She did not know how long she had been crying. Tears pooled in her helmet, clouding her vision, but just as she straightened herself, some function in her suit absorbed the fluids. Diesel was gone, leaving Shetland with the debris of disabled machines. They'd been shot… had she done it herself, or was it Diesel without her noticing? Could have been both. Shetland shook her head. Everything seemed so surreal. Had it really only been a day? No, it only could have been an hour. Two hours. Or three…
Closing her eyes, Shetland took a deep breath, forcing her mind to focus on something practical. Diesel was probably looking for survivors. Shetland hoped dearly there'd be somepony else, the captain, anypony with authority, who knew what to do. And she'd have to shoot every drone, just to be safe. With a clear goal in mind, she pulled herself to the tube. A cry escaped her sore throat. Her hindleg throbbed with pain, as if it was splitting apart and doused in flames. Even more unnerving, however, was a deep-seated prickle. It felt like it was coming from the bone itself…
Gritting her teeth, she pulled herself onwards. There'd be painkillers in the cargo. She pushed her way through the tube, pushing drone parts to the side. Suddenly, her eyes widened and she came to a standstill.
Press.
Last time she saw him, his body was seated against a wall, looking like he was leaning back, as if maybe he was just sleeping. But there was no sitting in space. Instead, his body slowly coursed through the air, his limbs pulling away from his body as he slowly spun around himself. A mock parody of even a string puppet. Alien. Shetland's eyes couldn't pull away as he, almost gracefully, crossed the room in his flight until he collided with a severed hoof, Shetland couldn't tell who it belonged to. She forced her eyes away and pulled up her nose, yet the image remained even as her eyes closed. She pushed onwards, through floating debris, weapons, cover, ponies. Her mind soon blanched, overwhelmed and unwilling to recognize any more faces.
“Hello?” She shouted, but nopony answered. “You can come out now! The danger is gone!” she shouted, but nopony came. She went through the ship, calling out like that. She couldn't tell if her hope was fading. Indeed, she felt too numb to even tell if she'd harbored any.
“Shetland…” Diesel's tired voice came from ahead. Shetland followed it, moving into what was clearly the cockpit, from the sheer abundance of buttons alone. A big, wooden wheel brought out a ghost of a chuckle. Shetland could almost see Captain Void Waver standing there, shouting orders.
“Shetland…” Diesel's voice said again.
Shetland pulled back, blinking. Diesel had taken Waver's place, floating in front of the wheel. She had ditched her armor and her wings were free, although they hung limply at her side. She looked smaller than ever. She looked up at the taller mare. Her eyes lacked any light. “Have you found anypony?” .
Shetland shook her head and Diesel sighed. “Of course…” she mumbled.
Looking down at her hooves, Shetland bit her lip. “We have to go to Horizon,” she decided. “We have to bring them the news, tell them it isn't safe anymore, ships have to be guarded-”
“Shetland?” Diesel asked weakly, but the earth pony suddenly stood stiff as a statue. Her lips moved silently, forming the words “Horizon.”
“They came from the colony!” Shetland exclaimed.
“Shetland-”
“It makes sense! They were on our way, just waiting for us to fall in their trap, but why would there only be drones, you can't possibly launch a real attack with just support drones-” she gasped as it dawned on her. “Diesel… the real invaders could still be in the colony, plundering or who knows what, we need to warn-”
“SHETLAND!” Diesel shouted. “WE'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!”
“W-what?” Shetland said, taken aback.
“Shetland.” The pegasus said, her voice shaken from anger or desperation. “We're finished! Maybe it hasn't gotten into your thick skull, but I. Can't. Fly. This. Ship. CAN YOU?”
Shetland went pale. “But… what if we send out an S.O.S. L-like they did?”
“We can't.” Diesel said, pressing a hoof to her forehead. “We can't. I thought we'd be able to, but when your friend failed to push the stupid lever, we… we lost too much air.” Her wing spread out. “Tonight, at the latest… we'll faint. And we won't wake up again. No help will arrive that fast. We're doomed.” she finished with a haunting whisper.
Shetland stood silent as her brain tried desperately to find any loopholes, but failed. Instead, it filled her with anger. “Ciloa did not fail.” she whispered, barely containing her emotions. “She did her best. It wasn't her fault, an accident.”
“Fault or not, she doomed us!” Diesel cried out. “If she hadn't failed to just push a lever- If your stupid friend hadn't charged brainlessly ahead, If you cowards hadn't hid in the back, cowering while everypony who could save us now was SLAUGHTERED, maybe, maybe IF YOU DID YOUR JOBS-”
“WE DID THE BEST WE COULD!” Shetland shouted, building herself up over the pegasus, glaring her down with a ferocity she'd never felt before. “NEVER INSULT MY FRIENDS AGAIN! THEY SACRIFICED THEIR LIVES!”
“You sacrificed OUR lives. You're the soldiers, it's your job to die first, how come you're still alive?”
Before Diesel could react, Shetland had grabbed her gullet and squeezed. “Don't. Insult my friends, you spineless little worm. You wouldn't even be here without them.”
Diesel coughed as she was released. Glaring at Shetland with anger-filled eyes, she mumbled. “There's nothing you can do to me. We're already finished.” With that, she turned her back to Shetland, whose burning feeling was drowned by an icy numbness. Diesel was right. They were both finished anyway. It was only a matter of waiting for the inevitable. She turned away as her stomach grumbled. If she had to die, she wouldn't do so hungrily.
It seemed a small group of ponies had fought a desperate last stand in the “kitchen”. With a bit of help, they might have even succeeded, Shetland realized, as the doorway was filled with destroyed robots… their only pistol probably ran out of ammo and as the unicorn struggled to reload-
Shetland focused her eyes on a pole, from which hung plastic bags, labelled with things as, “Cereal bars”, “Nutrient Chalk”, “Potatoes” and “Cheese”. From far behind her, a shot rang out, followed by silence. Diesel found a way out, Shetland thought, biting into a slice of cheese. Lucky mare. Silently munching, she scanned the remaining bags, already resigning herself that she wouldn't find any roasted crickets, her favorite dish… Twilight had always brought them when she'd finished a test, regardless of how well she did…
Yes, back then, her mother had always cheered for her, she had said herself that she wanted her to succeed, no matter what that… that…
Twilight deserved to know what happened. If only they'd ever resolved their argument, it felt so stupid now. Shetland made her way to the cargo as an uncomfortably hot feeling grew in her chest. After a while of aimless rummaging, she found a helmet. It was too small to wear, but she only wanted its recorder. Removing her own helmet, she switched it on.
“Test,” she said.
“Test,” the playback said, carrying her loud breathing with it .
Shetland took a last bite from her nutrient chalk. It was disgusting, but at least it made her feel a little less empty. She let the plastic bag go, where it floated within hoof's reach, right next to her pistol. Everything was ready. Pressing her eyes closed to gather herself, Shetland switched on the recording.
“H-hey, mom,” she stammered, as her lip quivered. “I-I don't know if this will e-ever reach you, but…” She took a long, shallow breath.”I-I guess you don't age so maybe in like, a- thousand or, he- heck, even a million-” She stocked. “If… If you even remember me at that point, mom, I-I'm Shetland.” Her eyes were burning, as hot tears broke the dam, as well as memories and feelings, bringing her to openly sob. “I-I just wanted you to know, this is how I… died. I'm so sorry. Please, I-if you receive this message, ever, please direct it to my mom… Twilight Sparkle.” Tears were clouding her vision, even as she shook her head. She switched the recording off, her shaky hoof catapulting the helmet away into the room. It was time. Shetland took a deep breath as she took her gun. The muzzle felt cool against her temple. “On three…” she whispered.
“One…” She swallowed, her throat felt as dry as a desert.
“Two…” Her body shook like a fever patient's. Tears poured from her eyes, slowly floating away in little bubbles.
“Three!” she shouted, her hoof clenching the gun. Her eyes shot open. She hadn't pulled the trigger. She strained her hoof, but it was shaking so badly it wasn't even pointed at her head anymore. In a fit of rage, she threw the gun aside. Her breath went heavy, ragged as the blood drained from her face. This was now finally it, she realized as hot tears welled from her eyes. Too cowardly to even end it, she'd just doomed herself… to slow, and undeniably certain death.
She had no idea how long she would have lied there, probably up until her suffocation, but her medication was wearing off and the painful throbbing forced her up again. Rummaging through the crates, she found explosives, tools, steel plates, several medical kits she quickly robbed. A sigh escaped her lips as pain was replaced by relaxing numbness. Cans, water bottles, weapons- Shetland let out a gasp as she discovered a robot.
Not a skeletal drone, but a real robot, like Toasty Crunch! Temptation guided her hoof, but she slapped herself. She looked into the corridor, where a corpse's hoof was moving over its shoulder, grotesquely waving at Shetland. She shouldn't awaken this robot: if it was sentient, she'd subject it to this, a hopeless prison. Her hoof crept up the back of its head, bumping into a tiny switch. Looking down onto it, she whispered: “I'm sorry.” She simply couldn't bear the thought of slowly suffocating alone.
Electric life came to the machine's visor and a shock went through its limbs, catapulting itself away from Shetland. Tumbling through the air, a metallic, but certainly male voice intoned: “Startup sequence completed, initialize scan of surroundings.” His hoof reached out, holding himself to a crate. It focused on Shetland. “Have we arrived yet?” It asked of her, scanning her up and down. “Greetings. I am designated as Mellow Drive, but you can call me Mellow. Could you-” His voice slowly changed from conversational to horrified as he turned towards the remains of battle. “What happened here?” he asked, almost too silent for her to hear.
Shetland sighed, digging out a bottle of some liquor she didn’t know. Opening the lid, she shook out a few floating bubbles which she promptly pushed in her mouth, then she began to explain.
Mellow took it better than she'd feared, probably because he wasn't there to see it all. Still, he was staring at the ground, his processor running at audible sounds. “Everypony is dead…” he whispered. “And you are dead because they're dead…”
“Yup.” Shetland let out a long sigh. “No other way to put it. Unless you know how to pilot a spaceship?”
He shook his head.
“Figures.” she leaned back, lying flat in the air.
“But there has to be a way!” he shouted, looking at her, pleading.
“Sorry, Mellow.” Shetland said quietly. “But there's just nothing…”
“NO!” he said loudly. “Maybe you alone can't find a way, but maybe I can?”
Shetland met his optimistic expression with tired eyes. His visor was actually displaying a little smiley-face. Nonetheless, she knew he was only trying to give her hope. Even if he was an A.I., that alone wouldn't mean he could fly a ship.
She blinked. Something about that thought switched on a light in her head. “Oh Celestia,” she whispered, a smile forming on her face for the first time in hours. “I think I might have a way out of here.”