Legacy of the Past

Chapters

Prologue: The Mailmare
Chapter 1: Mother and Daughter
Chapter 2: The Fallen Star
Chapter 3: The Discovery
Chapter 4: Old Allies...
Chapter 5: The Scream
Chapter 6: Who She Was
Chapter 7: The Hunt
Chapter 8: Corruption Reborn
Chapter 9: Dark Reveal
Chapter 10: Rotting Apples
Chapter 11: Infectus Magus

Prologue: The Mailmare

*tap tap tap*

The sound was loud but light on the wooden door of the library. A gray pegasus with a bright blond mane and unique, wall-eyed look in her gold eyes with a mailbag stood, waiting patiently with a smile on her face as she waited for either Twilight Sparkle or her dragon assistant Spike to answer.

She heard movement on the other side and the door swung open to reveal a rather frazzled looking lavender unicorn, her mane ruffled and she looked stressed.

"Oh," She said, recognizing the pegasus instantly. "Hello Derp- I mean Ditzy!"

Ditzy continued smiling. "It's no problem Twilight, please, you can call me Derpy! I don't mind."

"A-are you sure?" The unicorn asked hesitantly. "I know there are a lot of ponies who use that nickname as more of a-"

"Pfft" Ditzy waved a hoof, her left one, dismissively. "I just ignore those guys. Really, a lot of ponies get so hung-up over names and titles, they tend to forget about the pony and who she is and what she has accomplished. But they're not that important in my eyes, you just ignore the ones who want to use your name against you and move on."

"Wow..." Twilight said, "that's very interesting, Derp- I mean, Ditzy, ugh!"

Ditzy chuckled. "It's fine, anyways, I've got mail for you!"

She brought her face in her bag and pulled out some letters, seemingly at random.

"Oh, thanks, can you bring it in?" The unicorn asked, stepping aside to let Ditzy in.

She briefly wondered why Twilight didn't just levitate them to her but figured there must have been a good reason. Shrugging, she stepped inside the library, where she saw an assortment of scribbled parchments sprawled across the whole floor. Placing the letters on a nearby table she looked around, curious.

"Sorry about the mess," Twilight said. "Spike's at Rarity's and I've been doing some serious research."

"I thought you were always doing research?"

"Well, not on this scale no..."

Ditzy picked up a nearby piece or parchment and looked briefly at its contents.

...a growing number of scientists believe that the stars are all, in fact, distant suns similar to the one Princess Celestia controls. Although there is no evidence of this, many authors have taken this concept and ran with it for their stories, using theoretical science as its main theme and to explain the extraordinary things that happen in their books. The dubbed 'Science-Fiction' novels had become a growing hit within the 800s of Celestia's reign...

"So what are you studying this time?" The mailmare asked.

"Well, I was reading an old science-fiction story, and it had a lot of interesting concepts, so I'm trying to find out if any of them are true and, if so, if we could try to actually get up there in space."

Twilight glanced down at some parchment notes, and sighed.

"But it's very difficult, there are many theories, but none of them are proven and, lately, it seems many ponies have forgotten about them. I was trying to find out if we could send ships into space and, if we could, how they would work."

Twilight began rubbing her forehead and her face was scrunched up.

"Are you alright?" Ditzy asked, but she had a suspicion what it was.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a bad headache that doesn't seem to be going away."

Ditzy nodded, her suspicion correct, it was almost like a sixth sense to her, ever since Dinky came into her life. It probably also explained why Twilight didn't grab the letters with her magic.

"You should get some rest." She said, her motherly instinct taking over. "It won't do you any good trying to research with a headache."

Twilight considered protesting, but the pain in her head seemed to have won, and she nodded slowly, making her way to her room.

"Grab a wet cloth and place it over your head-"

"I know, I know how to deal with headaches the non-magical way." Twilight said, then looked back to her. "What about the mess? I can't leave the library like this."

"I'll take care of it," The mailmare said. "I've got some free time on my hooves."

Twilght nodded, smiling. "Alright, thanks a lot."

"No problem!" Ditzy said cheerfully, a wide smile on her face.

"It's just this whole thing has been eating at me..." Twilight mumbled as she entered her room.

After the unicorn laid down, Ditzy moved about, collecting the parchment and placing them in neat piles. But as she cleaned up the library, she kept eyeing and empty parchment scroll and a feathery pen next to an ink container. One considering thought, and an internal battle began in her mind. She stopped and thought.

Should I? I don't know... What's the harm? It could be nothing, or it could be major. Ugh, I don't know... The wall-eyed pegasus glanced at the parchment and then at Twilight's door, and sighed. Lightly flapping her wings, she flew towards the parchment and grabbed the pen, dipping it in the ink.

I'm no expert on this, she thought as she began writing. Then again, I guess here I would be considered an expert.

She wrote, explaining the subject of ships in space, the distance of all objects in space, and briefly mentioning some methods of Faster-Than-Light travel she knew worked. What life in space is like, and explaining all the necessary functions and systems required on a ship but making sure not to explain how to create them. When she had finished, she had become so caught in writing, having to look deep in memories she hadn't thought about it a long time, that she had briefly forgotten who she was, and written down a different name. Her old name, her original name that she had been born with. When she saw her mistake, her heart began pounding and she quickly scribbled over the two words, shrouding it in black ink, and began regretting what she had written. But once the name was completely, both in the black ink on the parchment and in the black depths of her locked away memories, her heart began calming down.

Sighing again, she turned and grabbed her bag, leaving the library.

Well, mistake or not, I hope this helps you, Twilight...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight awoke a few hours later, her head feeling like it had never been hurt. She cautiously stood up, and saw the wet cloth on the floor, it must have fallen off while she slept. Hesitantly, she tried levitating the cloth and a purple aura formed around it and it lifted off the ground. She smiled, relieved, she really was better. She made her way down the stairs and saw that, while some of the mess was cleaned up, it seemed Ditzy had left half of the notes on the floor. But Ditzy was a forgetful pony, so Twilight wasn't surprised, in fact, she was quite pleased with how much she had gotten done.

She made her way to pick a parchment, when she noticed another one on a table that seemed to have been recently written. Making her way over to it, she began reading what was on it, and her eyes widened.

Where on earth did this come from!? She thought as she read it. It was a theory on space travel and how ships in space work. But it didn't sound like theory, but fact. It was written so confidently and casually at the same time, like it was common knowledge!

Twilight glanced down at the bottom of the parchment and saw what could've been a name but it was covered in dried ink, scribbled out.

I don't believe this, who could've- A brief flicker of Ditzy passed through her head and Twilight slowly turned to the door where the pegasus had almost certainly left through. No, she couldn't have. But, it was recently written, who else could have written? But, how did she come across this knowledge? Why not just tell me?

The questions kept pouring through Twilight's mind as she thought. but eventually she gave up. Ditzy didn't seem like the pony who knew a lot about space and, if she did, how she knew about it. But Twilight came to the conclusion that if Ditzy was the one to have written this, she probably also didn't want it to be known that she knew this. Although that spurred further questions from Twilight, she accepted the conclusion she deduced for now and went back to reading.

Chapter 1: Mother and Daughter

Dinky hummed a tune as she left the school and made her way into town. Today had been a good day, she had managed to get all her homework done and had managed to get the card completed just before school ended. She trotted through Ponyville, making her way to Sugarcube Corner. There, her secret project that she had spent all day yesterday working with Pinkie Pie was waiting for her. That, combined with the card, will make her mother so happy!

"This is gonna be the best Mother's Day ever!" She cheered, opening the front door...

...and stopped dead in her tracks. There, in the center of the Corner, was her mother, struggling to balance a whole bunch of boxes on her back and forehooves.

"Mom!" Dinky said, surprised. "What are you doing here!?"

Her mother turned her head and managed to smile.

"Oh hello, Dinky." She said. "How was school?"

"F-f-fine," The little filly said nervously, hiding her card. She glanced around and saw Pinkie place another box on top of the pile Ditzy was carrying, looking more then a little worried. Upon seeing the filly, she ran and grabbed her, placing both of them behind the counter.

"I'm so glad you're here, I was running out of stuff to keep your mother occupied!" The pink pony exclaimed, then spoke in a hushed whisper. "I wasn't expecting your mother's Muffin Sense to have spotted it."

"Muffin Sense!?" Dinky whispered back. "I thought you had a plan to keep her from knowing."

"And obviously disguising it as a cupcake didn't work." Pinkie replied.

"Uh, Pinkie?" Ditzy asked, her hind legs starting to quiver.

"Is it ready, at least?" Dinky asked. Pinkie nodded cheerfully, and passed a small box to the filly.

"Pinkie!" Ditzy called out, her legs giving under the weight. "I can't- AAH!"

Pinkie glanced up just in time to see Ditzy collapse.

"Wow, thanks a lot, Ditzy!" She said as she jumped over the counter. "You fixed my problem!"

"What problem?" The wall-eyed pegasus asked as she struggled to get up from the boxes. "You just gave me a whole bunch of boxes to carry when I came to give the Cakes a letter."

"Yep! and you fixed my problem!"

Ditzy opened her mouth to respond, then remembered she was talking to Pinkie Pie, and shut it. She glanced over at her daughter, who was trying to hide the box behind her.

"What's in the box?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Argh!" Pinkie cried out. "Curse you and your Muffin Sense!"

Ditzy sighed. "Pinkie, As much as I wish I could, I don't have a Muffin Sense."

"You can't hide it from me!" The pink mare pointed an accusing hoof. "You cannot deny the Muffin Sense existence!"

"Pinkie, if I had a Muffin Sense, wouldn't I have been able to know that those muffins you and Applejack had made weren't..." she shuddered. "...You know what I mean."

Pinkie nodded. "That's because the Muffin Sense hadn't fully manifested itself then."

For a moment, the three ponies stood in silence, Ditzy glaring at Pinkie, then sighing. She looked back at her daughter.

"My question still stands."

Dinky looked left and right nervously. "Uh, can't it wait until later?"

"Normally, I would be patient but considering Pinkie almost certainly has something to do with what's in the box and the fact that she made me carry a ridiculous number of them in a panic to keep it secret, I think I should find out what it is. Judging how Pinkie keeps mentioning the Muffin Sense, I'd assume it's a muffin for me, but why keep it so secretive?"

Dinky's mind was running with ideas on how to escape this predicament, she couldn't give it to her mother, not until the moment was just right. In the end, her mind settled on only one option. Run. Without a word, she dashed out of the Corner and ran through Ponyville, her mother was stunned for a second but quickly snapped out of it and pursued her daughter, wondering what had gotten into her little muffin's strange behaviour.

Dinky panted as she ran through the market, her smaller size contributing to moving past the large crowds, mostly of fillies with their mothers, browsing the different stalls. Her mother, on the other hoof, was having considerably more trouble. Eventually, Ditzy flew up above the crowd and spotted her daughter heading for the picnic area. Going into a dive, the wall-eyed pegasus landed just in front of her daughter, who skidded to a halt.

"Dinky..." She panted warningly. "What is going on? This isn't like you."

Dinky grew panicked. No! I was so close! If only I could just move around her... I have to get past her... Her thoughts desperately began to draw to the picnic spot she had set up and how she so desperately wanted to be there, not noticing her horn began glowing... *poof!* In a flash, she was gone.

Ditzy blinked in surprise at her daughter's sudden disappearance and worry began to take over as she began looking around frantically for her daughter.

"Muffin? Dinky?"

The pegasus turned around and saw her daughter standing on a checkered blanket in an empty field, rubbing her head woozily. Ditzy flew over to her daughter.

"Dinky, are you okay?" She asked as she checked her daughter's temperature and her body to see if there was anything wrong with her.

"I'm fine, mom, really." The filly answered, slightly embarrassed, then her eyes widened. "Mom... Did I just teleport?"

Ditzy blinked. "You... you did..."

She suddenly broke into a wide smile and grabbed her daughter in a hug.

"Oh Dinky, I'm so proud of you! You teleported! and at your age! That's my little muffin!"

She laughed, the happiness overtaking her. Then she noticed Dinky wasn't focusing on hugging back, but keeping the box from being damaged. Ditzy let go and, remembering why she was where she was, looked at the box suspiciously. But Dinky's worried face was gone, replaced by a happy smile, and brought the box closer in front of her mother's face, along with an envelope.

"Happy Mother's Day, mom!" Dinky cheered and Ditzy mentally slapped herself. She knew it was Mother's Day and should've been able to put two and two together.

"I see now..." She said, taking the package. "Thanks so much, Dinky!" She looked closely at the picnic blanket and saw that the corners were pegged down.

"Did you really set this all up?"

"Yep!" Dinky exclaimed. "Open the envelope, open the envelope!"

Ditzy laughed. "Alright, alright, let's see what's in here..."

She opened the envelope with an expertise gained from years of practice and pulled out a small letter...

In our vast world, the lives of ponies are flashes of lights, all are lost among each other's light. But to me there is one light that burns brighter than all others, your light, mother. Happy Mother's Day, mom!

A tear fell down Ditzy's cheek as she sniffled.

"Mom?" Dinky asked, concerned. In a blur, Ditzy grabbed her daughter and gave her the biggest hug she could.

"Thank you so much, Dinky!" She said.

"You're welcome!" Her daughter replied, this time returning the hug. "But you should thank Ms. Cheerilee too, she helped me with some of the words. Oh! and be sure to thank Pinkie too, she helped me with..."

She gestured to the small box placed next to Ditzy, her smile growing. "...that."

Ditzy slowly let go of her daughter and looked at the simple package. Slowly putting a hoof on it, she paused, mentally bracing herself for whatever was in there, and opened the box. Inside was a large muffin, golden save for a white circle at the top. Ditzy stared at it in awe, it looked so delicious and it was bigger then her hoof!

Dinky looked at her mother enthusiastically. "Go on," she said. "Take a bite!"

"I'm almost afraid to..." The wall-eyed pegasus muttered as she lifted it up and stared at it, her mouth watering. She opened her mouth wide and took a big bite, and her tongue exploded as multiple flavours overwhelmed her. Banana, pumpkin, raisin, oatmeal and... white chocolate that felt warm and melted instantly in her mouth, and the texture.... Wide-eyed, she fell back, her wings splayed out, her forehooves delicately holding the most delicious muffin she had ever tasted.

"Like it?" Dinky asked, fully knowing the answer.

"mmmmmmm..." Was all her mother answered as she took another, smaller bite, and savoured the flavour more, closing her eyes.

"I spent all day yesterday working on it, Pinkie helped with supplies and making it sure it cooked properly in the oven. But the idea and the ingredients were all from me! I call it..." The little filly jumped in the air as she yelled out its name. "...the SUPER MUFFIN!"

Super Muffin... Ditzy managed to think despite the absolute perfection of the muffin she was eating. It very much earns that title...

She opened her eyes when she felt something nuzzling her cheek and, seeing her daughter, closed her eyes again and returned the nuzzle.

"Happy Mother's Day, mom." Dinky Doo said.

"Thank you so much, Muffin." Her mother replied. "This is absolutely, positively, undeniably, the best. Mother's Day. Ever."

"Yay!"

She glanced down at the Super Muffin and a thought crossed her mind. "You said you made this yesterday? Why is the chocolate still warm?"

"Oh, Twilight Sparkle cast a spell so the chocolate was always warm."

"Twilight had a hand in making this too?"

Suddenly, in a nearby house, a window burst open, and a wide-eyed, mint-green unicorn stood at the sill, looking around frantically. "Did somepony say hand!?"

Ditzy, seeing her from the picnic, sighed, and called out. "Sorry, Lyra, it was just me..."

"Awww..." Lyra, disappointed, closed the window and sulked off to another part of her house.

Dinky giggled and her mother smiled.

"I guess I have three ponies to thank, Ms.Cheerilee, Pinkie and Twilight. That was very nice of them to help you with this. Did you say thanks?"

Dinky nodded. "Of course! I said it bunches and bunches of times!"

Ditzy smiled, and gave her daughter a light kiss on her cheek. "You're the best daughter a mother could ever hope for."

"You're the best mom a filly could have."

The family sat there, admiring the view and sharing the Super Muffin with each other as the sun began setting. They remained where they were as the stars appeared and the moon rose. Soon, Ditzy sighed, hating herself for what she was about to say next.

"We should go..."

"Aww, do we have to?" Her daughter protested.

"Unfortunately, yes. It's a school day for you and I have work-"

Her face paled when she realized she still had letters to deliver and that they were long overdue. "Oops..."

"What?"

Ditzy thought it over. Well... I've never been late with deliveries before, and since it is Mother's Day and that my daughter prepared the two best things in the universe... I'm sure nobody will mind... "It's nothing." She said, getting up.

She didn't want this perfect moment to end, and her daughter didn't as well, but she knew it was over, one way or another. Staring at the stars always caused her old memories to come back and remind her who she was. She picked Dinky up and placed her on her back. Flapping her wings, she took off in the air, heading for her house. Unknown to the two of them, an extra star appeared in the sky, growing brighter and brighter...

Chapter 2: The Fallen Star

High above Equestria, beyond the very atmosphere of the world, past the moon, the brighter 'star' intensified and grew, bright tendrils of pure light stretched out and twisted about like they were alive. Then a black arrow shaped object emerged, massive wings adorned both sides of it, and on the top were numerous cannons. On the side near the tip were huge silver initials; G.S.S. Fallen Star. As the ship exited the bright 'star', the back flashed in a bright yellow as flames began pushing it forward, leaving the 'star' to collapse upon itself and disappear.

Inside, on the bridge of the ship Captain Nathaniel Caster groaned as he stirred and regained consciousness, How long he was out, he did not know, the last thing he remembered was entering the dimensional portal to God knows where. He realized that all was silent around and command instinct took over.

"Report!" He called out, struggling to get up. "Anyone alive?"

He was greeted by subsequent groans from different members and one person who mumbled something along the lines of 'Sir, yes sir'. Then, there was shocked scream, followed by other crewmen aboard the bridge. Nathaniel's eyes burst open, looking at his hands... only, they weren't hands. They were hooves. He looked over himself, he was a cream-coloured horse with a black tail and mane, and there was a mark of some kind on his rear, that of a spiral galaxy locked in a shield. More screams resonated from the crewmen as Nathaniel looked and saw his once human crew now... an assortment of different creatures. Most seemed like they were horses of some kind, but there were some who looked like they were mythical creatures. Some were gryphons and some looked like small dragons.

"AAAAH!"

"What's going on!?"

"This isn't happening, this isn't happening..."

"They didn't tell us this was gonna happen, why didn't they tell us!?"

Nathaniel cleared his throat and clicked a button, accessing the intercom throughout the entire ship, before speaking as loud as he could. "Crew! Stand to!"

The crew stopped panicking and years of discipline took control and they stood as best as they could at attention of the Commanding Officer. "We are not going to act like a bunch of ill-trained recruits! I know we aren't trained for this, but we are in another dimension, how could Command train us for this? Now, I know you're all scared, that's natural, especially under the circumstances, but we are not going to panic. If you panic, you can't think and you act irrationally, and that can damage or even kill someone, and that is the last thing we need right now.

"Now I want all of you to get a grip. Now maybe this is all just superficial and we are still biologically human, but even if we aren't and we are gryphons, or dragons, or horses-"

"Uh, sir?" A small, bluish equine said tentatively.

"Yes, ensign?"

"You're a unicorn, sir."

Nathaniel looked up and saw what might be the tip of a horn by his forehead. He glanced back at his assembled, looking ahead without answering as he mentally came to terms with that.

"So I am." He said after a moment, then he glanced. "But that is no excuse to freak out." Outwardly, at least... he added silently, noting his pounding heart.

"Now, I want all crewmen to try and get used to their new form, I will have Doctor Zeb look into this matter and see if we can't be changed back, but it may take some time, so get re-accustomed with yourself and then get back to work!"

"Sir!" The bridge crew saluted as best as they could.

Nathaniel nodded, signalling their dismissal and then promptly began trying to walk. It only took a few minutes, but he soon began walking on four legs as if he had done it his entire life. He accessed the comm system and connected to the medical station of the ship, where he found himself looking at a red-haired horse with large glasses and there was... something wrong with his eyes. Nathaniel raised an eyebrow.

"Doctor Zeb? Is that you?"

The Doctor nodded. "Yes, Captain Caster, is something wrong?"

Nathaniel looked around, glancing around at some of his crew. "Yeah, there's a hell of a lot wrong here, what happened to us? Why are most of us horses?"

"Ponies."

The Captain blinked. "What?"

"I've done some research, Captain, and we're ponies, not horses."

The Captain glared. "We're equines... why!?"

"Well sir..." Zeb rubbed the back of his head, and the Captain noticed both of his eyes were looking in the opposite direction.

"What's wrong with your eyes?"

Zeb shook his head. "Ah! One question at a time please, Captain! This is all very nerve wracking."

Nathaniel nodded and allowed the doctor to calm down. When he did, he sighed.

"I'm not sure exactly, but as you said earlier, we're in another dimension, strange anomalies are bound to happen. And it's not just ponies, but among the ponies are unicorns and pegasi! As well as Gryphons and some dragons and one crewman even turned into a black, almost insect like creature! In all honesty, sir, it's very fascinating."

"Do you think there's any chance we might be able to reverse the process? To change back?"

"Well sir, I'd imagine that if we returned to our home dimension we would be returned to normal, but I can't say for certain. As for becoming human here, than that would depend on if we are still biologically human or not and what methods and equipment we have available."

"Doctor, returning home isn't an option, we have a job to do, and I don't plan on returning empty handed, even if I don't have hands. I want you to do whatever it takes to get us back to human form, request for anything that you need, and I'll make sure you have it. Got it?"

Zeb nodded. "I'll do what I can, sir, though it will take some time."

Nathaniel nodded and clicked the screen off. He turned and looked over the Captain's chair, wondering how he'd sit on it.

Meanwhile, two ponies sat by their consoles next to each other, trying to tap the right key with their hooves. One of them glanced at his neighbor and he started snickering. He kept glancing at his neighbor and snickering before she sighed and glared at him.

"What's so funny, Tyler?" She asked.

"Okay, hehe, let me ask you what may be the most important question I've ever asked you, Jacqueline..."

Jacqueline raised an eyebrow, waiting for the question.

"Where's... pfft, where's your uniform?" Tyler snickered, barely able to contain his laughter.

Jacqueline opened her mouth to ask what sort of question was that, when she realized and quickly looked over her equine body, where no uniform covered her. Her eyes widened and a blush formed as Tyler leaned on his console in an effort to not break down in laughter. Quickly storming away, she made her way to the Captain, and saluted.

"Sir," She said, trying to sound calm, but her voice shook. "Permission to return to my quarters?"

Nathaniel raised an eyebrow, noting one of the crew behind the ensign was snickering. "May I know why you wish to head to your quarters?"

"Because sir..." She began, Tyler's snickers following her. "...we're all naked."

Tyler's snickers abruptly stopped as he quickly looked over himself. "Aw, crap..." He muttered, a blush growing on his face.

The rest of the bridge heard as well and began trying very hard not to look at each other. Nathaniel, realizing his uniform also disappeared and that their spares would probably not fit them anymore, placed a hoof on his head and rubbed his temple. This is gonna be a long day...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

9 hours later...

<<"Captain Caster?">> His comm buzzed, jerking Nathaniel awake. <<"Captain, I apologize for waking you, sir, but Doctor Zeb is requesting to see you in the Medical Bay.">>

Nathaniel stood up and placed his hooves on the floor, a resounding clop clop as they touched the metallic floor. "Is it urgent?"

<<"Uh, I'm not sure sir, he's been borderline hysterical for the past 8 hours, but he only recently started asking for you.">>

"Right, tell him I'm on my way."

The Captain began donning a new uniform specifically for his new body, though it was harder to put on mainly because he had only a mouth to maneuver, but the tailors were smart and it was possible to do this, but it was still frustrating. After a few more minutes of struggling about, he was finally presentable and exited his quarters, where a passing crewman saluted with a hoof. Nathaniel returned the salute and made his way to the Medical Bay.

Nathaniel made a mental note not to give Zeb full control of the Medical Bay for future missions, because it no longer looked like the Medical Bay, but a laboratory. A very scary looking laboratory. Zeb was looking at a screen wearing a specialized lab coat, he turned his head, spotting the Captain.

"Ah, Captain." He said, walking over to him with the same wall-eyed look he had before. "Thank you for coming here."

"You know..." Nathaniel said. "You never explained what was wrong with your eyes."

Zeb blinked, then nodded. "Yes yes, it seems to be an adverse effect of having been transformed. Several other crewmen reported in with the same problem. But that's not the only issue, it seems all the crew each have at least one side effect that normally wouldn't be associated with our new bodies."

Nathaniel raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"

"Well, one pegasus has his wings backwards, and an engineer who's been turned into a buffalo has his tongue twisted, he's almost impossible to understand."

"Are there any life-threatening side effects?"

Zeb shook his head. "No sir, but there are a few job-impairing."

"Is any of it repairable?"

"Well, sir, that's part of the reason I've brought you here. I have a few theories and made some discoveries in this system, but I need to requisition some resources and equipment."

Nathaniel nodded. "What do you need?"

"Well, with the issue of our transformed bodies and turning us back, I may have a solution, but I need full access to the chemical compound... XV-388.."

The Captain drew in a breath. "That's a rare and dangerous compound, Doctor."

"I know sir, but you wanted me to find a solution no matter what, the solution may just lie in that chemical."

Nathaniel thought it over, and slowly nodded. "Alright, I'll give you full authorization, do whatever is necessary to get us back to normal. But please be careful with the compound, it's what powers our Fusion and Prime class torpedoes."

"Yes sir. Also I would like to have control of at least two probes. Not far from the ship, there's an assortment of strange particles that I would like to have gathered for study. We are in an alternate dimension, who knows what we'll find in those particles?"

"I see, very well, you'll have your probes."

"And I would also like control of the ship's Sensor Array, or at least part of it."

At this, Nathaniel raised an eyebrow. "I trust you have a good reason for requesting that, Zeb?"

"Captain," Zeb said respectfully. "Do you know why we have been sent to another dimension?"

Nathaniel hesitated, but he soon decided it was best to speak truthfully to him. "No, Command said they wanted no chance of anyone else finding out what we were up to. They said that we'd know what to look for when we arrived."

"I see... I believe our answer lies in the planet we are orbiting and I would like to take a closer look via the ship's Sensor Array."

"Could you please explain why it should be you and not one of my crewmen?"

"Sir, I'm a civilian, why did Command have me sent aboard your ship just before you make this trip? It's not because of a civilian researcher's perspective, I know that much. Obviously, there is something on that planet and I would like to see what is there. You can others look too, if you want, but I would like to be among those using the Sensors."

Nathaniel raised an eyebrow, Zeb knew more then he was letting on, but he was right that Command had a reason for sending him on board. "Very well," he said. "But if you find anything out of the ordinary, you inform me immediately, understood?"

Zeb chuckled. "Captain, we are in another dimension, I'd be surprised to find anything remotely ordinary, but I shall let you know if I find anything important."

Chapter 3: The Discovery

Two Days Later

Nathaniel stared at the viewscreen, watching the horizon of the planet his ship was orbiting. Things were progressing well, the crew had adapted quickly to their new bodies and Doctor Zeb had been giving regular updates on his progress in finding a way to reverse what had happened to them. Nathaniel also had several crewmen use the Sensor Array to scan and monitor the planet and what they found was extraordinary, to say the least. The world was inhabited by many creatures of different kinds, most of them were strongly, if not directly, based off of creatures from human mythology. Nathaniel was baffled and amazed, but he wasn't sure what Zeb would find on this planet. What did Command want him and his crew to retrieve?

"Sir," Tyler called out, catching the Captain's attention. "Doctor Zeb is calling you to the Medical Bay, he says he may have found what we're looking for."

Speak of the devil...

"Tell him I'm on my way." Nathaniel immediately turned and borderline ran to the Medical Bay, eager to get some answers. When he arrived, the Medical Bay remained as it was, save for two large tanks filled with bubbling, blue translucent liquid. Nathaniel shuddered, knowing that was the XV-388 and that one wrong mishandling of them would turn this whole section of the ship into a raging inferno.

Zeb was crouched over a console, overlooking some of the equine inhabitants of the planet.

"Alright, Zeb? What have you found?"

He turned and Nathaniel noticed his eyes which looked in opposite directions. Deep down, they unnerved him.

"Captain, come over here and take a look."

Nathaniel obeyed and looked at the screen. It was a small equine village, at the centre of the screen, was a gray pegasus with a blond mane with a small unicorn child with her, talking to a pink equine carrying some sort of box. Smiles clearly on their faces.

"Okay," the Captain said after a while. "What am I supposed to be looking at here, Zeb?"

"Take a good look at the gray pegasus, Captain."

Nathaniel stared, something in the back of his mind told him he recognized the pegasus from somewhere, but that was impossible. He shook his head.

"I'm still lost, Zeb."

Zeb sighed and tapped a few keys. The screen moved around to the front of the equine, where the Captain blinked in surprise. She had the same eye condition as Zeb!

"The hell?"

Zeb nodded. "I've run scans and managed to do a flash scan here, getting a copy of her DNA. You should look at this, Captain."

Zeb pulled up another screen, bringing up the results from his scan, showing a DNA strand. Nathaniel stared at it, the same thought stirred again.

"She's human..." He muttered.

"Yes, but not fully, look at what's been added..."

Nathaniel looked, the screen reflecting on his eyes, which soon widened. It was impossible, but the facts were staring him right in the face. "No..." he muttered, shaking his head, trying to deny it.

"It's pointless to argue, Captain, who else has that DNA structure?"

"But it can't be, everyone's scoured the whole galaxy looking for her, I thought she had died."

"Clearly not." Zeb looked at the DNA and chuckled. "Gotta hand it to her, of all the places to hide, no one would ever suspect it was another dimension."

"But... how? and why?"

"Does it matter? This must be what Command had sent us to retrieve, the galaxy is in chaos and I think she is the only who can bring it at peace again."

Nathaniel turned to the screen, the friendly conversation between the gray pegasus and the pink pony had disintegrated, the box was now on the ground, muffins were spilled all over the place and the little child was busy trying to pick them all up, while the pegasus was shaking the pink pony, crying hysterically over the spilt and now ruined muffins. It would actually be comical, if he didn't know who he was looking at.

"This can't be her, though." He said, still not believing it. "I mean... look at her, she doesn't really act like I thought the Founder of the Confederation and the most powerful warrior in the galaxy would act."

"Yes... keep in mind, Nathaniel, my father saved her life at one point."

The Captain glanced at the doctor. "Your father also tried to kill her after that, he was a psychotic madman."

"Yes, well..." Zeb pulled at his coat collar nervously. "...my father was always a little unstable... But, remember, we were at war at the time. Just like we are now."

Nathaniel sighed, then he noticed the little child that looked very familiar to the pegasus. "Zeb... that child, she isn't...?"

"I'm afraid so, sir. I flashed scanned her as well, and her DNA matches."

"This is going to complicate things..."

For a moment the two stood, watching the screen, with Nathaniel deep in thought. Soon, Zeb cleared his throat.

"I'm sure, once we explain the situation, she'll gladly follow us and help bring everything back to the way it was."

"Maybe... but what if she doesn't?"

At this, Zeb hesitated. "We may have to use force, sir."

The Captain glanced at Zeb. "Remember who you're talking about, Zeb."

"I know, sir, but even the great S-"

<<"Captain!">> The intercom was filled with the voice of a young ensign. <<"We have two objects from the planet heading straight for us!">>

"What's there coordinates?"

<<"Feeding the data to the Doctor's Sensor Array.">>

The two glanced down at the screen, the gray pegasus was gone, replaced by an image of two new objects roughly in the shape of equines. One shone brightly and seemed to be made of pure energy that shone like the sun. The other was translucent, the light reflecting from her, revealing a rough dark outline. It was an incredibly beautiful sight, but also terrifying at the same time. "What in the name of...?"

"Oh dear..." Zeb muttered. "Captain, I've been monitoring the planet extensively and, from what I've been able to deduce, it seems that that part of the world is run by a hierarchy. I think those are the rulers coming to greet us."

At this, Nathaniel's mind went into full gear, his eyes widened. "Damn, I was not expecting this..."

<<"What are your orders, sir?">>

Nathaniel didn't answer at first.

<<"...Sir...?">>

"Open the Hangar doors, let them enter. I'll be right down."

"Uh, Captain? You do know there is such a thing as diplomatic protocol, right?"

"Do you see an ambassador on the ship, Zeb? No, I will represent the Galactic Confederation and try not to start an inter-dimensional war."

Nathaniel turned and left without another word, leaving Zeb in the Medical Bay, looking at the screen. "Be careful, Captain, something tells me that they can wipe us out in a mere second if we give them reason to..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been a long time since Princess Celestia had flown beyond the atmosphere of her home. Not since she and Luna were young and reckless. She knew Luna enjoyed these flights with the stars more than ever. Celestia would smile if she could, but her ethereal form was limiting that way. It was the form they involuntarily took when beyond the atmosphere of their world and it was mystery that Celestia had secretly spent decades looking into. But, in the end, with her and her sister being the only alicorns in history, she eventually just accepted that it was who she was, maybe it was her true form and spirit, what her soul really was.

“There it is, sister!” Luna called out, seeing the black outline of the ship in the moon’s light, her voice echoing slightly due to their current forms but remaining relatively the same. “Do you think it’s visible from the surface?”

“It’s hard to say,” Celestia replied, noting the amount of weapons aboard the vessel. It was definitely not an exploration vessel, but a warship. This made Celestia uneasy, why were they here? What do they want? More importantly, who are they?

“Sister, look!” Luna gestured to the side of the ship, where a part of it seemed to open up, revealing the inside. “I think they’re letting us in.”

“So it seems...”

“Sister...” Luna hesitated, before continuing. “Do you think it is a trap?”

Celestia didn’t answer at first, she looked at the entrance that seemed to convienently open up to them. The numerous cannons aboard the ship didn’t help to put her at ease, but they weren’t moving either. “Be on your guard.” She soon said, flaring her wings and gliding toward the open door.

The ship was large, larger than the royal sisters first thought as they approached the ship, the door that opened for them dwarfed them in size. All in all, the ship was almost as big as Canterlot itself! As they approached the entrance, Celestia noticed a field shimmering in a blue aura. She slowed her speed, wondering if it was some sort of shield and if it was harmful. Luna’s horn glowed as she examined it.

“It’s a filter,” she said. “Possibly to keep the vacuum of space out and the oxygen in.”

This was a comforting sign for Celestia, as whoever was in there could not survive the vastness of space, but she wondered if whoever was in there really did breathe oxygen.

“We should be able to pass through it.” The night princess said, and waited for Celestia to go in first. It was time to make First Contact.

Mentally preparing herself, Celestia flapped her wings gracefully and slowly guided passed the field. She felt an odd tingling sensation as she passed through and immediately felt the pull of atmosphere and gravity around her. And air. Immediately, as they passed through, Celestia felt her physical form come into being, the strands of gold solar energy reverting into her multicoloured, flowing mane. Her eyes, once bright orbs of pure light, returned back to normal, showing centuries of wisdom gained through her long life. Her hooves clopped onto the metal floor, her now feathered white wings stretched out as they fully materialized. That was when she heard a gasp filled with wonder.

The princess glanced and found herself looking at another pony, a pegasus, his wings flared in surprise. Celestia blinked, she had not expected to see another pony on the ship. It was comforting, actually. The pegasus flinched and flew towards a ramp at the edge of the large room, where there a line of more ponies stood, fully suited in strange blue and white armour, where helmets with V shaped visors that glowed blue adorned their heads. They wielded strange weapons that Celestia didn't recognize. Behind them was a large towering machine that stood on two legs, it took a step forward, causing the whole room to shake, but the soldiers didn't flinch. The large machine was a white bloated thing where the top was adorned with a head-like structure with several eyes that glowed blue. It brought up two arm-like structures that ended in huge cannons, and aimed them at Celestia and her sister. Immediately, the two royal sisters flared their wings defensively.

<<"IDENTIFY YOURSELVES!!!">> A loud voice boomed from the giant machine, echoing around the room. Personally, Celestia had seen few things more terrifying than this, but her sister seemed completely unphased.

She stepped forward confidently, glaring at her opposition, and spoke in her Royal Canterlot Voice.

"YOU SHOULD BE THE ONES TO REVEAL YOURSELVES SINCE YOU ARE IN OUR TERRITORY!!!" This time the soldiers flinched, not suspecting Luna's voice to be so loud or terrifying. Luna continued.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING FLYING BY OUR WORLD!? SPEAK! FOR WE HAVE LITTLE PATIENCE!!!"

The giant machine took another step forward and the soldiers regained their composure, aiming their weapons at Luna and Celestia. Before another word could be said, another voice, though much quieter, called out, brimming with authority.

"Master Sergeant Benedict, what the hell do you think you are doing!?"

The Royal pony sisters and the machine's head swiveled to the new arrival, who stood by a door that closed behind him. He was a cream-coloured unicorn with a pitch black mane and tail, wearing a light blue and white uniform. Immediately, Celestia could tell this was the one in command.

<<"CAPTAIN...">> The voice boomed. <<"I AM MERELY FOLLOWING PROTOCOL, TWO UNKNOWN CREATURES JUST-">>

"I know, Sergeant, I allowed them to enter. Now stand down, all of you!"

A second, then the machine head swiveled back, and then the bloated centre of the machine lowered and separated into multiple pieces, revealing another suited pony, who jumped out of the machine. The rest of the troops lowered their weapons as the Captain walked toward the princesses.

"I apologize for that, my troops can be a little overzealous." He promptly saluted them, Luna eyeing him suspiciously. "I am Captain Nathaniel Caster, commanding officer of the Galactic StarShip Fallen Star. I represent the Galactic Confederation of Freed Races and Planets."

Luna raised an eyebrow, Celestia noticed that Nathaniel (strange name, she mused) was speaking to her sister and that Luna stood in front of her, like she was the one in command. Perhaps it was because she felt more at home in space, not only that, she seemed a lot more calm than the older Alicorn was, though she could just be hiding it well from her.

"I am Princess Luna," the Night Princess said, speaking in a normal voice. "And this is my elder sister, Princess Celestia. We are the rulers of the land of Equestria and the controllers of the Moon and Sun. Respectively."

It was incredible, Luna had taken command of the situation and Celestia felt like the younger sibling. Was it perhaps Luna felt more confident about the situation because they were in space? Or did she feel Equestria was threatened and wanted to see no harm come to it, thus the sudden boost in confidence. For she never, ever, acted like this in any of their political meetings back on the ground.

Nathaniel's eyes widened slightly upon hearing that they controlled the Sun and the Moon. But aside from that there was no reaction. Instead, he bowed slightly.

"I know you both must be nervous with our ship in such close orbit to your planet, but we mean you no harm. You see, we are from an alternate dimension, our ship was testing out a new Jump Drive, attempting Inter-Dimensional travel, and it seemed to have worked perfectly, minus a few unforseen consequences."

Celestia blinked in surprise, and Luna raised an eyebrow. "How do you expect me to believe that?"

"I don't." He replied simply. "But it's the truth." He stared at Luna unblinking.

Celestia cleared her throat, taking a step toward them. “So now that you are here, what do you plan on doing?”

Nathaniel looked up and stared at Celestia, sizing her up and wondering what to do next. After a moment, he answered.

“I’m not going to lie to you, we weren’t originally told what to do once we arrived because we weren’t sure what we’d find here. But, now that there is a world with life here, I wish to study the planet and its lifeforms without interfering with the inhabitants below, if it can be helped.”

Celestia stared at the Captain, trying to see if there was any truth in his words.

Luna spoke up. “Why send a warship with ‘overzealous’ troops instead of a more peaceful ship?”

“We had no idea what we’d find here and whether if we found anything hostile, and the Confederation didn’t want to send a defenseless civilian ship without assessing if the other dimension was dangerous or not.”

“I see...” Celestia muttered, thinking this through. “...and what is the progress on your assessment?”

“We haven’t made much for you see, upon entering, we had a slight... error... These are not our original forms. We are of a species called ‘humans’, but it seems during transit, or right after our exit of the portal, we had been changed to an assortment of different creatures, most of us have been transformed into ponies, and all of them seem to be natives of the planet.”

Celestia blinked, they were of another species, but they were transformed? Twilight would have a field day here... Even Luna seemed amazed as she blinked, wide-eyed.

“But we have adapted, as you can see, and we have recently begun looking in and doing scans of the planet, nothing harmful, and I am considering sending a team down to collect a few plant and dirt samples for study.”

“You were planning on just landing in the open?” Luna said, “you could start a panic!”

“I know, I was weighing the options when you arrived. Since you two are rulers of one nation, perhaps you could assist us?”

Luna clearly did not trust the Captain and Celestia herself wasn’t sure what to think of him. What he asked for seemed harmless, if he was telling the truth.

“Have you tried contacting your ‘Confederation’ for advice?” The white alicorn asked.

Nathaniel nodded. “We have tried multiple times, but we cannot reach them. It makes sense, the distances are beyond realities, mind you. We are on our own until we return. But returning costs a lot of energy and I do not want to leave hastily when there is so much to find out here.”

Celestia slowly nodded, understanding the logic, she would probably act the same in Nathaniel’s place.

“Luna and I will have to discuss this in more detail, and we may have to inform the rest of Equestria of your arri-”

“Actually,” Nathaniel said. “I would prefer we did not have the population know of our arrival, I think that would complicate things. I am also no diplomat and I have a feeling the Confederation wants someone with experience to form official political ties, if they want to...”

Celestia nodded, thankful she would not have to explain this to the nobility.

“How would you be able to get down without anypony noticing you?” Luna asked.

“We have smaller ships, or shuttles, to transport survey teams down, we’d land in an empty area or your choosing and have the teams move from there, since they are already in the form of equines and such, it won’t be hard for them to fit in without drawing any suspicious eyes.

“But it will, of course, be with your permission, and I am perfectly content with scanning the planet from orbit if you decide not to let us enter.”

“And there is nothing harmful with your scanners of our home?” The Night Princess asked.

“None, I can assure you that they are perfectly harmless and unnoticeable in every way possible.”

Celestia nodded again. “Alright, we will discuss in detail and come back to you with our answer. In the meantime, I ask that you do not do anything else until then.”

Nathaniel nodded. “I will keep the doors open for your arrival. Again, I apologize for intruding in your space.”

“It is alright,” Celestia and Luna turned, flaring their wings. “Until then, Captain Caster.”

Nathaniel saluted as the princesses jumped through the shield, returning to their ethereal forms as they entered the vacuum of space.

“I do not trust them,” Luna said after a moment of flying from the large vessel.

“Care to indulge me?” Her elder sister asked.

“I’m not sure... But I think their Captain wasn’t being honest with us, at least completely.”

“He didn’t seem like he was lying, he stared at us straight in the face, unblinking and unflinching the entire time.”

“I know, but something is telling me he was hiding something from us. And I am not at all comfortable with having a warship looking over our home and Equestria.”

“Luna, this could be a chance to establish a peaceful new relationship, I will not have us turn down and treat a new arrival with mistrust.”

“What if they don’t mean to be peaceful with us? I know we have the power to defeat this particular ship, but if it attacks first, damage will be done, and some ponies will be seriously hurt, or worse... and what if more of them come?”

“Luna, you are becoming paranoid. I know you have good reason, and we must consider that they do not mean us well, but we must also be aware that they may not mean us harm. That is why we must stand back and watch what they do closely for now.”

“And what of letting have small groups of them arrive and ‘collect samples’?”

“We will discuss this more fully later, for now, we must give our minds rest and consider each other’s words. Then, once we have recuperated, we will talk about what we should do...”

Luna nodded, then said. “I’m sorry for the way I acted.”

Celestia glanced at her younger sister. “Whatever are you sorry for?”

“I took immediate command there and pushed you back, you should’ve been the one doing the talking, not me.”

“Luna, I was actually impressed with how you spoke up there, it surprised me and showed me you can speak for Equestria. I’m not sure I would have been able to speak in your place there.”

Luna didn’t say anything, and the rest of the flight back to Equestria was done silently.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So, Sergeant,” Nathaniel said to his saluting soldier and his squad. “I see you’ve gotten the troops retrained and re-armed.”

“Yes sir,” the gruff sounding equine replied curtly. “We’ve even managed to develop a few new combat techniques unique to these forms. I’ve even had the techies reconfigure the Mech for equine use”

“I’m glad to hear that, I am quite impressed with your work, Sergeant.”

“Thank you, sir.”

A moment of silence, then. “I want you to prepare one of the transports for flight, we’re going down to the planet.”

“Sir,” Benedict saluted and began directing his squad about. Nathaniel noticed a pegasus engineer approach him, unsure.

“Uh, sir, permission to speak freely?”

“Granted, what’s on your mind ensign?”

“Well, I overheard you talking with those two equines and I thought you said you weren’t going to have a ship go down planetside?”

“I lied, ensign.” Nathaniel answered nonchalantly. “There is someone down there I need to speak to and have brought up here.”

“Sir, won’t the equines be watching you closely?”

“I’ve no doubt they will, or are watching us right now. That is why we will activate the Cloaking device and go in silently and carefully. They will be watching the ship, and will probably not be paying too much attention on the ground because of that.”

Benedict returned, a pair of large metallic clamps carrying a large, streamlined ship, and placing it right behind him. The sergeant assembled four soldiers, who saluted as the Captain approached.

“Captain,” Benedict said. “These are the best troops in Phasic Squad, they’ll keep you covered while you are planetside.”

“Thank you Sergeant, you four, get on the shuttle and strap in. Sergeant, remain on here and keep an eye on things.”

Benedict saluted. “Sir.”

Nathaniel followed the soldier aboard the transport, and made his way to the cockpit, where a female pegasus sat in the chair, flicking at some dials.

“Will you be able to fly this thing, Pilot?”

“Yes sir, I ran through the simulations and have a perfect record!” She said proudly, bring up a holographic map of the planet. “Where would you like me to take you?”

Nathaniel flipped the map, the planet spinning in place, and he zoomed it up toward the small village he recognized from earlier, and surveyed the area around it.

“Find us a clearing there,” He said, pointing to the large forest next to the town. “Somewhere near the village, keep the Cloak and Sound Dampeners engaged.”

The pilot nodded with a grin. “Yes sir, now strap in tight.”

Nathaniel nodded as he moved back. Outside, the ship’s engines activated, filling the Hanger with a roar. Then, the shuttle vanished, as if never there, along with the noise of its engine. Benedict looked, but couldn’t even see an outline, it was impossible to know if the ship was still down, or if it had taken off already.

Chapter 4: Old Allies...

The inside of the shuttle shook as it entered the planet's atmosphere, Nathaniel shook in his seat next to another soldier. He briefly considered talking to them and they would reveal their faces behind their visors, but with the shaking, it was next to impossible to say more then a few words.

In a few moments, the intercom crackled. <<"Get ready boys, I've found a nice little clearing by the edge of the forest, hold on to something...">> There was a brief shudder, then the Captain was nearly jostled out of seat as the shuttle landed on the soft ground. The four soldiers immediately stood up as the ramp opened up, causing fresh air to flow into it. Nathaniel unbuckled his seat belt and stood up, walking slowly down the ramp.

<<"Captain, there's something out there, not sure what it is, but it's big and very close.">>

Immediately the soldiers tensed, and Nathaniel gestured them to continue ahead of him. Nodding, they went down the ramp, small cannons popping out of there suit on their right fore hoof, save for one who carried a large pack, where a wire connected to his left fore hoof. The jogged down the ramp and raised their armed hooves, looking around for any sign of suspicious activity, the forest was deathly silent.

Then, a rustle, and all the soldiers turned in the direction of the noise. All they saw was trees, then a growl was heard.

"Marcus..." A soldier said to the one with the back pack. "I'd start charging up your Plasma Beam if I were you..."

Marcus nodded and flicked a switch, a small humming was heard from the backpack. Another rustle, then a roar, and a massive lion-like creatures jumped out, with wings and a long scorpion tale jumped out, charging at the soldiers.

"Oh shi-" a soldier cursed before his voice was drowned out by the squad firing their weapons at the charging beast. The creature halted, flaring up in surprise as the blue-white shots flew past it, raising a paw to protect its face. A few shots struck the creature, causing it to howl in pain and enrage it.

"Marcus! Where's that Plasma!?"

Marcus frantically checked something on his hoof. "It's not fully charged! Keep me covered!"

The beast roared and charged the soldiers, causing them to scatter. The soldiers began firing their weapons on all sides of the creature, confusing it and causing it howl in anger.

"Watch that tale!" One soldier cried out. "Don't let it get near you!"

The beast zeroed in on the soldier that spoke and growled menacingly.

"Oh crud..." He said before the beast roared and charged, swiping it's huge paw. The soldier ducked and rolled out of the way, but as he recovered from his maneuver, the beast swung its tail, slamming the soldier against a tree. With a grunt, he looked to see the beast towering over him, and slammed his left fore hoof on a control placed on his right and, instantly, vanished before the beast struck a more severe blow. The creature blinked in confusion as to its prey's sudden disappearance. The a shot appeared from out of no where, hitting it square in the face. The beast stumbled back in surprise as the other two soldiers regrouped.

"Daniel's in trouble!" One of them cried out. "Switch to your Ice Cannons!"

With a flick of there hooves, the cannons changed slightly, and then the soldier fired, freezing the beast's tail where it hung in the air. The beast cried in surprise and pain, whirling around to face its attackers.

"Cloaking Devices, now!" The soldier ordered, and they vanished. Except for Marcus, who looked at his counter, showing how close his weapon was to being fully powered.

"Uh, guys?" He said as the creature focused on the only visible prey it could see. "Remember that I can't power the Plasma and cloak at the same time!?"

He began backing up, stumbling on a rock but maintaining his balance. The creature pawed the ground, snorting and preparing to charge, ignoring the shots from the invisible that slammed against is side, freezing portions of it. With a roar, the beast prepared to leap at the hapless soldier, who kept saying "just a little longer, just a little longer..." before a hollow ping noise was heard and a light, glowing yellow shot zoomed and hit the creature in the head.

The beast, unphased, turned to see its new attacker. Nathaniel stood somehow holding an Emergency Pistol in his hoof, aiming for its head.

"That's right," he said as he fired another shot at the beast, who snarled in challenge and took a step towards him. "Focus on me..."

With a roar the beast lunged into the air, its mouth opening to catch Nathaniel in its maw. At that moment, there was a loud bing! and, with a cheer from Marcus, fired a bright blue beam of super-heated plasma at the creature. The beam only grazed its head, but it was enough for it to twist in mid-air, howling in pain. Nathaniel rolled away as the beast crashed into the ground, rolling in pain. It stood up, revealing half of its burnt face, roaring before bounding off into the treeline.

For a moment, there was only silence and the hum of Marcus' recharging Plasma weapon. Before the other three soldiers decloaked and made there way to the Captain, who got up and dusted himself off.

"Captain Caster," the soldier Daniel said. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," the unicorn replied. "What about you? That looked like a nasty blow you took."

Daniel shrugged. "I'm a Phasic trooper, sir, we've taken far worse in training."

Nathaniel smiled. "I see why Benedict chose you to come with me, you have all performed admirably and I commend you."

He placed a hoof on a comm piece on his ear. "Pilot, is it clear?"

<<"It's kinda hard to tell sir, the whole forest is filled with many creatures, but if I'm reading the scanners right, your area is clear, I guess all the noise you guys made scared him off...">>

"Good, you are cleared to land again, be careful not to crush any of us."

<<"Roger that.">>

Nathaniel turned back to the Phasic troopers, who were in conversation with each other.

"What the hell was that thing?" Marcus asked.

"If I know my mythical creatures," Another soldier answered. "...then that was a Manticore."

For a moment, the troopers were silent, before Daniel muttered. "The sooner we get off this planet and back to our dimension, the better..."

Nathaniel shook his head. "It's not like our dimension is any safer..."

"With all due respect, Captain, in our dimension we at least know what creatures we're fighting. Here, we have no idea what to expect."

The Captain nodded at the point made, then cleared his throat. "Alright, I want three troopers to stay here and guard the shuttle, one of you will escort me to the edge of the forest, I will proceed alone to the nearby village alone."

The soldiers saluted and Daniel stepped forward. "I volunteer for the escort mission, sir."

Nathaniel nodded, and turned in the direction of the village. "Keep that Plasma Beam charged just in case, Marcus." He said as he left.

"Way ahead of you, Captain."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The forest was deathly quiet as Nathaniel and Marcus trudged through the foliage, there ears peeled for anything that may attack them. Nathaniel had a very bad feeling with the whole forest, something deep down told him that there was something very, very wrong with it. He breathed a mental sigh of relief as he stepped out of the forest and onto cool grass, the sun shining clear on his face. He turned and nodded to Daniel, who saluted and returned behind the foliage. Nathaniel turned and saw the town not too far away, and began walking towards it.

The village had a nice, quaint feeling to it and it had an air of friendliness about it, helping put Nathaniel mostly at ease. His approach did draw some eyes, and he noticed something that made him blink in surprise. Just about every single pony in the town was not wearing any clothes whatsoever. It made him blush thinking about it, he shook his head, he was on another planet with completely different cultures. Suddenly, he realized his uniform which covered him completely might make him stand out and he cursed himself for not looking closer into the culture of this place before recklessly coming down.

With a deep breath, he continued walking, looking at each of the buildings and wondering how he was going to find that pegasus...

Ditzy walked down the market, looking at the assortment of vegetables laid out before her, when she noticed her daughter scuff her hoof uncomfortably.

"Something wrong, muffin?" She asked, turning her full attention to her daughter, much to the chagrin of the stall owner.

"Um, well..." She looked down, unsure of how to ask what was on her mind. "I was just wondering..."

"...yes...?" the Mailmare asked expectantly.

Dinky took a deep breath, before she spoke. "I was wondering how your eyes came to be like that?" She flinched, as if expecting to be yelled at. Instead, Ditzy tilted her head in confusion.

"Dinky, where did this come from? I've had this your whole life, and you're asking now?"

"Well, it's just... a few days ago, some fillies in my class were talking about you and your eyes and... they said a lot of mean things and... I just wanted to know why they were like that."

"Oh muffin, it's okay, and I'm not mad at all." This put her daughter at ease. "In truth, I'm not entirely sure what happened that made them like this, I have a few ideas, but no for sure thing."

"You mean, you weren't like this your whole life?"

"Oh no no no, it was shortly before I came to live in Ponyville, when BAM! Suddenly, derp eyes!" She made a goofy face, made more goofy thanks to her eyes, causing Dinky to giggle.

"Oh!" Her mother said excitedly. "Watch this..." She closed her eyes, scrunching up her face in concentration. Dinky watched closely, wondering what her mother was doing. Ditzy grunted a little as sweat began building up on her forehead.

"Come on..." She said. "You can do it... almost... THERE!" Her eyes popped open and Dinky jumped back in surprise. They were... normal! She looked straight at Dinky, both eyes completely on her for the first time. "Pretty neat, huh?"

"Woah! How did you do that!?"

"I discovered this a few years ago, but unfortunately, it takes a lot of concentration and I can't keep this up for long, but yeah, I can temporarily have non-derp eyes!"

Ditzy giggle at her daughter's face, when she heard hoofsteps approach behind her. "Uh... hey, Derpy...?"

She turned and saw Pinkie Pie looking at the ground with a very guilty look on her face. "I feel real bad for destroying your batch of muffins..." She slowly began to look up and face the pegasus. "...so I made an extra batch for yoooeeeeeeEEEEAAAAAGGGGHH!" Upon seeing Ditzy's face, she threw the box of muffins in the air, wide-eyed and terrified, there was a streak of rainbow as a cyan pegasus rushed to catch the box of muffins and any that fell out. Pinkie took a step back in horror.

"Who are you...?" She asked, her voice almost a whisper. Ditzy blinked.

"Pinkie, it's me..."

The pink pony blinked, then her look of fear turned to anger. "I don't believe it... They actually did it! How could they do such a thing!? It was one thing to change your voice in your one special scene, but now they've gone and changed your eyes!? I'LL NEVER FORGIVE THIS HASBRO!!!"

Ditzy and Dinky and a few nearby ponies stared as Pinkie shook a hoof and shouted at the sky. Then she faced the pegasus. "Don't worry, Derpy!" She said, pawing the ground and looking about to charge. "I'll fix your 'fixed' eyes!"

"Pinkie, wait, let me explain..."

But Pinkie did not listen, and instead began charging at her. "For BaldDumboRat!!!" She cried out.

The speed that Pinkie moved was a speed that she normally reserved for pursuing Rainbow Dash, who watched the spectacle, idly munching on the muffins.

As Pinkie moved in a pink blur, planning on doing Celestia-knows-what to Ditzy, and old instinct kicked and she spun in the air, moving to the side as Pinkie came by her, then Ditzy grappled the pink pony, sending her into the ground and slamming her right hoof into her face, with not enough force for it to be a punch. Her wings flared up aggressively and her eyes wide, she panted as the adrenaline coursed through her. Pinkie blinked in surprise as her mind tried to process what just happened. When Ditzy realized what had happened, she let go of Pinkie, letting her head fall to the ground.

"Woah!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, dropping the half-eaten muffin in shock. "How'd you do that Derps!?"

Ditzy turned and face the rainbow maned pegasus, her eyes moving into opposite directions once more. "Do what?" She closed her eyes, smiling, and rubbed the back her head nervously. Before Rainbow Dash could question her further, she grabbed her shocked daughter and ushered her away from the market. "Come on, Muffin... We have lots to do today..."

Rainbow merely stared, perplexed, before noticing a somewhat dazed looking Pinkie Pie get up. "You okay, Pinkie...?"

"I miss Faust..." She said, shaking her head sadly.

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, and just simply put it as Pinkie being Pinkie...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nathaniel shook his head, the town was a lot bigger then it had looked and he wondered how on earth he was going to find her. That was when he heard a shocked gasp, he turned to see a white unicorn with a purple mane galloping towards him, her eyes wide. With worry? With fear? He could not say.

"Your suit!" She cried out, having some sort of high class accent. "Who in the name of Celestia made this?" She skidded to a halt and looked the nervous Nathaniel over. "It is so precisely and phenomenally done!"

"Oh, um... thanks?" A naked unicorn is gawking over my uniform?

"You must tell me who designed this, I've never seems something that seems to scream 'authority! I am in command and you will listen to me!'"

"Uh... well..." Nathaniel shook his head. "Listen, I don't want to be rude but-"

"Oh my, of course, where are my manners?" The unicorn cleared her throat in a very proper manner, before continuing. "I am Rarity, owner of Carousal Boutique, no doubt a rather handsome stallion with such excellent choice in clothes has heard of me and my business?"

"Your... your business?"

"But of course, I help design the latest fashions in Equestria."

Naked ponies have fashions?

"Well..." Nathaniel didn't want to insult the mare, and decided to lie. "...I actually haven't heard of you, but I only recently became interested in... clothing and style."

Rarity seemed to beam. "Well, I can tell you right now you are on the right track, my friend. In fact, you may have just given me an idea for a new fashion trend. Tell me, who designed this suit of yours? I must know the pony who made this, it just screams 'efficiency'!"

"I thought you said it screams 'authority'?"

"That too..."

"Well... I can't really say, he lives a good distance away and, let's just say I had this specially made... In fact, it was more of a group project."

"Oh well..." The mare looked at the ground, examining her hoof distractedly. "In that case, perhaps you and I can discuss this suit over lunch, if you're willing of course?"

Nathaniel blinked. Is... Is the unicorn asking me out? Is that seriously what's going on right now? "Um well, I'd love to but I'm on a tight schedule and I'm looking for someone."

"Oh? Who?"

"Uh... You wouldn't happen to know a gray pegasus with a blond mane and a certain... condition with her eyes?"

The unicorn blinked. Is it me or does she look severely disappointed? "Oh... yes, there is only one pegasus I know who fits that description, you're looking for Derpy, right?"

Derpy? That's the name she's taken? Has she no dignity!?

"Last time I saw her..." Rarity said. "She was in the market, down the road and to the right, you can't miss it."

Nathaniel looked, and memorized the simple directions. "Thanks, Rarity, and have a good day."

Rarity smiled. "You too, mister..."

Nathaniel briefly considered if telling her his name, and settled on just his last name. "Caster..."

"Mister Caster, and remember, if you need any help with anything, you can always come to me, Rarity is always willing to lend a hoof." She smiled as she watched him go, her smile slowly dropped however and she shook her head as she continued walking on. "...they're always taken. Why are all the good stallions taken?"

Nathaniel hurried down the street, anxiety gripping him as he felt he was getting nearer to his target. He moved so fast, that he accidently bumped into a mint-green unicorn.

"Watch where you're going!" She said annoyed.

"Sorry, in a rush."

The unicorn scoffed as Nathaniel continued on, until he saw the gray pegasus with her daughter. He slowed to a walk and wondered how he'd approach her and wondered if she was anything like the archives said she was...

"Mom, what about the vegetables?" Dinky asked as she hurried to keep up with her mother.

"Oh, we can always buy more tomorrow. Right now, it's a little crowded..."

It didn't take a genius to know that wasn't the reason, but Dinky kept silent, knowing that her mother clearly did not want to talk about it. Meanwhile, Ditzy was mentally berating herself over what had transpired. Stupid stupid stupid, how could I let that happen? Some things never change, I've got to be more careful...

"Uh, excuse me?" Came an unfamiliar voice. Ditzy turned her head, and her blood froze at the sight. She didn't recognize the stallion before her, but she recognized his uniform and the symbol embroidered on his chest, that of a spiral galaxy and a sword placed in front of it. The stallion saluted.

"Ma'am." He said simply.

Ditzy did not respond, as she was frozen in shock and fear.

"Dinky...?" She said, finding her voice, which trembled. "Go to the park and find some friends to play with."

"Mom?"

"Please... just go..." Ditzy said, not looking at her daughter, but staring straight at the stallion who worked for her old ally.

Dinky looked between her mother and the stallion, scared at what had come over her mother and who this stallion was. Soon, she nodded and ran off, glancing back every few steps. The stallion lowered his hoof and blinked, unsure of what to do or say.

"I'm Cap-"

"Stop." Ditzy said, drawing a confused look from him, she quickly glanced around her. "Follow me..."

The stallion didn't say a word as he followed Ditzy to her house, where she opened the door and entered. He hesitated, before stepping in, where the door was slammed by Ditzy, who stared at him angrily.

"I don't care who you are or how you got here, but know this..." A pause, before the Mailmare continued. "I'm not going back."

Nathaniel gulped. This wasn't going to be easy...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dinky walked around a large fountain, deep in thought. Ever since that weird move she did on Pinkie Pie, she had not been acting herself. But then, there were moments like that that she had seen her mother do. And she always became uncomfortable when she asked her mother what her life was like, always giving a few small comments and then quickly changing the subject. There were also many nights when she heard her mother mumble in her sleep, nightmares, she had them constantly. And there were times when, if Dinky went to wake her mother up, there would be times when she looked like she didn't recognize her or where she was. Like she was another person entirely. And some of things she muttered in her sleep. Begging someone or something to spare her parents and a bird... and then she'd mutter something along the lines of 'no objections'... And now that stallion, but why was she thinking about all these other memories and that strange stallion at the same time?

Dinky turned and made her way back to her house at full gallop, it was time to get some answers from her mother, one way or another. That was when she suddenly bumped into something, landing hard on her flank. She looked up but saw nothing. Then, a blue and whited suited pony appeared out of nowhere, and grabbed Dinky, covering her mouth and pulling the struggling filly away, towards, she realized with horror, the Everfree Forest! Struggling like her life depended on it, she tried to scream, but the strange pony's hold on her mouth was strong and only muffles came out. She closed her eyes and kept struggling as she came ever closer to the Forest...

At the forest's edge, Master Sergeant Benedict watched as his soldier brought the filly to them. He clicked a comm pad, where he stared at the now human Doctor Zeb.

"Alright, the child's been capture, now what?"

"Now we wait, it will only be a matter of time before she comes looking for her daughter." The doctor replied. "Keep her daughter close at hand and use her as the bartering chip. Keep the Humanizer chemical ready but be careful with it, it's the last we have and there's just enough to humanize her."

"Right, are you sure that Captain Caster ordered this, Doctor?" Benedict asked. "This doesn't seem like something he would allow."

Zeb simply. "I'm just following order, Sergeant, just like you are. Make sure the child doesn't escape, if we lose her, then we have nothing to barter with..."

Benedict nodded and ordered his soldiers to cloak and return to the shuttle, taking the little unicorn child personally, she struggled but the soldier was far stronger and wasn't even slowed down by her struggles as she was brought deep into the Everfree forest.

Chapter 5: The Scream

"You won't even listen to what I have to say!?" Nathaniel shouted, it had not taken long before his normally lax temper blew and he was shouting at Ditzy, who glared daggers at him.

"No, I only brought you here so you wouldn't cause a scene and destroy everything I've built up here."

The Captain growled. "I don't believe this, we're not the Feds! We're not going to stab you in the back the moment we get the chance!"

Ditzy scoffed. "If I had thought that, you wouldn't be alive right now."

Now Nathaniel scoffed angrily. "It looks like the archives were right about something, you never think things all the way through... if you killed me, even quietly, you'd provoke the wrath of my ship and then you would lose everything."

"You haven't been here long, have you? Lay the tiniest hoofprint anywhere on Equestria, and you'll have to deal with the wrath of the Sun and the Moon."

"If you're talking about Celestia and Luna, I've already spoken to them."

Ditzy was silent, as she stared now worried at Nathaniel, wondering if he had told the princesses.

"And no..." He said, putting her fears to rest, most of them. "...I did not mention you to them, in fact, they still think I'm on the ship." He sighed. "I fought with you at the Battle of Sol, I saw you go down on Terra while the Feds bombed their own planet to rubble to save as many people as you could. And I am well aware of all your exploits across the galaxy, you saved it from turning into utter chaos how many times!? You are a hero, why turn away from all that, the most well known being in the galaxy, your very name is a battle cry among us and it can silence entire armies.

"In fact, that's what happened at one point. When the galaxy thought you had died, a huge memorial was built... now, it turns you never did die, you fled, you fled all the way to another dimension. Why?"

There was a heavy pause as Nathaniel let the question hang in the air, Ditzy looked down as conflicted emotions rose within her. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and with great concentration stared at Nathaniel with both her eyes. Nathaniel merely blinked to show he had been surprised.

"I didn't flee anywhere, I didn't choose to go to another dimension. I fell to this dimension through some sort of rip in the Belasi sector..."

"The Belasi Tear," Nathaniel said, revealing the name to the pegasus. "That was how we arrived, and we managed to create a sort of pulley system so we can head back."

"Well I didn't have that sort of system, I was trapped here and forced to adapt."

"And it seems you have adapted... too well. You have a duty in our dimension,"

"I have one here too," Ditzy countered, staring at Nathaniel angrily. "and I am not leaving this one."

"Even if-"

"I don't want to hear it!" The pegasus said quickly. "I don't want to hear it and I don't care! Don't waste your breath on me..."

Nathaniel shook his head, before turning around, heading for the door. "I've always wanted to meet you in person, to thank you for all you've done... Well, thank you, and thanks for abandoning us when the galaxy needs you once again..." Nathaniel's voice was thick with disappointment and a hint of sadness, he opened the door and left, leaving it open and Ditzy staring out, her mind torn over her decision.

That unicorn was a good person, at least, he acted like he was. She was glad she stopped him from going into detail about what sort of 'crisis' her home galaxy was in because, if she heard the details, it would be a lot harder for her to refuse his call of help. But... she shook her head. What she did was wrong even if it was for the right reason. She couldn't leave Dinky behind with the possibility that she would never return, it would be too much for both of them.

Dinky... Her daughter was smart and Ditzy knew she would come home with questions brimming in her head. Perhaps it was time to tell her, she was very smart for her age and mature too...

As Nathaniel walked back toward the forest, he saw two of the soldiers hiding just behind the treeline. Curious as to why one of them left the shuttle landing area, he broke into a light trot as he came up to them. They saluted, that was when Nathaniel realized they were not Phasic soldiers.

“What’s going on? Who are you?” He asked.

The soldiers didn’t answer at first, as if confused. “Captain, we’re with Trident Squadron along with Master Sergeant Benedict, he said you ordered us down here along with the humanizer chemical for a special operation.

Humanizer? Benedict is down here? Special operation?

“I made no such order, what is going on, answer me!”

The soldiers looked at each other. “Sir? But Doctor Zeb said you had told him to tell Benedict and us to mobilize and-”

“Doctor Zeb? I haven’t spoken with him since I left the Fallen Star.” Alarms began going off inside Nathaniel. “Take me to Benedict, now!”

The soldiers nodded to their Commanding Officer. “Sir, right this way.”

It didn’t take them long before they arrived at the same clearing Nathaniel had landed in previously, there he saw roughly 2 dozen fully armed soldiers and a small canister and tied to it was a small grey filly- Nathaniel did a double take when he saw the filly that was Ditzy’s daughter, staring at him wide-eyed as she recognized him.

“MASTER SERGEANT BENEDICT!” He called, his rage overwhelming him like a dam busting open suddenly. The whole encampment froze and Benedict briskly showed up and made a stiff salute.

“S-sir?”

“What the hell have you done!?”

“But sir, I was only following your or-”

“Your orders, Sergeant, were to remain on the ship and keep an eye on things, not take a full squad of soldiers and go kidnapping children!” Nathaniel blinked when he remembered what the other two soldiers told him. “Zeb...” He muttered, wide-eyed.

“Sir... he said you had contacted him and told him to relay your orders to us, he had all the authorization codes to confirm it.”

“That son of a bitch...” Nathaniel shook his head, somehow he had managed to obtain the command codes used if he was unable to contact all of his forces. “What did he tell you, Sergeant?”

“Sir... he said that your negotiations with a fugitive failed and that we were to capture her daughter and use her to have the fugitive to comply...”

“Fugitive...?” Then Nathaniel remembered that Ditzy was still technically an outlaw, a criminal... “Damnation...”

That was when his comm buzzed, and he pulled up a holographic image of one of the bridge officers. “Captain!” He said.

“What is it, ensign?”

“It’s the Tear, it seems to activating, we have another ship coming through.”

Another one? That didn’t seem right, the Confederation never said that they were going to send more ships through, had something gone wrong?

“Alright, keep an eye on it, I’ll be onboard soon.”

He glanced at Benedict who was never more thankful to be wearing a helmet, shielding his wide eyes from view of everyone around him.

"Shall I have the child returned?" He asked tentatively.

Nathaniel thought this over, one the one hand, if he returned the child, Ditzy would know and never forgive him and, to an extent, the Confederation, even if he mentioned that this was not his doing. But, as much as he hated to admit it, this was his only chance at getting her to comply with him. But again, if he did allow this to happen, he would be as much to blame as Zeb was and she would still hate him. You've made quite a mess for me Zeb... I'll be sure to make you clean up most of it...

Either way, Nathaniel came to the conclusion that there was no way to avoid this unforgivable crime they have committed and that there was chance she may just kill them all. But it wasn't her style... then again, she's killed numerous humans during the war... Nathaniel sighed, and made a choice, probably the most important one he ever made.

"No, keep her restrained, and wait for her mother to arrive. I assume Zeb has told you what to do?"

"Y-yes sir, he gave me instructions, including having her find out where we are."

"Good, it will only be a matter of time then, I need to head back to the ship."

Benedict saluted. "Sir."

As the ramp of one of the shuttles opened and Nathaniel climbed up it, he stopped. "And Sergeant?"

"Yes sir?"

"I do not hold you responsible for your actions, you were merely following orders and I will not condemn you for that."

"Yes sir..."

The Captain then walked up the ramp and strapped in as the cloaked and silent shuttle lifted off from the ground.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

<<"We're nearing the ship, Captain.">> The pilot reported. <<"Looks like the Tear is really acting up, are we getting reinforcements?">>

Reinforcements for what? The Captain pondered as the shuttle docked the Fallen Star, which had turned, it's starboard side facing the bright glowing 'star', it's tendrils growing and twisting about, as before.

Tyler and Jacqueline glanced from the Tear to the Tyler's radar screen.

"A ship should have passed through by now..." Jacqueline said nervously.

"Maybe it's a bigger class ship, like a Dreadnought."

"Why send such a ship though? It doesn't make sense."

"Command is probably worried about us, we've been gone for days, they're probably just sending a ship to check in on us."

"Why not send a probe? It's a lot faster and it doesn't risk further lives?"

Tyler opened his mouth to respond, but a beeping from his console interrupted him. "Looks like we'll find out, here they come."

From the Tear, the tip of a massive ship, twice the size of the Fallen Star, began to emerge, it's a reflective purple tint. From the bridge, Jacqueline stared out the viewscreen while Tyler looked closely at his console. The mare squinted to get a better look, and as the rest of the ship began appearing, her eyes widened.

"Oh god... Tyler..." She said, her voice suddenly hoarse.

"Hold on, Jacqueline, the computer's almost figured what ship that is..."

"Just look through the damn screen, Tyler!"

Tyler glanced up and his face paled, his heart suddenly pounding. Without thinking, he jammed his hoof into the alert button and accessed the Intercom, while the bridge began bathed in the emergency blue lights. "Battle stations!" He yelled as the klaxon sounded. "All crew to your battle stations, this is not a drill, repeat, not a drill!"

The whole bridge crew suddenly jumped into action, hearing the familiar sound of the klaxon and the blue light illuminating the bridge.

Nathaniel galloped at full speed the moment the klaxon sounded. As he entered the bridge, he immediately looked out the viewscreen and stared disbelievingly at the large purple ship with no visible weapons. "Activate shields! Status report, now!" He called out.

"Dread-class Pirate ship! They just emerged from the Tear, Captain." An Ensign yelled back.

"I know what it is, what is the status of our weapons!?"

"All sections are now reporting for duty, Captain."

"I want all weapons aiming at that ship, tell them to target the front of it, the closer to that tip, the better."

Outside, the numerous cannons aboard the Fallen Star began turning toward the enemy ship, which continued obliviously straight for the smaller ship.

"Have they activated their shields yet?"

Jacqueline shook her head as she pulled up the status of their target ship. "No sir, I read no speed, course, or any kind of change at all, it's like they don't know we're here, or-"

"-Or that they're realizing how difficult it is to press tiny little buttons with hooves." The Captain said with a sneer. "As soon as all guns have a lock, order them to fire and barrage the ship. Have all Starboard torpedo bays loaded with the Fusion and Prime torpedoes, we'll make short work of these pirates!"

The moment the last cannon stopped turning, the cruiser briefly began to glow blue as all the cannons simultaneously opened fire, blue glowing orbs streaked toward the purple ship, which flew on unphased. The orbs struck the ship, and the front of it glowed orange and yellow as explosions burst from its hull. Further explosions, this time blue, appeared deeper in its hull. The ship continued on as though it had never been hit. Another salvo or orbs struck the ship, causing further damage. And another, and another. The Fallen Star fired salvo after relentless salvo. Finally, the ship began tilting down as explosions appeared halfway through the ship. Then, several large missiles launched from the cruiser streaked toward the shuddering battleship, while a pod broke away from a previously hidden spot in the hull of the ship, firing its engines and streaking passed the missiles, past the ship, and straight for the planet behind it.

As the missiles hit and huge, blue clouds of vaporizing plasma erupted from the massive ship, enveloping it completely as it fell apart. Nathaniel breathed an open sigh of relief.

"Damage report," he asked, wiping sweat that had built up on his forehead.

"Enemy ship destroyed sir," Jacqueline reported. "We've no damage at all."

Nathaniel raised an eyebrow. "What about that missile they launched at us?"

Tyler shook his head. "It wasn't a missile, sir, it was an escape pod, and it headed straight for the planet."

It didn't register right away that something hostile was landing on the planet. When it did, Nathaniel's heart skipped a beat. "Son of a- Why the hell didn't you tell me, ensign!?"

Tyler flinched. "I'm sorry sir, but I thought that the Pirate vessel was more important-"

Nathaniel growled in anger and glared at another officer by a console. "Grab that pod's trajectory, I want to know where it's landing!"

"Doing that now, sir!" The officer complied as he tapped furiously at the keys, tracking its course. "Sir... I have it's trajectory laid out!"

"Where is it landing!?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Master Sergeant Benedict wiped his brow as the sun began setting. It had been almost an hour and still no sign of the child's mother. He was getting impatient, but he had his orders, and he intended to follow them. With the light of the bright setting sun clouding their vision, the soldiers and kidnapped unicorn didn't notice as a fiery streak crashed in another part of the Everfree Forest, they did however, hear the explosion from its crash.

"What the hell was that?" A soldier asked, suddenly jerked awake from his nap.

"Weapons ready, troops." Benedict ordered, his voice almost a whisper, readying his own weapon as he scanned the foliage around them, and glancing at the unicorn child, who also looked around nervously. They waited for what must of been hours, the sun almost fallen completely into the horizon, before Benedict sighed and had the troops stand down. With them being in another dimension on a strange world, that could've been anything but an explosion.

But Benedict and the rest of the soldiers and their prisoner all failed to see two glowing orange eyes staring at them, calculating its move and seeing what is the best way to kill them all. It examined each soldier indifferently, but there was something about the small child that caused it to watch it more then the soldiers, which were presumably more dangerous. When the sun completely set, it figured its best course of action, and stretched all of its limbs in preparation.

"Hey Marcus," Daniel said to the Phasic trooper. "How's that pack doing your back?"

Marcus shrugged. "With this equine form, a lot better then normally, Daniel. I might actually prefer if it weren't the lack of thumbs, heh-" His chuckles were interrupted by something spearing him through the chest. With a chocked gurgle, Marcus went limp as he was lifted in the air by the darkness shrouded object, and flung his body like a ragdoll into the woods. What happened next was a blur, as soldiers desperately fired shots in the general direction of the new attacker, who moved in a blur, taking down two soldiers, before grabbing a cloaked phasic trooper ripping him in two. The creature then jumped onto the cloaked shuttle, somehow able to see it, and smashed a monstrous hand into the cockpit, pulling out the hapless pilot and smashing her into the ground.

Ditzy paced her living room nervously, it was now night time and there was still no sign of Dinky. She had never been late before, ever. It was bad enough with the meeting of the Confederate officer and having memories of her old life return, but now her daughter has not come home. Something clicked in her mind as it made a very scary thought. She shook her head vigorously.

"No..." She muttered. "They wouldn't do that, they're not the Federation..." But they are human...

Ditzy sighed and made her way to her door, opening it and coming across a small datapad she recognized as Confederate technology. She picked it up and an image of a human who looked kind of familiar appeared before her.

"Greetings, I don't know what name you've taken here. But I don't care. I am Doctor Zeb." Ditzy's heart skipped a beat, a nightmare name among her list of other nightmares. "But I am not my father, I have faithfully served the Confederation and I still plan to. I have come to the conclusion that you cannot be persuaded to return to us because you now have a daughter..."

Again the disturbing thought returned and her wall eyes widened in horror. "You didn't..." She muttered.

"But you're daughter will also be the reason why you'll return. Your child is safe but is in the hands of Confederate troops-"

Ditzy dropped the datapad in anger and horror, the message continued. "-head to these coordinates, near the edge of the forest. and come prepared to leave. The sooner you return with us, the better..."

The message showed a map of the Everfree Forest, which did nothing but worsen the Pegasus' fear, before switching off. Then, her ears caught the flicker of a familiar noise, weapons discharges. She turned her head, and faced the Everfree Forest, where she heard the faint shriek of a child.

"Dinky!" Her wings flared open but she stopped. She was dealing with troops from her dimension, and damn it all to hell that she was going to let them push her and her daughter around. She went back inside, and tore open a box she had long ago hidden, where a dusty suit lay folded up. A minute later, she flew out the window in the tight suit, zooming for the Everfree Forest. As she came closer, she heard screams, male screams, and... a scream that stopped her dead in the air, a scream she had heard over and over again in her life, a scream she heard in her dreams almost every night, a scream that caused her face to pale. She almost fell to the panicking thoughts and the urge to hyper-ventilate, but she suppressed them and flew faster then ever to the sounds of battle, which now became quiet. Then, in the moonlight, she saw a form with large wings fly off, carrying a shrieking Dinky in its claws.

"No DINKY!" Ditzy flew as fast as she could, ignoring the corpse-strewn battleground beneath her, the creature noticed it was being followed and dove down toward a ruined castle, the pegasus followed, ignoring everything save for the danger that her daughter was in.

She landed hard on her hooves on the old stone floor, and she saw the creature dropped her daughter, who coughed and seemed to be bleeding from somewhere, and wasn't moving anymore. In her vulnerable mind, she assumed the worst, and turned her attention to the creature hidden in the shadows. It took a step forward, ready to rip the pegasus apart, when it stopped. For a second, it was frozen and silent, shocked at the pegasus. Despite her changed form, it recognized her.

Something fizzled as what looked like orange mist appeared at her hooves as Ditzy stared at the creature, her eyes now focused on it as she concentrated and brought forth something she thought she'd never bring back again. Again, the mist appeared, and for a split second, armour appeared around past of her body, forming over her blue suit. Then, suddenly, she was wearing an orange armoured suit, covering her whole body, including her wings, on her right hoof, was a green cannon. The creature growled angrily at its opponent.

"That's right, Ridley..." Samus Aran said as she stood up on her hind legs, charging up her arm cannon at her enemy, her green visor which showed her eyes flashed, becoming opaque and hiding her eyes. "...REMEMBER ME!?"

Chapter 6: Who She Was

Ridley screamed, flaring its wings as it charged at the armoured pegasus, swiping its claws at her. Ditzy flipped back and fired a charged shot at the beast, hitting it square in its beak. Ridley stumbled back, briefly stunned by the shot, giving Ditzy a brief moment to look over the status of her suit. She should've fired a plasma beam, what happened? Her suit statistics appeared, showing the status of her weapons and her equipment and she scoffed. Most of her equipment was unusable, decayed from lack of use. All she had was her morph ball, a few missiles, her Power Beam, bombs, and her Varia suit.

The Space Pirate growled as it regained its composure and Ditzy glared at her old enemy. Bringing her weapon back up, she fired a burst of shots which Ridley ignored as they hit its chest, seemingly doing no damage at all. Flaring its wings for another charge. She sensed the assault coming and flipped to the side much like she did with Pinkie before, then, seeing the creature's back to her, she pulled up her Scan Visor and quickly scanned the beast.

The results were worrying, Ridley now had some sort of exoskeleton, designed to resist all energy attacks. It seemed mildly vulnerable to Plasma, but her Plasma Beam was decayed and not usable. That meant she had to get creative. Ridley's wings stretched out as it flew up into the air, going into a dive straight for her. Ditzy jumped back as Ridley landed hard on all fours, cracking the stone floor beneath him. Ditzy flared her wings, giving her an idea. Well, Ridley... let's see how you handle me flying!, with that, she jumped into the air, flapping her wings. She gained some feet off the air, but the weight of her suit was too much, and she ended up plummeting to the ground, only to be caught in mid-air by a flying Ridley, who screamed at its prey.

Ditzy's heart went into overdrive as she stared, wide-eyed at her recurring nightmare, before breaking her beam away from Ridley's claw and firing a missile into its face, causing it to shout in pain and drop her. She landed hard on the stone floor, and looked to see Ridley stare at her, before striking at her with its tail. The bastard! He's toying with me! She thought as she rolled to the side, barely avoiding the deadly blade. As if in reply to her thoughts, Ridley screamed in a way that showed it was amused. Ditzy glared at it, before charging up another shot and firing at it, Ridley nimbly avoided it, before landing and breathing a ball of flame at her in reply. Ditzy rolled again, this time switching into her Morph Ball form, rolling around before returning to her normal form, and firing a flurry of shots at the Pirate. That was when she noticed several stone pillars next to her, they looked old and unstable and heavy. A quick scan showed her instinct to be right, perhaps that was the answer. She heard a groan, Dinky... she turned to see her daughter holding her bleeding head as she struggled to get up.

Ridley screamed, and before the pegasus could react, was slammed against the wall, Ridley gliding past her as he landed in front of the terrified unicorn. Ditzy leaned up as she saw, with horror, Ridley screaming at the terrified little filly, who stared wide-eyed and petrified with fear. Much like how she was when she was little- No! I won't let you toy with her!

Faster than she ever moved before, jumping and twisting in the air. She landed in front of her daughter and faced the creature who threatened her, wings fully extended and her cannon aimed at the Pirate.

"You stay away from her, you son of a bitch!"

Ridley screamed again, opening its mouth wide, and giving the pegasus an opening. Seeing her chance, she fired a missile straight into its mouth. Ridley's scream abruptly stopped as it stumbled back, smoke streaking from its burnt mouth, taking steps closer to the weak pillar. It's now or never! Ditzy galloped at full speed toward the disoriented Pirate, jumping and ramming it in its chest. The Pirate stumbled back, slamming into the pillar, which shook. Ditzy jumped back and targeted the pillar at its weakest point, and fired a missile. The rocket sped toward its mark, exploding on impact and shattering a part of the pillar. The rest collapsed on top of Ridley, who let out a startled shriek as the heavy stone pieces landed on it, releasing clouds of dust which shrouded the Pirate being crushed. A portion of the ceiling above collapsed, further burying Ridley in the rubble. Ditzy shielded her daughter as the last of the stone pieces landed.

For a moment, the two stayed where they were, Ditzy covering her daughter with her armoured form. Aside from a few crumbling rocks, all was silent, Ditzy slowly turned her head and saw a huge pile of broken stone, a clawed hand sticking out, the claws stuck deep in the stone. Ditzy turned back to her daughter, who looked at her with wide-eyed fear. The pegasus raised her right hoof, and took off her helmet, and stared down at her daughter, who gasped.

"M-mom!?" And then, she broke down in tears, Ditzy dropping her helmet and holding Dinky tight against her.

"Shhh..." She said to her crying daughter, cradling her as her suit disintegrated. "It's okay, I'm here, I'm here..."

Ditzy didn't know how long they stayed like that, in the abandoned castle, Dinky's cries and sniffles echoing across it, but she would stay however long it took for her daughter to calm down, she knew all to well the terrifying experience she went through. All too well...

Eventually, Dinky's sniffles died down and all was silent. Ditzy looked down at her daughter, and saw her head covered in dry blood, it didn't seem serious, but she looked over her now tired daughter vigorously but carefully. Dinky didn't complain as her mother checked her. It didn't seem serious, but Ditzy decided that she should be taken to the hospital. Lifting her up carefully, Ditzy placed the little filly on her back, and opened up her wings, before flying out of the abandoned castle, leaving behind the terror that never stopped coming back to haunt her...

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Dinky passed into sleep and back multiple times as they flew rather slowly over the forest. She felt an unfamiliar material around her mother, but felt her man on her head and the occasional brush of her mother's feathers on her back. Her head ached and she felt tired and exhausted. But never the less, her mind began to remember the other ponies, the ones who had captured her and who had first encountered the monster.

"Mom...?" She asked, her voice hoarse.

Ditzy slowed a little and turned her head to look at her daughter.

"The monster..." She said, her voice quivering. "He attacked other ponies... I want to know if they're alright."

Ditzy looked away slowly, she never got a good look at the clearing where the troopers had set up camp, but she was all too aware of Ridley's tactics. There was very little chance that anypony survived down there, and if there were any survivors, they wouldn't last much longer, Ridley was deadly efficient in killing, it almost considered it an art. Dinky had already seen the nightmare she herself experienced when she was a little, there was no reason for her to see what Ridley was capable of. But then she realized that Dinky had seen Ridley's actions right when it committed them and she was worried for the very soldiers who kidnapped her. Despite what they had done to her, she was still worried for them.

"Dinky..." Her mother said, unsure of what to say, when she saw the clearing before her and multiple soldiers looking over the bodies of their comrades, and the Captain kneeling down to another soldier. Despite every instinct yelling at her to continue on, and a few telling her to shoot them, something pulled her towards the Confederate troops. The pegasus glided down toward them.

A few soldiers looked up and saw her approach. Immediately, they brought their weapons to bear, causing Ditzy's wings to extend aggressively.

"Stop!" One of them said. "Don't move!"

The Captain immediately looked up and his eyes widened when he saw Ditzy in her Zero Suit. He gestured to the soldiers. "Stand down, men... All you'll do is make her mad."

The soldiers glanced at each other while Ditzy glared at them.

"Sir... Who is she?"

Nathaniel glanced at the pegasus, walking towards her. "She's Samus Aran..."

Every soldier stopped and turned, Ditzy could guess the reactions their faces held, even though they were wearing helmets. Ditzy glared at him. "And you have a lot of guts to look me in the face after what you did..."

Nathaniel glanced at all the troopers staring in awe at Ditzy, and gestured for them to continue collecting the last of the bodies, covered in body bags and load them onto the shuttles. They obeyed, and Nathaniel turned back to look her in the face.

"It wasn't my idea, but I am responsible for letting it happen and if you want to shoot me, no one will stop you..."

Ditzy stared and strongly considered it. She felt her daughter move, and jump off her back.

"Dinky..." She raised a hoof to stop her daughter from approaching Nathaniel, but she seemed to not have noticed as she stared at the stallion.

"Are you sorry?" She asked.

Nathaniel raised an eyebrow. "Pardon?"

"Are you sorry?" The filly repeated. Ditzy glanced at her daughter and back at Nathaniel intently. The Captain didn't smile, something about the filly's words caused him to think back to all that he let happen to her and how it might've affected her. Combined with seeing the injury on her head almost brought a tear to his eye. He sighed.

"Yes... I am very, very sorry for what has happened to you."

The filly slowly smiled. "It's okay..."

Ditzy scoffed. "Dinky, he foalnapped you!"

"And he says he's sorry, I forgave him, what's the problem?" She stared at her mother and Ditzy shook her head.

"Some things can't be forgiven, even if they're sorry."

"Mom... I was the one foalnapped, don't I have a say in this...?"

The pegasus opened her mouth to speak when Nathaniel cleared his throat.

"I'm glad you've forgiven me, but you're mother is a lot harder to forgive. She's had a... unique life..."

Dinky looked back her mother, despite all that has happened, she wanted answers. "What happened Mom? Who are these people? What was that armour you wore? What was that monster? Who-"

Ditzy hugged her daughter gently, staring ahead into the forest as memories came flooding back. Her daughter whimpered. "...Who are you, Mom?"

Ditzy didn't know how to answer her daughter's questions, where to start? Should she keep anything hidden? Was this really the best time? Nathaniel cleared his throat.

"Your mother was born in another dimension, a realm of reality, as a human being by the name of Samus Aran. She was born on a distant colony called K-2L. When she was little, a group of Space Pirates, monstrous aliens who took whatever they wanted and killed anyone who stood in there way, attacked the colony. They were led by Ridley, the monster who attacked you..."

It was as if Ditzy was being taken away, she had normally kept her memories in check, but Nathaniel explaining it all, she fell back entirely. She remember the way her home smelled, her parents faces... her childhood friends....

"Ridley killed everyone... including Samus' parents, friends... everyone on the colony... except for her..."

The burning... the flames... the blood splattering her face as she saw her parents heads crushed in Ridley's clawed hands... they're bodies dropped among the pile of men, women, and children, all of them she recognized...

By this point Dinky was no longer being held by her mother and she stared intently at Nathaniel, it was like he was telling a story. The most terrifying story she had every heard. And it was all true...

"But she was rescued by another, more friendly race, one of the founders of the Federation, the intergalactic alliance that tried to maintain peace and have all races live together in harmony. They were the Chozo, and they took your mother, and raised her..."

A kindly, bird-like creature looked down on her with loving eyes that held what may have been centuries of wisdom... They comforted her, for she knew she was safe in his presence...

"But the home planet was too hostile for her to survive, even with guidance from the Chozo... they infused her human blood with Chozo DNA... They did it so she could survive, but they did it for another reason..."

Years flew by Ditzy's mind as she remembered training, becoming more agile, faster, stronger, and able to predict her opponent's movements.

"They raised her to be an upholder of the peace, and they gave her a suit that only she can use, so that she can protect the peace of the galaxy. She served in the Federation military and then became an independant Bounty Hunter and she did just that, even when the Chozo vanished..."

Years of numerous missions past before her eyes...

"She stopped the Space Pirates numerous times, she helped the Federation in the Phazon Conflict... she wiped the Metroids and the X Parasites out... and she liberated the galaxy when the Federation became corrupt under Human influence..."

Dinky came to her mother, who was deathly still and she stared blankly ahead, like she was in another place, far away... Her daughter placed a hoof on her, and she blinked, startled, and stared at the filly, briefly confused. And then she remembered all that Nathaniel said.

"Your mother... Is a hero." The Captain finished.

But Ditzy shook her head. "I'm a murderer... A murderer who started a galactic war... how many people died because of me? How many planets were reduced to lifeless rocks in my name? I failed in my mission... I didn't preserve galactic peace, I ended it..."

Nathaniel stared at her. "You didn't ask for a war to start, the Federation tried to kill you and you fought back..."

"What happened?" Dinky asked.

Nathaniel sighed. "The Federation was a just and fair government, but as the human race rose in political and military power, it became more corrupt and evil. Your mother soon became a threat to it after she destroyed a research station injected with X parasites... Samus destroyed it and the planet they inhabited and the Federation decided it was better to remove her. Instead, just about every race and over half the military rebelled... civil war broke out because the rest of the galaxy didn't want our hero dead."

"I didn't start the war intentionally..." The pegasus said. "But I led the rebellion..."

"And you turned a war that could've lasted centuries into going on only a year... think of all the lives you saved with that in mind."

Ditzy didn't reply.

"You brought down the corrupt Feds and helped us create the new Confederation, they're calling you the Founder of the Confederation now..."

Ditzy scoffed, "that's the most noble title I've been given yet..." She turned and glanced at Nathaniel. "So, what happened?"

Nathaniel looked down. "The peace is under threat again. As you no doubt saw, the Space Pirates are back again and they're more powerful than ever. Plus, the Feds have rebuilt their military and with us distracted by the Pirates, they've begun launching attacks and have forced out forces to divide, we're fighting a two-front war. There's even a disturbing rumour that the two are working together. If that's the case, we need you now more than ever..."

Ditzy blinked, and realized that she had let the Captain explain what was wrong now... and he was right, they needed her... She sighed. "Eleven years ago, I would've come without hesitation but... things have changed."

She looked at her daughter and smiled softly, Dinky hugged her mother and the pegasus returned the hug.

"Mom?" Dinky asked.

"Yes?"

"Can we go home?"

Ditzy slowly nodded and at Nathaniel, who looked down. Though she didn't say it, he knew she no longer trusted him and the Confederation. "What will you do now?" She asked the Captain as she helped her daughter onto her back.

"I'm not sure... If the Pirates are able to get into the Belasi Tear, which is deep in Confederate territory, then the whole sector is under threat. It's possible that it was just a strike force and one of the ships got too close to the Tear..."

Ditzy shook her head. Ridley, a Space Pirate lieutenant, was on that ship. The odds that it somehow arrived in the same dimension as her was just too slim. People were starting to realize where she was...

"We'll remain for now." Nathaniel soon said. "There are some plant and dirt samples we'd like to collect for study and I'd like to remain and learn everything we can about this world. Plus, if we left through the Tear while the other side was under enemy control, we'd be very vulnerable to attack."

Ditzy nodded and looked up at the night sky, somewhere up there was the spaceship.

"Hey Mom?" Dinky mumbled, drifting back into sleep, Ditzy glanced back to see her daughter smiling tiredly. "I don't care who you were... You're still my Mom... and I still love you..."

The pegasus smiled and she suddenly felt like a heavy weight was lifted off of her. That was when she realized how heavy the burden of keeping her life hidden from her little muffin really was...

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Back in the abandoned castle, the pile of rubble still laid where it was, Ridley's hand sticking out, its claws buried deep into the stone floor. Then, the arm twitched and the pile of rubble shuddered, the hand clenched into a fist, crushing the stone. The pile shuddered again, before bursting apart as Ridley rose, screaming in all its fury.

The scream was heard all across the Everfree Forest, Ditzy had flapped her wings to take flight, but had stopped dead still when the scream reached her ears and rattled her soul once again. It doesn't stop... It always comes back no matter what I do to it! Dinky cringed and held her mother tightly.

"Mom!" She cried out, fear gripping her again. The pegasus turned and faced the general direction of the scream. Every soldier stood frozen, before Nathaniel rallied them together.

"Samus," he said. "You and your daughter can go home, you can leave Ridley to us."

But Ditzy shook her head as she placed her daughter down. "No..."

The Captain turned to stare at her, confused.

"Only I can stop Ridley. I've done it before, I can do it again." and again... and again...

Slowly, Nathaniel nodded. "Alright, I can have the troops watch your daughter. If you're comfortable with that."

Ditzy was not at all comfortable with having Confederate troops watch her daughter, for obvious reasons. But it was too dangerous to leave her alone, and having her come with her was not at all an option. She nodded and placed her daughter down on the ground. She knelt down so that she was eye to eye with her daughter.

"Dinky? Listen to me. I have to stop Ridley so it can never hurt us or anypony again. I'm going to leave you here and these soldiers will protect you."

Dinky shook her head furiously. "No! Don't go! It's dangerous!"

But Ditzy smiled at her response, and concentrated hard as she conjured her suit around her. When it fully formed, the soldiers nearby gasped, she really was Samus. Ditzy stood up and turned around as all her HUD came into display.

"Don't worry, muffin..." She said as her visor flashed opaque. "You're mother is far more dangerous and Ridley knows it..." ...and I plan on making that message very clear...

She glanced and saw the soldiers salute her. "Don't worry ma'am!" One of them said. "We'll protect your daughter with our lives!"

Ditzy looked into the foliage of the deep forest that she was about to enter. "You better... She's all I have left..."

With that, she galloped at full speed into the woods, leaving her daughter behind.

Please be careful, Mom...

Chapter 7: The Hunt

Ditzy scoffed at the status of her suit as she walked through the foliage, examining the various powers and upgrades... now useless. Ditzy wondered why most of her weapons and suit upgrades were decayed... lack of use? How long had it been since she used her suit? Shortly before Dinky was born, definitely... Which meant roughly 9, maybe 10 years in her 11 years being here. 11 years on Equestria, 11 years to adapt to her new circumstances.

She pulled up closer statistics of her weapons, they were decayed, but could they be repaired? A closer analysis showed yes, but it would take some time and severely weaken her suit's energy. But she was dealing with Ridley and needed something to damage it with, so, she diverted the necessary life energy required to restore her Plasma Beam and saw several bars of energy disappear. Ditzy felt the suit become considerably heavier and saw the progress of restoring her Plasma Beam appear on the side of her HUD. It was going to take a while.

Thunder boomed overhead and Ditzy shuddered. An old friend of hers, one of the first she made when she came here, had speculated that every universe had its own set of rules. In her universe, weather was a natural occurrence that ran its own course. But in this universe, weather could be controlled quite easily and, even though she was from a universe where the weather was left on its own, here in this dimension, it was completely unnatural. Ditzy knew it and it unsettled her. She looked up, and saw dark clouds start to gather overhead, it looked like a storm was about to appear.

The armoured pegasus continued on through the forest, glancing at a few of the trees and scanning anything that looked even remotely suspicious. The Everfree Forest was a highly hostile place... it was a bit nostalgic, really. It reminded Ditzy of the times she travelled through Zebes and Tallon IV... the times in between the major combats were almost tranquil moments, even when danger lurked around the next corner. She stopped walking, having the strong feeling she was being watched. The armoured pegasus turned around and saw only dark forest. Again, thunder boomed overhead, it wouldn't be long before it kicked up. She looked up and saw eight red eyes staring at her, and then an aggressive clicking noise. Suddenly, Ditzy was knocked down as something jumped at her from behind. She recovered quickly and rolled back on her hooves, and saw a massive spider about half her size, with eight red eyes, it's legs curled tightly to its body as it reared a pair of large, deadly looking fangs. She saw a flicker of movement and jumped to the side as the first spider launched itself at her. Seeing an opening, Ditzy brought up her Scan Visor and scanned her attackers.

Morphology: Young Gigas Spider

Semi-intelligent creature that hunts only in the winter and spring seasons

Usually work in packs of 4 to 5 in ambushing prey

Fangs incredibly sharp and deadly, and carries a venom that causes hallucinations

Sensitive to light and heat

With that, Ditzy charged up her beam and the two spiders hissed, shielding their eyes from the light of her weapon. She fired, and blew one of the spiders into the air, where it crashed into the ground, its legs flailing in the air. Remembering what the scan told her, Ditzy whirled around in time to see two more spiders jump at her. Rolling to the side, she brought her weapon to bear on the nearest spider and fired a flurry of shots. The spider was pushed back a few inches with each hit, before being blown on its back, where it screeched, its legs flailing, before dying with a hollow gasp. She turned and saw the last spider jump at her and strike her in the chest.

With a grunt of pain, Ditzy stumbled back as the spider bounced off her chest. Though the fangs didn't penetrate the suit, it did reduce the energy a bit. Recovering quickly, she brought her Power Beam to bear on the spider, charging it up as the spider made a suicidal charge. Just as it jumped again, Ditzy fired, blowing the creature apart. She stood there, panting slightly from the combat. She looked around, making sure there weren't anymore of them, before continuing on to the abandoned castle as thunder boomed again.

When she reached the castle, she came across a wide chasm and saw a raggedy old bridge that didn't look like it would support her weight, even without the suit. She looked at the distance from one side to the other, determining how big the gap was. She didn't want to deactivate her suit for fear of losing the restoring progress of her Plasma Beam, which had just reached 30% restoration. She remembered back to her fight with Ridley earlier and recalled that she had gotten a few feet in the air before falling. Could it be possible for her to glide her way across the chasm? No, she'd just reach the wall and fall to her death. She took a tentative step on the bridge and, sure enough, the wooden plank collapsed under her hoof. The bridge was not an option. That was when she heard several screams in the distance, and what sounded like struggling.

Forgetting all else, Ditzy turned away from the chasm and ran through the thick foliage, where she saw several more spiders surrounding six ponies. And she recognized all of them. Pinkie Pie? Appeljack? Rarity? Twilight? That was when she saw Fluttershy lying beneath Rainbow Dash, she wasn't moving and the rainbow-maned pegasus stood furiously protecting her from the hissing spiders. What they were all doing in the forest, Ditzy didn't know, but she had to act.

Galloping at full speed, her visor flashing opaque once more, she jumped in between the spiders and the ponies, and brought her charging Power Beam up to meet the creatures, who hissed and retreated slightly from the bright glowing orb. She fired, blasting one of them away, and firing a flurry of shots at each of the spiders, who jumped back, hissing in reply.

"Who-What-!?" Twilight Sparkle stuttered, trying to figure who this new figure was, Rainbow pawed the ground and glared at Ditzy, who glanced back at them, her weapon still pointed at the hissing spiders.

"Is she alright?" The armoured pegasus asked, glancing at Fluttershy. It looked like they didn't recognize her voice, because there were no further shocked reactions, and Rainbow's defensive/aggressive stare did not change at all. Then, Fluttershy's eyes popped open and she looked around frantically, looking like she didn't see her concerned friends.

"Their nest!" She cried out as she stood up suddenly. "We have to get to their nest and find what's scaring them!" She flapped her wings, revealing the gruesome looking bite mark underneath her wing, and attempted to fly, before suddenly losing strength in her hooves and collapsing again. Rainbow Dash reacted quickly and moved to brace the poisoned pegasus and kept her from landing hard on the ground.

"Get her out of here!" Ditzy yelled as she turned her attention back as one spider pounced but was blown away from a charged Beam shot. "I'll hold them off!"

The other mares weren't sure what to do, but they knew Fluttershy needed help, probably urgent help. The 5 ponies helped carry Fluttershy and retreated as Ditzy held off the spiders, who seemed upset that their vulnerable prey had escaped them. It didn't take long to finish the spiders off and, when Ditzy turned around, the 6 mares were long gone. She breathed a sigh of relief and silently hoped they would make it out alright. That was when she remembered what Fluttershy said, a nest? Did these things have a nest? and what about them being active, it was summer... Something was wrong and Ditzy figured that Ridley may have had something to do with it.

She walked down the path slowly and saw huge piles of webbing covering the trees. That was when she heard the hiss of a large creature, she looked in its direction and saw a massive spider that was 2 times bigger than her on the top of a web-covered tree, its red eyes staring right into her. With a huge leap, it jumped down and opened its large mouth in a aggressive hiss. Ditzy quickly scanned it.

Morphology: Adult Gigas Spider

Massive solitary hunter

Can shoot strong webbing to trap its prey

Vulnerable to light and heat

Ditzy jumped to the side to avoid a shot of web that the creature fired. She charged up her Power Beam and quickly fired, striking it in what could be its face. The spider hissed in pain, but quickly recovered, only to receive several bursts from Ditzy's weapon. The creature stumbled back before it hissed aggressively and pounced on Ditzy. The sudden attack caught her off guard and she was knocked to the ground, with the spider towering over her. Ditzy reacted quickly and brought her cannon to the spider's face, firing a missile into it and blowing the creature apart. The remains of the spider collapsed next to her as she quickly got up and looked around, making sure there weren't any more hostile targets, before continuing on, she had a feeling she was getting closer to the spider's nest.

As she went deeper into the forest, she found more and more webbing along the trees and found several creatures already wrapped up, dead most likely, before she came to a small clearing covered in glowing yellow flowers. Curious, Ditzy scanned them...

Morphology: Navitas Flowers

Magical flowers that produce an energy compatible with Suit’s Life Energy

Standing over these flowers will slowly regenerate Suit's Energy

Ditzy blinked, surprised at her luck. Sure enough, as she stood over the pile of glowing flowers, she felt her suit become slightly lighter as the energy began to fill up. It didn't take long before she was at full strength, flexing her limbs, she continued on, where she saw a large crater and a large pod of some kind. It was definitely Space Pirate in origin.

"So that was how you came here, Ridley..." Ditzy muttered as she approached the pod, that was when she noticed that the pod had landed on an underground cavern, with part of it collapsed. She looked down at the hole the pod made and saw pairs of glowing red eyes that were as big as hers stare at her. Then, a monstrous hiss and clicking was heard as giant hairy legs emerged, with the body of a massive spider that was as big as Ditzy's house, if not bigger, being pulled out of the hole. It was pitch black with an exoskeleton that reflected the moonlight off of it. Ditzy stepped back from the monstrous creature and quickly scanned it.

Morphology: Queen Gigas Spider 'Widow'

Armoured exoskeleton protects it from all forms of attack

Despite its massive form, it is highly agile and can climb on almost any surface

Creature will cringe in preparing for a powerful lunge attack, Avoid at all costs

Ditzy slowly raised her Power Beam at the massive spider, apparently called Widow, who made a loud hiss as it slowly advanced at the armoured pegasus. She stared at her opponent, wondering how on earth she was going to bring this beast down. Widow hissed as it took steps toward Ditzy, who charged up her Beam and fired. The bright orb hit the spider but it didn't even flinch as it took another step toward her. Then, with a hiss, Widow spat a large green orb of liquid that hit Ditzy square in the chest before she could react.

The armoured pegasus gasped as a searing pain spread throughout her, stumbling back as a sizzling sound was heard. Acid or some kind of dangerous poison, she realized. She glanced at how much damage it did and grimaced, she couldn't take more than a few direct hits from that before her suit destabilized. She glanced the large eyes the spider had and began firing a burst of shots at them, but Widow simply closed them and let its exoskeleton protect them.

Damn... How am I supposed to damage it?

That was when she noticed the Pirate Pod behind Widow, she remembered Fluttershy's words, and put the pieces together.

If I destroy the Pod, maybe that'll calm it down and it won't be so aggressive... It's a long shot but it's my only chance! and if I don't stop these things, they'll overrun the whole forest and possibly beyond it...

Suddenly, Widow cringed, bringing its legs as close to its body as possible.

Uh oh... here it comes!

Widow gave a series of clicks and then, in a blur, launched itself at the pegasus. Ditzy jumped forward and quickly curled herself in, changing into her Morph Ball. Widow, who didn't account for the change in mass, missed Ditzy and sailed past her, crashing into the ground and smashing into several trees. Ditzy quickly reformed herself and scanned the Pod, hoping to find a weakness in its structure.

Mechanoid: Modified AX12 Escape Pod

Pod designed to enter a planet's atmosphere and landing

Very sturdy build, however engines are powered by volatile compressed energy crystals

Fuel lines vulnerable to bombs when armour is shot off

Destruction of a fuel line may destabilize and destroy the Pod

Ditzy managed to find an armoured fuel line and fired several shots before charging up her Power Beam and firing, destroying the armour and revealing what looked like a blue/purple electricity running through a glass pipe, there was a small part where the electricity traveled freely, just wide enough for a Morph Ball to fit into... There was an angry hiss, and Ditzy turned to see Widow whirl around and jump over her, standing between the pegasus and the Pod.

Widow then suddenly stood up, bringing four of its legs as high into the air as it could, before giving out a series of loud clicks and a high-pitched scream that nearly made Ditzy’s eardrums burst. When Ditzy recovered from the scream, Widow slammed her legs back into the ground, clicking almost passively as it stepped back a little. Then, Ditzy heard more clicks and hisses behind her, and turned to see an Adult Gigas Spider along with several Young approaching her, Widow had called for help. One of the Young spiders jumped at her and Ditzy side-stepped, countering with a charged Power shot, before targeting another Young and firing a flurry of shots, quickly taking it down. The armoured pegasus risked a glance back at Widow, and was thankful she did, the giant spider launched another gob of acid. Ditzy backflipped, avoiding the deadly projectile, and landed on top of the Adult Gigas, who hissed in surprise and tried to shake her off. Ditzy held on though, charging up her Beam and firing it point blank into its face, blowing it apart. The spider collapsed, but a Young spider saw an opportunity to strike at her, and lunged. Ditzy stumbled back with a pained grunt, before taking down the spider, she avoided another attack from the last Young spider and fired a burst of shots, killing it.

When they were all taken down, Widow clicked and hissed aggressively before taking a few steps toward the pegasus, challenging her once again. Ditzy fired more shots at the giant creature, hoping to aggravate it and provoke it into leaving the Pod open for further attack. Widow soon brought its legs closer, cringing for its lunge attack as Ditzy charged up her Beam, her face scrunched up in concentration, if she was even a second off...

Again, the same series of clicks as before, then it jumped at her. At that moment, Ditzy fired the shot at Widow’s eyes, before morphing into her ball. Her gamble worked as the bright orb slammed into one of Widow’s open eyes, not expecting the sudden attack. Blinded, Widow made no attempt to catch Ditzy as it smashed into the trees, howling in pain. Ditzy continued on her morph ball to the open, exposed Fuel Line, she hesitated at the shot of electricity moving through it, before plunging in.

Electricity and pain coursed through Ditzy’s energy form, but her suit wasn’t losing energy. Deploying several bombs, she began to roll out when the first bomb went off, creating an explosion that sent the Morph Ball flying. Upon landing on the ground, Ditzy reformed and looked at the exploding Pod, her Beam aimed at it reflexively. There was a series of explosions, before it finally blew apart, leaving only the weak crater that stood just over the Gigas Nest.

A series of hisses caught Ditzy’s attention as she turned to see another Adult Gigas and several Young approaching. Then turned to the other side to see 2 more Adults and roughly a dozen Young. Ditzy charged up her Beam but knew she was heavily outmatched and surrounded. It would only be a matter of time before they overwhelmed her-

A loud hiss rang behind Ditzy and, immediately, the other spiders stopped where they were and were very quiet, watching the armoured Pegasus closely. Ditzy slowly turned to see Widow recovered, though one of her eyes were closed, and looking at the crater. Then, it walked over Ditzy, giving her a sense at how large it was, to the crater where the Pod once was. It turned to its young, and gave a series of clicks, the other spiders clicked in return, before making their way to the hole that Widow emerged from. Widow then looked straight at Ditzy, sending chills up her spine, before giving a non-threatening hiss. Almost like it was saying thank you...

The giant spider then spat out a smaller green orb of sticky fluid that landed in front of Ditzy, who raised an eyebrow at it. The green liquid melted away, revealing a bright blue glowing orb that floated in the air. Widow then lowered itself carefully into the hole, making sure not to make it bigger, as more Young and Adult Gigas Spiders made their way from across the Everfree Forest to return to their nest and hibernate once again. Ditzy was about to scan the orb, when it suddenly lifted itself up higher and slammed itself into Ditzy’s suit.

She felt no impact and felt a sudden burst of energy as her heart began pounding from the sudden boost. Every part of her went into overdrive briefly, her breathing, her thinking patterns, everything. As quickly as the feeling appeared, it vanished, leaving Ditzy wide-eyed, she had felt this before, many times. A pop-up appeared over her HUD.

Spider Ball Repaired

Ditzy blinked, and checked her suit statistics. Sure enough, her Spider Ball mode no longer said decayed. Immediately, her mind began to ask how on earth Widow had done that, but she quickly brought them under control. Ridley was still out there, and she needed to find a way to the castle. That was when she remembered her calculation of how far she’d make the jump, not enough to get across the chasm, but enough to make it to the rock wall, and now with her Spider Ball repaired... It was risky, but it was worth a shot.

Ditzy passed more Gigas Spiders as she backtracked through the forest, but they ignored her as they returned, and a few were even pulling down and consuming the webbing that they had set up earlier and releasing the other creatures caught and wrapped in their webs. What happened to the bodies of the ones she killed, Ditzy didn’t know. Then, she realized that their aggressive behaviour was due to their Queen feeling threatened somehow from the Pirate Pod that Ridley arrived in, and that they weren’t all that malicious, despite their appearance. She realized that, once more, she killed innocents, nevermind the fact that they attacked first or that they were wild animals. They were intelligent, Ditzy could tell that much just through Widow’s actions.

Again, the pangs of guilt returned, she should never have reactivated her suit, she should have let the rest of it die from lack of use. The longer she had her suit on, the more people were going to be killed, either by or for her.

Her train of thought was interrupted when she found herself back at the chasm, a loud burst of thunder boomed just overhead, it wouldn’t be long before the storm began. She looked over the chasm again and took a few steps back, she’d have to time it just right. Going into a gallop, Ditzy launched herself over the edge, flapping as hard she could and trying to get every inch of air as possible. She began to fall too soon, and quickly formed into her Morph Ball, which now glowed green. The ball slammed into the rock wall, a few pieces crumbling off and falling into the fog below, but the ball remained where it was, stuck to the rocky cliff. Ditzy breathed a mental sigh of relief and began to roll up the side, making her way to the top. When she did, she immediately reformed, and slowly walked into the castle, and where she fought Ridley.

Ridley was gone, there was no sign of it anywhere. Ditzy saw the stone pile she had buried him in earlier, now blown apart. But Ridley was gone now, probably fled the moment it regained its strength. But there was a small puddle of dried liquid that Ditzy didn’t recognize, but quickly figured out what it was.

Blood...

...and there was a small trail of it that led out of the castle. Ditzy followed, finding herself out of the castle again, but into a different part of the forest. Even without the blood trial, Ditzy could’ve tracked the Pirate down. Ridley, possibly in its weakened state, was careless, smashing through the foliage and anything that stood in its way. Ditzy smiled, it looked like Ridley was afraid, she hoped it was, being afraid of her was the least it deserved and she planned on showing Ridley that it was right to fear her.

She checked the status of her repairing Plasma Beam. 65% percent... She had to find a way to hasten its speed, or find another way to attack Ridley. But, perhaps, with Ridley bleeding, it would be easy to find a way to harm it. She soon found a small pile of Navitas flowers and quickly regenerated herself, before coming to a clearing, where she saw the Pirate huddled over something.

It looks like I’m going to have to find another way other than the Plasma Beam...

Again thunder boomed as a sickening sound came to Ditzy’s ears. The sound of bones being snapped and meat being ripped up. Ridley was feasting on something. Ditzy took a step forward and raised her Power Beam, charging it up. The sound caught Ridley’s attention and it turned, its beak covered and dripping with the blood of its prey. Slowly, the Pirate turned around, throwing aside the half-eaten corpse of a some poor critter to have fallen in its clutches. Ridley wasn’t bleeding anymore, the flesh of the animal it had consumed healing it, much like how it consumed Ditzy’s parents and everyone on K-2L in order for it to survive.

A surge of anger came over Ditzy as she fired her Beam at the Pirate, who avoided the blow and screamed in reply, flaring its wings in challenge, Ditzy did the same as she stared her long-time opponent down. Then, Ridley raised a claw, his wings spread wide. Ditzy realized what it was about to do, and jumped to the side, avoiding Ridley’s charge, and fired a shot at its tail just as it swung to strike her. She knew all of her opponent’s tactics. But with her weakened, she was unable to damage Ridley, but did it know that?

Ditzy began charging up her Beam, and Ridley turned and fired a burst of flame at her. The armoured pegasus jumped back to avoid the attack and fired, hoping Ridley would try to avoid it. She smiled as the Pirate did just that, it did not know that she could not harm him. Lightning flashed and thunder boomed as Ridley howled and charged again, Ditzy avoiding it with ease.

“Tell me Ridley...” She began, though she had never spoken to Ridley in combat, she decided to see if Ridley did fear her and, if so, play on it, maybe hold it off and keep it distracted until her Plasma Beam was repaired. Ridley flew up close and swung its claws, Ditzy avoiding them all, until she jumped back and fired another charged shot, making it a near-miss on purpose in case Ridley didn’t dodge in time.

“...How many times will I have to kill you before you finally get the bright idea to stay dead!?”

Ridley howled in reply and fired another ball of flame, this time Ditzy only stepped back far enough to avoid the direct blast, when the flames hit, she stepped back onto the burning ground amongst the flames, her Varia suit protecting her from the intense temperatures. The sight that Ridley saw was terrifying as the armoured pegasus stood amongst the flames, the green faceless visor staring at the Pirate.

“You know there’s only one way for this to end...” Ditzy said, seeing something she’d thought she would never see in the Pirate’s glowing orange eyes... Fear. This... Ditzy realized with a growing sneer on her face. This is the revenge I have been waiting for... She realized it was never enough to have killed her parents’ murderer over and over again, but to make it realize what it had inadvertently help create. And make it terrified of her.

Ridley screamed again, trying to drive the fear back to Ditzy, but it failed completely. The pegasus took a step forward as the flames died down.

“...Do us both a favour and just let yourself die... and stay dead.”

Then, without warning, Ridley flared its wings open, and flew up into the storm clouds, which thundered. Ditzy gritted her teeth in anger, she was not done yet, and she needed to make sure it didn’t live to harm another living again. The lightning flashed overhead, which gave Ditzy an idea. From that moment on, she didn’t care if all the progress in her Plasma Beam was lost, her suit dissolved and she opened her wings as wide as possible, before taking off after her prey.

Ridley glanced down and saw the grey pegasus flying after it, seeing Ditzy now defenseless, it fired a ball of flame at her, which she easily maneuvered around it and flew past the Pirate. Ridley screamed and flew after her as she dove into the thick of the storm clouds as thunder boomed and rain began to fall. Ridley tore its way through the clouds before stopping in the air, looking around for the pegasus. Even though its eyes helped it see in dark areas, it was nearly pitch black and hard for it to see. There was a flash of lightning, briefly illuminating the clouds, and revealing a grey pegasus as she charged and rammed Ridley in the back, sending the Pirate falling into a dark cloud that slowly revolved around from the pegasus’ handiwork. Then, Ditzy flew and slammed both of her forehooves into the cloud, causing electrical discharges to be released prematurely, shocking Ridley as it writhed in pain as electricity coursed through its body, howling.

The Pirate flared its wings suddenly, blowing the cloud away and firing a ball of flame, lighting the area briefly before it was swallowed up by the clouds, Ridley catching a brief glimpse of a blond tail vanishing into the clouds. Thunder boomed and lightning flashed around as the Pirate hung in the air, looking around for Ditzy, who glared from above, a fresh cloud filled with electricity hovering over the Pirate. With a single pound of her hooves, a massive bolt struck Ridley, shocking it as it howled from the blow once more. Ridley faltered in its flight, but a strong flap from its smoking wings kept it in the air and it glanced up and flew after the pegasus, who retreated into the clouds. But the enraged Ridley pursued without hesitation, expecting to keep following her. It was surprised when it saw Ditzy return, charging it and smacking it in its beak, and flying on. Dazed from the blow, it spun around, only to be struck in the beak again as Ditzy pulled the same maneuver. Ridley shook its head as it stopped, turned and fired another ball of flame, only to see Ditzy fly around it and stop in the air, glaring at her opponent.

For a moment, the two hung where they were among the thundering clouds, staring at each other, before Ridley screamed and charged. Ditzy stayed where she was, watching as it flew closer and closer. There were three ways Ridley could attack, and three ways she could counter and strike another blow at it. Just as Ridley got closer, it fired another burst of flame, and Ditzy smiled. This was one of the ways she had thought. Ditzy waited until just before the ball struck her before she dived under and and made an uppercut maneuver, striking the surprised Pirate, before flying up to another cloud. Ridley glanced up and flew after her, easily catching up to her, before Ditzy suddenly stopped and flew past Ridley again, it spun to chase after her, but was soon struck by another bolt of lightning. Screaming in rage and pain, Ridley continued to pursue Ditzy.

Although Ridley was stronger and faster, Ditzy was far more agile and knew from her weathering experience where to avoid the upcoming lightning bolts, and where to send the hapless Ridley. Soon Ditzy found an area that may be strong enough to finish it off, and flew towards two storm clouds that were about to collide. Ridley, too angry to think, pursued her relentlessly, until Ditzy disappeared into one of them. Ridley stopped and blew a ball of flame into it, but the cloud simply swallowed it up. Angered, Ridley screamed and sent more fireballs into the cloud, hoping to hit Ditzy, who was already above Ridley with a large cloud. This time she waited, waiting for the perfect moment. She could feel the buildup of electricity within the two giant clouds as they were about to launch bolts of lightning. Just when she felt they would release, she slammed her hooves down on the cloud she had.

At that moment, Ridley was struck by three bolts of lightning simultaneously. It screamed as the electricity coursed through its body, boiling its blood, and causing parts of its body to explode, one of its wings fell apart and, once the bolts stopped, Ridley fell, screaming. The Pirate spun in the air, trying to gain flight with its one remaining wing, but it was useless, and it fell through the layer of storm clouds, falling with the heavy rain, and crashing into muddy ground in the Everfree Forest. For a moment, Ridley was still, half buried in mud, before it stirred with a groan. It had little strength and the mud felt incredibly strong, keeping it down. It slowly lifted a burnt clawed hand, trying to move something. Then, it heard something land behind it, and turned to see, in horror, Ditzy reforming her suit around her.

All it saw in the darkness and heavy rainfall was the opaque green visor and the black outline of her suit. It watched, shaking slightly as Ditzy approached it, not slowed down by the mud at all. That was when she received a notification from her suit.

Plasma Beam repaired.

Ditzy smiled and her arm cannon flashed, changing slightly into the Plasma Beam. She powered up her weapon, and a bright orb began to glow, all the raindrops that came close to it turned to steam, causing a small cloud to form and wave around it. She walked up to the downed Pirate, who tried howling but was too weak, tried to move away from her but was too weak. Tried anything and everything but was too weak.

“You lose. Again...” Ditzy said, bringing the beam to Ridley’s beak. “Let me give you a warning. All the times I’ve been beaten you, all the times you died from my weapons, all the pain you experienced from me, even this moment, will be nothing compared to what I’ll do to you if you do anything to my daughter again. So when you do come back, do the smart thing...”

With that, she fired, blowing Ridley apart as lightning flashed, all the remained was a burning husk, half-melted and smoking.

“...and die...”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dinky shivered in the rain as a soldier offered her a very warm blanket, she shakily took it and continued staring out into the foliage, wondering if her mother was alright. There was a sound of a snapping twig and several soldiers and the Captain raised their weapons while a nearby soldier flared his wings over the little filly, who watched wide-eyed at the direction the sound came from. There was more rustling and everyone tensed, and breathed a sigh of relief as they saw a grey pegasus emerge, her mane soaked. She panted heavily and her eyes were half-closed, she looked exhausted, but otherwise alright.

Without warning, Dinky abandoned the blanket, and rushed towards her mother, jumping on her neck and hugging her tightly. Ditzy immediately returned the hug, bringing her daughter as close to her as possible, where they remained for a moment in the rain, briefly. Ditzy opened her eyes and looked at the Captain, with a questioning look on his face.

Is it done? his eyes asked. Ditzy slowly nodded in answer, she looked down and saw her daughter now had a small bandage around her head.

“I had one of the medics look her over,” Nathaniel explained. “She’ll be just fine.”

Ditzy nodded and looked her daughter in the eyes, and smiled softly. “Let’s go home.”

Teary-eyed, Dinky nodded and let her mother put her on her back. Nathaniel caustiously extended a hoof, with a small metallic object around it.

“What’s this?” the Pegasus asked suspiciously.

“It’s a communications device, connected to a secured channel to the ship. So that you or I can contact each other if one of us needs anything.”

Ditzy was too tired to argue, and simply took the object the Captain offered her.

“Thanks for looking after her,” she said before taking off and flying towards Ponyville.

The flight back was silent and slow. When they arrived at their home, Ditzy immediately began to tuck her daughter into bed and kissed her goodnight. But as she stood up to leave, her daughter grabbed her again.

“Please, Mom?” She looked at her with pleading eyes. “Can you stay with me for tonight?”

Slowly, Ditzy nodded, knowing what her daughter had gone through over the night, and carefully climbed into the bed with her. It was a little cramped, but doable. Ditzy placed a wing over daughter, acting as a second blanket and a comforting thought, silently telling her daughter that she was here and was going anywhere. Dinky closed her eyes and immediately began breathing calmly and deeply. She smiled and realized how much comfortable she felt in her daughter’s presence after what she had done. Slowly, her eyes closed as she drifted off into the most peaceful sleep she had in 11 years...

Chapter 8: Corruption Reborn

Ditzy tapped her hoof impatiently as she stood in front of the desk as the old unicorn looked over her notepad.

"Friend or family?" She asked.

"Friend," Ditzy replied, even though she didn't know Fluttershy very well, she was still on good terms with her.

The unicorn nodded slowly (oh Celestia, was it slow!). "She's in room 113, just down the hall." She said, gesturing down the hall. Ditzy nodded with a smile.

"Thanks!"

The grey pegasus walked down the hall, carrying a small but wide box with her as she counted down the doors. 110, 111, 112... ah! 113!

Humming a little tune, she opened the door slightly and poked her head in, seeing five mares sitting around the bed that Fluttershy lay in, a smile on her face as they all idly chat. Upon seeing Ditzy, the shy mare shrank in her bed and brought her blanket partially over her face. They all turned to see who had arrived.

"Hi everypony!" Ditzy exclaimed. "Is it alright that I-Woah!" Apparently someone was pushing a trolley or something through the hall and didn't notice Ditzy standing there. The trolley kept pushing on, knocking the pegasus to the ground. In the moment of desperation, she instantly had both her forehooves brought up to keep the box from landing on the ground, she couldn't let the box be damaged in any way! Even if it meant her head had to suffer.

"Oww..." The wall-eyed pegasus groaned as she got up and rubbed her sore head with a hoof.

"Oh my..." Fluttershy squeaked. "Are you alright?"

Ditzy beamed. "I'm fine!"

Then her smile dropped as she looked at Fluttershy with a worried expression.

"But what about you? Lyra told me that you were in the hospital, hay, the whole town is talking about it! What happened?"

Fluttershy looked down and Twilight Sparkle stepped in. "We were in the Everfree Forest last night, Fluttershy said she needed our help to calm some... 'unique creatures' as she put it."

"Unique!?" Rainbow Dash called out. "They were giant spiders! Emphasis on giant!"

The pegasus was nudged rather hard by Applejack, who glared and glanced at Fluttershy who looked like she was about to break down.

"I'm sorry..." She muttered. "I was worried you wouldn't want to help if I told you what they were... they are, after all, intimidating creatures..."

"Not want to?" Twilight asked, confused. "Fluttershy, there's very little I wouldn't give to see a Gigas Spider! They're so rare!"

"What happened?" Ditzy asked and Dash snorted.

"We were ambushed by several of those things, one managed to get Fluttershy pretty badly, hence why she's here. They had us surrounded pretty quickly..."

Then Pinkie Pie jumped up. "Ooh! Ooh! But then this guy showed up and totally saved our flanks!"

Rarity groaned. "Pinkie, for the last time, that wasn't a stallion. Didn't you hear her voice?"

Pinkie gave the white unicorn a disbelieving stare. "What? Have you seen how bulky that armour was? No, it was a stallion, had to be..."

Ditzy's left eye twitched, for some reason, being thought of as a guy in her suit really irked her, but she feigned surprise. "Somepony saved you? Who was it?"

"We don't know," Twilight answered, shaking her head, "and I didn't recognized the armour she-

"He!" Pinkie shouted.

"-that she wore. It was very strange but very powerful, I could tell. There was some sort of cannon at the end of her right forehoof that she used to fire something at the spiders. She held them off while we got Fluttershy out of the Forest."

"Oh wow..." Ditzy said, looking amazed. "Are those things normal in the Everfree?"

Twilight shrugged. "I never knew there were any in the Everfree Forest, Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy nodded. "They only come out in the winter months, but even then they're not very active, they're shy and timid creatures that are easily frightened."

Rainbow scoffed, so did Ditzy but inwardly. Those things? Shy? Gimme a break they would've ripped me apart if I didn't have my suit on.

"But something disturbed their home and scared, they were running wild out there."

Twilight nodded. "Gigas Spiders have a huge impact on whatever ecosystem they inhabit, that's probably why they're so timid." Her eyes suddenly widened. "Oh my gosh! They're still out their, rampaging across the forest!"

Fluttershy gasped. "Oh no! The whole forest will be covered in webs by now!"

But Ditzy and Dash shook their heads. "I didn't see any webs this morning." The wall-eyed pegasus said,

"Yeah," Dash said. "I did flyby this morning over it, there was no webbing whatsoever."

"Well, what if the spiders are still out there?" Twilight asked, but Fluttershy shook her head.

"If the webbing isn't there, then they must've gone back to their nest, which means whatever scared them is gone."

All the mares visibly relaxed, but Applejack stared out the window.

"Something on your mind, Applejack?" Ditzy asked.

"Something's wrong..." She muttered. "Ah don't get it, what could'a scared those critters and then suddenly calm 'em? And who in the hay was that pony who saved us?"

"Yeah, that's bothering me too..." Rainbow said, Twilight nodded.

"I've never seen a suit like that before, and I highly doubt there's anything in the library that could tell me about it."

"You know what ah think?" The cowpony turned to face her friends and Ditzy, who stared at her. "Ah think that pony had somethin' to do with scaring those spiders."

"What?" Rarity, Pinkie, and Ditzy all said simultaneously.

"Think about it, girls..." She continued. "Somethin' mysteriously spooks the spiders, and a strange pony in even stranger armour comes in at the same time, ah don't think that's coincidence."

Dash nodded. "That pony just gave me bad feelings all around..."

"And a lot of strange things happened that day... Ah mean, the manticore that came to Fluttershy's with that mysterious burn, something fallin' from the sky and making a huge boom... Ah can't quite explain it, but something's up and that pony has something to do with it all."

"Something fell from the sky?" Ditzy asked, she didn't recall anything falling or making a boom, the other six ponies nodded.

"Not to mention a star being extra bright on one night a few days back." Twilight commented. "But I think that's just an isolated event, I sent a message to the Princess, but she said she had everything under control."

"And then, mah big brother Macintosh said he saw strange lights and flashes in the storm that appeared over the Everfree last night, and he swears he heard screams."

Twilight shook her head. "There's been too many strange things happening last night to be coincidences, I say we take a look around the forest later today, are any of girls in?"

Rainbow and Applejack nodded eagerly, but Pinkie and Rarity and Fluttershy shook their heads.

"I've got to prepare the party for when Fluttershy gets better!"

"I've fallen behind on some of my orders for the boutique and I've got to catch up."

Twilight nodded, then looked at Ditzy. "What about you Derp-I mean- Ditzy..."

The wall-eyed pegasus blinked. "Wah? You want me to come?"

"Sure, it'd be great to have you."

"Yeah!" Dash said. "With your eyes, you might see something we don't."

"Rainbow!" AJ warned.

"What? She's not offended or anything..."

Ditzy shook her head. "Thanks, and I'd love to but Dinky... injured her head last night and I've got to keep an eye on her."

"Oh? Is she okay?" The lavender unicorn asked, concerned.

"She's fine, but I'd like to keep her close by, it was pretty scary when it happened."

"That must be why you look so tired." The cowpony commented.

"Huh? I look tired?"

"You look like you hadn't slept at all, Ditzy."

"Oh... Well, uh, yeah, that was why actually, but I kept my little muffin safe and sound."

"All those strange noises from the forest probably didn't help, either... Ah hope yer daughter gets better soon."

Ditzy smiled. "Thanks Applejack, she'll be fine, it's Fluttershy I'm really worried about."

Fluttershy smiled slightly. "Oh, I'll be just fine after a few days, you really don't have to worry about me."

"Heh, well, I brought you muffins to make your stay here a little easier. Let me tell you, I've tried some of the hospital's food before and it is not at all pleasant." She shuddered briefly and placed the box on the table next to Fluttershy's bed. She turned and noticed Twilight in thought and looking at her strangely.

"Hey, Ditzy? You wouldn't happen to know anything about last night, would you?"

Ditzy stared at Twilight, giving her a confused expression, along with the other 5 mares looking at the unicorn confused, while her mind panicked. "What do you mean, Twilight?"

She looked at Ditzy as if trying to figure out a puzzle, before shaking her head. "Nevermind, forget I said anything."

She then turned to Applejack and Rainbow Dash. "Come on, girls, let's go to the Everfree and see if we can find anything."

The two nodded and made their goodbyes before leaving the room, with Ditzy leaving through the window, not wanting to remain with them for much longer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nathaniel Caster ran a hoof through his mane as he looked at Celestia, who didn't seem happy and Luna who glared at him suspiciously. He had spent the last half hour explaining what had happened above involving the Space Pirate ship. But he was thankful that they didn't seem aware of his incursion to their planet last night.

"These Space Pirates..." Luna began. "What do they want?"

"Whatever makes them more powerful..." Nathaniel answered. "They will go to any lengths to achieve absolute domination of the galaxy."

Celestia nodded. "Well, it seems you acted how you should have. I can't quite stop you in matters that involve your dimension and only your dimension."

"Is there any chance more will come through?" The night princess asked.

Nathaniel hesitated. "It's... possible more will come through, I can't say for sure, it could've just been that one ship got too close or it could've been a scout of a much larger army... Maybe the area on the other side of the Tear is still under friendly control, I really can't say."

Luna sighed, and glanced a strip of cloth wrapped around Celestia’s leg. “Sister, what is that?”

“Hm? Oh...” Celestia looked down at the cloth. “It’s nothing, your medical doctor, Captain, wanted to take a sample of my blood in case there was any anomalies that could harm the rest of the crew.”

Nathaniel raised his eyebrows, once again, Zeb was working behind his back, apparently. Luna gave Celestia a look that she knew translated as are you crazy!? Celestia rolled her eyes and gave her a quick glare. Her sister relented, but she knew they weren’t done discussing this issue.

“I see...” Nathaniel said. “Well, is there anything else you would like to discuss with me?”

“There is one other thing...” Luna said, slowly turning back to the Captain. “After much deliberation, my sister and I have decided to allow you to have one shuttle to gather plant samples at the time and location of our discretion.”

Nathaniel smiled gratefully and saluted slowly. “Thank you... this will very much help our scientific research of this place.”

Luna nodded, before turning around. Taking the hint that it was time to go, Celestia followed her younger, but only after she said goodbye to the Captain. The walk through the hall to the Hangar was tense as the two royal pony sisters walked next to each other.

“What were you thinking?” Luna bitterly asked in a whisper. “Giving them a blood sample!?”

“The Doctor’s reasoning made sense, Luna, and I’d rather we take actions to get everypony to trust one another. While I doubt there is anything in me that could unintentionally harm the crew, it doesn’t hurt to be safe.”

“How did he extract the blood?”

“He used a simple needle procedure, something that is commonly used in Equestria and, no, Luna there was nothing strange about it.”

Luna growled slightly. “I thought you had said you’d leave me to do the talking!?”

Celestia looked at her sister worriedly, she had seen this behaviour and attitude in her before, but not in a thousand years... “Luna? Are you alright?”

The night princess took a deep breath and sighed. “I’m sorry sister, I’m not sure what has gotten into me...”

“It’s alright, you’re probably just stressed, that’s all...” Yes, it’s just stress... not jealousy or bitterness... just stress... but I had told myself that before... before she had changed into... She shook her head, trying to chase away the terrifying thoughts. No! Nightmare Moon is gone and isn’t coming back! She was defeated for good by the Elements!

She looked at her sister again, who looked very uncomfortable.

“Is something wrong, Luna?”

“I’m not sure... It’s almost like there’s... something here... something dark... something sleeping...”

“Sleeping?”

Luna blinked, that was when Celestia realized her younger sister had been staring off like she was in another world. Her horn glowed a gold aura slightly as she tried to magically reach out and see if-

Darkness... Black swirling clouds everywhere as a dark shape moved slightly, it’s form tired and resting... suddenly, it felt the disturbance, and the shape formed into a sort of V-shaped visor that glowed a ghostly blue/white and stared into the core of Celestia...

Celestia gasped and pulled her magic away.

“Sister!? Tia!?” Luna rushed to Celestia’s sighed as she knelt, panting and wide-eyed. What she saw... so dark... so evil... so corrupt... it felt like Nightmare Moon but far, far worse... and she had seen a brief reflection of that visor when she stared Nightmare Moon down over a thousand years ago.

“There’s something on this ship...” Celestia said, panting, and struggling to get up. “We have to get off of this ship!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nathaniel jammed his hoof into the intercom after he made sure Celestia and Luna had left the ship, they seemed almost like they were rushing. He ignored the thoughts, he had bigger issues to worry about, like Doctor Zeb working around him again. The now human form of the doctor appeared on the screen. He looked at the Captain wide-eyed.

“Captain! I was just about to call you!”

“We need to talk, Zeb.” Nathaniel said, his voice brimming with authority. “You took a DNA of one of the princesses?”

“What? Oh yes, well, just a precautionary method, we should have done it the first time they came on here. Look, I know you’re upset about me commanding your troops and working against you, but it was for the greater good of the Confederation. But we can talk about it later!

“Listen, do you remember those probes I had asked for in gathering those strange particles a few days ago?”

Nathaniel raised an eyebrow. “Yes? What about them?"

"They've finished gathering them and I just had them scanned..." That was when Nathaniel noticed that Zeb was sweating and on the verge of hyper-ventilating, and he was looking off screen at the canister that held the dark blue and white particles, which floated around aimlessly. "Captain... these particles contain trace amounts of... Phazon."

It took a second for it to register in his brain, when it did, Nathaniel's eyes widened and he felt his face go pale. "T-that's not possible, all the phazon was destroyed in the Phazon Conflicts! By Samus, no less!"

"I know Captain!" Zeb replied, not noticing that the particles flashed at the name. "But I double, triple-checked the scans! There's no doubt, but these particles contain Phazon..."

Nathaniel placed his hoof on his chin, trying to think. "Phaaze was nowhere near the Belasi Tear... how could particles with small bits of Phazon managed to get to here?"

"It may be possible a Leviathan seed survived the conflict and fell here."

But Nathaniel shook his head. "I don't think so, we'd know, a Leviathan seed isn't exactly hard to spot, and if it were anywhere on the planet, we'd know..."

"Would we, sir?"

Nathaniel didn't answer and they were both silent for a moment, before Zeb cleared his throat.

"Do you think Samus should be warned?" Again, the particles flashed at the mention of the name and Zeb did not notice.

"No..." Nathaniel replied without a second's hesitation. "We've already caused her enough problems as it is... I think we should just leave her and her family be on the planet."

"Alright, I'll- What in the name of-!?" Zeb stared wide-eyed as the particles inside the canister began spinning and spinning as a glowing white orb appeared in the centre.

"Doctor Zeb!?" Nathaniel's voice shouted through the comm. "What's going on over there!?"

"Oh my god..." Zeb merely said, his voice suddenly quiet as he saw a shape take form as the particles flew together, merging with the orb. Suddenly, black clouds burst from the canister, shattering it and sending the Doctor to the ground and shrouding the entire room in black mist.

"Zeb! What is happening!?" The Captain shouted. "I've lost sight of you!"

Zeb coughed and looked around, and saw a glowing outline of a humanoid forming where the canister once was. Zeb could see a left hand form, it's fingers slowly clenching into a fist as if they hadn't moved in a long, long time. From what he could tell, the right arm ended in a cannon, similar to the one Samus had. Zeb was suddenly flashed with a disturbing image he saw in the archives.

"No, it can't be..." He muttered as a white V-shaped visor flashed where its face would be, it stood, staring down at Zeb, somehow seeing perfectly in the dark mist. "Oh my god, it is..."

Suddenly the humanoid twitched and a dark, twisted scream was heard as it changed.

"Zeb!? What is happening!? Answer me!" Nathaniel's voice kicked Zeb out of his stupor.

"Captain! Warn Samus!" The Doctor shouted a glow suddenly appeared from the cannon. "Warn her-" he never finished as a large blast suddenly vaporized him and blew a large hole in the ship.

The whole ship shook as an explosion rocked it, Nathaniel nearly lost his balance as the screen to the lab suddenly caught static and he lost contact with Doctor Zeb.

"Hull breach in the Medical Lab!" A bridge officer called out. "Sealing all nearby sections!"

Nathaniel blinked, suddenly realizing that Zeb was now gone. "What the hell happened!?"

"Looked like some sort of explosion from within sir, I can't-"

"Sir!" Another crewman called out. "Look outside, sir!"

Nathaniel looked and his face paled even further. A pegasus in pitch black armour with a suit disturbingly similar to Samus' but far more intimidating, with black wings looking like they were made of dark clouds, and a terrifying white glowing visor adorning her helmet, flew by, stopping to see the whole bridge staring at her. The pegasus suddenly spread its wings out, far wider then should be possible for a normal pegasus, and briefly glowed in Phazon energy, a twisted, maniacal shouting into everyone's head, causing them to shake where they stood. Then, she flew up, a trail of two dark blue strings following her as she flew over the Fallen Star and towards the planet.

"Track her!" Nathaniel called out, stirring the crew into action. "TRACK HER NOW! WHERE IS SHE HEADING!?"

Nathaniel deep down in his terrified heart knew the answer, but he had to be sure.

"Sir! She heading to Samus' location!"

"Get her on the line now and tell her Dark Samus is alive and heading straight for her!"

Chapter 9: Dark Reveal

Dinky sighed as she flipped another page of her coloured colouring book. Her mother had told her to wait at home and miss school while she went to the hospital to visit Fluttershy. and she was bored. Undeniably and completely bored. She had never had to miss school other then when she was sick. But she wasn't sick, and she was told that her injury wasn't bad and that she was fine. But after what happened last night, Dinky didn't argue in not going to school.

A feeling suddenly came to her, like an itch at the back of her head. She reached a hoof back and scratched, but it did absolutely nothing. It began to irritate her a little. Suddenly, a beeping sound was heard and the little filly turned her head to see the object Nathaniel had given her mother on the small table, a blue light was flicking on it as the object frantically kept beeping.

She stood up and, before she realized it, levitated the object toward her, it's glow a translucent gray. She gasped when she realized what she was doing and the object dropped in front of her.

"Oh my Celestia..." She muttered. "I levitated something! I levitated something! Hehehehe!"

The beeping object knocked her out of her stupor and she walked up to it, looking at the flicking blue light. With a curious expression on her face, she lightly tapped the light with a hoof and a rectangular screen appeared over the object, where she looked at the face of an unfamiliar but scared stallion.

"Sam-! Huh!?" He blurted out, but stopped when he realized he was looking at Dinky. The two stared for a moment, neither saying anything before Dinky spoke.

"Hello!" She said cheerfully, waving. "I'm Dinky Doo! Who are you?"

"Uh..." The stallion tugged at the collar of his uniform, unsure, before he was roughly pushed aside.

"Let me handle this, ensign..." Said a familiar voice, his face appearing in the holographic screen,

"Hi Captain!" Dinky greeted.

"Hello Dinky," He replied urgently, that was when Dinky noticed his eyes were wide and sweat was coming down his forehead. "Listen, I need to talk to your mother, where is she?"

"She went to the hospital to see somepony, is something wrong?"

Nathaniel hesitated before he answered. "Listen, go find your mother, tell her Dark Samus is coming for her!"

"Dark Samus?" For some reason, the itch became more irritating and the filly reflexively scratched her head.

"Just do it! She'll know what it means! Hurry, you don't have much time!" With that, the screen disappeared and the object shut down. Dinky stared at it for a moment, before the itch returned, this time stronger, she flexed her neck, trying to get rid of it, before she was reminded of the terrifying image of Ridley and the urgency in the Captain, and ran out the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ditzy flew through the town, her panic starting to calm. There was very little chance Twilight and Applejack and Rainbow would find anything in the forest and if they did, there was nothing that would point them to her. Still, the fear remained, she had spent years in Ponyville creating a new life and she didn't want it destroyed because of anypony finding out about who she was. She had no reason to worry, the Confederate ship would leave her alone most likely and Ridley was gone... for now. There was no one else to worry about, that much was-

Heat and Light and Burning and Pain... but it was it's hatred that carried it through and it would strike, retaking the world and bringing darkness and corruption as it had tried a thousand years ago... and it would not be stopped, not by the Sun Princess, not by her vulnerable sibling, not by the mysterious energies that defeated her twice... for she was now back to her full and complete strength, she would not need to corrupt and possess just one native anymore... and she would win, and become a slave once more... and make the cursed murderer and hunter pay!

A brief flash of a ghostly white V-shaped visor and Ditzy crashed to the ground, screaming as pain shot through her head. She rolled and remained motionless for a moment as she heard frantic and worried voices and hootsteps running to.

"Derpy!"

"Are you alright?"

"What happened?"

"Somepony get help!"

Was just a few of the phrases Ditzy managed to decipher amongst the crowd. She slowly stood up, panting, her vision blurry.

What happened? Her groggy thoughts managed. What was-

"Mom!"

Ditzy ears perked and her head jolted up and turned to the direction of her little muffin running toward her, the crowd of worried ponies stepping by to allow the filly to pass.

"Dinky?"

"Are you alright!?"

"I'm..." She hesitated as her daughter hugged her. "I'm not sure..."

Suddenly, a loud boom was heard, followed by several more. Ponies looked around and muttered worriedly at the strange and frightening noises. Ditzy looked up, seemingly drawn to a spot in the cloudy sky and feeling something familiar fall... something dark... something that she had felt before during that Summer Sun Celebration that Nightmare Moon returned...

and in the Phazon Conflicts...

"No..." She muttered, her heart starting to beat. "No, it can't be..."

"Mom, the Captain wanted me to tell you something! He said that Dark Samus is coming for you! What does he mean?"

Dark Samus... Ditzy felt her face go pale, she wanted so badly to deny this. But the evidence was too much to deny. She turned to her daughter.

"Dinky, we're going inside..."

"But-"

"No buts! Now let's go!" Ditzy grabbed her daughter and flung her on her back, flapping her wings and taking off for her house. I need to get the Zero Suit... I need to stop her before she destroys everything!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What was with that sudden question, Twi?" Applejack asked as the three mares entered the forest.

"What do you mean?"

"Ah mean back at the hospital, you asked Derpy that question, how was she supposed to have any idea about what was going on in the forest?"

Twilight hesitated. "I'm not sure... But that strange pony's voice. It sounded familiar..."

Before Applejack could ask more questions, another boom sounded in the sky causing the three ponies to jump

"There's another one." The cowpony said. "Rainbow, do you know what the hay's going on?"

The cyan pegasus merely shrugged, but she could easily see her unease, something was wrong and it sent shivers up all three of the mares backs.

"Come on, girls..." Twilight said, her face looking up at the sky. "Let's keep-" She gasped at what she saw.

A bright glowing blue object fell to the sky, tracing smoke and twin trails of some magical aura behind it and Twilight got an immediate disturbing feeling. Something that she hadn't felt since Nightmare Moon. One look around told her that Rainbow Dash and Applejack had that same feeling. The object crashed into the forest very close to the three mares and the ground shook.

"Come on, girls!" The unicorn said as they all charged into the foliage. Although Twilight didn't know if it was somehow Nightmare Moon, she knew that it was most likely not friendly and had to be dealt with.

It didn't take them long to reach a small clearing, where a small smoking crater stood and at the centre...

"That is most definitely not Nightmare Moon..." Applejack muttered, wide-eyed with fear at the strange suited pegasus before them. The dark form turned, facing and staring at them and Twilight suddenly remembered seeing a brief flash of its visor in the Mare in the Moon's eyes, she had thought it was her imagination but now... Could this be the very thing that turned Luna into Nightmare Moon!? The form stared at the three of them, for she recognized them as well. Twilight snorted and pawed the ground aggresively, challenging the dark pegasus. The form stared and the unicorn was given a disturbing memory when she fought Nightmare Moon.

You're kidding... You're kidding, right!?

Suddenly, the pegasus lifted its arm cannon and fired a shot, knocking Applejack into the foliage, her hat flying off. Rainbow Dash immediately took to the air to dive down at her opponent, but the dark pegasus flew and rammed her in the chest, where a point-blank shot knocked her to the ground behind Twilight, whose horn charged up with magical energy. The dark pegasus landed on the ground and fired a shot at the unicorn, but a purple shield appeared, deflecting the shot and protecting the three mares as they regained their composure and glared at the dark form defiantly.

The pegasus stared, hit with a sense of deja vu, it had been in a similar situation on Norion years ago... and that was when it had got a cruel and evil idea. It laughed maniacally as it lifted in the air, calling up all the Phazon in its body...

The three mares stared as the dark form laughed and rose a few feet off the air, her dark cloud wings outstretched as her whole body glowed a ghostly blue and a charging sound was heard.

"Brace yourselves, girls!" Twilight yelled as she poured all her magical strength into her forcefield and prepared for the attack just as the pegasus unleashed a massive blast of electrical Phazon that broke through the shield easily and enveloped the three mares and sent them flying back, unconscious.

The pegasus landed on the ground and stared at the unconscious bodies of the three ponies, before it raised its left hoof and slowly waved it over them. Small particles flew to each of them and formed into three objects, all looking vastly different but with the same purpose. To Applejack it formed around her stetson, changing its brown colour into a bright silver. To Twilight it changed into a necklace, blue energy wrapping tightly around her neck. To Rainbow Dash, it was her wings, which had been surrounded with a dark-silvery material and a small object formed in between them on her back. All three had the visors of PEDs... A little present for when her rival arrived...

The dark pegasus outstretched her wings and flew off towards the castle...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ditzy shuddered involuntarily when a different sounding explosion was heard and she was given a very bad feeling, for some reason being reminded of her encounter with Dark Samus on Norion... the last time she saw Rundas, Ghor, and Gandrayda... She shook the thought, confused and worried that she was reminded of them, she had deliberately put all memories of them behind her so the guilt of killing them wouldn’t return. Why did it show up now and so suddenly? She finished putting on her Zero Suit and looked to see Dinky looking out the window worriedly.

“Who is Dark Samus, Mom?” Her daughter asked, not turning away from the sight of the forest.

Ditzy sighed. “She’s me... to an extent, she was a powerful creature I had encountered and defeated a long time ago... but it returned with a stolen and corrupted version of my suit, and it was much stronger and still growing stronger when I encountered her. I defeated her again and thought she perished for good... but she returned, at full strength and had corrupted me and...” She stopped as their memories flashed by her. “...and three others I had grown attached to. I was fine after a period of recovery, but my three allies turned and I was forced to kill them... all of them... But I had also defeated Dark Samus and what I had thought was the source of her power... that was over 12 years ago and now it seems she’s back.”

“Why are you going?”

“Because she is incredibly dangerous and cruel... I have to stop her before she harms somepony.”

“But... if you’ve beaten her so many times, what’s going to stop her from coming back?”

Ditzy didn’t answer. If Dark Samus could survive Phaaze’s destruction, the homeworld and source of her power and life blood, Phazon, then it was probably impossible to destroy her for good.

“I’ll just stop her again and again until she gets the message...” She soon answered with a smile that may or may not have been convincing.

“Like Ridley?” Her daughter asked

“...Like Ridley... Just stay here Muffin, I'll be back... I promise..."

With that, she turned and flew out the window, leaving her daughter behind just as she did last night. As she flew towards the forest, she began having a strange feeling, an almost tingling sensation at the back of her head, there was something in the forest, and the feeling grew stronger as she came closer to it.

Landing in the nearest clearing, Ditzy concentrated, bringing her eyes together and having her suit form around her. When her HUD came into display, she flexed her arm cannon, bringing it to bear and mentally testing herself like she always did when activating the suit. She looked over her suit status and saw that her Plasma Beam and Spider Ball were still in working condition and decided to have the suit begin restoring another power. After a short time, she settled on the Ice Beam and immediately felt the suit became heavier as a portion of her suit's life energy drained. Feeling as ready as she was ever going to be, she began her trek through the forest.

She looked at the corner of her HUD and saw something new, it seemed her suit had figured out enough of the Everfree Forest to create a map of sorts, highlighting out points of interest that she had been to, such as the Abandoned Castle and the Gigas Spider Nest as well as the location she had fought Ridley. There was also a flashing section of the forest that she had not been to yet her suit highlighted it as a point of interest. She brought up a closer diagram of it and saw that there was a concentration of Phazon in that location and it wasn't far from her. Seeing as that was probably where her Dark doppelganger had landed, it seemed to be the best place to start her hunt.

It didn't take long to reach the location, where Ditzy saw a small crater as well as small portions of dirt that glowed a ghostly blue. Although she had a feeling she knew what it was, she scanned the ground.

Anomaly: Phazon Energy

This small portion of Phazon has been self-produced in an equine body

host is likely highly corrupted and hostile

Equine body? That doesn't make any sense, what other equines could- Ditzy was then flashed with the memory of Twilight, Rainbow, and Applejack leaving for the Forest to investigate and a horrible thought rose in her mind.

"Oh no..." She muttered. If they're corrupted, then that means... Helplessness and anger threatened to overtake the armoured pegasus as she realized that they may already be dead, like Rundas, Ghor, and Gandrayda were... But then, defiance took her mind's reins. No! I failed with Rundas and the others, but not with Rainbow and her friends, I'll find a way to destroy their corruption without Dark Samus destroying them, I swear it!

Ditzy blinked when she got the feeling she was being watched. Instantly, she turned around, her cannon aimed at the foliage. Something was there, she knew it.

"Show yourself!" She called out. Then, a rustle and a branch snapping, before Applejack revealed herself. Only, she wasn't Applejack, something was horribly wrong. Ditzy first noticed her hat, it was silver and had a disturbingly familiar shaped object, she recognized with horror that it as a Phazon Enhancement Device, merged into the top of the stetson. Her orange coat was grayer, with black lines pulsing throughout, conglomerating around her Cutie Mark, which now depicted three rotting apples, a twisted and dark mockery of her original Mark. Her mouth was twisted into a sneer as she pulled her hat back, revealing her green eyes now replaced with an evil blue and, deep down in the blackest part of her eyes, was the visor of Dark Samus, watching her intently.

"Well, well, well..." Applejack said as she sneered at Ditzy. "Ah recognize that voice now... hard to believe that it's you, Derpy..."

Ditzy continued having her weapon trained on the earth pony, not sure what to do.

"Well, that suit can't just be fer show so..." Suddenly, before she could react, a lasso was wrapped around Ditzy as Applejack jumped on top of her suited form, suddenly, the lasso glowed and Ditzy was shocked with pain as her suit's life energy began deteriorating. "Giddy 'long lil doggie!" Applejack cried out, sneering as if she had already won.

Chapter 10: Rotting Apples

Ditzy curled up and changed into her Morph Ball, catching Applejack off-guard. The mare fell to the ground with a surprised grunt, but her lasso remained tightly around Ditzy, her suit still losing its energy. Desperate, Ditzy laid a bomb, and the explosion broke the lasso off of her and launched her into the air, where she reformed and landed hard on the ground. She did a quick scan of the corrupted mare as she regained her composure.

Morphology: Applejack (Earth Pony)

Status: Corrupted

Phazon has increased her strength substantially

Target's lasso is also infused with Phazon and can drain suit's energy

Vulnerable to all forms of attack but Phazon has made target resistant

WARNING: Do not allow Target to approach into melee distance.

Ditzy raised her cannon as an approximation of Applejack's status showed in her HUD, representing itself as a bar. She didn't want to fight her, but maybe she could incapacitate her and then... and then what? She shook the thoughts off, first deal with Applejack, then find a way to remove the Phazon. The farm pony sneered as she rolled up her lasso and began twirling it in the air.

Ditzy, not wanting it around her again, switched to her Plasma Beam and fired at AJ's hoof. AJ grunted in pain as she dropped the lasso. She stared, before snorting and pawing the ground aggressively.

This can't be good...

Applejack charged, causing Ditzy to fire several shots to slow her down. It wasn't working and Ditzy's mind began panicking slightly.

This isn't gonna work, maybe if I try to Morph when she's about to strike, it could leave her open to some bombs and-

Her train of thought was interrupted when AJ suddenly jumped over the armoured pegasus. Surprised, she turned around to see AJ raise her hindlegs and buck her in the chest.

"GAAAH!" Ditzy screamed as her HUD suddenly shut down temporarily from the shock and she was sent sprawling to the ground, the wind knocked out of her. The pain was unbelievable and static covered her vision as Ditzy gasped, trying to breath but unable to, like her body had forgotten how to. The HUD came back online and alarms started ringing, alarms she knew all too well. Eyes wide, she looked at the status of her suit and gasped.

50 Energy points left!? All her bars of energy, gone... few attacks from even fewer creatures could do that. She looked up and saw AJ sneering down at her. She lifted a forehoof, before smashing it into Ditzy's faceplate.

40 points of Energy...

She raised her hoof and smashed it before Ditzy could regain her composure from the blow, the hoof landing with a sickening crunch.

30 points

Again.

20 points

and again.

10 points

The alarms went into overdrive as the last blow caused the screen to crack and Ditzy coughed up blood. Applejack chuckled.

"Well, this was disappointing, aw well, pleasure fightn' with ya, Derpy..." She lifted a hoof to deliver the final blow.

This is it... when that hoof strikes, my suit won't be able to take it and it will condense into Morph ball... only without the proper Matter to Energy protocols... I'll be crushed... The hoof seem to fall in slow motion as Ditzy stared at it, wide-eyed and bloody, she had failed... failed her home, failed her friends, failed Dinky...

Dinky...

"...NO!" She cried out as she slammed her arm cannon into AJ's stomach and fired a fully charged plasma shot. The corrupted mare screamed as the blow knocked her into the air and slammed her onto the ground a distance from Ditzy, who struggled to get back on her hooves. She coughed, stumbling and trying to look past her blurry vision and the cracked visor. Applejack got up quickly and snorted.

"Well, wasn't expectin' that..." She admitted.

"A-" The armoured pegasus coughed up more blood and nearly lost her balance, her suit was incredibly heavy now, it was almost too much for her. "Applejack, listen to me... You're corrupted, you have to fight the Phazon, it's influencing you!"

Applejack merely sneered. "Why would ah want to fight this? Do you have any idea the power that is flowing through me right now?"

"Yes..." She replied, panting. "Yes, I know all too well, and it is an evil power, Applejack! I don't want to fight you and I know that, deep down, you don't want to either. I know you're still in there, you have to be!"

The corrupted mare laughed. "Oh you poor, poor creature... always the naive one. Let me do you a favour and end it right now..." Suddenly, the PED on her hat flashed and sparks jumped out as her dark eyes began glowing a pure ghost white. The dark lines all around her body pulsed and glowed brightly as Phazon course through it. Heart pounding, Ditzy scanned Applejack to confirm her fears. Her eyes soon stopped glowing as she sneered, her PED now glowed as small bolts of electricity sparked from it.

Target Applejack is now in Hyper-mode, target is now slightly faster and strength is dramatically increased as well as resilience. Target may be vulnerable to stunning with enough concussive force.

Concussive force?

Suddenly, the corrupted mare charged and Ditzy, panicking, fired a flurry of shots, backing up slowly from the galloping death machine. She jumped and made a dive at the armoured pegasus, who side-stepped only just in time. Applejack crashed and broke through a nearby tree, the wood splintering into tiny pieces as the tree collapsed on top of her. Ditzy stepped back from the crumbling tree and raised her arm cannon cautiously. For a tense moment, everything was completely still. Then, the remains of the tree stirred, before being lifted by Applejack, who grunted under the weight.

"Ngh... Catch!"

Ditzy's eyes widened as the remains of the tree was suddenly flung at her. She jumped to the side and collapsed on the ground as branches scraped over her suit, thankfully doing no damage. The armoured pegasus was halfway up before she looked and saw AJ galloping at full speed to her. Ditzy raised her arm cannon and fired her last missile, which sped and struck AJ square in the chest. The impact knocking the wind out of her and the explosion sending her flying back. Ditzy got up once more and saw AJ on the ground, her stetson somehow still on her head, though tilted to the side and the PED slightly bent out of shape.

She placed a forehoof on the ground and pushed herself up, growling in frustration, when her PED suddenly sparked and electrical spikes shot out. AJ stumbled and screamed as pain shot through her. Ditzy looked at the HUD and saw the farm pony's status rapidly dropping. She was dying, the Phazon was eating her alive!

Applejack screamed as the black lines along her body pulsed and she was lifted into the air while a pitch black cloud formed behind her, a white V-shaped visor appearing as black wings spread from its cloud-like body.

Ditzy gasped as she was flashed with the images of Rundas, Ghor and Gandrayda meeting the same fate, consumed by her Dark counterpart. She had to do something, she couldn't let Applejack meet the same-

Relief, a small amount of relief... it was worried that the hunter would be defeated so easily by the farmer, thankfully, it turned out not to be the case. Now, revenge was in its grasp. It would absorb the farmer right before the hunter's eyes, powerless. Now she could do nothing but watch as another died... But it knew that the pain she was going through was not even a taste of what she forced it to endure even to this day. But that was not a worry, there was still the other two and itself to carry out its revenge fully.

Ditzy shook her head, her body too full of adrenaline to recognize the pain, and saw with growing horror as the dark alias began absorbing Applejack, who had gone deathly quiet. In a few seconds, it would all be over and she would be gone forever.

What do I do, what do I do!? Then, in her panicked mind, she noticed the damaged PED and a thought crossed her mind, why had Dark Samus given Applejack a PED, nevermind how she did. Her eyes widened as her brain made a connection. It was desperate, but she had nothing else.

"You won't take her..." She said as she jumped in the air and dived at AJ, aiming for her stetson. "...YOU WON'T!!"

Ditzy grabbed and pulled the stetson off of the farm pony's head and landed in-between her and the Dark Alias, her left hoof crushing the PED and the stetson. Suddenly, the red klaxon lights inside her suit warning her of her low energy burst into a ghostly white as a horrible pain began shooting up Ditzy's foreleg. It was incredibly intense, so much that, in her weakened state, Ditzy screamed. Then, everything became more gray and slightly fuzzy and she was given a powerful urge. An urge to destroy...

Phazon had entered her body and driven her to Hyper-mode. Panic returned as she realized that she may die or become corrupted if the Phazon remained in her body. She looked at her arm cannon and saw it practically glowing in Phazon energy, she had to expel the Phazon! And she knew just what to expel it to. Moving in a blur enhanced by the Phazon, she raised her arm cannon and fired and intense beam of Phazon energy at the Dark Alias. Now the dark being that absorbed Ditzy's three allies while she watched helplessly was now screaming and convulsing from the attack. Ditzy sneered in victory, a crazed look in her eyes as revenge was finally hers! And it felt good, so good to deal so much pain...

Finally, just as she ran out of Phazon, the Angelic-like being disintegrated with a pathetic, hollow scream that echoed across the woods. Ditzy lowered her beam as the aggression and dark thoughts left her as quickly as they arrived, leaving only disgust. Phazon had always made her more aggressive and gave her many dark thoughts though she had never succumbed to them as much as she did now. She should have been stronger, never mind the fact that she was close to death and severely weakened, it was no excuse, it never was, and it never would be.

Ditzy then noticed a strange glowing object where the Alias once floated. The glowing object then flew and rammed into Ditzy's suit and her whole body went into overdrive from a sudden energy boost. Ditzy blinked when a new pop-up appeared in her HUD.

Grapple Beam restored

For a moment, Ditzy was happy that another part of her suit, particularly a crucial part that would almost certainly come in handy in the near, was repaired and ready for use. Suddenly, a sound was heard and she spun around, her weapon ready to attack anything that-

She stopped when she saw Applejack, her coat now returning to its normal, bright orange as well as her Cutie Mark, returning to their full, healthy red apples instead of the dead, rotting ones. The farm pony stumbled, before collapsing to the ground, groaning. Ditzy galloped and knelt next to the groaning mare.

"Applejack?" She asked, placing a hoof on her shoulder. "Applejack!"

The armoured pegasus quickly scanned her and relief washed over her. She was fine and, better yet, all of the Phazon had been purged from her body. She had been corrupted by Dark Samus and survived thanks to Ditzy. The farm pony then stirred, groaning some more. Her eyes, now bright green, slowly opened and she looked up at the armoured pegasus before her.

"D-Derpy?" She asked, her voice hoarse.

"It's alright, Applejack..." Ditzy said in her motherly voice. "You're going to be fine now..."

Applejack stamped a hoof on the ground, struggling to get up.

"Applejack, don't strain yourself!" Ditzy protested.

"No."

"You could be seriously injured-"

"Consarn it, no!" She snapped. "Ah have to get up, ah have to prove to mahself that ah'm me now... Ah have to know that ah am in control..."

Ditzy reluctantly stepped back, allow AJ to get up on to her hooves, panting heavily and her legs shaking, before she collapsed again. "Good enough fer me..." she muttered. She then looked at Ditzy, her eyes watering up.

"Ah'm so sorry, Derpy... Ah didn't mean to attack you like ah did."

"Shh..." Ditzy stepped closer to her and placed a hoof gently on the farm pony. "It's alright, I've encountered this before and I can beat it..."

Applejack wanted to ask the numerous questions that were bubbling in her mind, but she felt so weak and tired she couldn't bring herself to ask them, but when she looked into Derpy's eyes through the cracked visor, and saw the eyes of a mother staring at her, filled with such concern, yet with an underlying ferocity beneath them, she felt calmed and safe and protected. Something she hadn't felt since her own parents passed away... Then, a thought struck her and her eyes widened.

"Sweet Celestia, Twilight and Rainbow! They're still out there in the forest!"

Ditzy's face turned grim, but she still held strong. "I'll find them, Applejack, and I'll turn them back to normal. Then, I'll find the creature that did this to you and your friends and make sure she doesn't do something like this again."

"I'm not so sure..." The farm pony muttered. "...Cause something tells me that thing has done something like this before... cause, for some reason..." Her voice faltered.

"...What?"

Applejack hesitated. "Ah don't know why... but ah can't shake the image of Nightmare Moon from my head when I think of what attacked me and mah friends..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After making sure that Applejack had the strength to make her way back to Ponyville, Ditzy slowly continued on into the forest, a worrying thought in her mind as the memories of Nightmare Moon swirled around. She was there when the Mare in the Moon had made her presence known at that fateful Summer Sun Celebration. It was first time in a long time that she had strongly considered activating her suit and confronting the dark alicorn that threatened to bring eternal night.

Nightmare Moon had deeply disturbed Ditzy, though she didn't know why at the time. Her aura was almost familiar, terrifyingly familiar. She didn't know then, but now she was getting the same feeling ever since Dark Samus had returned, only multiplied greatly. Could Dark Samus have had a role in the creation of Nightmare Moon? But Nightmare Moon's origins were supposedly a thousand years ago so, the essence of Dark Samus had somehow arrived not only before Ditzy, but also into the past as well. Another disturbing question with an even disturbing answer arose in her mind; With Ghor, Rundas, and Gandrayda, it had taken months for them to succumb to the Phazon's corrupting power, so why did the three mares fall in less then an hour?

The most likely answer didn't help calm the armoured pegasus.

She's gotten stronger... Dark Samus has gotten far stronger...

Ditzy shook her head and tried to continue on, the alarms in her suit still sounding and the energy meter still displaying the 10 points, a dangerous, dangerous low. If she didn't find something to restore her suit's Life Energy soon, she'd be in serious trouble.

A short distance away, a pair of dark purple eyes stared at the armoured pegasus, watching her intently, studying her, learning everything she could and making mental notes. Then, in a dark purple and Phazon-white flash, she vanished, an evil laugh echoing where she was...

Chapter 11: Infectus Magus

Ditzy stumbled when her hoof caught a tree root that stuck from the ground. She grunted as she tried to shrug the heavy weight her suit was currently giving her. Her ears had tuned out the alarms that rang incessantly, her 10 points of energy on the side flashing, warning her of how close to death she was. To try and keep her mind occupied, she pulled up the status of how close her Ice Beam was to being restored, and was surprised to see it at 61% completion, her Plasma Beam had taken far longer. Could it possibly be that even the restoration process was close to completely degrading when she first brought her suit out? Or is the Ice Beam somehow less complicated and therefore easier to restore then the Plasma Beam?

She stopped her pondering thoughts when she spotted something, more Phazon, on the forest floor. It glowed brightly and the grass around had died from the radiation, except for a few strands that continued staying up, but it was now black, surviving the Phazon but becoming corrupted nevertheless.

In the end, what's the difference? She asked herself as she stared a particularly large patch of corrupted grass. When the Phazon completely takes over, you're as good as dead.

At least, that was what she had thought. But her combat with Applejack proved otherwise. She had found a way to purge all the Phazon from the mare's body, and expel to the Dark Alias. I wonder... If I had done the same with Rundas, Ghor and Gandrayda, and destroyed their PED's... would they have survived? Would they still be alive if I had just taken one shot at their PED's? That was when the armoured pegasus realized... Applejack had a PED... Why? What was the point? Nevermind the how, it was obvious Dark Samus had gotten stronger, but why? Why even corrupt them? Sure with Twilight, it made sense, she was the most powerful unicorn she had ever seen, but why AJ and Rainbow? They would've been more useful if they were fed to the Phazon... Her eyes widened when she realized something...

The brief flashes... They're Dark Samus' thoughts! And she... wants revenge... that bitch! She wants to repeat what I've gone through with my old allies!

Then, she heard something, it sounded like... faint giggles... Ditzy spun around, her arm cannon raised, there was nothing but forest and foliage around her, and a calm, and frightening silence. She didn't imagine it, it was real, and it sounded familiar, but it wasn't normal. She looked around, unable to see anything past the foliage, but she knew she was being watched.

A few feet away from her, a pair of dark purple eyes watched her intently, an insane grin appearing beneath the eyes, the left one twitching occasionally. In the centre of the eyes, was the visor of Dark Samus, watching with passing interest. Then, a horn above the eyes glowed a dark purple, a pile of rocks next to Ditzy glowed and were shoved aside, revealing a small darkened area. Ditzy spun at the sound of the rocks moving, and saw something stir in the shadows. No, not stir, slither...

A pair of dark red eyes shone as a loud hiss broke out, a forked tongue flicking out as it smelled it's surroundings, and zeroed in on the armoured pegasus, smelling blood from it. Ditzy quickly scanned what was in there.

Morphology: Emperoro Cobra

Massive snake with lightning speed attacks, will flare its head and hiss before making its strike

Suddenly, a massive snake that was 3 times Ditzy's height lunged at her, hissing at its prey. Ditzy ducked and spun to the side, barely avoiding the strike that would've killed her then and there. She faced her attacked and fired several shots at the creature's head, causing it to flinch in pain and hiss. Then, it raised its head, to flaps extending out as it hissed. Anticipating an attack, Ditzy jumped and changed into her Morph Ball mod. Avoiding another lunge as the snake missed and starred, eyeing the change warily, it's tongue flicking curiously. Ditzy shifted back and charged her cannon, firing it at its head, but the snake dropped to the ground and slithered around for a moment, shifting its body as it anticipated the pegasus' attacks.

Ditzy growled in frustration as the snake moved around her, avoiding her shots with ease. She needed to take it down, and fast. One hit, even a minor one, was all it would take to finish her off. She needed to slow it down, even for just a moment, long enough to hit it with a fully charged shot, that was when an idea struck her, it might work...

With a determined look on her face, her visor flashing opaque, she charged up her cannon and took a few steps closer to the snake. The creature eyed its prey, noticing her glowing cannon, and eyed it closely. But it didn't notice when Ditzy stretched out her left forhoof, when a green glowing rope of pure energy jumped out and wrapped itself tightly around the snake. The creature hissed in surprise as it twisted around, trying to escape from the Grapple Beam. Ditzy smiled, she had caught the creature. But her smile dropped when she realized something was wrong. The snake wasn't twisting around to escape, it was twisting around in pain, but that wasn't the only thing that caught her attention. Her suit's Energy levels were rising. From 11... to 12.... 13.... 14.... She glanced back at that twisting snake and realized she was draining the creature's life and somehow converting into a form suitable for the suit's power.

Not sure what to do, she stood and watched as the snake's panicked thrashing slowed, before stopping entirely, letting out a final gasp before going completely silent. It's body then quickly browned, then her Grapple Beam disengaged and returned to her left forhoof. She watched the body of the snake and checked her suit's status...

26 points of energy... What the hell happened?

Slowly, she approached the body of the snake, and cautiously outstretched her hoof, lightly tapping the body. The snake then completely disintegrated into a large pile of what looked like sand. Her eyes widened in shock and horror, she had seen this before... An image of a giant baby Metroid flashed in her mind as well as the tunnel of sand and the numerous corpses that fell apart when she came near them. She briefly wondered why this had happened with her when she suddenly remembered why... The Metroid DNA infused with her own... With the Grapple Beam, she could now trap her enemies and drain them of their life for her own needs the same way a Metroid would. If only the senior Doctor Zeb knew, he might've kept her after he saved her life when the X Parasites infected her, it certainly wouldn't have surprised her, as she would later find out when the War broke out.

She shook the memories of the War away, focusing instead on the task at hand. She wasn't sure if she should be horrified at the new ability she now had, or be grateful of a way to get her suit's power up. Regardless, it was best to focus on it later, for now, she would use it if she needed it. And at 26 points of Energy, she would probably need it again soon.

The shadow in the trees smiled insanely again, feeling it had studied the armoured pegasus long enough. Now it was time to deal with her. But first, she needed to be strengthened, strengthened so she could defeat her. Why she was to be defeated, she did not know, her Dark Majesty wished it and it would get what it desired. With a laugh, the shadow teleported away.

Ditzy turned around again, this time catching the flash of a teleport. It had to have been Twilight... was she watching her this whole time? Why not just fight her while she was still weak? She noted her heart rate was quickening as she walked towards where she saw the flash of Twilight's teleport. There, on the ground, was a large puddle of Phazon. Too large a puddle... But, Twilight or not, it was definitely hostile. Again, a faint laugh was heard and Ditzy turned and saw another flash. Moving away from the sight where she fought the snake, Ditzy followed the flash and saw another puddle of Phazon.

A thought crossed her mind, would the Phazon still harm her on contact? After the Phazon Conflicts, she had managed to expel all of the Phazon in her body, but during the time that it was in her, coursing with her blood, the Phazon rejuvenated her when she touched it. Now that it was gone, would it still harm or would it heal like before?

Regardless, I can't risk having Phazon in me again... With that thought, she moved down the path where she saw small formations of the Phazon in the shape of hooves. A trail... Was Twilight leading her somewhere? And why with Phazon? Where did she get all of it? The questions stopped when a small gold glow caught her attention.

Ahead of her, was a large clearing where large clumps of Navitas flowers bloomed. Ditzy smiled tiredly, finally she had something to restore her strength completely. She stepped onto the nearest patch, and felt her suit's Energy slowly power up, the weight of her armour slowly but surely lightening, her cracked visor now slowly repairing itself. As she waited for her suit to fill up, she saw a large redish plant with purple-tinted leaves and it slowly expanded, before thinning, and then expanding, like it was breathing. Ditzy wasn't worried however, as she did not get as bad a feeling from it, somehow, she could tell it was natural (as natural as a plant could be for the Everfree). Curious, she brought out her Scan Visor and looked it over.

Morphology: Attono Fungi

This fungus mostly remains underground, but brings out a small plant-like object to expel its spores over the landscape

When threatened, the spore carriers of the fungi create a large electrical shock that stuns whatever is threatening it

Electrical current also reacts severely to Unicorn magics, causing them to not only be shocked, but also to temporarily lose their magical capabilities

Ditzy checked the status of her suit, it looked like she was nearly healed up and would be back a full strength, she breathed a mental sigh of relief, soon she would be able to continue her hunt for Dark Samus and Twilight and Rain-

Another laugh, this time much, much louder. Ditzy raised her cannon up, but the laugh sounded like it was coming from all around her. Then, a flash appeared over a patch of Navitas Flowers furthest from the pegasus. Ditzy's eyes widened at the sight. Twilight Sparkle floated over the flowers, her horn glowing a dark, evil purple as an orb of the same colour covered her, keeping her in the air. The Unicorn opened her eyes, showing a darker purple hue to them and an insane grin appeared, the dark lines pulsing across her body. Her mane was now black, save for the lighter purple stripe, which now glowed a pure white of Phazon. No, it oozed Phazon, dripping down her grinning face and landing at the bottom of the orb. Her Cutie Mark also glowed as Phazon kept dripping down her legs.

She laughed again.

"Hello Ditzy..." She said, her left eye twitching severely. "I'm so glad you're back at full strength."

That was when she saw it, the PED as a necklace, wrapped tightly around her neck. The sight reminded her of Gandrayda's styled PED. Moving in a flash, she raised her cannon and fired a shot. The energy would've struck the PED dead centre, but it was stopped short by the orb. The corrupted Twilight laughed.

"I must say, that armour of yours is unlike anything I've ever seen. You clearly have been hiding a lot. I wonder what other secrets you have... perhaps the Dark Lady will allow me to perform an autopsy on your body after I've finished you off!" With a laugh, her eyes suddenly glowed and her horn flashed as the orb began rapidly expanding. "Let's make this quick, but entertaining...."

The orb covered the whole clearing and covering the area in a dark purple hue all around, save for the Navitas flowers, who kept glowing their gold colour. Upon reaching Ditzy, she was struck with a stinging pain all around her, a pain that was familiar, but not exactly the same, as the atmosphere of Dark Aether. Were it not for the Navitas Flowers, she would've begun losing Energy. The Unicorn then dropped to the ground, landing on the patch of flowers below. Upon landing, the flowers flashed, instantly changing from gold to white as they became corrupted by the Phazon dripping from her. Twilight grinned insanely at Ditzy again and laughed.

Seeing an opportunity, the wide-eyed pegasus brought up her Scan Visor, looking directly at Twilight.

Morphology: Twilight Sparkle (Unicorn)

Target is creating an abnormal amount of Phazon, likely causing increased mental instability

Extra Phazon has dramatically increased her magical capabilities

Target has changed the atmosphere of the area to be harmful to the Suit's energy, steadily draining it

Target has an array of both offensive and defensive spells, likely warped from the Phazon, extreme caution is advised

Ditzy raised her cannon, and fired rapidly, aiming for the Unicorn's PED as her status came up in her HUD, muck like with Applejack's. Twilight grinned as she brought up a magical forcefield in front of her, blocking the shots, then with a flash, she teleported to a distance slightly closer, landing on empty dirt, where she launched a shot of purple energy. Seeing the attack, Ditzy rolled out of the way of the projectile, moving away from the Navitas Flowers. At that moment, her suit began being drained of its Energy. Moving back to the Flowers, she fired more shots at the Unicorn, who teleported once again.

When she reappeared at a different spot, Ditzy charged up her cannon and fired at the corrupted mare. Twilight smiled again as her horn glowed and Ditzy's powered shot was wrapped in a dark purple aura, and flung straight back at Ditzy. The armoured Pegasus gasped in surprised and jumped to the side, but Twilight saw this coming and fired a small beam of deadly magic, calculating where it would strike her. Her calculations were spot on as they struck Ditzy square in the chest, knocking her into the air and rolling on the ground a few meters. She gasped in pain and quickly checked her status.

A small chunk of her Energy was gone, but it wasn't as bad as taking a hit from Applejack. She stood up and looked just in time to see Twilight fire another blast of magic. Ditzy jumped into the air, nimbly avoiding the attack, and glided over a large nearby boulder, although she was taking damage from the poisoned atmosphere the corrupted Unicorn created, she had plenty of Energy to give herself a few moments to think of a way to strike at Twilight. Suddenly, Ditzy was knocked to ground, grunting in pain as something struck her from behind.

She turned and looked up but only saw the boulder. She heard Twilight laugh insanely as another bolt of magic somehow passed through the stone, barely missing Ditzy.

Her spells can go through objects! She realized, cover was completely useless. Ditzy jumped over the boulder, her wings flaring aggresively. Twilight launched another bolt, but Ditzy spun in the air, switching to her Morph Ball, rolling into a Navitas Flower patch. She reformed and fired a shot at Twilight, who teleported onto another patch of the golden flowers, which instantly changed as they became corrupted by Twilight's excess Phazon. Ditzy's eyes widened again, Twilight could corrupt the Navitas Flowers, making it more difficult for her to survive against her constant assaults the weird atmospheric warping spell she cast.

She had to take the Unicorn down... but how? She had shields and teleported constantly... Then, she eyed the nearby Attono Fungus next to her, as well as several others scattered throughout the clearing. That's it!

Twilight launched another bolt of magic, which Ditzy avoided. With her Grapple Beam, she grabbed the Attono fungus and, with a strong tug, pulled it out of its roots and quickly threw it at Twilight as the fungus began glowing. The Unicorn quickly created a shield, but upon impact, the plant disintegrated into Purple electrical bolts, running right through Twilight's shield and tearing into her.

The corrupted mare screamed as her horn stopped glowing and she fell onto her rump, her head swimming slightly as she was dazed. Seeing her opportunity, Ditzy fired rapidly, aiming for the PED. Each shot impacted on target, but the PED glowed with a dark purple aura as it was struck repeatedly. It seemed Twilight had set up a shield around her PED before the fight as a final line of defense. Ditzy growled angrily, charging up her cannon and firing, the bright burning orb spun and rammed into Twilight's chest, hitting the Unicorn's PED and sending her sprawling from the impact, the shield flashed brightly before shattering like glass, that looked like a good sign to Ditzy.

But then, Twilight's horn began glowing violently, and she teleported and reappeared at the centre of the clearing, upright and showing a look of rage.

"That's it! I was hoping to keep most of your body intact for study later, but I'll have to settle for whatever is salvageable!" With that, her PED flashed brightly, the black lines across her body pulsing white as Phazon began oozing out like pores. Her eyes glowed white as she began levitating off of the ground, Phazon pouring out her eyes and mouth as fangs formed from her teeth and she let out an unnatural hiss.

Ditzy stared dumbstruck and profoundly terrified, her heart racing. Quickly bringing up her Scan Visor, she looked over Twilight's new formed.

Target is now in Hyper-mode and is producing an extreme amount of Phazon and can now manipulate the Phazon via her magic.

Ditzy stared wide-eyed at the monster floating before. That is most certainly *not** Hyper-mode!*

With a hiss, Twilight outstretched her forehooves, her horn flashing as streams of Phazon spilled out. She telekinectically lifted all the phazon that had been dripping and oozing out of her body and, with a twirl, shot it all around the clearing. Ditzy ducked and rolled out of the way. When she got up, she saw every patch of the Navitas Flowers corrupted. Now, she was without a way to heal herself from the poisonous atmosphere Twilight had created.

Her heart rate quickened when she saw her suit's Energy decreasing. She looked back at the horrifyingly changed Twilight, her body now almost completely covered in Phazon, large drops falling from her body. Letting out a piercing scream, the Unicorn fired a magical bolt infused with the Phazon, Ditzy rolled to the side and fired a plasma shot at her PED. The shot struck her PED, causing sparks to jump out as it became damaged. The creature fell back, landing on the ground as it howled in pain. Ditzy could tell she did a lot of damage. Her eyes widened once more when she saw the Dark Alias form behind Twilight, she had to move fast! But with her covered in Phazon, she couldn't get near her, how was she going to get at her PED?

Then, she remembered and quickly outstretched her left forehoof, her Grapple Beam jumped out and wrapped itself around Twilight's PED. With all her strength, Ditzy pulled the PED off of the Unicorn's chest. The object flew straight at her and rammed her suit, shattering upon impact. Then, her suit alarms began screaming, blue lights sounding around as Ditzy felt the Phazon enter her body again and bring her into Hyper-mode. In her aggressive state, she saw the Dark Alias suck up all the excess Phazon Twilight had created, pulling the deadly radiation from her body as she fell into a comatose state. Ditzy waited until not a drop of Phazon remained on the Unicorn's body before unleashing the Phazon through her arm cannon at the Alias. It died the same way it had before...

She had done it again, the Alias died and Twilight collapsed onto the now Phazon-free ground, her body returning to normal. She had saved her. A bright object where the Alias once was floated there, before it flew and rammed into the armoured Pegasus' chest. Again, the brief overdrive of her very being as her suit became upgraded, and a pop-up appeared.

Wave Beam Restored

Ditzy smiled victoriously, her suit was returning to its former strength- suddenly, a rage-filled scream could be heard as she felt her mind suddenly go blank.

Anger... uncontrollable anger, it had thought that saving the farmer was just blind luck, but it had done the same to the powerful unicorn. It thought it had a chance to exact revenge, but instead the hunter had found a way around that. How? How did it know to target the PEDs? And why did the hunter feel... Wrong? Moreso then the last time it had fought her and freed her from Phaaze's controlling grasp. Perhaps she will not be awble to save the Pegasus... perhaps, perhaps...

Ditzy collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily as the pain came through her head. Her vision became blurry as she saw something move, then fall with a groan. Ditzy blinked when the pain suddenly cleared and a purple aura surrounded her, suddenly, her suit's energy began filling up, as well as... she gasped, her missile ammo was replenishing! Her eyes popped open, suddenly clear as she saw Twilight Sparkle, completely cured of the Phazon, her horn glowing as she cast some sort of spell. She got up to her hooves.

"T-Twilight, what are you doing!?" She asked, she could see the lavender Unicorn trembling as she was losing strength and consciousness.

"G-go..." She said, her voice very weak. "...Stop that thing...."

With that, her magic cut off and her head fell to the ground. Ditzy quickly scanned her and relaxed slightly when she saw that she was merely unconscious, she would be fine. The armoured Pegasus sighed as she looked down at Twilight, she couldn't just leave her here, but she had to find Dark Samus and finish her off. What to do, what to do? She soon decided it was best to track her dark doppelganger, but not before moving Twilight to the spot behind the boulder where she had hid during the fight, perhaps she would be safe until she awoke with the strength to return to Ponyville. When she finished carefully moving her, she looked up and saw cloudy skies as the sun began setting over the horizon, how long had she been here in the forest?

She shook her head, it didn't matter, she would take as long as needed to to find and destroy Dark Samus and free Rainbow Dash...