Star Flight

by Dainbow Rash

Chapter Four: Silent Scream

After having witnessed the death and abandonment of a crew member, the four remaining soldiers made their way to the newly opened passage in silence. An air of dejection hung over them, poking at their consciousness. They were trained to keep their emotions out of the mission, so emotionless they would stay.

They entered the small room, the new opening flashed green in the corner. Squeezing through the somewhat narrow passage, Starflight put his hoof on the clear floor, the entire wall of the tunnel was see-through, behind the glass were wires and blinking lights. Glowing words denoted that the crew had just come from the Biosphere and were headed towards the Maintenance Bay.

Starflight nodded and began walking on the warm glass. The eerie silence was broken only by the unsettling hum of the electrical wiring. The tunnel was just wide enough to accommodate the largest of the crew.

The tunnel ended with a clear, upward-pointing tube and a small lift inside that could fit only one pony at a time. Starflight looked up at it uneasily. He turned to the crew who watched and waited. “Who wants to go first?”

For a moment, everypony remained silent, until the colt that was by Trigger’s side when he died spoke up. “I’ll go, sir.” he said reluctantly.

“And what’s your name?” Starflight asked pleasantly.

“I’m Scope, sir... I specialize in medical, sir” the colt said quietly. Scope was a soft spoken dark blue and gray pony. He had kept to himself throughout the entire mission, only doing what he was told.

“Good...” Starflight said. “Be careful, report anything you see up there immediately.” They gave each other a mutual salute.

Scope stepped onto the platform and the tube closed around him. The spinning of a hidden turbine sounded and the platform shot up and out of sight with Scope. No more than 10 seconds later the platform came back, empty.

The silence returned for a few seconds, before long Scope’s voice rang in Starflight’s earpiece. “Nothing to report...”

Starflight looked to the larger colt who nodded confidently and struggled onto the lift. The process repeated and Starflight stepped back to let Rainbow Dash on.

“Oh no, I can’t go up there before you!” she said fearfully. “I don’t know what’s up there!”

“Rainbow Dash...” Starflight began, putting a hoof on her shoulder. She looked at it and then to him. He was looking into her eyes sincerely. “You’ll be fine... I won’t let anything happen to you... ok?”

Rainbow Dash sighed and stepped onto the platform. She looked back at Starflight and pointed a hoof at him. “If I die I’m going to haunt you for eternity!”

Starflight laughed. “That’s a risk I’m willing to take.” The lift zoomed off and came back again before long.

Starflight stepped onto it not knowing what to expect at the top. It shot off before he had time to gasp. The intense speed of the elevator caught him off guard, the lift changed it’s course midway through, turning on it’s side. It’s path went across the ship, rather than up. The speed kept Starflight’s hooves on the floor until the tube went back to it’s vertical position.

It stopped abruptly in a dark rectangular room, the only light emanating from the glowing tube. The floors and walls were a much darker gray than the rest of the ship. The front wall was made entirely of a sliding door with a control panel. A dull, constant booming came from behind it.

“I feel something...” Rainbow Dash interrupted, “It’s familiar... it’s awful...” she said looking to Starflight for help. “I don’t like it...”

Starflight gave her a confused look. “Umm, Rainbow Dash?” he tried calmly.

Rainbow Dash jolted as if she had forgotten he was there and his voice startled her. “Y-yeah?” she stuttered.

“Are you going to be ok?” he asked with a growing look of concern on his face.

She put a hoof to her face as if she was try to remember why she was even there. “Of course!” she said apparently disregarding what she had just said. “We’re almost there, Let’s go, hm?”

Starflight looked to Scope and the larger colt and then back to Rainbow Dash who had a single eyebrow raised. “Umm, ok... yeah let’s do that...” he said cautiously as he walked to the panel and scanned it with his key. It made a low beep and the door slid open with a cacophony of metal scraping and clanging. The crew winced and covered their ears at the sound.

The door was malfunctioning, Starflight quickly looked to the control pad. It’s display was full of numbers, letters, and unfamiliar symbols that didn’t seem to make any sense. He scanned it again, but there was no response, pressing the buttons had no effect.

The door stopped a quarter of the way through, breaking. The abrasive metallic sound ceased and was replaced by an electrical whir. Starflight hummed against the ringing in his ears and stepped through the space. He was not prepared for what he found inside.

He gasped loudly when he peered through the passage. The crew came running in when they heard. Rainbow Dash followed Starflight’s eyes to the ceiling. Her jaw dropped in horror letting out nothing but a silent scream.

Scope quaked inaudibly.

On the ceiling was a tangle of thick black wires connecting to various ports and machines on the walls. Sprawled about these wires were 3 corpses. The true horror came from their appearance, one was a white stallion, missing his head. Another was orange-brown with a yellow mane, this one was missing a large portion of her abdomen. The final was a pale grey mare, clearly dead, but no visible injuries marked her death. Their collective blood drifted in globules in the weightlessness of space.

Rainbow Dash felt sick to her stomach. The silence was terrifying, nothing was said for minutes. Eventually Starflight stepped forward and searched the ceiling, trying to find a way to get the bodies down.

“The fools” Scope said. Everypony turned to him quickly, his voice sounded odd.

“What?” Starflight asked delicately.

“So caught up in what could have been. Too blind to save themselves...” he continued, a much lower tone in his voice than normal. “How unfortunate that we should lose such talented engineers...”

The larger colt spoke up. “Scope? Are you ok? What are you saying!?” he asked, grabbing his shoulders.

Scope opened his glazed, dilated eyes widely. Ripping off his oxygen mask, he smiled a large, toothy grin.

“Put your mask back on, now, soldier!” Starflight raised his voice and pointed a hoof at him, distressed by this sudden change of personality.

“I’ve seen beyond the realm of mortals...” he continued ominously. “I wish to join those who are undying... the drifters”

Scope was speaking without oxygen, this perplexed Starflight. “Silence, soldier!” Starflight, becoming increasingly uncomfortable, yelled in his direction. “Restrain him!” he cried to the larger colt.

The last sane Second-lieutenant grabbed Scope by the forelegs. Simply looking up, he didn’t struggle. Floating drops of the original crew’s blood sat still in front of him, causing him to smile. “It’s here... I’m ready! Salvage me, great stream of time!”

The mess of wires behind him began to shift and convulse sporadically. The larger colt was still standing behind Scope, holding him in place. Starflight waved his hooves around desperately. “Watch out!” he bellowed to the Second Lieutenant, pointing a hoof to the wires.

The colt jumped out of the way, leaving Scope with the wires, which split apart, forming an opening. A blinding light shot out of the new aperture. Starflight saw the thick black wires move as if they were alive, slithering towards Scope like snakes. They wrapped around his hind legs first, binding them together, causing Scope to laugh hysterically, almost painfully.

The light caught the attention of the rest of the crew. Starflight, Rainbow Dash, and the larger colt stared blankly into the bright radiance within the opening. Starflight felt a familiar peace while looking into the light. It looked like a rapid river, small, dark objects zoomed along the light with a quick whoosh. The wires that pulled Scope into the light momentarily obstructed Starflight’s view of the opening. Gasping, he noticed Scope’s current situation.

He ran towards Scope and grabbed his forelegs. Clenching his teeth against the strenuous force of the wires, he pulled. “Rainbow Dash!” he called between grunts, “A little help here!”

Rainbow Dash snapped out of her stupor and quickly ran towards Scope, grabbing his other leg. Scope was closing his eyes, smiling peacefully. Still he inched towards the bright tunnel, firm despite Starflight and Rainbow Dash’s efforts.

His body slowly started to be consumed by the light. His hind legs, first, glowed brightly and blended in with the rest of the light. The expression on his face was unchanging.

“No!” Starflight groaned as the light consumed Scope’s entire bottom half. Surrounding black wires began to close around the breach as he sunk in further. Starflight and Rainbow Dash still had a grasp on his front hooves, but pretty soon there was nothing left to grab, the wires had settled, closing around the opening.

Rainbow Dash panted noisily, her jaw hanging open wide. “What... what just happened!?” her voice cracked, “Where did he go!?”

Starflight’s anxiety was slowly beginning to show. Looking down to his the last 2 members of the crew, hesitating, he said in a weak voice, “I don’t know...” He turned to his Up-link and sent another message to the Votum.

The last remaining Second-lieutenant slowly broke out of his catatonic state. He and Rainbow Dash looked fearfully to Starflight, not satisfied with the answer.

“That light... I’ve seen it before... but I can’t remember where...” Starflight remarked. He gulped, still anxious, “We have to keep moving.”

Rainbow Dash had finally got a good look at the room they were in. It was long and rectangular, lined with dark gray walls. The only lights shone up from the floor, glowing through steam that materialized from various machines.

They continued walking along the room until they came to another door. Starflight scanned this one and it opened smoothly, revealing a wider, more spacious room.

Beyond the hatch were sights and sounds unlike the previous rooms they had gone through. A low, dull sound of what seemed to be a large, metallic fan whooshed consistently. Radar blips could be heard faintly behind it.

More black wires made their way from the last room into this one, connected to the many mysterious machines laying about. There was box shaped computers spread uniformly about the room, some with brightly lit screens, some were off, and some were completely shattered. Loose and broken wires sparked occasionally making an occasional quiet zapping sound, Rainbow Dash jumped a little every time it did.

The entire ship seemed to moan chillingly as they looked around the room. Starflight was comforted by the fact that they had found all four missing crew members, so if they left quickly there wouldn’t be any more surprises. He continued to look for a sign of the warp drive.

Rainbow Dash was restless. She did her part in helping to search for the warp drive, but stuck very close to Starflight or the last remaining Second-lieutenant at all times. Rainbow Dash had gotten over the fact that she didn’t look very brave at the moment. She had just seen four horribly mutilated corpses and two of her crew members had died so, she decided, it was perfectly okay to be scared witless.

“I think I have a lead...” Starflight’s muffled voice broke the unsettling silence. The others, who were on the opposite side of the broad room, clopped nervously in Starflight’s direction. “The engine room...” he said, pointing to a screen with a map. A small red dot flared on top of a room in the upper-left corner of the oddly shaped floor plan. Flashing red words read: Malfunction in Engine Room.

The large earth pony looked to Rainbow Dash and then to Starflight. “Should we split up...? Rainbow Dash and I can look through the rest of this room for any clues and you can check out the engine room... sir?” The Second-lieutenant was daunted. He didn’t want to be the one to find what killed all of the ship’s crew. Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement.

“What’s your name, Second-lieutenant?” Starflight asked.

“I’m Barrel, sir” he answered in a low voice. He had a muscular physique and was considerably taller than both Rainbow Dash and Starflight. He had a dark brown coat and a short, red mane. His cutie mark was a firing shotgun.

“Well, Barrel...” Starflight said, eyeing Rainbow Dash, who seemed to be siding with Barrel. “I learned my lesson last time we split up... it won’t happen again.” he resolved.

Barrel looked down and closed his eyes in disappointment. “Yes sir.” he said, ashamed of his cowardice.

“Well... if we’re ready...” Starflight began, looking back to the screen for confirmation. “Let’s head out... ” He looked back to his Up-link, “we have orders... the sooner we get out of this place the better...” he said with a hint of acid in his voice.

The remnants of the team agreed whole-heartedly. Rainbow Dash had just witnessed her first deaths close up and Barrel had just lost two good friends.

Rainbow Dash looked around the large room once again as she walked. She hated how there was so much visual pollution in the dim light, and with the day’s events, everything looked like a hideous shadow-creature, hiding in the dark, waiting to pounce. She tried to direct her attention straight ahead.

They reached a small door that read: Engine Room. The hatch had a more complex control pad than the previous sliding doors, it seemed it would take a more advanced Primus key to open it. However, the pad itself was malfunctioning. Upon seeing this, Starflight scanned it, and the door slid into the floor soundlessly, welcoming them into a long hallway.

The main part floor of the hallway was a raised metal bridge that stood suspended over a series of intimidating, spinning metal gears. They were divided into segments, connected to each other with thick, steel tubes. The whooshing that they had heard upon entering had been caused by the gears, and it became twice as loud when the hatch slid opened.

At the end of the hall was an open passage way that seemed to lead to a much larger room with an ample structure in the middle. Starflight, Rainbow Dash, and Barrel stepped onto the bridge and walked fearfully towards the room. The clanging of their hooves against the metal mixed with the whooshing of the large gears created a disturbing sound.

They cautiously reached the end of the bridge, entering the main body of the room. They stood in place, awestruck as they saw the engine room. The gears were disconnected at the final segment, causing them to be still and noiseless, adding to the affect of wonder.

The room’s floor was a nonagon, the middle was lowered many feet below the main floor, where the base of the engine sat. The motionless gears connected to a large metal dome below the crew’s hooves. The bottom connected to a more narrow middle section; a cylindrical tower that glowed brightly with flickering screens and lights. In the middle of the pillar was a luminous, isolated circuit that seemed to rotate when powered. It sat there, motionless for the time being.The top-most dome featured a large screen with statistics and numbers, most likely concerning the ship’s various systems. Every inch of the ceiling was covered in black wires that stretched into the walls from the engine, to various rooms. This added more questions as to how they could have taken Scope in such a way, seeing that the engine wasn’t working. More bridges, like the ones the team was standing on, stretched out in all four directions, marked Dock 1A, Dock 2A, and Dock 4A respectively. They were in the very center of the ship, and possibly at their goal. Looking to Rainbow Dash and Barrel, Starflight smiled behind his oxygen mask.

“This must be it!” he said with relief in his voice. “... now... which one of these is the warp drive?” he wondered out loud, taking out his Primus Key.

The team watched closely as Starflight scanned the engine, waiting for confirmation that the mission was over. Patiently inspecting the engine, a small sliding sound caught Starflight’s attention. His ears perked up, he abruptly stopped scanning. Rainbow Dash and Barrel gave him questioning looks as he turned around to see a stray, moving wire.

“Watch out!” he gasped, pointing a hoof directly below the team. They jumped out of the way, but the wire wasn’t after them. The final segment of gears began moving when the wire connected to the small port at the bridge’s base.

The gears began spinning rapidly, creating a discord of scraping and metallic whining. The screens on the engine became brighter, the various trinkets that seemed to be powered by the engine began to come to life. The previously dim room lit up gloriously. When the engine was at full power, the small circuit in the middle of the engine protruded from the main body and began to spin. It’s pace increased rapidly until it was but a ring of light around the engine.

The sound was high and piercing, causing Starflight and Barrel to wince and cover their ears. Rainbow Dash, disoriented, made the unfortunate mistake of looking directly into the light.

It was bright. It was blindingly bright. It took a bit of time for the horror to set in, but it came before long.

Shapes began to fade in first. Colorful shapes. Happy shapes.

Rainbow Dash couldn’t make them out, each was a different distance from her. They appeared to be ponies, trotting happily around the white space. The background faded in next.

They were on the outskirts of Ponyville, peacefully picking flowers. The visions were perfect now. In front of her were her old friends, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Twilight, the whole gang. She felt peaceful when she saw them.

Suddenly, they all looked questioningly in Rainbow Dash’s direction. Rainbow Dash hadn’t seen her friends in weeks, so she assumed she would be welcomed warmly. She wasn’t.

Their ears perked up and looked in her direction. However, they clearly weren’t happy to see her. No, a look of fear spread over their faces. A look of unadulterated terror.

One by one they noticed her and began running in the opposite direction. They seemed to run in place, they got nowhere. If anything, they were being pulled closer to her.

In fact, they were. They began screaming loudly, reaching out towards Ponyville, but they were caught before long.

The first to be captured, by whatever monster they were running from, was Rarity. She screamed with a look despair on her face as she stared death in the eye. She was ripped to shreds as fountains of blood burst in all directions, leaving nothing but a rag of white, bloodstained fur behind.

Seeing this vision, Rainbow Dash started screaming. Screaming at the top of her lungs, a blood-curdling scream. The vision continued uninterrupted, above the sounds of her moans.

She couldn’t stop as Fluttershy was mauled, Pinkie Pie was battered to a puddle of blood, Applejack was skinned and lacerated, and unspeakable things were done to Twilight.

Rainbow Dash’s throat and lungs burned as Twilight’s innards were torn out. She was sure her own throat was bleeding, and it was confirmed when her howls for the torture to cease became low gurgles. She was drowning herself, and she didn’t care because she couldn’t do a single thing to save her friends anymore.

Twilight wailed and yelped as her life was being taken. “Rainbow Dash, stop!” she yelled.

Rainbow Dash coughed as blood ran into her lungs and stomach. Her heart broke when she heard those words. She was the monster exterminating her friends. She stared silently as tears ran down her face. She could only watch as she proceeded to massacre the rest of Ponyville.

Rainbow Dash sat there, staring silently at the spinning circuit. She hadn’t said a word since she became enthralled in the light. Her eyes were wide but her mouth was silent.

Seeing this, Starflight shouted, “Barrel! Find a way to shut this thing down!”

Barrel nodded and quickly located a square control room on the far side of the wall.

Starflight turned to Rainbow Dash and grabbed her. He threw her stiff form onto his back. He ducked into a corner and covered his eyes with his hooves, listening for a sign of success.

Rainbow Dash continued to sit on Starflight’s back and stare motionlessly. She was locked in a world of torment, unknown to Starflight.

To Starflight’s surprise, the engine’s sounds became louder and faster. He cautiously removed his hooves from his eyes and glanced around. Barrel slowly trotted out of the control room with a devious smile on his face.

Oh no... Starflight thought.

The engine increased in volume and speed. The light from the spinning circuit became brighter and illuminated the whole room even more. Starflight feared for his life as Barrel approached him slowly.

Barrel’s eyes were glazed just like Scope’s were. He smiled wider, glancing to the rapidly spinning engine, then back to Starflight, who’s eyes were wide with great distress.

“‘Don’t go in!’ They said. ‘You don’t know what’s in there!’ They told me. But look at us! We’re going to save everypony!” Barrel chimed pleasantly.

“What are saying, soldier!?” Starflight called, sounding braver than he felt.

“The Timestream! Soon we’ll become part of it! Drifters! The highest form of existence! Don’t you want that?” He asked nonsensically. “You might not know you do... but I know you do!”

Starflight gave him a baffled look. The engine continued to spin louder and faster with no sign of stopping or slowing. Within seconds, a large crack was heard as a large chunk of the engine shot off of the main body and through one of the bridges, melting it’s edges.

“It will only be a matter of minutes! It won’t even hurt!” Barrel said cheerfully. “You and Rainbow Dash will have so much fun! Limitless fun! Trust me...”

“What are you saying!? You’re not making sense!” Starflight yelled at Barrel, who looked hurt.

“I’m saving you... don’t you want that?” he asked sadly.

“You’re losing it soldier!” Starflight cried desperately. Backing away, he glanced at Rainbow Dash, who stood still as a statue, staring blankly into the light.

More small pieces of the engine shot off dangerously in all directions. If anypony was to be hit by a piece, they’d be killed instantly. A larger piece clanged to the floor below and steam screamed out of it’s previous place.

The steam burst into flame before long, creating a flamethrower-like barrier of blaze. Starflight was being pushed directly into it by the approaching Barrel. Starflight quickly looked to his Up-link.

As fast as his body allowed him, he brought up it’s messaging screen and titled the message: URGENT. He pressed the keys as quickly as possible and clumsily typed the words REQUESTING IMMEDIATE RESCUE. He sent it directly to Captain Acharis’s Up-link.

Barrel cocked his head to the side and looked innocently over at Starflight. “What are doing... with that thing?” he asked benignly.

“We’re getting out of here!” Starflight said, planting his hooves firmly on the ground.

Barrel’s face contorted at this declaration. “No, no, no!” he said like a nagging foal. “We’re going into the Timestream!” he commanded.

“What are you talking about? What is the Timestream?”

Pieces continued to shoot off the engine, bursting into flames when it came into contact with the walls. Fire rose all around the engine room, making Starflight sweat and pant. Barrel continued to move in closer to Starflight, but Starflight didn’t budge.

When Barrel reached him, Starflight looked at him angrily, “Stand. Down.” he growled with clenched teeth.

Barrel became angry, too. “I’m just trying to help...” he said, clearly trying to withhold his rage. “Now if you’ll just cancel the order...”

Starflight continued to stare him down. If he could just buy Rainbow Dash and himself some time, they’d all make it out alive.

Barrel, unable to control his anger, yelled loudly. He galloped towards Starflight with his head in front of him. Starflight braced for impact, shutting his eyes tightly.

Barrel slammed into Starflight, pushing him back closer to the searing flame shooting out of the engine. He stood his ground, pushing against the much larger pony, even as the blood dripped from his head.

Starflight’s eyes stayed locked on Barrel’s. They pushed each other in opposite direction, with Barrel doing most of the pushing. Every second, Starflight moved closer to the inferno that blasted from the engine only inches behind him. Rainbow Dash was very much in danger of being hit and killed by a piece of the collapsing engine. Barrel had completely lost his mind and was trying to kill Starflight. It seemed all hope was lost.

Starflight was convinced that there was something wrong with the ship, and meddling with spacetime is what brought it on. He realized there was only one way to get rid of the awful experiences for good. He had to destroy the ship.

He figured there must be a self destruct button in the control room. He suddenly threw his head to the side, catching Barrel off guard. Loosened from their headlock, Starflight used his opportunity to leap and fly over Barrel’s head to the control room.

Using his only advantage, his wings, against Barrel, he zipped to the control room. Bucking open the door, he took a look inside. There was an abundance of glowing lights, buttons, and switches, but none of the were clearly marked as a self destruct button.

Barrel galloped towards the control room. Starflight skimmed urgently for the button, but didn’t find anything until he looked under the terminal.

A large red button with a glass covering protecting it was on the side of the control panel. Another button was supposed to open the glass covering, but Starflight didn’t have time to find it. He bucked it hard, nothing happened. Barrel was feet away, so he bucked it again, harder this time. To his surprise, the glass shattered with a dull pop.

He pressed it quickly, immediately a bright red light began flashing in the engine room.

“Self-destruct activated” a voice said. It was clearly supposed to be at a higher pitch, but something caused the voice to ring lower than usual, it sounded demonic. “Five minutes to Self-destruct.”

Starflight burst out of the control room as Barrel was entering. Barrel looked around, hearing the voice. Starflight hovered above him, expecting him to be upset, instead a smile grew on his face.

“Well... that’s one way to do it...” he chuckled. Barrel wasn’t the same quiet, reserved pony he was when the mission began. Something inside of him had changed, and it made him an unstable, death-crazed monster. “I thought you wanted to live a bit longer?”

“If dying means getting rid of this awful ship, then I’ll do it happily...” Starflight said bravely. He looked to Rainbow Dash, who appeared as though she was seeing all of the horrors of the galaxy at once. Starflight lowered his head dejectedly. “I’m so sorry, Rainbow Dash... It’s my fault you’re here...”

Barrel giggled. “Oh! You think by destroying the ship you’ll fix the spacetime rip?” Barrel looked genuinely amused. “How naive. It can’t be fixed... not everypony can be saved! But we can!”

“So it is the spacetime rips that have been killing all of these ponies!” Starflight exclaimed. He felt stupid for not figuring out sooner. An engine that jumps through spacetime was bound to disrupt something in the physical universe. Starflight just couldn’t comprehend how it could have killed those ponies in such a way. What happened to the crew? What possessed Scope to kill himself? Where did Trigger go? More importantly, what was wrong with Barrel? Questions floated in Starflight’s mind, stabbing at his thoughts.

“Three Minutes to Self Destruct”

“Kill? Oh they’re not dead. They’d be lucky to be dead!” Barrel said, “The real terror is still to come! The terror that will consume!”

The rapid destruction of the engine began to crack the filament that connected the spinning circuit to the main body. Within seconds, the filament gave in and snapped.

The deep, low sound of the engine powering down replaced the frantic sounds of clanging, bursting metal and grinding gears. The circuit shot through the air and slammed into the wall.

Rainbow Dash broke from her stupor, her eyes closed and her legs gave in. She fell to the floor, snoring peacefully.

Starflight saw the circuit laying motionless on the ground. “The warp drive!” he exclaimed as he galloped towards it. Barrel’s eyes followed him.

“Oh look... it broke...” he said, sounding a little disappointed. He wasn’t broken from his state of insanity. “I guess we have to enter the Timestream the hard way...” he said with a frown.

Starflight’s Up-link beeped. He quickly checked the screen.

Rescuers en route
meet at dock 4A

Starflight smiled brightly. He looked to Rainbow Dash and then to the warp drive. “C’mon Barrel... we have to go...” he said, preparing for a struggle.

“We’re not going anywhere! We’re staying right here! It’s almost time.”

Starflight knew what he had to do. He ran to Rainbow Dash and shook her violently. “Rainbow Dash! Wake up! Wake up! We have to go!” She was out cold.

Starflight groaned and lifted the limp Rainbow Dash onto his back. He grabbed the warp drive with his mouth and proceeded to dash across the bridge that was marked Dock 4A. Barrel shouted and galloped after them.

The hallways were winding and labyrinth-like, but signs that pointed them to the dock helped a great deal. Barrel followed closely behind, galloping and grunting as Starflight led him to the dock. The flashing red lights made it somewhat difficult to navigate the ship, but he made his way through without stopping.

“Two Minutes to Self Destruct”

Starflight tried to pick up the pace, but he couldn’t fly with Rainbow Dash on his back, so he used all of the leg strength he could muster. He didn’t know what he would do when he got to the dock, or if the rescue team would make it in time, but he continued to run blindly, his legs burning. Eventually he made it to the dock gates.

Grabbing his Primus Key with his tail, he slowed down to scan the control pad. He glanced behind him when the gate began opening slowly. Barrel charged towards him at full speed. A second before impact, Starflight jolted out of his path and Barrel ran face first into the hard, steel gate.

Using the small opening and the moment of disorientation, Starflight squeezed into the dock and ran down the ramp. It was eerily similar to the dock on the Votum, but much quieter and less active. Starflight looked around as he ran in no particular direction.

He searched among the various floors of the dock,eventually seeing a bright light. Laughing triumphantly, he galloped to the elevator. As he entered the square lift, panting, he saw Barrel stumble out of the gate atop the large ramp. Starflight felt remorse, he knew they would have to leave him. Starflight drove a rescue ship in basic training, he knew there was no room for an unstable pony of his size.

“Sixty seconds to Self-destruct, Fifty-nine seconds to Self-destruct, Fifty-eight seconds to Self-destruct.” Starflight heard the demonic voice echo throughout the dock. The lift clicked as it reached the floor. Running for his life, he headed to the ship with open doors and a distressed pilot.

“Hurry, sir!” he called as Starflight hopped in. The doors closed the battered-pegasus into a seat-less space that allowed for maximum capacity. He dropped the warp drive on the floor and carefully lowered Rainbow Dash. As the ship began taking off, Starflight listened to the demonic voice’s continuing countdown.

The ship zoomed out of the dock with twenty-six seconds to spare. Panting heavily, Starflight removed his oxygen mask and threw it on the floor. His legs could no longer support him, he fell to the ground with burning lungs. Using strength that, at the moment, felt Olympian, he turned his head to Rainbow Dash. She lay there, snoring as if she was taking a nap in Ponyville.

Starflight first felt anger, Captain Acharis sent the cadet on a dangerous mission and forced them to continue even as the situation became dire. But the feeling faded into relief as he watched the filly sleep, safe for now.

Starflight saw a bright light through the window out of the corner of his eye. They were miles from the Haydes at that point, but he could still see it light up from a distance. Silently, every horror that ship had seen was incinerated along with it.

Lifting his shaking foreleg to his head, Starflight gave Scope, Trigger, and Barrel a respectful salute.

Captain Acharis waited at the dock when the rescue ship returned. The pilot called for a stretcher for Rainbow Dash to be taken to the infirmary on. Starflight insisted on going with her, but the pilot informed him that the Captain wanted a word with him.

Starflight stumbled onto the pristine white floors of the Votum. He located Captain Acharis and saluted briskly. The Captain saluted back, looking bothered by the blood dripping from his head.

“First-lieutenant...” she said slowly.

Starflight dragged the warp drive from behind him and placed it proudly by the Captain’s hooves. She looked down at it and smiled. Starflight smiled back through the throbbing pain in his head and legs.

“Good work...” she said. Her smile faded quickly after. “What exactly became of the rest of the crew? Your stallions? The cadet?” she questioned.

Starflight’s ear twitched in annoyance, he sent her a message upon Trigger’s death, she should have known.“I found the crew dead and mutilated along the ship. The cause of death was unknown when I scanned them...” He thought about it for a second, he never solved that mystery. “I can’t imagine what caused it...”

“Mutilated? Where did you find them?” the Captain Continued to push.

Starflight explained the horrors of the dead crew to a baffled Acharis.

“The warp drive ripped a hole in spacetime...” he said nervously. “Second-lieutenant Scope and Second-lieutenant Barrel lost their minds during the mission... the rip had a... profound effect on the entire team...” he continued, remembering the nonsensical things the soldiers had said.

The Captain looked at Starflight, who looked physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted. “Go to your quarters, lieutenant...” She telekinetically lifted the warp drive and quickly inspected it. “We’ll take care of this warp drive... make sure it doesn’t cause any more trouble. You need your rest.” she concluded with a smile.

It wasn’t often that the Captain smiled twice in one conversation. Starflight had the tendency to get on ponies’ bad side in a flash, so he saluted and dismissed himself, leaving the clamorous dock behind him.

Against his screaming skull and muscles, he headed for the infirmary, rather than his quarters.