A huge crowd of disgruntled pirates stood before a tall balcony, waiting for their leader's supposed big announcement. Guards stood motionless and emotionless on the side balconies with their rifles trained on the crowd, hoping they make one fatal move. Murmurs grew among the audience guessing to what their king had in store.

"So, what do you think he's got planned for us?" a large, bearded man asked the man smoking a cigar next to him

The other man took the cigar out of his mouth and blew out a puff of smoke before placing it back between his teeth. "I bet it's another one of his ego speeches. He always does this," he said.

"I wouldn't say that here. This is his base of operations, after all." a scarred man whispered behind the other two.

The chatting grew louder and louder until trumpets sounded as a man in a long, red cape stepped onto the balcony before his fellow subjects. He had a short, yet noticeable goatee and an eyepatch covering his right eye. By his side, a woman with white, pointed hair and brown wings on her back leaned against the wall and watched the man with angry yellow eyes. By his other side, a minotaur surveyed the area. Its left leg, right pectoral muscle, and half of its head were all replaced with robotic machinery. A smile was wide across his the man's face as the crowd cheered and roared. He man raised his hands causing the crowd's noise to become quieter. As silence fell, the man began to speak.

"My friends!" he shouted among his people. "For far too long have we been casted off to the side..."

"See? I told you." the man with a cigar whispered

"For too long have we been brought down by our fellow race! But, all that changes today!"

The crowd roared and whistled even louder than before. One of the guards shot their rifle into the air just to quiet them. "Silence, all of you!" The guard shouted. "Our great leader is not done speaking!"

Pictures of a ship with the words "Shining Hope" on its hull were being shown on the gigantic screens that were on each side of the balcony. The man pointed to one of the screens. "The people of Baltimare thought they could stop us from achieving our ultimate goal." The man laughed. "Boy, were they ever wrong."

The crowd laughed along with him, then fell silent once more. "And now..." The pictures on the screens then started showing pictures of the Second Sun. "...Now I'm getting word that this ship took out, not one, but two of our ships with one. Single. Strider." Half of the crowd were booing and hissing while the other half utter certain concerns.

The man put his hands up again to silence the crowd. "Now, we have a key witness in this attack. Let's give our friend a warm welcome, folks!"

The crowd jeered at the man that appeared on stage. His captain's uniform was tattered and torn and his wrists and ankles were cuffed together. The chains clanked as the man walked into view. The leader put his hand on the prisoner's back. "Now, tell us, friend. What exactly did you see?"

The man stammered, "I-I-It was a strider. But this one...it was different, somehow. Its cannon. I-It took out two of the ships in our fleet. With one beam!"

The leader grew impatient as the man continued. "I don't know what it was. B-But you've got to believe me! It wasn't like any of the other striders we've fought before! It's dangerous! Please listen to me!" The crowd laughed heartily at the man's cowardliness. The pirate leader took his hand off of the other's back and reached for his holster.

"And you decided to run away as a coward instead of facing your death as a man, is that correct?" He asked

"You have to believe me!" the prisoner pleaded. "It may even be powerful than the ship itself! Listen to me, please! Don't underestimate it, I beg of you!"

"My friend, you were a true captain." The pirate leader pulled out his pistol and cocked it. "But, you've failed us. Not only that, but you've failed me." He pointed the gun to the man's head. "And for that, you must pay the ultimate price."

"PLEASE, NO!"

He pulled the trigger and sent a bullet straight right in between the man's eyes. The prisoner fell to the floor and lay there motionless, a puddle of blood oozing out of his head. The leader put his gun back in his holster as the crowd cheered once more. "This man has chosen poorly!" Two pirates came and dragged the late prisoner's body away.

"But, I know that you are better than that! Which is why I'm setting up a contest. To the ship that destroys this "Second Sun", I shall award each member of its crew 10 million bits!" The cluster of pirates cheered louder and louder at their leader. "Now, go! Set out and show the Second Sun what happens when you fuck with us!"

Everyone in the room put their fists in the air. "ALL HAIL ATLAS, OUR GREAT AND MIGHTY LEADER!!"

The man turned around and faced the two behind him. "Gilda," he called out

The white haired woman stood up and saluted her chieftain. "Yes, sir?"

Atlas, without notice, dove in and gave Gilda a warm, lustful kiss on her lips. Her eyes were wide open in shock and anger. She pushed Atlas away and gave him a hard slap across his left cheek.

Atlas simply laughed it off. "Still the grump, I see."

Gilda folded her arms as she turned away. "Bastard." she uttered under her breath.

The minotaur approached Atlas. "An excellent speech, my lord." He said in his deep, robotic, monotone voice.

"Thank you, Esteban. By the way, there is something I need you to do."

"Anything, my lord."

"I want you to send Josie out to greet this "Second Sun". If any of our men get even near it, destroy them. I wish to see it personally that I destroy that ship myself."

"As you wish, my lord."

As the monstrous cyborg left to his duties, Atlas took his arm and wrapped it around Gilda's shoulder. Gilda pushed him away once more. He walked to the edge of the balcony and leaned against the railing, watching the crowd disperse.

"Permission to speak, sir?" Gilda asked

"For you, always."

"Why send something like Josie out there to fight it? Why can't we just find them and kill them immediately? It would save us the trouble."

"That's the thing, Gilda. I like to play with my subjects first," he said as he grew a wicked grin across his face.

Episode 5
Ingentibus Res

Silver was back at the rec room, which now became his go-to spot since he never goes to the archives anymore. He sat in front of the television as a news program had just begun to air.

"Live from Manehattan's very own Mighty Crusader broadcasting throughout the universe. This is Equestria Now with your host, Breaking Headline." The title card flashed by in a colorful animation then zoomed in to a man in a suit sitting on a desk holding a stack of papers in front of him as he looked to the camera.

"Hello, Equestria, I'm Breaking Headline. Our top story tonight: The Second Sun's newest strider pilot. We'll tell you why they resorted to a civilian to pilot their newest weapon. But first,..."

The news program continued on as Silver sat there. A pair of arms wrapped around him slowly. A voice whispered in his ear. "ssssiiiillllllvvvveeerrrr". Shivers went down Silver's spine. There was no way. It couldn't be. It just couldn't be. The arms quickly hugged him around his throat. He yelped and turned around as he fell to the floor. Vinyl stood before him, laughing uncontrollably at his actions. "Oh man, you're classic, dude."

"Vinyl! What are you doing here?!" he shouted. "You know you can't be here."

"Oh! So you do know her." Rarity stood at the entrance looking irritated. Silver took notice of this.

"Is something wrong, Rarity?"

"It's nothing. It's just that she's been bugging the crew for hours on end about wanting to see you. So, Twilight gave in and just gave her limited access to a few certain areas."

"Holy crap! You guys have Galaxy Man here?" Vinyl asked excitedly as she later rushed over to one of the arcade cabinets and started playing. She jerked the joystick left and right, focusing only at the screen.

"She let her in just like that?" he asked.

Rarity nodded. "It's hard to believe that your friends with a DJ like Vinyl Scratch."

"Yeah. To be honest, I don't believe it myself." he laughed.

"So how have you been? Adapting to the new lifestyle well?"

"For the most part. How 'bout you?"

"I'm doing alright. Listen, Silver. I'm dreadfully sorry you had to get roped in on all this. It's just that-"

Silver gave a weak laugh. "It's okay. I wanted to help. It was my choice after all."

Vinyl turned around with a blank expression. "Are you two lovebirds done talking? You're makin' me lose." She turned back around to notice the words "Game Over" flash in red on the screen. "Aww, man! Look what you made me do!"

Beeping emitted from Rarity's watch. She pulled her wrist to notice a green light flashing on the watch. She smiled with glee.

"What is it?" Silver asked.

"They're ready." She replied.

"What's ready? Can I come too?" said Vinyl with awe.

Rarity pointed to the over ecstatic disc jockey with a slightly angry face. "You stay there."

Silver turned back toward his friend. "Sorry, Vinyl. I'll catch up to you later, okay?"

"Ugh, fine," Vinyl groaned. She went up and plopped herself onto one of the bean bag chairs and started flipping through channels on the TV in a grumpy fashion. Silver followed Rarity through the ship and straight down to the hangar. There, Pinkie wore a huge smile on her face while using her feet to rock herself back and forth. Spike and Rainbow Dash also stood there impatiently, waiting to get back to what they were doing.

"Pinkie, how long is this gonna take?" Rainbow groaned

"Just a little longer aaaaaaaannnnddd, Oh! There he is!" Pinkie waved at Silver as he and Rainbow exited the elevator and stepped forth to the group.

"What's going on?" Silver asked with concern. "Did something happen?"

"You're darn tootin' something happened!" Pinkie shouted, happy as ever

He looked back at Rarity. "Am I in trouble?"

Rarity put her hand to her mouth and giggled softly. "No, nothing's wrong, dear. We have something to show you all." Pinkie stepped aside revealing Soarin' wheeling in a black cylinder of some sort. It stood on the cart as if to show something on display. The front of the cylinder opened up to reveal a white armored battle suit behind blue tinted glass. The pilots stood in shock from what they saw.

"What is it?" Spike asked looking as dumbfounded as the others.

"You see, after our previous encounter with the pirates, we've finally decided to take action and make some safety precautions." said Rarity. She moved up in front of the armor as Soarin' stepped aside. "It's something I designed myself. While I can honestly say I'm not cut out for making something for war, I gave it my best shot and I think it turned out excellent." Two more cylinders were wheeled in by 2 more engineers. They opened up to reveal the same type of armor, but of different palettes. One was black with a green and purple pattern while the other had each body piece a different color of the rainbow.

"Well, at least we won't have any trouble finding which one's which." Spike snarked.

"Your new suits aren't the only changes we've made." Soarin' added. "In each of your cockpits, you'll find a little button off to the side. Push it, and the entire cockpit will eject, turning it into a little escape pod." He turned towards Rainbow with a sly look. "But knowing you, you'll probably won't use it."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Rainbow asked. Soarin' simply shrugged his shoulders. She responded by blowing her hair back and rolling her eyes.

"Ugh." Rarity groaned. "Are you two still going at it? It's been a year."

"You wouldn't know because you didn't date him, Rarity." Rainbow growled.

"Well, then." Soarin' said. "I can tell when I'm not needed." He turned away and withdrew from the group as sly as he could be. He stopped and glanced at Silver. "Oh, and new guy? I'd be careful around her if I were you. She bites. Hard." He laughed as he continued to walk away.

Rainbow became furious as she watched him leave her sight. Silver blushed as he turned to the others. "Um, what did he mean by...'bite'?

"He meant nothing, that stupid son of a bitch!" She shouted at Silver.

"What did he do to get you so riled up?" Silver asked.

"Asking her that probably wasn't such a good idea." muttered Spike.

"Ugh," she groaned. "He was an egotistical bastard. There, that's it. Can we go now?" Rainbow was desperate to get out of the hangar as soon as possible.

"Now, hold on! I want to see if your new suits fit." Rarity pushed Silver up to the white suit. Pinkie pressed a button on the side of the cylinder causing the blue tinted glass to open up. The other two engineers took the suit out and pressed another button that was placed at the bottom of the spine. The front of the suit began to slide back leaving the back half open which allowed its wearer to just step in. Silver reluctantly shaped his body in the same position as the suit with his legs spread and his arms wide open. Everything suddenly began to feel a bit tighter when the front of the suit slid back into place and locked up.

He got a good look at himself once he put his arms into view. He looked at his legs. He could see bits of black fabric in between the grey plating. Rarity's eyes beamed. "Ah! I see the suit fits you like a glove. Well, at least the glove parts do."

"Well, it's not that tight." Silver replied. "It's something I could get used to, actually."

"Don't forget your helmet!" Pinkie shouted. His whole head became coated by a helmet of the same color, that of which covered almost all of his face except for the eyes which was behind some glass. Pinkie knocked on his helmet. "Hey! Can you hear me in there?" Her voice was slightly muffled but was still well enough to understand.

"Yeah. I can hear just fine," he acknowledged.

"How does it feel?" Rarity asked.

Silver started to look at himself a bit more, this time through his new-found helmet. He walked around in a small circle to get a good feel of the suit. It felt somewhat like leather as he moved around a bit more and got more comfortable after a short while.

"It feels...nice." he said.

"That's it?" Rarity asked.

"Um, yeah."

"Oh." Silver couldn't tell, but Rarity seemed a bit disappointed with that last remark. She turned back towards the other two pilots. "Well?" she asked expectantly. "Aren't you going to try them on?"

Rainbow breathed through her teeth and rubbed the back of her neck, trying desperately to avoid eye contact with Rarity.

"Well," stated Rainbow. "No offense, Rarity. But, mine's a little...tacky."

"TACKY?!" Rarity shouted, her face became red with anger.

"Well, look at it! It's almost as if you couldn't pick on a color!"

"Well, I could say the same about your hair..." Rarity uttered.

"What did you say about my hair?!"

Rarity turned towards Spike who was still looking dumbfounded at his purple and green plated suit. "You don't think it's tacky, do you Spikey-Wikey?" she pouted.

Spike stammered as his face grew red all over. "Um, they're pretty cool, I guess?" He looked down attempting to hide his face from the beautiful woman before him. Rarity smiled and gave him a quick hug.

"You see, Rainbow? At least someone here as taste in my work."

Rainbow simply rolled her eyes again. "Whatever."

Suddenly, everything started to shake violently. Everyone grabbed the nearest railing and held tightly. Silver fell backwards and landed on his wings, which hadn't fully healed yet after his little trip the other day in the fly room. The shaking fell into a soft rumble but didn't fully stop. Everybody managed to get back on their feet and looked up at the ceiling.

"What WAS that?" Spike asked.

Twilight buzzed in on the comms. "You guys may wanna get up here."

"What is it?" Silver asked. "Pirates again?"

"Um, no." Applejack was heard on the comm link as well. "Somethin' bigger."

The group rushed to the elevator and made it back up to the bridge where Twilight, Applejack, and Fluttershy were waiting. They looked out the large window to notice a huge, grey, squid-like creature that was almost as big as the ship on top of the hull. Its tentacles wrapped around and held tightly onto the spacecraft as everything shook violently once more. The crew luckily managed to stay on their feet this time.

"What...IS that thing?" Rarity was appalled and somewhat disgusted by the creature.

"Some kind of squid?" Rainbow guessed. She was pretty much right, too. The beast looked exactly like some sort of octopus that you would usually see underneath the sea. Only here, it was some sort of giant, multi-eyed animal that could breath in space.

"That's what we reckon," said Applejack.

Vinyl came through the door on the other side and took a glance at the squid. "Whoa! What is that thing?"

"Vinyl! Get out of here and head to the nearest shelter you can find." demanded Twilight.

Vinyl simply laughed. "Oh, no way, I'm not going anywhere. Silver's gonna kick ass out there and I'm not missing any of it!" Her excitement grew up to the point to where she quietly squealed .

Silver placed his palm upon his face. 'Oh for Celestia's sake, Vinyl...'

Rarity went to her post and waved at the hologram in front of her. Another hologram appeared that displayed the ship.

"How are we doing, Rarity?" Twilight asked.

"Our shields are going down but not by much. We're only at 99% right now," she replied.

"Then that should give us enough time. Rainbow, Spike, Silver. You guys know what to do. Get it done." The three pilots gave a salute to their captain and headed straight back down to the hangar. Twilight took a seat back down in her captain's chair. She clasped her hands in front of her face and furrowed her brow. Applejack took notice of this.

"Somethin' wrong, Twi?" she asked.

"Ingentibus Res."

"Eh, beg your pardon?

"Ingentibus Res." Twilight repeated. "I've read about this species before. If I'm right, it's not even supposed to be in this star system.

"Maybe it got lost?" Applejack suggested.

"Maybe. Or maybe..."

Applejack began to wear the same expression as Twilight once she caught on. "...or maybe, it was set loose."

***

Ares, Artemis, and Poseidon were all shot out into space one at a time. Once they made it outside, they flew up and hovered above the hull of the Second Sun where the squid was waiting. It's black, pupil-less eyes were now focused on the three striders. They were both in their brand new pilot suits, despite how tacky it seemed for Rainbow.

"So, Silver..." Rainbow buzzed in. "Think you can handle your first real mission?"

Silver breathed through his nose, calming himself from any anxiety. "I think I can."

"WOO HOO! ALRIGHT! GO, SILVER!" Vinyl yelled through the comm link. Silver groaned with agitation along with the others.

"Alright then, watch and learn from the best!" Rainbow shouted with complete and utter confidence before heading straight for the beast. Shots were fired from her minigun, but did no visible damage. The shots simply bounced of the squid's enormous head. "Damn, that thing's got some tough skin. Guess we gotta go with this the old fashioned way..." Artemis clenched its fist and pulled back its arm. Rainbow let out a battle cry as she rushed towards the squid and dealt a massive blow to the head but, again, to no effect.

One tentacle released its grip from the ship and slapped Artemis away, then returned to its previous position. Its grip got even tighter than before now. Artemis used its thrusters to stabilize itself and flew back to the other two striders. "Well, that's not happening. How are we supposed to beat that thing?"

Silver gave it a moment's thought and got an idea. "Why don't we just shoot the eyes out?" he suggested.

"Oh," Rainbow said dumbstruck. "I knew that." She felt embarrassed that she hadn't thought of the plan before, considering she was the tactical officer.

Poseidon held up his cannon as Silver put in all of his concentration into aiming for one of the eyes. He pulled the trigger and took the shot once he had a lock. A ball of blue light shot out of the cannon and hit one of the squid's eyes at blinding speed. The squid shut its eye and let out a deafening roar as black blood started oozing out of it.

"Nice shot!" complimented Spike. "Now, let's take care of the others." Ares flew straight in and headed for the eye that was farthest left. The squid took notice of this and began to raise another tentacle.

"Spike, watch out!" Rainbow warned, but became too late. The tentacle had already wrapped around Ares like an anaconda. Ares did its best to squeeze through and free himself but the squid's grip only became tighter. Then, something happened that no one else could have predicted. Electricity started to flow through the tentacle and shocked Ares all around. Spike let out a bloodcurdling scream as an uncertain amount of volts surged through his body. He reached for the ejector switch to his side, but the pain became too much to bear.

Poseidon flew at top speed to the tentacle and unsheathed its blade from the top of the wrist. It stabbed the tentacle over and over again until it finally let go of Ares. The squid let out another loud roar and remained attached to the hull of the ship.

"Spike! Spike, are you okay?" Twilight shouted through the comm link, but all she received was silence. "Spike!" She shouted his name repeatedly. "What's the pilot's status?" she demanded.

"Pilot is unconscious!" A woman in uniform shouted. "We can still get him to sick bay!"

"Well, get them back here ASAP! Safety of the Ares' pilot is top priority!" Twilight sat back down and closed her eyes, holding off any tears that could pour out. 'Spike...' she thought. 'Please be okay.'

"Silver, come on! We're falling back!" Rainbow ordered. Artemis and Poseidon rushed back to the hangar, while Ares floated lifelessly behind them.

***

Everyone, minus Spike and Fluttershy, stood around their dark meeting room, going over what their next move was. Silence filled the air has everyone prayed for Spike's safety. Twilight paced back and forth, her thoughts racing. Fluttershy walked in and joined with the others.

"Well?" Twilight asked, worryingly. "Will he be okay?"

Fluttershy sighed and gave a faint smile. "He'll be unconscious for a while, but he'll live."

Everyone felt relieved when they had heard the news. "Alright then, back to the subject at hand," Applejack said, now refocused on their current predicament. "What do we know 'bout this thing so far?"

"It's got some tough skin," said Rainbow. "But, the eyes are vulnerable. If we keep a safe distance and take out the eyes, we may have a shot of beating it."

"No, it's too risky," Twilight interrupted.

"How so?" Silver asked.

"The more an Ingentibus Res is attacked, the more agitated it gets," explained Twilight.

"A-An Ingentibus Res?" Fluttershy's eyes grew wide in shock, growing more scared after every word she heard. She hid her face behind her clipboard and backed away slowly towards the exit. Silver gave her a concerned look as he watched her.

"So, we take it out quickly. No big deal." said Rainbow. "Silver, think you can do that little laser thing like last time?"

"I keep telling you; I don't know how I did it. It just happened."

"Twilight's right anyway, Rainbow Dash," Rarity said, stepping forward. A hologram of the Second Sun materialized in the center of the room. "Ever since Silver took out one of the eyes and stabbed its tentacle, the rate our shields have been going down has increased. We're already down 72%.

"And even if we do manage to kill it," Twilight added. "The muscles would stiffen and squeeze the ship even harder than before. We would still be crushed."

"So what do we do? We can't just ask it to leave." Rainbow said.

"Actually," Twilight looked in Fluttershy's direction. "We can."

"Eep!" Fluttershy ran out of the room as quickly as possible before any of the others could say anything.

Silver was left confused again. "Um, is she okay?"

"That's odd," Twilight said. "She's talked to giant beasts before. I don't understand why's she's bailing out now."

"Wait, what do you mean she's talked to beasts before?" Silver asked.

"Y'see, back in Ponyville, she used to take great care of animals of all kinds. Rabbits, snakes, bears," Applejack explained. "About 7 years ago, we had to take care of a dragon problem up in the mountains. She was the one that convinced it to leave."

Silver looked back in the direction of where Fluttershy had made her sudden exit and grew worried. He went out the door and followed suit after the shy chief medical officer.

"Silver! Where are you going?" Rainbow yelled. But he didn't bother listening. He had gotten an idea and he was going to see it through.

***

The sick bay wasn't too full. There were only a few patients laying in the hospital beds here and there. Fluttershy looked over the reports for Spike as he laid there with his eyes still closed. The IV was attached to his arm and the heart monitor beeped with a certain tempo. He was doing well, all things considering. Silver knocked on the wall behind her, causing the doctor to turn around and yelp in fear.

"Sorry! I didn't mean..." Silver apologized.

"Oh, Silver! Thank goodness, it's just you!"

"Were you expecting someone else?"

"I thought maybe Rainbow would come in and force me to change my mind."

Silver rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, about that..."

Fluttershy began to look at the ground, not wanting to face what was coming next. "You want me out there, don't you?"

"Well, no, but..." he sighed and continued on. "We could really use your help. You know a lot about animals more than anyone else here."

"But it's not an animal out there, Silver!" she retorted. "That's a monster! It's not like that one dragon 7 years ago."

"And what if you're wrong?"

Rainbow appeared at the entrance hurriedly. Her breathing was more rapid after running all this way, with a look that said 'shit was about to go down.' "Silver, come on! We've come up with a plan to beat that thing, let's go!"

"I'm sorry, Silver, but I'm not doing it. Good luck with whatever plan you guys came up with."

Silver began to head out the door, but stopped. He wasn't about to give up on Fluttershy just yet. He turned his head back halfway. "I never did get the chance to thank you, you know."

"Thank me? For what?" she asked.

"If it weren't for you, I'd still be some weirdo janitor that hung out in the archive room all day." He gave a kind and gentle smile before walking out to follow Dash. "Rainbow, wait up!" he yelled running after her. Fluttershy looked back at the report she still had in her hands, still thinking about her visitor's recent words. She couldn't help but give a faint smile as she blushed a bit.

***

Poseidon and Artemis shot out into space once more, this time without Ares to back them up. They flew back to the hull of the ship where the squid still laid in waiting. Rarity buzzed in on the comm link.

"Alright, you two. We're down to 66% so you better make this work," she demanded.

"Relax, Rare. Me and Silver's got this in the bag." Rainbow said, confident in the success that would follow.

Silver got himself ready for whatever it was the others had planned. But then, another voice was heard on his comm link alone. "Silver? Can you hear me?"

He was taken aback a bit by the sudden voice. "Fluttershy? Is that you?"

"Listen, I need you to fly in a bit closer, okay? I'm gonna patch through your intercom."

"I have one of those?" He asked. He was a bit befuddled at why Fluttershy decided now of all times to come around, but listened to her anyway. He flew in a bit closer to the squid as much as he could

"Wha-? Silver, what are you doing?! You're mucking up the whole plan!" Rainbow shouted, but Silver, again, refused to listen. He flew in close enough to catch the squid's attention.

The sound of tapping could be heard through Poseidon's intercom. "E-excuse me, Mr. Ingentibus Res?" The squid growled, threatening to move one of its tentacles again.

Twilight got up from her seat, her eyes widened by surprise and shock. "Fluttershy?!"

"Does she have any idea what she's doing?" Applejack asked. She took a finger to her ear. "Pinkie! Is Fluttershy down there with you?"

"Yeah," Pinkie said. "Why?"

"Did you seriously just let her take over Poseidon's intercom?" Twilight asked, still looking at the ongoing event outside through the window

"Well, she did say 'please'," Pinkie replied.

Applejack groaned. "I'll go get her."

"Wait!" Twilight shouted. She pointed back towards Poseidon. "Look."

"L-listen, I know you're a bit...angry at the moment, but I think it would benefit all of us if you went on your way, please," pleaded Fluttershy. The squid did nothing but let out another loud roar. Its grip grew tighter and tighter.

"We're at 51%!" Rarity shouted.

"Twi! We need to stop her!"

"No."

"Twilight, if we don't stop her, the ship'll be ripped in two!" Applejack yelled.

"P-Please?" Fluttershy asked once more, almost to the verge of tears, but the squid refused to listen. It roared again.

Quiet sobbing could be heard from the intercom, but was suddenly silenced. After a few moments, her voice was heard again, only this time a bit angrier.

"LISTEN HERE, YOU!" she yelled

Everyone stopped immediately in their tracks. Everyone on the bridge stared at awe at Fluttershy's outburst. Silver's lip quivered, not daring to say a word. Rainbow simply stared at Poseidon with great cowardliness. Even the squid's pupils shrank. "YOU WILL LET GO OF THIS SHIP RIGHT NOW, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!" she continued.

The squid whined under the loudness of Fluttershy's voice.

"AND IF YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT HURTING MY FRIENDS OR THE ONES I CARE ABOUT EVER AGAIN, I WILL GO OUT THERE MYSELF AND TEAR YOUR EYES OUT WITH MY BARE HANDS," she threatened. The squid's grip loosened as it let go of the ship. It floated away as fast as it could away from the ship, praying that Fluttershy wouldn't come after it. The bridge cheered as the squid ran away, never to be seen again.

"Well, that was anti-climatic," Vinyl huffed as she folded her arms.

"You knew she'd come around, didn't you?" Applejack asked her captain. Twilight simply smiled, relieved from the terror of the squid. As soon as Fluttershy walked in, everyone had gathered around her, giving her high fives and receiving a hug from Twilight.

Silver and Rainbow walked in to greet the shy medic themselves. Rainbow had given her share of hugs to Fluttershy as well. The medic turned Silver's way and mouthed the words 'thank you'. He nodded and walked away, heading back to his cabin, leaving Fluttershy to her new admirers.

***

Twilight walked through the halls, quietly humming a song to herself, as she headed towards the sick bay carrying a bouquet of flowers and a card that said 'get well soon' in red, cursive letters. When she went through the entrance, she stopped and noticed that Rarity was already there talking to Spike, who happened to be wide awake. But she noticed something else too. They were smiling, laughing, enjoying their time together. Twilight couldn't help but smile a bit as well.

'He's all grown up now,' she thought. She put the flowers and the card on a nearby counter and walked away happily, leaving the two to each other's company.

***

Atlas slammed his fist on the arm of his throne. "So, Josie just went up and left?! Just because of some pathetic robot's petty threats?!" he shouted. Gilda took a step back while containing her solid expression, not showing any fear of her boss.

"Yes sir," she responded coldly.

Atlas squeezed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger, then turned to Esteban on his left. "Find her, and then kill her."

"As you wish, my lord." The minotaur cyborg left the throne room, leaving only Gilda and Atlas. He got up from his throne and walked through the hall. The throne room was nothing short of massive. Red banners depicting the pirates' insignia hung from the ceiling. He pulled up a hologram in front of him that showed the Second Sun. He stared at it not in frustration but in admiration.

"Is something on your mind, sir?" Gilda asked.

"This ship. It...amuses me," said Atlas.

"Sir?"

He turned back towards his assistant. "Find this ship and lock on to its coordinates." His wicked grin grew back, even wider than normal. "I wish to meet this ship in person."

つづく

予告

Silver Wash and Rainbow Dash are kidnapped

They are greeted by Atlas, the pirate lord

The Second Sun searches far and wide for the two

And an old rivalry begins again

Atlas makes every attempt to corrupt the two pilots with temptation and greed, but will they be strong enough to resist?

Next Time

Episode 6
A Dangerous Business

Author's Note

Finally finished this sucker! Yeah, not the best chapter so far, I'll admit, but hopefully the next few will be a bit better.