“How much were you able to document?” Satyrn yelled to Vylet as they glided towards the mouth of the cave.
“Everything we looked at. Unless there was another room or something, I don’t think I missed anything.”
Satyrn glanced behind her as the tremors grew more frequent and violent. Vylet was tapping furiously at his watch and skimming through the footage and photographs he had taken. Fractures and fissures began to break along the walls of the cave, which caused rubble to tumble onto the path. After a few more moments they reached the mouth of the cave, and stopped to catch their breath.
“Look!” Vylet exclaimed; he was pointing east of the starship. The sky was saturated with smoke and explosions, and dozens of ships were hovering over the horizon. A large vessel, presumably the mothership, towered over the rest of them. Suddenly, an immense flash radiated from it. The Starship Ponyville’s regional deflector shields were shelled by a flurry of plasma rounds from the oncoming fleet.
“Shit! Vylet, let’s go. Now!” Satyrn ordered. They started towards the ship.
“The asteroid’s structural integrity is failing!” Rayna advised.
“How badly?”
“If those ships keep up the assault, we have about 20 minutes from now.”
“Until what?”
“Until the asteroid breaks apart.”
Smaller spacecraft began to race into the atmosphere from below the larger control ships. They blitzed across the sky, and changelings poured down as they passed. Equestrian Marines began to advance out against the oncoming attackers, and a firefight ensued. Satyrn and Vylet dodged munitions and debris as they hurried on towards the starship. They were nearly there.
Before they could reach the ship, something dropped down from the sky in front of them. The ground fractured beneath them, and they sprawled onto the sharp asteroid surface. Satyrn propelled herself back on her hind hooves in desperation, and pulled Vylet with her.
“Are you alright?” Satyrn was frantic.
“Yeah, I think.”
They looked up to see what had caused the rift. Standing before them was an alicorn with a drab, grey coat and a wild green mane. He stared back at them with wicked red eyes in a morose, but strangely serene manner. The stallion had a starkly crooked horn that cursed his regal composure. He stood on his hind legs, and had no protective spacesuit.
“You and Rayna must go,” Satyrn commanded. Vylet started towards the ship without another word. The alicorn turned to watch them leave, his eyes followed them with a forlorn expression.
“I cannot guarantee their safety,” the stallion spoke. His voice was breathy and charming, but fragile.
Satyrn’s expression became sullen as she drew her weapon against him. The alicorn turned to face Satyrn and stared lamentably into her eyes.
“You’re beautiful,” he spoke dramatically.
His cape fluttered about behind him, and his mane drifted weightlessly as he moved. Satyrn dashed forward and struck his face with immense force. The stallion clutched his cheek as he staggered back, but he kept standing. Satyrn activated her gunblade, and it began to rearrange itself into a rifle with various clicks and pops emitting from the device. By the time it had fully converted, the alicorn had rebounded and was standing still before Satyrn, who now aimed her firearm at him.
“Your allegiance is with the Princess,” he said, “I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”
“Understand what?” Satyrn snorted.
“I am called Spectre. The only thing you must understand is that I will free Equestria.”
Spectre’s horn glimmered a deep crimson. Debris from the ground began to hover as a magical aura surrounded his body. Satyrn lunged to the side as a beam of energy flashed towards her from the alicorn’s horn. Attempting to counter the attack, Satyrn landed and unleashed a barrage of bullets. Evading the onslaught, Spectre dashed around her with unparalleled agility. Satyrn stopped firing to launch herself back. Her hooves struck the ground with immense force.
A stream of dogfighter ships poured out of the starship’s hangars, and hundreds of small explosions and flashes began to erupt across the sky. Tracing their movements and patterns with his eyes, Spectre watched them join the fray.
“You can’t honestly consider this the answer to such corruption?” Spectre blustered.
“What the hell do you mean? We didn’t start this fight!” Satyrn replaced a magazine from her weapon.
“You had no place being here. You’ve killed too many of ours, and we can take yours too.”
“So, you are allied with them, then? Those creatures? We couldn’t have possibly known they were here. Can’t you see that?”
Spectre’s expression grew solemn and his poise softened.
“How extraordinary you are, yet they don’t trust you with the truth,” he spoke theatrically.
Satyrn quickly converted her weapon into a blade to lunge at him. Spectre blinked into the air, evading her attack.
“Agh!” Satyrn cried as she hit the ground. She writhed fiercely to face Spectre, who was hovering a few inches above her. His expression was impersonal and desolate, as if he were imploring her forgiveness.
An abrupt blast was discharged from the Starship Ponyville and struck Spectre in the chest, causing him to spiral back towards the cave. Satyrn struggled to right herself, and made a break for the ship.
“Hey! Was that guy bothering you? I shot him just in case!” Sylver shouted over the comms.
“Damn you Sylver, I was gonna do it myself!” Satyrn laughed in relief.
She glanced back to see Spectre quickly recovering from the blow. The alicorn limped back onto his hind legs, and stood watching her escape. Satyrn heard a voice in her head.
“Don’t forget what happened here, Satyrn.” Spectre’s voice entered her thoughts.
“I’m sure I’ll see you again,” Satyrn spoke aloud.
“Uh... Yeah?” Sylver puzzled himself over the comms.
“Not you.”
“Oh, okay… Wait, not me?”
“Can you play some defense right now, bud?”
“Yeah, sorry,” Sylver apologized. Several blasts began to erupt from the starship’s cannons aimed at the oncoming fleet.
“That’s better,” Satyrn said.
Satyrn trotted swiftly past dozens of frantic personnel towards the bridge. Marines were scrambling about the central hangar as various alarms and tones screeched rhythmically through the ship. Innumerable shouts and commands conceived a din that was only decipherable by the recipients such orders were meant for.
Celestia spotted Satyrn coming up the stairwell leading to the bridge.
“Retreat. She’s here.” Celestia commanded.
Marines on the asteroid surface began to fall back to the ship, and the remaining spacecraft rushed to dock back in the hangars. Celestia dashed to open the door for Satyrn.
“Get over to the console, we’re going to open a waygate,” Celestia ordered.
Sylver shouted back from the admiral console, “We’ve gotta start the oscillation so it’s ready by the time we’ve got everypony!”
Satyrn scrambled over beside Sylver at the console while Celestia barked orders to other scurrying attendants. Suddenly, Vylet burst into the room.
“Hey! We can’t take off yet!” he shouted.
“Leave, you are not authorized to be here!” Celestia riposted.
“No! Our regional deflector shields have sustained critical damage. If we open an operative waygate, it could tear the ship apart.”
“Shouldn’t we have been warned on the console?” Celestia looked over at Sylver who shook his head.
“It wouldn’t. The warning system for the deflector shields are set to respond on boolean values. The integrity ratios just need to be closely monitored in an event like this,” Sylver explained.
“We don’t have time to argue about it. Route the energy from the Sor reactor to the shield’s power bank. It might blow the reactor’s central transistor when we make the jump, but we can fix it after,” Vylet instructed.
Celestia hesitated and glanced at Sylver. The scruffy unicorn nodded enthusiastically.
“Alright, carry on with it. We will make the jump in ten minutes,” Celestia ordered.
Vylet hurried towards the console and began instructing Sylver on what to do. Satyrn navigated an array of menus and diagnostics in order to begin the waygate oscillation. Operative Waygate Oscillation is an alternative to traveling at the speed of light. The prospect of it entails the exploitation of imperceptive wormholes surrounding spacetime, and traveling through them with the use of magic. Once a vessel makes a jump through a waygate, most engines become idle until they are rebooted manually.
Moments later, the hangar bays sealed after all remaining personnel had evacuated the asteroid. Low blasts from the barrage of attacks caused the ship to rock violently. Celestia looked out the bridge window and watched the approaching ships. She squinted as she spotted a something ascending from the asteroid surface. The Princess’s eyes widened as she caught a glimpse of the silhouette's crooked horn.
“We’re in the air, your highness. On your orders,” Sylver announced. He tilted his head to Satyrn who nodded back. They looked to the Princess intently.
Celestia hesitated as she watched the silhouette board a passing cruiser.
“Princess.”
Her gaze was broken as a massive fissure began to open up along the asteroid. CX38 began to deteriorate and crumble. Rayna darted out from Vylet’s watch.
“Celestia! The upheaval is being caused on purpose, the asteroid is going to detonate. We have to get out of here - now!” Rayna warned.
“Are we ready?” Celestia demanded, suddenly.
Everypony on the bridge nodded concurrently.
“Oscillation on my count.”
The ship convulsed with the continued bombardments. The oncoming fleet was not far.
“Three,” Celestia began.
“Oscillation standby,” Satyrn announced.
“Two.”
“Engines ready,” Sylver confirmed.
“One.”
Everypony braced as a brilliant light glitzed before the bridge window, reflecting everywhere. Then, for a few moments, everything was completely still and silent.
“Cover your ears,” Celestia instructed.
A deafening bang shook the Starship Ponyville viciously, reverberating ferociously through the vessel. It lasted for about 20 seconds before dissipating, Then everything was quiet again. Everypony looked out the window to see they were no longer on the asteroid. All around there was darkness and no sign of the approaching fleet. The crew sighed in relief then started cheering. Celestia stared back out the window; her countenance was solemn and contemplative.