Starship Ponyville: Homeward

by Vylet Pony


V. Swarm

June 15, 2051 [Sol 64]

Sylver shuffled into the Stinger. The spacecraft was spherical and noticeably smaller than other dogfighter ships designed for the Equestrian Navy. On each side, variably-swept wings could be extended in-atmosphere, allowing for the Stinger to increase its aerodynamic properties significantly.

Vylet trotted up.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m going to orbit the asteroid and make sure everything is secure during the operation,” Sylver replied.

“Did Celestia ask you to?”

“Well, Satyrn’s a bit uneasy being here. She’ll be able to focus if I’m keeping an eye out.”

“Ah. You’re a good friend for doing that!”

“Eh… I just want an excuse to get in one of these,” Sylver caressed the dashboard of the spacecraft, “I’ve never been in a Stinger before.”

“Never been—” Vylet began. Suddenly, Rayna zipped out from Vylet’s watch to scold Sylver.

“Yeah! It says in my records that you haven’t been approved to pilot anything at all,” she was glaring at Sylver.

Your records?” Sylver looked hurt.

“Well, okay, Celestia’s personnel records.”

“Fun police, honestly. Why do you keep accessing classified information?”

“If it’s classified, Princess Celestia should do a better job of keeping it out of other ponies’ hooves.”

“To be fair,” Vylet suggested, “nopony probably considered creating a firewall that protects against self aware artificial intelligence, Rayna.”

Rayna huffed and scrunched her snout at him. Before they could say anything more, Sylver closed the door and waved at Vylet and Rayna.

“You’re just going to let him go? This isn’t legal,” Rayna protested.

“I mean, you’re committing treason, so…” Vylet replied, snarkily.

The Stinger hovered for a moment, brushing up a few loose papers and wires off of the hangar floor. It made a low whining sound that reverberated loudly against the walls, and the engine oscillated with a low, gritty rumble. Vylet put his hoof up to prevent the gusts from irritating his eyes. Then, the ship darted out through the deflector shields and disappeared as quickly as it left.

Vylet pushed his glasses back where they belonged and adjusted his hair.

“We’re going to need to talk about your nosey behaviour,” Vylet told Rayna.


The caverns were kindled by deep green and grey hues, reflecting the ship’s spotlights in a myriad of directions and tints. Satyrn had led a group of 5 researchers with her to examine the interior components of the asteroid more intimately. The sound of their hoofsteps pulsated between the cavern walls. Stalagmites and stalactites jutted throughout the subterrane, casting falsely threatening shadows along the paths. The air was chilling, though Satyrn was not wearing her space suit.

Satyrn instructed her team to stop just within the cave’s entrance to begin examining the cave’s composition. She picked up her comm and dialed Sylver.

“Please leave a message,” Sylver quipped.

“See anything interesting up there?” Satyrn replied.

“Lots of rock.”

“Really? I would have never guessed.”

“Our AO looks kind of small though. Are you sure we couldn’t use a bigger terradome?”

“We’re using the one Celestia wanted.”

“Whatever.”

In that moment, Satyrn could hear the same chirps from earlier, louder this time. She scanned the area, searching for anything unusual (not that exploring an asteroid is anything usual at this point in time). Deeper into the cave, a twinkle between the stalagmites caught her eye. Straying a little bit further away from the group, she examined the floor and discovered what appeared to be a pipe made of metal that seemed to go far into the cavern system.

She whispered into the comm in confusion.

“Sylver,” she said.

“Copy Banshee, I hear ya,” Sylver replied, embellishing the moment with pseudo-military jargon.

Satyrn sighed, “I think… I’ve found a pipe system in here.”

Sylver hesitated for a moment before replying.

“I’m sorry, what? Come again?”

“A pipe system. I think there are pipes here.”

Minding her step, Satyrn moved deeper into the cave. Darker and darker the tunnels grew as she followed the pipe down. Eventually she came to a dead end; the pipe passed into the rocky wall and could not be traced further. At this point, it was very difficult to see the rest of the area she was in, Satyrn fumbled to unsheath her gunblade from her scarf. She stood on her hind legs and activated the blade’s power, which illuminated the chasm with a dim blue light.

Looking up, Satyrn saw what appeared to be a large metal door, with no viable means to open it. She scanned the walls for a button or lever, but this was not fruitful.

“Sylver,” she spoke over comms.

“Copy Bansh—” Sylver crackled through.

Satyrn interrupted, “I followed the pipe and there’s a door.”

Again, Sylver hesitated.

“A door…” Sylver sounded suspicious of her, “you’re pulling my leg.”

“I can’t find a way to open it.”

“How far in are you?”

“I don’t know, when did we last talk?”

Sylver checked his dashboard clock. Squinting, he read, “Ehh, about seven minutes ago?”

“Oh gosh,” Satyrn looked back towards where she came from, “I’m going to head back. We need to get a group down here right away.”

“I’ll ping the Princess,” Sylver replied. The comm signal crackled, followed by silence.

Satyrn started walking back to the cave entrance. Her heart began to pound and she could feel herself perspiring. She found herself nervously checking every corner and wall of the cave system, her weapon still drawn.

And there it was again, the chirping noises. Satyrn gasped loudly and covered her mouth. The noises were much louder this time. She whipped around to see if something was behind her, but nothing was there. Her muscles tensed and she refused to blink; sweat was now racing down her forehead. Holding the blade in both hooves now, she moved slowly towards the entrance. She waved the weapon slowly around the cave, like a torch.

Again, the chirping noises came, louder and louder. Satyrn stopped in her tracks, holding back a scream. She stood motionless for a minute. Two. Three. Just before she mustered the confidence to keep moving, something fell from the ceiling, cracking and breaking onto the cavern floor. Satyrn bent down to examine what had fallen: it appeared to be some sort of salt deposit from the ceiling, perhaps from a stalactite. It had shattered over the floor, becoming a dust-like sediment.

As she rummaged through the debris, a thick liquid substance fell onto her hoof from the ceiling. Satyrn shrieked as it began to burn profusely. However, the pitch of her scream caused the liquid to slip off of her coat and fall to the floor. It began to seep through the rock, like a knife through butter. Satyrn grabbed her blade and swung it to the ceiling. As she did, hundreds of bluish-green eyes were staring back at her. In unison, the creatures began to make high pitched chirping sounds that rang through the cave system. Satyrn quickly darted for the entrance; she could hear the creatures break away from the ceiling and swarm towards her.

“SYLVER!” she cried desperately into the comms.

“SYLVER, COME IN,” she cried again.

“SYLVER, WE HAVE A PROBLEM.”

“Received. Callsign Bravo November Sierra, what’s wrong what are you seeing?” Sylver replied.

“Some things are chasing me out of the cave, I don’t know, I don’t know,” Satyrn stumbled over her words, trying to catch her breath between sentences. Her hooves pounded against the rocky cave floors, breaking the earth beneath her. “Tell Celestia, we need to evacuate the researchers off of the surface.”

Satyrn whirled around and saw the creatures speeding behind her. She leapt from the ground, flapping her wings to begin her ascent; her weapon converted into a firearm with a swift tap to a button on the handle. The cave opening became visible and she saw her group examining the salt deposits.

She called out to them, “Run, run back to the ship now! We’ve got company.”

The scientists became alarmed and frantic as they began evacuating the chasm.

“Sylver, give me an update,” Satyrn demanded.

“We’re opening the terradome, you need to get your suit on quick!” Sylver replied.

“It’s gonna get cold out here. Get the plasma cannons ready!”

“That bad huh?” Sylver teased.

Satyrn shot out of the mouth of the cave and landed on the ground, sliding backwards and breaking the ground beneath her. The creatures had to catch up to her. She motioned for the researchers to escape; hundreds of ponies in lab coats were fleeing the surface of the asteroid. Satyrn tapped on her comm, which materialized a magic helmet and suit around her. She aimed her gunblade at the cave and waited. Around her, shouts and commands were coming in left in right. She took in a deep breath and closed her eyes and let her muscles relax. For a moment, everything was silent. She waited. And waited.

The terradome dissipated as thousands of chirps from the creatures were heard coming from the cave. Satyrn opened her eyes, and there they were. With fierce precision, she opened fire - missing no shots. With each round, a few of them fell to the ground, but it was becoming clear that she would be outnumbered shortly.

“SYLVER!” Satyrn barked over the chaos, “The asteroid is almost completely evacuated, are those cannons ready yet?”

A reply came over the comms, but it wasn’t Sylver who answered.

“Satyrn, this is Celestia. You need to lead those things away from the ship. On my count, we’ll fire at them from the bridge.”

“You got it, Princess!” Satyrn huffed.

She started dashing and gliding across the terrain - taunting the creatures to get her - and picked them off one by one.

Then, a deafening blast was heard from the starship. Satyrn glanced back to see a huge plasma bolt hit the swarm of creatures. Terrain crackled and sprayed everywhere, and a huge chunk of the pursuers were nowhere to be seen. BANG! Another blast sent more of them flying. Satyrn started to breathe heavily and her pace slowed down. She prepared to leap into flight, but another loud blast was heard. The ground exploded beneath her and she struggled to stay upright. Failing to do so, she stumbled onto the ground, landing on her back.

Satyrn felt around to see if she was hurt, but she couldn’t find any injury. She pushed herself up with her wings and stood on hind legs. Clutching her weapon, she aimed it where she had last seen the swarm, but all she could see were their bodies disintegrating from the plasma rounds. The surface of the asteroid had become hauntingly silent.

“What the fuck was that?” Sylver was heard shouting over the comm, “you almost hit her—no ,you basically hit her.”

“What? What happened?” Satyrn asked frantically.

The comms turned to static. No response. Dust from the explosion was clearing. Satyrn squinted through to the bridge. Celestia appeared by the window.

“Celestia, did I almost get hit?” Satyrn questioned over the comms.

“You came out alright. That’s what matters,” the Princess replied.

Satyrn stared back, saying nothing. Her expression was jaded and tired. She quietly extended her wings and started back towards the ship, unhurried and solemn.