Twilights shuttlepod slowly crossed the space between the Valkyrie and Forge. Little more than a metal box with an old shield system and an even archaic impulse drive bolted it wouldn't last long in the near total entropic void of space, but it would last long enough.
Twilight couldn't bring herself to look back at the Valkyrie. The vast ark-ship had been near derelict for while but even Twilight couldn't bring herself to look at its ruined form.
Not after what had been done to it.
Not after what Forge had done to it.
The ancient goliath hung in space, hull shimmering as it started to burn in into the void. The only part of him that was moving was his giant red eye, it followed the shuttlepod as it closed in but made no move to stop it. Twilight flew towards him until the eye filled her view screen in its entirety. Only then did she ease the pod to a stop.
Instinctively Twilight tried reached out with her telepathy. Then she remembered and switched on the shortwave communicator. "You ok out there, traitor?"
"Twilight..."
"Well what were you expecting?"
"This Unit has only done what is necessary for survival." Forge replied, his old more robotic tone and cadence creeping back in to his voice. "Survival of both myself and your own kind."
"You do realise how that sounds?" Twilight asked, "Having just shot the living daylights out of my home?"
"Affirmative." Forge said. "However no pony units have been terminated. Twilight saved all endangered units, as i knew you would."
"Perhaps," Twilight grunted before indicating her still bleeding forehead. "Damn near killed myself in the attempt."
"My orders were clear." Forge responded. "It was necessary for the Solution to continue."
"So you say." Twilight continued coldly. "That being said; is your master planning to make us wait all day? Or are you both planning to sit there and wait for me to die of old age?"
At that moment, as if on cue, shapes began to appear in the void. Though her line of sight was blocked due to her pods position she could still see the shapes somehow. Some shifted like the tendrils of some great space beast while others were angles and definitions.
Twilight spun her pod for a better look. Direct line of sight made the experience even more unnerving. The shifting pitch black masses clawed at her consciousness, trying to worm their way behind her eyes. Even the great mass of the Valkyrie was quickly being dwarfed by the expanding madness.
Twilight spun the pod back in time to see Forge being submerged into the mass. A few moments later the shapes resolved themselves into something more permeable. It was unmistakably a landing bay. One ready to welcome her in.
"It has been a long time Shadow." Twilight said to herself. "Once again we come face to face."