Screaming "I don't taste good!" Rainbow Dash jumped up and charged out of the room.
After she hid herself behind the door frame, she looked carefully into the room, where she saw the female creature lying on her back on the generator and Cold Bone still sitting in front of it, both splitting their sides laughing.
"You assholes!" Rainbow Dash yelled with a crimson red face at them, more out of embarrassment than anger.
"Awesome, honey!" Cold Bone said and gave the creature a fist bump.
"I know." She answered. "Wait..." She turned on her belly and focused Cold Bone with her eyes. "Robert!"
She jumped on him, throwing them both to the ground while she gave him a soul crushing hug.
"Still ain't the fastest, huh?" He mocked her while fighting for air.
"Shut up." She demanded and gave him a passionate kiss.
Eventually a loud harrumphing interrupted the two aliens making out on the ground. When they looked to the side they noticed, that Rainbow Dash was standing next to them with a still slightly red face and avoided to look at them.
"Oops." The to aliens said in unison before they stood up.
The female floated over the ground so that her's and Cold Bone's faces were on the same level. Behind her, her long flaming mane hung down to her tights like a giant fiery mass, but for some reason it did not feel hot for Rainbow Dash or dazzled her. She seemed to be fully recovered now, her long coat was now colored in claret, her tank top and shorts in dark blue and even her strange, transparent horn and wings were back.
The female's face was slightly red and she avoided eye contact while Cold Bone scratched the back of his head and looked embarrassed to the ground. "Sorry, we got a little ... carried away ... anyways ..." He pointed with his hand on the female. "Rainbow Dash, this is the love of my live, Mirabel." Then he looked to Mirabel and pointed at Rainbow Dash. "Mirabel, this my good friend, Rainbow Dash. She helped me to find you."
They both shook hands and hooves.
"Thanks, Rainbow Dash."
"Don't mention it."
"So ... Robert?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Yeah, it's my human name. Cold Bone is just one of the many identities I created during my life to live among ponies."
"Uh-Oh."
"So, I'm guessing, that the ponies are space traveling now." Mirabel said to Robert.
"Yup, 200 hundred years ago they sent their first object into space."
"Huh, I must have slept longer than I thought."
"From all locations in space, how did you end up here?" Robert asked her.
"I could ask you the same."
Mirabel pushed herself up on the edge of the generator and sat down on it. A kinda unnecessary action for someone that could just float around, Rainbow Dash thought, but what was much more interesting for her, was the fact, that Mirabel's mane did not melt through the generator like she would have expected.
"Well as you probably remember, Robert, I went to space because earth kinda bored me after all that time."
"Wait, I thought you would love each other." Rainbow Dash asked startled.
"We do, but after 200000 years you need every now and again a bit time away from each other so you don't start to annoy each other."
"200000 years?" Rainbow Dash asked even more startled.
"Oh, he didn't tell you?" Mirabel poked Robert in the arm. "Why didn't you tell her, Robert?"
"You know, that I'm terrible at telling stories." He replied.
"So, what do you know?" Mirabel asked her.
Rainbow Dash - without knowing it actually - sat herself on the artifact behind her. "Well, Cold Bone said, you're the lasts of some kind of alien race called humans. You were in contact with the creator of the portals, fled from your world because of some kind of invasion and somehow ended up on our world."
"Huh..." Mirabel smirked as she looked first to Robert and than again to Rainbow Dash. "I'm afraid ... " She made quotation marks with her fingers in the air. " ... Cold Bone ..." She put her hands down. "... forgot to mention a teensy-weensy detail."
Mirabel held her hand in front of herself with its palm upwards and created a hologram of earth's orbit. No actually it was much more than that. While the three of them were still in the same position as before, the hole room seemed to have been disappeared and was now replaced by the illusion Mirabel created. The illusion showed hustle and bustle with thousands of ships and space station while in the background the moon was visible. On earths surface Rainbow Dash recognized the continent of the old Equestria.
"Your world ..."
Suddenly the illusion changed to a similar blue world but with other land masses and oceans on its surface. Its orbit was pretty much dead except for some smaller satellites flying around ... and the same moon that already appeared in the picture before.
"No..." Rainbow Dash let out.
"... s the same as ours."
"But ... but how?" Rainbow Dash stammered.
"I know ... " Mirabel gestured an exploding head with her hands. " ... blows your mind."
"That doesn't make any sense." Rainbow Dash said disbelieving.
Mirabel put her hand down and the illusion was replaced by the grey, metallic room, they were in before.
"Yeah..." Robert began. "... actually, we can't explain that, too. That's how earth looked like in our time. When we came back it already was like it is today."
"Plate tectonics?" Rainbow Dash asked. She was never very attentive in school, but that was something that she still remembered from that time ... or some kind of TV documentary.
"Nah." Robert shook his head. "200000 years aren't enough for a change like that ... or the evolution of your kind."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I told you, that we rode and ate your kind." Mirabel said with her evil grin on the face. It still scared the hell out of Rainbow Dash.
"But how is that even possible then?" She asked eventually.
"For that I have to go far afield." Robert said. "You asked me earlier who that guy was, that I showed you.
"That grim-reaper-like thing?"
"Yes. His name is Abel, he is the creator."
"The creator eradicated you?"
"Yes, but not because he wanted to, but rather because he had no other choice. It was part of the deal. He ..." Suddenly the artifact started to glow brightly and Rainbow Dash jumped off immediately.
"What the?! I haven't noticed that I was sitting on that god damn thing. What is it doing now?"
The artifact's glowing crystalline hull melt together with the ground, where multiple glowing strands grew in all directions.
"Well, it upgraded me. I guess its now upgrading the Viktoria." Robert explained. When he looked into Rainbow's face he knew immediately what she was thinking. "No, you can't have her."
"Awww..."
A moment later skylights activated themselves.
"I have to go the bridge." Robert said before he teleported them.
On the bridge he sat down in the chair in the middle and activated multiple holographic screens on the walls and the window. They flooded the room in a weak light. By a quick view at them Rainbow Dash could notice displays for shield capacity and weapon and energy status. They didn't look very well. The main screen on the window seemed to be the actual window with a head up display and contained a radar and other displays.
"Seems like the artifact produces enough power for minimal activity." Robert said. "It should be enough for a small hyperspace jump. If we can get this thing to a star nearby, we might be able to fully upgrade and recharge her."
"Huh, that reminds me of how I ended up here." Mirabel said.
"You wanted to drag her to a star?" Robert asked disbelieving.
"Yeah ... I overestimated myself and ended up trapped on that damn thing." Mirabel glared at him. "Don't say anything!"
Robert tried to suppress the upcoming grin on his face. "Oh ... I ... I wasn't to go to say anything."
Behind her back Mirabel could hear a quiet giggle and turned around to glare to point at Rainbow Dash.
"You too!"
"I haven't said a thing." She answered while still giggling.
Mirabel gave her a disapproving look. "Sure."
"But what about Tank and the others?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Your ship should fit into the hangar bay. I'm gonna send Scootaloo a landing course."
**********************************
Rainbow Dash, Robert, Mirabel, Scootaloo and Applejack had all assembled on the bridge of the Viktoria, which was now after a short hyperspace jump next to a star to recharge herself.
Applejack was more or less awake by now and Scootaloo was almost calm again after she completely freaked out about the news of a working, upgraded creator's ship. Because of safety issues no one wanted to invite Hazard Haze and they all agreed on telling him to study the artifact, so he would be occupied, with Cleaver there to keep an eye on him.
"Man, if I only had taken a vacation this week." Applejack said after Robert and Mirabel brought them more or less on the same level with Rainbow Dash.
"I'm sure your lives will all calm down after we brought this artifact to the princesses." Robert said.
"Any idea what it actually does?" Applejack asked.
"That thing's still a mystery to me. When it upgraded me, it gave me information on my technology, but for some reason I can't get full access to its main database. There is only a small partition for public access."
"And what's in that?" Scootaloo asked.
"Eh..." Robert let out like he was caught. "Nothing important." He answered hasty.
They all gave him an disbelieving gaze.
"It contains plans to build a set of elemental weapons ... like the elements of harmony."
"A construction manual for the elements?" Applejack asked skeptically.
Robert looked over to Mirabel hoping that she would have some way out of this for him, but she just shrugged. He then closed his eyes, let out a loud sigh and pressed with his thumb and index finger on the bridge of his nose. "We really shouldn't be talking about this."
"Well, you mentioned earlier to me, that you and your friends had once used the elements of harmony, so I'm assuming that they were created from your friend Abel and that you brought them to our world." Rainbow Dash concluded.
Robert put down his hand and looked disbelieving at Rainbow Dash. "Actually, that pretty much sums it up."
"Seems like we got another reason to reach Twilight. She guards the elements now." Applejack said.
"Great, we should hurry up and get your ship working." Robert said really excited.
"Wait, aren't we gonna take the Viktoria with us?" Scootaloo asked.
"Are you nuts? We can't just appear out of nowhere with a ship like this in equestrian space. I'm gonna send some of my nanobots into your FTL-drive. They should have it repaired soon." He said and transformed into his pony form.
Before he could teleport away, Mirabel floated over to him and laid her hand on his shoulder. She looked concerned.
"Robert, please ... don't hope too much, okay? We still don't know what real purpose of the artifact is."
"It just has to contain some hinds where he might be now and I will not rest until I have found him!" He shouted hasty and teleported away.
Mirabel looked sadly to the ground and folded her arms before her chest.
"Damn ... why can't he let go ..." She murmured to herself.
Rainbow Dash walked over to her and laid her hoof on her back. "You alright?"
"Yeah ... it's just ... he and Abel were good friends and he's still hoping to find him one day. You have to know, Rainbow ... Robert was once the wielder of the element of loyalty. He just can't abandon Abel."
"Huh, I didn't expected that. We are so different." Rainbow Dash said. "But, actually it kinda figures, I guess."
"Eh girls." Applejack interrupted them and pointed on the radar. "Is it just me or is there a point on this thing, that wasn't there before?"
They all took a closer look on the display. There was definitely a new point on the radar, followed by two more new points appearing on it. Mirabel took seat in the chair and initiated a deep scan from the approaching objects. After it was complete the results were displayed on the main screen. It showed one of the ships, which had a disturbingly great resemblance to something Rainbow Dash had already seen before.
"Mirabel, I hope I am wrong, but Cold Bone ... eh ... Robert showed me pictures of the Invaders' ships and this ... eh ..."
"I know, it kinda looks like someone took the best parts of their technology and combined it with its own ideas. I ... I gonna run an analysis regarding similarities between them and the invaders."
A percent bar appeared on the main screen and filled itself after some seconds. Mirabel's eyes widened at the displayed results.
"No, this isn't possible!"
The results made it clear. The approaching ships definitely used technology of the Invaders.
"Abel was supposed to eradicate them too. That was part of his deal."
"Maybe we could just ... flee?" Applejack proposed.
"No, I have to know, what this is about. I contact them now." Mirabel stammered nervously.
She harrumphed before she opened a comm channel. "This is Mirabel Parrish from the planetary defense ship Viktoria. Please identify yourself."
It took a while but eventually they got an answer.
"If this is not the little failed one. I have not thought, that I would see you again one day." A calm male voice answered.
"The Eternal ..." Mirabel muttered through her grit teeth as suddenly her burning mane became a huge flame, that this time actually did fill the room with heat, and her eyes started to glow red. "... how can you dare to be still alive?! I WILL MAKE YOU PAY!!!!" With a scream filled with rage, she went off through the window into the space and towards the sun.