"Princess he just bolted in there without a word,"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, ma'am I'm pretty sure but why-"

"DAMNIT!!!!!"

"Salem! You all stay here!"

"But princess,"

"That is an order captain!"

Luna flew down the metal halls of this strange object, her wings with her horn's magical light guiding her the way forward. The entire place was pitch black to the point if she weren't using her illumination spell she wouldn't be able to see her hands right in front of her face. Clear not to run into something she lightly hoover off the ground but at a much faster pace than running, suddenly she stopped flapping her wings at a bright red cloth lying on the floor.

Not folding her wings, she looked down at the cloth before moving forward to see if it was a robe attached to something or someone.

The moment she saw the skull that she knew didn't belong to any species natural to equis her heart sank, not wasting another moment her wings were fully out and she bolted forward this time like a crossbow bolt. Speeding through the long corridor to the sound of something beyond her spell's range, Luna didn't know what was laying in wait before her but she didn't stop.

All that she knew was Salem need a friend at least she hoped he saw her as one.

Stopping at a doorway at the end of the hall Luna walked forward her spell was barely helping in the pitch black around her, that was until she recognized the red glow of Salem's helm.

"Salem?"

"They're a dead princess... all of them," Salem spoke his words heavy with sorrow while he rested his hand on top of a metal chair that held the skeletal remains of what was once a living human.

Luna walked forward, it had been many years since she have seen this much death before.

"Salem? Are you alright?"

"Psychically. Yes,"

"And mentally?"

"I dunno," Salem spoke letting the chair go, head down Salem took a breath but the way he did Luna could tell he was crying only moments ago.

"For what it's worth Salem... I'm sorry," Luna approached in a soft hush voice.

"What for? You didn't kill them," Salem pointed out.

"I know but-"

"Princess please don't... don't... please don't pity me," Salem held his faceplate while Luna noticed his arm be pressed against his body.

Stopping her illumination spell she cast the same spell she did on the cantorlot express that allow her to see Malo, sure enough, the SCP was holding Salem's side in an attempt to comfort him. Walking to his other side Luna reached a hand to Salem's shoulder but stopped herself not waiting to get the wrong idea in thinking she was pitying him.

Her gaze turned to the skeletons of the dead.

"How did they get here?"

"I don't know," Salem's voice began to return to normal behind his helmet, upon looking at the skeleton arm at his feet Salem took another deep breath. "From what I guess this was an Ark for humanity's survival but something happened,"

"How did they die?" Luna asked.

"They've been dead too long it's impossible to tell," Salem turned to one of the crews resting on the strange metal devices that had a large black screen with buttons and dials.

Pulling the dead back, Salem looked at what Luna at first thought was a metal Monocle but in reality, the 'monocle' was actually the eye of the skeleton.

"Are... are they like you?"

"No. Or rather I'm not like them," Salem silently apologized to the corpse before removing the device embedded in it's eye socket. "These guys were members of a religion known as the 'church of the broken god',"

"Sounds... grim,"

"Actually from what I found out they were actually not as bad as that name might have you believe. They believed in progress, invasion, and improvement," Salem looked at the large metal eye before opening it. "Which they also believe was though replacing their body parts with cybernetics,"

"Like that?" Luna pointed to the metal eye.

Salem nodded.

"From what I understand from foundation records the main body of the church was on decently good terms with the foundation. But there were splitter cults that were well... not as kind as their fellows," Salem explained.

"And were these part one of those splitter cults?"

"No the ARK project was a foundation project," Salem stopped inspecting the device for a moment. "Guess the two were on even better terms after the sun's betrayal,"

"From what you told me I think those two groups put differences aside for the greater good," Luna couldn't help but few a small smile come to her face. "That's what amazes me about your species. Ponies would have it all out for themselves in such an event but humans would start seeing eye to eye when it comes to survival,"

Salem slowly looked at her.

"Princess... our two races are quite alike than you would like to believe," Salem spoke grimly causing her to grab her arm out by his words.

She stood there silently for a moment and felt a tung on her wing, her attention swapped over to Malo was moving her hands about.

"Malo I don't understand," Luna whispered.

"Damn it all!" Salem cried in anger and threw the metal eye across the room before moving between the two. "What was I expecting?! Even if it would work the files would be long corrupted,"

Malo pointed at Salem before chattering her mouth as if to speak, this time Luna understood.

/Help him\

Nodding Luna with Malo turned to him.

"Salem?" Luna asked causing the chimera to grunt slightly. "Perhaps this isn't all there is to this... from what I've seen from your world something must have survived that could give you some form of closure,"

"Like what?"

"Whatever we can find," Luna answered with hope in her voice causing Salem to look at her before turning to Malo who was 'signing' to Salem.

"I can't argue with the two of you," Salem took another long breath and then looked towards a large double metal door at the back of the room. "We'll start from here,"

Salem could feel the blood in his veins go cold at the sight of every skeleton that he came across while the three looked for any answers. Yet all they found were the bones of countless dead, Salem didn't feel right seeing all of them like this.

It was like walking into a forgotten tomb.

This craft that was to be these survivors' salvation became their damnation.

It was their final resting place and has been for a long time, best finish looking through this glorified crypt and leave the dead to rest. Salem, Malo, and even Luna knew places of mass death were never good places to be who knows what else lurks here among the lifeless?

Best not to find out.

"Salem how big were these arks?" Luna asked.

"Nearly two miles long, they were to hold over a thousand people but-"

"But?"

"This one from my ECHO scans is missing over half it's body," Salem replied coldly. "If I were to guess they crashed here many years ago and something happened,"

"How is that possible? Surely any evidence would have been found of such remains why now?" Luna asked.

"That is the question," Salem responded before stopping.

This got the attention of the night princess who turned to see Salem looking at one of the doorways that had been open.

"What is it?" Salem didn't answer while he moved forward to the doorway, Luna shifted towards where Malo was yet she too was gone.

Slightly hesitant Luna followed after Salem, shivering slightly at the sudden drop in temperature Luna shivered even for her this was very cold to the point where it felt almost unnatural. Looking through the darkness Luna stopped in her tracks at bodies that littered the room.

But unlike the corpses some of these skeletons didn't were red cloaks, rather these bodies had clothes that looked like doctor lab coats. Reaching down at the faded name tag on one of the Skeletons Luna looked at the almost ruined picture of a human male with a pair of glasses and red hair.

'Bently Mccoy head researcher in paranormal technologies... this symbol it's not like the one from before,'

Looking at the seal Luna turned to the other bodies seeing the same symbol on their name tags, looking back up Luna's gaze widened. Salem knelt down in the middle of the room with four lifeless bodies in suits of armor similar to his own but damaged and were in complete disrepair.

Walking over hesitantly to Salem, walking to his side Luna took a step back at another body that lay on the floor in front of Salem and this one had to be the strongest. At first, she thought it was some sort of oversize bug creature but seeing it had two arms and two legs she assumed this was another strange soldier from Earth.

She was half right, to say the least.

"Отдыхай, Алексей," Salem whisper to the bug-like corpse.

It didn't take a genius to notice Salem recognized the corpse.

"Did you know this being?" Luna asked.

"Personally? No, but I read his file and theirs," Salem pointed to the four dead armored bodies. "Well only the parts that administrator clearance can get me. The foundation did love their secrets,"

"Who were they?"

"My predecessors," Salem answered causing the night princess to tilt her head. "The process that I did to myself utilized these four as a base template and resource material,"

"What do you mean by that?"

"They are my cousins in a genetically twisted way," Salem responded while holding up his right hand, noticing a triangular object resting in his palm.

"What is that?" Watching him pull the object from the bug creature's dead exoskeleton the three stared down at the object.

"A black box,"

"A what box?" Luna raised her brow at what Salem had said.

"Think of it as a recording device for the entire ARK," Salem spoke this time his somber tone seem to be lifted slightly.

"Is it a good thing?" Luna asked picking up on the change in Salem's emotions.

"It is," Salem wondered.

"What is the manner?"

"It's nothing," Salem glanced behind him for a moment then back to the princess noticing her holding her arms. "Cold princess?"

"Unlike you, I lack proper apparel to handle this cold," Luna spoke noticing her faint visible breath. "Not to speak ill of the dead Salem but I shall head out of this place. The night guard might be starting to worry,"

"I understand princess... I'll be out in a moment give me a second to make sure I didn't leave anything behind," Salem told the princess who nodded and walked out of the room.

While Luna turned the corner Salem stood silently while Malo appeared in front of him while staring at something behind Salem with her knife drawn but Salem held out his hand.

"/No/"

Not turning towards the figure Salem spoke in a low voice to make sure Luna didn't overhear him speak.

"I know you're there," His words lightly echoed as the room temperature dropped even more while a large silhouette appeared in the hole that was in the back wall.

"Thank you for this... and not harming her," Salem thanked the being that lurked in the back of the room far away from Salem's sharp eyes.

The thing groaned to Chimera who gave a nod.

"I understand this is your place and that you want to be alone," The terrain spoke in a hushed tone. "I'll make sure to keep it that way for you,"

Not saying a word the thing lowered itself back into the hole while unseen limbs slithered across the floor away from Salem and Malo. Taking this action as his answer Salem walked away from the unknown entity while not daring to turn to look behind him to look at the thing.

Watching the Chimera leave, the thing gave a low groan.

"BuuUUUUUrrrRRRrIIeeEEEEed ooOOn suUUUUundDDDDDddaAyyYYyy~" The creature spoke in a drowned voice to itself before shuffling away into a dark hole in the wall.

Author's Note

Translation and SCPs in this chapter:
Salem: "" (Russian)
SCP-2273(Terminated)
Task force MTF Tau-5 'Samsara' (KIA)

CLIFFHANGERS! I hate them as much as you guys but hey next chapter will be an interesting one.

Salem has the black box given to him by that... 'creature'.

That creature is not an SCP you can find, rather it is but not an official one.

I did have other plans for this chapter but I didn't like how it turned out, originally I was thinking about having SCP-191 in a stasis pod like that one episode from Superman the animated series when Superman finds supergirl in a cryo pod. I decided to go a different route instead and add something else. So I decided to rewrite and redo it...

But I hope you enjoy this chapter and I actually want to hear what you guys think the creature within the dead ARK is called or what it is. Again it's not an official SCP to think more openly about the paranormal world.

Here to the next chapter.