Starcross ships were a paradox inside – the Runic material they were made out of was inherently pitch black, but the Runes themselves always glowed with brilliant colors. In any given area, one color tended to dominate over all others, creating blue rooms, red rooms, and even silver rooms from time to time.
The bridge was pink.
Scarcity hated the color pink.
Ever since this whole fiasco had started she’d seen almost nothing but pink. Even her personal quarters were pink here. It was as though the corpses of her ancient enemies were determined to mock her from beyond the grave…
She turned her attention to the display screen in front of her, embedded into a dark podium. It could display things in three dimensions, if it wanted, but Scarcity didn’t want every model she looked at to be coated in the pink. It looked ugly, among other reasons.
Bad memories that made her scar sting.
“Hey, Scarcity? Boss?”
Scarcity sighed. “What is it, Glimmer?”
“You know the drilling’s going well...”
“Yes. I do. Get to the point, please.”
Glimmer sighed. “Would it kill you to, you know, be nice? We have limited personnel and the more you make it seem like you don’t care the less confident they get. Morale is an important thing, especially when we can’t restock.”
“That’s your job.”
“They still look to you.”
Scarcity furrowed her brow – and then sighed. “It’s… not easy when you can feel existence creeping in from all sides.”
“You know how to lead.”
“I do. The great Enchantress, slayer of Stars.” Scarcity smirked. “The mission never ends.”
“There can’t be an endless number of Runes. We’ll get them all eventually.”
“The Merodi…”
“So what if they have a few? They don’t really matter, their path is already doomed. Their fate is of no concern to us.”
Scarcity nodded slowly. “True. But this Rune matters more than all others we have encountered. They cannot be allowed to have it.”
“Which is part of what I’m here to talk to you about. There’s a pretty good chance those anomalies we’ve been detecting are microscopic Unity probes analyzing us for possible attack avenues.”
The soft lines that had been coming to Scarcity’s face over the course of the conversation vanished in an instant. “How long?”
“Considering that all of Unity is run by a super A.I.? I’m surprised they haven’t already attacked.”
“We have all the defenses we can muster…” Scarcity put a hoof to her chin. “Put the crew on high alert. It won’t do much, but it’ll do something.”
“That order is already being processed. I just came here to tell you before alarm sounds start-“
The alarm sounds started, making Scarcity and Glimmer wince.
“So…” Glimmer said, shaking the buzz out of her ears. “What do you think our chances are?”
“We just need to drill all the way through the Runic shell.” Scarcity pointed at her screen, showing the hollow world and the progress of the drill. “We don’t have to defeat them. Just survive long enough.”
“Chances?”
“I make my own chances,” Scarcity growled.
“Ah…” Glimmer said, frowning. “How concerned should we be about the blank spots?”
“Very.”
“…Scarcity…”
“We have options, Glimmer. Stop worrying.”
“I don’t really like the other options.”
“Too bad, we’ve been put into this situation against our wishes, we’ve got to make the most of it.” She tossed her mane back. “You are to drain every last ounce of power from that Twilight, you understand?”
“Oh, absolutely! She needs to be taken down a peg.”
“Good. We’re going to use everything we have.” Scarcity narrowed her eyes. “Take out as many as possible. Shake their confidence.”
“I don’t think that’ll do much.”
“Do it anyway. It’s a possible edge. Make them suffer.”