A New Enemy

They kept a live security feed over the egg while attending to regular tasks around the ship for two weeks, and then Fluttershy noticed movement.

"I think that egg is hatching.", she said to her friends.

Everyone rushed to the lab and Fluttershy headed inside. Flurry told her to be careful and Fluttershy acknowledged. She approached the egg cautiously and the soft top began to unfurl like the petals on a flower. Suddenly, a cloud of gas spewed out and filled the lab. Nobody could see what was happening, but they heard what sounded like squealing. Then they heard a splash and Fluttershy let out a scream. What was heard next was what sounded like choking. Flurry began to get nervous and activated vacuum pumps to clean the lab of the gases. When the indicator said that it was safe to reenter the lab, she put on a safety suit and went inside. Through the small window, nobody could see much. Flurry was startled by what she saw. Fluttershy was lying on her back and did not react to any stimuli. She also had a slimy goop around her mouth, which scared the wits out of Flurry.

"CONDITION RED! Fluttershy has something slimy around her mouth and she's catatonic. I'm worried that whatever was inside that egg has gotten inside her. We need to quarantine, NOW.", Flurry Heart yelped.

Twilight agreed and used her aura to carry her friend to an isolated part of the medical bay. Fluttershy came back to her senses after a few days, but she was not doing very well. Specifically, she had agonizing headaches and was constantly nauseated. One day, the unexpected happened. She was halfway through eating supper when she started convulsing violently. She heaved and spat up a large amount of her blood, along with curdles before going limp. Seconds later, the camera went dead and the microphones picked up the sound of her skin tearing and the splatter of fluids. Everyone rushed to the door and immediately gagged when they saw what had happened. Fluttershy was dead, and an alien had burst out of her chest. As an extra precaution, Twilight put up a shield to protect herself and the others. Currently, the alien was not looking at them. It was occupied with something and blood was dripping to the floor. When the alien turned around, they saw its wide open mouth, full of razor-sharp teeth. Rainbow saw something when she looked between the alien's legs and had a heart attack. What she saw was a pile of bones covered in blood. The alien had eaten Fluttershy. The alien charged forward and smashed the window in the door. It had six legs, two arms, scaly skin, four red eyes, a ring of horns, and the tongue of a snake.

"WHO ARE YOU, AND WHY ARE YOU ATTACKING US?", Twilight demanded angrily.

"I am a Syknoian queen. I seek the ones who killed my ancestors. We feed on the flesh of any organism that is foreign to us.", the alien hissed.

Twilight had a flashback to something Brandon had told her. His soldiers, the Brandonians, had destroyed the Syknoian home-world before joining the Christian Fleet.

"Their planet no longer exists. Its sun exploded and ripped it to pieces."

The queen didn't care, she lunged forward, reached through the shield and grabbed Twilight by the tail.

"RUN!", Twilight screeched before the queen bit her throat.

Everyone else rushed to the bridge and scrambled to conceal the data on where Eqqus was located. However, the queen had chased them and managed to note the star coordinates. A battle broke out with everyone using any weapon they could get their hooves on. These ranged from guns to flamethrowers and even knives. The queen almost grabbed Flurry Heart, but Rarity pushed her aside. As the queen started to tear her skin with her claws, Flurry smacked a switch to fire a missile at the crashed ship on the asteroid. The ship was vaporized in a flash of light. This angered the queen and led her to kill Flurry.

"We will hold her back. In the meantime, save yourself.", yelled Rainbow.

Spike followed Flurry towards where her ship was and took a detour. He ran into the power room and armed the self-destruct sequence for the Harmony. As he continued following Flurry, the queen spewed acid at him which induced terrible burns. In retaliation, Flurry slashed several wires that fell down and tangled around the queen. At this point, the other four friends were dead.