//------------------------------// // 22: Ghosts on the Ship // Story: Shadowbolt Chronicles: Codename Prism // by RDDash //------------------------------// Previously… Twilight Sparkle trying to have a heart to heart conversation with Rainbow when Rainbow Dash suddenly interrupted her, “I know that I am breaking some extremely important moment here but we are about to finish off the scanning procedure and well yeah, sorry about that.” And now the story continues… Rainbow Dash suddenly stood up and looked around Rarity and AJ fell asleep, and Twilight was so tired that she too had been snoozing on the chair nearby. “Good, the fewer ponies I will involve in this the better!” Rainbow Dash what are you thinking?[/] buzzed in her ear. “What I am actually thinking is that I don't actually want to involve them in what is about to happen,” She trotted next to the ships armory, she took out the Rapid Fire Plasma Rifle, this particular model had been modified to fire extremely rapidly, technically it was just as awesome as she was. Rainbow took the old power pack and then swapped for a brand new one. The readout displayed full charge 160/160 of energy and guaranteed to last for full three seconds of continuous fire. As per usual, it fired 4 energy per shot. That was 2.24 seconds faster than her previous model of plasma weaponry, and had a bit of sensitive trigger so at a best she was hoping for is blasting of two shots when she would have pulled the trigger. But still the extra speed was awesome and sometimes that's all that matters. How did she know that, well she had plenty of time to practice firing it against dummy robots as well as sometimes against live targets. On her hip, she did have an experimental emp pistol, although to be completely honest that gun was in the ship armory as well, and before today she never had such nice toys to play with. Do you actually think that would work. “You probably know by now that I am crazy enough to try.” True that. “According to the scan results there are about three dozen of temporal quantum signatures scattered around all over the ship, and that means...“ Rainbow made sure she made a dramatic pause, “I am going to kick them off my ship.” She trotted outside of deck thirty-four door snapped closed behind her. “Lock that door shut until I return.” About several minutes later Twilight Sparkle woke up from her sleep, and then she noticed that Rainbow Dash was missing, “Oh that's just great, where did she go!” According to my calculations, Rainbow Dash go out to play a hero, she specifically told me to keep you three inside for your own safety. “Celestia! Would you please just stop talking like a robot, even though you are kind of like one.” My student, I will not take any offense at that, even though for almost two hundred or so years I have forgotten what it feels like to be alive. Twilight bitterly swallowed, she felt somewhat betrayed by a coldness of the voice that's been coming from the speakers. It almost sounded not caring about anything. Twilight stood up and then by some random and unknown reason she ended up retracing the same exact steps that Rainbow previously took. Twilight, what are you doing? “Celestia, it really pains for me to say this, but have you forgotten everything. When… when Nightmare Moon came back you sent me to Ponyville to make five wonderful friends.” Celestia was silent for a moment, Twilight used the moment of silence to pick up the nearby weapon, a regular old plasma pistol with 40/40 energy charge. You don't even know how to use it.” “I've learned enough from her memories, so it's not really a problem.” Twilight almost reached the doors and then tried to open them, they refused to do so. “Celestia please, open the door.” I am afraid I can't do that “Celestia, open the Tartarus damned door.” By the law of a fleet I must obey the chain of command, and you are not in a chain of command. This only infuriated Twilight, “You are not the damned machine. You are Princess Celestia of Equestria, your sister is Princess Luna of Equestria, and I am your faithful student. Now please open the door.” This time Celestia stayed silent for a lot longer than few minutes. I've only trying to protect you, and by staying here you are most likely to stay protected….my student. “Without my help, she is going to die out there. I never expected you to be so… so cold, you are willing to throw her life away in exchange for our own.” The war changes ponies, I just never thought it going to change me. Before I knew it everything went to Tartarus. Because of my failure to act so many ponies lost their lives. In the last day of the war, I watched my own sister die trying to defend the doomed city. Although by that time I was already trapped in SPP, my body and mind had been forcefully separated, and I... this is only a fair punishment for my stupidity. I remember that if everything was left as it were, then you would have ended up doing some stupid project for Ministry of Magic. Fluttershy would invent the most deadly weapon known to ponykind as a weapon of peace, and then branded a traitor. Rainbow Dash would probably be absorbed in the stupid war fighting it, Pinkie Pie would... Pinkie Pie wouldn't be herself anymore, because like I said war changes ponies. I don't know, maybe I felt a little bit selfish, but I was willing to sacrifice lives to save lives that did matter to me. Twilight quickly glanced at the micro-fusion grenade, if it needs to be she going to toss it. Don't bother the doors are blast proof, they have to be because this is an armory, we don't want to start a chain reaction, are we? Don't worry if you really want a quick death I will not stop you. The doors almost instantly opened giving Twilight a quick and easy route to escape. Twilight silently trying to swallow her tears, “This is… this is not what it was all about. You tried to teach us all of the lessons about friendship and you are just saying that it was all for nothing?” Sometimes, I’ve been wondering the same exact question…. Twilight just couldn't take it anymore, she was about to run away but instead, she was stopped by a voice of her two other friends. She was called by Applejack and Rarity, “Wait just a gosh darn minute, where do you think you are going Twilight?” Twilight turned back around, “Your accent is showing again, AJ.” “Don't you dare to make fun of me, missy.” Rarity sighed, “What Applejack is trying to say is you better come back with that troublemaker of ours. Please keep yourself safe. Don't worry about the two of us, we are going to be just fine.” Twilight nodded, “I am sure that you will, Isn't that why Rainbow Dash looked us all in here, she thought we would be safe here. ” “But?” Rarity asked “But I just need to go and help her, I am sorry!” “That's fine, Twilight, we understand.Applejack doesn't really want to admit this, but she actually cares about Rainbow.” Twilight slowly exited the deck, and she watched how the door snapped shut behind her. “Alright, there is no turning back now.” Suddenly, as she was about to enter the next corridor she was spooked by a sudden appearance of an old earth pony with sunglasses. “Hello, there!” “Gaah!” Twilight screamed at him in fright aiming the gun at him “Who are you, I almost shot you!” “Shot me, but I am harmless,” he tried to protest. “They call me the Doctor.” “On a contrary, I don't really trust strangers who go around in corridors of the old starships scaring ponies. By the way, my name is Twilight.” “Kind of my fault here, so sorry about that, you know I didn't really expect to meet anypony here.” Twilight raised an eyebrow at him, “Really, and why is that?” “Well you know its very old ship, and I thought that nopony was on board...” “Except yourself?” “Except myself,” he silently agreed with her. “Right!” Twilight acted like what he said to her was completely believable and makes sense. They continued to travel along the corridors, as Twilight was trying to find Rainbow, “So why are you here miss Sparkle?” the old stallion suddenly asked her. “Well. I just had a small argument with my teacher, not so much with my friends, and now I am trying to find my other friend, who left me behind at the armory. Why are you here Mr. Doctor?” She threw his own question back at him. “I just go where I need it the most, and it looks like I needed it to be here right now.” “But why, I mean do you actually have it entertaining to travel on empty starships?” “It's not that I might find it very lonely, or even entertaining as you would say. It's just the fewer people I will involve with myself, the less of them will end up hurt in the process.” Twilight raised an eyebrow in sadness, “Oh!” She thought about that it was a noble concept in general, it's just... “Oh?” he asked curiously. “I just thought that what you just said reminded me of what my friend tried to do, that's all there is to it.” “Uh! She did lock you in the armory, why is that?” “Because she thought that's the safest place on the whole ship,” Twilight sounded slightly annoyed. For a moment she thought she already had said that. The Doctor thought for a second, “No, not that. I mean why did she do that? She won't have done that if she didn't think that you were not in danger.” “She thinks that there is something on this ship is very dangerous, but...” Twilight paused. “Doctor, I don’t know what it is, is just… you've been here on this ship with us right?” “Well yeah! But who else is out there?” “Exactly!” Twilight beamed, ‘There are three of us in the armory as well as my teacher. There are also a second group of ponies on the bridge right now, and they are two more somewhere out there. I am not sure if that makes sense but the rest of the ship is empty. “Or it might appear empty because whatever it is your friend afraid of and therefore had been trying to keep you safe from is very good at hiding.” “Well I think she took a rapid-fire plasma rifle with her, so I suppose that she is very afraid of ghosts.” Doctor, or how he sometimes being called Doctor Whoves only shook his head in disappointment. “Do you believe in ghosts?” “Doctor, about two days ago I would have told you that I didn't believe in the existence of zombies, however, I had an unfortunate experience with seeing the memories of a pony who saw real-life zombies, or how they are called as ghouls. “I don't know if there are a bunch of ghosts out there in a cold darkness of space, but if there are then I would have probably have seen them with my own eyes, and if necessary I would have been very afraid.” “And nopony would have blamed you for that, now then let's go find your friend of yours.” ... Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash had her own problems. For almost two hours she had been streaming two data streams into her brain. One from Sweetie Belle and another one from Celestia. According to Sweetie Belle she and CMC, as well as Big Mac and Fluttershy, had been currently isolated on the bridge, ironically the second safest place on the starship. It would need to be because it's required to house a crew that will issue commands to the rest of the ship. It would be foolish to assume that the bridge is protected only through a see-through environmental blast shield or how some ponies would refer as Are you crazy, this window is made of fragile glass. Another thing was Sweetie Belle herself, an extremely deadly starship AI designed as an innocent preteen filly. “Pinkie Pie and Gilda, Pinkie Pie and Gilda,” She slowly mumbled to herself speeding at the speed of the bullet trying to get to them in time. They are just around the corner... replied Sweetie Bell. Rainbow had been emotionally prepared to do an almost an impossible maneuver right now she is going to hopefully piss off enough of them to follow her into a trap, the same trap they carefully devised and then orchestrated, the trap that would require a lot of speed from her to pull it off. … Gilda still couldn't shake off the feeling that something is wrong, she thought to harass Pinkie Pie a bit more but instead of that she just wanted to come back to where others are, but Pinkie suddenly had different plans. For some reason, she decided to quietly start to annoy her, before she could have any chance of it “Where are we going anyway, I have no idea, do you?” Gilda sighed “Pinkie please, don’t you dare to start it now.” “Start what now, I have no clue what are you talking about?” Gilda groaned, “I know I’ve made a lot of mistakes and I know I kind of deserved… and, I thought we already covered all the points.” “Oh, I know that there is no point to rehash the same thing over and over, its just I am trying to engage you in conversation.” “That's okay Pinkie, I am not sure that's actually, ” she paused. “Oh for goodness sake, what am I doing?” “Engaging in a conversation,” Pinkie Pie offered hopefully. “That's okay, all of us have a soft side inside of us.” “Not me,” Gilda shook her head “Definitely not me,” another pause, “Look just let’s keep on going.” “Okay.” At the almost exact same time when they were about to continue going Rainbow Dash managed to crash into both of them. “Oh for frick sake! What now?” Pinkie Pie giggled, “Oh hi Dashe, we were about to go and join with everypony else,” Then she noticed the new gear in Rainbow’s hooves. “I know we are all a bit paranoid here, but do you really need all of that fancy weaponry?” “Hold on Pinkie, I just need a few seconds to focus myself,” Rainbow Dash stood up on rear hoof position and then aimed the barrel of a plasma rifle at something that being behind them, “and then kick off the trash of my ship.” “I knew it, there is something dangerous behind us.” “Yep, now step aside this gun is very rapid.” “Are you going to kill again?” “I doubt that, so far as we could tell those things are unkillable, trust me we already tried that.” “We, who in the hey are we?” Rainbow laughed, “Me, Celestia, and Sweetie had been running a few extra tests during the security scans, a few automatic security turrets were lost during those tests.” She then suddenly reacted “Run!” Gilda and Pinkie Pie glanced at each other and then started running down the corridor. “Have you noticed she never blinked during our conversation?” Gilda nodded to her “I kind of did.” behind them they heard Rainbow started to giggle in a maniacal sort of way “Do you think she is starting to lose her mind?” Pinkie asked another question “Probably yeah!” … Rainbow finished her giggling  “You know what I actually found very funny?” What? “Celestia would probably never going to listen to me anyway, I only told her to shut the door close. I never told her to keep that stupid door closed.” she then pulled the trigger of the gun because she was about to break her endurance and blink by mistake. A stream of pink plasma splashed down onto the target. As the bonus, because she was in the half-lighted room, the flashes of the plasma created the blinking effect that caused her target to move during each of the flashes. Rainbow Dash only increased the intensity causing the gun spewing plasma even faster than it was before. Unfortunately for her the three seconds were just three seconds and after a brief period of rage and screaming, mostly from her opponent, she heard a release click from the gun and then the ammo clip fell on the floor. She quickly swapped a brand new clip and only continued firing her gun at the statue. “Come on you ugly abomination of a pegasus, I know you are angry right now, come on and get me, I am the fastest pegasus in Equestria.”