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// The Broken Filter 
// Story: Equestrian Space: Short Stories 
// by Shirlendra 
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In the far reaches of the Equestrian system sat an asteroid, little more than a bit of broken dust and rock. But this asteroid was special, it was the home to a pony. A pony who had decided to set up a little communications station.  Out that far, the life giving sun was little more than a dot in the sky, the planets unseen by the naked eye. 

As that pony went through the daily checklist and noticed a red blinking light on the console it was the same kind of day as any other. Something was broken, and that pony was going to fix it. The Pony gathered up it's gear, made sure the stations oxygen and power levels were stable and went off to fix the filter. 

As the pony trekked through the small hallways of the station, it once again thought about how nice it was going to be to read the daily correspondence between the denizens of other stations. For there were several stations out in the cold dark of the rim, other ponies who braved the cold and the dark and the long journey to set up their own little slices of home. It was odd though, a few of the stations had recently gone offline. Technical problems most likely, or as the pony was ever so aware perhaps they ran out of one of the precious commodities that was necessary to life.  

Ahead was a door, it was marked "A-13" a unlucky name, the pony mused as it hit the lock with a hoof. The door slid open with only a slight hiss of it's hidden hydraulics. The pony stepped inside and quickly located the vent that contained the broken filter. Although not a terribly important problem, a problem none the less and if one did not fix problems, they could quickly become serious. It took little more than half an hour, standard equestrian time to switch out the broken filter. In which the pony only managed to slam the vent cover into it's knees twice. After re-securing the vent cover the pony dusted themselves off and began to head back to the command center. 

As the pony trekked back through the long thin corridors, bored out by a machine which the pony had purchased at a very reasonable price. Well, at least that's what the salesperson had said when they sold it to the pony. But what did the pony need with money all the way out here, on it's own private island, in a sea of stars and silence. As the pony followed the corridors it decided maybe, it was time to take a quick nap. It's not like the universe was going anywhere. And so, the pony altered course. 

Had the pony gone back to the command center it might of seen the blip the sensors couldn't quite identify, the pony might of had some time to prepare, as the blip came closer to it's little island, as it docked with the station. But the pony saw none of this, the only thing the pony saw as a high velocity round entered through the side of it's head was a very nice dream of green fields. And another pony, long lost but never forgotten, beckoning the pony to join them.

The figures stood in the small sleeping chamber of the pony, looking down at the rapidly cooling corpse. The stars twinkling merrily overhead outside of the small viewing window the pony had specifically installed, to watch the planet from which it came. One of the figures turned to the other and growled through its suits built in communications, "Only Equestrian."