"Miss Darkwood?"

The pegasus slowly opened her eyes. Her ears were ringing, and she found it to be quite a struggle to remember what had happened maybe an hour prior.

"Miss?"

"Amber..?" The pegasus groaned, rubbing her head with a hoof. "What happened? Where's Joss?"

"She's gone."

"Gone? Do you mean..."

"No. She is not dead. She is purely out of my communication range.

"Well, why didn't you say that fir..." The pegasus caught a sight of herself and quickly started looking over her whole body. "...Amber. Why am I a winged pony?"

"Unknown. The same happened to your sister, except she was a unicorn."

The pegasus slowly stood up. "Can you fix this?"

"No, unfortunately."

The pegasus groaned, slowly shaking her head as she looked around. "Where am I?"

"In the engine room."

She looked towards the doorway and sighed. "Why is the exit covered in debris?"

"And this is - uhm, hello? Joss?"

Joss jumped. Her eyes darted about. "Wh-huh?! Oh, sorry... I must've started to daydream..."

Dash rolled her eyes, but she didn't say anything.

Twilight shrugged. "It's fine. Now... this is-"

Before she could finish, Joss took a single step forward and cried out in pain, hunching over and holding her head.

"Joss!" Twilight hurried to the unicorn's side. "Are you alright?!"

Joss hissed, clenching her teeth. "I-I'm fine... My head is killing me, though..."

Twilight frowned a little, replying, "Do you need to see a doctor?"

Joss shook her head, slowly standing back up. "I... I think I'm fine no-"

She cut herself off, her eyes widening.

"Joss?" Twilight asked, waving a hoof in front of her face.

Joss's mouth curved up into a smile. "Hello, Amber."

"Joss?"

The pegasus's eyes widened and she shot up.

Joss's voice was heard over the speakers, "I'm here, Amber. One second..."

"Joss!" The pegasus called out.

"I'm sorry, Miss Darkwood. The connection is not yet strong enough, she can't hear you."

Another voice came from the speakers, one that was unfamiliar to the pegasus, "Where is that voice coming from?"

"Captain? Are you with someone right now?"

"Yes, Amber, I am, but I don't care! Where's the ship?!" Joss asked. She sounded... worried. Maybe frantic.

The other voice came again, "Joss, what's going on?"

"If my scans of this planet are right, it may be a good idea to get to a somewhat remote location, Captain. Just so the planet's natives don't think they're going crazy."

"It's a little too late for that," a third voice replied.

"Amber is right, though," Joss replied. "Let's try to get a little closer to the ship."

"Uh, how do you know we're close to the ship?" asked the third voice.

"It's complicated," was Joss's only reply.

"Alright, we're out of town now and the connection should be stronger." Joss continued trotting through the grass.

Twilight looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "Can you explain what was happening now?"

"I feel like we can do that."

"Joss!"

Joss froze mid-step. "S-Sis?"

"Joss! You need to get to the ship now!"

Joss sighed. "Amber? What's the ship status?"

"The engine has lost fuel. Several hallways have been blocked by debris, but airflow is not blocked. The rooms blocked by debris include the Captain's Quarters, the Crew Quarters, the Engine Room, and the exit hallway."

"That's great..." Joss sighed.

Twilight replied, "I can blast the debris away if you need it."

"We will. Joss, your sister is trapped in the Engine Room."

"Crystal's trapped?!" Josh yelped, quickening her trotting to galloping.

Even if she didn't know the pony, Twilight knew that couldn't be a good thing. She started galloping, too. Dash also sped up, but she didn't start galloping because... well, she was flying.

The ship came into view. The sight of it made Dash nervous, but it also made Joss go just a little bit faster. Her legs were really starting to hurt, but Joss's worries didn't offer her any leniency. Besides, if she slowed down she would fall behind and she really didn't want to do that.

Why, oh why didn't I exercise more on the ship? Joss thought to herself.

The small group got closer and closer to the ship. Everything appeared to be going fine - until Joss collapsed!

She yelped, slamming into the ground.

Twilight skidded to a stop and ran back towards Joss. "Joss! Are you alright?"

"I-I'm fine!" Joss slowly stood up. "My legs are sore as hell, but I'm fine!"

Damnit, I'm really so out of shape that running for a few minutes makes me collapse? She thought to herself.

"You can wait out here, we can go get your sister." Twilight said.

Joss shook her head. "No, I-I'm fine. I can walk! And... I don't really want to stay out here and be useless."

"You'd much rather go inside and be useless?"

"Amber..."

"Sorry."

Joss forcefully shook her head to clear the daze from her mind. "I'm fine. I don't want to stay out here."

"Alright." Twilight replied.

Joss gave her a small smile.

"I suggest you keep an eye on her to make sure she's okay."

Twilight nodded while Joss rolled her eyes.

Crystal's eyes slowly opened.

She groaned, standing up.

"How long was I asleep?" She mumbled to herself.

"Only a few hours, Miss Darkwood."

Crystal jumped, half-yelling, "Holy shit! Don't scare me like that, Amber!"

"Mind your language, little si-" Came a certain voice from behind the collapsed doorway. She didn't manage to finish her sentence before erupting in laughter.

"Um..." The first unfamilar voice from earlier came from the same direction. "What are you laughing about, Joss?"

Crystal allowed her mouth to curve into a small smile. "You sure love being ironic, huh, Joss?"

"Oh, shut it!"

This sentence caused Crystal to start giggling uncontrollably for seemingly no reason.

There was an irritated sigh, then what sounded like footsteps leading away from the blockade. Or... the logical term would be hoofsteps, wouldn't it? Fine, hoofsteps leading away from the blockade.

"Um, Joss?" The first unfamiliar voice came again. "Where are you going?"

"Somewhere." Joss replied.

Crystal shook her head. "Joss, you weirdo..."

While Crystal was mumbling to herself about her sister, Joss trotted away from the small group and into the kitchen.

She came to a stop in front of a door. While the door would be normal-sized to a human, Joss was not a human anymore, and so, the door looked gigantic to her. She hadn't exactly been planning too much - this wasn't something that needed very much of a plan - but one problem was exceeding obvious to her now; the doorknob was too high up for her to reach, and even if it wasn't, she had no way of actually opening the door.

"Shit."

Looking around, Joss noticed a small stool lying by the doorway she entered in. She trotted over to it and hooked her leg onto the stool. As uncomfortable as it was, Joss managed to pull the stool away from the wall enough for her to get to the other side of it and push it with her head, which she did. She got it to the doorway and clambered on top, before sitting down and thinking.

After a long time (well, long to her. It was really only about a minute) of thinking, she finally got an idea. She pressed her hooves against the sides of the doorknob and turned. After about five attempts, she suddenly freezed, before leaping off the stool and pulling it back away from the door. When it was far enough away, she closed her eyes, thinking again.

Well, I've seen a lot of old western movies, she thought to herself. and most of those had horses in them. Hopefully I can get this right.

She walked back up to the door, but then turned away from it, bracing herself. When she felt she was ready, she kicked her back hooves against the door, resulting in a loud clang of metal hitting against keratin.

Ow. She thought. Goddamnit, that wasn't enough to break down the door? I really don't want to do this more than once...

Despite the pain, she attempted to buck down the door again. This time, with the door weakened from the first buck, it worked, sending the door flying off its hinges and slamming into the wall. A smirk played at her muzzle as Joss turned around and trotted into the small room behind the door.

The room appeared to be nothing more than a small storage room, although it had a very oddly placed light in the wall that was partially blocked by a storage shelf.

Joss climbed onto the shelf - the shelves were far apart enough and bare enough for her to do so - and pushed on the light. After a bit of resistance, the light gave way and slid back with a satisfying click.

She climbed back off the shelf and looked at the wall just in time to see a portion of it shudder and rise up into the rest of the wall, revealing a staircase. Joss trotted up the newly-revealed staircase as the wall-door closed behind her.

She soon got to the top and pressed a button on another wall, revealing it to also be a door. The wall-door swung open, revealing a very familiar bedroom.

Joss stepped out into her room as the door closed behind her. She let her hooves sink into the blue carpet of the room and rested for a moment, before hurrying to a screen. "Amber."

The screen immediately turned on, showing a map and scans of the atmosphere. "Yes, Captain?"

"Please provide a detailed synopsis of the functioning features in the hallway leading to the Engine Room."

"The lights are active, as is the air-conditioning. The heater, the oxygen venting, and the sprinklers are all in working condition but not active."

"Thank you." Joss thought to herself before trotting to the door of her bedroom. "Please unlock the door."

The door unlocked with a quiet click.

Joss pushed the door open with her muzzle (this door was not like the one in the kitchen, it was a simple push-door) and stepped through, humming a small tune to herself.

She had a plan in mind.

Author's Note

And here we are, with characters who have no idea how to act in-character!
All jokes aside, I'm still not the best at writing the Mane 6. I'm trying though! That's what's important, right?
After this chapter, I'm going to take a break to see who reviews and hopefully get some feedback! Construction criticism is useful to me.
So, uh... I don't know what else to say. I'll just leave for now, so cya!