//------------------------------//
// IV: Sol Quidam Orietur 
// Story: Wonderbirds: Chasing the Darkness 
// by 8_Bit 
//------------------------------//

"'Three to base, we are at thirty five minutes until solar kickstart, making final checks now. All passengers except Kamryn and Granite are seated and secure onboard Wonderbird Three."

"Copy that, 'Three. We expect signal loss ten minutes before you have sunrise, so check in with us as soon as you're clear."

"Thanks, base. Here's hoping we'll be back with you in no time. Over and out."

It turned out, four days was not much time at all when preparing for a plan as elaborate as jumpstarting a several-hundred-thousand tonne mobile laboratory. To the surprise of everycreature, the initial process of finding and rounding up the sedated ponies had been fairly straightforward. Less than an hour after Morpha had released the aerosol into the ventilation, seventeen dozing bodies had been laid out in the corridor outside the medbay. The next step had been more complex. Recruiting Minerva, Robyn and Swiftwing as assistant medics, Morpha had opted to place every single pony in a medically induced coma. The process had been arduous, restraining each of them to metal bedframes with heavy cargo straps, then giving each one a intravenous drip and a feeding tube. They all looked just as malnourished as the non-equines, having had the same ten day span since their previous meals. At least being under observation meant they'd all get some much-needed nutrition.

When everypony was secure, and Kamryn was satisfied that they wouldn't be waking up any time soon, she'd ordered the air supply to be reconnected to the rear two modules. With fresh, untainted air circulating, the aerosol would dissipate faster. Everycreature on board waited on Morpha's all-clear before removing their helmets, but Pinkie kept hers on. If there really was some kind of pathogen still doing the rounds, one that only affected ponies, she couldn't take that risk.

With one problem at least under control, Pinkie could start on her side of the arrangement. She had returned to Wonderbird Three, engaged the manoeuvring thrusters, and set about the delicate task of easing the rocket into range of the Duskwalker's cranes. Thick articulated arms had emerged from panels in the frontmost module, one of them reaching a clawed hand to grasp the midsection of Wonderbird Three. It had picked up the rocket, swivelled it to face the nose forward, and then pulled it tight into place against the hull. Two more cranes had emerged from the module, grasping the top and bottom of the rocket to anchor it firmly in place. When Pinkie returned to the airlock, she was pleased to find it lining up exactly with the external doors of the Duskwalker. She'd extended the docking tunnel, her console confirming a good air seal. Transit between the two craft would be a lot simpler.

The next few days were a flurry of non-stop activity. With the combined power of the two machines, there was enough energy in the grid to turn the main lights back on in the crawler. This made the preparations a lot easier. Pinkie worked with Morpha to section off a large area of Wonderbird Three's cargo bay as a hazmat zone, somewhere to secure the beds of all the sedated ponies, and isolate them from the rest of the ship. Each of the machines connected to them would keep them fed, hydrated and stable, Pinkie would just need to monitor them during the flight back to Equis. STEED were informed of the situation, and Pinkie was to fly straight to the control centre in Hoofston where a medical team was being prepared. Meanwhile, the crew of Duskwalker took shifts to monitor the ponies and their intravenous machines.

On top of their medical obligations, everycreature worked hard to prep the crawler for the big restart. With access to decent food, they progressed quickly. Kamryn and Granite spent most of the second day loading the solar panel array onto a giant buggy, which they drove off into the darkness. They had to progress slowly, unspooling a long line of cable as they went. It was more than six hours after they disappeared over the horizon that they finally returned. But, they had been pleased to report, the solar panels were all in position. Unloading, setting up, and aligning the panels had been an agonising process. It had taken far longer than either of them had anticipated. They had made sure to leave one mile of slack in the cable, as agreed, to give Duskwalker some time to get up to speed before the line went taut and ripped away from the panels.

One of the more harrowing parts of the plan, however, lay in setting small explosive charges to each of the grab arms attaching Wonderbird Three to Duskwalker's cranes. Pinkie had reasoned that if they needed to abandon the restart plan, there wouldn't be time to manually disengage the clamps. So if they needed to disconnect in a hurry, the only way to do so would be with a small, controlled explosion to sever the connection. She'd set the charges herself, heart in throat the entire time.

If Pinkie was ready for one thing, though, it was the ability to travel from one place to another without having to deal with long-winded decontamination procedures. Several times a day, she had to pass through the airlock between the crawler and Wonderbird Three, every time being subjected to awkward minutes of air purging, scrubbing and ultraviolet cleansing. It got old very fast. When time came for sleep, she'd return to the rocket, radio a report through to Rarity, and then retire to her sleeping quarters. She had to take all her meals in isolation too. It got lonely, also very fast.

So she skipped with excitement as she left the airlock, entering Duskwalker for what would be the final time, however things played out. After checking on everycreature, including the sleeping ponies, she'd carried out the startup procedure on Wonderbird Three. It would have to be ready to go at the push of a button, which necessitated its engines be prepped for launch well in advance. The stunned looks on everycreatures faces when she'd announced to them her rocket could be operated by remote control was a sight she'd savour for a long time.

"Everycreature secure and ready," she announced as she stepped into the secondary module. "Sunrise contact with solar array in twenty five minutes."

"Sí, twenty five minutes, Tres. All looking good our end," Kamryn replied with a nod.

"Connection with solar array steady," Granite added, holding up a tablet computer. "Cells have started trickle charging in the light from dawn, but we won't see any big numbers until we get direct sunlight on them."

"Copy that," Pinkie said. "Let's move."

All three of them walked through the cavernous space, heading for the aft end. The tail module, housing the fuels and coolants that made the crawler function, also housed all the relays and pumps that circulated the critical fluids throughout the entire machine. Granite had explained that to ease the restart process, it would be better to oversee it from a computer terminal there. Thankfully there was one right by the airlock that connected it to the second module. The proximity to an airlock was ideal if they needed to evacuate. But just as a precaution, both Kamryn and Granite were wearing their EVA suits.

"It's pretty loco," Kamryn mused as they walked. "This huge machine can't stand up to the sunlight, but your little rocket can."

"Well there's no atmosphere here for Duskwalker to descend through on landing," Pinkie pointed out. "The heat shield would be extra weight. Wonderbird Three needs to withstand re-entry on Equis, so it needs its advanced shielding to maintain structural integrity. And it makes for pretty convenient plot armour."

"Sí, I know, it's just... wait, what?"

"Hmm?"

"...actually, never mind."

Granite snickered to himself as they approached the airlock. With a flourish of her hoof, Pinkie waved it open. The trio proceeded down the link corridor, emerging at the other side moments later into another cavernous chamber. It was a huge space, dominated by towering storage tanks and pumping stations the size of buildings. Just to one side of the main airlock, a control booth sat on a slightly elevated platform. Inside was a large, wraparound console covered with illuminated screens and switches. Pinkie, Kamryn and Granite all took their places, and set themselves to work. Minutes ticked by in a hushed symphony of tapping and clicking, as they each performed the various checks and tasks they'd divided between themselves. 

"Two minutes until solar kickstart," Granite announced. "You guys ready?"

"Ready," Pinkie and Kamryn replied in unison.

The countdown continued. Tension hung in the air, palpable and relentless, but there was nothing else to do but steel themselves. It was too late to change any aspects of the plan now, the only options were to commit or bail. Fight or flight. An odd sense of calm settled over Pinkie as Granite started counting down, out loud, from ten. They had their plan. They all knew what to do. They were going to pull this off. With a slow exhale, Pinkie cracked her neck as Granite's countdown reached zero. Immediately, the tablet in his hand trilled with excitement.

"Híjole," Kamryn gasped as she watched the numbers on her screen start to rise. "Power banks charging successfully, really damn fast too!"

"I'm getting the same readings here," Pinkie confirmed. "By these numbers, I give us eight minutes until we have enough charge to push for a good restart. How long will those panels last in direct sunlight before the heat destroys them?"

Kamryn let out a subdued chuckle. "About ten minutes, Tres. And how long before the sunlight hits us?"

"Errr... nine minutes."

"Gonna be tight, ese. Keeps things interesting, sí?"

It was the longest eight minutes of Pinkie's life. At least, it would have been, if they'd made it to eight minutes without any distractions. Pinkie had set an eight minute countdown timer, a reference point to help her monitor the battery charge rate. As the countdown reached three minutes remaining, her console blared in warning and an alert flashed up on her screen.

"What?" she gasped. "Kamryn, what does this mean by 'security hazard'?"

The griffon inclined her head towards Pinkie. "Err... looks like the security systems just came back online. It means the cameras picked up suspicious activity. I set you up with Star Searcher's login so it probably defaulted to you due to rank. Just ignore it Tres, everything is pretty damn suspicious at the moment."

'At the moment', yeah, everything was completely out of the ordinary. But Pinkie pursed her lips as she looked over the alert flashing on her screen. This 'suspicious activity' had a timestamp from two weeks ago. On the day the crawler broke down. Pushing Kamryn's objection to the back of her mind, she reached up and pressed at it.

It was a video file, security camera footage. Some hidden section of the crawler, but she recognised the shape of one of the ventilation relays. Flashing red lights lit up the screen in momentary bursts, so the footage would have been captured just after the engines shut down. And just moments before the on-board computers deactivated the security systems to direct all power to life support. Pinkie watched as a figure appeared from one side of the screen, holding a cylindrical object. The figure flicked a switch on the cylinder, lifted a cover and dropped it into the relay. Then a strip of beacon light cast itself over the hidden figure, momentarily bringing its features into clarity: two large horns on its head, a tall but slender frame, and a dignified streak of grey running through its hair.

*click*

Pinkie froze. She twisted her head ever so slightly, peering her eyes around to catch it in her peripheral vision. The gun, hammer cocked, hovered just inches from her helmet.

"I really wish you hadn't seen that," Granite murmured. "It would have made this whole process a lot simpler."

"Toro, what are you doing?" Kamryn hissed. "Where the heck did you get a gun? Have you lost your gizzard?!"

"Sorry boss, but there's a plan I have to stick to. Don't move a muscle, unless you want to be responsible for something pretty grim. Three here's been good for morale, but bad for keeping things how they're supposed to go. Believe me, I don't particularly want to pull the trigger here, but I'll do what I have to."

"You sabotaged Duskwalker," Pinkie said in a whisper as she turned her body to face Granite. "You cut the engines off, released the pathogen into the air circulation."

Granite smirked, raising the hand holding his tablet in the air in mock surrender. "Guilty as charged! You know, it's surprisingly difficult to manufacture an airborne disease that only targets the DNA structure of ponies. At least, that's what I've been told."

"Told? Told by who?"

"The folks who made it, of course."

Kamryn had fallen to her haunches, beak clacking and eyes turning red as she took in what she was seeing. "Y-y-y... you broke my crawler? You turned my crew into mindless monsters? You left us all stranded without food on some feathering rock in space for ten days?! What the heck is wrong with you, are you loco in the head?!"

With a resigned sigh, Granite clipped his tablet to a loop on his belt, then reached up with his free hand and pulled his helmet off. "Oh get over yourself Kamryn, it's not your crawler, it's Star Searcher's. And it's pretty straightforward: I make sure the mission fails, and my benefactors make sure my family is set for life, financially. My calf, as you well know, he's pretty sick. Even on my wages we barely manage to get him the help he needs, but if I do this? All his bills will be taken care of, for life. You see Three, not everywhere has a nationalised health system. And I'll do anything for my calf, so don't you dare test me."

Granite's tablet let out a frenzied series of beeps. Casting her eyeline down to it, Pinkie saw the warning lights flash up. The solar panels had been destroyed. Almost simultaneously, the hull of the crawler began to creak and moan above them. If their timings had been correct, then Duskwalker had been sat exposed to direct sunlight for about a minute. The sounds were not a good sign.

"So your family gets money," Pinkie said, her breathing shaky as her mind raced to formulate an escape. "What do your 'benefactors' get out of the bargain."

"They get to prevent a united global space agency from forming. Oh, just imagine the scandal of the news dropping. Minotaurs, griffons and a changeling, sent to their doom on a piece of Equestrian technology. The sentient races will never collaborate again. And hey, if the other races choose to blame Equestria for the disaster, who knows what'll happen next? Sanctions, disputes, maybe even war? Not that it'll be a problem for any of us."

"Why go along with the ruse all this time?" Kamryn asked, a tear running down her cheek as she sat seething.

"Simple really," Granite said with a shrug. "I had to make sure it all went without a hitch. If word got out that it was my sabotage, it would kinda lose the dramatic climax back on Equis. Wouldn't quite kill the idea of unifying space exploration in the right way. And everycreature would be placing blame on the Minotaur Fiefdoms, not on Equestria."

"I invited you to my wedding!" Kamryn screeched back, rearing up in fury. "You were at the hatching of my first chick! I trusted you, toro, and you betrayed me! Betrayed all of us. This whole time you were planning against us, leading us to a grisly fate and just... just pretending to be our compadre!"

For the first time, a crack began to show in Granite's resolve. His eyes turned watery, and his expression hardened as the gun began to tremble in his hand. He bit his lip, but never took his eyes off of Pinkie.

"So what now," she asked. "Hold us at gunpoint, make sure we don't go anywhere and then... just wait for us all to burn?"

Granite nodded shakily. "And with the radiation interference from the Sun, there's no way any signals will get back to Equis, even with your advanced equipment. All anycreature down there will know is that something went wrong, and none of us walked away. Even the great Equestrial Rescue couldn't save us."

A sound like a gunshot ripped through the chamber. Pinkie flinched, but no pain came. Nothing. The weapon held in front of her hadn't moved. In surprise, Granite looked up and around, seeking out the origin of the noise. Giving Pinkie the exact opening she needed. She wheeled around, turning one hundred and eighty degrees on the spot, and kicked hard with her back legs. Her hooves thudded as they contacted Granite's sternum, and sent him flying with a wheezing grunt. The gun clattered to the floor at Pinkie's hooves as Granite sailed out of the control room, crashing down the stairs and landing in a heap near the airlock door. His tablet followed him, smashing against the handrail on the stairs with a sickening crunch. His helmet slid under the guardrails and fell out of sight.

Pinkie grabbed the gun and hurled it across the cavernous module, far away from Granite's reach. "Come on!" she shouted to Kamryn. 

It took a few seconds for the griffon to come back to her senses, but she nodded as a gasp of disbelief escaped her beak. Pinkie led her down the stairs, leaping over Granite's crumpled form and waving a hoof at the airlock door. It whooshed open, and Pinkie charged through with Kamryn right on her tail. For a brief moment, she tried her best to recall the quickest route back to Wonderbird Three. Her focus was dragged back to her present location as a sharp crack erupted through the air, and she leapt aside as a bullet ricocheted off the floor just inches to her left. 

She screeched to a halt, Kamryn bumping into her flank, and she turned. Just on the other side of the airlock doorway, Granite was pulling himself to his hooves, another gun held in one shaking hand. It was pointed right at them.

"Are you stupid?" he scolded. "You really think that I would risk losing the gun? Of course I brought a spare one, just in case anycreature tried somethi-"

Granite never finished his sentence. As he spoke, a deafening groan pierced the module. Another sound similar to a gunshot followed, accompanied with an almighty whooshing noise. Pinkie and Kamryn yelped as they found themselves yanked forwards by an invisible force. They rolled and tumbled, dragged towards the doorway in a roaring tempest of air pressure, and Pinkie clenched her eyes as she willed it to be over quickly. Then the wind was knocked out of her as she stopped dead against something solid.

With a moan, she peeked open her eyes. The airlock had slammed shut, halting them in their tracks, but the force of air being dragged out of the chamber had given them enough momentum to crash into the door. Painfully. Pinkie gasped, the glass section of the door level with her head. She had a clear picture of what lay beyond. The tail module was a scene of total devastation. Subjected to the incredible heat of sunlight, the hull integrity had failed, popping open like a soda can and ejecting every loose object out into the burning vacuum. Anything still inside was now being exposed to blistering heat. Pipes exploded in torrents of steam. Panels and consoles fried on the spot, releasing showers of sparks. Silos and tanks, previously bolted to the floor of the module, collapsed and buckled, dumping their contents in a maelstrom of writhing fluids that instantly vaporised as they were sucked out into the blackness. 

And Granite. He'd been stood just the other side of the doorway. Now he was gone.

"We gotta get out of here, Tres!" Kamryn screamed, turning to run.

Pinkie followed suit, with a really bad idea at the forefront of her mind. They weren't going to restart Duskwalker now. The crawler itself was doomed. But the secondary module, the one they were retreating into, would fall to the same fate as the rearmost one if they didn't get it out of sunlight, quickly. Since it was no longer able to move at all under its own power, only one option remained. Interrupting her charge to safety with as brief a pause she could manage, Pinkie stopped just as she passed through the airlock. She reached to her wrist-mounted computer. With her hoof trembling furiously, she selected Wonderbird Three's engines and activated them. She set them straight to full throttle.

An almighty roar filled their ears as both Pinkie and Kamryn were thrown backwards to the floor. The cavernous space around them screeched and lurched as the power of the rocket began to propel it forwards. Pipes hissed as they ruptured at the fittings, handrails groaned against the vibrations that emanated through the hull, and even light fixtures tumbled down as the ceiling far above began to fill with darkness. The entire crawler led out a deep, trembling moan as Wonderbird Three dragged it along far faster than it had ever been built to go. Like a colossal beast rising from slumber, and thrown immediately down a path of destruction. 

As their world quaked and rumbled around them, Pinkie looked up to see Kamryn pulling herself to her feet, a vicious looking crack now marring the helmet of her EVA suit. Pinkie struggled to regain her own footing, her tail twitching furiously, as sparks flew out from panels around them. The escape module, once a hall of salvation, had become an echoing chamber of nightmares, as metal rafters high above groaned out against the horrific stresses being put on the hull of the disintegrating crawler. Gigantic ceiling panels began to crash down to the floor as Kamryn ripped off her helmet.

"Go, Tres! Go!" she shouted. "Get the doors, I'll catch up!"

Without any time to argue, Pinkie ran. She cast a brief look back over her shoulder, seeing Kamryn pulling the top half of her suit over her head. Without the helmet it was useless anyway, extra bulk and weight that would slow her escape. Pinkie struggled against the growing intensity of Duskwalker's death rattle, diving forward in quick bursts but only progressing slowly. Huge metal panels continued to rain down from on high, and she had to keep casting upward glances just to make sure nothing landed on her. Junction boxes burst like balloons, sending showers of sparks from above, and turning the path ahead into an uneven mass of twisted metal and glowing embers.

Then, with an thundering boom, she was airborne. As Duskwalker charged forward, it must have hit something. Images of the craters dotting Marecury's surface raced through Pinkie's mind. For a gut-wrenching few seconds, she found herself lifted up into the air. Or had the artificial gravity failed? Either way, she figured she'd find out in a few seconds. If the crawler crashed back down again, she'd be thrown straight into the floor. And that was going to hurt.

Except then, she remained airborne. Something had grabbed her from behind. Pinkie yelped as the unseen something tackled her, wrapping muscular arms around her midriff and sending her hurtling forwards. Below her, all the floating debris slammed down with a sickening crash to the floor of the chamber once again. But instead of impacting the floor, Pinkie was rocketing along through the air above it. Stunned, she looked back over her shoulder.

It was Kamryn. Out of the chaos, she'd caught up. Having ditched her EVA suit, she was now totally unrestricted in her movements. While Pinkie had been floating and flailing, Kamryn had grabbed hold and wrapped both arms and legs around her midsection, plucking her out of the air like a claw machine. Now, Kamryn was flying them both through the chaos of Duskwalker's rapid unplanned disassembly. Her wings, small but powerful, seemed to effortlessly power the pair of them through the tumultuous module. She dipped and weaved, dodging falling debris with knife-edge precision.

"Get the door, Tres!" she shouted, barely intelligible over the deafening noises.

Looking forward, Pinkie gasped. They had already made it across the full length of the secondary module. Careening towards them was the airlock door, the access into the primary module. Kamryn wasn't slowing down. In the space of a breath, the door grew from a small spot on Pinkie's peripheral vision, to occupying her entire eyeline. She flicked her hoof. The door whooshed open a split second before the hurtling streak of pony and griffon raced past. Only moments later, the second airlock door was bearing down on them, and Pinkie had to give another wave of her hoof to prevent them from crashing into it.

Kamryn maintained her pace once they were inside the cramped corridors of the frontmost module. The sprawling passageways, once a hub of scientific endeavour, had been thrown into absolute pandemonium. The floor trembled and cracked apart, gigantic strips of metal buckling under the immense strain. By now, every single wall seemed to have shaken loose any pipework or ventilation shaft that had been bolted to it, and the debris danced around in frenzied movements along the ground. The narrow passages seemed to intensify the echoes of every sound: clanging floor plates, tearing metal as jagged beams crashed through sections of ceiling, screaming pipes erupting with steam. All of it accompanied by the constant, throaty grumble of Wonderbird Three's engines.

As they passed walls showing ever-increasing signs of total collapse, Pinkie could feel Kamryn's pulse quicken. The griffon must have been mustering every ounce of agility she could spare. She banked sharply, left and right, seamlessly joining the dots from one corridor to the next. Her feathers brushed against buckled sections of wall that reached outwards into the passageways, and seemed to be reaching out further and further with every passing moment. If they continued, Kamryn's forward flight would be less of a desperate charge to freedom, and more akin to threading a needle. Then, suddenly , she pulled up in a sharp ascent as they reached a small stairway. One that led to the upper levels. They were nearly through.

"Computer!" Pinkie yelled into her headset. "Override decontamination protocols, stat! Authorisation code Alpha-One-Thirteen!"

"Override confirmed. Decontamination protocols suspended," a robotic voice chirped in reply.

They banked around one last corner, and there it was. Right in front of them, the grey metal airlock opened onto a red one. The red door danced and jolted around in the background, like the link between two bouncing train carriages. Pinkie gave one last flourish of her hoof, and both sides of the airlock shot open. Only when they were through both doors, did Kamryn attempt to slow down. Thrusting her paws into the floor and spreading her wings to full width, Pinkie and Kamryn screeched to a halt just a moment too late. The pair of them slammed into the wall opposite Wonderbird Three's airlock, hard. Even with the wind knocked out of her, which had happened far too often in the last few days, Pinkie was quick to recover. Adrenaline had taken full control. 

"Buckle up," she ordered, gesturing Kamryn to a folding seat mounted the bulkhead.

The griffon obliged, pulling down the seat and proceeding to strap herself in. Pinkie bounded towards the cockpit, slamming her hoof against the button to close the airlock as she went. No longer inside Duskwalker with the artificial gravity to assist, her movements felt sluggish. But she made use of her surroundings, pushing her hooves against various sections of Wonderbird Three's wall and floor plates to expedite her access to the flight deck. Emerging through one last doorway, she gasped as she took in the view through the windscreen. 

Marecury's sprawling grey landscape raced by in a blur, an alien terrain deforming into an abstract painting as it shot past the windows. But ahead, looming out of the darkness, a gigantic formation of rock rose high above them. A sheer cliff face, growing closer and closer as the rocket sent the crawler hurtling towards it at speeds it had never been designed to reach. 

Pinkie dove for the control seat. With the constant acceleration working against her, she had to scramble and grab at any piece of purchase her hooves could find. But with one hard push off of one of the passenger seats, she managed to grasp one of the safety harnesses on her chair. Using it as an anchor point, she hauled herself forward, pulling herself up and over the back of her seat, and jumped down into place.

"Detonating charges," she shouted, flicking up a safety cover and pressing down on the button below it.

Three loud puffing sounds emanated in quick succession from somewhere outside. The grabbing arms holding Wonderbird Three against the Duskwalker shrieked a metallic wail, as the shockwaves from the charges shattered their internal workings. One by one they fell limp, jolting the rocket as it freed itself from the ball and chain weighing it down. No longer confined to the duties of towing, and with the engines still at full throttle, the acceleration increased tenfold. Pinkie was thrown hard into the back of her seat as her hooves eased at the controls, nudging Wonderbird Three away from the out-of-control crawler now careening across Marecury's dusty landscape under its own momentum.

When she was satisfied the rocket was no longer in danger of colliding against the Duskwalker, Pinkie pulled back on her controls. Wonderbird Three rose steeply, dragging Pinkie downwards with crushing force that caused the muscles in her face to twitch. The grey terrain outside jolted into black as the rocket rose up, away from Marecury and into the blackness of empty space.

Amidst the thunderous roar of the engines, a series of deafening crashes reverberated up from somewhere far below. Pinkie strained to hear as her ears picked up on the curious sounds, but shuddered as she understood. The cacophonous, bone-chilling sounds of the Duskwalker, a hurtling iron behemoth, colliding ferociously against the cliff face. An apocalyptic symphony of destruction, rending metal and the shrieking of tortured wheels echoed through Wonderbird Three. Despite the fact that she was racing up and away, Pinkie's gut stirred as her mind's eye formed a clear picture of the Duskwalker meeting its cataclysmic end.

She eased back on the engine power as they rose higher and higher, the darkness of space enveloping Wonderbird Three as it soared away from the dusty planet. Pinkie's heart was still pounding as she swapped from rocket thrust to ion acceleration, immersing the whole craft in an eerie silence. The dying screeches of Duskwalker's final moments seemed to reverberate in her mind, a haunting reminder of the close shave they'd experienced. But they'd escaped.

Well, most of them had.

"Hey, Tres," came a voice from the doorway. Pinkie turned around and saw Kamryn, floating upside down and pulling herself along by rungs in the ceiling. "We... err... we made it."

Pinkie nodded solemnly. "I'm sorry. About... about Granite."

Kamryn's beak clacked. "I can't believe it, ese. He was my compadre, my amigo. I trusted him... but even he didn't deserve..."

She couldn't finish her sentence. Pinkie gestured to the co-pilot seat, and Kamryn pulled herself down into it.

"Look, I know it's not gonna be much comfort," Pinkie said. "But... I programmed my computer to link to the Duskwalker's data banks as soon as they powered up. I made a backup of all of the research you guys carried out down there."

"Wait, what? Seriously?"

"Mmmhmm. One of my best friends is a real intellect, you know, sciencey type of creature. I know how much she values research data, and I just wanted to make sure that, if the worst happened, the months you guys spent on Marecury would at least count for something."

The tiniest of smiles tugged at Kamryn's beak. "Tres... I dunno what to say. That... that..."

"Don't say anything," Pinkie replied, holding a hoof up. "I'm just doing my job."

Kamryn sighed. "Do me a favour though, Tres. Delete that recording from the security camera."

Pinkie's head tilted towards Kamryn. "...why, exactly?"

"I don't give a damn that Granite got stupid. He was still a good toro. I don't want it getting out there, what he did. And if anycreature asks, he sacrificed himself to save us."

"You're... you're sure about this?"

"Sí. And he was right, if the Equestrian government finds out a minotaur tried to sabotage the mission... well, I don't want any conflict to come from this. We tell everycreature he was a hero. Make sure his family are well compensated."

Warmth flooded Pinkie's chest. "You're kind of a sweetie, aren't you?"

"Eh," Kamryn shrugged. "Tough façade has to slip every now and then, ese. And looks like it don't matter whether or not I like it, we're going home now."

Pinkie winced. "Yep, twenty seven of us on this one rocket. Get comfy, it's gonna be a cramped two weeks."

"Actually, I had a thought about that. Can you dock with our command ship?"

"Errr..." Pinkie thought for a moment. "I should be able to. Why?"

"More thrusters, more speed, quicker journey. Sí?"

For the first time since leaving Wonderbird Three earlier, a genuine smile plastered itself across Pinkie's face. "And more room for us all to roam, right?"

Kamryn nodded. "Proper beds, room to walk around, and some bio-chem labs. Granite said the pathogen was manufactured. Now we know that, we could be able to produce an antidote."

"Alright then, you're the boss. Deal. Let's find that ship, and then let's get our keisters back home."