The Crusaders looked back and forth between Sunset and Sunburst.
"You two know each other?" Sweetie Belle asked.
Sunburst gave a drawn-out sigh as he smiled meekly and rubbed the back of his neck, "It’s been a long time hasn’t it, Sunset?"
Sunset crossed her arms as she grumbled through gritted teeth, "Not long enough."
Sweetie Belle was about to speak up when a rapid beeping came from Scootaloo’s console, grabbing everyone’s attention.
"We’ve got company~!" Scootaloo shouted.
"Get behind me!" Sunset shouted as she raised an automatic rifle at the elevator doors, which promptly exploded in a bright flash of light, causing everyone to avert their eyes for a second as they retreated back down the corridor. Bullets began pouring in as Imperial soldiers waded through the massive amount of smoke created by the explosion that opened the elevator doors. Sunset fired back, covering Sunburst and the Crusaders as they withdrew into the hall. Finding good cover behind a pair of structural pillars, Sunset and Scootaloo were on one side while Sunburst, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom were standing across from them. Sunset occasionally peaked out from behind the pillar to fire a random spread to kill or dissuade any soldiers coming down the hallway.
"What's your escape plan now?" Sunburst yelled over the noise of constant gunfire.
"Shut up, you!" Sunset yelled at Sunburst as she peeked out again to fire another volley of bullets.
Sunburst huffed and rolled his eyes as he looked at the grate behind Scootaloo. His horn lit up as a magic aura enveloped his hands, and a modified Taurus Model 85 appeared in them. The gun's modifications were a brass coating, a longer barrel, and a more rounded grip. He opened up the revolver's cylinder, took out a crystal bullet and charged it with his light-yellow magic. The round was reloaded and chambered before it was fired at the grate behind Scootaloo, exploding and creating a hole in it, startling everyone around him.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Sunset yelled.
"Somepony's gotta save our hides," Sunburst responded as he walked to the other side of the hallway, taking three blind potshots at the soldiers as he went along, and jumped down the newly opened grate.
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom shared wide-eyed glances before they jumped down after Sunburst without a word. Sweetie Belle followed after them but stopped just short of jumping in.
"Get in there!" Sunset commanded.
"Oh Faust, it smells!" Sweetie Belle complained.
"Get in there! I don't care what you smell!"
Sweetie Belle was leaning in the opened grate head first when Sunset side-kicked her in the butt, causing her to fall, screaming a shrill screech all the way down.
After a short moment, Sunset followed suit, managing to kill a couple guards before she made her escape down the chute, diving head first.
---
Shining Armor walked down the halls of Deck 13 at a brisk pace. He was continually casting a spell that stretched out around him to detect any oncoming personnel who may sound an alarm if they were to see him. Unfortunately, this made him a beacon to the uneasy presence on board, a presence he was uncomfortably familiar with; a presence that was closing in on him ever so slowly with each passing moment and he knew it. He also knew he would have to face this presence eventually, but first, he had to make sure that his friend and his rescuers could get off this ship alive.
Shining found the door to the external defenses computer core. His detection spell informed him that no one was in the room, so he entered. The room had rows of monitors lining the walls and out in the middle. Shining approached one of the screens in the center of the room, pulled out a large neon green crystal from a pocket in his cloak and stabbed it into the display, causing sparks to fly out of it. As the crystal sat in the broken monitor, it began to glow as sharp, squared, magic tendrils emerged and stretched across to other screens. The tendrils reached into the computers and caused lines of text to appear on the displays, the lines appearing longer and faster with each second before, one by one, the screens turned blue with a static wall of white text. Satisfied with his work, Shining walked out and shut the door as the green crystal began to shine a bright white before self-destructing, exploding into smaller, almost imperceptible, shards, leaving only blue screens of death and an empty hole in a broken screen.
The uneasy presence had gained a lot of ground during the time Shining Armor spent sabotaging the defense systems; for all intents and purposes, he could feel the presence as if it was right around the corner. Shining wasted little time in making his way towards the docking bay.
The presence was still closing in on him; he knew he could not evade it forever.
He was prepared.
---
Sunset got up from where she landed, "The garbage chute, what a wonderful idea," she said, her voice drenched in as much sarcasm as she was in sewage. "What an incredible smell you’ve discovered!"
Sunburst groaned as he rolled his eyes, wiping off as much solid garbage as he could off of him. Apple Bloom was holding up Sweetie Belle as she struggled to keep the contents of her stomach inside her stomach while Scootaloo was tampering with the door trying to get it open.
"Now," Sunset continued, "We’re presumably stuck inside a trash compactor with no way of shuttin’ it down from the inside, and we are goin’ to be crushed to death - if a xuèxīng garbage monster doesn’t decide to drown us first!"
"Oh, would you stop!" Sunburst snapped. "Now is not the time for this fèihuà! We need to focus on getting out of here before any of that happens!"
Apple Bloom helped Sweetie Belle set herself down on some high ground, as far away from the water as she could. Sweetie was breathing laboriously, her eyes watering from the exertion of control over her gag reflex and the sheer stench of the place.
"While we’re waitin’ fer Scootaloo to open the door," Apple Bloom stated, getting impatient at the two's bickering and not wanting it to go any further, "Why don’t we try to get yer romantic issues out of the way?"
Sunset and Sunburst looked at Apple Bloom in disbelief.
"Gross!" they both yelled out loud.
"That’s my brother!"
"That’s my sister!"
Apple Bloom smacked her lips, "Oh..." and she awkwardly turned back to comforting Sweetie Belle, who managed to slow her breathing back to a regular pace.
"So," Sunburst began, turning around to face his sister, "What brought you to my little prison cell? Not checking in to see how your dear younger brother is doing, I'd wager."
"I was hired to save your scrawny little pi gu." Sunset sneered. She then waved a hand dismissively, "You're just lucky that my employer didn't say who you were. Otherwise, I might not have taken the job, and you would be executed by now."
"Oh, is that all?" Sunburst scoffed, "You didn't miss me? You didn't come and save your little brother from execution because you love him? You didn't come back to apologize for leaving home, without a word!?" he practically screamed that last question.
Sunset raised an eyebrow, "What's it matter? You pretty much had the easy life. Mom and dad always gave you everything you asked for. You never got in trouble for anything. They always showered you with praises. You got into Celestia's school for gifted unicorns just because you got your cutie mark. I was ignored by mom and dad for three months after that, it was like I didn't even exist and I had already gotten into Celestia's school, and I earned my spot, gorram it! You slacked off on all of your studies every chance you got!"
"At least I didn't kill mom and dad!" Sunburst snapped.
Sunset recoiled, "What are you talking about?"
"When you didn't come home that hearth's warming eve mom and dad started to get worried. 'Oh, she'll be fine.' They said, 'Probably just hung up on her studies, being a good student and all. She'll be here tomorrow.' A week went by, then a month. Nothing. Not even a note in your room saying when you left or why. They were heartbroken when they realized that you were never coming back. One day, I came home and found mom and dad passed out drunk on the floor clutching a picture of you in their hands. At least, I thought they were passed out, but their eyes were open, bloodshot, face stained with tears. Even as I moved them for the first few moments, it seemed that they refused to take their eyes off the picture they had in their hands." he sniffled and wiped his nose with a sleeve, a decision he immediately regretted afterward as he gagged at the rancid smell.
Sunset was breathing raggedly, trying to process just what she had been told and not to be overcome with emotion, a skill she learned quickly when working with ponies such as Badger or Flim and Flam, but now she felt that her poker face was at its limits.
"H-how are we on the... d-door, Squirt?"
Scootaloo eyed the arguing siblings briefly before wordlessly touching the ends of two cut wires, opening the door out of the garbage-filled room. Sweetie Belle bolted from her perch and out the door, taking deep gasping breaths of clean(er) air, everyone else following suit, albeit at a less vigorous pace.
---
Shining Armor was walking at a hastened pace down a hallway. He was a short ways away from the hangar when the presence he had wanted to avoid his entire visit on this ship was right in front of him only a few yards away. Twilight Sparkle. Shining's pulse skyrocketed as he came to a sudden stop in his tracks at the sight of his now evil younger sister.
Twilight was standing imposingly as she stared at Shining with a sinister smile while Starlight managed to catch up with her master and paused to catch her breath.
Starlight took note of Shining Armor, "Is this the presence you sensed?"
"Yes," Twilight said slowly, "Shining Armor, my B.B.B.F.F."
Starlight tilted her head quizzically.
"Big Brother Best Friend Forever." Twilight clarified.
Shining’s eyes narrowed. "You don't deserve to call me that anymore."
Twilight put a hand to her chest as she feigned hurt. “Hurtful~. Are you not my big brother? The only one in fact; it’s easy to be the best when you’re the only one, just look at me: Best Princess.”
“You’re no princess, Twilight. You’re a tyrant. And there’s still Cadence.”
Twilight held up an index finger, “Empress,” she corrected, “-is my official title. And your wife? She will be dealt with rather easily- if past experience is anything to go by.”
Shining snarled.
“Yes, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, ruler of the Crystal Empire and best foalsitter I’ve ever had, will be dealt with especially easily once you’re out of the picture. Without you, there will be nopony other than Cadence herself that can hold up a shield that can withstand a bombardment that my armada can deliver. Not that your shields would survive against my new weapon-” Twilight gasped as a realization hit her, “Is that why you’re here? To destroy my superweapon?” she gave a sinister chuckle, “You’re more delusional than I give you credit for, Shiny. Of all the stupid things you have done in your life- ha!- this has to be the dumbest thing I can think of.”
Shining said nothing as he continued to stare at Twilight with deep, controlled breathing.
Twilight frowned, “You’re no fun anymore.” She nodded her head towards Starlight, “Kill him.”
Without a word, Starlight lit her magic cyan blade, closed the gap between her and Shining Armor in the blink of an eye and attacked with an overhead blow. Which Shining nimbly dodged out of the way as he pressed the elevator call button. Starlight snarled as she redirected her next attack into a horizontal slash. Shining summoned a light cerulean blade with his magic and successfully caught the attack as he held his sword upside down.
“I see you’ve learned how to summon a lightsaber, Shiny.” Twilight said, observing intently from the sidelines, “Only extremely powerful unicorns- or moderately powerful alicorns- are capable of pulling that off. I should have known you would have figured it out eventually. What, with all those comic books you’ve read.”
Starlight pressed down on her sword, inching the crossed blades closer to Shining’s body. He could feel the heat emanating from the clashing blades as if they were threatening to burn his skin underneath his clothes. Shining gave a slight groan under the pressure that was pressed upon him before pushing back, his military training giving him an advantage in being able to overpower Starlight in physical strength. Starlight skidded backward about a foot before she let off, jumping back several more feet, giving Shining Armor the breathing room he was looking for as he shifted his sword hand upright, using his non-dominant hand to wave a “come at me” taunt with two fingers. Starlight didn’t take too kindly to the taunting gesture as she rushed at Shining, with an underhand diagonal strike. Shining charged forward as well. Seeing she was expecting him to meet her with a crossing blade, he instead opted for a magic-assisted boost to his speed, managing to outpace the swing of her saber as he spun his body around Starlight’s, barely avoiding physical collision as he flicked a finger behind her ear as they passed. Starlight flinched and stumbled a little after feeling the sharp pain behind her ear. She turned to face the cause of her injury to see him smirking as he held his sword at the ready, and could hear Twilight trying to stifle a snicker. Ok, now Starlight was pissed. Her sword briefly flashed a blood red as she lunged at him yet again with another overhead strike and Shining blocked it with his sword held horizontally over their heads.
“You’re being predictable,” Shining said to Starlight as if he were talking to a student of his own. “If you want to win a fight like this,” he continued as Starlight let off and came back with another, anticipated, horizontal strike, “You’re going to have to learn to change things up every so often.”
At that moment the elevator bell dinged. Twilight spared a glance at it. “Your elevator is here.” she joked.
“It’s not for me,” Shining replied as he pushed off Starlight and began going on the offensive, attacking from multiple angles, never the same angle twice. He continued to push Starlight back towards the empty elevator before essentially throwing the sword out of her hand and thrust forth his other hand as a shield materialized, knocking Starlight into the elevator and pinning her against the wall. Shining dematerialized his sword and reached into his cloak and pulled out a translucent black crystal and threw it like a dagger it into the elevator, embedding it into the floor. “It’s for her.” A black aura grew from the crystal like a pulsating light when the shield holding Starlight against the wall dissipated. Once her full weight was back on her feet, there was a loud shriek of straining metal as the elevator lurched downward by an inch. She looked down at the crystal, then back up to Shining as he waved a casual two finger salute and the cables holding the elevator snapped. The cabin fell faster than gravity should have been able to pull it, the shrieking of the failing emergency brakes quickly decreasing in volume as the elevator descended.
The doors closed like nothing had happened as Shining Armor stepped back. As he was catching his breath, he almost didn’t notice a light raspberry blade coming for his head. He ducked out of the way as the blade embedded itself into the wall, sparks flying everywhere. Twilight nonchalantly pulled her sword out of the wall as she turned around to face her brother, who managed to dodge-roll his way behind her.
“Now the cycle is complete.” she began, quoting one of Shining’s favorite movies, mimicking the movements of the original speaker, “Once I was the student, now I am the master.”
Shining gave a short huff of a laugh before getting up to his feet, resummoning his sword and responding with, “Only a master of evil, Twilight.” and he swung at her, beginning a duel between the two siblings that made its way to the hangar.
---
Sunset, Sunburst and the Crusaders all scurried out of the trash room, dried themselves off and shed their disguises if they were wearing one. There was a long kept silence between Sunset and Sunburst as they made their way to the hanger. No one was sure if it was the sibling quarrel from earlier or the necessity to be stealthy that kept everyone quiet. Nevertheless, it was quiet, and it felt awkward.
Sunset, at the head of the group, peaked around the corner to the hangar and spotted the transport hovercraft holding her car. Unfortunately, the hangar was filled with a small group of soldiers. Though they were idling about their business, they were all armed and potentially dangerous in an encounter.
“Dà shǔ,” Sunset muttered. “There’s quite a bit of them. Enough to make it difficult for us to get to the ship with my car.”
Sunburst peaked his head around the corner with Sunset and spotted the only craft that was carrying any sort of other vehicles. “A Ponyiac? You came here in that hunk of junk?”
Sunset groaned to herself as she rolled her eyes. “Shut up. I’m gonna need your help taking these guys out if we’re goin’ to make it to my car.” She raised her gun, ready to aim down the sights.
Sweetie Belle tugged at Sunset’s jacket by the elbow. “But what about Shining Armor?” she whispered. “We can’t just leave him here.”
Sunburst nodded. “She’s right. You came here because of him. It’s only fair that you bring him out with us. I’m not leaving without him.”
Sunset turned around to hide behind the corner, followed by Sunburst. “Who ever said life was fair? We might just have to leave without him if he doesn’t show up soon.”
“No,” Sunburst said sternly, “We are waiting for him; we are not going to leave without him.”
“Great.” Sunset said exasperated, “Now, we just need to secure our exit before somepony decides to move it. And secure it to where it doesn’t attract the attention of every guard on board before we manage to get out with him.”
Sunburst put a hand to his chin and stroked his beard. “OK, I agree that we’re going to need to secure our exit discreetly if we’re going to be waiting for Shining Armor. But how are we going to go about that?”
Sunset sighed and pressed a hand to her temples, “I don’t know. But you have two minutes before we just go in and leave.”
Scootaloo looked around the corner. “Uh, guys? They’re leaving.”
Everyone stopped their thoughts as they looked around the corner and saw that the soldiers were all walking towards something at one end of the room, away enough from them that they could easily sneak about to secure their escape. So they went. They were all most of the way there before Sunburst, and the Crusaders glanced at what got all of the soldiers’ attention, only to see Shining Armor and Twilight in a duel, their blades clashing with a loud sparking noise.
“Shining?” they all- sans Sunset- asked quietly as they took a few steps towards the fight.
Shining spared a glance at Sunset, Sunburst, and the Crusaders as a sad smile came across his face, and he felt his heart swell. He stood straight up with his feet together as he held his sword pointing upward before him as he took one last breath before Twilight swung her blade at his neck, successfully killing him. His body disappeared into the aether, and his clothes fell into a small pile where he once stood.
“NO!” Sunburst and Sweetie Belle screamed, grabbing the attention of the audience of gathered soldiers. All of whom began to fire at the heartbroken ponies.
“Gāisǐ de,” Sunset grumbled as she gave cover fire from the hold of the transport vehicle. Sunburst, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom immediately ran to the hovercraft while Sweetie Belle still stood there, shocked. It took the shouting of her two friends and Sunburst to snap her out and get her running to the escape vehicle.
“Sweetie Belle! Come on!”
Twilight walked over to the heap of clothes laying on the floor in front of her and casually stamped her foot in the pile, confirming that there was nothing else there. She turned her attention to the escaping ponies and began walking towards them.
Sunset noticed Twilight coming towards them and shot out a control panel that closed the thick steel blast doors between them. When Sweetie Belle got in the hovercraft, they took off. They were followed, not long after, by a pair of TIE Interceptor pilots. The TIE Interceptor craft was a relatively new model of Twin Ion Engine aircraft in Twilight’s armada, its wings were pointed forward with the shape of two sets of prongs, each prong bolstering a small laser cannon along with the two guns mounted on the cylindrical cockpit.
Sunset could hear the screeching roar of ion engines approaching fast.
---
In her bedroom, Cadence was tossing and turning underneath the bed sheets. It seemed like she was having a nightmare. Cadence was in a lightsaber duel with Twilight. Twilight pushed Cadence back with slow, methodic, powerful swings of her sword, all the while smiling a devilish sneer. Cadence deflected another attack when everything slowed to a halt, and her saber ceased to move, and she could no longer take her eyes off of Twilight as the raspberry blade swung across her throat. Cadence jumped up from her bed, breathing heavy as she held a hand to her mouth and began to cry. She didn’t have a nightmare, it was a vision; she saw Twilight kill her husband.
“Mommy?” Cadence heard the voice of her daughter, Flurry Heart, coming from the slightly opened door of the bedroom, letting in the ambient light of the dimmed crystal torches from the hallway.
Cadence brushed her bangs out of her face as she composed herself and looked at her five-year-old daughter. “What wrong, sweetheart?”
The little girl rubbed her eyes. “I had a bad dream.”
Cadence was silent for a moment, she suspected that it must be the same dream she had. “Come here, Flurry.” she bade her daughter as she adjusted herself to a sitting position and patted the area of the bed next to her.
Flurry walked up to her mother in the dimly lit room, and she was hoisted up into her mother’s lap and partially covered with the sheets.
Cadence wrapped her arms around her little girl firmly as she rocked side to side, trying to comfort herself as much as she was her daughter.
Half a minute passed in silence before Flurry spoke. “I dreamed that daddy died,” she said in a monotone voice.
(I was afraid of that.) Cadence thought to herself. "Really?” she rested her chin on her daughter's head, “What happened?"
"A scary purple mare with a pink stripe in her mane killed him." Flurry answered, "They were sword fighting, then daddy stopped fighting, then she cut his head off, and then he disappeared, except for his clothes... Was that the Boogie-mare you told me about?"
Cadence couldn't help but snort out a little chuckle. "No. No, sweetheart, that was not." (Close enough, if not worse.)
"When's daddy coming home?"
Cadence sighed. (He's not.) "He - should be home tomorrow morning."
Cadence’s grip loosened as she leaned back and Flurry Heart craned her head to look at her mother as best she could, a tear crawling down the side Cadence couldn't see.
“Hey,” Cadence said, suddenly perking up, looking her daughter in the eye as best she could in the dark, “Why don’t we start your swordsmanship lessons tomorrow, even if daddy doesn’t come home by then?”
“Really?” Flurry almost began to jump up and down with elation, one of her wings nearly hitting Cadence in the face, “I’ve been waiting FOREVER for those! Can’t we start now?”
Cadence chuckled as she pushed Flurry's wing down. “No, Flurry. Now, we must get some rest. If you are going to begin your training, you’re going to need as much energy as you can to learn from your instructor. So let’s get some sleep.” she commanded, motherly, as she telekinetically closed the door of her room.
“OK~.” Flurry relinquished as the both of them sank into the bed, pulled the covers up, and snuggled close together for the rest of the night.