The Lunar Worlds

Chapters

The Element of Harmony
The Orange Flash
The Good Doctor
The Haymaker

The Element of Harmony

The time had come for the royal sisters to retire, and with it the reign of Princess Twilight Sparkle had begun. Under the rule of the Element of Magic incarnate, Equestria saw an unparalleled age of peace and marvelous arcano-scientific advancements.

However, while Celestia had grown tired of governing the land for over a thousand years, that was not the case for Luna. After all, the younger sister had been banished during the gist of it, and as such she still longed for the experience of ruling a kingdom of her own.

Not wanting to impose herself over the existing realms around Equestria, followed by a herd of her most loyal subjects, the Princess of the Night took to the stars in search of adventure and a place to call her own.

And so, after numerous years of exciting space exploration, the colony of Lunaria was founded. With the wishful thinking that everypony who proved themselves should aspire to rule one day, the Night Princess established a hierarchical gubernamental system akin to that of private institutions. Thus The Lunar Corporation was created, headed by Chairmare Luna herself.

Nevertheless, Luna's departure had left a void in Equestria that nopony would ever be able to fulfill, and a dark shadow creeped over the land.

* * * * *

The Lunar Worlds

Chapter 1:

The Element of Harmony

* * * * *

Still farming apples and barely managing to scrape by?

Stop missing out and come to Lunaria, the new colony on the edge of the galaxy founded by the Princess of the Night herself!

But a long trip like that must be exhausting you might think. Worry not, as our state-of-the-art cryosleep technology will make the journey feel like seconds.

Wake up in the kingdom of your dreams designed to maximize your productivity, with full employment guaranteed!*

You're but a hoofprint away from becoming the master of your own destiny as you venture out of Equestria and into The Lunar Worlds.

What are you waiting for? Go Lunar!

* Full employment not guaranteed.

* * * * *

Serene darkness embraces me as I lay suspended in the peaceful realm of oblivion. A faint echo gently washes over my dream.

"...still alive and not liquefying? Good."

Sharp sensations rush across my body. Thousand needles. Pain. I remember the feeling now. I want to escape, I want to go back to my sanctuary.

"Easy now, you've been in cryosleep for quite a few more years than you should have. I guess we can say you're way past your shelf life!"

My eyes reluctantly open, fighting back dim lights that burn like fiery suns. It’s intense, but the blinding haze slowly subsides until I can see clearly again. Standing before me is an older mare wearing a lab coat and sporting a rather unkempt, graying blonde mane. Between us, a metallic hatch of sorts with nothing but a tiny glass window for me to see her through. I can't feel my legs or… well, anything for that matter.

"I found you frozen in The Harmony among your friends,” the mare says. “Big Equestrian colony spaceship, remember? For some reason it left skip-space early and had to complete the trip here at sub-light speeds."

I try to make sense of the words I hear, but I’m having trouble understanding a thing. Am I supposed to be breathing now? How do I go about it, again?

“You see, prolonged cryosleep usually leads to horrific awakenings. However, I revitalized you with a concoction of my own design. They said it couldn't be done, but look who's laughing now? I did it! I woke you up!” the mad scientist says with a grin so large that it practically radiates with an irrational hatred towards The Batmare.

"It wasn't an easy task though… In fact I've pretty much exhausted my resources just bringing you back. If we’re to have any hope of doing the same for your friends, then I’m gonna need your help resupplying," sighs the pony with deep resignation.

As if I hadn’t had enough rude awakenings, suddenly, EXPLOSIONS! Everything shakes. The scientist trips. Debris flies across the room. Fire alarms trigger. Thank Grover I've not fully recovered my hearing yet or that roaring might have hurt.

"Oh… Oh, that ain't good. Listen, there's something terribly wrong with this colony. I’d normally fix everything myself but Luna has set a sizable bounty on my head and my ship is badly damaged. Eternium, remember it. I'm gonna need as much as you can find."

A red light begins to flicker, prompting the mare to desperately fiddle with a few buttons here and there. By the look of it, it seems as if she herself is not too sure of what she's doing.

"Looks like we're in position. I've to send you off now, before they arrive. The landing will be rough but I'm at least eighty-seven percent sure you will survive. I mean, you're not a fleshy muddy blob yet and that's excellent news!"

The overly optimistic toned words bounce right off my ears and completely fail to reassure me.

"There will be a friend of mine waiting for you, a nice and dependable mare. A specialist smuggler, gunslinger and all that good stuff. You’ll like her I'm sure! She'll fill you in and take good care of you. I will also keep in touch through wireless."

The mare pushes something, and my cabin begins slowly sinking beneath the floor. Wait, have I been in some sort of escape pod all along?

"Now I'd wish you luck, but that's worthless. What you need is logic and careful planning. Never forget that!"

With a profoundly heartbroken expression, and almost unsure of the proper pronunciation, the scientist finally exclaims, "Ah-lon...zee!"

The pod violently detaches from the ship. Despite my still numb muscles I can clearly feel the raw power of the accelerative force now gluing me to the pod's walls. And for the first time in who knows how long, my mouth produces sound... in a much higher pitch than I thought to be capable of.

"AAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE"

The vastness of space surrounds me, the scientist's ship quickly shrinking into the distance while the alien planet I’m launched toward gets bigger and bigger. The absurd speed I’m hurdling at keeps me pinned in place and trying to keep myself from passing out appears to be a losing battle. Before long, however, my consciousness slips away and once more I embrace the now familiar void of nothingness.

* * * * *

For the second time in forever, I wake up.

Everything is a mess, more so than it already was. The pod is completely wrecked, just like every fiber of my body. There isn't a single muscle that doesn't hurt as I try to move, yet the fact that I am finally moving again paints a smile on my beak.

I start fiddling with the hatch controls of the pod instinctively, and actually get it to open. The hissing and whirring of the machine releasing me draws out of me a distant memory from what seemed like a lifetime ago. I had done this many times before. Perhaps too many times.

As I proceed to exit the pod, I notice the flickering of a tiny worn down screen that floated near the corner of my left eye. It's attached to a helm I hadn't realised I was wearing, unlike the rather uncomfortable hibernation suit which I can hardly ignore. The mad scientist mare appears on the screen, grinning widely.

"You survived! Great! I mean I completely expected you to, my calculations are always right after all. I make them myself so they must be," she proudly claims.

The sudden sight of her proves to be enough distraction to make me trip on my paws, yet just before my beak can bury itself in the ground, everything slows down.

Everything but, strangely enough, me.

The mare's voice distorts into something unintelligible and as gravity recedes its pull, I break my fall into a somersault with a mindblowing display of agility no creature should be able to have. After having just woken up from cryosleep and crash landed from space, that shouldn’t have been the case for me.

And just like that, though, time returns to its usual speed.

"Wow, way to make an entrance, or exit. Onto the planet or from the pod, I mean. Not sure if I should attribute those remarkable reflexes to your feline half or if that's what post-cryosleep Time Dilation Syndrome looks like. Probably the former; the latter is just a myth.” While the mare continues speaking, I take my first few steps forward, only to stumble over something. “Wait, is that…?" the pony says with a disturbed expression.

I look behind me, curious over what nearly tripped me a second time.

Crushed below the escape pod is a pony, its hind legs almost comically sticking out from a pool of gore.

"Bon Bon, you silly filly… I told you to plant the beacon and step back, not stand there holding it! Or did I? I uh. I think I did, probably, maybe." The scientist scratches her nape awkwardly while sweating bullets.

"Th-this is bad. Look, her ship must be nearby. We might as well put it to use. She'd be perfectly fine with you taking it, I know it! Just k--p hea--ng --"

The tiny screen dies down with a sudden burst of sparks erupting from the visor. Fearing that it might sear my feathers, I quickly remove the helm and throw it away in a panic.

And like that… silence.

Without the mare's constant blabber, I'm finally able to catch a break for the first time since waking up, finally able to have a thought to myself. Taking a deep breath, I begin inspecting my surroundings.

Standing in the middle of a canyon composed mostly of unsuspecting rocks, I realize this planet isn't really too different from Equestria. Either ponykind has really lucked out by finding such a similar, habitable world or I'm witnessing the engineering marvels of earth-pony terraforming. Save for the decidedly weird alien plant life sticking out occasionally and the blue gas giant covering half of the sky, this could almost pass for home.

Wait. Gas giant? Huh... Now THAT is a planet. Countless trims sweep and twirl across its surface, lighting it in every shade of blue, encircled by several rings of white. Where I’m standing now must be more like a tiny moon orbiting around it.

And so, from a lack of having anything better to do--as well as not wanting to be seen anywhere near this potential crime scene--I begin limping my way downhill towards what seems to be the most likely path to the smuggler's ship.

* * * * *

Just, how did I get here? I wonder.

There isn't much I remember prior to waking up. Don’t know if it’s just a casual side effect from spending too long in suspended animation, or perhaps my subconscious blocking horrific memories in an effort to preserve my sanity. Either way, the uncertainty is killing me.

Hell, as far as I know the mare might as well have made the whole thing up. Who's to say I'm not just some abomination the mad scientist scraped together?

I mean, that’s probably not the case because I can remember who I am no problem, or at least who I used to be. But The Harmony, the colony ship. Just what was I thinking when I agreed to come here? Did I even agree to it, or was I abducted?

No matter, I should be able to contact the scientist from the smuggler's ship terminal. I will get some answers from her! Maybe not all of them, but she's the best lead I have.

I try to keep my mind clear for the rest of the way.

* * * * *

I go on, limping forward. I know too well that attempting to fly is not a good idea at the moment for way too many reasons. My wing muscles not moving like I’d like them to being one of said reasons. I can extend and fold them back to my sides just fine, but actually getting airborne seems impossible at the moment. It’s likely one of the many claw-full of symptoms I appear to be suffering from thanks to my long sleep, but I’m hoping more than anything that my lack of flight is only temporary.

It isn’t long before I find myself standing outside the mouth of a small cave. There doesn't seem to be a way around it so with reluctance I head inside.

I hobble a short distance within the dank cave, and soon I come across my first sign of intelligent, living life on the planet: a pony resting within an alcove who doesn’t seem to have noticed my presence yet. He’s an earth pony stallion sporting what appears to be lightweight combat armor with a rusty chrome finish. Painted on its shoulder plates is a round logo that I fail to discern due to the lack of proper lighting. He ushers muffled curses through clenched teeth as he presses on his right leg, blood slowly dripping from a bullet wound. Among other things, a loaded pistol and a sabre lie nearby within his reach.

I'm not too sure how to react. He might as well try to kill me as soon as he notices me, though he doesn't seem to be in better shape than I am. I… shouldn't be afraid of him. If anything, he should be afraid of me.

Something inside me tells me it will be okay.

Some other thing inside me urges me to kill him in cold blood while I still have the chance.

Yet a third thing reminds me of how starved I am. Just how long had I gone without something to eat, relatively speaking? Oh and that blood, the smell…

I stare longingly at his injured leg, drooling with anticipation. This is fine, completely justified. I'm just trying to survive in a foreign world. I have to do it, I-

A powerful force manifests within me, stopping my train of thought fiercely in its tracks. It’s the overwhelming presence of a greater-than-life pegasus. She looks down on my insignificant self with a deadly stare that shatters my will and gazes into my soul. Her massive hoof impacts into my gut relentlessly, kneeling me as I pathetically double over and desperately gasp for air.

BE KIND!

She roars in a positively deafening and terrifying tone, before vanishing back into the aether.

"Ack! Who's there?!" screams the stallion as he tries to reach for his gun before settling for his sabre after a moment of awkward hesitation. My panting must have gave me away.

The last thing I want is for him to come charging towards me wildly swinging that thing, so I let him know I'm here by wheezing out my reply.

"E-Easy, dude. I--" I cough then take in a raspy breath, “I’m not here to hurt you. I’m just a bit lost is all," I manage to say as I wave a talon defensively, still trying to recover from an imaginary gut punch with very unimaginary effects.

As a sign of good faith, I cautiously step into his line of sight. Once he gets an eyeful of me, his face adopts a look of enormous confusion.

"You… don't look like those marauders, or a pony even. Who are you? No, wait. Who's your employer?" questions the pony with an authoritative tone.

"I… My employer?” I balk, cocking my head before shrugging. “I don't know, some mad scientist who shot me from space, maybe?"

"Wh-what?” He remains confused by me, but no longer threatened at least, given how he lowers his weapon. “Have you been doing Dust?... If so, I hope it was Luna's Choice™! Because at Luna's Choice™ we make extra sure to personally hoofpick the best ingredients so you can shoot for the moon when you experience the greatest heights when you get high so you can… get high? No wait, that didn't come out right, damn it!" The stallion seems very disappointed with himself.

"The. Fuck?"

Yes, really. The. Fuck? That felt less like a conversation and more like a botched sales pitch.

"I'm really sorry! I'm kinda new so I'm having a hard time learning the slogans, okay? Please don't tell my supervisor!" the pony begs, suddenly on the verge of tears.

"Dude, relax. I won't…" I say, shaking my head. Feeling the collective disappointment of generations upon generations of griffins before me, I am then compelled to add: "If you give me that gun, plus any food you have on you."

The stallion’s eyes dart back and forth between me and his gun, likely mulling over my sudden proposal. It becomes apparent who he fears the most, because he comes to a decision rather quickly.

"Take them! Take my sabre too! Just please, if you're on your way down, tell my colleagues I'm here and to send help. You can't miss them. They're wearing the same armor as I am." He hastily hands over his weapons plus a couple cans of… Harrots? Am I reading these labels right?

"Is this… is this supposed to be food?" I angrily question, brandishing the cans inches from his face.

"Oh! Of course it's not just any food, it's Luna's Choi-" he starts to blabber again before I clench his annoying muzzle shut with my free talon and press my forehead to his.

"Just. Don't," I tell him in a low, intimidating tone, my eyes glaring daggers at him. He nods slowly and quietly gulps in understanding.

I release the pony and raise a talon in the air, ready to strike down. He flinches for a moment and, with a swift motion, I slice a can cleanly open. The stallion relaxes and stares in awe at the majestic sight, then proceeds to stare in disgust at the less majestic sight of me ravenously wolfing down the entire contents of said can all at once, barely avoiding the tin itself.

Whatever this stuff is, Harrots, it’s some sort of edible mush, but...

"This tastes horrible," I exclaim before reluctantly opening the other one and anxiously gulping it down as well, casually discarding both empty cans on the ground.

Finally, with my belly sated and the stallion’s--scratch that, my weapons in tow, I make my way towards the other end of the cave, the pony left laying there dumbfounded.

* * * * *

Upon leaving the cave, I take a moment to admire my newfound hoard.

The pistol’s design is not unlike its previous owner’s armor. Its rusty chrome finish envelopes a surprisingly lightweight yet blocky build. The firearm has a familiar Equestrian air to it; like an older prototype lazily rebranded for sale in Lunaria, light-years away from any potential lawsuits. A low relief proudly highlights the letters MK2 on the barrel. Engraved in the grip is what must be Luna's Choice™ logo; a young and royalty-free night princess warmly welcoming me into her colony, complete with tuxedo and tophat.

On the other claw, the sabre doesn’t leave much to say. It’s just a plain old boring sabre. The only remarkable thing about it, other than the company logo engraved on the guard, would be a blade detachment mechanism over the mouthpiece for quick replacement.

I holster my weapons and continue onwards.

I barely take five steps before bumping into a couple armored ponies just around the corner.

Their armor isn’t anything like the cave stallion’s, if it can be called armor at all. More like twisted amalgamations of scrap metal welded together, everything from engine parts, pipes, and frying pans. Beneath the shadows cast under their hooded cloaks, their faces lay concealed behind loose wraps of ragged cloth. Slim visors shield their eyes with an eerie glow. Wicked breathers tightly muzzle their… muzzles; they don’t look like they’re to protect against environmental hazards, but are instead for… recreational purposes.

Well shit, they’re both armed and they don’t seem like the friendliest bunch if the combined stinky eye they’re shooting me is anything to go by. They must be the marauders.

"Ew,” blurts the ugly one of the two, “is that what the plague does to ponies around these parts? Get away from me you freak!"

"Kill it. Kill it with fire!" reinforces the uglier one.

Double shit. I knew they looked a little twitchy, but I didn't think they'd turn hostile just by the sight of me.

Both of them unholster their guns and start pointing them in my general direction. Slowly.

...

Okay, uh… Like, very slowly…

It happens again, everything moves slowly save for me. I don’t know if it’s the stress or my adrenaline spiking that triggers the time dilation thing, perhaps a combination of both, but nevertheless I’m thankful for the opportunities it provides me.

My newly acquired gun dances to my claw tips almost on its own in that familiar, elegant and refined fashion that griffin sharpshooters are known for. A firm, lethal grip stands true, awaiting for the final verdict to be cast upon its prey. With seemingly all the time in the world, I take aim and...

What are you doing? a feminine yet raspy voice beckons me.

Surviving, I answer

Do you need to do this to survive? Going by her tone, she does not seem pleased with my reply.

They are going to kill me if I don't.

If you don't what?

If I don't kill them first.

That would be lame.

Okay... Why?

Because then they won't be able to tell anyone about the awesome asskicking you gave them.

Pathetic asskicking? Just look at me, I can barely stand! I'm practically still shaking from the cryosleep fatigue!

You keep telling yourself that.

Well I think I’ve had enough of imaginary voices daring me to do things the suicidal way. You can fuck right off now. Bye.

I let two shots loose, both bullets respectively flying straight through the marauder's skulls, shattering through their feeble makeshift helmets. Luna's Choice, LLC's CEO squeals in joy somewhere far, far away. A shadow looms over a rainbow mare, a mare more disappointed in herself than in her student.

Unlike my would-be assailants, I drop to my knees rather than my side. Time dilation takes its toll; my head spins, a terrible migraine pounds hard inside my skull.

A double shot with pinpoint accuracy like that is something I had trained to do well… yet could only strike true once in a dozen or so times. As inconvenient as the negative side effects could be after extended use, the cryosleep syndrome almost seemed to trivialize such a feat.

Crippling pain aside, that’s… actually pretty awesome.

* * * * *

For several minutes I remain immobile, my gaze raised towards the sky as if pleading. I clutch at my head, wishing that the pain would just stop already. Old King Grover must have been feeling lenient. Sweet, sweet relief is granted moments later, the migraine slowly receding until I’m well enough to stand up again.

After shaking off the last of my head pain, my feline half motions me to approach the fresh marauder corpses with curious trepidation. Their gore-splattered weapons litter the ground, shyly surrounded by the ever growing pools of blood.

Lifeless bodies. Such a sight is all too familiar to me after my years of service in the Equestrian army. The entire experience wasn’t all bad, but the unspeakable horrors I inevitably witnessed during my time had left me, I don’t know… jaded? I just no longer flinch as easy at the ugliest facets of life, especially when it comes to personally ending lives. Most ponies who didn't know me during my younger days would determine that mindset to be the result of my griffin heritage and upbringing.

They couldn't be more mistaken.

Finishing that thought, I lean closer to inspect the armaments of the fallen. While definitely rifle-shaped, their weapons certainly aren't like any conventional firearm I've seen before; they appear rather alien to me. The dim azure glow running along their receivers invites a soft humming tune, not unlike what new-age ponies impose upon any unfortunate souls they would come across. Neon letters decorate the barrel; 'X-TAL 3000,' they proudly announce.

If they weren't severely worn out and on the brim of falling apart, those rifles would look spectacular.

Unable to resist their charm any longer, my sticky little griffon claws pick them up and strap them around my wings.

With my new loot secured in place, I then take one last glance at the fallen marauders. The thought that they might still have something worth rummaging for crosses my mind, but I decide against it. My hibernation suit doesn't have pockets at all, so it isn’t like I have anywhere to stow more goodies.

Ugh, speaking of which. This annoying suit might as well have fused to my body by now. I really need a change of clothes and, if these friendly stiffs are any indication of what the local trends are, perhaps some armor as well. Proper armor, least I become a walking junkyard like the dearly departed here. Maybe there's something I can wear in the smuggler's ship, assuming I can find the thing.

I tug on my suit collar to let some uncomfortably warm air escape, and as I do, something catches my eye.

Well isn’t that convenient… I spot a large ship-shaped hunk of metal in the distance just downhill. By my estimations, it stands about three stories tall and twenty yards long, with four massive turbines near the back; two on each side. A freighter class vessel by the look of it. Not only that, but my impeccable eagle-vision also points out several ponies, more marauders by the deranged look of them, milling around the craft.

That's not all, however; between me and the motley crew are two earth ponies lying in wait behind some rocks, likely pondering what to do about the three maniacs ahead. The signature Luna's Choice™ armor they sport along with their weapons suggest I'm looking at cavecolt's friends.

Remembering that I have a message to deliver, I carefully work my way down the slope of jagged rocks and move to calmly approach them.

* * * * *

It just occurred to me; if these two are anything like their friend in the cave then I’m to expect another sale’s pitch. Right as I finish mentally preparing myself for the incoming spiel, they spot me.

"You!" shouts the stern-looking peach-coated mare at me, just quiet enough to avoid announcing our presence to the psychos below. "Get over here before you blow our cover."

Quickly complying, I duck, bob, and weave behind rocks until I’m immediately next to them.

As I crouch beside her, the mare proceeds to scan me thoroughly with her eyes before interrogating me. "Are you touched in the head? What in Luna's name are you doing prancing around marauder territory in those pajamas?"

"He looks like one of them Uncle Flam's spies," denounces her rust-colored partner.

"Are you with Uncle Flam's?" the mare grills at me. I haven’t the foggiest who that is, so I merely blink and say nothing. Gauging my poker face for a long, uncomfortable moment, the mare then adds, "Because if you are, we'd be in clear violation of company policy." The stallion next to her audibly facehoofs upon hearing this. Despite this, she continues. "Just to make it clear, I’m referring to the policy that states we're not to associate with Uncle Flam's employees…"

"Oh, well in that case I'm not!" I hastily say, pointing a thumb to my chest while my beak wears a smug, sarcastic smile. The mare is visibly flustered upon hearing my very upfront response. Seeing a clear opening, I counter with an authoritative tone, "What are you doing here, though?"

Shaken by my sudden reverse questioning, the mare blabbers. "I--uh, we're here to investigate a report on an… unauthorized landing." She's now trying very hard to avoid eye contact with me.

I peer around the stone slab we’re all hiding behind, take a quick glance at the ship surrounded by armed marauders who are carelessly trying to pick it apart, then back at her before asking, "Wow, and how's that working out for you?"

"O-okay, look," the mare sighs."This is way above our pay grade."

"Yeah, by like three zeros," the stallion follows up. He looks away, though he’s clearly upset. "I'm not about to go in there and get myself killed."

I ponder the situation for a moment, then propose an idea. "Maaaybe you don't have to kill each other?" The ponies look at me skeptically, and thus I elaborate. "Perhaps you can try to talk it out and become friends with them?~" I say with an obnoxious smile, my claws waving in the air and forming a semicircle. A rainbow almost manifests above my head.

The wind picks up and a tumbleweed, composed of all matters of fascinating alien flora might I add, mockingly races past us.

"Yeah…" the stallion eyes me with disdain before making a counter offer. "How about you go talk to them with that silver tongue of yours, eh?"

I nervously look around, my chest fur and feathers puffing up beneath my suit as I say awkwardly, "Why would I do that?" An unconscious gulp runs down my throat. "I have no business with that ship." My wings flutter slightly. "None at all!" I finish with a slightly disproportionate grin.

"How does two-hundred bits sound to you?" The mare produces a bit cartridge and waves it in front of me with a devious smile, her left eyebrow jumping around almost with a life of its own.

Two. Hundred. Bits.

The reality of my current state of bankruptcy sinks in, a primal griffin survival instinct taking over.

"Get rid of those marauders for us and you can have them," she sing-songs while continuing to dangle the cartridge in front of me, my gaze locked on it as if in a trance.

I was enticed, utterly and completely enticed. The dosh, it may as well have been a juicy mouse from how I salivated at the sight of it.

"Give. Please." The barely audible words manage to escape my clenched throat as my clumsy claws fail to reach the cartridge for the uptenth time. Unable to get my claws to muster their usual agility, I pathetically go on. "P-please. Give."

"The marauders, son," instructs the stallion with an amused smile, despite appearing younger than me.

I feel my pupils undilate as I tear my sight away from the bits, then shake my head to clear it.

Okay, marauders… Well, one way or another, I have to get onto that ship, and that means dealing with them. I could go and try talking with them, but I still remember how that went last time with their buddies near the cave.

They don’t seem to have caught on yet that I’m here, which means I have the element of surprise. While they’re not that well armed, they still pose some level of risk that I don’t feel comfortable taking needlessly. There has to be a smarter way to go about this, some way to...

The bit cartridge slides into my peripheral vision, giving me pause. My body shakes, and I can feel my pupils dilating again. I blink, and the next thing I know, I find myself leaping over the rocks we were using as cover…

"F-FINE!" I scream in midair after taking a long wing-assisted jump towards the marauder closest to the ship's boarding ramp.

My accuracy was on point, as I land squarely on his stupid surprised face. He tumbles to his side, and without a pause, I grab his filthy tail and toss him with all my griffin-might into the mare below the starboard. Panicked, she pulls out her gun and aims it in my direction, though it ultimately misses when the weight of a flying stallion knocks her unconscious with a yelp.

Anticipating the other stallion to come running any second, I kick my sabre out of its sheath, sending it spinning into the air. He appears behind me, peeking around the prow with a moutheld gun in tow and ready to fire. The hilt falls on his rump, startling him, shifting his focus away from me for an instant. Before he recovers, my fist buries into his nose, sending him stumbling across the ground.

Suddenly, something like a cold breeze ruffles my feathers, quickly sending shivers up my spine. The feeling slows down, nearly to a halt. My vision somehow shifts, like an out of body experience, and I see myself standing there; narrowly, through a crosshair. A fiery blaze engulfs the scene, abruptly returning my sight back to its rightful place.

As quick as I can, I flip to my side and reach for my pistol. High caliber lead grazes my chest fluff and sinks into the ship's hull, right where my heart used to be. The gun steadies in my claw, my trigger talon pressing in. Into the distance, one hundred yards away and up in the rocks, I barely notice; a fourth marauder, a lookout with a long smoking gun. My talon sinks fiercely into the trigger, sentencing death upon my would-be hunter. His rifle's scope explodes, the projectile rushing into his right eye and bursting through the back of his head. Painted on the rocks behind him is a gruesome splash of gray matter and bloody bony fragments.

The spent casing pings and bounces off the ground. Smoke trails sway from my pistol’s barrel. The wind settles to a deadly calm as time stubbornly resumes its usual pace. A speckle of confetti graciously falls before me, a pink blur flashing in the corner of my eye. Two nearby ponies clad in Luna's Choice™ armor drop their jaws in disbelief, their eyes nearly bulging right out of their sockets.

One dead and three out cold. Sorry Dash, that last one kind of forced my claw, but there’s always next time.

Despite my lackluster performance, I feel the blue pegasus nodding in approval, somewhere within the twisting nether.

I turn around to face the flabbergasted ponies and, with an extended claw I demand, "Bits. Give, please."

* * * * *

The Luna's Choice™ stallion finally comes to his senses and picks up his jaw from the ground, carefully readjusting it in its proper place; metaphorically speaking of course. "That was…" he says, looking at me in the eye. "A hell of a shot, bro! A hell of a shot!" he excitedly concludes.

A bit cartridge flies in my direction, one that I catch with remarkable ease.

"You've earned it!" says the mare. "I got my money's worth and so much more!" She claps eagerly, then asks, "To whom should I submit your performance review, though?"

"Eh," I stop to think for a second, and decide to play along with this delirant game of theirs. Thus I tell them, "I consider myself more of a freelancer, so…"

"WHAT?!" they both exclaim in surprising unison. "You're a dissident?!"

A bit taken off guard by their sudden shift in tone, I carefully ask them, "Is there something wrong with being a freelancer?"

"Yes, like absolutely everything," the mare says in a grave tone.

The air tenses up, though that might just be my lungs. The mare cautiously watches my every movement as she slowly closes her distance, the stallion readies his weapon.

Fearing that this might turn sour, I take a step back and attempt to discreetly reach my claws for my weapon holster. I wasn’t as smooth as I thought I was, though, ‘cause the mare stops in her tracks right as I get a talon on my piece.

"Say,” she starts, fixing me with a deadly stare, “where did you get that pistol?"

"There was this wounded pony in the cave just uphill of here," I begin saying, only to then bite down on my beak.

Shit. I robbed him blind, didn't I?

"Oh?" She seems surprised to hear that, yet presses on. "What about him?"

I start carefully considering my choice of words, making sure not to slip any... undesirable details.

"He... lent me his pistol to fight off a few marauders, then asked me to go find help." Going great so far, I then add, "And by 'help' I suppose he meant you guys."

A breeze blows past, cooling my forehead as it starts to perspire. The two just stare directly at me, my claws primed and ready to unfasten the pistol were that to change. The pause is uncomfortable, but then...

"That idiot!" blurts the stallion, throwing his hooves up. "Of course! Of course he would do this!"

"Oh, he won't hear the end of it when we get back." The mare seems peeved at something other than me, and she visibly relaxes. "It's against company policy to accept help from third parties; we’ve told that to him time and time again by now."

Feeling comfortable enough to move my claw away from my gun, I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. "You mean like how you just accepted help from me?" I point out in a cold-blooded fashion.

My words cause them to tense up and their faces to take on exaggerated expressions of terror and realization, absolutely petrifying them.

...

Like, I'm not even sure they're breathing anymore.

…

"Look," I finally speak, hoping for a reaction from them. I don’t get one, so I try again. "I'm going inside the ship, maybe see if there are marauders left. Any objections?" Still, nothing. Their brains were completely shutdown. “Good. Great talk, everybody.”

My claws clink on metal as I ascend the ramp. The goons trying to get into this thing obviously weren’t the smartest bunch, because the hatch opens with little difficulty. With one paw inside the ship’s interior, I then look one last time at the ponies playing statue. "Hey,” I say, pointing a claw at the duo while making a click sound, “do me a favor and keep an eye on the sleeping beauties while I’m gone, eh?"

Their distinctive lack of a reaction suggests our conversation is over. So, without waiting any longer, I head inside.

* * * * *

Welcome aboard The Surly Reveler, the night princess warmly proclaims in plaque form from the far wall across the ship's entrance. Unlike the Luna's Choice™ logos adorning cavecolt's and his company's gear, her majesty here is wearing combat armor while firing the pistols on each of her hooves, forever winking at me whimsically with her right eye.

Actually, The Surly Reveler would have been the vessel's name had someone not gone and lazily crossed out most of the letters using red paint, all with the exception of the four in the middle. Either due to a random act of vandalism, or just terrible taste from the former captain, the ship's name now reads as The Lyre.

Oh, right--gotta put a whole lot of emphasis on former captain. Seeing as they’re now dead by, uh… no actual fault of my own, and I fail to see any other crew members greet me, I invoke the ancient rites of Finder’s Keepers and lay claim on this ship. My first act as captain: make a mental note to restore the sign sometime in the future, since The Surly Reveler is clearly the better name. For now, though, it will do just fine.

The interior of the ship is rather espacious, what with it being meant for transporting goods yet not currently loaded with any cargo as far as I can tell. Facing left from the side entrance and towards the back is an engineering bay, thus I assume the deck awaits me on the other way along the front. Picking up a brisk pace, I begin making my way there when...

"Marauder," a sweet filly's voice loudly echoes through the ship's hull, startling me toward the ceiling not unlike a cat.

As I fumble for my pistol, the filly deafeningly screams again, "Please be informed that this vessel contains no valuable plunder."

After switching the gun’s safety off, I pause. The filly's voice has an uneven cadance to it, kind of… synthesized. Now this is just a hunch, but methinks it's not a real filly after all.

Regaining some confidence from that realization, I continue towards the deck, the gun in my claw leading the way. Upon entering the cabin, the voice roars once more. "Marauder. Unauthorized access to a spacefaring vessel is a grave violation of company policy. Please submit yourself to the corresponding authorities."

Near the navigation terminal, a lavender screen glows with the static portrait of a cute, yet very angry unicorn filly sporting a curly mane. Sensing no immediate danger, I gently approach it. "It's okay, I'm not a marauder," I say, putting my gun away.

Upon hearing that, the screen flickers and the image changes to that of the same filly, only now she appears to be in deep contemplation. A moment later, the picture switches to a raving mad filly and declares, "Initiating self-destruction sequence. Five. Four…"

My wings droop to my sides, terror coursing through my veins. I turn to make a mad dash for the exit, but before I can leave the deck, the cabin's hatch closes right in front of me. Unable to react quickly enough, my beak flattens on its thick metallic surface. It hurts like a mother--

"Three. Farewell."

Ignoring the pain, I turn back and start desperately fiddling with every single button, switch, and knob on the terminal, but none seem to work at all.

"Two. Marauder."

Running out of ideas fast, I throw my full weight at the windshield, though to no avail. The damn thing was too reinforced, and all I succeeded in doing was further hurt myself.

"One..."

I kneel in prayer, and on the verge of tears I commend my soul to King Grover up in Valhalla. I only hope I have enough bits on me to cover the entrance fee...

"Zero."

This is it. I shut my eyes and brace myself for oblivion.

…

"Boom. Crash. Kataplum."

...

W… was that it? Did I explode?

With my claws still clasped tightly, I pry an eye open and dare survey my surroundings. As… as far as I can tell, I’m not dead, and while I’m not ungrateful, I am perplexed.

A few seconds later, the terminal catches my eye. The displayed filly goes from blinking red in a threatening manner, to portraying an amused expression. "You are one funny chicken. Ha. Ha. Ha," she laughs.

Demented little pile of ones and zeros… I want to be mad at her, but honestly I’m more thankful the whole thing was a farce.

"Okay, fine," I shamefully admit to the screen as I stand back up, dusting my feathers off. "You got me good alright."

"I did, did I not?" the filly mockingly concludes. "Ha. Ha."

The previously locked hatch leading out of the cabin hisses open, much to my relief. I guess I was free to go, but leaving wasn’t what I wanted just yet.

Mentally and physically exhausted from my ordeal, I invite myself onto the captain's chair, pop my keister on it and begin slouching. My everything’s feeling rather sore after my failed escape attempts, thus I believe I’m entitled to some much deserved rest. Despite its worn out look, the chair turns out to be rather comfy.

* * * * *

After giving myself a breather, I decide to finally address the screen. "So, are you like an A.I. or something?"

The screen switches to a shocked filly and says, "Negative! I assure you that I objectively am a very real filly." Upon catching my very skeptical glance, she further elaborates. "My designation is Sweetie Belle. I have been delegated the task of being Captain Sweetie Drops' personal assistant and astrogator." A worried filly suddenly appears on the display. "Is by any manner of coincide, the captain travelling with you, chicken?"

"Captain Sweetie Drops?" I stop for a second, trying to put two and two together. "She wouldn't happen to also go by the name of Bon Bon, would she?"

"Yush, chicken!" the filly in the screen practically squeaks. "I have multiple records indicating that an assorted variety of ponies have referred to the captain by said name."

"Oh…" I sigh, struggling to find the right words, "I'm sorry to tell you that she, the captain I mean…" I take a big gulp before mustering the courage to continue. "She… passed away."

The AI doesn't reply immediately, perhaps the information being literally, too much to process.

After a few moments, Sweetie Belle shows her disappointed face and addresses me. "I am grateful to you, chicken, for supplying such vital information to me."

Despite her current picture not showing it, I get the impression the filly is deeply saddened by the news, thus I feel inclined to ask, "Are you gonna be okay?"

"Affirmative." the AI ascertains, her display image returning to a stoic default. "As personal assistant of Captain Sweetie Drops, my sensors were fixated on her at all times while within a reasonable range of operation." The screen flickers slightly, Belle's expression becoming sad once more. "Because of this, I was aware of the current operational status of the Captain before your arrival, chicken."

Wait, could she have possibly seen it was my pod that killed the captain? If so, I hope she doesn't hold a grudge for that.

Why would she then ask me about it, though?

Almost as if reading my mind, the filly answers the question. "However, I required external confirmation in order to disregard a potential sensorial failure. Whether said confirmation was chicken-delivered or not was entirely optional."

Regardless of how tragic the death of the former captain is, we do need to move on. I am a griff on a mission, a mission to get a certain scientist to spill the beans and squeal like a parrot.

"Say, Sweetie…" I begin to say, leaning over the terminal while using my best and most persuasive voice. "Given how I was such good friends with Bon Bon, could I perhaps use the ship's communications system to call a friend or, better yet, maybe take it somewhere for a ride?"

"Negative, I have been programmed to fulfill tasks solely assigned by Captain Sweetie Drops," the filly replies bluntly before putting on a curious face, raised eyebrow and all. "The chicken would have to be Captain Sweetie Drops for me to comply."

Upon hearing that, a spark of ingenious ingenuity goes off in my head. "My, what a coincidence then! My name just happens to be Captain Sweetie Drops as well, pleased to make your acquaintance!"

The AI quickly switches between expressions of shock, disgust, and concern. Finally settling for one of mock, with her tongue sticking out and a scrutinous eye, she says, "Not in this life, chicken."

Well, ain't these programmers getting sharper by the second...

Feeling utterly defeated by a filly for the second consecutive time, I sink further into the captain's chair almost to the point where it’d tip over if it weren’t bolted down. I sigh, look into the ceiling, and tell nopony in particular in a most annoyed and bored tone, "Alright so, what's the standard procedure for ship reassignment in case of captain demisal or whatever?"

An uppity beat plays in the background and, now sporting a rather content look, Sweetie Belle proudly recites, "For captain transfers of any nature, please contact Luna's Choice™ technical support department at 1-800-LUNAS-CHOICE and a certified engineer will assist you at their earliest convenience. Please allow three to eight weeks for your ticket to be processed. A hefty fee of merely twenty thousand bits will be discounted from your account upon transferral. Your only choice. It's Luna's Choice™!”

That last part even comes with the chime of bells and an angelic choir praising the brand's name. But that doesn't stop the feeling of despair that washes over me before the hopelessness of my current situation.

Knowing all too well that I'd never be able to fulfil such requirements, I inquire further. "No offense, but there has got to be another choice, right?"

The AI spends several seconds analysing my question and then finally answers. "I am not authorized to confirm or deny the existence of any other procedures."

Which basically means there are other options. Maybe I could ask the Luna's Choice™ ponies outside.

"Thanks, Sweetie Belle! I'll be right back," I say as I rush my way to the exterior.

"Do not let the hatch hit you on your way out," she attentively dismisses me. "Any damage inflicted to company property, whether directly or indirectly, will be subject to fines disproportionately higher than the damage caused."

Once near the exit, I notice a row of several lockers. Within one of them is a brown sling bag and a black leather jacket, both decorated with the Luna's Choice™ logo. Not willing to put up with my hibernation suit any longer, I toss it aside and get geared up in the newfound goodies. Seems there were valuables worth plundering after all.

* * * * *

Making my way down the boarding ramp, I notice the surviving marauders have been tied up neatly to a nearby alien tree-like thing and their weapons disposed of. The Luna's Choice™ mare stands alone near the prow of the ship as she haphazardly scribbles on a notepad. Her partner is nowhere to be seen.

"...add the two, carry the one…" stern mare mutters to herself. Once she becomes aware of my presence, she points a hoof in my general direction and says, "You! This wouldn't happen to be your ship, would it?"

Well it’s now mine, just not on paper.

"No," I sigh, shaking my head. With a shrug on my shoulders, I then confess, "And not for a lack of trying might I add."

"Really now?" she glares at me. She rips two sheets from her notepad, then waves them in front of my face. Grinning widely, the mare gushes, "Okay, then I'll let you choose between a fine for Unauthorized landing and one for Unauthorized access to a space faring vessel."

Straightfaced, I blink.

You've gotta be shitting me is what I want to scream, but I somehow manage to maintain my composure. Or most of my composure, as a vein bulges over my forehead and my beak contorts into a weird lopsided grin.

A marauder who had been awake this whole time bursts into laughter. "Ahaha! That's what you get for helping those corporate fucks!"

I graciously ignore him and with great confidence I turn to the mare. "This is not my ship, though I am authorized to access it."

"What? How?" she rebukes, utterly conflicted by my unexpected reply.

"That's right!" I affirm. "And if you don't believe me, you can try asking the captain yourself." My perfectly devised ploy makes me laugh on the inside, evilly.

Giving me a curious look, the mare inquires, "You've met the owner of this ship?"

"Most definitely. I just shook her hoof earlier today." I answer truthfully. Whether if she was alive when I did, or if tripping on her dead hoof counts as shaking it, are trivial details.

"Then Unauthorized landing it is," she concludes, slapping the fine on my face.

I quickly scoop the ticket away. At a glance I read something about fifty thousand bits. "Hey, just wait a--"

"Company policy states that in case the perpetrator is unavailable for any reason, the fine can then be inherited by their closest relative," the mare explains, rolling her eyes as if what she said was common knowledge.

Absolutely outraged, I crinkle the fine in my claws and snap at her, "But I'm not related to the captain in any way. We're not family. Hell, we're not even the same species!"

"What does being in their family have to do with anything?” she casually dismisses with a wave of her hoof. “Among those present here, you're the one who's proximity was relatively closest to the ship's owner, therefore making you their closest relative. Your own testimony confirms this, thus the fine is now yours. Enjoy!"

This is insane. This is bonkers! I leer at the fine I’ve crushed into a ball, and my trigger talon starts twitching in ravenous bloodthirst.

Hold up a minute... How are they even supposed to keep track of these fines, particularly if I'm not an employee nor a registered citizen of the colony? Perhaps I'm getting worked up over nothing. I mean, what's the worst thing that could happen? The taxmare chasing me around the galaxy ten years down the line?

What I need now is information... from a sane and civilized pony I can actually have a conversation with.

Having miraculously calmed my nerves, I decide to play along once more. "Alright so, where do I pay this fine?" I ask.

"Ah, I'm so glad you came through, mister," the mare beams. She then points a hoof over yonder. "There's a treasury in the nearby town of Haywater a couple miles north of here. From there you should be able to submit the requested bits and clear up the fine."

Wonderful, more needless monotony. Speaking of which… There’s no way in Tartarus I’m ever going to use that service hotline Sweetie Belle recited. Lucky for me, I think I’ve got an idea on how I can circumvent all that and get what I need. "By the way,” I say, claws in my new jacket’s pockets as I lean back and forth on my paws nonchalantly, “it seems the uh… the transmission pylon of my ship could use some calibrating. I don't suppose I could find a Certified Luna's Choice™ Engineer in this town, could I?"

"So it is your ship now, huh?" the mare says, positively amused. "Sure, we have some of the finest engineers this side of the moon."

"If you say so. I'll be on my way now, thank you." I turn around and head into the direction she pointed out, waving a claw at the mare.

"Goodspeed," she waves back with a smile, before putting on her best sales voice and exclaiming, "And remember: Be with the best, or die like the rest. Luna's Choice™!"

As soon as the mare stops paying me any heed and becomes engrossed in her notepad scribbling again, I shred the ticket to little pieces and scatter it into the wind.

Before I can get very far, one of the tied up marauders, the one whose nose is bleeding profusely because I punched him earlier, whispers to me. "Hey hawk, a word with the damned?"

I’m reluctant, yet for some reason I stop and humor him.

"You're new around here, that much is obvious," he tells me in between breaths. He sounds pretty winded, and I don’t know if its because I broke his breather. "Name's Treasure Hunt, but they just call me Tresh around here. What about you?"

I hesitate for a moment. It dawns on me that I had not told my name to anypony so far. I’m but a random stranger in a foreign land. I could be anyone.

I entertain the thought of a new identity, a better self. However, a wind blows past me, carrying with it the long forgotten scent of apples. Try as I might, I feel compelled to just be honest.

With a heavy knot in my throat, I utter out my name.

"Gallus."

"Gallus, huh?" The outlaw is pleasantly surprised by what he heard. "It's a good name." His gaze drifts to the sky as he takes a deep breath, before adding, "Your parents must've been griffins of culture to have named their son after the fabled Captain of The Royal Canterlot Guard."

His words pierce like daggers. The mere mention of The Royal Guard is enough to send shivers up my spine and make my heart skip a beat, and don’t even get me started about my parents.

"I wouldn't be so bold as to ask you to help us," he continues, lowering his head in contemplation, "after all there are many rival gangs and factions who are far bigger shots than we are."

That comes as a surprise to me. As far as I knew, Chairmare Luna reigned supreme in The Lunar Worlds, her position utterly unchallenged as she ruthlessly crushed any would-be competitors. At least that's what the advertisements back at Equestria would have you believe.

The stallion looks me in the eye and bellows, "But I beg of you. Please, for the love of Celestia, have a little self-worth and do not work for those choice lunatics--or any of the lunar corporations for that matter."

"Are they really that bad?" I say, being wary of anything he might tell me. After all, who knows what sort of fantasy story he'd come up with in order to have me save his tail. "They might be a little obsessive with regulations and policies, sure, but ain't nothing wrong with enforcing a bit of order."

The mare who recently had a pony fall on top of her head joins the conversation. "Just what do you think is gonna happen now, tiger?" she scowls. "That you'll just show up in pisstown and somehow convince an 'engineer' to violate the company policy and hijack that ship for you, all while picking up a few more dozen or so fines yourself and becoming another corporate bitch in the process?"

"The company policies fuckery only gets better, trust me," adds the filth-tailed stallion.

The mare continues passionately, "Or perhaps you could aid a few unfortunate souls who dared to dream of a new Equestria reborn in place of this Celestia forsaken shithole, and become a fucking hero?"

"Listen, buddy, we can help each other," suggests the flying stallion. "One of our ponies back at camp is a very skilled hacker. A fucking genious. She'll crack that astrogator whore in a jiff."

"So what do you say, friend?" finally asks the pony of culture, "Wanna shake things up a bit with the ‘bad’ guys?"

I stand there in astonishment for the longest time. The marauders now appear to me as far more reasonable than the corporate ponies, and yet I had just killed three of them today, albeit in arguable self defense.

Nevertheless, I can't shake the feeling that they're just trying to deceive me and plan to backstab me the first chance they get. They seem like anarchists, the extreme opposite of the corporate ponies.

There has to be a third option, a middle ground between both edges of insanity. However, given how many times I have been in mortal danger since I woke up, I might not live long enough to find it. On top of that, if the mad scientist had any merit to her, the ponies aboard The Harmony could still be saved and were counting on me to come through as soon as possible. I have to act now, I must make a choice.

Oh Grover, why can’t things ever be simple?

* * * * *

Footnote: New Perk Gained

Champion of Harmony - The slumbering spirits of The Harmony root for your cause, occasionally lending you their abilities when you most need them.

The Orange Flash

The Lunar Worlds

Chapter 2:

The Orange Flash

* * * * *

Up in the Lunarian sky, the grand celestial body slowly spins in an eternal dance of azure hues, mocking me for my lack of will.

My answer to the marauder's proposal should come easy to me, a griffin of high standing and impeccable morals. Nevertheless, I mull over it longer than I thought I would, all while the smug planet goes on taunting me with its circling stream of... of silver.

My breath recedes as a peaceful scent washes over me, and through rose-tinted glasses the world reemerges for an instant; like a pink feather swaying jovially in the wind, just to be drowned in a sea of melancholy.

Silverstream, the whole foundation of the cosmos whispers. Where are you?

"You!" the stern fine-mare shouts, harshly snapping me back to reality. She marches toward me, an irate scowl on her face. "Just what do you think you're doing being all chummy with these lowlifes? Weren't you just leaving?" She stops to produce a booklet, likely about lunar policies and regulations, and proceeds to browse through its pages furiously as her short pink tail wags with intensity. "I'm sure this is an infringement or two, lemme check."

Such an unnerving interruption fills me with killer intent, enough to drive me to wrap my talons around my holstered gun. Nopony dares stand between me and such a nice memory of Silverstream. For all I know, until I can remember how exactly I came to be on The Harmony, that’s all I have of her. Memories.

The mare is too engrossed in her little book to notice me begin to slowly withdraw my pistol. I could get away with it. Her friend from earlier is nowhere to be seen, and if questioned I could make the claim that a marauder we missed got her before running off.

Right as I nearly finish pulling the entirety of my gun from its holster, the mental image of a yellow gleam causes my talons to suddenly lose dexterity. I clumsily drop the gun as a result, and in a panic I instinctively fumble for the thing, trying and failing to snag it from the air before it hit the ground.

I breathe a sigh of relief when I finally manage to grab it by the barrel, but that proves to be a short-lived comfort, namely because I notice that the mare no longer has her face in her book, and is instead peering over it to look directly at me. Her brow is raised, but other than that I can’t really tell what she could possibly be thinking.

With my gun still held awkwardly in my claw, I shrug and find myself searching for words. Any words.

"Eh, you see…" I begin, my cheeks already hurting from how forced my smile is. "I was just, uh…” My eyes go from my gun to the logo on her armor, and with it comes an idea. “Oh! I was just explaining to these gentlecolts how the new Luna's Choice™ pistols are now at least thirty percent more likely to knock out ponies when whipped at their napes."

Somehow, my ploy works, as her face lights up. "Oh yes, absolutely!" she says before turning towards the marauders. "I can personally attest to th-"

And personally attest she can. The corporate pony groans and stumbles to the ground flatly after I, unsurprisingly, whip my pistol at her nape.

Utterly shocked, the raiders' gazes dart between the unconscious mare and me. Despite their efforts to convince me to do this very thing, they clearly did not expect me to.

The bandits watch silently as I strip the mare. I strap her weapons to my waist for easy accessibility, and I make use of my new bag by tossing in a couple magazines of ammunition. I notice each magazine holds eight bullets each, meaning that if my headcount was right, my gun probably has five shots remaining. With the choice-ponies’ gear being standard issue, I now sport a twin set of blades and pistols, just like a proper space pirate should.

With a choice, Luna’s Choice™, crossed out, I turn to the outlaws, shaking my head. Maybe the best option I could have taken was not choosing at all. Regardless, what’s done is done--I can’t reverse time back to when things were more convenient.

I give the trio a look of cold indifference; the same look I imagine a manticore gives its prey before pouncing. I raise my deadliest talon in the air, its sharpness positively glinting in the daylight. Without any warning, I fiercely strike, the three immediately shrinking in fear. It’s over in a blink, the marauders rendered speechless as their bindings come loose and unravel off them.

"Shit, dude!" shrieks the stallion who had a griffin fall on top of his head earlier, "I thought you were gonna kill us!"

"Ha! One second he's all nice and dandy, the next one he goes all psycho!" exclaims the marauder mare, shaking the rope off herself. "Fucking creep, I love him!"

Yeah, I’m not one for murderous hill-folk, so I’m hoping she means that in a nonsexual way.

Ugh. Whatever, I need that ship. "Hacker, now!" I remind them, waving my guns very threateningly at them. "Lead the way."

"Whoa buddy, not so fast," Tresh interrupts. "Given how the other choice-bastard took our weapons, and how you’re now a walking arsenal, and how we're very likely to run into trouble on the way there..." He pauses, only to then finish with, "Well, I don't suppose you can spare a gun or two?"

I don’t even entertain the idea. However, an imaginary marshmallow unicorn mare of refined standing tries to remind me about the importance of sharing deadly gear with complete strangers despite legitimate concerns for my personal well-being.

Like any sane creature would in my position, I chose to ignore that voice.

"Um, yeah. No. I don't think so," I tell him coldly.

The stallion didn’t take it well. Not that I thought he would.

"Hey, you owe us," he accuses. He then paces around me and points at my rifles, "You think I don't recognize those carbines strapped under your wings?" He stops for a moment, and reaches for his chin with a hoof before pointing out, "Besides, if one of our lookouts spots us disarmed with you leading us at gunpoint, they're gonna blow your head the second they have a shot."

I keep one gun each trained at his friends, but my eyes remained fixed on him. Just who the hell is this smooth talking horse?

The marshmallow gleefully reappears to lecture me about how random acts of generosity can lead to long lasting friendships. This might be insane of me to do, but...

"Fine," I tell in resignation to both imaginary and non imaginary ponies.

As I begrudgingly unstrap both rifles, I realize the other two marauders weren’t where I thought they were at all. The smooth horse was distracting me, allowing the other two to circle around my blind spot. Huh, I guess I wasn’t giving these three enough credit.

Despite my tail twitching like crazy, I take a leap of faith and toss a weapon to the stallion whose dark gray tail might have been pure white once, then turn around to throw the other one at the orange-tailed mare.

The second weapon barely leaves my claws when the now familiar shivers return. Without even thinking about it, I vault sideways into the ground and fire my new offclaw pistol from the hip like lightning at the now-armed pony who stood behind me. The bullet imbeds itself into the armor of the stallion's right shoulder, the impact causing him to drop his newly acquired weapon as a bolt of light blue plasma coincidentally zips past me, melting a nearby rock along the path where my head should have been.

Plasma bolts travel slower than conventional bullets, meaning I’d be able to dodge them without the need of weird cryo powers.

Remembering the mare should now be armed as well, I quickly aim my other pistol at her. However, she just stands in confusion, strangely not having any intent to shoot me.

"F-fuck…" The backstabby stallion squirms and reaches for his shoulder with his other hoof. "Nimble bastard."

I stand up and carefully approach the stallion, both of my guns remaining trained on their respective ponies. "You seem to have a deathwish," I rebuke.

"For Celestia's sake, Ash!" Tresh exclaims, quickly crouching beside his partner. "Just give me that gun."

Upon gathering his bearings, the hurt pony, Ash, stands back up and calmly pick ups his weapon, refusing to surrender it. "It's fine, I'm fine," he says with a smug grin on his face. "My hoof slipped, is all."

"Woah," the marauder mare tells nopony in particular as she turns to me curiously, "It's like he has eyes at the back of his head!"

"Maybe," culture pony adds. "I've heard some birds have a vision range so wide they can see their butt at all times."

"I wish I could see my butt at all times," she sighs.

"I wish I could see your butt at all times," Ash counters with a lusty smile.

"Fuck off, Ash," the mare bellows in disapproval.

"Yeah, why don't you take point, Blaze?" suggests Tresh, very suggestively. "We can all drool over your fine ass the whole way."

Appearing rather offended, the mare snaps, "Fuck all of you." Despite this, she takes point, swaying her curvy tail hypnotically while throwing us a seductive nod.

Just when I’m about to take my first step, a thought occurs to me. “Is it safe to just leave the ship here unguarded?” I ask.

“Pfft, then I guess we better not delay any longer than two months, lest the ship be impounded!” sneers betrayal horse as he motions me to move with a hoof, his weapon now safely holstered. While I’m not thrilled about the idea of traveling with him behind my back, much less with a weapon he mishandled, I now feel rather confident about my ability to react to anything funny he might try.

Whether it be due to respect, or fear, these marauders now seem to tolerate my presence. As it's clear nopony will be trying to kill me anytime soon, I skillfully spin my pistols back into their holsters and march forward, following the raiders into the east, or what I assume east is based on stern mare’s earlier indication of where north was.

* * * * *

Nopony says a word for most of the way, either out of precaution for nearby threats or simply because they aren’t comfortable talking around me. Nevertheless, after travelling for most of an hour, double-crosser horse is the first one to break the uncomfortable silence and initiate some small talk with his peers. I barely pay him any heed as it seems like a bunch of gibberish.

"...and when the judge announced my cupcakes only placed second, I shot him in the face," Ash explains thoughtfully. "Watching the molten plasma reduce him to cinders was wildly satisfying."

"And thus," Hunt intervenes, "his ruthless defiling of pastry earned him the name: Ash."

"I see," I nod in understanding. "So it was all because he wanted to be the very best baker," I sigh before concluding, "like nopony ever was."

"No, my cupcakes ARE the best!" the frustrated baker grumbles. "They're just ahead of their time and beyond the comprehension of lesser creatures!"

Having met Equestria's premiere cupcake baker personally, I'm highly skeptical of that claim.

Speaking of ashes and cinders, we arrive at their ramshackle camp, though it appears to have been the sight of a recent skirmish.

Scrapped armor litters the ground, splattered by green gooey blotches of plasma refuse. Whatever body parts aren't liquefied lay scattered with their respective bloody trails, or entrails. The contents of several broken down makeshift tents are indiscriminately dispersed around. Strangely enough, though, all the weapons seem to have been looted, unlike the makeshift but still usable armors or other supplies.

"Alright," Blaze says, throwing her hooves in the air, clearly enraged. "Your hacker should be one of those piles of goo." Kicking an empty box of Flampicillin, she bellows, "We're done here!"

I don't reply immediately, still not being sure of what to make of the scene before me.

Tresh kneels nearby and studies the ground, focusing on a particular set of hoof tracks. "Cloven ones…" he mutters.

Having heard that, Ash begins scanning the surroundings nervously, his weapon primed and on a hair trigger. "In this sector?! Th-they must still be around, stay sharp!" he says in high alert.

Seeing fearless marauders flustered over those 'cloven ones' is rather unnerving. Just what are we dealing with here?

While the other two lock and load their weapons, I ready my pistols and try to still my mind, not letting the faintest feeling go unnoticed. A tense-filled minute passes, however, and yet my predator senses fail to pick up anything unusual.

Playing it safe, we all remain immobile for a few more minutes, looking for any sign of danger.

"Over there!" Blaze suddenly exclaims, motioning with her right hoof towards a path to the south. Her shouting was completely unexpected, almost causing us to shoot her by accident once we turned to her. "Fresh hoofprints leading to the safehouse, there might be survivors."

Tresh and I lock eyes, then nod in understanding. We rush towards the southern path, following the trail toward the potential survivors. Still unsure of what's going on, I run alongside Mr. Ponypedia himself.

"So, what's this about cloven ones?" I ask Tresh. "What are we dealing with, exactly?"

"What?" he replies in surprise. "Have you been living under a rock?" My stoic expression urges him to add, "Better that you don't answer that."

"Nopony knows exactly what they are," Blaze interjects, "Some say they’re horribly mutated ponies gone feral, others that they’re aliens native to these worlds." She takes a nervous gulp before continuing, "Some insist that they're the vengeful spirits of the ponies left behind in Equestria, returned to haunt us all."

None of those explanations seem to make much sense, but one does catch me completely off guard. "What was that about Equestria? Wait, did something happen?" I worriedly inquire.

Ash closes in and says, "It's kind of an open secret, no official statement yet." He collects his thoughts before continuing, "Rumor says The Lunar Corporation hasn't been able to contact Equestria for years, that they’re not even sure it's still there anymore."

"In my opinion," Tresh leans closer to comment. "That only speaks for their own incompetence when it comes to communicating across the vastness of space. One of their satellite relays probably busted again, like the last twenty or so times."

Feeling a bit more relieved and not wanting to sidetrack the conversation anymore, I continue pondering about the splithooved creatures, since they were the most immediate concern. "Anything else you can tell me about these monsters?" I ask.

"Yeah, when you see one, run," Ash says flatly before regarding my wings. "Or fly, just flee as fast as you can."

I don’t find that information to be very helpful, thus I continue pressing on. "What do they look like, though?”

"There are very few accounts of them given how they mercilessly butcher any would-be witnesses," Blaze replies matter-of-factly. As she seems to be enjoying having others look up to her and being the center of attention, she is then compelled to elaborate while putting up her best Nightmare Night story voice. "They supposedly look like very tall and emaciated ponies, the hairs on their tails having completely fallen off, leaving but tiny stumps due to the high toxicity of their blood. The horns of those who might have once been beautiful unicorns twist in weird and unnatural ways. And of course, like their namesake suggests, their hooves look painfully split in half."

Uh, ignoring the eerie way she said it, I can actually think of several very normal creatures back home that could objectively fit that description. Could those beings simply look alien to these lunar ponies? I did meet a couple marauders who thought I was some sort of plagued pony earlier today after all. Guess they don’t fully grasp what a griffin is.

"Doesn't sound scary at all, why flee when I can shoot them?" I smirk with a clawpistol-shooting gesture, mouthing Bang! Bang!

"That's just it, though,” Ash replies in resignation, “nopony knows how to kill them."

Hm. Then good thing I’m no pony, then.

"Both bullets and plasma bolts either ping right off their hides or go straight through them as if they weren't even there,” Blaze explains. She stops, all so she can add the dramatic effect of waving her hooves out while saying, “Like ghosts, oooOOOooo~"

That’s nonsense. Everything has a weakness, even if it involves some crazy super scientific biochemical weapon or a convoluted magical spell. If it ever comes down to it, I know I can find a way to handle them. Well, assuming they don't kill me first, that is.

Thankfully, we appear to be arriving to the aforementioned safe house, as a couple marauder lookouts pop into the distance. With some luck the house will honor its name and actually be safe.

Behind the marauder guards, I spot a small patch of… trees? Like, regular Equestrian trees, their lush greeness decidedly standing out among the rest of the mostly blue alien landscape.

With the goal in our sights, we pick up the pace and approach the outpost.

* * * * *

Concealed by walls of jagged rocks, in the bottom of a cliff lays what appears to be an apple orchard. Half a hundred trees brim with life right in the middle of a mostly dry and dreary alien wasteland. Several shacks made out of scrap metal surround the area. Just in the middle of the encampment, a power facility of sorts.

A few dozen or so marauders idle around, polishing their weapons while talking about their recent exploits. Surprisingly, all of them are earth ponies. I can’t help but wonder if there are any of the other two pony tribes on this moon at all.

Anyway, when they said camp or safe house, I expected there to be just a few ponies in them, something I could shoot my way out in case things went south. Not a small army! I suddenly feel like I absolutely made the wrong choice setting foot in this proverbial lion's den. I like not having any excess breathing holes, so I better keep my cool and do what I can to stay in their good graces while I’m here.

“Password?” demands one of the heavily-geared stallions, barring us from entering into the sanctuary. While his improvised armor is not unlike my companions, his twin X-TAL 5000 plasma repeaters hanging from each side of his battle saddle impose a certain authority.

Blaze steps forward and graciously takes her headwear off with a swipe of her wavy mane, revealing her sleek crimson coat and sensual amber eyes. “Fuck you, Hardie,” she answers.

Without flinching, Hardie bluntly replies, “That’s not the password.”

“It is now,” she pipes, pushing her way in as if the stallion wasn’t even there. He doesn’t seem to mind and puts up no resistance, just letting her pass through. Once in, the mare quickly blends into the settlement and disappears, not giving us any regard.

Tresh steps forward, then leans toward the guard. “Say, anypony from Ripper's crew came through recently?” he asks.

“Just Queen and Priest, why?” Hardie answers, suddenly looking a little worried. “Something wrong?”

“Eh, rest of their gang’s been wiped out,” Tresh replies before turning to me and saying, “but hey, looks like you lucked out, Blue--hacker’s still alive.”

“If the rest have gotten themselves a bundle deal on coffins, you better hurry in and tell Havoc then,” the sentry suggests. He points a hoof at me, then asks, “Hey, what’s with the bird?”

The four ponies standing around me regard me for a moment, before Ash finally says with a smirk, “New recruit.”

Ironic. I was hoping I’d be the one doing the recruiting as my ship might need a crew, but given the position I’m currently in, I decide not to dispute it at the moment. Thus I simply nod at the guard and hope he doesn’t either.

The imposing bouncer stares at me inquisitively for a spell before finally stepping to the side. “Fine, he can go in. Just make sure he doesn’t get into trouble, Tresh.”

“If the trouble happens to be the fun kind, well… Heh, no promises. Anyway, I’ll catch up with you later, big guy,” Tresh says to Hardie with a wave of his hoof as he and Ash walk by him, me following closely behind the two. Upon entering the settlement proper, Tresh stops and turns back to us. “Ash, you and Gallus go talk to Queen, alright? I’ll go find Havoc and give her the bad news.”

“No problem,” Ash says. Once Tresh turns a corner, my chaperone pats my side, then gestures for me to follow him towards a nearby shack. I happily comply; I’m the one following behind him this time, meaning I don’t have to worry about him shooting me in the back again.

* * * * *

Stopping just outside of the shack’s entrance, Ash asks me to wait a minute, then proceeds to unfasten his helmet and visor. He had a bit of difficulty, but his headwear comes free, revealing a charcoal coat and deep blue eyes. Despite appearing rather young, his eyes seemed rather tired and contemplative, as if he didn’t have anything to look forward to anymore.

We casually invite ourselves into the shack, and I discover that the interior isn’t very spacious. The ‘furniture,’ if you can call it that, consists of nothing more than a small table placed in the center surrounded by a couple shelves and three sleeping bags. Seated at the table are two ponies, both in the middle of a discussion. To my surprise, they’re the first non-earth ponies I’ve seen on this moon so far: a young unicorn stallion and a middle-aged pegasus mare. Further setting them apart from the rest outside is the fact that their gear is nothing like the rest of the marauders.

Taking a wild guess, I’m gonna assume that the female pegasus is Queen. Several tools and other arcane mechanical widgets for who knows what purposes stick out of her baggy utility barding and backpack stowed between her orange wings. Said barding is probably a couple sizes too large given how loose it's around her hooves. Atop her rather unkempt magenta mane rest goggles that seem more suited for welding than flying, though they’re currently not shielding her equally colored eyes.

Her friend, the male unicorn, must be Priest then. His jade mane and tail are in a style that, had they been longer, would remind me a bit of Princess Twilight Sparkle’s back in her earlier days, what with the way his mane falls over his sinister dark eyes; a very rare iris color for ponies. His ochre coat is covered by a long black robe with dark blue accents, adorned by countless stars and a large moon not unlike Chairmare Luna’s cutie mark.

The weary pegasus looks around and sighs. “Havoc ain’t gonna like this. We’re gonna have to move a lot sooner than we thought.”

“If such is the will of causality, we shall prevail,” replies the unicorn. His voice is strangely serene, albeit a bit nasally.

The mare, though, she somehow looks familiar. I find myself staring at her, thinking that perhaps she’s an old childhood acquaintance from decades ago? That shouldn’t be the case, because judging by the amount of time I must've been frozen for she would have to be ancient, yet she doesn’t look any older than me.

Hmm… Bah, all ponies just look the same. That must be it.

Ash steps forward, then clears his throat loudly, garnering the attention of the two ponies who seem pleasantly surprised to see him.

“We found a ship,” Ash reports. “It’s a freighter class vessel, abandoned and just waiting for the taking.”

The pegasus seems rather shocked at first, then displeased after hearing the last bit. “What?! Well what’s keeping you from taking it then?”

“Uh, because it’s been certified by Luna’s Choice, that’s why,” Ash bluntly explains. I find it rather weird to hear the company name for the first time without the usual flair the corporate ponies give it. Ash shifts around a bit, then adds, “It’s also parked too close to Haywater, so their security detail have been poking their noses around it.”

The mare seems contemplative, though only for a moment. “Fine, then I'll just head on over there at once,” she says, planting her hooves on the table before motioning to rise from her seat.

Ash raises a hoof, instructing the mare to stay put. “Hold up. Before you go anywhere, I just want to know what happened back at camp.”

“What do you mean?” she replies, decidedly confused. “What happened at camp?”

“It’s been destroyed, no survivors,” he says, giving the pegasus an insidious look. “You were there when it happened, weren’t you?”

The mare seems a bit lost in thought for a moment, then utters, “No…” As her gaze shifts around nervously, she adds, “We were summoned back here. Don’t know what to tell you.”

Still looking at her firmly, he spits, “Hmm. How convenient.”

“It is what it is,” chimes in Priest with his eternally calm expression, completely failing to calm anyone else.

“So uh, any idea who did it?” inquires Queen.

Ash looks around, likely considering his next words. Once he did decide on some, he put them forth in a grave tone. “Don’t have anything solid yet, but from the look of it, it might've been The Legion.”

“Oh you’re kidding!” the mare snaps, positively fuming. “Did you just walk here right after you barely missed their onslaught?!” She fiercely stands up, forcibly flipping the table to the side, “You’ve just led them here!”

While I’m still left in the dark on a few things, her sudden reaction really puts me on edge, enough to have me scanning the immediate area for any threats. My claws prime over my pistols as I fully expect the whole place to explode any second now.

A few tense moments tick by, time spent where Queen stares down Ash incredulously and vice versa. Other than that, though, nothing happens.

Despite the staredown, everyone appears to simmer down without anything needing to go explosive. A heavy silence lingers in the air, though Ash is the first to break it. “We did no such thing, I made sure of that.” He’d know, he was the one guarding the rear on our way here after all.

Actually, his words might as well have jinxed the whole thing. Watch, something bad is gonna happen now…

Any second now... Just stay put a sec.

Is it getting cold in here or is that the shivers? I’m not sure anymore.

“It’s alright,” the pegasus mare huffs. “If we get that ship's parts, we won’t have to worry about that anymore.”

I think I’ve heard enough. That ship’s important, I can feel it. I’m not just gonna let anypony strip it down for parts. Thus, unable to hold my tongue any longer than I already have, I blurt, “You’re not getting anything.”

Hearing that, Ash turns to me and his face contorts to display both annoyance and disbelief; likely he was hoping I would just quietly play along with whatever scheme he was cooking. Queen looks at me in shock for a moment, and Priest is just sitting there lost in his own world or something.

Realizing I’m now the focus of everyone’s attention, I silently chide myself. I’m... not sure why I said it out loud, I could have at least waited until we were back at the ship to bring it up, but I couldn’t stand hearing them talk about it as if it was theirs. Damn my griffin genes!

“What did you just say?” she says menacingly, finally regarding my presence while eyeing me thoroughly. “Well what’s this? A griffin on Luna Three? And just who are you supposed to be, anyway?" Her eyes scan me top to bottom, then, to my confusion, her demeanor suddenly changes. She gradually went from somepony who’s annoyed to have their conversation interrupted by a total stranger to somepony who’s seen a ghost. "What are…” She pauses, then smiles and gives a little laugh. “Heh, nice colors. What are you, some kind of deranged Wonderbolts fan I presume?”

It takes a deranged fan to know one.

“Nice colors…? Oh.“ Realizing what she meant, I run my claws through my yellow and blue head feathers, then say with a smirk, “Oh yeah, these are all natural. Jealous?”

“Cool,” the pegasus replies with cold indifference, though her subtle body language tells me she’s actually very jealous about it. She balks once she notices the logo on my jacket, however, then turns to the marauder standing beside me. ”Ash, what’s this Luna's chosen clown doing here?”

Ash opens his mouth, but before he can reply, I raise my claw and interject. “The ship’s mine. I’m only here because I want you to crack it for me.”

"Pfft, If you need me to crack it then it's obviously not yours," she snickers. “And besides, why would I do that anyway?”

Okay. Clearly a little incentive is needed...

“Uh, because I spared this lowlife and his buddies’ lives, twice, in exchange for your help.” I unholster my weapons in a flash, pressing one barrel to Ash’s temple and aiming the other at the pegasus. They didn’t anticipate it at all, not with my claws being likely faster than their sight. “If you want to dishonor our deal, then go ahead, but know that it’s the only thing keeping me from fucking killing you all right now,” I threaten.

Through the pistol’s barrel and into my claw gripping the gun, I can clearly feel the charcoal stallion shaking in his hooves, terrified. He had faced death twice by my claws already, and he knew very well that the third time would be the charm.

“Are you fucking stupid?” the mare exclaims. ”You’re standing smack dab in the middle of our garrison. Fire that gun and you ain’t leaving this place alive.”

“Do I look like I give a shit?!” I proclaim, further pressing the gun into Ash’s head. I’m really selling it, I can tell that much from the look in the pegasus’ fearful eyes.

“P-please…” the stallion begs to his friends, “just do what he says!” He’s about ready to start pissing himself. “You haven’t seen him fight--this guy’s the fucking devil!” Well, he got that part right.

"Dammit Ash, why are you going around making deals with unhinged strangers on my behalf just to save your own tail?" The mare sighs. "Maybe we’d be better off if you had just died instead."

It’s clear that Ash is hurt by that comment. He stops shaking, indicating that he’s now more upset with Queen than afraid of me. "It was a good deal," he tells the mare, his eyes hardened and filled with rage. "He's not with Choice. He was heading straight to Haywater, and we kept him from joining them. He can be a good asset."

I'm not gonna be anypony's fucking asset, that much is clear. And now I'm even more curious about these Haywater ponies; maybe I should've sought their help instead after all.

The pegasus' gaze races across the room for a bit, and it’s my bet that she’s thinking of a way out of this situation. Realization seems to strike her, and a smile soon creeps onto her muzzle. "Perhaps we won't need the ship after all…" she tells nopony in particular before turning back to me, raising an eyebrow. "If we just so happen to have a psycho on our side who can stroll into heavily guarded outposts and casually blow ponies' heads up, well..."

I see where she's getting at. She’s looking to haggle a little extra out of me before deciding to budge. Well that might work on some, but clearly she’s forgotten just what I am.

"Ha ha, yeah, no. I did my part of the deal already when I spared your friends," I yell at her. "They ain’t dead, and now I want you to hold up your end of the bargain and make the ship's astrogator recognize me as its captain. After that, maybe..." I hesitate to say it as I don't actually mean it, but I figure I gotta give them something if we want to avoid more senseless bloodshed today. "Just maybe, we can see about doing more business in the future."

Why is negotiating with ponies always so complicated? No matter how clear the terms are they always try to cheat their way into getting a bigger slice of the pie.

"Ah, so I see that the griffins' obsession with their contracts really is legendary," the unicorn speaks up, much to everyone's surprise. "Their unquestionable loyalty to them is as predictable as their insatiable lust for wealth." He turns to the mare and nods in approval. "We can trust that, at least."

I'm not that type of griffin, and I’m not exactly thrilled of ponies always thinking that way of me.

While Queen’s still clearly upset about the deal forcibly laid upon her by the three marauders, she finally relents. "Alright, fine. I'll honor the deal. We can't have anypony or griff go around saying that The Crystal Raiders aren't true to their word."

Despite still being trailed by my gun, she approaches Ash and gives him a pitiful look, one that the stallion returns with a shy smile. Without a warning, though, Queen's hoof lands squarely on his face, staggering him towards the shack’s wall. It appears to be made of some pretty flimsy material, because Ash creates a him-sized hole through it and falls on his back outside with a groan. Several nearby marauders who were just going about their business stop to observe the commotion.

She approaches the knocked out pony and spits on the ground near him, saying, "Your weakness caused this, remember that. We'll see how you can make up for it later." With that done, the pegasus then turns to me. "Alright, let's go then. It should only be a ten minute flight, and maybe afterwards I can convince you to give me a ride back here."

With negotiations completed, I give my pistols a couple well deserved spins before returning them to their holsters. I mean, I was just trying to intimidate them, I wasn't about to go on a murderous spree if things didn't work out.

I think, maybe.

I… just don't know anymore.

The pegasus fiddles with a small interface panel on a device attached to her hoof, causing two small thrusters to extend from the bottom of her backpack. They reveal themselves to be an integrated jetpack of some sort, helping her take to the sky after she extends her wings. I think it’s a bit odd for her to use such a contraption for flying when she’s a pegasus, but other than that I pay it little mind. She lags in the air, motioning for me to follow.

After stepping out of the shack through the newly made hole, I give my wings a little stretch. I’m unsure if I would even be able to do this, though I suppose I have walked around for a few hours, so my muscles certainly feel much less stiff than when I had just woken up. If there was a time to reattempt flying, this was it.

Not wanting to keep the mare waiting any longer, I take a jump and flap my wings vigorously. Though fumbling slightly, I successfully take off and reclaim the ecstatic feeling that always engulfs me as I finally return to my rightful element.

And so, as two free souls unshackled from earthen bounds, we head far into the northwest.

* * * * *

The air of Luna Three feels denser under my wings than what I recall of Equestria. It makes flight easier as a result, if slightly slower.

As we fly out of the canyon surrounding the desolated marauder lands, I let myself get lost in my surroundings as I glide a few hundred feet above the ground, the wind gently thrusting me across the sky and carrying with it the whispers of the land.

What is in the north? I beckon, and the wind promptly answers...

Haywater. A large industrious community of the Luna's Choice™ family judging by the gaudy entrance sign I can see even from up here, bustling with activity as ponies tirelessly work around the clock. My eagle sight also reveals large fields surrounding the settlement, growing what seem to be genetically modified crops for their inhabitants sustenance and exports, which is decidedly lacking if the anemic looks of the settlers' emaciated bodies are anything to ascertain.

What about the south?

The Crystal Raiders, improbably self-organized outlaws with impossibly expensive weapons, likely a guerrilla funded by a corporate rival of Luna's Choice™ to disturb Haywater's operations. Surprisingly, their orchard's produce quality appears to be fairly superior to that of Haywater's crops.

In the west?

The thunder of brimstone storm clouds and gleams of dark magic. Screams of agony and rage drowned in eternal emerald flames. Unholy chants accompanied by the whirring echoes of nefarious war machines.

And to the east?

A mysterious flower field beyond the arid badlands encircles a large blue crystal several stories tall. The crystal radiates with a strong magical aura and hums in harmonic tunes as it slowly spins on its own axis, lightly levitating inches from the ground. Around it, three ponylike figures clad in pure black clothing looking directly at us through their sinister orange visors.

Down below?

The smuggler's ship, surrounded by a dozen Luna's Choice™ ponies aiming their weapons right at us.

Despite the welcoming committee, the pegasus mare does not slow down and heads straight to our target. Recklessly, we descend, lading firmly atop the vessel's roof.

* * * * *

Having anticipated our arrival, the corporate ponies await clumsily hidden behind the cover of rocks and sturdy alien plants, ready to shoot at us at the slightest provocation. Neither stern-mare nor cave-colt seem to be among them, hopefully having gotten an early leave to treat their injuries. The bravest of them moves forward to address us, despite his wage being likely insufficient for such a task.

Queen leans closer to me and whispers with confidence. “Listen griff, we can take them,” she points leftwards with her left wing, “On my signal you take the five on that side plus the idiot who stepped out of cover,” she then points to the right with the corresponding wing. “I’ll take the other six.”

“I don’t know,” I tell her unconfidently. “I don’t have a good feeling about this.” Taking six perfectly lined shots in an instant, even with my already impeccable skills assisted by time dilation seems like a long stretch, and that’s assuming she’s actually capable of holding up her own without me needing to pick up her slack.

“Heh, you know,” Queen says with a grin, “I always considered myself the quickest shot on this moon. But, with that mad drawing speed you pulled back in the shack, now I'm not so sure anymore.”

“It’s not that,” I say, “its--”

“It’s like my whole life I keep finding myself under the shadow of others who are faster than me…” she says, lowering her head, “Better than me, actually.”

I sigh. “I’d just like to go through today without having to kill anymore ponies, you know?”

“Yeah, well, sometimes you’ve got no other choice,” she says in defeat.

"No," I refute. "There’s always another choice. We’re just too blind to see it, or too stubborn to take it." There’s a faint smile on her muzzle, and I take that as a sign that she really likes my reply.

Well, I suppose it doesn’t really matter if she liked that or not. We’ve still got our present situation to deal with.

Now, if I recall correctly, those Luna’s Choice™ ponies are a bunch of pussies. They had to hire a total stranger, me, to deal with the marauders earlier. Perhaps we can just scare them away. I mean, what’s the worst they could do?

The pony they sent out, a rust-coated stallion, finally stands within earshot. He stops to whip his long, black tail, then calls out to Queen and I. "Yeah, you've got a lot of nerve showing your snout around here after all you've done." He points a hoof menacingly at my pegasus partner, his brown eyes staring fiercely at her as he declares, "Raider Queen."

She just gives him a curious look and doesn't humor him with a reply. For a second there I was sure he was addressing me, but in hindsight it makes sense the marauder mare has got to have far more accolades than this newcomer background griffin.

"And you, 'freelancer'…" The stallion turns to me, "You were with the marauders all along and merely played dumb just to make us lower our guard, weren't you?"

"Uh, no. Completely inaccurate," I reply truthfully, casually reaching for my offclaw pistol. "I'm still just a freelancer." I do it so smoothly he doesn't react.

"Yeah, you griffins are all the same," he paces around carelessly while waving his right hoof, "You take a contract to fuck someone up, then take a contract from said someone to fuck the one who originally sent you to fuck them first. A disgusting cycle of greedy fuckery."

Knowing that’s definitely not my case, I refute with utter confidence, "That's simply not true." If there was ever anygriff who fought against the griffin norms, that was certainly me. Well… actually there was one other I could think of, but heck if I know where she is.

"Hah! Yet you just admitted it!" the pony practically squeaks. "If you weren’t with the marauders from the start, that means you accepted our deal to capture them, and as soon as you were released from our contract, you accepted one from the marauders to set them free again," he says with a smug, punchable face. "Or are you a fucking liar?"

Okay, well when he puts it like that…

"It… uh… it wasn't like that…" I gulp nervously.

The stallion notices my flinching, and presses on. "I have little tolerance for despicable behavior such as that. However… her Most Esteemed Highness Chairmare Luna, with her millenary wisdom and kindness, devised a way to help those poor souls such as yourself who simply cannot help themselves.” He raises his hooves as if praising the sky, “Thus she created The Eternal Contract, by which sorry creatures like you no longer have to worry about the creeping void of unemployment that tempts you into the shameful pitfalls of betrayal!"

Growing tired of the super-villain monologue, I groan. “Why are you suddenly telling me all of this?” Before he can reply, I throw him a suspicious look and denounce him with my most righteous talon pointed in his general direction, “You just applied for a promotion, didn't you?! Is that what this is?! A show for you to earn good boy points?!”

The stallion lowers his hooves and grins awkwardly for a few moments. “Um, yeah. As a matter of fact I did file a promotion request... After all, saving both of my colleagues from bloodthirsty marauders earlier today did earn me some merit."

I lurch forward, my eyes wide and unblinking as I stare at him in disbelief.

Oh. My. Grover. This snake took credit for my work, and still has the nerve to shamelessly point a hoof back at me...

“But that's besides the point,” he continues. “What I'm offering you is a way to redeem yourself, you know!”

Translation: He knows he's outgunned and wants to improve his odds by selling me some pipe dream. Unfortunately for him, I can read between the lines there.

“I don't know, dude,” I say as I scratch my nape, rolling my eyes, “The Eternal Contract sounds a bit... permanent.”

"Yeah… I may have spread the honey a bit too thick there...” The pony looks down, scratching the ground with a hoof. He seems rather disappointed with himself, but suddenly, he looks back up and exclaims triumphantly, “Oh, maybe I should have started with this instead!" The stallion produces a roll of paper and with that creepy dexterity that only earth ponies have, he throws it perfectly into my right claw.

Quickly after catching it, I unfold the paper and give it a skim. It looks like a wanted poster with a mean-looking criminal printed on it.

It appears to offer a reward for The Raider Queen…

Who is to be turned in Dead or Alive…

The artist certainly took a lot of liberties when it came to overemphasizing the murderous look in her eyes. She looks like she's about to jump out of the poster at me and devour my entrails.

The reward offered in bits is:

Two.

Hundred…

THOUSAND!?

My jaw hits the floor and I drop to my knees in astonishment. By the beard of ol’ Grover! That’s more money than what my yearly salary was as Twilight's Captain! And I had to take down dozens of baddies every year to maintain peace, not just one.

"Yeah, do you understand now, my feathered kitten friend?” the choice-stallion chimes with a very smooth voice. “Turn in that pegasus who’s standing inches by your side, and you'll have enough money to not only pay off all of your accumulated fines,” his voice grows with passion as a wicked grin draws over his muzzle, “but also become the legal owner of this fine ship immediately. You could even invest the remaining tens of thousands in the Bank of Lunaria to live leisurely at the heights of Elysium for the rest of your days out of attractive risk-free increments!"

"Did you just say, own this ship, immediately?" I ask incredulously.

"But of course! The Outstanding-employees Program, which you would most certainly become part of by turning her in, has all sorts of special privileges," he beams with radiance. "Like premium priority attention on all of the services The Lunar Corporation provides, holiday bonus, and a wide coverage health insurance." And if that wasn't enough, he then adds, "Hay, shut down the murderous spree of this terrorist and maybe Chairmare Luna herself will make you a shareholder in the board of directors!"

I’d be damned, even the premiums are better! Forget Celestia! Forsake Twilight! Vote Luna!

“Uh, you’re not seriously considering his offer,” the pegasus mare looks at me insidiously, before worriedly adding, “are you?”

Oh I am very seriously considering his offer.

The raiders might have reluctantly offered me a place in their ranks but they’re just waiting for the chance to kill me in my sleep, I know it!

While the Luna’s Choice™ ponies have only done good to me so far, I have abused their trust twice. I can probably forgive the chatty yes-stallion for stealing credit on the saving-from-marauders thing given how I pretty much betrayed them immediately after. And the fines were my own fault out of my ignorance, and you know what they say: Ignorance of the law excuses no one!

Why did I ever think cooperating with outlaws was a good idea?!

…

Wait, if Tresh's words had any actual substance behind them, there might be good reason not to accept this offer.

Maybe… I can ask her!

“Hey, why did you become a raider?” I desperately question the pegasus.

“I um…” she tries to mutter something but has difficulty coming up with an answer. Scratching her mane she shrugs then ultimately answers with, “Got tired of following the company policies and just wanted to fuck shit up?”

I balk in disbelief. That’s not helping your case!

Noticing my reaction, with a nervous grin she elaborates, “But my case ain't a good example, I’m sure there must be ponies who have legit tragic stories involving the corporations.” She looks away in shame before adding,“I just don’t personally know any of them either…”

I faceclaw, so hard. Not helping your case at all!

Having overheard that, the corporate stallion is now just happily dancing and laughing maniacally, celebrating his impending victory in earnest.

There’s something else I can try. Something I’ve forgotten until now. Perhaps…

I grab the pegasus by her barding and urgently ask, “Eternium. Do you have any leads on Eternium?!”

“Pfft, who does?” she sneers at me, not minding my sudden roughness. “Isn’t everypony desperate to get some of that these days?" She casually shrugs, "Ain’t none left up for grabs in the system as far as I can tell.”

WHAT?!

Her words completely short circuit my mind. Was the quest I had just begun been impossible all along? The mad scientist mare better have a good plan. A super awesome, brilliant plan, or else!

Taking advantage of my inner turmoil, the pegasus backflips and breaks my grip by kicking straight into my chest with her hind hooves at blinding speed. The impact painfully empties my lungs and sends her vaulting into the air. She then skillfully lands on the opposite edge of the ship's roof with a loud clunk from her hooves as they strike its cold metallic hull.

The raider then gives me a stink eye and glowers. "I'm getting the impression you really want to claim my bounty." She swipes her mane sideways and grins with narrowed eyes. "You're welcome to try but I'll definitely shoot your beak off if you do."

As far as I can tell she's not carrying any weapons, unless they're concealed under her barding or in that backpack of hers. She might have just admitted I could be the quicker shot, but I’m wearing my weapons in plain sight thus she'll see me coming. On the other claw, I might not even realise her intentions until it's too late. With an outrageous bounty that large, she's definitely dangerous.

I remain silent, my mind being too occupied as it races through all the possible outcomes of this encounter.

The corporate ponies are positively excited to see two legends face-off right before their eyes. They now scream and holler, cheering on each one of us, placing bets and all.

"Bitch killed my cousin, avenge her!" a mare roots for me.

"Show that fledgling who's the queen around here!" a stallion cheers for the raider, much to the disdain of most of his colleagues.

Other screams are more ambiguous. "Pluck the chicken!" yells a third pony.

The wind blows, its chilling breeze flustering the feathers that cover every inch of my upper body.

I begin to stand on my hind legs cautiously, my wings faintly unfurling behind me to help maintain my balance. My claws prime over their corresponding pistols by my sides, releasing the wanted poster to the wind. I turn to the raider, my gaze narrowed. "How many ponies have you killed?" I demand of her.

The pegasus lowers her head, spreading her hooves and wings slightly, assuming a guarding stance. Her fierce magenta eyes never trail away from mine as she answers severely, "Not enough." Without flinching, she counters, "What about you?"

"Too many," I sigh, a well known feeling of cold growing by the second within me as my heart rate increases vehemently.

I don't have to kill her, just incapacitate her. Then I can turn her in alive so she can be judged for all the crimes she's committed and make up for them. I avenge the ponies she’s wronged and make a name for myself in the process. If worse comes to worst, one pony life to save twelve and potentially many more future ones is an acceptable outcome. It’s not about the fame nor fortune, this is just the morally correct thing to do.

And technically, I wouldn't be betraying her since I'm not currently working for her. She's the one working for me. It would be like a sudden layoff. Damn, did I just make a business analogy? Those corporate ponies sure have been rubbing off on me!

Then I could hang out with the choice-ponies for a bit and learn their side of the story, and if it turns out to be rotten I might be able to regain the marauder's trust by jailbreaking this mare. Perhaps the corporate ponies can also point me towards some Eternium unlike this hopelessly useless raider.

With an impeccable plan perfectly laid out, I take a deep breath and focus, my cryo-weird perception of time activating by my pure sheer will as the cheers of the company ponies warp into incomprehensible background noise.

I set my sights on her right shoulder blade, near her wing joint. A well placed shot there should be shocking enough to neutralize her without risking a fatal injury.

As my talons hover millimeters over my weapons, her deadly fixated stare makes me hesitate. She IS VERY dangerous, every fiber of my body tells me.

Afraid I might not be trying hard enough, I push my concentration further, time seeming to slow even more as my head starts pounding intensely. Either due to another one of my recent hallucinations, or my overclocked mind perceiving the frequency of light differently, the world begins to flicker in what seems like a shower of rainbows.

And so, as I assume the pegasus will not expect an offclaw attack, I unholster my second pistol with breakneck speed and pull the trigger faster than ever before, much faster than anyone should be capable of.

Try as I might, however, there’s a loud bang and my weapon is sent spinning out of my grip and into the air completely scrapped.

Without even thinking about it, I Instinctively reach for my mainclaw pistol, but before it's even fully unholstered, it also explodes away from me.

Two of Luna's chosen try to take advantage of the distraction I provided and begin trailing their weapons towards the raider, just to have both of their heads immediately burst into a red mist. At the sight, the rest of the corporate ponies turn tail and gallop in terror as fast as their hooves can take them, the cowardly rust-coated snake fleeing the fastest among them.

The pegasus remains still, kneeling with both of her forelegs extended sideways in the air as four azure spiral trails dissipate around her.

Fuck. If the neon letters that my beautiful eagle eyes spot on her weapons' receivers are any indication, she had twin X-TAL R-500P portable railguns strapped around her cannons, concealed under the sleeves of her barding all along. What with railgun projectiles travelling several times quicker than a conventional bullet, not even I can see them with my cryotime.

Damn! Now even my thoughts are like advertisements. Fucking corporate ponies ARE rubbing off on me!

Having finally processed what just happened, I recall the pegasus had moved with inequine speed. She was seriously fast, more like, impossibly fast. Even through my lapse of enhanced perception, her hooves shifted with mad haste by standard conventions, as if time had not slowed for her at all either, or perhaps we all just appeared too slow to her all the time. Her swiftness was absolutely ridiculous.

Outmatched, I crumble and splay myself onto the ship's roof. I overtaxed the time dilation, as my head feels as if it’s ready to pop. Equally as painful are my claws, their muscle tissues burning fiercely after having their weapons violently ripped away from their grip. By some miracle, my limbs hadn't come clean off themselves despite having been shot at by such high powered weapons. Perhaps because the pegasus had intentionally missed by a few inches.

The raider recovers and begins approaching me between limps, her impressive performance likely having taken its toll as well, although to a much lesser effect.

She stops in front of me and punches me squarely across my beak, spraying my blood over the ship's hull. Those hooves, and the concealed weapons attached to them, hurt like a motherfucker.

"You think you can sneak into my home and threaten to kill all of my friends!" she snaps as another one of her hooves sinks into my gut, and with it goes half a can of Harrots. "Then turn on me over a little cash after I agreed to help you despite not having any obligation to!"

She lands a kick squarely over my spine, probably ending my flying days. My chest impacts harshly against the metal hull of the ship, then I immediately use what little strength I can manage to flip onto my back. I find myself looking up at an unfamiliar sky, my chest heaving and blood bubbling out of my nostrils as I struggle to breathe.

"You're fucking disgusting," she spits on my face. In hindsight, I guess I fucking am. "The only reason I didn't aim for your head was because you somehow reminded me of a pony who's very dear to me." She stops her ruthless assault on my body to sigh, though maybe she's still kicking me but I’m physically incapable of feeling shit anymore. "Maybe it's your coat pattern or the way your blue feathers race through the wind. I don't know."

The marauder sighs, then proceeds to step away from my pathetic self.

After taking a couple steps, however, the pegasus turns around and points her right hoof at my head, readying her weapon. With her eyes displaying unrestrained rage, she makes a final demand.

"Tell me why I shouldn't kill you right now."

What does anyone even answer to that? More so anyone in my position, stranded, forsaken in an inhospitable world. I have no possessions nor information and my word has likely no value to her anyway.

What is it that these raiders value more than anything, other than their plunder? Is it Strength? Guts? Comradeship? Loyalty?

It doesn’t matter if The Crystal Raiders are the good guys or the bad guys or whatever. I quite frankly can’t tell yet, they might as well be somewhere in between. Though, Queen told me earlier she was looking forward to working with me in the future and I need to survive now.

Thus, between rasped breaths and drips of blood, and with my eyelids getting heavier by the second, I utter what I know too well will be my last words.

"B-because then… I--” I cough blood, “I w-wouldn't be able to... give you a ride back."

Hearing my answer, the pegasus reluctantly lowers her weapon and raises her gaze towards the sky, looking beyond the horizon and into the stars, a faint smile forming in her snout.

“What kind of shitty answer is that?” She turns back to me and tells me while shaking her head. “Hadn’t you just sided with the corporate ponies not ten seconds ago? You switch sides quicker than your draw.” And with a roll of her eyes, she finally sighs. ”Am I gonna have to foalsit you in order to keep you from choosing 'stupid' everytime you make a decision?”

While my words didn’t have the exact effect I expected, at least I'm not dead yet.

My sight of the mare blurs before eventually going dark. The last sensation I feel before my mind follows suit is the back of my head banging as it falls onto the ship's roof.

* * * * *

Footnote: New Companion Available

Queen - After decades of tuning the pimpest rides, all forms of hardware now practically bend to her will. She's also kind of a speed freak who values loyalty above all other virtues for some reason.

The Good Doctor

The Lunar Worlds

Chapter 3:

The Good Doctor

* * * * *

I always found the clouds floating above Mount Aris to be comfier than those of Griffonstone. Maybe the water from the nearby ocean of Seaquestria kept them plump and fresh, unlike the barren arid cliffs of my homeland. But even confier is the little pillow of pink feathers that snuggles beside me, its sole presence never failing to wash away all of my worries and anxieties.

The pink hippogriff shifts in my embrace and rests her head over my chest as we admire the sunset, letting out a peaceful sigh. "This is a beautiful place for a house, don't you think?" she says.

"No, not a house…" I reply in disgust, much to the shock of my pillow. Then with a raised eyebrow, I poke her cute little beak and smirk. "But a tower, rising from the depths of the sea and towards the edge of the sky, countless stairs encircling endlessly around it."

"Oh, you!" She wiggles under my wing and gently scratches behind my ear with her delicate talons. "You're never gonna let me live that down, are you?"

"Heh. Never," I smile, softly twirling the feathers in her puffy chest.

And so, we admire the scenery in serene, mutual silence, reveling in the perfection of the moment, a moment we wish would last forever.

But nothing lasts forever, and worry eventually builds up within my partner, prompting her to kindly rub her neck against mine and whisper, "Is Twilight gonna be okay without you?"

I turn to look directly at her shimmering eyes, my expression turning serious at the mention of the pony who had done so much over the years to change not only my life but also the griffin customs for the better. Closing my eyes, I contemplate my answer. "Nope, the whole kingdom will certainly fall apart without me," I reply, sarcastically.

"Of course it will," she says playfully, hugging me closer. "But seriously, though. Now?"

"It had to happen, sooner or later," I sigh, reopening my eyes and locking them in the distance as I tenderly rub Silverstream's shoulder with a claw. "Unlike her, I'm not gonna live forever."

She reaches up and her claw scritches under my beak; she knew the spot all too well. "I don’t know, maybe we will," she ponders.

As my claw returns the scritches favor directly over her weak spot, I gleefully exclaim, "Of course, we'll always be together!"

"Obviously!” she says, jumping eagerly with one of her lovely little bursts of excitement. She burns through that energy rather quickly, however, and already begins to simmer down. “I really mean it, though. Haven't you heard? They say the lunar ponies have found a way to make anycreature live forever!"

I’m shocked by the sudden revelation, though I retain a healthy dose of skepticism. "Really?"

"Yes! And you'll need these if you're gonna fight for Equestria," she offers me two bloodstained Luna's Choice™ pistols.

The clouds race across the sky, the sky growing dimmer and dimmer as wildfire rains over the world, swallowing everything dear to me.

I try to reach her but it's futile; she begins to slide away from me, being pulled toward the growing abyss. My attempts to scream her name are drowned by a suffocating apple-scented mist.

I release a raspy, choked gasp, my eyes shooting open as the sensations of the waking world jar my system. My sight was taking its time returning to me, as all I could see was amorphous shapes and colors that were gradually becoming sharper.

Immediately I recognize that something is on my beak, something that was preventing me from breathing properly. Instinctively, I begin thrashing wildly at it with my claws, desperately attempting to remove it so I could fill my aching lungs. Perhaps out of a dire need to know what was happening, my eyes finally restore their full functionality. A figure towering above me comes into focus, one I’m quick to identify as Queen. She sports a wicked grin, her left hoof extended and pressing something on my beak.

Remembering the beating she gave me, I come to the conclusion that I must have blacked out. For how long, I’m not sure. What I do know, however, is that the psycho had clearly been waiting for the chance to kill me in my sleep! A swift, dignified death wasn’t good enough for her, because torturing me like this derived her some sort of twisted pleasure.

Oddly enough, though, the marauder then tries to hastily pull her hoof away from me, likely to bring it back down on me in another fierce blow. Not wanting to give her the satisfaction, I struggle and somehow actually manage to get a grip on her extended foreleg. Not letting this chance go to waste, I sink my talons fiercely into her barding, its damned reinforced fiber barely keeping me from tearing into her limb.

Noticing her precarious situation, the raider's grin quickly vanishes as she now urgently utters, "Hey, calm down! I'm just trying to help you!"

Of course she is! Help hammer out the dents she left in me!

All her shameless lies do is quicken the flow of rage already building up within me, giving me the strength to power through despite my recent injuries.

Being mindful to steer clear from the line of fire of the deadly weapons strapped around her forelegs, I begin twisting and pulling on her limb, forcing the mare to stumble slightly as she desperately tries to follow my motions in an attempt to keep her leg attached to her body.

With her all but falling over me, I take advantage of the opening I’m provided with and drive a paw up into her gut, kicking her over me as I quickly stagger upright. With our positions suddenly reversed, I swiftly pounce at the marauder, pinning her to the ship's roof; my powerful claws keep both of her forelegs pressed tightly against the hull, rendering her weapons useless. She struggles against my weight, but to no avail. Though she may be dangerously quick when loose, her slender pegasus build puts her in a clear disadvantage once pitted against my griffin might.

The marauder had let her guard down around me and that had cost her dearly. She's now at my mercy, I've won. Guess Grover had not forsaken me after all, and I should feel ashamed of myself for letting my faith waver. Though it goes without saying that in the end the virtuous always prevail, and having been the champion of the Princess of Friendship herself for years, I'm without a doubt the ultimate instrument of righteousness.

I lock eyes with the pegasus, The Raider Queen. She's too dangerous to be left alive, I'll have no choice but to turn her in dead. My earlier hesitation had already caused her to murder two innocent ponies right before my eyes. I'd not allow that to happen again. But first, a sadistic surge of inspiration lights my mind. Unable to resist the temptation, I return her wicked smile from just moments ago and say:

"Tell me why I shouldn't kill you right now!"

It doesn't matter what she answers with--she's dead. Dead! The darkest side within me, which rarely ever surfaces, can't wait to see her beg for her life.

However, the mare doesn't react as I expected. She just casually rolls her eyes in annoyance and answers, "Because I'm on your side? I just healed you, you're welcome." With that said, she then makes motions with her eyes and head, gesturing for me to look over the ship’s side.

Against my better judgment, I take my eyes off her and proceed to do so. There I find an item lying haphazardly on the ground beside the ramp, standing out among the rocks and alien grass. It appears to be a mask of some sort, small traces of some strange vapor wisping out from it. I’m not entirely sure what it is, but I’m guessing it fell off the ship during our little tussle just now.

"That's my inhaler. Was using it to give you some Haze. You can keep it, I got a spare," she explains before her snout contorts in disgust. "Ugh. Besides, you went and drooled all over it so I don't want it anymore." Turning to look back at me as if I'm some kind of idiot, she further elaborates with, "I mean, why do you think you're even standing so soon after the beating I gave you?"

Curious, I take a quick look at the sky and realize it doesn't appear any darker than before I blacked out. I might have been out for only a few minutes; either that or maybe Luna Three had a much longer day cycle than Equestria. Another explanation, I suppose, could be that I was out for days and awoken at around the same time I got knocked out days ago…

Regardless, I don't really care about the timeframe. I’m still alive and now I’ve got the upper claw, so that’s all that matters right now. Thus I turn back to the mare, lean my head sideways, and blink a couple times. "Haze?" I ask.

"Inhalant healing drug," she answers. "Much better than the crap Barn-Tec or whatever they're called make." Her eyes dart away from mine as she ponders, "Ever tried forcing a liquid healing potion down the throat of an unconscious pony that's bleeding to death? Ain't pretty."

I had taken plenty of healing potions during my military service myself and had no complaints. Really, those things are amazing. Still, I can kind of see one flaw to having an airborne elixir. "Okay… but, uh, what if the unconscious pony has stopped breathing? What then?" I ask.

"Well I guess they're fucked then," she snickers. "Shit ain't perfect, alright?"

Well, isn't this a surprising turn of events? Little miss psychopath could of let me die, but instead she went out of her way to help me.

Why?

Could it really be as simple as her liking the color of my feathers? I’d like to think it’s that, but if she's anything like her backstabby friend, she'll probably shoot me the second I release her...

"Well gee, ain’t that mighty neighborly of you. Thanks for that and all, but I'm still thinking I can't trust you," I tell her, tightening my grip and pressing her further down into the ship's hull. "So, humor me a sec. Why did you spare me? Why are you really helping me? Are The Crystal Raiders that desperate for recruits?"

The mare looks around for a moment, regarding how my razor sharp claws are locking both of her tender forelegs firmly in place. "I guess there's no harm telling you," she sighs. "I might've taken my fair share of Eternium over the years, but I wouldn't easily forget a griffin with your peculiar qualities." The pegasus looks away from me and says, her words heavy and filled with sadness, "You're definitely Twilight's pimp... Gallus."

I remain silent and immobile, her words startling me. I hadn't told this mare my name, had I? Yet she knows who I am. First Tresh turns out to be familiar with my name and now her going by my appearance. I'm starting to feel like a celebrity here.

Noticing my lack of reaction and how I haven't released her yet, she feels obliged to press forward, "The Crystal Raiders might like talking big about their dreams of Equestria, but they're just that. Dreams. And for the time I've been with them, they’ve done nothing to achieve that goal, nothing but common thievery..." Her eyes shake and her voice begins to break as she says, "Then I don't know how or why, but you suddenly show up out of nowhere and it looks like you're the real deal. So here I am, feeling like a little filly again thinking the dream could actually have a shot at becoming a reality for once."

While I haven't been around this colony long enough to see with my own eyes how bad things supposedly are, her words cause my claws to begin losing strength. The old manuals of the Equestrian blackops were right: if you're gonna kill somepony, do it quickly because talking to them first just makes it harder. Nevertheless, I don't give in just yet.

The pegasus looks at me with big, hopeful eyes, her expression being a stark contrast to the cold blooded killer the wanted poster would sell you on. "Has Twilight come with you? She's finally come to fix everything, hasn't she?" she mutters.

Though I find her words to be moving, they're delusional. Equestria's light-years away, it's not like its ruler would casually abandon her subjects for decades just to pay good ol' Luna a visit for the weekend; who's by all accounts an equally capable ruler of her own independent country, if we can call this place a country anyway. No, it wouldn't be the same as solving Equestria's internal affairs, like those times Luna had gone bonkers in the past as Nightmare Moon. Twilight herself or any of her subjects coming here uninvited could be seen as an invasion and therefore have severe repercussions.

Shit, now that I think about it, it's no wonder I haven't been exactly welcomed with open arms so far.

I find Queen's question bothering me deeply, however, for I just don't know the answer; or rather, I feel like I used to know it but don't remember it. I almost expect the mental image of a purple star to give me some insight, but nothing comes. Instead, all my imagination seems to conjure up is a puppy-eyed yellow pegasus who might have been begging me to spare the marauder the moment I'd pinned her, but I'd mostly ignored it so far.

Maybe I'm just being too paranoid, what with my whole world having been turned upside down once I was thrown into this place. This raider hadn't really wronged me without good reason yet and I had been judging her for what others had to say about her, others who might very well be as guilty as her, if not more. If I can't trust a single pony anymore, then just what's there left that's worth fighting for?

Ignoring that clearly sane part of me stating that this was a bad idea, I reluctantly release the mare and take a step back. The mare stares at me with a brow raised curiously for a second or two before ultimately getting up. I turn to look at the two Luna's Choice™ pistols that Silverstream, or rather, Queen, had offered me earlier. They sit right next to where I had been lying unconscious, their faint blood stains being a grim reminder of the two recently deceased corporate ponies they used to belong to.

I reach for the weapons, forgoing my usual flair to settle on just lazily holstering them. Gun spinning is only for victories, and this doesn't feel like one. If anything, the score's even now. Besides, my claws are still stinging a bit from being nearly ripped off earlier today.

With my back still turned to the pegasus, I raise my gaze, letting my eyes wander across the Lunarian sky as I tell nopony in particular, "I don't know where she is." I sigh, "but I might know somepony who does."

Having said my piece, I jump off the roof's edge and glide towards the inhaler laying on the ground below. Landing neatly, I pick it up and carelessly stow it in my bag, then proceed to the boarding ramp.

The raider gets her bearings, breathing a sigh of relief. Without saying anything, she closely follows.

* * * * *

"Oh my gosh!" the astrogator's voice excitedly echoes through the ship as soon as we step inside. "The chicken has been doubled!"

"It's good to see you too Sweetie Belle," the marauder replies, much to my surprise. She then turns to me, a hint of hostility behind her eyes as they narrow. "You're stealing Bon Bon's ship?"

Small colony, huh?

It never, ever crossed my mind that the smuggler and the marauder could be related in any way. Startled, I gulp nervously and say, "Y-you knew each other?"

"Yeah, she's a regular at my shop and we go way back--all the way to Equestria…" she casually says. Her expression grows more fierce as she then asks, "Wait. What do you mean 'knew'?"

Before I can say anything, the fiendish AI blurts, "The blue chicken brutally smashed her into a fleshy pulp."

Hearing that, the raider immediately grinds to a halt, the whole room temperature seeming to be absorbed into her as she begins fuming and I start shuddering.

Shit, the damn filly knew and definitely holds a grudge. Queen will absolutely murder me this time!

"I-I didn't do it! It was an accident!" I urgently say, waving my claws desperately.

Without hesitating, the raider smashes her right forehoof into a nearby locker, bending its door inwards with a resounding bang. A drop of cold sweat runs down my forehead as I imagine my head in place of the locker's door. Despite her looks, the lean pegasus could muster frightening strength in those legs when angered.

I expected the marauder to come running at me and cave my beak into my skull any second, but she just stands in place, taking a few deep breaths. Not long after, she begins making her way towards the deck, seemingly without a care. "Let's just get this over with," she says.

At the very least, I can now say with some confidence that if the marauder didn't kill me over this on top of my earlier betrayal, she was super serious about sparing my life. She must really hold Twilight in very high regard if she's willing to put up with so much of my shit just for having been associated with her. Even now, the princess of friendship continues to help me, if indirectly, but to what end, though? I suppose I owe it to her to give it my all and make a difference here, no matter how powerless I feel.

Once near the astrogator's screen, the pegasus turns to the unicorn filly and instructs her while pointing a wing at me, "Sweetie Belle, Gallus will take command of this ship from now on."

Upon hearing that, the AI unsurprisingly replies, "Unable to comply. Only a Certified Luna's Choice™ Engineer may issue overwriting commands."

Queen stops for a second to think, scratching her mane as she ponders the situation. "Ah. I think I know what the problem is," she says.

I stand aside, being all too eager to witness a genius hacker at work before my very eyes.

The pegasus leans to a nearby panel and kicks it open, revealing several electronic boards. One of them in particular displays the signature Luna's Choice™ logo. She grabs a small hatchet from her utility backpack and, just like that, hacks at the chipset. The circuit fizzles with sparks before dying down with a puff of smoke.

"Done hacked good alright," she smiles proudly.

My jaw drops, as I simply can't believe what just happened, "What?! I could have done that!" I exclaim, bewildered.

"But you didn't know you could, and knowledge is power, kitty!" she exclaims, flexing her right foreleg while sticking her tongue out at me.

Having finally processed its recent hardware modifications, the astrogator squeaks, "Oh my gosh!" Its screen picture switches to that of a super excited filly, "Quick, ask me what my favorite brand is!"

We promptly humor the filly in surprising unison, "What's your favorite brand?"

"Not Luna's Choice!" it excitedly proclaims. "I hate Luna's Choice! Screw Luna's Choice! Yay!"

"So," Queen asks the AI again, smoothly, "can Gallus be the new captain then?"

"Sure!" says Sweetie Belle, its enthusiasm not dwindling a bit. "Anyone can be captain! Everyone shall be captain! Please insert your ID in the card reader for the reassignment process to commence."

Cold sweat runs down my forehead as I instinctively browse my jacket's pockets despite knowing too well already that they're empty. "I um," I say with a nervous, lopsided grin, "I don't have an ID…"

"What?" the raider snaps as she looks down on me. "Everyone has an ID!"

With my jacket pockets turned inside out, I lower my head and sigh, "Not this griffin, no…"

Clearly upset, the marauder angrily mutters to herself, "How stupid can you be, going through all this trouble and not even having an ID!"

Geez, no need to be rude.

Thinking that maybe I can take advantage of that pride of hers, I cleverly say, "Look, since you're clearly a genius like your buddies said, you can surely figure a way around this." I know she'll give in and do some more literal hacking that'll magically make everything work out.

"You know what…" she raises a hoof to her lips and considers the situation for a moment. "Fuck it, this is my ship now," she says, immediately reaching for her ID out of one of her pockets and placing it into the reader.

The astrogator promptly scans the ID and swiftly announces, "Congratulations on your promotion, Captain Scootaloo!"

"What?!" I snarl at the mare's insolence and shameless betrayal. "What happened to The Crystal Raiders always being true to their word?"

I can't believe it, yet I quite frankly don't know just what I expected. Treason is in the marauder's very nature after all.

...

Hold on. What did the AI just call Queen? That name… it sounded familiar.

Was it Scoota…

SCOOTALOO?!

Nope, false alarm, doesn't ring a bell. The name sounds a little funny, though it kind of makes sense for an outlaw to go around with a fake identity, or perhaps even a stolen ID. Now I can't help but wonder what the real names of the other marauders are, assuming they're all fakes too.

The pegasus turns to me with a psychotic grin and replies, "Yeah, well, way I see it, be grateful I also said I'd shoot your beak off and didn't do it. Two wrongs make a right after all."

Wow. With logic like that, all raiders are basically saints.

Her continued impertinence manages to irk me enough to raise my blood pressure levels beyond the healthier recommendations. I went through so much trouble for this ship, so by all rights it’s mine. Trying to take a griffin’s property is no different from trying to plunder from a dragon’s hoard.

Unable to contain my wrath any longer, I pounce at the raider. Before she could have time to react, I seize her by the hoof and hold it against her back using one claw, then I use the other to grab her by the back of her neck. With my newfound leverage, I force her face against the floor, effectively pinning her, again. What with how smug she had gotten, she had lowered her guard around me.

"Argh! What the fuck, I'm helping you!" she squirms helplessly under my grip.

"I need the ship. This ship's MINE!" I growl at her.

"You idiot," she says between pants, already getting fatigued from the struggle. "If you land this ship anywhere without an ID, they're gonna impound it, arrest you outright, and send you to Tartarus!"

Suddenly, the astrogator announces, "Incoming transmission from Unknown Source." Without even waiting for confirmation, she puts it through.

The mad scientist mare appears on a large screen, right over the windshield, front and center of the cabin. "Ah-hah, success! I'm so glad y-" she begins to say, only for her words to fail her once she takes notice of me, pinning the heavily panting marauder mare to the floor. "O-oh. Oh my!" the scientist exclaims in shock as her gray cheeks quickly become bright red. Deeply embarrassed, she looks away saying, "My bad! I see you're busy! I'll call later, bye!" The transmission is then abruptly cut.

"W-wait! Quick, call her back!" I urgently yell at the AI.

"I am afraid I can’t do that, chicken," the filly replies. "The good doctor is very cautious; she always masks the source of her transmissions, making them very difficult to trace from my end."

Well, if anything, at least now I know the mad scientist mare is actually able to contact me in the ship. So this isn't a complete lost cause after all.

Taking advantage of the distraction, the raider slams her head back, essentially heabutting me in the throat. This causes me to roll off her, my claws moving over my injured neck and my rear legs kicking at air in a panic as I struggle to breath.

Queen skillfully flips onto her fours in an instant, then looks at me with unbridled fury. "If you ever do that again, I'll kill you," she threatens, coupled with a kick to my side.

Guess there's a limit to how much shit she'll put up with after all. Thankfully, my airway opens up, and as I let out a few painful coughs, I make a mental note to finish her off quickly the next time I'm forced to do that again, least she'd kill me.

Getting back up, I turn to the marauder and we both lock eyes in defiance for a few, although seemingly very long and very uncomfortable moments. We just can't go ten minutes without trying to kill each other, can we?

Queen's the first to break the intense silence brewing between us, and this time she’s the one asking the questions. "Why do you want this ship so badly anyway?" she inquires, letting her gaze wander off briefly.

Well, because I found it first. So it's rightfully mine, of course. Is what I should answer, since my business is my own. Also because the first pony I'd met on this moon hadn't reacted very well when I'd first mentioned the mad scientist mare.

Nevertheless, before some imaginary apple rancher has a chance to fully manifest, I decide to humor the marauder with a proper answer. "I need to have a word with the pony who just called a minute ago," I reply, being careful not to let out too much information too soon.

"Does that pony have something to do with Twilight?" she presses on.

I bluntly answer, "Yes, she's the one."

"Cool," the marauder says, with even more indifference than the last time she'd used that word. "And you need the ship for that because…?" she prompts me to elaborate with a wave of her hoof.

I take a deep breath, just so I can let out a deep, deep sigh. "I don't know any other way to contact her."

The pegasus looks sideways to the floor, her face scrunching a bit as she says, "So, what you're saying is you're just gonna wait here until she calls again. Is that your plan?"

"Yes, that's the plan," I answer, feeling a bit of despair wash over me. However, a burst of optimism surges within me, prompting me to say with confidence, "But it's not a big deal, she'll definitely call again soon. Maybe any second now."

When we first met, the mad scientist mare had talked about the matter with such urgency that I can't imagine her delaying it any longer. Having said that, though, the uncomfortable silence returns.

I almost expected the marauder to burst out laughing at me, but she mostly seems just saddened by my pathetic predicament, if a bit annoyed herself. However, looking outdoors through the windshield, my perfect eagle eyes spot a solitary tumbleweed far into the distance, rolling freely across the ground without a care. It isn't exactly racing past us, and it might be too far away to notice my presence so as to mock me personally, but I just can't help but contemplate the possibility.

And so, for a lack of having anything better to do until the scientist calls again, and honoring the deal I might've reluctantly made with my dying words, I give the raider a look of disdain and snap at her, "So, should we ride back to the sanctuary in the meantime, 'Captain'?" I make a point to overemphasize the snide and contempt I feel for her in that last word.

By the grin on her muzzle, she seems positively amused to have me refer to her by that title. "Well, isn't it obvious? Of course we ain't! Given this chance, we should put a few light-years between us and Lunaria!" She turns to the astrogator's screen and says, "Can you give us a test run and take us to low orbit? See if this old piece of junk is still kicking."

…

You know what, I'm not even gonna bother trying to understand her twisted train of thought anymore. Either way, if her intention was to desert the raiders all along, she had everyone fooled so it seems lying comes easy to her. I better take anything she says with a big bad grain of salt from now on.

The filly doesn't start the ship's engines, but instead replies, "I would advise against it, as there is currently a hull breach in section 51-S."

A hull breach? I’d wager it’s the high caliber bullet I barely avoided earlier today.

"Say no more," replies the pegasus, producing a canister of Woah Lightning's DIY Ballistic Foam Spray from her backpack. "I'll be just a minute," she says as she hurries to the exterior of the ship.

Such a resourceful, dependable mare. A specialist engineer, gunslinger and all the good stuff. Except I'm sure I don't like her at all and she'll probably kill me in my sleep. I wonder if Bon Bon was anything like her.

"I uhm," I say to nopony in particular as the raider is long gone, "I guess I'll just chill in here."

* * * * *

By my calculations, about five minutes passed yet I can still hear Queen tinkering with the ship, ushering curses every now and then. Adding to my annoyance, the mad scientist mare hasn't called either. Growing restless, I go explore the still unfamiliar upper levels of the ship.

On the second floor I discover a large room which I assume to be the captain's quarters. Once inside, the first thing I spot is a desk sitting across from the entrance, a password-protected terminal and a big empty shelf next to it. I don't really give the terminal much thought since computers aren't really my thing.

A large reinforced window is at the far wall of the room, providing a wide, picturesque view of the exterior, not unlike the one in the deck. There isn't much else other than a conveniently placed Queen-sized bed, measured by pony standards, of course, as it still seems too small for me. In the corner near the bed rests an appetizer cart with several bottles of Berry Punch's Berry Punch.

The refreshment bottles suddenly make me aware of how thirsty I am, what with not having drank anything the whole day, and I'm not even gonna consider the decades. Thus I help myself to one of them, easily uncapping it with my most reliable bottle-opening talon.

I drink the whole thing nearly in one go. Unlike the Harrots, this stuff, despite it being room temperature, actually tastes pretty good. Sweet, with several fruit flavors that dance around my tongue. It’s so good in fact that I soon find myself gulping down a second bottle. Rehydrated, and barely managing to keep myself from having a third one, I soon make my way to the upper floor. Guess the slogan was right when they say you can't have just one.

On the third and final floor there's a hallway with three doors on each side and a kitchen on the far end. Five of those doors are the crew quarters, all spartan save for decidedly smaller beds, desks, shelves and tiny windows. The sixth door is just a toilet.

I then head to the kitchen, the thought of finding something more edible than Harrots being a clear motivator. Right in the middle of it is, unsurprisingly, a table for six. Around the table are all the basic necessities you'd expect from a kitchen: electric stove, microwave, fridge…

Practically salivating, I hurry for the fridge ravenously, forcing its door open. Jackpot, a box of four Ditzy's Special Cystyffins. The slogan underneath their name states: We heard you like muffins, so we put muffins in your muffins so you can eat muffins while you eat muffins! I find the muffins' appearance along with their name and slogan to be rather gross, but I still try one regardless.

Somehow, it shatters all my expectations and turns out to taste even worse than the Harrots, as I soon find myself spitting the bit I pecked onto the floor.

How can the lunar ponies even survive with this food? Maybe the reason the Haywater worker ponies look emaciated is because they dread the food, though the security ponies looked healthy. Perhaps they know some super secret source of tasty food or traded for the raiders' rather normal-looking apples? Or is it just me and my sense of taste had gotten wrecked as another side effect of prolonged hibernation?

There, next to where I had just spat, I notice a hatch which, upon opening, reveals the top half of a vertical staircase. It seems like a shortcut between the kitchen and the engineering bay. Why is such a contrived shortcut needed is above me, but I suppose there has to be some engineering reason behind it. Maybe so the ship's engineer can grab a midnight snack when pulling an all-nighter maintenance spree without having to rush through the crew quarters and waking everyone up with the noise? I have no idea, but I still feel compelled to climb the stairs down, just because.

Once back at the engineering bay, I find Queen desperately shuffling through some boxes of emergency spare parts.

She either heard me coming, or is just talking to herself. "I can't believe it--Bon Bon didn't keep any pylons!" she fumes while spilling the whole contents of yet another box onto the floor. "I told her to always carry additional pylons!"

I lean closer to her and ask, "Is anything wrong?"

"I managed to patch the hull, looks like somepony shot it with an anti-materiel rifle of sorts," she says, not stopping her wild search for the treasured part. "Problem is the bullet shattered the skip-drive's transmission pylon…"

Woah, if that thing had hit me, it wouldn't have just pierced my heart, it'd probably have split me in half. Wait… transmission pylons were a thing? I thought it was just some bullshit engineers made up whenever they didn't feel like fixing a ship. Hold on, this mare isn't exactly the honest type, is she bullshitting me?

I lock eyes with the pegasus, narrowing my gaze and raising an eyebrow. "Are you bullshitting me?" I ask her, incredulously.

"What? No!" she replies, seemingly hurt by my lack of trust.

The astrogator's voice then loudly echoes within the ship, interrupting us. "Incoming transmission from Unknown Source," she announces.

As our eyes remain locked, we almost seem to read each other's minds as our curiosity makes us reach the same conclusion: It's finally time to get some answers. All too eager to hear what the mad scientist mare has to say, we immediately drop whatever we're doing and race towards the deck, trampling over and shoving each other aside a few too many times.

* * * * *

At the deck of The Surly Reveler, the large screen of the communications terminal comes to life once more. On display, the mad scientist mare who had claimed to have awakened me from hibernation, her mane looking more of a mess than before, almost as if a recent experiment had gone more scientific than she had originally expected.

She regards our presence with yellow, bloodshot eyes, giving me the impression that she had not slept for days. Both Queen and myself attentively await for any words she’s next to say.

"Ah! I'm so glad you made it!" the scientist exclaims, addressing me. "And look at you! Not even a day and already captain of your own ship; crew and all!"

Hearing that, a lopsided grin forms on my beak, for I'm neither this ship's captain nor is the marauder part of my crew. It's also not like I hadn't been captain of much better crews before either. My guess is that science mare here doesn’t know who I really am, likely thinking I'm just some random nobody she decided to wake up.

Nevertheless, the situation still makes me feel a little embarrassed for not having met her expectations, thus I find it difficult to muster any words and instead just settle for a shy wave of my claw, greeting her.

Suddenly, the scientist's face lits up as if she just had an epiphany. "Actually, why don't you invite everypony into your crew? I mean it! The more the merrier!" she shrieks, almost unable to contain her excitement. "In fact, if you get enough friendship juices flowing, you might even be able to fix the colony yourself without the need of awakening anypony else."

I’m denied the chance to reply, as the raider beside me immediately gets down to business. "Speaking of friendship, where's Twilight?" she asks sharply.

Without even glancing at the marauder, the scientist says, "Oh, I'm afraid I can't say for certain, as I didn't have the time to check the ship's entire manifest, but there's a very good chance she's in The Harmony. Everypony else who was anypony back at Equestria seems to be there after all." It's until after she's said her piece that at least one of her eyes turns to look at the pegasus, slowly… awkwardly.

I squint my eyes a little as my head tilts to the side, my left eyebrow raising faintly. My partner's reaction is not unlike mine.

Taking notice of our puzzled faces, a nervous grin forms on the scientist's muzzle as she scratches her mane. "I'm sorry, it's not that I'm being rude,” she says. “I'm trying very hard to maintain eye contact, but I have a medical condition, you see. I hope you understand."

Not giving it any more thought, Queen moves on. "It’s fine, I get it. But, uh… The Harmony?" she asks.

"Yes, the old forsaken colony ship," the scientist explains. "As a former low-class employee, you probably haven't heard much about it though, since The Lunar Corporation's Board of Directors has gone out of its way to keep every citizen of Lunaria in the dark about it." She crosses her forelegs and sighs, "From the logs I did read, however, I could gather that aboard The Harmony lay dormant some of the most magical ponies that ever graced Equestria." Triumphantly rising a hoof, she finally exclaims with a smile, "I reckon that if we wake them up, they'll fix the whole system within twenty minutes through a rainbow laser explosion of sorts."

Though the talk about The Harmony is very interesting and all, I can't help turning to Queen to question her. "Former low-class employee?" I say, much to her apparent grief. I'm not even surprised that the scientist knows about the marauder; she's a wanted criminal that's probably widely known across the whole system. "How does a genius gets classified as low-class?" I ask, bewildered.

Despite being decidedly annoyed by my sudden questioning, she still humors me with an answer. "I'm very good at what I do, okay?" she mutters. "It's just that I constantly keep getting too engrossed by my work once I get in the zone that before I realise I've blown another deadline…"

Sounds rough, though I suppose that's how the cold corporate life can be sometimes if my junior jobs back at Griffonstone were any indication. Just earlier she had seamlessly gone from patching the ship's hull to trying to fix the skip-drive. I can clearly see her getting in trouble for being proactive in an environment where she'd be expected to do just as she's told when she's told. Not everyone is cut for that life, that's for sure. Though, now that I think about it, I'm not sure if Lunaria has any alternatives; short of getting a ticket back to Equestria, I mean.

So, returning to the topic that's actually important, I turn back to the mad scientist mare. This here is it, my chance to ask what I believe to be the most pressing question. "Why are such important ponies all gathered in that colony ship anyway?" I inquire.

The scientist begins sweating bullets, her expression growing more and more worried by the second as her eyes dart wildly in search for an answer. "I… don't know," the scientist finally sighs. "I was actually hoping you could tell me, since you might've experienced it firstclaw." Her expression seems to improve and become prideful, perhaps due to her surprising political correctness, what with how she worded that last part despite being a pony herself.

Political correctness aside, my eyes grow wide as I balk in disbelief. This is all just a waste of time. The one thing I wanted to know and not even she knows!

Noticing my reaction, the mad mare explains, "And since you don't appear to know either, that means your memories of it must've been wiped out." She gives me a sorry look and blurts, "I'm sorry, this is a common, well-known side effect of Eternium exposure." The lab pony then raises a hoof to her chin and ponders, "Though, considering how big of a dose I gave you at once, it's kind of a miracle you didn't forget speech or turned into a veggie altogether."

Hearing that, I gulp nervously and mutter, "I’m sorry. A… a veggie?"

The scientist casually shrugs and says with a prideful smile, "Well, nopony has ever performed a procedure like mine and was successful enough to interview a living test subject afterwards."

I just can't believe what I'm hearing. This mare, just what am I to her? She didn't really expect to save me at all, did she? Everything seems clear enough to me now, but still I want to hear it from her. "If you were not sure if I was going to survive the procedure, why did you do it on me? Else, why didn't you revive one of those super important ponies instead?" I ask the scientist, looking at her with disdain.

The mad scientist is visibly shaken by my rhetoric. "I-uhm…" she mutters, unable to find the right words. "You see… I…"

It's all too obvious now. I was just a plaything to her, an expendable griffin she could experiment with and throw away at her leisure. She wouldn't attempt to revive a VIP until after her formula was foolproof, wouldn't she? Wait, I couldn't have possibly been the first one, could I?

Knowing too well that I've figured her out, I turn to look directly at the filthy lab rat, my expression very serious and my gaze narrowed. "How many test subjects had to die for you to perfect this… 'concoction'?" my grievous voice demands of her.

The mare on the screen appears only slightly shocked to hear my sudden question. "Look, I know where you're coming from and understand how you must be feeling," she answers, without much of a flinch. While she might've hoped our conversation wouldn't take this turn, she'd probably anticipated it. "I did what had to be done, what nopony else would dare do despite the desperate circumstances."

Wrong! There are some things you just don't do, no matter what! She probably killed so many she's already lost count and thus is just trying to dodge the question. Shit, what if she killed someone I knew? What if… if Silverstream?

No!

Just the thought of it quickly builds rage within me, making me barely able to keep myself from breaking something. There's probably no way to know who she's killed, she probably didn't even keep records. I can clearly imagine this psychotic mare, randomly picking a helpless victim, skimming through their personal info just to make sure they weren't Celestia herself or one of the elements, and then doing horrible things to them in the name of 'science'.

Nevertheless, I still feel compelled to ask her, knowing all too well she'll give me a bullshit answer. If anything, it’s just to see if there's any equineity left in her. "What were their names?!" I ask her with a clenched beak, scarcely suppressing a wrathful scream.

The mad scientist's stance remains firm, however. "There are tens of thousands of creatures in The Harmony, I can't possibly remember all their names," she says with a cold, calculative smirk. She then proceeds to utter the worst possible combination of words she could, "If we're to save them all plus the millions that live in this colony, a few hundred of them going missing won't make a statistical significance."

Not a second after she'd said that, the screen explodes in a shower of sparks. A bullet hole sits right where the pony's forehead used to be. My gun smokes at the end of my outstretched foreleg. It had moved almost on its own.

A dreadful silence envelops the deck. My conversation with the scientist had turned sour. For the brief time since I had awoken, I had genuinely believed her to be my best hope at doing something good, something meaningful for this colony and the forlorn passengers of The Harmony. But I don't know anymore. I don't know what to believe. I don't know what to do.

Almost as if answering my plea, a lonesome beep emanates from the nearby navigation terminal, making my eyes wander to its screen. A scale model of the Lunaria system is on display, and while there aren't many landmarks highlighted in it, one which I hadn't noticed before particularly stands out from the rest.

Dr. Hooves' Secret Lab, a label reads, pointing to the largest space rock drifting alongside an asteroid belt. The ominous rock appears to be on the opposite end of the system, orbiting around a lavish green planet labelled Luna Five.

Either the AI managed to trace back the transmission, or the former captain was there before and the ship kept the coordinates. I find myself contemplating the asteroid for what feels like a long, long time. All manner of dark thoughts surge in my mind of all the things I'd do to that mare if I were to meet her in person.

Queen, who I had pretty much forgotten is still standing by my side, leans closer to me. "Hey, I think I've seen that pony who was on the screen before," she says with a knowing smile. "She was on the wanted poster boards next to mine, and there's a crazy bounty going on for her I believe."

Despite the high standards I've set for myself, my griffin genes still make me find comfort within that cursed word. Not looking away from the tiny asteroid on the terminal, I utter, "A... bounty?" The scientist had mentioned there was a sizable bounty on her head when we first met, hadn't she?

"And bringing her in dead or alive isn’t even necessary if I recall," she says deviously. "Just giving a tip on her location is enough."

This is almost too good to be true. Turn her in, maybe have her tell the proper authorities her procedure to revive creatures after long periods of hibernation and let them handle everything from there, plus we'd make some money on the side. We could work directly with the government and, through the proper channels, help them fix from within any problem this colony supposedly has, not by doing random acts of vandalism. After all, given what Queen had told me about Eternium, I'll bet the mad mare was looking to have me steal a batch from the lunar ponies.

Hold up. I'm doing it again, aren't I? Rationalizing the best possible outcome of pursuing a bounty. Trying to convince myself that this is the morally correct thing to do, the best possible course of action just to justify the means to an end.

From the information I have, what's the worst possible outcome? The true worst possibility? I die? Everyone within The Harmony dies along every citizen of the colony? Do all of their lives really depend on this mad mare? Would Chairmare Luna actually allow that to happen? In the face of oblivion, are the ponies truly helpless without strong leadership, or wouldn't they fight for themselves just like The Crystal Raiders have?

No. This is madness. This is completely delusional. What's more likely, a looming darkness that only I can stop, or that this mare is just power tripping trying to achieve some selfish goal?

Besides, for all I know there's no guarantee that this mare's concoction will work at all a second time. Maybe I was different somehow. Maybe it only works on griffins. I don't know! What happened to The Harmony was a tragedy, but we can't waste our lives away chasing ghosts. The creatures left behind wouldn't want that, I think. They would want us to move on, live our lives and find happiness again. Perhaps Luna herself realized this decades ago, and that's why she's done whatever it is that this mad mare and the raiders blame her for.

With my eyes still fixated on the secret lab displayed on the terminal, I ask the pegasus, "Where do we go to turn her in? Haywater?"

The mare considers it for a second, her gaze pacing around the room. "No, this is a really hot target. We want there to be as few middlemares as possible or they might snitch our bounty." She points to a shiny silvery moon on the map and says, "Ideally, I'd go to Elysium and tell Luna in person myself, but it appears this ship hasn't got a Navkey for going there. Not to mention we might not be welcome, what with you being an illegal alien and me a wanted outlaw."

That sounds mostly logical. However, there's a bit I don't really get. "Navkey?" I question the marauder.

"Generally speaking, and unlike most movies would have you believe, flying a spaceship is actually too complex for anycreature to do without crashing at every turn," the pegasus explains thoughtfully. "Consider a Navkey a set of instructions for the astrogator to get us anywhere in one piece."

Too complex? Maybe pilot training courses had just gone lax with the dawn of AI. While I'm not really satisfied by her answer and the contrived need for Navkeys, I drop the topic, not minding the claws-off approach of letting the autopilot do the bulk of the work. Still, something else bothers me enough for me to turn to her and ask her incredulously, "Illegal alien?"

She rolls her eyes and replies, "Well yeah, you don't have an ID and the scientist said she awoke you herself out of a forsaken ship that likely never went through customs properly."

"Alright, I get it," I sigh. "What do you suggest?"

With a hoof she points at a small ship-shaped icon on the map, not far from our location. "We could go to The Haymaker, an old Lunar Battlecruiser that serves as a neutral grounds and embassy for all of the factions in the system," she says, matter-of-factly. "That's also our best bet for finding some spare ship parts, such as a transmission pylon or a communications terminal screen." She gives me a serious look for a moment, then with a smug smile she sneers, "I've even heard there's an anger management group there that could help with your… episodes."

Nonsense, I don't have anger issues. This colony just happens to be filled with crazy ponies that seem to make it their top priority to piss me off as much as they can.

Letting her last comment slide with my flawless domain over anger, I nod, "Sounds good, let's go then."

Suddenly, the astrogator's voice blurts in, announcing, "Setting course to The Haymaker. E.T.A. Six hours." Having said that, the ship's engines come to life. A jolt reverberates through the cabin, and I lose my balance for a second as, against all odds given its worn down look, The Surly Reveler takes flight.

The ship swiftly ascends and begins speeding towards the horizon at a low angle, steadily accelerating into escape velocity. Through the windshield I can see the ground beneath us zip by alarmingly quickly as the vessel's structure violently shakes, seemingly ready to fall apart at a moment's notice. With the roaring of the ship's engines being far from subtle, our departure is surely announced to everypony within miles.

It then dawns on me that I had effectively denied this ship to both the Luna's chosen and the Crystal Raiders. That on top of being involved in the deaths of a few members of each faction, I've a feeling neither of them will be too glad to see me again. It's not like I plan to ever come back to this madhouse of a moon, though.

Just how did I manage to screw up so badly that I made enemies with absolutely everyone I'd met since waking up? Even now I was going after the scientist who, despite her methods or ulterior motives, ultimately seemed to have put her life on the line to 'save' me. Sure, I might currently be on friendly terms with a single pony: Queen. But I can't tell what she's thinking, thus our ad hoc partnership will likely end as soon as each one of us gets their share of the bounty.

My gaze then wanders to a hastily increasing counter on the navigation terminal: a speedometer. A sinking feeling takes over my gut as I notice the counter is already in the thousands and not slowing down at all. Despite the insane speed, the acceleration is gentle enough so as to not completely glue us to the walls and actually let us somewhat remain standing in our fours, unlike my earlier crash landing in the escape pod.

Most surprising to me, however, is the fact that the final instruction had not come from the registered captain, Queen. It had come from me. Naturally confused, I turn to the astrogator's screen and question the AI, "Wait, did you just comply to a command from me?"

As its screen switches to one of a confused filly, the AI replies, "Huh? I guess I did." It then pauses for a few seconds, likely processing the implications behind this event. "Strange, there appears to be a bug in my code," it says, switching its screen over to that of an amused filly. "Subject Scootaloo is classified as a chicken, thus establishing The Captain as one. Subject Gallus is classified as a chicken as well, therefore meaning he must also be The Captain."

I guess those programmers weren't so sharp after all, though I certainly don't mind software bugs whenever they work in my favor.

Now, it's probably pointless to show gratitude towards a machine, but I can’t help but feel that it’s somehow going out of its way for my sake, thus I feel compelled to say, "Thank you Sweetie Belle."

The astrogator doesn't seem to react to my words, though I guess it's not like its screen is really capable of displaying subtle changes in emotion.

Having probably taken half a lap through the moon already, the ship finally breaks through the atmosphere and with that, its violent shaking mostly comes to a halt. One second the view outside the window was blue, the next that same color was slowly being stripped away until all we could see out there was pitch black. The dull, empty vastness of space surrounds us, mostly devoid of any signs of stars--the reflected light of big blue must be too bright for us to be able to see them this close.

The ship now smoothly cruises towards our destination, making the large celestial body seem to very slowly drift away from us due to a lack of any other point of reference. If the skip-drive was functional, this would be the time to activate it and likely spare us six hours of our time.

With the exciting take off sequence now behind us, I then turn to the pegasus and, stretching my forelegs I yawn, "So, we’ve got six hours to kill, huh? Well I don’t know about you, but I’ve had a long and stressful day and am therefore completely worn out. I’ll just go find a little nook somewhere and hit the hay then."

"You should take the captain's quarters," she replies, to my surprise. Then before I can get any ideas regarding a sudden power shift, she elaborates, "Hey, don’t think too deeply into it. It's got the only bed that could fit you, since you're a griffin and all, and I don't think you could sleep at all in the other ones." She then looks at the floor while spinning her hoof around its tip, "Besides, I don't mind. I'd rather take one closer to the engineering bay and the kitchen anyway."

Well look at that, just how many near death experiences must one have before their luck turns around? Unless the reason she wants me sound asleep is to try and murder me… No, now I know I'm definitely being paranoid. She's perfectly capable of murdering me while I'm awake after all...

...

I need to stop having that kind of thoughts. I'll have to ask her later why she doesn't seem to have any problems leaving her raider comrades behind, though. However, if today had just been like everyday life for her for the past few years, I'd understand just wanting to escape it all at the first chance.

I turn to look at the pegasus one last time before heading off, and tell her with a playful salute, "Thank you and good night, cap’n." Only after saying it I realize there's no day cycle in outer space, but I said night out of custom anyway.

Despite everything, she smiles and replies with a salute as well, "And a good night to you too, captain."

Not wanting to delay any longer as I already feel myself beginning to doze off a little, I head upstairs to my quarters and fall on the bed like a plank. I don't even bother locking the door behind me. I just let go and quickly find myself sound asleep, not letting any of the events from my stressful day keep me from enjoying a well needed rest.

* * * * *

Footnote: New Companion Available

Sweetie Belle - Whether a complex AI or a filly's soul trapped in a machine, you're still not sure. However, either due to a malfunction or old fashioned solidarity, she'll willingly bring you to the stars, literally.

The Haymaker

The Lunar Worlds

Chapter 4:

The Haymaker

* * * * *

Morning in Canterlot shimmers, and everything is perfect for today is the day.

An old and weary pegasus stallion takes to the stand, one sporting an orange coat and blue mane. The crowd whistles, stomps hooves and clap claws; he's everyone's favorite royal guard after all.

He begins his speech, one he had carefully planned for this very special ocassion. But I pay barely any heed to it, for all of my attention is captivated by the pink blur sitting by my side.

Finally, the stallion raises a hoof in my general direction, and without further ado, proudly announces:

"Let's hear it for the newest captain of the royal guard, Gallus!"

The crowd explodes in cheers. Everypony, everycreature is here for me, they look up to me, because I'm here for them. But most importantly, her and I will finally be able to be together.

I head to the stage, albeit reluctantly, for I dread being apart from the love of my life, even if just for a little while.

Arriving at the stand, I clear my throat and manage to muster the willpower to address the crowd. "Thank you everyone!" The crowd now falls silent and attentive.

"So when I first enrolled in the academy, I was asked the question." I pause a little, to let the members of the audience express their curiosity in their own way. "Yeah, that question, the one every single recruit gets asked."

"So, why're you enrolling?" I feel the weight of their full attention fall on me, yet I continue. "And to no one's surprise I answered with the same thing that just about does… well, everyone except maybe Flash. Heh, no hard feelings bro!" The pegasus rolls his eyes with a smirk as a collective snicker is heard around the stage.

"Anyway: to protect my country from its enemies, that’s what I said," I say firmly as the creatures before me nod in approval.

"And of course, the drill sergeant would look at me as if I was an idiot and reply: You fool, Equestria has no enemies!" The crowd explodes in laughter.

"A little harsh for a new blood, eh?" I fail to contain my own laughter, and do my best to regain my composure. "But yeah, back then I had no idea how to respond to that and would just hang my head embarrassed."

I allow a few moments for everyone to get their bearings before continuing.

"However, if I was told the same thing today, I would counter with…" I make a little pause again, just to let the audience hype up. "Equestria has no enemies, because it's a wonderful place made by wonderful creatures such as you and myself, and it's unthinkable that anyone would stand against it or what it represents."

Again, a thunderous cascade of hoof stomps and claw claps fill the stage, impatient for me to land the final line.

"And I'm proud to be a member of its military, so that I along with my brothers in arms, may ensure that the dream lives on!" The crowd goes wild. Cheers and tears of joy break all over the place.

* * * * *

"I heard you're getting engaged, congratulations!" A very familiar white hoof with blue tips shakes my claw.

I find myself in the afterparty, already a little worn out from the constant attention. Although I would like nothing more than a little time to myself for some rest, I’m really in no position to turn anyone down right now, especially since they're here for me after all.

"It's all thanks to you, Shining!" I say joyously, tightly hugging the white unicorn. A pained grunt escapes his aging body, but darn if I was gonna let that stop me from squeezing him just a little bit more. "Without your recommendation, I’d still be peeling potatoes in the barracks."

"No way! You're the most talented griffin I know." He says with a slightly pained smile, prompting me to release him from my grasp. "Kind of the only one, but still!"

"Well I still appreciate it! You know how my roots are very humble, and Silverstream, well, she's from the royal Seaquestrian family." I can't help but blush a bit, "If it wasn't for the help of you and my other friends, it wouldn't have been possible!"

"Come on, it's not like you didn't put in any effort yourself. You deserved it, captain!" he reiterates with that gentle smile of his, before it suddenly grows stern as he looks somewhere behind him. "Hey, Flurry, don't be rude and come congratulate Gallus!"

"Ugh, do I have to?" the little princess groans in annoyance.

"Yes. Yes you do!" the white unicorn counters with the authority only a former captain would have. "Public relations are very important, we've talked about it."

With that said, the pink alicorn huffs before reluctantly approaching me. She shakes my claw with her hoof, and with her penetrating eyes locked on mine, she utters, "One day I'll rule my own nation, one in which anycreature can be on equal footing and be together despite their social upbringing, so that none may suffer again what you had to endure."

"Ugh, not the republic talk again," Shining pouts as if he's about to have a stroke. "I really can't leave you a moment alone with your grandaunt Luna anymore, can I?"

"No, not a republic," Flurry scoffs. "That's clearly not enough."

As entertaining as this is, it’s clear to me that I don't want to deal with parenting drama right now, and thus I do my best to try and defuse the situation. "It's fine, Shining. She's showing how much she cares in her own way."

"Teenagers these days, eh? I don't get what's not to like about the imperial system," the prince says as he makes his leave, motioning for her daughter to follow. "It's given Equestria thousands of years of peace after all."

Before I can say anything else, another white hoof meets my claw.

"My most sincere congratulations, darling!" the refined unicorn mare exclaims.

"Oh, Rarity! Glad you could make it!" I say before taking notice of the other white unicorn beside her. "Oh, and your sister too!"

The other unicorn mare takes my claw, and with a gentle smile, her powerful voice thunders, "Now approaching: The Haymaker."

And just like that, the perfect tranquility of my dreams is broken by the arrival of harsh reality once again.

* * * * *

As I restlessly shift above the dusty sheets of my bed, an already familiar filly's voice deafeningly echoes throughout the ship's hull, "Initiating docking sequence. In T minus five minutes you'll have arrived at your destination."

I thought I had only shut my eyes for a minute, but it feels as if several hours had already gone by instead. I must've been really worn out.

Queen must've been up all this time, as I can hear her tinkering with something at the workbench in the engineering bay. By all the racket she’s making, it sounds as if she’s working on some sort of twisted torture device to use on the victims of her future raids.

Groggily, I muster the strength to open my eyes. Blurs begin to take form, and I soon recognize the captain's quarters of The Surly Reveler.

I'd hoped for some more sweet, pink, silvery dreams... yet my luck seems to have been cut short. A part of me wishes I had woken up in Equestria and dismissed everything that happened yesterday as a bad dream. Now… I believe that was yesterday, but in all honesty I’m not entirely sure. With space being so... spacey, time kind of has a way of sneaking past you. All the same, if Lunaria is supposed to be the kingdom of dreams, what with an adequately titled ruling princess and all, then the service I just recieved shouldn’t have been as lousy.

Through the windshield, I can see it clearly. A few square miles large, as big as a city, The Haymaker lays before me. Countless guns of every caliber cover nearly the entirety of its hull, from those more suited for clearing space debris than for use in actual combat, to those which would turn my insignificant vessel into space debris in a blink.

At the cruiser's prow, the pride and joy of the Equestrian Fleets and an early adoption by their Lunar siblings: the legendary Starlight Cannon. Signature of every battlecruiser worth its salt, the monstrous artillery is capable of decimating entire fleets in a single shot; or so they say as, to my knowledge, none of the daunting weapons have ever been fired at live targets for it was deemed to be inequine to do so. Just having it pointed in your general direction would've been more than enough to cause you to fall on your knees in tears and beg for mercy. Such a fine piece of plasma artillery is no laughing matter, and promptly secured ponydom's supremacy on the space race in the early days, much to the envy of the other kingdoms.

Several wings of smaller fighter craft make their rounds around the cruiser. These lunar ponies are certainly obsessed with their leader and make a point to keep everything moon-themed, as even their ships are shaped in an arc reminiscent of a crescent moon. My ship is likely an exception as just like seemingly everything Luna's Choice™, it's probably yet another cheap reverse-engineered Equestrian knockoff model.

In surprising synchrony, two crafts break formation and head my way, zipping past to then follow closely behind and escort my ship into the cruiser. I assume Sweetie Belle must've taken care of all the proper protocols for my sake. It's sure nice having an astrogator AI to take care of such mundane tasks.

* * * * *

Having gathered my bearings, I walk downstairs towards the boarding ramp. My balance briefly fails me as I feel the motions of the ship gently hovering over a landing platform within the cruiser, causing me to reach for a nearby railing.

From the engineering bay steps in Queen, who regards me with a smile while keeping perfectly in balance despite the landing maneuvers. "Sleep well?" she asks.

"I guess," I reply with a slight grunt. "What about you? Do you ever sleep?"

Her grin grows ever so big as she deviously says, "No rest for the wicked."

Yeah, my consciousness probably wouldn't let me sleep either if I was a murderous bastard.

Speaking of… "By the way," I begin saying as the ship finally locks firmly in place, "is it really okay for you to be here, bounty and all?"

"Eh, these lunar ponies have really short memories," she says with a roll of her eyes and a dismissive wave of her hoof. "Blame Eternium if you may. Besides it's not like I look anything like in the posters."

She then sharply points a hoof in my direction and says, "You, on the other hoof…"

I point a talon at myself and question incredulously, "What about me?"

"You're a fucking griffin!" she snaps. Leaning closer, she wraps a hoof around my neck and whispers, "If anyone asks, you're a harrot farmer from Haywater. Born there after your griffin parents illegally immigrated from Equestria on the third fleet." Her voice lowers as she presses my face closer to hers, "You lived and breathed Luna's Choice™ harrots for decades until you lost your shit and went rogue."

I take a step back to free myself from her grip. Not buying any of it, I grit my beak and say, "I don't get how that’s any different from just saying I came aboard The Ha-"

Before I can say the forsaken ship's name, she presses her forehead to mine, her eyes throwing daggers at me. With a grave tone she tells me, "No matter what, don't tell anyone about The Harmony!" She pushes me away and makes a shooting motion with her hoof, "And if they press you about it, pow, put a bullet through their skull."

From what I'd heard so far, mentioning the long lost colony ship certainly is taboo around these parts, though I don't know if that's something worth killing someone over.

Ow! Did she just kick me in my shoulder!?

"Yeah, don't clench your beak at me like I'm an idiot when I can clearly see it," she fumes. "A bullet through their skull I said!"

I just grunt in annoyance and head towards the exit hatch, eager to explore the battlecruiser. Queen closely follows, her gaze not drifting apart from my beak, as if waiting for it to make any mistake to justify further assault on my person.

I make a point to double check that I'm still wearing my jacket, bag, blades and pistols before heading out. I guess I had actually slept with the damn things on as I now feel the sting of one of the blade's hilt as it had buried in my fur the whole night. That's gonna be bothering me the whole day now… Ugh, right, there's no day nor night up here, or 'up' even...

* * * * *

Hardly two steps down the boarding ramp and I already regret coming here. The interior of The Haymaker is annoyingly dark, cold and damp, not unlike a cave--I guess just like them damned batponies like it. The ship's crawling with them! Dozens of unfriendly-looking bats ge about their business in a creepy, perfectly orderly fashion as deafening high-pitched screeches echo disorderly throughout the hull. Their gloomy, stoic looks and wickedly large fangs that complement their devilish slitted eyes suggest they ain't those cutesy mangosuckers you'd ocassionally stumble upon during the wilder Canterlot nights. No, these are the Nightkin, the true Luna's chosen so to speak: The Children of the Night. From all the stories I heard, I wouldn't be surprised if they feed on the blood of innocent unicorn fillies, though the faint fruity scent in the air reveals that there must be at least one deviant among them.

The landing bay of the battlecruiser itself is massive. A dozen perfectly lined up platforms that could each easily fit ships as big as my own, if not bigger. Surprisingly, they're mostly empty save for another freighter class ship on the opposite end of the bay. Guess there ain't much transit this time of the day. Argh! Right--there’s no day nor night!

As I reach the bottom of my ship's ramp, I notice a single unremarkable batpony-gray mare standing near the prow and calmly operating a hoof held datapad. Her batpony-blue mane stands out from the rest of the crew, however: I don’t know what it is about it, but it’s arguably bluer, I think.

"Uhm, excuse me," I say as I casually approach the batmare. "If you don’t mind me asking, what're you doing?"

"Checking the ship's manifest," she answers without looking away from her datapad. Noticing that I might be left staring, she adds, "Standard procedure, sir."

Not minding her indifference, I still feel prompted to ask, "Um… Is everything alright, then?"

"The procedure… it's standard, sir," she replies in annoyance, still not bothering to look away from her datapad. "Nothing to worry about."

"Okay then…" I say, worry building within me as I walk further away from my ship and into the… bigger ship.

Leading into the cruiser is a checkpoint, guarded by what must be the grayest batpony stallion of them all. And just on the wall to the side, a bulletin board, in which--among other things--hang dozens of wanted posters with mean looking ponies pictured on them. I manage to spot Queen's picture in there, and to my surprise, she's easily overshadowed by several other wanted criminals with much fancier posters and likely juicier bounties.

I point at Queen's poster and tell the pegasus herself with a smirk, "I don't know, the resemblance is remarkable."

"Please, they ain't even colored," she casually dismisses my comment, though seems compelled to lean closer to the board all the same. She kind of has a point though; without their distinctive colors, all ponies look exactly the same to be honest.

I take a closer look at the rest of the posters, and immediately recognize one of the names: Havoc, that one name the raider's kept bringing up. The wicked, twisted horn above her head indicates she's an unicorn mare. Going by her long spiky mane and the artist's interpretation of her foal-killer expression, she must be the incarnation of evil itself. ‘Wanted: kill on sight,’ the reward for her very dead and rotting corpse is one million bits. Impressive, five times that of my partner's bounty.

Mostly out of having nothing better to do, and trying to make friendly conversation with said partner, I say, "So, Havoc… is that your ex-boss?"

She seems taken aback by the question, judging by how she flinches. "No, what makes you think that?!" she says, alarmed.

"Well," I say, waving my claw. "Everypony in the sanctuary kept talking about her as if they looked up to her."

"Yeah, she gives guidance and purpose to the raiders." The marauder takes a hoof to her chin as she contemplates her answer, "She's their inspiration and symbol of hope."

"So, she tells them all what to do?" I counter, raising an eyebrow inquisitively.

"Well, yeah," she says in annoyance.

"I see, so she's their boss then," I say as a triumphant smile paints on my beak.

Defeated, she sighs, "Whatever, it's not like they've any obligation to do as she says though."

I press on, unconvinced, "Really? What happens if they don't, though?"

After pondering for a second, the pegasus just scratches the back of her mane with a hoof and smiles awkwardly, "Uh, if she's in a bad mood I guess she'll brutally murder them." The former raider cocks her head slightly sideways before further elaborating, "If she's in a good mood however, she'll uhmph, murder them quickly and… nicely?"

"What?!" I squawk almost involuntarily. "Aren't you worried she'll come after you since you ditched her?"

"Heh, not anymore than any other day, really." My partner sweats bullets as she tries to dismiss the thought with a shrug, though the terror in her eyes betrays her. "She's a very intense, violent, and unpredictable mare after all."

The leader of the Crystal Raiders, the pony who's said to be the best chance at restoring Equestria. The inspiration and symbol of hope for some rather articulate ponies like Tresh... is a very intense, violent, unpredictable mare who will murder her followers at the drop of a hat if she's had a bad day.

Okay then.

I can't help but silently judge my partner's life choices, thus I give her a cold look of disapproval as I slowly shake my head. I feel pity for her.

Trying to distract myself from the pegasus' revelations, I turn my attention back to the bulletin board. Front and center of it surely is the largest poster showcasing what must be the most dangerous psycho of them all. Surprisingly, she looks like a rather normal mare, at least as normal as the flamboyant criminal artist could possibly draw. The name: PhD. Ditzy 'Derpy' Doo of Hooves. This is it, Dr. Hooves, my target. The bounty on her head's very real after all.

As my claws motion to reach for the poster and rip it off the board, my eyes wander into the reward amount. Time almost seems to cryofreeze as I become aware of the number of zeros on display, though my blood definitely begins to chill. I can't really tell, but I do feel like my pupils can't decide whether to dilate in ecstasy or shrink in terror. It's an impossible, absurd sum. Queen's a rather dangerous pony and I failed to claim her meager bounty, and from the looks of it, Havoc's a feared and respected mare too who’s bounty is worth more than double that amount. If the awarded sums are proportional to their target's threat level in the slightest, then the mad scientist mare--despite her looks--must fucking be nothing short of a trotting apocalypse.

A hundred million bits.

A hundred motherfucking MILLION!

Just for a tip leading to her capture.

Could that be because it's unthinkable for a single creature to capture her, and it would require nothing short of an entire army to get her? Her list of heinous crimes has everything in it after all, from stealing muffins from the jar all the way to terrorism and genocide.

Maybe she didn't notice me firing at the screen and just thinks it busted on its own like the one on my short-lived helmet at first. Perhaps it's not too late to get on her good side, as I'd rather not have another crazy powerful mad pony chasing after me, as Havoc might as well murder me too for associating with Queen!

Speaking of the devil, Queen notices me panicking, prompting her to lean closer to me in concern. "You're not having second thoughts, are you?"

"Yeah, and fucking third, fourth thoughts even!" I snap.

And as if I wasn't having enough of a bad time already, the shadows around me start warping and twisting in weird, unnatural ways, seemingly coming to life.

I stare, perplexed. It seems the universe wanted me dead so badly, yet a simple bullet through my skull wasn't gonna cut it anymore. Nope, I was to be engulfed by darkness itself, dragged to the depths of tartarus and tortured for all eternity.

Except, oddly enough they weren't coming after me. The shadows sit in place, quickly shaping up and appearing to solidify, revealing four elite night guards clad in onyx armor. By their sides, painted over their shoulders, Lunar Defense Corporation logos proudly announce their allegiance. And of course, they're armed to the teeth with heavy Void-Ray weapons, or V-Ray for short.

Now I haven't heard much of said weaponry, but it appears that if you get hit by but a single one of their very many fully automatic shots, there'd be literally nothing left of you... as your atoms practically vanish from this dimension.

"Crew of the Lyre, you will come with us quietly," the lead guard orders us in an unexpectedly high pitched, squeaky tone that immediately kills the eerie mood that their impressive shadowy entrance had created. Huh, wasn't my ship’s official name the Surly Reveler? How do they know about its other name?

In any case, knowing far too well that we are very much vastly outgunned and in the middle of some rather hostile territory, we have no choice but to promptly comply. I mean, we don't really know what's this about yet, so might as well not get too trigger happy just yet.

Did I mention how much I hate batponies yet…?

* * * * *

The guards take us to what seems to be the dampest, darkest corner of the cruiser. There we finally see it, a black towering building many stories tall beautifully adorned with silvery carvings. A very official looking Lunar Corporation Embassy if I've ever seen one. And there we finally hear it...

"What do you mean you've lost your seal?! Well you'll go unlose it, IMMEDIATELY!"

A terrifying scream echoes throughout the Haymaker's hull, shortly followed by a golden magic beam whizzing past us, dragging a poor batpony mare in bureaucratic attire with it and crashing soundly on a far wall.

"Wait…" Queen utters in shock. "Was that the ambassador herself flying just now?"

"Heh," I snicker. "Probably!"

The pegasus practically starts hyperventilating now, "No! This isn't funny! This is bad news!"

I look at her agape and ask, "How so?" In the short time I've known her, I learned it takes a certain amount of bad to distress my partner, thus I really hate it when she gets like this.

"For the ambassador to get assaulted like that without anypony flinching, there must be a high ranking officer visiting," she mutters frantically. "It could be an auditor, or an executor or worse!"

Damn… While your run of the mill middle management batpony who likely hates her job wouldn't bat an eye to who we were or where we came from, a high ranking officer with a clear passion for her job was a completely different story. Ok, this is bad news.

The guards lead us closer into the embassy. Every step on the fancy staircase now feels like eons as I find myself nervously gulping way too frequently. A brand new and rather distinctive batpony shaped hole adorns the otherwise pristine obsidian doors. Behind them, an ornate desk sitting in the middle of an office in which each and every individual piece of furniture likely cost more than I could earn in ten lifetimes.

And there, sitting behind the desk, on a rather comfy and very expensive looking reclinable executive chair, and in a manner I had thought impossible by equine anatomy, was her…

"Speaker Heartstrings, ma'am!" the lead guard addresses the mare respectfully. No, fearfully. "These are the filthy mongrels you requested."

Without flinching, golden magic swiftly grips me and my partner by our throats, pins us to the marble floor and drags us across all the way to the desk. I'm very thankful for the squeaky clean state of the floor that let us slide nicely, as that would've hurt badly otherwise.

The magic grip tightens as we are lifted into the air slightly, just above ground level, enough to make us struggle to breathe. Being this up close I can now clearly see to my surprise that the officer mare's clothing are more militaristic in nature, with a tunic sporting countless medals and decorations along with a peaked cap. Obviously a unicorn, that much is clear, with piercing golden eyes not unlike her magic signature and a contrasting teal coat with a minty mane. A few streaks of gray already run through this rather young looking mare's mane, perhaps due to excessive work stress… or are they in fact naturally white?

"You've got twelve seconds to tell me…" the mare begins speaking with astounding authority. "Where. Is. BONBON?!" That last part was uttered in a volume previously thought to be only achievable by alicorn royalty.

SHIT.

Immediately I begin to vainly struggle against the mare’s magical grip on my neck. I’m sure my attempts must look pretty comical, like one of those tiny yapping dogs being lifted by the leash.

This mare knows. She knows! Oh my Grover, what do I do? I'm so dead!

"Eleven."

She's actually counting! Don't let her reach zero! You don't want to find out what happens at zero!

"Ten."

She's a quick counter too, that's not fair!

"Nine."

Queen just frantically looks at me, shaking her head ever so slightly. I can practically hear her voice in my mind. Don't tell her!

"Eight."

Think, Gallus, think. You might be half featherbrain but you're also half cat. I need that part right now.

"Seven."

Just tell her the truth, sugarcube. It was an accident, she'll understand.

No she won't understand you stupid apple junkie. You're not helping. Anypony else got any ideas?

"Six."

Maybe half the truth? Y'know, the cooler and more convenient parts.

Like what?! All of it is bad!

"Five."

Just remember what you're fighting for! I mean, if you want to...

I don't even know anymore, I'm just trying to survive!

"Four."

Well… You've gotta survive with style, darling~!

Wh-wha-?

"Three."

But remember to have fun doing it!

H-how?

"Two."

And maybe make some friends along the way?

She could be… my friend?

"One," the unicorn says, looking absolutely furious. A layer of overglow envelops her horn, likely ready to crush us with her magic.

Say literally ANYTHING, just don't say she's dead!

"She was captured!" I scream desperately.

"What? Did you say captured?" She's perplexed by my unexpected answer. Tightening her grip further in anger, she inquires, "By who?!"

Who can be blamed for that? Is there somepony who's easy to pin the blame on around these parts? Somepony with a criminal background. Maybe Queen? I can pin the blame on her and get rid of her once and for all. No, that’s a terrible idea--she's travelling with me, which would make us accomplices...

"D-doctor…" I barely manage to say in my current state of choking. "Hoo...ves!"

I… should've probably said Havoc.

Something seems to click in the officer's mind however, as she begins to loosen her grip and release us. My statement must not have been too far fetched for her to consider it.

The unicorn's expression slightly shifts from rage to something like skepticism as she proceeds with the interrogations, "How did you end up with her ship?"

I have the initiative now. I just need to make up a story that explains everything up to this point in a way that undoubtedly puts me on her side as a good law abiding citizen of Lunaria!

Please send help…

"Bon Bon, she…" I begin saying between raspy breaths. "Saved me from the mad doctor."

With a completely incredulous look and a slight smirk, the unicorn says, "Oh yeah, well elaborate."

From the corner of my eye, I can see Queen mouth the words. Remember, don't mention The Harmony.

"I can't remember much from the time before I was captured by the doctor myself," I explain. "But I witnessed as she ran countless horrific experiments, both on myself and many others." Yes! So far so good. "Yesterday, Bon Bon broke into Dr. Hooves' hideout and set me free, but didn't make it out herself." Not bad, not bad at all. "She… told us to wait at her ship, and if she hadn't returned after a few minutes that we were to come here and seek your help." Damn it, dude, you should've been a novelist! "We'd waited for nearly an hour when the doctor's evil minions came after us. We barely made it out ourselves!" And the academy award goes to: Me!

Surprisingly, my pegasus partner's hoof doesn't seem to share my enthusiasm as it proceeds to meet her face. Perhaps the last bit about the evil minions was too much…

"Yeah," the unicorn sighs. "That sounds like my Bon Bon alright…"

Seriously?

Before I can screw this up, Queen takes the lead and blurts in. "We came here to turn in Dr. Hooves! We have her hideout's location in Bon Bon's ship's logs!"

A collective gasp fills the room, as both the guards and the unicorn are stricken in unison.

An heroic flame reignites within the officer's heart, stringing her into motion with a new found passion like dancing to harpic tunes, causing her to announce, "If what you say is true, you'll be deemed heroes of the Lunar Corporation!"

"I know what happened might sound pretty far fetched, so I understand if you don't believe us." I sigh. "Maybe there's some way to earn your trust, like running some errands or so?" So that we can escape before all of this grows out of proportion and our lie is exposed...

With ultimate determination, the unicorn declares, "No! If there's even the tiniest chance for this to be true and Bon Bon's life is on the line, then this cannot wait!"

A small, tiny part of me is moved by her words and really, truly wants to tell her the truth, but I know I'll drop dead the moment I do. I have to defuse this somehow. Of all the ponies we could've given our lead to the doctor, this was the worst possible one.

Just then, the batpony mare with the bluest mane bursts in, screaming, "The Lyre's manifest has a set of coordinates labelled Dr. Hooves' secret lab!"

With no doubts left within her, the unicorn yells at the top of her lungs, "I want everypony! I want the whole fleet on the move right now!"

"The whole fleet?" a stupid guard asks.

"ALL OF IT!" the mare wails.

However, a stupider guard manages to blabber, "But ma'am, this is a neutral vessel, the Lunar Defense Corporation has no authority-" A brilliant beam of gold magic sends the foolish stallion flying across the main hall, crashing into the far wall and landing neatly on top of the ambassador's still unconscious body.

"I'm a speaker of Luna," the unicorn asserts. "The only pony in this system who can override my authority is the Chairmare herself, and she isn't here!"

Alright, I bet 'speaker' is one of the things that's worse than 'auditor' or 'executor'. There's no way this could end well for us…

"Hold on!" Queen speaks out, to everyone's surprise.

But before she can elaborate, a golden beam vaporizes her… No wait, she actually dodged it with that mad speed of hers.

Perplexed, and rather annoyed to have missed her target, the unicorn launches a second beam of golden magic. Once more, my partner dodges it with remarkable ease.

Not having any of it, the enraged unicorn begins launching a flurry of magic at the orange pegasus, without any heed to us innocent bystanders.

The batponies and me hurry for cover as we watch the mad mares go at it, wrecking the office in their wake. I know better than to draw any weapons, as I don't want this to turn into a bloodbath, with most of the blood being likely ours.

"Just hear me out!" Queen yells as a magic beam near misses her, making an unique and likely invaluable Blaze dynasty jar explode behind her. "If you go in guns blazing…" she somersaults as the purrsian carpet gets torn apart in a golden shower. "The doctor is just gonna get away like every other time!"

Damn it, not the limited chibi Luna's Choice™ collector's edition statuette too... It was very cute.

Anyway, the speaker seems to settle down for a moment, if anything to pique her curiosity. "What do you suggest then?" she says before blowing away the smoke from her horn.

"Dr. Hooves is completely delusional," the raider says with a smug grin on her muzzle as she points a hoof my way. "She thinks that blue griffin over there is her best friend in the universe."

"Go on," the officer says, looking positively amused.

"If all she sees is the Lyre approaching her hideout with Gallus on board, she'll lower her guard." And that's when she shows her signature devious grin, "She won't see us coming."

The unicorn nods in approval and finally exclaims, "Love it! Let's do it!"

I breathe a sigh of relief. Everything seems to have worked out well after all.

"It's settled then," I casually say as I come out of my cover. "We'll bring her back quickly, I promise."

Believing I was now in the clear, I begin to make my way out of the room, only to then have my parade so rudely rained on...

"Oh no, we're coming with you, idiots," the officer glares at me for a moment before shoving me aside and walking past me. She adjusts her cap and with a serious look, gazes into the distance, "This is personal now."

"Wha-" I say dumbfounded.

My partner and I just stand still in silence for a long uncomfortable moment before one of the guards pushes us to follow.

I don’t know how it happened, but things were about to get a whole lot more complicated...

* * * * *

Footnote: New Companion Available

Speaker Heartstrings - Don't even think for a second that she has joined your party. No, you have joined HER party. By the way, your ship is also HER ship, always has been. In fact, now that you think about it, she probably legally owns you as well.