic wall defenses; preventing anyone not using a ship to reach the other side, and instead forcing any would-be intruders to follow the monitored and guarded valley.

Scattered throughout the mountainsides of the canyon were carefully hidden positions, that carefully and specially trained Covenant troops monitored and guarded the valley from intruders; specially created to protect the settlement from any Flood forces, be they a mere patrol or an army.

From their secure emplacements on the mountainside, the Covenant forces scanned the Phantom, verifying if it is compromised.

It is not, and as such it is allowed to continue the rest of the way, at which point the Phantom ignites its engine’s boosters and shots forward, following the rest of the canyon before soon reaching the end; a vast open valley, whose surrounding mountains tower over the ones in the canyon.

Here, the mountains are way taller than the ones back in the canyon, they also curved inwards at the top, concealing the settlement within the valley.

Back inside the Phantom, the door to the cockpit opened and the major stepped back out.

‘’We have arrived,’’ he announced to the equines as he approached them, drawing their attention as the four of them looked up towards him.

The Doctor stared at him, but merely gave a silent nod.

As the Phantom descended through the air towards the ground, several nearby Covenant onlookers watched the ship come in for landing. They did not utter a word as it touched down, and then subsequently powered down.

The Phantom’s rear door opened to reveal the major standing in the doorway, who proceeded to walk down the ship’s ramp, revealing the Doctor standing behind him, who trotted after the infantry commander, followed thereafter by Twilight, then Holdo, Poe, and the rest of the major’s troops.

Without stopping to tell them to follow him, the major merely continued onwards, leading them away from the grounded Phantom past an increasingly growing crowd of onlookers.

While the arrival of the group’s Phantom had drawn a few quick glances, once it landed and its occupants disembarked from it, they now drew full-on looks and stares from the other Covenant members scattered throughout the settlement.

The Covenant, much like the four equines were, shot each other curious and intrigued looks, but the Doctor noted that a few of the Covenant members looked at them with confusion; a few even turned to their companions and seemed to ask them something, but the Time Lord merely furrowed his brows as he could not make out what they were saying/asking.

All he knew is that their arrival has drawn quite a bit of attention.

Twilight suspected the same as she, Holdo, and Poe could not resist staring back at the crowd, mostly due to the surprising amount of alien creatures here which shocked even Holdo and Poe.

Amongst the crowd of onlookers were other members of the major’s race, but there appears to be a size and height disparity between a few of them since a few of them are taller and bulkier than the other members of their race. Twilight stared confusedly at these particular aliens for a few additional moments.

Are they a different species or actually the same species? If so, then why do they look so different from each other…? Or, could they actually be a sub-species? Twilight thought.

Why is their armor so different? These taller alien’s armor doesn’t cover their arms, unlike – what I presume to be their – smaller cousin’s armor, which is much smaller, streamlined, and appears to cover more of the body, she noted.

Questions and thoughts about these things continued stacking on top of each other as Twilight stared at these strange creatures, but her curiosity to observe the other alien races present at the crowd forced her to avert her gaze from one alien race to another…

One of the other alien races that drew Twilight’s attention was another bipedal race, but one that is significantly smaller than the first race. These smaller aliens, if the appearance of their arms is anything to go by, possess an exoskeleton. Their armor covered their torso, but what drew Twilight’s attention was the large triangular object on the back of their armor.

Assuming these guys let us live I am going to have to inquire about this second species – well, actually every one of these species – but in particular about whatever those things on this second’s species back is, because as of now this is currently just a hypothesis, but I think that those things on their back are actually tanks that allow them to breathe whatever it is they breathe, she thought.

Like with the first species, the second one/species seemed to have a variant on their species, with this sub-species’ armor looking a little different; the tank was rounder, the armor more resembled a harness, and instead of having their mouths covered by a respirator their helmets to have an inbuilt tube-like apparatus that fed them their ‘’air’’ through their nose.

Strange. Quite strange, but also very fascinating these creatures…, she trailed off, before she moved on to the next alien…

The third species was one that made Twilight almost recoil in shock at their appearance but remembered the need to be courteous, so she quickly assumed a blank stare, so as to not offend this third alien species more than she already has.

Unlike the previous two alien races, this third one looked to be incredibly feral, possessing incredibly feral features like an elongated maw with sharp teeth, and spiky feathers atop their heads. Like with the second species of alien, their armor appeared to be nothing more than a harness, but almost seeming to contrast with the second alien species, they wore armor on their legs.

The other two aliens looked to have reptilian features, but this one possessed more bird qualities, which Twilight interpreted as them being more of a hybrid between bird and reptile.

That does make sense, Twilight commented to herself after thinking it over, I certainly don’t have another explanation for their appearance outside of just them just appearing to be a combination of bird and reptile.

Once again, the lavender mare noted a similar looking being, wearing the same sort of armor and possessing a similar appearance, outside of their maws looking more traditionally reptilian instead of looking like a beak, as is the case with their smaller cousins.

This seems to be a trend with this faction; they are comprised of aliens that have sub-species in their race. Weird, Twilight remarked, continuing to look out towards the various aliens in the crowd.

After a couple minutes of undisturbed silence her brows jumped as a thought dawned on her.

A thought, that until now, has never dawned on her.

Are unicorns a sub-species of Alicorn? she asked, averting her gaze from the crowd of onlookers as she turned to look back in front of her, hanging her head as she trotted behind the Doctor.

No, wait, am I even asking the right questions? She interrupted her own train of thought, But then again, what are the right questions? Do Equestrians even have a ‘’main race’’? And if we do, what would that race even be? Unicorns? Pegasi? Earth Ponies?

Could…could the Alicorns be our species’ original race? she hesitantly asked, struggling to even comprehend the gravity of such a revelation.

Like, in spite of there only being two natural born Alicorns left, are they what remains of the original Equestrians?

She asked herself, posing a question greater than the she has been asking herself concerning the origin of the Flood, a threat worse than even Nightmare Moon was.

Where did the parasite come from?

Who or what created it?

Will it escape from this planet and threaten not only the galaxy but Equestria as well?

While contemplating these questions, Twilight felt a shadow fall upon her as she and the rest of their group neared their destination, beckoning her to arch her head back up to look in front of her.

Her eyes widened as she did, and her brows jumped stunned by the sight in front of her.

In front of them stood a tall, purple structure, whose main body was primarily oval but had an elongated rectangular section in the front.

Sprouting from atop the oval section of the structure was a single command tower, whose top was a smooth triangular shape. Running up along the side of the tower were bulbous, blue viewports.

Scattered all around the enormous structure were several pads, that connected to the main structure by translucent cables that powered each of the various pad-mounted structures.

Poe and Holdo were also taken aback by the large structure, but unlike Twilight they were able to snap out of their shocked awe and took note of several miniature structures surrounding the central one:

One of these structures was a large dome-shaped building, whose and sides were large arching doorways which the two equines noted had several vehicles parked inside it.

They even watched a few small vessels fly in and out of the hanger bay.

These vessels were small – much smaller than the Phantom – with a smooth, domed front, and two wings on the side.

Unsurprisingly, several Phantoms were also parked within the hanger, and some other craft that Holdo and Poe could not identify but suspected that they are not aircraft as they sported a large cannon at the top.

Probably tanks or some heavy artillery vehicle, Holdo pondered as she finally averted her gaze from the, presumed, hanger/vehicle storage back in front of her towards the main building itself.

Turning back in front of her as she and the rest of the group reached the central structure’s entrance, a tall doorway that towered over even the aliens.

The Doctor, meanwhile, ever since they disembarked from the Phantom had not uttered a single word.

His only visible reaction to anything was that his pupils looked up from the ground towards the giant doorway into the central structure.

Other than that, he still did not utter a word as they strode inside the citadel.

The major continuing to lead the way as they ventured deeper within the Covenant citadel.

Eventually, the group of equines and aliens reached an elevator, which the Doctor, Twilight, Holdo, Poe, the major, and the majority of his troops stepped onto.

The elevator lifted upwards, ferrying the Covenant forces and equines all throughout the tower, where it stopped upon reaching the top, where a large dome-shaped door opened up for them, revealing the Covenant command center within.

Inside the command center were numerous consoles scattered around the room, all sat around an elevated platform in the pattern or a horseshoe. Aligned along the edge of the platform were another set of consoles.

All of the consoles in the command center were being operated by members of the major’s species, much to no one’s surprise.

What truly surprised the equines, and most certainly caught their attention about the command center, was one particular shape atop the elevated platform that overlooked what the members of the major’s species were doing.

The shape looked to only have one leg, which somehow kept its large body standing without difficulty. The leg connected to an upside-down dome. Further up on the body was an odd silver enigmatic and titular formation.

To say the entire thing looked odd is an understatement.

Twilight even thought she heard the aliens speaking to the strange looking shape, almost like they were reporting to it.

What or whoever that thing is it must be important due to the presence of two other aliens – whose body shapes resembled those of the major’s race – wore crimson armor with intricate orange spikes and shoulder pauldrons. The helmets they wore, which covered their faces, has similar spikes on top.

Based on their appearance alone, these individuals are evidently the unidentified thing’s guards, indicating it is a living creature, especially if it is being guarded by pretty ceremonial-looking individuals.

Both of the guards grasped large tridents. Tridents that shared the same orange color as the guard’s spikes and pauldrons.

As the aliens strode into the room, the major abruptly held his hand out, silently motioning for the equines to stop in place.

They did – along with his own troops – so the major turned back and took several steps forward towards the platform before stopping in his tracks at the foot of its walkway.

‘’Noble Minister of Etiology, I have brought the foreigners that we discovered in the northern mountains,’’ the major announced to his leader.

The Prophet did not utter a word or make a sound, but the Doctor easily saw movement behind the silver formation.

The Prophet turned around and stared down towards the major, revealing a seated organic figure to the equines.

The object is not the Prophet, but instead the creature sitting inside – what appears to be – a gravity chair.

The Prophet himself wears a crimson ceremonial robe of sorts with long sleeves, and a metal shoulder plate of sorts that supported the silver crest he bore.

Physically, the Prophet looked quite frail, both of his hands sported four digits, his long supported his bulbous head, his skin was grey, and furry lobes of skin protruded from his chin resembling a beard, a fleshy beard. Atop his head, he wore an enigmatically shaped headdress with two points that curved towards his face.

Holdo furrowed a confused brow at how this seemingly fragile Prophet could carry such a literal heavy weight on his shoulders.

Meh, I guess that’s alien biology for ‘ya, she thought to herself, finally abandoning this train of thought.

From atop the elevated platform, the Prophet stared down at the major, silently watching him kneel before him.

‘’Noble Minister of Etiology, I have returned from my mission to scout the city,’’ the major said, keeping his head down as he greeted the Minister of Etiology in a highly respected tone, ‘’But unfortunately, Minister, I must report that the Flood presence is still just as strong as ever. It has not lessened in the slightest.’’ And unfortunately, Minister, I report that the Flood presence in the city has not lessened,’’ he added, seeing a drastic change in tone from respected to dejected.

‘’In fact, while a majority of the parasite’s forces stationed at the city seems to have been redistributed elsewhere, the Flood still have a significant presence in the city.’’

The Minster grumbled at this news, scrunching his face as he grimaced disappointedly at hearing this.

The Prophet’s gravity throne turned slightly away from the major, causing the Minister to look off in a different direction and not face his subordinate.

His grimace softened slightly as he brought a three-digited hand up and slowly stroked his fleshy beard.

‘’Hrmm, this is…unfortunate news, major,’’ grumbled the Minister as he looked down from the major towards the floor in contemplation of this news.

He hunched forward in his gravity throne slightly and held his hands together out in front of his head.

Holdo turned towards Poe, shooting him a curious stare in anticipation of what this ‘’Minister’’ will do about them, assuming the major actually does raise the subject to his leader.

Still kneeling before the Minister, the major is silent as he leaves his leader with its thoughts, -

‘’Minister, there is another matter that needs to be discussed.’’

…before he finally speaks out.

The Minister held his posture but furrowed his brows before his gravity throne slowly spun back around towards the major.

He shot the major an intrigued glance as well as raised his brow.

‘’What ‘’other’’ matter, major?’’ the Minister asked in an inquisitive tone, adding, ‘’There is no matter greater than the Flood threat, especially after they took our once great city’’ as he raised his right hand and clenched it into a fist.

‘’Minister, there is another matter,’’ replied the major.

‘’One that requires your uttermost attention,’’ said the major as he stood back up on his feet and looked back over his shoulder towards the group behind him.

He gestured with his arm for his troops to bring the equines over towards him.

The Minister looked from the major towards the four equines, only for his eyes to widen at seeing these four-legged creatures, silently watching them as they trotted up towards the major.

Like the Doctor, Poe, and Holdo, Twilight stared back up towards this ‘’Minister of Etiology’’, struggling to look away from this completely alien…alien.

‘’Stop,’’ the major grunted at them, and so they stopped.

‘’Form a row,’’ he then instructed, pointing beside him.

Without hesitation, Twilight and the others complied as they trotted up beside him, forming a row of four as he had said.

With all of them looking up towards the Minister, the major turned back up towards the Minister himself.

‘’Minister, this is that other matter of which I spoke,’’ the major said to the Minister.

‘’As I returned from my scouting mission, I wound up encountering these four wanders in the mountains…north of the city.’’

The Minister abruptly furrowed his brows, and jerked his head back towards the major, shooting him a shocked glance.

‘’The city?!’’ the Minister asked in a surprised tone.

‘’Yes Minister,’’ the major replied.

The Minister’s brows jumped, and he slowly turned back towards the four equines, staring at them intrigued.

Holding his intrigued expression, the Minister proceeded down the walkway towards the bottom of its elevated platform, all the while unable to look away from the four-legged creatures that have somehow managed to survive in the northern mountains, even as the parasite continues to spread across the planet, though fortunately unaware of the Minister and his forces’ presence deep in the mountains.

Reaching the bottom of the walkway, the Minister slowly approached the equines.

‘’I would urge caution, Minister,’’ the major spoke out, lightly extending his hand towards the Prophet.

‘’These creatures may appear defenseless, but they are quite formidable beings,’’ he said, adding ‘’especially the horned one, she appears to be the leader of the group.’’

The Minister hovered up towards the equines, facing the nearest of the four-legged creatures.

Without uttering a word, the Minister looked Poe up and down as he examined him.

Poe blankly stared at the Prophet, trying his best to not antagonize their captor’s leader, even as he and the others were being paraded around like some animal found in the wild.

‘’Fascinating creatures,’’ the Prophet remarked.

‘’One would hardly think them a threat, -’’ the Minister said, causing anger to well up within Poe.

The starfighter commander grimaced at the Prophet, regardless of whether it offended him.

‘’…but that is perhaps why they have survived for this long against the Flood out there on their own,’’ the Minister followed up his earlier comment.

The Minister’s intrigued expression though, abruptly changed into a dejected frown as he rotated his gravity throne away from Poe back to face the major.

‘’Still, based on the infected members of their race that we encountered; they are just as susceptible to infection as the rest of us. That is perhaps why they were hiding in the mountains when you found them, major; they knew that the Flood struggle in the cold,’’ the Minister said to the major dejectedly.

The Minister hung his head and raised his hand to rub the back of his head, further emphasizing his disappointment to which the major nodded affirmatively before he turned from the major towards Twilight.

‘’While weak, the infected members of your race accelerated the parasite’s infestation of our city, allowing them to swarm, and claim it for themselves,’’ the major explained to Twilight, who listened intently to what the alien told her, nodding in understanding.

‘’While I appreciative being told this information, I am not really the leader of our little group,’’ Twilight replied.

Both the major and the Minister furrowed their brows in confusion, to which the Minister turned his gravity throne back to face the equines, staring directly towards Twilight.

‘’You...are not your group’s leader?’’ the Prophet asked puzzlingly.

Twilight nodded in confirmation.

‘’But if you are not your group’s leader, then who is?’’ the major interjected.

‘’Actually, that would be me,’’ Holdo spoke out, taking several steps forward, -

…but as she did, the major and the other aliens in the room – aside from the Prophet – immediately drew their plasma rifles and aimed them at her!

At hearing his guards train their weapons on Holdo, the Minister’s gravity throne spun to face her.

He stared her a blank, fearless glance before rising his right hand to signal to his guards to lower their weapons, which they did as they subsequently lowered their plasma rifles.

Holdo though turned her head and looked at the various aliens before finally returning her attention to the Minister once she felt safe enough to speak.

‘’Greetings, I am Admiral Holdo of the New Equestrian Republic Navy,’’ Holdo introduced herself as she bowed her head respectfully before the Prophet, ‘’Currently acting representative of the Equestrian government – and race,’’ she elaborated.

The Minister blank stare shifted into a friendly smile.

‘’Greetings Admiral Holdo, I am the Minister of Etiology, currently acting hierarch of the Covenant,’’ the Minister introduced himself with a courteous bow as he held his right hand up to his chest.

‘’It is a pleasure to meet someone that has endured for so long against the parasite,’’ said the Prophet, adding, ‘’One is not able to say this lightly where the Flood is concerned.

Holdo scoffed softly in response.

‘’This is true,’’ replied Holdo.

‘’I have lost many to this wretched Flood, hundreds, perhaps thousands or even more,’’ she said as she hung her head slightly, her voice heavy with sadness.

Sympathy for those consumed by the Flood when their ship was shot down and crashed on the surface of this planet.

They few survived, though their numbers have been dwindling the longer they have stayed here.

‘’My only wish now is to survive this ordeal and escape this hell, never to set hoof here again,’’ she sternly said as she arched her head back up towards the Prophet, shooting him a vengeful and determined glare.

The Prophet’s brows jumped as he realized that she is serious.

Dead serious.

‘’It pleases me to hear that, Admiral, for we too aspire to leave this formerly beautiful place,’’ said the Minister, holding his blank stare but speaking in a slightly livelier voice.

Holdo smirked confidently back at the Minister, nodding her head as she heard this.

‘’Then, if our goals are aligned, why not join our two forces together to combat the Flood and escape this planet together?’’ she asked, to which the Minister tilted his head slightly and furrowed his brows at her.

‘’You…propose an alliance between my Covenant forces and your group?’’ the Minister asked.

Holdo nodded back at the Prophet.

‘’Yes, I am,’’ she said.

‘’Hmm,’’ the Minister softly grumbled in response.

‘’Regardless, the question must still be posed that; other than your – remarkable – ability to survive the Flood, what can you and your group offer us?’’ he asked, raising a skeptical brow as he sat back in his gravity throne in anticipation.

‘’What advantage can you Equestrians offer us that our machines cannot?’’

Without missing a beat, Holdo’s eyes widened, and her jaw dropped, hanging slack as she gawked petrified towards the Prophet, her mind a blank as she could not think of anything in the slightest.

This ‘’Covenant’’ appears to have lived on this planet all their life, even retaining a city, albeit one that has been lost to the Flood, but the point still stands that they have lived here – and presumably fought the parasite – a long time.

Hopefully long enough to become proficient in fighting the Flood, -

…so, indeed, what can they, five mere equines, offer the Covenant?

‘’Knowledge,’’ a male voice abruptly spoke out.

The Minister, Holdo, Twilight, Poe, and the major and the guards’ attention all snapped towards the speaker.

It was the Doctor.

The Prophet raised an unimpressed brow as he stared towards the male equine, shooting him a similar glance.

‘’And who are you if I may ask?’’ the Minister asked, gesturing towards the Doctor with his hand.

The Doctor closed his eyes as he respectfully bowed his head before the Minister.

‘’Greetings esteemed Minister of Etiology, I am the Doctor,’’ he introduced himself with another bow.

‘’Doctor, what are you doing?!’’ Holdo asked hysterically through gritted teeth.

The Doctor turned towards her, furrowing his brows as he shot her a confused glance.

‘’I’m talking to the Minister,’’ he said.

Holdo groaned annoyedly at his response and rolled her eyes.

‘’Yes, I can see that, but why are you talking to the Minister?’’ she asked, the frustration in her voice mounting.

The Doctor silently stared back at her, his confusion turning into that of determination.

‘’Because I don’t have a choice,’’ he said, before he turned back towards the Minister, then trotted forward towards him with an unflinching aura of determination about of him, -

…even as the Minister’s guards drew and aimed their weapons at him.

The Minister though, merely sat unflinching in his gravity throne as he watched the Doctor slowly trot towards him without an ounce of fear.

In response to this lack of intimidation by his guards, the Minister raised his hand and – once again – signaled for his guards to lower their weapons, which they then did, obeying their Prophet without question.

The Minister smirked as the Doctor approached him, following the equine with his eyes until he eventually stopped in front of his gravity chair and locked eyes with the Prophet.

‘’Minister of Etiology, if you provide me and my friends shelter from the Flood then I, the Doctor, will offer you my services…’’ he said, adding, ‘’as the last Time Lord.’’

Hearing this, the Minster’s eyes widened, and jaw dropped, hanging slack as several Covenant aliens collectively gasped, their eyes widening like the Ministers.

Turning towards the alien standing beside them, several of the Covenant aliens exchanged stunned and shocked glances with each other.

Even the aliens operating the controls of the machinery stopped what they were doing and turned around towards the individual claiming to be a member of the long thought extinct of Time Lords.

Silence hung over the room as the Minister and the other aliens under it stared at the Doctor.

‘’A…Time Lord?!’’ the Minister asked, nearly stuttering as he still processed this news.

‘’Yes…’’ replied the Doctor as he nodded back.

‘’The last Time Lord,’’ he added.

Without hesitating one second the Minister immediately bowed his head respectfully before the Doctor.

Just as the aliens in the room watched their leader bow before the last Time Lord, they too bowed, averting their gaze from the Doctor as they hung their heads in respect.

Twilight, Poe, and Holdo all turned their heads, looking around the room at all the Covenant aliens as they bowed before the Doctor, -

…like he was truly their lord.

While Poe and Holdo shared a confused look with each other, Twilight turned towards the Doctor, staring at him as he still stood in front of the Minister.

‘’Doctor, what is going on?’’ she asked.

The Doctor reacted to hearing his friend’s voice by slowly turning his head and looking towards her, maintaining his stern look, though it softened slightly as he stared back at her.

‘’Yeah, Doc, what is going on?’’ Holdo interjected, asking as she shot the Time Lord a stern and intrigued frown.

Several of the Covenant aliens raised their heads, looking back up towards Holdo as they heard the tone she struck as she addressed the Doctor.

Many of the aliens furrowed their brows and scowled at her lack of respect.

‘’Yeah,’’ Poe spoke out as he trotted up beside Holdo, shooting the Doctor a similar stern frown.

‘’Why is the Minister and everyone following him bowing you?’’ Poe asked, emphasizing his point as he extended and pointed his hoof towards the Doctor.

‘’Because he is the last messenger of our gods,’’ the Minister spoke out.

The Doctor, Twilight, Holdo, and Poe all turned towards the Prophet, staring at him as they watched him sit back up in his gravity throne.

Twilight furrowed her brows confusedly, but also intrigued by what the Prophet said.

The Doctor? A messenger of…gods? She thought.

Her mouth slightly agape, and brows furrowed confusedly, Holdo stared back at the Doctor.

‘’What is he talking about?’’ Holdo asked, raising a skeptical brow at the Time Lord.

‘’Gods? Messengers?’’ she said, lightly shaking her head.

‘’Who are you, Doctor?’’ she asked, frowning at him in a manner that conveys both the confusion and betrayal she currently feels.

The Doctor opened his mouth to speak, only to hang his head dejectedly, averting his eyes from Holdo, Poe, and most importantly Twilight, who is still very much processing all of this.

Holdo slowly shook her head at the Time Lord, shooting him a disgusted glance as her thoughts went to the deepest recesses of her mind for information.

Information that she internally gasped at as she realized something, something that has only once crossed her mind throughout her journey with this ‘’Doctor’’.

A revelation most terrible.

‘’You are all the same, aren’t you?’’ Holdo asked.

‘’Always pretending to be one of us…and yet always hiding in plain sight,’’ she began, ‘’never revealing your true self until your cover is blown!’’ she spat back at the Doctor, furrowing her brows angrily, and gritting her teeth as she glared at him.

She angrily stomped her hoof against the floor, -

…however, this action – on top of the angry tone in her voice – caught the Minister and other Covenant aliens’ attention, who quickly rose to their feet as they detected aggression from Holdo.

‘’Stay your tongue, Admiral!’’ the Minister snapped back at Holdo, slamming his right fist against the gravity chair’s armrest, adding ‘’You will show respect when in the presence of a Time Lord!’’

‘’The messengers of our gods!’’ he added.

The various Covenant aliens don’t immediately draw their weapons but readies them in the case that the situation escalates: This Equestrian is clearly threatening the Time Lord known simply as the Doctor, and as such will be treated as a potential threat.

Poe and Twilight noticed the Covenant aliens’ defensive stances, but unlike Twilight, Poe quickly jerked his head around towards the many aliens and stared at them, all of whom looks like they’re about to attack, -

…and if they do, there is virtually nothing he and Holdo can do to protect themselves from the aliens’ fire.

The Minister gritted his teeth and scowled at the ponies as they dared to disrespect the Time Lord, as a silence filled the room to create a tense moment between the two parties.

Soon, that silence is broken by the Minister speaking out.

‘’Now, this is what is going to happen, Equestrians,’’ he said, which drew Twilight, Poe, and Holdo’s attention towards him.

‘’You are all going to surrender your weapons, at which point you will be arrested and imprisoned for threatening our holy messenger, -’’ he added, as he sternly pointed his index finger at Poe and the mares, ‘’…or resist, and die!’’

While Twilight gasped aloud in shock of the Minister’s lack of hesitation to using such drastic measures – even if his reasons are understandable – Poe and Holdo merely glared back at him, -

…yet the stallion’s glare softened as he stared at the Minister dumbfounded.

In spite of his abrupt anger towards the Doctor after discovering that he is not a pony, and even kept that fact hidden from him and the others when discovered aboard their cruiser, especially as they were fleeing from the Alignment at the time, Poe’s anger finally died down and his head cleared.

Without uttering a word, he lowered his blaster pistol and hung his head to look towards it.

Stunned that his impulsiveness almost got not only himself but also Holdo and Twilight killed by the Covenant, Poe realized that now, more than ever, he cannot always fight by getting into the cockpit of a Headhunter and blasting whoever he perceives his enemy, or in this case threatening just because they are discovered to be an alien.

Admittedly, the starfighter commander is puzzled why the Doctor even tried to keep that secret.

Outside of merely being an alien that looks like a pony, the revelation that he is not from Equestria did not really raise any red flags about the Doctor’s character.

The Doctor has not only helped them survive during their terrifying ordeal with the parasite, the Flood, -

…but the ultimate test about the Doctor’s loyalties is about to happen, now, at this very moment.

Regardless of what Poe may have accidentally started, the Covenant will surely hail the Doctor as a sacred icon now that they know what he is, and the question is just what the Doctor is going to do with his new status.

Mouth slack, and wide eyes, Poe craned his head and glanced back up at the Doctor and the Covenant aliens ahead of him.

‘’I-I’m sorry.’’

Poe apologized to the Minister, much to Holdo’s shock, as her head jerked towards the commander with a shocked glance.

He raised his other hoof to indicate to the Covenant aliens and the Minister that he is not going to make any sudden movements, to which they furrowed their brows as they glared at him.

Then, Poe slowly lowered his blaster pistol and placed it on the floor and backed away from it.

‘’What are you doing, commander?!’’

Holdo sternly hissed at the stallion.

His head hung, Poe silently turned his head and looked back over his shoulder at his superior officer with a sad, dumbstruck frown.

‘’Saving our lives,’’ Poe softly answered.

He sat down on the floor and raised both hooves into the air to indicate to the Elites and other Covenant aliens that he surrenders himself over to them.

As Twilight watched the commander lay down his blaster and surrender himself to the Minister and his Covenant forces, the unicorn softly gasped as it dawned on her why Poe, the first one to draw his blaster at the first sight of danger, now lowered his defenses and surrendered to the Covenant.

If we die here, then who will protect Equestria?

A simple question answered another question.

Twilight’s eyes widened, and her jaw hung slack as the energy she previously charged into a spell to defend herself and the others from the Minister and his Covenant faded away.

She too raised her hooves to signal her surrender to the Covenant aliens.

Out of the corner of his eye, the Doctor noticed Twilight lowering her guard and smiled comfortingly at her.

Twilight noticed that he smiled at her and flashed him a momentary smile, though swiftly re-adopted her blank stare.

The Minister grinned as he witnessed Poe and Twilight lay down their arms and indicate that they surrendered.

Good, good.

Thought the Minister as he rubbed his three-digited hands together.

He maintained his smirk as his eyes snapped from Poe and Twilight towards Holdo, the last Equestrian that has yet to surrender.

‘’Well, well, Vice Admiral Holdo, it seems as if your friends have come to their senses, -‘’ said the Minister as his gravity chair glides over towards the Doctor, placing himself between the last Time Lord and the Equestrian.

At the same time, a few of the other Covenant aliens aimed their weapons directly at Holdo in case she tried to pull something against either the Minister or the Time Lord.

The Last Time Lord.

‘’…so the question remains; are you a fool?’’ asked the Minister, as he tilted his head slightly.

The Minister’s smirk vanished as he and Holdo locked eyes, which filled Twilight, Poe, and the Covenant aliens with nervous tension as their respective leaders stared at each other.

One leader glared, while the other leader stared intensely at the other – leader – in anticipation of their next move.

The silent, nervous tension built, all the while the various Covenant – particularly the Elites – struggled about whether they should wait for Holdo act first or step in before she has a chance to do anything.

Before anyone, Covenant or even Holdo herself, can act, though, Poe, who, watching from the sidelines, shot his superior officer a concerned glance.

Although a little uncertain, due to his suspicion being based on a number of factors, the commander suspects that he already knows the outcome of Holdo and the Covenant’s stand-off, and thus decides, right then and there, to help his friend avoid certain death.

‘’Holdo, please put your weapon down and surrender.’’

Poe spoke out to the admiral, only for Holdo to angrily grunt as she jerks her head towards him.

Holdo frowned at Poe as they stared at each other.

‘’Commander Dameron, you want me to do what?!’’

Inquired the mare in a raised, almost shouting tone of voice.

Poe sternly furrowed his brows as he looked at the admiral.

‘’You heard me,’’ he said, determinedly.

‘’Put. Your. Weapon. Down,’’ he added, as he stretched out and emphasized every word.

Surprised by this sudden change, especially from someone as brash as quick to action as Poe Dameron, Holdo jerked her head back in stunned confusion.

Her confusion turned into a stern frown as she scowled back at the commander.

‘’Why should I?’’ Holdo angrily asked, just before she jerked her head back towards the Doctor and continued to aim her blaster pistol at his chest.

‘’He is a Time Lord, whatever that is,’’ she continued while she narrowed her eyes and glared towards the Doctor, then added, ‘’For all we know, he meant to lead us here, knowing that this…Covenant would find us, bring us here to their base, and then he would come forward as a Time Lord to save himself.’’

At hearing this, the Doctor averts his gave and hangs his head in shame, which Twilight furrowed her brows as she picked up on.

‘’I don’t care what the Doctor did, or why he did it.’’

Poe speaks out to Holdo, yet she keeps her back to him this time, even as he continued, adding, ‘’If you fire your blaster then everyone in this room are going to kill you’’

Holdo just scoffed at the commander.

‘’What do you know, commander?’’ she asked, adding, ‘’You just sit in a fighter craft and blow up the enemy.’’

Poe hangs his head and looks down towards the floor as he nods back at her.

‘’Yes, but I have a new mission that supersedes that basic objective,’’ he said.

‘’Oh yeah, and what is-?’’

‘’Survive.’’

Without even letting his sneering commander finish her sentence, due to the invalidity of her argument, Poe effortlessly interrupted his superior officer with a better reason for why they need to stop fighting.

‘’Have you forgotten that we lost everything?’’ he asked in a soft tone, yet both Twilight, the Doctor, and even Holdo picked up on the sadness in his voice.

‘’Our fleet, our-‘’

‘’…Home!’’

Holdo interrupted Poe as her eyes widened, and jaw dropped, accompanied by a loud and genuinely shocked gasp as she realized something.

She, Poe, and the fleet orbiting this planet are – possibly – the only survivors after the Pentastar Alignment created the cataclysmic event that destroyed their home and split their once great Republic into tiny groups of fledgling survivors.

The formerly enraged admiral slowly averted her gaze and looked down towards the floor as the impact of what she was about to do dawned on her. Similarly, she lowered her blaster pistol all the way until the barrel pointed down at the floor.

With her head still hung, Holdo turned herself around and craned her head up to face Poe.

Tears ran down her cheeks as she locked eyes with her starfighter commander at the thought she almost got herself needlessly killed, when there are more important matters than getting back

‘’I-I’m sorrry.’’

She sniffled, and her voice overtaken with sadness and regret.

Poe, though, just smiled warmly at her, relieved that she chose to not go down the path of stupidity but that of survival.

‘’Its okay, its okay,’’ he said comfortingly as he extended his hooves and embraced Holdo, just as she embraced him back.

Both mare and stallion closed their eyes as they hugged.

‘’Don’t worry about us, Admiral,’’ said Poe, adding, ‘’We will see the fleet again, and when we do, we are going to take it and scour the galaxy for survivors…and then we are going to finish what the Alignment started and restore the Republic.’’

Holdo’s frown steadily shifted from a frown into a smile as she listened to the inspiring words of, well, a mere commander.

A survivor, who, while ready to stand and fight for the sake of their race, is prepared to lay down their weapons and just wait.

Wait…and survive.

Both then opened their eyes, and softly smiled back at each other.

They then turned around and looked back towards the Minister and the Doctor.

Holdo’s smile dropped slightly as she frowned apologetically at the Doctor and inserted her blaster pistol back into the holster on her belt.

‘’I’m sorry.’’

She spoke out to the Time Lord, only for the Doctor to merely smile back at her.

‘’You have nothing to apologize for, Admiral,’’ he replied, adding, ‘’Anger consumes us all in our darkest hours, but you did not allow it to consume you.’’

Holdo, though, frowned dejectedly and hung her head.

‘’No, Doctor,’’ replied the mare.

‘’I allowed my hatred about your refusal to tell us anything about who or even what you are to consume me, and it nearly got myself, you, possibly Poe and Twilight too, killed over nothing,’’ she elaborated.

‘’That may be, but even when you had a clean shot you did not take it,’’ responded the Time Lord encouragingly, adding, ‘’You hesitated.’’

Holdo craned her head back up towards him and furrowed her brows in befuddlement.

‘’Surely you do not believe that you are incapable of mercy?’’ the Time Lord asked her.

‘’But I-‘’

‘’…are fully capable of knowing when to pull the trigger, and when not to.’’

The Doctor interrupted her.

Holdo, Poe, and Twilight’s eyes widened in response to the Doctor’s abrupt interruption.

Now, the Doctor frowned as he hung his head and averted his gaze from Holdo and the other Equestrians in shame.

‘’Enough blood has been spilled because of hate, and the wars that sparked it,’’ said the Doctor in a soft voice, but also emotional and sad tone as a single tear ran down his cheek.

The testament of a dark past that has shaped the Doctor’s future as the last Time Lord.

Invisible to Covenant and Equestrian, but always hidden in plain sight, -

…yet, Twilight easily picked up on it.

Spending time with Applejack and Rarity has taught her a thing or two about reading others.

The ensuing silence lasted a few moments before a voice abruptly ended it.

‘’Seize them!’’

Before Twilight, Poe, or Holdo could react, all three of them were immediately grabbed and restrained by Elites, who locked their arms around their throats in a chokehold.

Taken aback, the Doctor’s eyes widened, and jaw dropped, hanging slack as he gawked at the horrific sight before him.

He rapidly jerked his head towards the Minister, who grinned as his faithful underlings restrained the ponies, especially Holdo.

Once the ponies are restrained, the Minister’s gravity chair glides across the floor towards the three ponies, where he then stops in front and turns around to face them.

Ponies and Elites alike – once they have a secure grip on their prisoners – look towards the Minister.

‘’While it pleases me to see that you Equestrians are capable of reason, still, with the power vested in me as Minister of Etiology, I place you all under arrest for threatening our god’s great messenger,’’ the Minister proclaimed to Twilight, Holdo, and Poe as he raised his arms and held them out towards the ponies.

‘’I have spoken,’’ he finished before he lowered his arms down to his chair’s armrest and turned away from them back towards the Doctor, who gawked angrily at the Prophet.

‘’What do you think you are doing, Minister?’’

The Doctor angrily asked as he trotted up towards the Minister, all the while he pointed his right hoof at the three Equestrians currently being led away by the Elites.

‘’They are my friends!’’ he shouted.

The Minister’s gravity chair stopped just beside the Doctor, and the alien turned his head towards the pony.

‘’That is why I have not executed them, my Lord Time,’’ replied the Prophet.

‘’It is clear to me how much they mean to you, so for the time I will only have them imprisoned…in spite of that Admiral’s attempted assassination.’’

The Prophet added while he pointed his index finger at the Doctor.

‘’Until such time that your safety can be assured, they will not be permitted to come near you, my Lord Time,’’ he explained to the Time Lord.

The Doctor’s anger dissipated, and his rage morphed into a blank stare.

At least they are safe…for now.

Thought the Doctor to himself as he stared back at the Prophet, only for said Prophet to interrupt his thoughts…

‘’But no need to worry about them…’’ the Minister spoke out, adding, ‘’there are greater issues at hand that requires our attention.

The Minister adjusted his hand – that he moments ago used to point at the Doctor – into a fist.

‘’The future of the Covenant may depend on it, especially in light of your arrival.’’

I might as well play along with the Minister, because for as much as I don’t want to admit it; he is right that there are other things at stake, not just my friends, thought the Doctor before he extended his hoof out in front of him.

‘’By all means then, Minister, lead on.’’.

‘’At once, my Lord Time.’’

Without hesitation, the Minister bowed his head in respect to the Doctor before he and the Time Lord turned around and headed towards the ramp that leads up to the observation platform that the Minister had been on when the Doctor and Equestrians arrived.

‘’Ever since our great city fell to the parasite, we have been strictly monitoring their movements across the planet,’’ said the Minister as he and the Doctor ascended along the ramp.

‘’Good,’’ replied the Time Lord, adding, ‘’When the time comes that they will come for us, we must be ready long before then if we are to even have a chance of surviving.’’

‘’Yes, my Lord,’’ agreed the Prophet as he and the Doctor reached the top of the platform.

Author's Note

The first upload of 2020.

Chapter 1 - Prologue

High above the planet, Hosnian Prime a single Venator-class Star Destroyer moved forwards.

From above the Venator several squads of starfighters swooped down towards the large starship. They flew across the Venator’s right wing, before cutting across towards the middle of the Venator.

The fighters moved across the middle until they reached the edge of the Venator and then swooped downwards, igniting their boosters as they entered a warzone!

Hundreds of thousands of ships were engaged in combat with each other. Each blasted the other while starfighters zipped around them. The fighters were either engaged in dog-fights or attacking the larger starships.

Despite the Republic fleet consisting of wedge-shaped Venator-class Star Destroyers and several other support craft, the Pentastar Alignment fleet consisted of various wedge-shaped starships.

Aside from the large wedge-shaped Alignment 1-class Star Destroyer ships two separate fleets accompanied them, though the primary Alignment ships seemed to be a minority while these other fleets were the majority;

One fleet comprised of large silver ships; whose main slender body was surrounded by three rotating wheels. These standard ships were also supported by larger Dreadnought variants.

The second fleet was comprised of nothing but these long and slender starships, whose bulk was made up of these hexagonal cubes that were attached to each other. Larger command ships accompanied these smaller ships.

While the battle between Republic and Alignment raged on the squadrons flew over two hexagonal ships, evading the many volleys that it unloaded on the Venator they were attacking.

They then passed underneath one of the slender ships as its canons fired upon a Venator, all while another Venator fired at the back of the slender ship. One of the ship’s rear wheels exploded as a result, to which the squadron flew straight through the explosion and came out the other side, unscathed.

On the other side of the explosion a Venator fired a powerful blue beam from its ventral hangar at the right side of one of the hexagonal ships which caused an intense explosion that almost damaged the ship’s entire right side.

The squads navigated the warzone until they finally arrived at their target; one of the hexagonal ships.

At the head of the combined Z-95 Headhunter and BLT-B Y-wing force, Commander Poe looked out the canopy at the hexagonal ship ahead of them.

“Lock onto them, B8,” Poe said to which his onboard Astromech Droid, B8-B0 replied with several beeps.

“Now Black Squadron while our target is dead ahead, I want you to stick as close to the bombers as you can. Protect them from those starfighters,” Poe instructed to his squad (his squad of Z-95 Headhunter’s)

“Copy that Black Leader,” replied the rest of Black Squadron.

The Z-95s shifted their S-foils into attack positions.

Over at the hexagonal ship multiple enemy fighters noticed the incoming fighters and bombers and flew to intercept them, especially the Republic bombers.

Poe smirked to himself as he noticed the incoming fighters.

“This is when the fun begins,” Poe thought aloud to himself.

The swarm of enemy fighters then descended upon the Republic fighters.

Lasers shot across space and fighters exploded as they were hit.

Pilots screamed as their fighters exploded into a ball of fire, before leaving their lifeless bodies drifting through space as the battle raged on without them.

Poe and the other Z-95’s returned fire against the enemy fighters, firing volleys which struck the fighter’s vulnerable spots, destroying them.

One Z-95’s wing was shot. Sending it spiraling downwards towards a nearby cruiser, at which it exploded upon impact.

Another Z-95 was repeatedly hit by enemy fire, but while this didn’t destroy it outright it left the fighter plummeting downwards out of control.

However, despite the carnage that raged around them Poe and the rest maintained their line, denying the enemy fighter’s access to the bombers. Unfortunately, the enemy fighters were just too numerous, and Poe and the Headhunters had little to no wriggle room to fight properly…or did they?

Poe’s brows jumped as an idea came to him and he said, “Quickly, everyone, break off from the bombers. Draw as many of their fighters as you can,” to the other Pilots.

There was a brief period of silence before the other Pilots replied.

“Copy that Poe,” several Pilots said before they abruptly broke off, leaving the Y-wings undefended. Much to their Pilots shock and surprise.

“W-what are they doing!?” multiple Pilots exclaimed as they frantically looked out of their canopies, watching the Z-95 break off.

One Pilot, Norra Wexley looked out the viewport and watched the enemy fighters break off and follow the Headhunters.

“They’re leading the fighters away from us,” Norra responded to her comrades’ confusion, smiling at the Headhunter Pilots’ plan to divert the enemy fighters.

“Quickly, everyone make for the command ship! Let’s take advantage of the opportunity they’ve provided,” she shouted in a confident tone.

“But what about those fighters?” another Pilot asked.

“Look, they’ll keep the fighters busy while we deal with the battleship,” Norra replied.

“Y-yes mam,” replied the Pilot.

While the Headhunters kept the enemy fighters occupied, Norra and the other Y-wings sped forward as they proceeded towards the hexagonal starship.

Meanwhile, three enemy fighters pursued Poe. Each of them tried to hit him with their laser canons, but the equine evaded their attacks.

Eventually, though, the enemy fighters determined that regular firepower wasn’t getting the job done.

One of the enemy fighters then fired several missiles after Poe.

B8 beeped alarmed and swiveled his dome back in front.

“Alright, hang on buddy,” Poe replied.

Poe’s modified Z-95 ignited its boosters and shot forward, getting quite ahead of the missiles behind him yet they continued their pursuit.

He flew close to one of the hexagonal ship’s bridges and quickly pulled up as while the missile penetrated the bridge’s viewport. An explosion erupted from within the bridge, disabling the large ship as it slowly lost orbit and fell downwards.

The hexagonal ship slammed into the middle of one of the slender ships, causing a giant explosion to engulf both ships.

Unfortunately, two missiles continued to pursue him, having managed to swoop upwards and resume their pursuit as they missed the hexagonal ship’s bridge as it lost orbit.

While the missiles chased after him, Poe looked out of his canopy and down on his left where he saw the Y-wings draw closer to the slender ship.

“Alright, this has been fun B8, but I think its time to get back to work,” Poe said.

B8 bleeped back, confused about how they’d get rid of the last two missiles.

Poe just scoffed back.

“Stand by and reverse thrusters B8,” he instructed.

B8 beeped in compliance just before the ship started spinning around.

In response the missiles behind Poe started spinning as well. They spun around and around until they hit each other and exploded.

Poe chuckled to himself as he smiled victorious.

“We got’ em B8,” he said.

B8 beeped back.

“Fire!” Norra shouted once she and the other Y-wings were close enough to the slender ship, releasing their proton bombs.

However, the bombs’ engines only ignited for a brief second and pushed the bombs down towards the bridge at just slow enough speeds to penetrate the slender ship’s particle shields…

While Norra and the other Y-wings swooped upwards to avoid hitting the bridge, the slender ship’s bridge exploded behind them.

A chain of explosions soon followed, erupting all around the base of the slender ship’s tower.

“WHO-HOO!” Norra shouted excited as the slender ship exploded, leaving the doomed ship to explode while they turned around and flew away from it.

On the Venator, Ninka’s bridge Vice Admiral Amylin Holdo looked out the viewport and watched the slender ship’s destruction, smiling as she watched ever-more explosions continue to erupt throughout the hull. Fires soon sprung up all over the slender ship as it lost orbit and plummeted downwards.

Her smile vanished as she focused her attention back to the hexagonal ship firing on her, mercilessly pounding at the Ninka’s shields with its bombardment.

She turned her attention back towards the hexagonal ship as the battle continued.

***

Meanwhile elsewhere in Hosnian Prime’s orbit a Venator was in the process of launching its fighters – which had just been refueled – when several squads of enemy fighter’s speed towards the warship, taking the Republic fighters by surprise.

The enemy fighters swarmed and overwhelmed the Republic fighters, launching a devastating volley upon them. They didn’t allow a single Republic fighter to launch from the hanger.

Accompanying the fighters were multiple dropships, which due to their small and nimble stature managed to evade the Venator’s incoming laser fire. They swooped inside the hanger and quickly landed amidst the burning wreckages of destroyed Republic fighters.

Their ramps lowered, and hordes of battle droids rushed out of their ships and down them. Their blaster rifles raised, as they fired upon Republic pilots and soldiers, cutting them down before spreading to the rest of the Venator.

A black sphere hovered amidst the battle droids, leading them as they fought their way through the ship.

Sometime later the remaining survivors had barricaded themselves within the bridge when they heard a noise outside the door.

Curious, one officer went to investigate. He held his head against the door…where he heard a beeping noise on the other side.

His eyes widened, and his brows jumped as he quickly turned away from the door. However, the door exploded before he got very far, killing him instantly.

As smoke poured into the bridge officers and soldiers coughed, only for their attention to snap back towards the door as battle droids charged into the bridge.

With blasters at the ready the officers and soldiers opened fire on the battle droids, unleashing a volley of laser fire with their white armored enemies. Red and green blaster bolts shot back and forth between the Imperial and Republic forces.

Republic and Imperial forces fell to each other’s blaster fire as they withered down the other’s forces…but ultimately control of the bridge fell to the Imperials.

Once the fighting ceased a droid – in the form of a black orb with an antenna – hovered onboard the bridge and up to its mainframe. A light shined from the droid’s eye on the mainframe which caused the many monitors to flicker, including the lights. This culminated in the lights switching off and again, causing a symbol to appear on the monitors; a black sphere within a red frame, with a hexagonal symbol in the center. Down in the right side of the hexagon a small hexagon was connected to it.

“Control achieved,” an artificial voice said over the bridge’s speakers.

As full control was established over the Venator’s defenses and weapons, the battle droids took control of the ship’s point-defense and laser canons. The Alignment now had full control over the Venator’s light and heavy weapons.

The corrupted Venator didn’t long to unleash its new firepower as it fired upon a nearby Venator, one that was unaware that it had been corrupted by the Alignment.

In response to losing one of their Venators to the Alignment, the Republic sent bombers to destroy the bridge; thereby disabling whatever control the Alignment had over the Star Destroyer.

***

KA-KA-KA-BOOM!

Another slender ship’s bridge exploded as Poe and Norra’s squads worked together to take down a second slender ship.

This second slender ship lost orbit like the first one and plummeted downwards, where it slammed into the middle of one of the hexagonal ships; slamming right into the center of the hexagonal ship which exploded, leaving the left and right sides of the ship plummeting downwards.

From the Ninka’s bridge, Holdo smiled at the combined destruction of both a slender ship and one of the hexagonal ships.

Even at a distance, she spotted Poe, his Z-95 Headhunters and the BLT-B Y-wings make a U-turn and fly away from the doomed slender ship before it plummeted downwards.

“My my, it seems like you’re on quite the winning streak today Commander Dameron,” Holdo remarked over the coms channel.

Poe chuckled back over the channel.

“Keep providing targets and it’ll stay that way,” he said.

Holdo scoffed back, humored by his response.

“Well how about this then? A Recusant Destroyer?” asked Holdo.

There was a brief period of silence on Poe’s end, before he finally responded.

“Eh. I’ll leave the larger ships to you. I’m better at taking out simple fighters and escorting bombers,” Poe said.

Holdo smirked and chuckled softly at his reply.

“As you wish Commander, but don’t say I didn’t present you a target worthy of your and your squad’s abilities,” she said.

Outside in space Poe and the rest of the Black Squadron shot straight towards the Ninka.

Heading straight for the bridge, but just before they hit it the fighters broke off.

Some flew around the bridge, while a majority of the fighters turned themselves side-ways and flew between the main bridge and the starfighter control bridge.

Holdo just scoffed and shook her head at Poe and his squamates display, smirking to herself while she muttered, “Show-off” to herself.

“Captain we’ve detected a massive object emerging from hyperspace,” an officer spoke up from down in the crew pit.

Holdo turned her head and looked down into the pit at the officer, a confused expression on her face as she furrowed her brows at him.

She looked up and out the viewport and stepped forward, only to freeze as a large tall object jumped out of hyperspace from hyperspace.

At the edge of the warzone a large hybrid of a starship and space station appeared behind the Alignment ships. The stand-out feature of this ship was a massive dish in its “chest”.

“Holy mother of Celeste!” Holdo said. Her eyes widened, and jaw dropped at the sight of the massive ship, especially the dish.

She was so stunned that it didn’t dawn on her that the Alignment ships stopped attacking the Republic cruisers and pulled back, retreating towards the behemoth of a ship.

An officer ran up along the command walkway towards Holdo, stopping behind her.

“Admiral, we’re receiving reports that the Imperials have suddenly stopped fighting…but that they are not surrendering!” an officer spoke up behind her.

Holdo furrowed her brows, confused, and turned around to face the officer.

“What are you saying?” she asked, confused.

“That they’re just…giving up--?”

Holdo then suddenly froze. Her eyes widened, and her jaw hung slack as she slowly turned back around to look out at the Imperial fleet.

A horrified expression on her face as it dawned on her…

Minutes passed as the Alignment fleet pulled back to the newly arrived ship. Simultaneously, thousands of Y-85 Titan dropships flew up from the planet, returning to their respective carriers/cruisers.

On the newly arrived ship’s bridge, a humanoid figure looked across a room towards a wedge-shaped screen.

The humanoid had brown spiked hair and wore a black Imperial uniform with gold pads on the shoulders.

With his hands behind his back, Supreme Leader Gallius Rax silently stared at the screen in front of him. A screen that displayed Hosnian Prime; the Equestrian Republic’s home world and seat of government.

Two other humanoids walked up towards Rax and positioned themselves beside him;

One of them was an older man clad in navy-blue robes with silver symbols on them, wore a shiny chest plate with a light glowing in the center, and a large shoulder plate that curved in towards an open space in the center. Half of his face was covered in cybernetics, and he wore a shiny silver gauntlet on his left hand and a staff in his other hand.

The other was a young woman wore a black body glove, but over that she wore golden armor that was decorated in glowing blue lights. However, while she was humanoid the rest of her body beneath the waist disappeared into a large chariot-like chair. Along the side of her chair were multiple panels, and each panel sported a row of four hemispheres. Back up at the woman’s torso, she had a control panel at her fingertips, and her upper body was supported by a backrest. The entire chair was golden, but the hemispheres glowed blue, containing swirling energy within them.

Another human man accompanied the woman and wore an all-black military uniform. He had sharp facial features and short slicked-back hair.

This other man didn’t utter a word as he accompanied the woman humanoid, holding his arms behind his back as he stood beside her.

As they stopped behind Rax, he turned around and faced them. He silently stared at them; first the first man humanoid and then towards the woman humanoid, whom he glared disapprovingly at. He turned around and looked back at the screen.

The Supreme Leader then looked down at Brendol Hux and said, “Continue with the operation, you may fire when ready, General,” before looking back up at the screen.

“Yes, Supreme Leader,” Brendol nodded.

Brendol then turned around and stepped up towards one of the naval officers behind a desk.

“Commence firing, full reactor ignition.”

The naval officer nodded back and looked down at his console, before he pressed a button.

Deep within the Hand’s Hammer, the superweapon’s reactor hummed to life.

Pillars of vibrant energy formed in multiple shafts, rapidly building in intensity…

“Admiral, we’re detecting a mass build-up of energy originating from inside that massive ship-station-thing!” an officer spoke up.

Holdo’s head sharply spun her head around and looked down into the crew pit at the officer, her eyes wide in shock. Her head quickly snapped up back up as she looked out the viewport at the massive ship, then back down into the crew pit at the officer again.

“Quick, raise a fleet-wide channel. Order all ships to retreat to jump away to hyperspace, it doesn’t where, just anywhere but here…and recall our fighters!” she shouted at the communications officer. The officer frantically got to work informing the rest of the fleet.

Meanwhile in space, Poe looked out his viewport as the rest of their fleet turned away from the planet…and jumped away to lightspeed?

“Poe, what’s going on?!” Nora chimed in over the com.

“I have no idea, Wexley. Its like we’re retreating?” Poe replied in a confused voice. There was a brief moment of silence on Norra’s end, before she finally spoke up again.

“But…we’re leaving Hosnian Prime unguarded for the Alignment!” she almost shouted, enraged.

Before Poe could respond Holdo abruptly interrupted them.

“Poe, get your fighters onboard, NOW!” Holdo shouted at him.

“That ship’s readings are off the scale, so we need to leave now!” she instructed.

“But the Alignment-“ Poe tried to protest, but was interrupted by Holdo.

“NOW COMMANDER!” Holdo shouted.

Poe frowned, but reluctantly obeyed the Admiral’s command, and reached out to the other fighters in his squad.

“Black Squadron return to ship but be quick about it, by the sound of things they’re not going to wait around for us if we’re late,” Poe instructed to the rest of his squad.

He swiftly turned his Z-95 around, and then he and the rest of Black Squadron as well as Norra and the bombers flew straight for the Ninka.

It cut it close as Holdo was already closing the large hanger doors, but they just managed to get onboard before they closed.

The Ninka’s engines started glowing brighter until it and several other hundred ships shot forward, jumping away to lightspeed. However, a significant amount of Republic ships still remained at Hosnian Prime and were unable to jump away before the Hand’s Hammer fired its primary weapon…

Multiple beams of purple lighting-like energy then shot inwards above the Hand’s Hammer’s superlaser focus lens, before firing a single massive beam of crackling energy towards Hosnian Prime.

Onboard the remaining Venators, ponies watched as the beam of bright energy shot across space, following it with their heads as it reached Hosnian Prime.

The beam slammed against Hosnian Prime’s surface, triggering an intense explosion which created a blindingly bright light and a shockwave that rippled across Hosnian Prime’s surface.

It didn’t matter as large cracks tore through the planet’s crust and expelled incredible amount of energy. The cracks appeared all over the planet, destroying cities, boiled lakes and caused mountains to crumble…until finally the energy erupted all at once.

The fiery orb that was Hosnian Prime then exploded into thousands upon billions of pieces, transforming into a large ball of fire!

The flames from Hosnian Prime’s destruction reached out and engulfed the Republic fleet, enveloping the thousands of ships still in orbit around the planet. The Equestrians onboard screamed as their ships burned and ultimately exploded, killing not only the thousands of fleet personnel…but all of Hosnian Prime’s population!

In an instant billions of lives were extinguished.

On the bridge of the Hand’s Hammer, Gallius Rax smirked to himself as he and the other leaders beheld Hosnian Prime’s destruction.

While the screen behind him displayed the large ball of fire that was once Hosnian Prime it soon changed to show Rax and the humanoids.

“This is Supreme Leader Gallius Rax calling out to all the Alignment. Look outside into space and tell me what you see,” Rax said, briefly falling silent. He eventually smirked before he resumed speaking.

“Correct. The remains of Hosnian Prime, the home world of our great enemy; the Equestrian Republic…now nothing but dust and rock floating silently in space. A mark to commemorate our victory against those who defied us so long ago,” he continued, raising a balled fist into view.

“Today marks not only the beginning of a new era for the Pentastar Alignment but also the death of the Republic. Our worst enemy ever encountered,” Rax grimaced angrily as he nodded.

“Their home planet is destroyed, their cherished fleet exterminated, and their lies swept aside. Their like will never be seen again, and even if they do…we will defeat them again as we obliterated their home this day!” he shouted, thrusting his fist into the air.

Across the entire fleet thousands of voices cheered aloud.

***

A little while later the Ninka and several other Venators jumped out of hyperspace, arriving at their destination; Takodana.

On the Ninka’s bridge, Admiral Holdo looked out the viewport at the green forest planet with a sad look on her face. She and the rest of her crew were taken aback by the destruction of their home and their subsequent defeat by the Alignment; nothing but terrorists and insurgents…and yet they had managed to win the war in a single blow, costing Holdo and the others that had survived their home.

What remained of Hosnian Prime now was just rocks and dust floating in space.

Holdo heard her crew mutter amongst themselves about the destruction of Hosnian Prime, and the lives that had perished when that terrible weapon destroyed the planet;

Had they suffered for only a moment or had it been quick?

Had even the Alignment survived their own superweapon?

Could…could some Equestrians have survived the planet’s destruction and if so, how would they contact them?

What were they supposed to do? Fight back or run and hide like the Alignment had so long ago?

Amidst the crew muttering amidst themselves a double-door opened and Poe along with his squad mates and Norra Wexley trotted onto the bridge, drawing the crew’s attention as he approached Holdo.

“Admiral, do you mind explaining to me. WHAT. JUST. HAPPENED!?” Poe loudly shouted at the mare.

Holdo blankly stared out into space before she slowly turned around, facing Poe. The only look on his face was that of anger, while she was one of sadness.

“We lost, Commander Dameron. We lost, and they won,” she said in a sad and defeated tone.

Poe’s anger quickly turned into confusion. Shocked to even hear this.

“What do you mean we lost? We had their forces on the run!” he shouted back at her.

“No, they were pulling their forces back, so they could destroy the planet and everything living on it,” replied Holdo in a soft but sad tone. “There was nothing you could have done.”

“That’s not true!” Poe shouted, “We could’ve attacked that thing and stopped it from firing.”

Without uttering a word, Holdo shook her head in response.

“If you had attacked them you would be dead by now, along with the rest of your squad,” Holdo said, stating it as a matter of fact.

Poe frowned angrily at Holdo, but she just stared blankly at him.

“No, you couldn’t have solved this by getting into a Headhunter and attacked the enemy head-on.” Holdo shook her head at him.

“Four hundred and fourty-four thousand across six ships, we are all that remains of the Equestrian Republic…but we are not alone. Others may have survived Hosnian Prime’s destruction, and if they did then they will find us. We are the spark that burn the Pentastar Alignment down; and our mission now is to just survive. Survive that we might one day restore the Republic!” she said in a faintly courageous tone, though it was still filled with sadness.

Poe’s squad mates and the bridge’s entire crew were stunned by the Admiral’s speech, even Poe who silently stared at Holdo, shocked.

“Now, back to your stations. We’ll mourn the dead once we’ve reached safe space,” Holdo said. However, as she was about to turn around and look back out the viewport until she heard a voice speak up.

“’Safe space’?” Poe asked, confused. His reaction caused Holdo to freeze and look back at him, shooting him a blank stare.

“Yes. You think that just because the Alignment isn’t pursuing us that we’re safe?” she asked.

She shook her head at him and said, “We won’t be safe until we reach the edge of the galaxy. Only then will we be able to regroup while the Alignment keeps its busy,” she explained.

Poe opened his mouth as if to speak, but he almost knew what Holdo was going to say and thus stayed his tongue. In response to his silence, Holdo turned away from him and looked out the viewport towards Takodana. Poe turned around and just trotted back across the command walkway to leave the bridge.

***

Meanwhile the Doctor’s TARDIS spun as it travelled down the time vortex.

The TARDIS uttered a hoarse thrumming noise as it flew down the vortex, heading for its next destination…wherever or whenever that might be.

Inside the TARDIS’ console room the Doctor and Twilight Sparkle stood around the console unit, while the column in the center of the console moved up and down.

Soon, though the Doctor furrowed his brows in confusion as he noticed something odd.

He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could the TARDIS violently jerked to one side. It tilted to the side, almost causing the Doctor and Twilight to lose their footing if not for them clinging onto the console.

“Hhrrng—that’s strange,” he remarked while gripping the side of the console unit. “The TARDIS-hrrng—seems to have—nnngh—altered course,” he stated in a casual voice.

“Do you know where we’re going?” Twilight asked as she too tried to hold on to the console unit.

“No.” The Doctor shook his head, “I can’t see the screen.”

Out in the time vortex the TARDIS immediately halted its pace and turned around, flying back towards the time period it had detected but missed.

As the TARDIS headed straight for the time period the Doctor and Twilight managed to regain their footing, and as soon as they did the Doctor looked at the screen to see where they were going. However, before he could do anything the TARDIS had already begun to de-materialize in the desired time period.

Soon, the column in the console unit stopped moving and the hoarse thrumming noise stopped.

Stopping in his tracks, the Doctor craned his head and looked up at the column. He then raised his hoof and gently placed it atop the console, as he did Twilight turned her head and looked at the Doctor.

“Doctor, where has the TARDIS brought us?” she asked, but the Doctor didn’t respond.

Eventually, though the Doctor turned his head and looked right at Twilight. He silently stared at her until he turned back towards the screen and pressed a button on the console unit.

The screen showed the outside, revealing countless equine soldiers that ran back around a room the TARDIS had landed inside. However, the equines soon seemed to notice the TARDIS as a few of them pointed their hooves at it.

While the audio was muted, the screen showed the equine soldiers as shouting to their comrades. They waved their comrades over, who gathered in mass around the TARDIS and aimed their blaster rifles at the blue box.

The Doctor’s brows jumped, and he turned his head towards Twilight, wearing a look of surprise on his face.

“Someone seems touchy,” the Doctor remarked.

“Do you think its smart to go out there? I mean, they look a little…skittish,” Twilight asked.

The Doctor looked back at the screen and then back at Twilight, before he trotted around the console towards the rack beside the TARDIS’ entrance.

“For whatever reason the TARDIS brought us here, she clearly brought us here for a reason. Now, whatever that reason is we can only find out if we go outside,” he said as he swiped his trench coat off the rack and put it on.

While looking at Twilight, he didn’t notice an object being placed in his coat’ pocket.

As the Doctor eventually turned away from Twilight towards the door, she sighed and trotted up towards him. He extended a hoof, grabbed a door and pulled it open. He and Twilight stepped outside, where as soon as they exited the TARDIS, they heard the click of countless blasters.

The Doctor and Twilight quickly raised their hooves into the air as the group of equines pointed their blaster rifles at them.

“Intruders don’t move!” an equine from amidst the crowd shouted.

Several soldiers moved aside, allowing what looked to be an officer pass.

The officer wore brown leather boots, a tanned outfit that stopped at the shoulders, the sleeves were cyan, he had a belt tied around his waist, and wore a tan cap. Unlike the soldiers he was armed with a blaster pistol, specifically, a DL-44 heavy blaster pistol.

“My good equine, I can assure you that we mean you no ill will,” the Doctor said in an attempt to calm the officer and his soldiers. It didn’t seem to work based on how the officer scoffed at him.

“Is that so?” the officer said as he smirked confidently back at the Doctor.

“You see that’s funny, because not several hours ago did the Pentastar Alignment blow up our home with some kind of superweapon, and despite destroying the Republic’s capital they’d probably send out spies to track we few who survived down, so forgive me if I find your story a little too convenient,” said the officer as he grinned at the Doctor.

“Wait, your whole plan was destroyed?!” Twilight asked in a shocked voice.

The officer turned his head and looked towards her, frowning sad as he hung his head and nodded back.

“The Alignment and their allies took everything away from us in the blink of an eye,” the officer said.

Twilight exhaled sharply at being told this and staggered backwards by a few steps where she bumped against the TARDIS. However, as her backside impacted the TARDIS it suddenly uttered the wheezed thrumming.

The soldiers and officer immediately pulled their guns on the TARDIS, but the Doctor and Twilight just spun around and looked at the box.

“No!” the Doctor said as the TARDIS began to de-materialize, fading away as it left the room.

The officer gasped at the TARDIS’ disappearance, before jerking his head towards the Doctor. He raised and aimed his pistol at him, which signaled his soldiers to aim their weapons at the two intruders.

“Whoever you two are, and whatever that strange box was I’m placing you both under arrest,” the officer said.

The officer gestured towards the Doctor and Twilight, and two soldiers trotted up to them. They cuffed, and then led them off towards the brig to be detained.

As the soldiers escorted the Doctor and Twilight out of the room, the officer looked back into the room. Specifically, he stared at the spot the TARDIS where had previously stood. He eventually turned and left the room.

***

A little while later after navigating the ship’s many corridors the Doctor and Twilight were shoved into a cell by the soldiers.

Twilight glared back at the soldiers, but before she could say or do anything a force field activated, preventing her or the Doctor from escaping.

While she glared at the two soldiers the Doctor trotted towards a corner of the cell and sat down, hanging his head.

After glaring at the soldiers, that had now assumed positions in front of the cell door, Twilight turned back towards the Doctor. She trotted up to him and sat down in front of him.

“So, Doctor, what are we going to do to escape from this cell?” she asked.

Instead of responding right away the Doctor silently looked up at her, frowning distraught.

“What does it matter? The TARDIS is gone,” said the Doctor, defeated.

“Yeah about that; what just happened? Why did the TARDIS just vanish out of nowhere like that?” Twilight asked, confused.

“Hostile Action Displacement System. A defense mechanism that is activated if/when the TARDIS is threatened,” the Doctor explained.

“What, so the TARDIS just left us here because she was afraid of something in this time period?” Twilight asked, intrigued.

The Doctor silently nodded back.

“So, what do we do now? How do we find the TARDIS?” she asked.

The Doctor slowly raised his head and looked up at her.

“’Find the TARDIS’?” he asked.

Silent, the Doctor shook his head at her.

“She could be on the other side of the universe by now…not that we’d have a way to reach her, let alone find her,” he said before he hung his head.

As he looked down, though Twilight and the Doctor soon furrowed their brows as they heard a beeping noise coming from his coat pocket. Both she and the Doctor looked towards each other as they heard the noise.

They then looked down towards his coat pocket where the beeping was coming from.

“What is it?” Twilight asked.

The Doctor reached into his pocket…and pulled out a small disk-shaped object with three curved arms fitted to a grilled projector plate.

The disk-thing continued beeping until the Doctor finally pressed it, which immediately projected the holographic image of a humanoid woman. The woman was slender with short cut hair and had many circuit-like patterns running across her whole body. Down along these patterns pulsed golden energy. Twilight stared at the humanoid, confused, but also intrigued.

The humanoid silently stared at the Doctor, staring at his shocked expression until she finally smiled at him.

“Hello Doctor,” the humanoid said in a friendly voice.

Snapping the Doctor from his shock as he softly replied, “H-hi,” which she chuckled at.

The humanoid turned her head and looked at Twilight, to whom she also smiled.

“You must be Twilight Sparkle, aren’t you?” she asked.

Twilight’s brows jumped, and she looked at the Doctor, looking to him for answers before she turned back towards the humanoid.

“Y-yes I am,” Twilight replied in a soft but somewhat concerned tone which the humanoid picked up on. She chuckled back at the lavender mare.

“You need not worry, Twilight Sparkle for my intention is not to harm you or the Doctor. I am here to help you while my body is temporarily beyond your reach,” the humanoid said.

Twilight and the Doctor furrowed their brows and exchanged confused looks with each other before returning their attention to the humanoid.

“What do you mean ‘temporarily beyond our reach’?” the Doctor asked, intrigued.

“Well, you have probably already guessed that I just left you out of the blue. That was because I don’t want you to just leave like you always do after you’ve helped someone, too many lives are at stake, Doctor,” she said in a serious tone, “Thus, I arranged for you to be dropped off here before leaving you to carry out your mission,” she explained. The Doctor raised a brow at her.

“’My mission’?” he asked.

“Mh-hmm.” She nodded back.

“I know it’s a lot to ask, Doctor, but frankly; you and Twilight are my best hope right now. My only hope,” she said.

The Doctor turned his head and looked at Twilight, who looked back at him. After a few minutes, he looked back towards the humanoid.

“What would you have us do?” he asked. She smiled back at him.

“Help the Equestrians on this ship. Help them survive and help them fight back against the Pentastar Alignment that destroyed their home,” replied the humanoid.

“And how do we do that? We’re currently their prisoners,” Twilight asked. The humanoid and Doctor looked at her, with the humanoid smiling at Twilight.

“You’ll think of something,” the humanoid said.

“I’ll be here if there’s anything you need. Oh, and Doctor…” she said.

“Yes?” replied the Doctor.

“No matter how screwed you seem may seem, all it takes is the right screwdriver to get you out of it." The humanoid smiled before she vanished back into the holoprojector she had emerged from.

Author's Note

The first chapter of my newest Doctor Whooves story. I hope you all enjoy it.

Feel free to comment about the story. Feedback is always appreciated :twilightsmile:

Link - Halo 3 OST Disk 2: The Covenant (Black Tower)

Chapter 4 - Master Builder of Will and Might

The mare’s speeder zipped through the air as it flew past several snow-covered mountains.

Soon, the speeder rounded a mountain and the mare smirked as she spotted her home; seeing her home which was comprised of several – big and small – domes, that sat atop a cliffside, but hidden inside the entrance of a cave. This made it difficult to spot.

The speeder flew into the maw of the caw, blowing up snow in the process. The garage door opened, allowing her to fly inside. Once the speeder touched down, the garage doors closed shut behind it. The cold in the room was shortly replaced by warmth.

Twilight, the mare and the Doctor got up off the speeder, planting their hooves down the metal floor. It was floor, but nothing compared to what they had been through in getting here.

While Twilight and the Doctor looked around the garage at the various bits and parts of technology, the mare trotted up towards a door, but not before stepping up a small flight of steps – that consisted of approximately of five steps. On the third step, she turned and looked back over her shoulder at her guests.

“Come on,” the mare instructed, nudging her head towards the door. She then turned back and ascended the remaining steps. The door automatically opened for her, moving into the wall to let her enter.

Twilight and the Doctor hesitated, silently staring at the open door as the mare stepped through it.

“I don’t know, Doctor. I don’t trust her,” Twilight said.

“I trust her,” said the Doctor.

Twilight turned her head and shot him a confused look.

“What makes you so sure of that?”

Turning his head, the Doctor shot Twilight a serious glance.

“She saved us from the Flood,” he said.

The Doctor then turned away from Twilight and trotted across the garage until he reached the steps. He then climbed the steps and entered the doorway, leaving Twilight behind until she finally ran up after him.

After trotting down a corridor, the Doctor turned left and entered a large, dome-shaped room that looked like living quarters. There was a mechanical table with seats around it, and a bookcase.

However, these books were simple pads with touch-screens that contained a trove of knowledge from history, combat techniques, skills on engineering, etc.

“Make yourself at home,” the mare said as she trotted out of a room, the door closing behind her. She didn’t have her staff with her.

The Doctor looked towards her and nodded in response.

“Its not much, but it’s the best I can do right now. I wasn’t exactly expecting company,” the mare said, gesturing out towards her living quarters with her hoof.

“No, don’t worry about,” the Doctor said, remaining focused on the living room-like area, “Merely saving us from the Flood makes us indebted to you, miss…?”

The mare shot him a confused look, furrowing her brows until they widened as it dawned on her…

“Oh, excuse me. We haven’t been introduced,” she said.

“I am Rey.” She extended her hoof, which the Doctor took and shook.

“I am the Doctor,” he said with a friendly smile. Behind him, Twilight up from the corridor, stopping beside him, “And this is Twilight Sparkle.” The Doctor gestured towards Twilight.

“Nice to make your acquaintance. I am Rey,” Rey said. She nodded her head at Twilight and extended her hoof. Like the Doctor, Twilight took and shook it.

“Twilight Sparkle,” said Twilight, smiling at Rey.

Once they stopped shaking their hooves and lowered them to the floor, Rey turned towards the Doctor. She extended her hoof and gently tapped his chest.

“Doc, you called those creatures “the Flood”, did you not?” Rey said.

“Yes,” said the Doctor, nodding his head back.

“Then, you know them?” she asked.

Hanging his head, the Doctor closed his eyes and nodded back.

“Not only do I know about them, but I also fought them in the greatest war the galaxy had ever known,” he said.

Rey’s mouth opened slightly as she sensed a hint of sadness in his voice. She too closed her eyes and hung her head, sighing heavily.

“I…am sorry for your loss,” she said.

“The Flood took everything from me too…long ago,” Opening her eyes, she looked down at the floor as she blinked her eyes.

The Doctor furrowed his brows as he and Twilight looked up at Twilight. Craning her head up, Rey stared back at Twilight and the Doctor.

Rey shook her head and turned away from the duo, trotting across the living area towards a hollow doorway, which was presumably the kitchen.

“Anyway, do you two want anything to eat?” Rey called back to Twilight and the Doctor. In response to this question, Twilight furrowed her brows confusedly.

“What do you mean if we want anything to eat?” Twilight asked. “Are you not going out to find the others?!” Her voice grew more serious.

Rey abruptly stopped in her tracks and slowly looked back over her shoulder at Twilight.

“Even if I were to go out in search of your friends, odds are that the Flood have already gotten to them and killed them…or worse,” Rey replied sternly.

Twilight furrowed her brows and shot Rey a look of disbelief. Anger formed on her face as it welled up within her.

“But we cannot just leave them out there all alone!” Twilight shouted angrily.

Rey quickly turned around, trotted – across the room – up towards her, and stared into Twilight’s face. Some of the lavender mare’s courage waned as she looked into Rey’s face.

“Listen here, missy. I have survived in this cold wasteland because I know when to help…and when to stay my hoof,” Rey said in a sterner tone than Twilight.

The serious look on Twilight’s face melted away into a nervously blank stare.

“You can go out there and try to navigate the mountains. You might get down on your own, but not before the Flood have devoured your friends,” she spat back at Twilight, anger prominent in her voice.

“If you want me to risk my life to go and find your friends, then I’ll do it once things have calmed down and they have gone,” Rey finished.

She shot Twilight a serious look, then turned away and was about to trot away, only for her attention to shift towards the Doctor as he asked, “Do you mean the Flood?”

Rey shook her head at him.

“I mean the ones who come to fight the Flood, once they emerge from their caves,” Rey said before she turned away from the Doctor and returned to the Kitchen.

“Now come, we shouldn’t wait on an empty stomach,” she called back to Twilight and the Doctor.

The Doctor and Twilight, however, shot each other confused looks.

“There…is something else here? Something other than the Flood?!” Twilight asked, stunned to learn that there was something else here beside the Flood. He furrowed his brows intrigued, but also a little afraid. Frightened at the prospect that whatever this other force is, it might be responsible for the Flood outbreak. Maybe even planned for it.

“We’ll discuss this later, but for right now we should get a bite to eat. We are no good to anyone if we are starving,” replied the Doctor.

“Agreed.” Twilight nodded. They turned and followed Rey into the kitchen to see what she had to eat.

Meanwhile outside Rey’s home, a swarm of Aggressor Sentinels flew through the air past the mountains as they headed towards the recent site of reported Flood activity.

Passing over the mountains, the Sentinels descended and converged on the crashed Ninka. They flew around and patrolled the starship’s interior and exterior for any sight of the Flood. However, there was no sign of the parasite anywhere…aside from tracks – in the snow – that led towards a cave. One Enforcer hovered above the Ninka’s wreak, but it only served as a pre-caution.

With recent reports of humanoid Combat Forms sighted amidst the ever-emerging Flood forces, the Monitor wasn’t taking any chances.

Back inside Rey’s home, after getting the Doctor and Twilight something to eat, she trotted off to her room.

However, before she arrived at the door, she froze in her tracks as she heard a voice…

“Rey… Rey… Rey…”

She slowly turned her head, looking corridor towards a corridor.

Her eyes widened as she spotted an older stallion make his way down the corridor towards a door.

Behind him, an Infection Form quietly followed behind him. It crawled along the wall until it got into an optimal position to pounce on him. However, the stallion stopped in his tracks – as he heard the fresh liquid dripping off the Infection Form – and turned around, just before the Infection Form leapt from the wall onto him. It latched onto his chest and knocked him backwards, causing him to stumble back into his room. A loud scream permeated from his room as the door closed behind him…!

The sounds of a struggle and screaming eventually stopped, just before the door opened and a long whip-like claw reached out and grabbed onto the edge. Followed thereafter by a grotesque Combat Form, that growled ferally as it hobbled out of the room. It turned its head and stared directly at Rey…

However, just as the Combat Form looked towards her, it suddenly vanished, and the door to the stallion’s room was now shut. It had even been locked.

Rey hung her head, frowning sadly down at the floor. She turned her head and looked back at Twilight and the Doctor, staring at them before she turned back towards her room and trotted up towards it.

***

Meanwhile at a facility far away, Poe, Holdo and the two remaining soldiers looked around at the large hallways as the Monitor, 2401 Penitent Tangent floated in front of them.

“This way, Equestrians. We must not delay,” Tangent called back to them as he led the group down a hallway. However, Poe, Holdo and the two soldiers were just too taken aback by the incredible technology and lay-out of the architecture on display to pay attention to what Tangent said.

They watched as waves of energy travelled up along enigmatic symbols along the walls and even the floor.

The subtle ambience of energy pulses, artificial roars and other machines emanated throughout the many hallways and corridors.

Everything contributed to making it feel like the facility was alive in a subtle but certainly noticeable manner.

Holdo had the soldiers helping her, move her closer to Poe. She leaned over to him and said, “Whatever race lives here are far more technologically advanced than us or even the Pentastar Alignment” to him.

“If we can get them to help us, we might be able to reclaim the galaxy from the Alignment!” The excitement grew more prevalent in her voice.

Poe nodded in agreement as he looked out at the large, geometric and angular structures, which towered over the four equines and Monitor.

The group followed the Monitor through the facility until they arrived at a large hallway. The other end of which revealed large – 12 feet tall – double-door that towered over the four equines and Monitor. The top-center of the doors was an enigmatic symbol of a circle with four lines that connected to the top and sides of the circle. The symbol’s outlines glowed gold and saw blue energy pulsing throughout the symbol.

The doors automatically opened for them, and they entered the chamber. Inside, they were greeted to a large chamber with a large, round table in the center of the room. The table was electronic (of course) and displayed a variety of holograms. At the other end of the room, a throne sat atop a small – five steps – flight of steps.

However, it was the figure sitting in this throne that made Poe, Holdo, and the remaining soldiers gasp in shock.

It was a tall – 11ft. 40 inch – humanoid wearing some sort of full-body armor, including a titular helmet. Two geometric and angular shapes hovered above both of the humanoid’s shoulders – and beside its head.

The humanoid slouched forward over the throne, supporting its arms on the armrests.

“Master Builder, I bring guests,” Tangent said to the humanoid.

“Mrrgm,” the humanoid grumbled, “What guests?” the Master Builder asked in a slow and groggy voice.

“Equestrians, whom I suspect came on the fleet that arrived hours ago,” replied Tangent.

The Master Builder furrowed its brows before quickly standing up from its throne…

“What the hell?!” Poe asked.

He and the other soldiers immediately raised their pistol and blaster rifles at the humanoid. In response, the humanoid thrust his hand out towards the equines and seized them with some unknown force; causing Poe, Holdo and the soldiers to freeze in their tracks, unable to move a muscle.

Behind the helmet, the Master Builder smirked and slowly stepped towards them. He walked around the table towards the equines…

“Master Builder!” Tangent called out in alarm, drawing the humanoid’s attention, “These Equestrians bear you ill intentions,” he said, to which the Master Builder merely scoffed back.

“There are no Equestrians with ill intentions,” the Master Builder replied, speaking in a darkly monotone voice, “There is only the suffering and hardship they bring wherever they tread!” he snarled.

The Master Builder walked up towards and stopped in front of the doorway. He slowly raised his arm, which lifted Poe, Holdo and the soldiers into the air above him.

They hovered in front of the humanoid, who silently turned his head and looked at each of them. His mask then pulled back away, revealing his face, which the Equestrians gasped at seeing. The Master Builder smirked at their horrified reactions.

“Monitor detain these four. Then provide me with the location of what remains of their fleet,” he instructed, “I am in need of more test subjects…and I have just been provided a new livestock,” he said.

Tangent looked back towards Poe, Holdo and the soldiers before he looked back towards the Master Builder.

“Yes, Master Builder,” replied Tangent before he and Poe, Holdo and the soldiers vanished – as several rings of golden light moved up along their bodies – leaving the Master Builder alone in the chamber.

Lowering its hand, the Master Builder chuckled to itself at the thought of having new specimens to toy with…

***

A while later in space, the remaining Venators – which had survived the attack when they arrived at the planet – had retreated to the other side of the planet in the hopes of evading their captors.

For now, everything was calm and quiet. The survivors of the attack had managed to escape and are now recovering.

On the Pillar of Autumn’s bridge, Captain Sarkli looked out the viewport towards the mystery planet, deep in thought about what had become of Poe, Holdo, and the rest of the ponies onboard the Ninka when it had been shot down by their unseen attackers.

“Captain, we have managed to locate the Ninka on the surface-” an officer said from down in the crew pit. Sarkli turned his head and looked at the officer, about to speak until the officer abruptly interrupted him…

“Wait, I am receiving a transmission from the Ninka,” said the officer, looking back towards the monitor as several other crewmen turned their attention towards him. All of them waited patiently for him to tell them what the transmission said. The officer’s brows then jumped, and he turned back towards Sarkli.

“They have survived the crash-” Sarkli’ brows jumped, and several crewmembers sharply exhaled in relief, “…and they have provided co-ordinates for us to pick them and the rest of the survivors up,” the officer said.

Without hesitation, Sarkli swiftly turned around and looked down into the left crew pit. He extended and pointed his hoof at another officer.

“Order the rest of the fleet to hold their position…but that should they not hear back from us, they are permitted to leave the system,” he instructed, to which several crewmen shot him odd looks, “We are going down to the surface to get Holdo and the other survivors,” he said.

“Yes, Captain,” replied the officer.

Turning back towards the viewport, Sarkli watched as the Pillar of Autumn slowly turned away from the rest of the fleet towards the planet.

Author's Note

Feedback and comments are appreciated