Starskater

Starskater ran down hallway after hallway, trying to remember the way she came in. She was sure that she was nearing the entrance when she ran right into an android.

Starskater gasped, but the android said, "Shh! It's me."

"You're alive!"

"I just fell off the ship is all. This way, we need to find Vicona."

Vicona had managed to alert four guards and was now in the process of losing them. Unfortunately, the closer to capital, the more androids there were. He cut a corner and made a dash for it when he heard somepony call his name.

"Vicona!"

He stopped and turned. There in the alley was Chrome and Starskater.

"Chrome?" he said, joining them in the shadows.

"I'll explain later," he said, "we need to return to the castle."

"I think I know how to free the unicorns," Vicona said.

"Me too," Chrome responded, "We can de-activate the cuffs from there."

"Right, the cuffs seem to cause the unicorns to forget anything out-of-the-ordinary that happens to them."

"Guys," Starskater moaned, "I'm not feeling well..."

Chrome answered, "It's most likely just nausea from the false gravity. It will pass."

Chrome proceeded towards the capital and Starskater followed. Vicona was concerned, but went after them.

Streey stood over the shoulder of an android, watching a red dot on a screen as it moved back towards his castle.

"I was hoping you'd come back."

As they were making their way back through the corridors of the capital building, Starskater stopped. She squinted dizzily down another hallway.

"I think we should go this way," she said.

Vicona turned around. "Are you sure? I think the control vault is this way."

Chrome stopped as well."I concur, I am confident that the vault is further up."

Starskater shook off her blank expression. "You're probably right. I thought it looked familiar."

"No, why are they still going up?" Streey asked to nopony in particular, "They need to come here."

"Perhaps they are headed to the control center?" the android suggested.

"Why would they-? Oh..."

The control vault was just below Streey's throne room, about halfway up the tower. Once they arrived, Vicona and Chrome immediately set to deactivating the cuffs. To Vicona's concern Starskater was hardly able to stand upright at this point. Chrome began turning the coding dial to reset the cuffs.

The door behind opened, revealing Streey and several android guards.

"Well, this exactly what I didn't want you to do. I asked you to leave and you didn't, so now I'm going to take you all prisoner."

"Wait!" Vicona said.

Streey just sighed. "I know how this goes. Do you think that you're the only renegades I've had to deal with?"

The coding dial continued to turn.

"Starskater escaped," Vicona said, "She escape your entire army."

"I have a hundred unicorns and a thousand guards, besides, she seems incapacitated."

Vicona glanced at Starskater, who was very obviously dizzy. "She's fine," he said. As soon as he finished, Starskater proceeded to vomit behind him.

"Most subjects don't take well to having chips chemically reactivated," Streey said.

The androids around him collapsed to the floor. Streey was shocked and jumped back as the three ponies charged towards him.

"Good move," Vicona said as they ran back down.

"I didn't think he he would buy it any longer," Chrome replied.

"I had Starskater's help." Vicona glanced at the mare, who was now really pale. "We need to hurry, she needs attention."

"No attention please," she said.

They exited the castle when Vicona stopped.

"We still need to figure out how to get everypony out of here before Streey reactivates the cuffs," he said.

Chrome responded, "Rather than shut off the cuffs, I sent them instructions to gather in your ship."

"Nice, I hope they all fit..."

Sure enough, they arrived at their ship to find it full of unicorns.

"I hope that's everypony," Vicona said, "They're catching up."

They took off, but the androids could fly. They followed them towards the blockade. What they did not notice was the unicorn filly, watching them leave from a rooftop below.

On the ship, Chrome began removing the cuffs from the unicorns' horns. As they approached the fleet, Starskater managed to cast a shield, which lasted just long enough for Vicona to get past. It was a straight shot to home, but the android army still followed.