> Rainbow Dash: Space Pirate
>  by Wooden Entity
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Old Friends
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow Dash sat bored in her chair on the bridge resting her head on her hoof. It was a nice chair. While the hole bridge was - like the rest of the ship - more patchwork than anything else with cables running over the floor and missing casings on the walls her chair was rather high-quality. It was really cozy and even got real leather which wasn't easy to find if you lived in a society of vegetarians.

"Scoots, anything new?" She asked spinning a pen between the fingers of her left artificial arm.

Scootaloo turned around from her terminal to face Rainbow Dash.

"Nope. The only one that reported was Cleaver babbling something about seeing his ex-wife flying around in front of his ship. Maybe we should cut him off the booze."

"Hm ... let him drink. He's better when he's drunk."

Scooatloo turned back to her terminal to keep on working. 

Damn, this is taking way too long.

They were now for over an hour in this fog waiting for their target. An informant told Rainbow Dash that a convoy should pass it today. He wasn't sure what it was exactly containing but his sources told him it had to be something extremely valuable. 

We already manipulated the trade routes and are searching with our ships in the hole fog. Where is this stupid thing?

Even though FTL-drives were known for a long time now they weren't actually common. The exorbitant energy consumption allowed their installation only on very large ships which made them uninteresting for civil purposes. Gladly there were other ways for traveling - like the portals. No one knows who built them. When ponies and griffins went out for the space the first time they were already there. With them immediate jumps from one solar system to another were possible. For travels in a solar system ponies and griffins were using the trade routes - FTL-accelerators placed on important places in the system making it possible to fly within seconds through the hole system. Very useful but easy to disrupt.

"Rainbow, it's Cleaver again. This time he and his group seem to really have found something!" Scootaloo shouted excited.

"Told you that he didn't had to stop drinking."



*******************************************



Applejack was patrolling along the trade routes again. Usually this was a calm but boring job in this area but someone had to do it she thought. 

When she went off the farm leaving back her family she originally intended to fight the crime and help the people and not to fly around in the empty space only left with her thoughts and a mug off coffee. 

Twilight in her position as princess once offered Applejack a job in her part of the equestrian empire but she declined it. She wanted to work up in the police by herself and not be the one who got there because she was the best friend of the princess.
Now she was working in the police forces of a small independent state outside of Equestria far away from her home and her friends. 

"Mayday, mayday!" She suddenly noticed on the radio and turned it louder.

"This is Transporter-Phi-Delta-6 we are under heavy attack by a pirate ambush and need help immediately!"

Applejack turned her ship towards the origin of the signal and accelerated to full speed.

"Central, this Officer Applejack. Ah received a distress signal and follow its source. Sending its coordinates now." She called over the police radio.

"Coordinates received. Sending reinforcements." Somepony answered or some griffin answered. Griffins were fairly common in this region of the space so it was very good possible that the voice on the radio belonged to one.

After some time she reached the source of the signal and stopped her ship. It were two freighters and single small defense ship. In the distance Applejack could still see the attackers flying away.

"They stole our cargo. You must stop them!"

"Are yah gonna be okay on yah own?"

"Yes. We have only minor damages."

"Okay. Then wait here for the reinforcements. Ah'm going to follow them."

Applejack accelerated again and headed for the direction of the pirates.

"Here is Applejack again. The pirates are trying to escape. Follow my coordinates." 

Slowly but steady she got closer to them.

"Hand over the cargo and give yahself up to the police!" She eventually said to the pirates as she got close enough for a radio transmission.

"Fuck off you stupid cunt!" One of the pirates answers.

Intending for a warning shot she started to aim at one of them but then suddenly something appeared in front of her out of the fog.
It was a huge class-3-battle-cruiser with a skull and crossbones on its side.

"Ohhhh shit..."

Immediately she changed the direction of her ship while she tried to dodge the weapon fire of the cruiser, but her attempts were futile and she took a hit, making her immobile and defenseless.


*******************************************


"Damn, good shot, Scoots!" Rainbow Dash proudly clapped Scooterloo on the shoulder.

"Learned from the best, I guess." She answers shy while scratching the back of her head.

"Hey Captain!" A voice said coming out of the speakers of the bridge. 

"What is it, Cleaver?"

"The ship is still intact. What shall we do with it?"

Scooterloos leaned over her terminal to take a look on it while Rainbow Dash waited for her to say something. Cleaver was from time to time a very useful member of the crew but he tended to see some very odd stuff when he was drunken ... and he was always drunken.

"He's right. It seems like we only disabled its engine and weapons ... oh ..."

"What is it?"

"Its pilot is still alive."

"Huh ... seems like this is our lucky day."

"Why?"

"Police Officer make great hostages." Rainbow Dash said with a sinister grin.


*******************************************


"Huh? Who's gonna surrender now, bitch?" One of the pirates shouted to Applejack. 

The pirates managed to cut a hole into the hull of her ship and to connect hers to the cruiser via an airlock. The only thing stopping from them from taking over it was now a yellow earth pony taking cover next to hole shooting at everything that moved.

"Oh, I like it when they struggle!" 

"Shut up, Cleaver!" Suddenly a female voice said. It sounded familiar to Applejack but she just couldn't say where she knew it from.

"Hey, Officer I-fly-alone-into-the-dangerous-fog. I make you an offer. Surrender yourself and you won't get killed, okay?"

"Forget it! And it's Officer Applejack!" She fired some bullets around the edge without leaving her cover.

"Hey, that was my hat!" The female voice sad again. "Wait, what did you say, was your name?"

"Applejack!"

"You must be kidding me." Suddenly the female began to chuckle.

"What's so funny?" Applejack asked confused.

"You'll see. Cleaver take my gun."

"What do you plan?" Cleaver asked.

"Applejack, I'm weaponless and coming over to you now. Promise me to not shoot at me, okay? It will all make sense when I'm there."

Applejack was afraid that this might be just a trap but it seemed like didn't had much to loose in this situation. 

Gritting her teeth she agrees. "Okay, but don't any try tricks on me, pirate!"

"I won't."

"But Captain, you serious?"

"Don't worry, if I am right she won't lie to me."

Applejack took position and aimed at the entry hole while she heard slow steps coming from it. Eventually a blue pegasus with rainbow-colored mane and a hat with a hole in it's middle walked out of it. Applejack recognized her immediately and dropped her weapon in shock.

"Rainbow Dash..."

"Hey, Applejack, long time no seen, huh?"

Still shocked she sad down on the ground.

"Yeah ..." Slowly she seemed to compose herself again and began to chuckle and shook her head. "What in tarnation?"

"Would you now please surrender? I promise you, you won't get hurt. You know me, Applejack." 

Rainbow Dash tried to reach her hoof out for Applejack but she just pushed it to the side.

"Hell, I don't!"

"Come on it's me!" 

"You aren't the Rainbow Dash I'm used to know!"

"Rainbow Dash, hurry up we got company!" Suddenly a voice calls over the radio.

"Yeah, just one moment, Scoots!"

"Scootaloo?"

"Yeah. Long story..."

"Not one moment, Dash! They've got two bloody cruisers! We have to get out of here."

Rainbow Dash went slowly to the windows of the cockpit to see the cruisers by herself.

"What the...?"

Applejack sat herself back into the cockpit next to Rainbow Dash.

"Who is here going to surrender now?" She mocked her before activating the police radio again.

"This is Officer Applejack. I'm in the my ship on the side of the pirates cruiser. Do not fire, I'm trying to reach an agreement with the pirates."

"The pirate ship must be destroyed at all cost." A scrambled voice came from the police radio.

Rainbow Dash turned her head to Applejack while she was clicking confused on her terminal.

"Everything is working ..." She faces Rainbow Dash. "Something is blocking my transmission!" 

"Hell, I ain't it!"

"The missed Officer named Applejack could not be saved and must be assumed dead. Do not hold back!"

"What the?" They both shouted out.

"Did you piss someone off this morning?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"What? Hell no!"

"I am not going to repeat myself again. COME BACK TO THE SHIP OR I FUCKING FLY AWAY ON MY OWN, RAINBOW DASH!" Scootaloo yelled over the radio.

"Heard you loud and clear. We're coming over."

She grabbed Applejacks hoof and tried to drag her with her but she just kept sitting in her chair watching in the emptiness of the space. 

"What the hell is going on here..." She whispered almost inaudible.

"Now come on, AJ! Do you want to fucking die out here or what?!" Rainbow Dash yelled at her.

She shook her head. "Well your ship is probably still better than death." 

After they stood up and ran over to the cruiser, Cleaver closed the hatch and pushed off the air lock together with Applejacks ship.

On the bridge Scoolatloo yelled on Rainbow Dash without facing her. "God damnit, we must get ..." Turning towards to two of them she suddenly stopped. "Applejack?"

"Hey..." 

"Yeah, yeah, happy reunion of best friends and all that crap, now get us out of here!" Rainbow Dash said before sitting down in her chair again.

"Oh ... yes."

Scootaloo moved back to her Terminal and started to turn the Cruiser in the opposite direction of the their attackers.

"Starting FTL-drive."

> Save Harbor
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Scootaloo were walking down a floor on the ship. They were still on FTL-speed and it would take some time before they would arrive their target. Their plan was to fly to Sanctuary, a local independent base in the middle of nowhere far away from any portals or the long arm of the law. Rainbow Dash knew someone there who she hoped could tell her where she could sell her newest acquisition. After that, so she and Applejack agreed, she would drop her old friend somewhere in a save location in Equestria where her old employer couldn't hunt her. 

"Nice vessel yah got here." Applejack said at some point while she tried not to stumble across the cables on the rusty ground.

"Thanks. She might be a ugly patchworked piece of shit but she is bringing us everywhere we need. Me and Scoots stole her some years ago from a black marketeer. I named her "Tank" in memory of that little guy."

"Oh, is he ...?" Applejack asks carefully.

"Yes."

"Ah'm sorry." Applejack paused a moment. "But..." She shook her head and bit her lip. "Ah still can't understand how yah both could end up like this? I mean being a pirate, living from stealing and murdering? What the hell?"

Suddenly Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo stopped shortly followed by Applejack who almost bumped into them. Rainbow Dash was looking to the ground and blew a raspberry.

"You really dare to judge me, AJ? After you and the others went off to follow your dreams leaving me behind alone? I haven't heard from anyone of you in the last ten years and now you are wondering what happened to me?" She turned to Applejack. "I'll tell you! After you guys abandoned me I kept working as weather pony and got some side jobs to help Scootaloo paying her study. It actually worked for some time until I had I little accident. A lightning hit me while pushing around some clouds. I passed out and crashed on the ground breaking my right wing four times! My insurance refused to pay the treatment and I didn't had the money. So, yeah, there I was - a weather pony unable to fly. I lost my job and could forget my dream to join the Wonderbolts. I was moving from one bad payed job to another traveling through all Equestria until one day I was offered a ... more promising option."

"I knew while my study that something was wrong." Scooterloo continued. "But Rainbow Dash always told me to study hard and finish it and so I forced myself to ignore it." She gave Rainbow Dash a sad gaze before facing Applejack again. "We were trying to stay in contact but some time of my study Rainbow Dash wasn't responding anymore and I got worried about her. After getting my Bachelor degree I immediately packed my bags and tried to track her down."

"I was stranded in a fog in an unpopulated system in the outer areas of Equestria. If the little Squid hadn't found me I probably would have died out there." Rainbow Dash laid her hand on Scooterloo's shoulder who began to flush.

"After all my big sis did for me I wanted to help her but ..." Scootaloo looked down to the ground.

"With all the crimes I committed I would never be able to go back to my old life ..." Rainbow Dash pulled Scootaloo close to her. "And so she stayed with me." 

Applejack didn't know what to say. She always regretted losing contact to her old friends. Without Twilight keeping her updated from time to time she probably wouldn't have known anything about them anymore. But she didn't expect something like that to happen.

"Ah ... Ah'm sorry, Rainbow ..." She finally said not daring to face her. "Ah ... Ah failed you.."

Suddenly she felt a hoof on her shoulder and looked to it. It was Rainbow Dash.

"It's okay AJ." 

They began to walk again.

"Once you get used to it being a pirate isn't that bad and ignoring laws makes life much easier. I mean thanks to it me and Scoots can finally fly." She pointed with the thumb of her robot hand on her wings. There were some metallic strands running over their surface. Applejack looked over to Scootaloo's wings which had the same strands plus some additional metallic parts on the end of her wings which seemed to extend them. "Hell, we can even use these things in space, girl. How awesome is that?!" After that she seemed to notice her metallic Arm and held it demonstratively into the air. "Oh ... and yes, without being a pirate I probably never would have gotten this little cute bone crushing piece of technology."

"Hmpf ... and all I got was this stupid uniform and a pistol." Applejack smiled ironically. "The joys of restrictions and bureaucracy ... you wouldn't believe how hard it was to convince them to allow me my stetson."

Finally they arrived at the cargo bay where the result of their great coup was lying. After they walked closer to it Scootaloo began to examine the strange object. It was a weakly glowing crystal crystalline structure floating over the ground. By closer inspection there was a darker object visible in its center.

"So this is what brought me into this mess?" Applejack asked. "Any idea what it is?"

"Nope." Rainbow Dash answered.

Scooterloo went down with her head to have a closer look on the object.

"Well it was definitely not created by ponies or griffins." She put out a tablet computer out of the pocket of her black coat and clicked around on it. "Looks similar to the portals ... but ..."

"What?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"More advanced."

"How that?" Applejack asked confused.

"Can only assume. We still don't now what happened to creators of the portals. Maybe they left this galaxy and came back after some time to drop this thing here."

"What if they were only just like "Never change a running system" and let the portal like they were while everything else evolved?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Scootaloo went up with her head again and shook it. "No, I don't think so. We already found other remains of them like the ruins on Sedna and they were always on the same development state."

Applejack remembered seeing some documentaries of the ancient ruins in the TV but they didn't look even close to this artifact.

"And you're sure that it is from them? Ah mean Ah never heard or saw something about glowing crystals."

"Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out what's that is but see this dark thing down there?" She pointed at center of the crystal. "That thing is definitely somehow based on the creator's technology." Suddenly her eyes widened. "Wait a moment!" Furiously she worked on her tablet computer again before she suddenly stopped. "Oh my gosh ..."

Rainbow Dash went over to her and looked over her shoulder to get a look on the tablet's display but it didn't tell her very much. A moment later Scootaloo turned her head to Rainbow Dash her eyes still widened in shock.

"This crystal ... It's solid light!"

Rainbow Dash backed off again and looked together with Applejack confused in Scootaloos overexcited face.

"I read about that during my studies. Damn Rainbow, that is the dream of every engineer! Creating structures just out of light, of energy!" See said full of excitement.

"That sounds ... cool." Rainbow Dash said slightly amused. "So how much more advanced is this thing? 

"Very, very, very much. The ruins contained only some prototypes like simple cubes or spheres out of solid light - highly unstable and without any function. But this thing here ..." She paused to catch for breath. "... makes use of so fine structures that the resolution of my scanner isn't high enough to even detect them properly. Whatever this thing is it could be the biggest technological breakthrough in pony history!" Panting heavily she finally stopped.

"Seems like you are set for life, Rainbow Dash." Applejack said.


************************************


Rainbow Dash and Applejack were sitting on the bridge again while Scootaloo stayed back in the cargo bay trying to understand the artifact. Applejack had never flight with faster than light speed and just couldn't stop herself from looking out of the windows at the beautiful lights surrounding the ship.

"Still not bored from them?" Rainbow Dash asked eventually.

"Nope." Applejack answered.

Suddenly the lights disappeared revealing the darkness of the space again. After Applejack commented the hole scene just with a disappointed grunt, Rainbow Dash turned the ship to the right and a space station appeared before them. She initiated the automatic docking process and opened a comm channel.

"Let's see if he's there." She said to herself. "Haze, I've got something for you."

"I'm already violently fiddling with my balls in anticipation of your arrival, Rainbow." A scratchy voice answered.

Rainbow Dash deactivated the comm channel again and looked over to Applejack who gave her a frown.

"Ugh..."

"Yeah, he can be very disgusting when he talks."

A little concussion went through the ship telling the two that the docking process was finished. 

"So, who is that guy?" Applejack asked after they both stood up and were on their way to the docking hatch.

"Hazard Haze, former chef of the griffin's weapons research program. Condemned war criminal and the best source for technological information on this station."

"Huh ... great." 

As they stepped out of the airlock an older black unicorn stallion with a gray mane was already awaiting them. He had a scar running over the right half of his face crossing his artificial eye. It didn't seem to be a very advanced prosthesis and didn't look even close to a normal eye. It had no pupil or iris or something like that, it was just completely black. As he spotted them he immediately walked towards them. 

"That is no griffin..." Applejack pointed at him.

"*Sigh* ... no." Rainbow Dash said already annoyed.

"If that isn't my favorite pegasus Rainbow Dash." He said excited while shaking her hoof.. "Why didn't you tell me that you would come for a visit ..." His gaze wandered to Applejack. "... and that you would bring such a lovely visitor." 

He bowed for her. "Let me introduce myself to you. I am Cold Bone - governor of Sanctuary." 

Then suddenly he made a frown. "Wait a moment..." He faced Rainbow Dash again. "A police officer? Rainbow I told that I don't care for your business as long as I don't see it. But making it so obvious? Come on!"

"Hey Bone." She finally said. "That's Applejack. She isn't a hostage, okay?" 

Cold Bone looked skeptically on Applejack. 

"It's a long story but it's the truth." She said to him.

"Well, okay. You probably gonna have your reasons for coming to a place like this."

In the background a griffin wearing a extremely stained lab coat appeared and walked over to them.

"Well well, what brings my favorite feathery pussy to this area of the space?" He said as he came closer.

Cold Bone sighed. "If that ain't Dr. Fuckhead ... well I think I leave you with your business. See you later." He said before he went off quickly.

"So what do you got for me, Rainbow Dash?" The griffin asked as Bone was gone.

"Come with me." She answered.

They went back to the Tank's cargo bay. 

"Oh man..." Rainbow Dash murmured as they entered it. "Shouldn't have left Scoots alone down here."

The hole place was covered in cables which were all connected to the artifact while Scooter was standing behind it with a blowpipe in her mouth. She also had changed her outfit. Instead of her coat she wore an oil stained vest and goggles on her head. 

"Oh hey guys!" She shouted as she noticed them.

Standing before the artifact Haze stroked with his claws over its surface.

"Sweeter than a teenage poontang." 

Applejack needed to force herself to hide her disgust.

"So any idea what that thing could be?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Maybe it contains big tittied blowjob models with yellow fever! The fuck do I know?"

Rainbow Dash gave Scootaloo an extremely annoyed gaze.

"Scoots, you okay if I let you both alone with your work?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yeah, we'll be fine."

"Okay, I let Cleaver here to keep an eye out for you.."

"Might be better."

"Awww, afraid to let your little girl alone with papa? I could make her a real mare, you know? Mwahahaha!"

"Just shut the fuck up." Rainbow Dash said before leaving the cargo bay with Applejack through the door where they ran into Cleaver. 

"Be careful with that scumbag." She said to him. 

"Yes Captain." He answered.

***********************************

Rainbow Dash and Applejack walked over the market of Sanctuary on their way to Cold Bone. Rainbow Dash called him before and asked him for information on the artifact and why the police tried to kill Applejack, but Rainbow Dash also needed some new parts for Tank's FTL-drive or better - a hole new FTL-drive. Though it was still doing its job, it recently tended to cause problems. Scootaloo took a look at it and told Rainbow Dash that with some replacement parts she might be able to give it some additional months but after that it wouldn't make anymore sense to spend additional money on it. 

Sadly she wasn't the only one who could need a new one. Every pirate was forced to use old and used ships which were slowly falling apart. Larger vessels with weapons and FTL-capabilities were only build by the military and the only ones allowed to buy them was the bounty hunters guild. It needed much time before they would land on the black market. Some time ago Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo even thought about constructing their own engine. Scootaloo definitely had the knowledge to do it but to get the needed materials and machines to actually build one appeared not worth it. Despite that Rainbow Dash recently found Scootaloo's hidden stash where she collected stuff that might come in handy if they really tried it one day.

As she walked along the rusty floor with the familiar smell of metal and oil in her nose she spotted a dealer for ship parts. Rainbow Dash often went to him when she was on the station. He knew her and she was sure that he would give her a good price.

"Ahh ... the colorful lady. Long time no seen. Still flying around with Tank?" The merchant asked excited as Rainbow Dash and Applejack entered the store. It was a chubby old stallion with blue fur and a gray short mane. He wore glasses with a crack on one side. Rainbow Dash always wondered why while he seemed to be able to get everything, didn't replace that broken thing.

"Yes, still the same vessel." She answered.

The merchant clicked some buttons on the display of his checkout.

"Here we have it - a griffin cruiser, Class 3, type 327. So what do you need? I've got some nice new weapon capacitors compatible with it." He said.

"No thanks, but Scoots made me a list for you." She gave him a piece of paper.

"Give me a moment I have to look into my database."

Rainbow Dash left the merchant alone and walked over to Applejack who was leaning on a hand rail before a window watching at the market.

"Itching to bring all these guys to justice?" Rainbow asked.

Applejack had to giggle. "No, no. As far as Ah see Ah am currently unemployed so they are not of my business."

Her face made a frown and her gaze wandered down to her hoofs.

"Ah've was just thinking. Ah haven't heard of my family for quite a long time now. Seeing what happened to yah and Scoots made me kinda worry about my lil' sis."

"I wouldn't worry about her. With the hole Apple family on her back I think she'll be fine."

That brought a little smile on her face again. "Yeah, you're probably right. The apple family is huge. She won't be alone ... but still ... Ah somehow feel like a bad big sister. Since I left earth to become a police officer I haven't talked with her very much."

Rainbow Dash sniffed amused. "Reminds me of an old saying "The way to hell is paved with good intentions.""

"Huh?"

"You left your family to help the people and now you are stuck with a bunch of pirates in the middle of nowhere while for some reason your former employer is trying to kill you."

"Yeah, seems to fit." Applejack chuckled.

After the merchant finally got a list of his suitable items for Tank and Rainbow Dash ordered the ones she needed, she and Applejack resumed their way to Cold Bone.

After their arrival there and another overexcited greeting by Cold Bone they sat down in the living room of his apartment. Rainbow Dash and Applejack took seat on his sofa while he had chosen the seat on the opposing side of the table. It was a very simple apartment, nothing fancy. Rainbow Dash somehow always expected that he would be living in some kind of palace. Being the governor of such a station should yield enough money. 

"So what do you got for us?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Well, first to the artifact." He pulled out a tablet computer out of his pocket and handed it over to her. On its screen a picture of a digging site on what seemed to be an asteroid was opened. "My informants sent me those. It seems like some months ago Lyra Heartstring found some old ruins in an asteroid belt." Rainbow Dash swiped over the screen to see the next picture. It was showing the artifact in some kind of  facility. "After they dug long enough they found that thing that now floats around in your cargo bay." She did another swipe which revealed this time a text document. She just glanced over it but as she reached the end her eyes widened. "Yes, that is the seal of Princess Celestia. After she had heard of it she demanded its transport to Earth immediately." He bended over again to take the tablet computer back and leaned back into his chair.

"I'm sad to say that, Rainbow Dash, but I'm afraid you messed with the wrong guys."

"Well at a pinch I can still sell this thing to princess Twilight." She answered cool trying to hide that she was indeed quite nervous now.

"Now to you, Officer." He continued. "As you probably can imagine, Celestia is not the only one having an interest into this artifact. Obviously the president from that little independent state you worked for got wind of that thing and hoped to get some kind of advantage against the Equestrian Empire with it."

"But they were trying to destroy us and not to actually get that thing." Applejack said confused.

"Ever heard of someone destroying one of the portals?" Cold Bone suddenly asked.

"Eh ... no?"

"Yeah, because they are almost indestructible. Same applies on that thing. The destruction of your ship wouldn't have harmed it."

"So you are telling me, that by destroying us they easily would have gotten the artifact without any witnesses?"

"Exactly."

Suddenly the room was put in a red light followed by a loud alarm signal. Cold Bone immediately jumped out of his seat and ran over to a monitor on the wall and opened a comm channel to the administration of Sanctuary.

"Governor, five battle class-10-battle-cruisers just appeared." A pony on the other side of the screen said. "It's the bounty hunters guild!"
> Escape
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cold Bone didn't know if he was more confused or scared. He had an arrangement with the bounty hunters. Their appearance here didn't make any sense ... or well it did make very much sense if they knew about the artifact. In that case they were screwed ... totally screwed. That was absolutely sure for him.

"Open a comm channel to the ships." He said to the pony in the administration bureau.

This has to be some kind of misunderstanding.

"To the ships of the bounty hunters guild, this is Cold Bone, governor of sanctuary. Your visit in this sector is against the terms of our contract. So what brings you here?"

It took some seconds before an answer came. Seconds that made Cold Bone only more nervous.

"Hello Governor." A Dark male voice answered. "My name is Silent Mayhem. We are here to tell you, that we are cancelling the contract and about to board your station."

Shit ... but mabye it's not too late for diplomacy.

"Any way to solve this unbloody and without destroying the station?"
"Well if you would hand out me the pegasus named Rainbow Dash with her ship and her crew and everyone on your station with a bounty higher than 100.000 Credits, I would be willing to just leave." 

Cold Bone had to chuckle.

"You know that that applies on half of the inhabitants of Sanctuary, don't you?"
"So this is a "no"?"
"Over. My. Dead. Body. Asshole!"

Could Bone closed the comm channel and talked to the administration bureau again.

"What are you instructions, governor?"
"Give'em hell, my dear." Cold Bone said.

Sanctuary's auto cannons might buy us some time.

He almost deactivated the terminal but then he saw that there was a call on the other line.

"Rainbow Dash, are you there?" A familiar voice asked.

She went immediately over to Cold Bone to answer the call.

"What's up, Scoots?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I think, we might have a plan to get everybody out -" Suddenly she was interrupted by another familiar voice.
"Hold you dick for one second you fungal rimjob and let the grown ups talk about the important business."

Cold Bone already asked himself about what he had done wrong to deserve such a day. First bounty hunters and now Haze. He should have just stayed in bed this morning.

"What do you want, Haze?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Well as you might remember, I was head of the griffin weapons research program and constructed many fine - the rules of war and decency ignoring - weapons there."

Well when he thought about it exactly it still had something good. The day could hardly get any worse. That wasn't much but it was enough to force a little grin on his face.

"And what are you planing to tell me with that?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I still have some of them."

That caught up Cold Bone's attention.

"What kind of weapons are we talking about" He asked.
"Weapons big enough to destroy entire cites ... with its inhabitants, mwahahaha! Which was exactly the reason why we build them! Hehehehe!" 

Cold Bone just couldn't understand what had to be wrong in the head of someone that he could laugh about stuff like that. But well, this wasn't the time for to analyse the mind of this psychopath.

"Meet me at my lab. These bunch of dick maggots are going to get the surprise of their lives! Mwahahahaa!" 

Cold Bone deactivated the terminal and went over to a security locker. It still used a simple lock - somehow an anachronism he often thought - but it was only intended to keep his guests away from its content and not to stop robbers.
After he opened it, he pulled out two rifles he handed over to Applejack and Rainbow Dash and a third one which he kept for himself together with a little rucksack filled with personal stuff.
As he got everything he noticed the somewhat sceptical gaze of the two mares on his rifle. He had given the the two some fancy high tech plasma rifles while he took a projectile based one. Though these kind of weapons were still very common because they were cheap and reliable, his one was more something for a museum - the two mares must have thought - with its wooden grip and iron sights.

"Yah serious?" Applejack asked. "I could still use my old police pistol if yah don't have enough weapons."

He had to chuckle. If they knew, what this thing was capable of ...

"AJ, believe me. This thing will be more than enough."


*******************************************


Rainbow Dash really thought that with a bit of luck they might be able to just walk over to Hazard Haze's lab. Seemed like this wasn't her lucky day at all. They only walked somewhat around 500 meters until now and already ran in three boarding commandos. No one of them got hurt until now but she was afraid that that might change sooner or later. She might have been often in bad situations already but this one seemed like the new place one on her fucked-up-list.

"How far till we reach it?" She asked while they ran along a corridor.
"200 Meters." Cold Bone answered.

So mathematically there will be another - wait mathematically? I almost sound like Twilight ... but still, we are probably running into another boarding commando on our way. 

As they kept following the corridor her gaze wandered to Cold Bone.
Though they knew each other for years now she never really understood him. She always wondered what he might have done in his past that he ended up in Sanctuary but when she asked him he never gave her a real answer. Seeing him now fighting these Bounty Hunters while trying to save the people of his station made her think about it again. He could have been in the military. That would have explained his skills but she couldn't imagine that someone like that would choose to run a place like Sanctuary. Honour usually meant much to such guys. But maybe his weapon could be a hint. That thing might look old as hell but to AJ's and her surprise it was in fact upgraded to a rail gun. Maybe he was some kind of technician or engineer. If he was in a higher position that would also explain his organization skills.
The corridor ended in a crossover. In front of them was the entrance to a hangar. To the left was another corridor and to the right were stairs.

"Damnit!" Cold Bone said next to her.
"What is it?" She asked.

He pointed with his hoof carefully to the left to other edge of the hanger. There were bounty hunters walking out of a small vessel. As the three saw them they immediately took cover behind the walls next to the entrance.

"They will see us." 

He pointed to the right to a ramp which lead to a higher path which went through the hangar.

"If we want to get to Haze we have to walk along there."

He took a cautious look in the hangar and after that he looked over to the left corridor.

"I think I got an idea." He said. "This one ends in the hangar, too. I will go to its end and divert them while you run over to Haze. Just follow the stairs and you can't miss him."

Before Rainbow Dash or Applejack could even protest he already ran over to the other entrance.

"Damnit, Cold Bone, come back! We won't leave you behind!" Rainbow Dash yelled at him.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine." He answered before he began to aim with his weapon.
"But-" Rainbow Dash was interrupted by a shot from Cold Bone. 
Now move! He formed with his lips.
Be careful. She answered without saying anything.

If you were most of the time in space you had to know how to read lips sooner or later Rainbow Dash had learned. If you were stuck in a ship wreck without atmosphere in a space suit with defective communication systems you appreciated this ability. 

As they reached the path they hid behind the parapet and looked cautious over it.
Some of the bounty hunters took cover behind some barrels in front of Cold Bones position while some others tried to reach the other entrance next to him.

"Cold Bone, they are trying to flank you!" Rainbow Dash said to him over the radio.
"Just get out of here." He shot another salve at the bounty hunters.

Suddenly she felt Applejack's elbow in her side.

"Over there!" She pointed to some bounty hunters coming out their vessel wielding ...
"Cold Bone, you have to get out there! They got rocket launchers!" Rainbow Dash yelled at him.

Before she got an answer the first rocket hit Cold Bone's position.

"Cold Bone!" She waited a moment but no one answered. "Come on Cold Bone, say something!" 

She didn't even try to stop the tears from coming out of her eyes. She war so full of anger. She just wanted to give these bastards hell. She was already about to grab her rifle but Applejack stopped her.

"Don't." She said to her sniffing.

"Would you please be so kind and go now?!" Suddenly some yelled at them over the radio shortly followed by some kind of cyan energy projectiles coming out of the cloud of dust around Cold Bone's position. 
"What the?!" Rainbow Dash and Applejack asked simultaneously as what seemed to be Cold Bone walked out the dust. He walked on his hind legs and shot with some kind of energy weapons attached to his fore hooves on the bounty hunters. They kept firing back but it didn't seem to have to the slightest impact on him. One of them fired another rocket but before it could hit him it was stopped by some kind of energy shield which surrounded him and exploded.

"Fucking go now!" He yelled at them over the radio again.

They obeyed and followed the path out of the hangar.

"What the hell was that?" Applejack asked as they were far enough away from the battle.

"I have no idea." Rainbow Dash answered shaking her head. "Have you seen these guns?"

"Yeah, never seen something like that. They looked like they were attached to his body but why didn't we see them earlier and why didn't he use them before?"

"And was that really an energy shield protecting him? A personal shield? Damn even Tank hasn't a shield!"

"Scootaloo would go nuts if she saw this!" Applejack joked. 

"Yeah."

Rainbow Dash couldn't stop herself from thinking about what she just saw. Was Cold Bone just some guy enhanced with a bunch of high tech stuff? No that was too simple. These weapons weren't there before. Did he have them in his rucksack? And why didn't he ...

"Is it just me or did the bullets of the bounty hunters didn't hurt him even without his shield?" She asked Applejack.

"Eh... yes,  I think. The shield only activated when they used rockets. Why?" Applejack asked back.

"I'm just thinking."

That meant he needed some kind of armor system. Something he definitely didn't have before and what would never fit in his rucksack. But the thing with his shield still made her curious. It only activated for the rockets. Did it have some kind of threat activation? That would require some kind of very high developed sensor phalanx. Otherwise it wouldn't be able to know when it needed to activate. Could all this stuff even fit in a single pony body?

As they came closer to the position of Haze's lab the sound of shooting brought Rainbow Dash out of her thoughts.

"You can suck the tears off my dick, you ugly mudfuckers!" A familiar voice yelled.

The corridor ended at the edge of a greater place similar to the market but filled with containers. As they looked to their left they saw that some of the bounty hunter were hiding behind them and shooting at another entrance on the wall. 
The two mares managed to sneak behind some of the containers close to their entrance and went in silence through the labyrinth of containers closer to bounty hunters to attack them from behind.
For their luck it were only three attackers. Two of them stood at the ends of a container while the third one was sitting in the middle with his back against its wall. He had a wound on his arm and was trying to bandage it. Suddenly his head lifted. He must have noticed them but before he could alarm his friends Rainbow Dash put a bullet into his head. Well it was more like melting it away. These plasma rifles can be very nasty. After that she and Applejack took out his buddies and walked over to the entrance where a certain griffin was already awaiting them.

"Always let underlings take care of the shit moppin'!" Haze said.

"You're welcome." Rainbow Dash said.

"Aw, getting sensitive, girl? Need papa to give you a hug and tell you're doing a good job?"

They went into his lab. In contrast to his lab coat it was absolutely clean and tidy. Their were some tables with all kind of devices. Rainbow Dash couldn't name the most of them. What she recognized were a microscope, some stuff that looked like surgical tools and many, many computers.
He went with them to a door with a keyboard on its side where he entered an almost endless password before the door opened.
Behind it was a smaller room which contained some other rather big devices. 
As Applejack went closer to one of them to examine it she spotted something written on them.

"D-D-D?" She asked.

"Dooms.Day.Device." Haze explained with a sinister grin. 

They were three devices with this inscription. Behind them stood a bigger one. Applejack tried to get closer to it to read the inscription on it but the other devices were blocking her.

"What's that?" Rainbow Dash finally asked before Applejack would dislocate her neck.

"Oh that one is my favourite. A disintegration bomb. Dissolves everything in its reach. Very painful and extremely useful. Mwahahahaha!"

"How do we use them?" Applejack asked.

"The DDDs have a drive system. They are like torpedos. We put them into one of the torpedo bays of Sanctuary and shoot them at the bounty hunters."

"What stops their ships from just shooting them before the impact?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"They are stealthed. Evil, ain't it? Mwahaha!"

The transport of the weapons went very well but sadly the control of the torpedo bays was in the administration bureau. They already tried to contact it but nobody responded. The workers there probably fled or got killed. They also send Cold Bone a message to meet them there but he didn't respond either though Rainbow Dash could hardly believe that he got killed or something like that. 
They were almost at the bureau, only a small hall was in their way now. A small hall full of bounty hunters protecting the bureau.
The three took cover in the room next to the hall.

"Well we got around 15 soldiers, 11 of them with rifles, three with rocket launchers and one in armed mech. Any ideas?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Hazard Haze put down his rucksack and took a look into it.

"Well I've still got three of my little face melters here." He took out a belt with three grenades. "Built them on my own. They send out a cloud of ultra hot plasma that melts everypony in its way but they are no use against the mech."

Rainbow Dash looked over to Applejack in hope that she might have an idea but she didn't even react to her gaze. She seemed almost spacey.

"You alright, AJ?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Applejack shook her head and turned to Rainbow Dash.

"Just a little tired." She answered.

"Yeah, it was a long day." 

"You have no idea."

Rainbow Dash activated the radio to call Cold Bone again. Without him they weren't going anywhere.

"Damnit Cold Bone, were are you? We could really use your crazy abilities now!"

There was only static.

"... on my way ... just a moment ... " Someone answered after some time.

*******************************************

Cold Bone kicked in the door and ran into a hall while firing at everything he could see. He caught the bounty hunters by surprise and was able to took out three or four of them before they could react. He had to use this advantage to take out as many soldiers as he could. Then he could focus on the mech. 
Cold Bone teleported some meters in front of him directly behind the soldiers and fired in a circle around him as he was suddenly hit by a bigger projectile. He jumped back and took cover behind a crate from where he examined the environment. There were only two soldiers left which tried to hide behind a crate behind the mech. He would have liked to just teleport behind them again to take them out easily but his teleporter still needed to recharge. He tried to find another way to get around the mech and take them out but before he came up with an idea they were already shot from behind. Cold Bone looked up to find the shooters and saw that Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Hazard Haze were hiding behind the parapet on the other side of the room. His gaze wandered to the mech which seemed to have spotted them too and went out of his cover.

"Hey, fat one? Want to dance?" He taunted him.

The mech was almost 3 meters high. It was a bipedal model and used could use its hand for additional weapons. Its driver sat in its torso behind a big armor. After it turned over to him it threw its rifle away and ran towards him. It tried to hit him but Cold Bone just jump back and so its fist just smashed the ground. Before it could come up again he jumped towards it and kicked it into its torso overturning it backwards with the force of the impact. Staying on the mech it tried to punch Cold Bone away but he just blocked the incoming fists with his hooves and reformed them to hands to get a firm grip on them. He could feel that it was trying to pull its hands back but he didn't let go of them.

"Well let's see what's stronger, the arms of your mech or the armor between my feet and your body." Cold Bone said looking into the terrified face below him.

He began to pull slowly on the right arm. After some seconds he suddenly sunk in some centimetres into the armor.

"Man, I'm afraid your mech is working against you." 

He kept pulling and pulling while the hole mech was creaking as suddenly he ripped of the arm. It came so unexpected for him that he almost fell down but for his luck he still got the left arm to hold on to.

"Seems like this is your lucky day." He said before ripping out the left arm of the mech.

He jumped off the wreckage to walk over to his friends as he heard some kind of noise behind him.

"Boy, you really don't know when you've lost, huh?"

He turned around and shot a concentrated energy beam which penetrated the mech stopping it at its place and leaving a hole in its torso. It fell like stone down to the ground. Around it a little puddle of blood began to grow.

"Stupid idiot."

As no enemies where left Cold Bone followed the others which were already in the bureau.

Haze gave him an irritated gaze.

"Damn what happened to your friggin' face, Bone?" He asked him.

Rainbow Dash's and Applejack's eyes widened as they saw him.

"What in tarnation?" Applejack asked in shock.

Cold Bones examined his face with his hoof as he suddenly felt something cold - metal. He activated the regeneration process and some seconds later it was covered with a warm fur again.

"Better?" He asked Haze.

"Eh ... yes ... fuck, you're creeping me out!" Hazard Haze said.

"Damn what the hell are you?" Rainbow Dash asked. 

"Yeah ... well that's complicated -" Cold Bone was suddenly interrupted by Haze. "Yeah, yeah, can we talk about this later and take down these fucking cruisers so we get out of this shitty situation alive first, please?"

"Though it's hard to me to say that but I'm afraid I have to agree with Haze." Cold Bone said.

He went with Hazard Haze to one of the terminals in the room and entered a code to unlock it for him.

"Ruin their day." Cold Bone said to him.

"Finally an order from you I like!"

Hazard Haze clicked around on the terminal and activated the main screen in the bureau which showed the vessels of the bounty hunters. 

"Ruining their days ... now! Mwahahahahahahahaha!"

Suddenly three explosion appeared between them. The hole station began to shake for a moment. The explosions were so huge that for some time the cruisers weren't visible at anymore. As they finally vanished they revealed a field of debris. 

While the others were still stunned by the explosions or like Hazard Haze laughing their asses off Cold Bone walked over to another terminal and called the security.

"This is governor Cold Bone, the enemy fleet is destroyed. Take out any surviving boarding teams and prepare for exodus. We are leaving this station." 


*******************************************


Applejack really could have used a bed right now. This day was becoming way too long for her. She was already tired when they went to Cold Bone - hell, she was already tired while was still sitting in her hold police ship - but now she really had to struggle with keeping her eyes open. But they were still on the station and so it wasn't save to sleep. The only thing between her and her pillow now was Cold Bone. Rainbow Dash agreed to take him with her because he had no ship which Applejack was perfectly okay with but sadly he insisted on staying till everyone else was gone and save. Well she had to admire that - really - but in this moment she couldn't hate Cold Bone more for his stupid sense of responsibility. 
She was sitting on Tank's bridge waiting for him to come back from saying good bye to the last ship as suddenly Rainbow Dash came in. She looked stressed.

"Everything alright?" Applejack asked after a long yawn. 

"Nope." Rainbow Dash activated a holographic screen in front of them. It showed two giant battle cruisers.

"Oh, come on ..." Applejack said bugged.

A moment later Cold Bone and Hazard Haze entered the bridge. Haze sat down in front of one of the terminals.

"I managed to move the torpedo controls to here." He said. "I recommend to start your engines, ladies. When this baby explodes we have to get away from this place very quickly."

"What range has this disintegration bomb?" Cold Bone asked.

"One big enough to destroy the hole station. But for our luck it's spreading not so fast, giving us around thirty seconds to flee."

Applejack knew that this was some kind of important and dangerous thing they were trying but she just couldn't care less in this moment. She just wanted to sleep.

"Launching warhead!" Hazard Haze announced excited.

Applejack forced her eyes to stay open to see what was happening. After some seconds a tiny green sphere appeared between the ships and began to grow. It took only some seconds for it to consume the two cruisers. Suddenly she felt the ship moving. 
As they left the hangar and went out into the space the holographic displayed deactivated itself and was replaced by the view offered by the windows.
The sphere was still growing and getting closer and closer to them while Haze kept laughing like crazy.

"Starting FTL-drive!" Someone shouted.

The last thing Applejack could see was the sphere vanishing behind the colourful lights of the FTL-travel. Then everything went dark.
> Lost in Space
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quickly after their spectacular escape everything calmed down on board of Tank again. Rainbow Dash went down to the artifact to think over its fate leaving the bridge to a slightly less than usual drunken Cleaver and a peacefully snoring Applejack while Hazard Haze and the rest of Rainbow Dash's crew went to their quarters. It was still a long journey and everyone could use some rest. The empty ship almost seemed boring for Scootaloo weren't there a certain pony which was half machine. 

"And what are your captain's plans now?" Cold Bone asked.

Scootaloo guided him along the corridors of the cruiser from his quarter to the cargo bay. Rainbow Dash offered him shelter after the destruction of Sanctuary. As far as she and Scootaloo knew he didn't have a place to stay. That was the problem if you worked together with outlaws: in the end you always were on your own, though after her sister told her what happened on Sanctuary Scootaloo didn't know what to think about him.

"She's still thinking about whether to bring the artifact to princess Twilight or to dump it somewhere in space." Scootaloo answered.

She already asked him about his abilities, but he was just dodging her questions every time. Well, she still had other ways to get her answers.

"Scootaloo I know that you are scanning me with your computer. Stop it." Cold Bone said.

Oops...

"Oh, come on. Your body is fascinating, just allow me to get a little bit information!" She begged while she kept analyzing him. She just had to understand his technology. Nothing could stop her curiosity now.

"If you don't stop it immediately I have to take that thing away from you, Scoots." Cold Bone warned her.

Suddenly she stopped walking and her eyes widened. Her first scan was finished and revealed something she would have never expected.

"Oh my god..." She whispered. "Are you ..." Her head went up from her tablet to face Cold Bone. "... a Creator?"

Cold Bone stopped and stood up on his hind legs. 

"You just couldn't stop, huh?" He asked.

Cold Bone turned around revealing his furious face before he went towards her. He pulled her up on her throat and pushed her against the wall.

"If you ever tell anybody about this I promise I will make your's and Rainbow Dash's life very, very miserable! Do you understand?!" He yelled at her.

She tried to answer but she could barely breath with his hoof on her throat. "Okay ... okay ..." 

Suddenly Cold Bone eyes widened and he let go of her before he went down on his hooves again.

"Oh my god, are okay?" Cold Bone asked concerned.

Coughing and catching for breath she looked up to him and nodded. His face looked shocked.

"I'm so sorry, Scoots. I didn't mean to hurt you." Cold Bone laid his hoof on her shoulder. "I swear that I won't harm you or your sister, but please promise me that you don't tell anybody about this, okay?"

"Okay." 

He helped her up on her hooves.

"It is just, that ... it is not only my life that depends on this ..." Cold Bone said.

"So there are more like you, Creators?" Scootaloo asked.

"Actually we aren't Creators at all. We just have access to their technology."

Scootaloo took a look on her tablet computer again and studied the files from her scan.

"You can keep them if you want. Just make sure nobody else reads them." Cold Bone said.

"Thank you."

Her scans made it very clear. Cold Bones technology had the same origin as the one of the portals and artifact but some things about her results made her quite confused.

"No offense, Cold Bone ..." She said cautiously. "... but could it be that your body is somewhat ... outdated?"

"Outdated ..." Cold Bone had to chuckle. "... you could call it like that. Told you that I ain't a creator."

He moved on to the cargo bay followed by Scootaloo. Originally she intended to guide him through the ship but it seemed like he was well aware of their way.

In the cargo bay Rainbow Dash already awaited them. She stood before the artifact scratching her chin reflectively. Scootaloo and Cold Bone walked over to her.

"So, are we going to Twilight or do we dump this thing in space, sis?" Scootaloo asked.

"I don't know, Scoots." She said somewhat exhausted. "This thing is causing us nothing but trouble, but somehow I get the feeling that it is way too important to just dump it."

"So ... Twilight?"

"Eyup."

While the two mares were talking Cold Bone walked on his hind legs around the artifact in some distance and studied it carefully. Scootaloo thought that she heard him saying something. "Where are you, buddy?"

"Huh?" She asked.

"Nothing. I was just talking to myself." He answered.

Cold Bone walked closer to the artifact and slowly reached out with his hoof for it. Suddenly a strange arc of light shot out of the artifact and connected with him. Around his hoof a ring of metal grow from its surface and slowly went along his arm followed by another ring. As the first ring went over his body it changed its shape. His hoof became a hand and his fur was replaced by a light skin. For a moment even his face was completely changed though Scootaloo could only get a short look on it because the second ring restored his original shape quickly after, but it was extremely flat and seemed to lack a muzzle at all. 

After everything was over Cold Bone leaned his head into the back and sighed.

"Aww crap..." 

"Can I ... tell her now?" Scootaloo asked with in a mixture of shock and triumph. 

"Yeah ..." He turned his head to her and gave her a surrendering expression. "... there's probably no sense in hiding anymore, huh?"

"Could you please explain me what the hell just happened and what you are talking about?" Rainbow Dash finally asked the two.

"His body uses old creators technology though he claims to not be one of them." Scootaloo explained.

"Used..." Cold Bone said.

"What?"

Cold Bone held his hoof in front him and examined it. For Scootaloo it looked like always but it seemed like something had changed for him. 

"I think this thing just updated me." Cold Bone looked at his hoof again before suddenly a glowing crystalline sword similar to the artifact appeared on its back. 

"Wow!" Scootaloo shouted excited. 

Scootaloo was absolutely sure that she had to do another scan of his body soon. Even if her equipment wasn't advanced enough to tell her everything she wanted to know, it told her at least something.

"No..." She heard him murmur while his sword disappeared.

His eyes looked empty as he continued to repeat the word.

"No, no, no, no ..."

"What is it?" She Scootaloo asked him.

"No, no, no!" Cold Bone said rapidly. "Fuck, god damnit! I waited 200000 fucking years and the first trail I got in them, is now already 30000 years old! GAHH!" He punched with his fore hooves on the upper side of the artifact. "FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!!!"

"Hey, stop that, okay?!" Rainbow Dash yelled at him while she approached him. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

Cold Bone still standing on his hind hooves suddenly turned around to her and pointed with his hoof on her.

"Just shut your mouth! I'm so freaking pissed right now and I could literally rip you and that trash can, you call a ship, apart if you bug me any more. Just leave me alone, okay?" Cold Bone said before he went off to the door. "Just let me calm down and I explain everything to you later."

Before Rainbow Dash could even ask herself what just happened a weak concussion went through the ship followed by a message from Cleaver over the speakers.

"Captain, we just fell out of FTL-speed!"

Rainbow Dash went over to a terminal in the wall.

"What happened?" She asked him.

Scootaloo was pretty sure that she knew the answer to this question: her child of sorrow she was working on for weeks now.

"The FTL-drive stopped working, looks like one of the capacitors blew up."

"I'm going down to the engine room and take a look, Rainbow Dash." Scootaloo said before she left the cargo bay.

"And where are we now?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Middle of nowhere I'm afraid. The nearest system is in a few light years distance."

That was the fundamental problem with FTL-traveling. When you had a problem you were very fast in deep shit. Without any portals in range you weren't going anywhere when the FTL-drive stopped working. You were stranded.

"Great, just great." Rainbow Dash said to herself.

"Captain, the sensors have detected something in range. It looks like an old ship wreckage." Cleaver said.


****************************************


"What the?" Somepony asked behind Rainbow Dash who was sitting in her chair on the bridge, where she was pretty much alone. The only pony bearing her company was the still snoring Applejack on a stool to her left. 

"Calmed down?" She asked the approaching Cold Bone.

"Now that I see this - yes." He answered.

"You probably noticed that we fell out of FTL-speed. Scoots says, that this was caused by some kind of weird energy field and its center seems to lie in this ship. Damn thing broke our engine."

Rainbow Dash was still astonished of the size of the ship. As they went closer to it with Tank it filled out the windows of the bridge completely. She knew that her ship wasn't very big in compare with its 450m length but this was just ridiculous. This vessel was more than 2 kilometers long. The only ship she ever heard of that could be bigger was the Dawn, the capital ship of the two sisters. 

"Couldn't you have told me, that you found this thing, earlier?" He said pointing outside the window.

"Why? Don't tell me its from the Creators and that you can fly it.?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Its design made it pretty obvious that it wasn't created by ponies or griffins. It didn't resemble any of the their characteristic design elements. Pony vessels usually were quite colorful and used a very organic shape with many curves and round forms creating every time some kind of piece of art while griffins tended to a more industrial design with cold colors and many edges and corners. This vessel instead was completely metalic and formed like a real ship swimming on the water. Its long rump tapered to its bottom and had two side elements at its rear third making it somehow looking like a catamaran. Around the front two-thirds of the rump were five rings in equally distance to each other. 

Cold Bone started to chuckle. "Actually, that the case."

"What?"

Cold Bone walked over to one of the terminals in front of Rainbow Dash's chair.

"Seems like this is my lucky day after all." He said eventually after clicking around on the monitor.

"You know that you still owe me an explanation for what happened earlier with you and the artifact."

"Yeah, yeah ... wanna take a stroll with me to that ship? I tell you everything on the way." Cold Bone said pointing at the ship wreckage. "I need to find my girl friend."

"Your what?!"
> "Your what?!"
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Your what?!"

Before Rainbow Dash got an answer, she found herself in a small, gray metallic room. As she looked around, it seemed be to almost empty. The only things in it were a chair in its middle and Cold Bone, who stood on his hind hooves in front of a big window.

"Were the buck are we?!" She demanded.

He turned around to her. "On the other ship's bridge." 

Rainbow was up to yell at him, but then a thought crossed her mind.

"Eh ... shouldn't I be dead now?" She examined her body and didn't notice any change on her. "I mean ... yes, the ship has a breathable atmosphere, but only if you ignore the temperature. Zero Kelvin is kinda cold, you know."

"I implemented some of my nanobots into your robot arm and your wing augmentations. They generate a field that protects you from dangerous environments." Cold Bone explained.

"Huh ... cool." Rainbow Dash answered while looking skeptically on here robot arm. "And why do you think, we could find your girlfriend here?"

Cold Bone turned around and leaned with his back against the window. He crossed his fore hooves in front of his chest and looked to the ground. 

"Well ... there might the little chance that she's actually responsible for our current situation."

"What?! ... But, but how? Is she some kind of technique expert?" Rainbow Dash asked skeptically.

"Yes and no, but this doesn't seem to be caused by technology, but by magic."

"You know that this weird energy field that caused us this trouble has a size of multiple light years?"

"Yes, I do." Cold Bone said before he started walking towards an exit on the other side of the room.

"Huh... I actually intended to kick her flank for trapping us here, but now I'm just impressed." Rainbow Dash told him as he passed her. "Hey, wait for me!"


****************************


Rainbow Dash and Cold Bone went for a while in silence through the dead ship. The corridor they followed was as empty as the bridge, there were no decorations or something like that, just grey metal. From time to time they passed an open door to another room, but they were no different than what they had seen in the rest of the ship.

Eventually Rainbow Dash started to talk again."So, do you mind telling me your story? I mean, you do realize, that you owe me some ... multiple ... well actually it's a huge load of explanations you owe me."  

"Yeah, yeah, I ... I know. I'm just trying to figure out what I can tell you. We usually don't talk about that with outsiders." Cold Bone responded.

"Well then, after we know each other for years now, let me ask you a simple question, Bone." Rainbow Dash grabbed his hoof and they both stopped. She looked him directly in the eyes as she started to talk again. "Do you trust me?"

Cold Bone chuckled. "That makes it much easier for me ... From the many ... many, many ponies, griffons, changelings, dragons and whathaveyou, you are one of the few beings that I actually trust, Rainbow."

"Okay, so were do I start?" Cold Bone asked himself as the continued their stroll. "Me and my friends are the last of our kind, Rainbow Dash. We once met the one responsible for the portals. He, the creator gave me this body and build this vessel - the planetary defense ship "Viktoria"."

"Wait, wait, wait ... are you telling me that a single person build the portals and all this other weird stuff floating around in space?" 

"Yes, I am ... so we used this ship and another one, we build with his technology, to fly to flee from ..." Cold Bone looked to the end of the corridor. "... yes, there it is!" He shouted and ran off to the last door at the left.

"What is there?" Rainbow Dash asked while she followed him to the door.

"The engine bay, this is the center of the field. Just have to get this thing open." Cold Bone said standing with Rainbow Dash before the door.

Cold Bone put his hoof on the metallic frame around the door causing a blue glow to emanate from it. As it slowly opened a white fog left the room through the growing gap. 
With the door fully open, a weakly glowing creature was revealed. Its body's shape was similar to one of a pony but instead of fur, it had a pale skin and instead of hooves it had to hands and feet. The only hair, Rainbow Dash could see, was on the creature's head: it was white and almost looked like a mane to Rainbow Dash. It hung down together with her long white coat she wore over a white tank top and shorts on a strange and bulky device below her. 

"Mirabel ..." Cold Bone whispered.

"So this is how your kind looks like. I expected something more ..." Rainbow Dash asked.

"Strange?" Cold Bone added.

"Yeah. I mean, you look kinda strange, but not as much as I hoped." She shrugged. "Well at least better than some kind of strange tentacle monster that shoots acid or something like that."

"Yeah ... thanks." Cold Bone answered in a slightly irritated tone.

"But what is she doing there?"

"She probably went into the engine bay to hibernate. You see that thing below her? It's the main power generator of the ship. She used its energy to stay alive and after it was dead, it seems like she used what was left in this ship and sucked it dry to zero Kelvin."

"What? Are your people some kind of energy vampires?"

"No, were aren't. In fact we didn't have any magic abilities at all, though it seemed like this was about to change. She and another girl were the first on a new step of evolution of our kind. If you would compare us to earth ponies, they would be the alicorns."

"Huh ... an alien alicorn ... thingy ... I'm not sure, if this is scary or awesome."

"Don't be afraid of us, Rainbow. We live among you since the time Discord ruled over your world. We mean no harm to your kind."

"In that case, I'm staying with "awesome"!"

She was about to enter the room as Cold Bone held his hoof in front of her face.

"Wait here, it's too dangerous." He held his hoof forward. In the moment it entered the room, its fur disappeared and its shape changed to a hand. "She's so starved out, that she will suck you dry the moment you come too close to her." He said before he took his hand down again which transformed itself back after that.

"What do we do now?"

"I think I've got an idea." Cold Bone said smirking before he disappeared in a flash leaving Rainbow Dash completely alone.

"Eh..." 

Some seconds later her radio activated itself.

"Sis, where are you?!" She heard Scootaloo asking angrily on the other side. 

"What's up, Scoots?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Stop that now!" She heard her yell to someone on the other side. "Rainbow, it's Cold Bone. He is meddling with the artifact. You need get down here and stop him!"

"Ehm ... Scoots, I'm afraid that I'm kinda out of reach ... I'm on the other ship."

"WHAT? Why didn't you take me with you?!" Scootaloo shouted at her. "Hey, hey, hey, where do you think you're going with that thing?!"

With another flash Cold Bone was back, carrying the artifact on his shoulder.

"Rainbow, he ... he took the artifact!!!" Scootaloo shouted on the other side.

"Yeah ... I know ... he's here, Scoots."

Cold Bone sighed. "I told her, she would get it back. Tell her to stop whining."

"I AM NOT WHINING!" A load scream rang in Rainbow's ear causing her to let out a pained "Ow!" while she held her ear.

"Scoots, don't worry, I've got this. Just ... just try to calm down." She said to her little sister.

"I AM CALM!" 

"Okay ... I'm hanging off now before my ear starts bleeding." Rainbow Dash said before she deactivated her earphone. "So, what do you intend to do with this thing?" She asked Cold Bone.

"Oh I'm just trying ..." Cold began while he put down the artifact. "... to recharge her." With the last words, he kicked the artifact into the engine bay.

"What the..." Rainbow Dash let out as she looked at the artifact floating towards the strange creature through a not ending storm of lightnings coming out of the creature and connecting to the artifact.

"Woah..." She let out while covering her eyes with her robot arm. 

After a while the lightnings started to taper until they completely disappeared. Rainbow Dash took down her arm and looked at the scenery. The creatures color had changed. Its mane and coat now had a red tint while her remaining clothes became slightly blue. The artifact looked different now, too. Its crystalline hull was gone and revealed a metallic core.

"I hope you didn't break it." Rainbow Dash said.

"Me too." Cold Bone answered.

He went into the room and Rainbow Dash followed him around the artifact to the creature. Standing before her he went with his fore hooves under her floating body trying to pull her up, but the moment he touched her, he transformed into a similar looking creature and broke down, falling with his face on her chest.

"Oh god, you're okay?" Rainbow Dash asked while she helped Cold Bone to get off the creature. 

"Well..."  He began with a smirk after they sat down on the ground in front of the generator under the creature. "...If you knew about our anatomy, you wouldn't ask this question."

Rainbow Dash gave him a slightly disgusted gaze. "I'm just ignoring that."

"That's probably better."

Rainbow Dash looked up and down on Cold Bone's new appearance. He was now without any fur, too, except for his gray mane that still looked like before, only that was shorter now. His skin was pale too, though it had a little more healthier color than the creature's. It was covered in blue jeans, black boots and a gray hoodie with a zipper, he wore open over a black t-shirt. 
There was another detail, that changed, but that Rainbow Dash only noticed after a while - his metallic eye was gone.

"You look ... different." Was her only comment.

"Yeah ..." Cold Bone said while examining his hand. "She tried to feed from my power. Caused an emergence shutdown of all optional systems - like the shape shifting."

"Does that mean you're okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. My systems just need some time to recharge."

"And what do we do now?" 

"Well I'm gonna wait until she wakes up. I can bring you back to your ship, if you want."

"That's wishful thinking!" Rainbow Dash shouted and put the index finger of her robot arm on Cold Bone's chest. "You still owe me some answers!"

"Uh, yes. I was disrupted with my story." Cold Bone scratched his chin reflectively. "Where was I?"

"You said something about fleeing."

Suddenly his face darkened. "Yes, of course."

"So, why did you flee?"

"Because they came." 

A hologram appeared in front of them. It showed a fleet approaching in the orbit of a blue planet similar to earth. It were countless ships with a strange organic bug-like design and becoming more and more with every second. A ship came from the surface and opened fire at the fleet. It was the Viktoria.
Shortly after the picture changed to a city on the ground. It looked rather old with many buildings made of stone, but it had also some skyscrapers in the background. Suddenly Cold Bone in his current form appeared on the picture together with six other of his kind. They looked very different from him. They were all bit smaller and thinner than him and had long manes looking similar to the female creature floating behind Cold Bone and Rainbow Dash. Actually she was part of the group in the hologram. Some of the creatures fought similar to him with weapons attached to their bodies while the female creature and two more seemed to be using magic instead and fired lighting beams with their hands. As Rainbow Dash looked closer at them, she could detect transparent horns on their foreheads and wings on their back. The camera turned in the direction of their shots and revealed multiple house sized mechs with a similar organic bug-like design like the ships before firing back at them.

"With the technological advantages given to us from the creator, we tried to defend our people ... " Cold Bone struggled to retain his composure.  "... but we failed." 

The hologram changed again and showed others of his kind running away from something shooting cyan lightnings at them. Many of them were hit and fell motionlessly to the ground. The camera turned and showed an army of metallic warriors. They looked very different to mechs and ships before. They were of the size of their victims, maybe a bit bigger and were almost formed like skeletons with a thin layer of metallic skin. Some of them had big guns attached to their shoulders instead of arms, while the most of them used weapons attached to the back of their wrists. They looked exactly like the ones Cold Bone were using. Then a mysterious figure appeared in front of them. It was dressed in a black coat with a hood and black trousers and wore gloves and a white mask hiding its face. It too had a transparent horn and wings. Rainbow Dash couldn't tell whether it was one of Cold Bone's kind or something else, but it kind of reminded her of the grim reaper.
Shortly before the hologram vanished the figure fired a magical beam in the direction of the fleeing people. 

"But ... who was that in the end? Did that guy just use magic and why did his army look so different?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"He was the one that made the deal with devil that saved our world. An army to defeat the Invaders at cost of our people. We used everything we had against him, but it wasn't enough. Even the elements couldn't defeat him."

Rainbow Dash stared at him skeptically.

"You had the elements ... the elements of harmony?"

"I already said too much."

"Come on, you can't just stop your story with such a cliffhanger!"

"No, this knowledge is too dangerous. For both of our peoples."

"Ohh ... okay." 

"Just ask something different, okay?" Cold Bone said hurried.

"Well, you still haven't told me what you actually are."

"What do you mean? I'm a mind in a machine."

"No, how do you call yourselves?"

Suddenly the smiling face of the female creature appeared over Rainbow Dash's head and looked her with her red eyes in the face, while her hair was now changed into a flame and blazed over her.

"We're humans." Suddenly her smile widened creepily and revealed sharp teeth. "We used to ride and eat your kind!"
> Robert and Mirabel
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.