The Lunar Worlds

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.