Streamline Simplicity
by Delta Gamma
Prologue - Awoken
A stallion awoke with a start in a dimly-lit room. Hastily struggling to his hooves, his dirty, unkempt dark brown mane covered his green, bloodshot eyes before being shaken clear. His difficulty standing was not due to physical weakness, no - he was strong and lean, though somewhat malnourished. It stemmed from the fact that he had hardly slept in days, and when he had, he had done so on a cold, unforgiving metallic floor.
Various noises could be heard, seemingly from all around. There was a slow rhythmic thumpic sound, a clockwork chorus, metal pieces screeching against each other, the whooshing of air, but the most prominent noise was a constant high-pitch whine.
Now standing on the bronze-colored floor, his eyes and ears flicked about the room, observing control panels, discarded tools and garbage, a cluster of instruments protruding from the ceiling of what might be the “front” of the room. Several simple, bloodied swords littered the floor around where he had been sleeping. There were no windows. Turning around completely, hooves clanking and shrieking shrilly when they scraped against the floor, a blue light played oddly on his shaggy, matted light-brown coat, which was stained with dirt and grease, revealing a few minor scars. He kept his head on a swivel.
Overall, this place had the look of a spaceship. He addressed the source of the light.
“What happened?” he asked.
“You fell asleep,” a female voice cooly responded. A ghostly translucent blue mare was standing in a column of bright blue light, which emenated from a disk-shaped eruption in the floor, looking at the stallion. A good distance beyond the disk were two domes sticking our of the floor, adjacent to one another. They were, at their peak, nearly twice the height of a pony, and each had several control panels nearby. Almost everything in the room was a rich bronze or a dull grey.
“I know I was asleep, dammit! What happened?”
"Proximity alert,” she announced. “Airship, small, minimal armaments, maintaining a parallel course outside my weapons range.”
“Parallel course?” he turned his full attention from the paranoid scrutiny of his surroundings to the holographic pony before him. “They’re actually keeping up with us?!”
“Negative; contact is moving at roughly half of our velocity and will exit sensor range within an hour. I believe some of the crew are manually assisting with propulsion in order to scout us and plan an ambush.”
The stallion considered this. He’d already cut his way through two of their squadrons like a hot knife through butter. Their ships were strong, and heavily armored, but they were severely outclassed by his creation. Even if they were gathering the full force of their fleet, he would still have a fairly good chance of surviving the battle.
He had hoped that dispatching their squadrons would make some impression in their thick avian skulls, and discourage further pursuit. Apparently, this was not the case, and he was on a collision course with massive amounts of death and destruction - most of which he would cause. Much of which he had already caused. He should have anticipated their retaliation for the “gift” he’d left behind. Nothing he could do about that now.
Why am I doing this? He immediately shook the though from his head. His current predicament was the result of an event eight years ago, which caused him to run from his home. Now, through some convoluted process, he was running back towards his home. A home that had no reason to welcome him.
Regardless of his previous actions, he had spent years assisting his people’s enemies. At least, he reasoned, the Equestrians might not try to kill him immediately. Maybe. It was his best shot. The path behind him was full of blood, and now appeared equally bloody. Out of countless thoughts and second-guesses running through his mind, one thought stuck out.
I want to go home.
He once again addressed the hologram. “What's our tactical status?” The image held for a moment before responding.
“I have full control of weapons and navigation, and I control shielding in most critical areas.”
“Good,” he said, resigning himself. “Keep at it.” Like she'd do anything else.
As time inexorably bore him towards his fate, he mused to himself. This is a curious situation, gestroying them on my way home. I wonder if they will thank me... I wonder if she will. He shuddered at that thought. He forced himself to focus. The only way out is through.
“Wake me up when you detect them,” he instructed, before lying back down on the cold, hard metal floor to sleep.
I’m going home.