//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7: Shadow of Intent 
// Story: The Pony Lisa 
// by Hi World 
//------------------------------//

>Rarity 1431 hours

Things went wrong almost immediately for Rarity. Whilst humming a certain tune, Twilight directed them left and right and down and down again, following the directions on her little gizmo. Apparently, she was leading them on a short cut that would lead to B deck… that would of course lead to the engine room, but there had been so many locked doors, jammed hatches and makeshift blockades that a direct route was impossible. 

The corridor they were clustered in now had at least some lighting. Not a lot, but enough that they could see without wasting the batteries of their flash lights. Swatches of blood smeared on the floor, on the walls, on the ceiling, was beginning to get old now. The extra blood bags she’d packed seemed like a bad joke; there was no shortage of the stuff here.

They’d reached a door, bloody hoof prints scribbled onto it, another makeshift barricade on the other side was responsible for it not opening. Not even Big Mac, who bucked it repeatedly with a single, rear hoof, could win the door over. 
In stepped Twilight, “It’s no use Big Macintosh; it’s not going to budge.” 
Accepting defeat, he gave the door one last, all mighty, double hooved buck. 

Over the jarring thud, an ear splitting shriek tore its way up and down the corridor, dissolved into a snort, then drifted into silence. 
Fluttershy started to panic, “Aah! What’s that?!” 
Her pale yellow body shivered and she hunkered down, face hidden behind her long pink mane. 
“Calm down Fluttershy. I’m sure it was just the ship.” Rarity reassured her, but she knew it wasn’t the ship. 

Ships made a variety of random noises, like the humming of machinery, the hissing of gasses, and the creaking of vast metal plates resisting the vacuum of space. Whatever that blood summoning shriek was, it wasn’t a ship noise. 

“Just the ship?” The timid Pegasus peeked out from her graceful mane. 
“Why yes, ships make all sorts of silly noises. That noise was, er… probably just the, er… pluming, or something. Haha.” 
Ok, she was now, officially, in denial. 
“Oh, are you sure Rarity? Because it sounded more like a-” 
“Rarity!” Interrupted Twilight. “I may have found a way around, but you’re not going to like it.” She sounded both proud and worried. 

“Why won’t I like it?” 
“Well… we have to go through recycling.” 
Confused, she played, “What do you mean by that? Are you suggesting we get recycled? How would that even work?!” 
The purple Unicorn chortled. “No Rarity, we have to cut through the ship's recycling plant.” 
“Ooohh.” 
“We’ll have to back track. There should be access to the lower level two junctions down. From there, we can go through the recycling plant and proceed to the engine room!” Pride entered her voice again, and she clopped her front hooves together with delight. 

“Twilight dear? I have just one question.” 
“Yes? What is it, Rarity?” 
“What is this, “recycling plant?”” She felt kinda dumb not knowing what she meant, but it was ok; she wasn’t the only one. 

Twilight had a tendency to outsmart even the smartest of Ponies. And Griffins. And even AIs! Maybe she should introduce her to Discord. That’d be fun to watch. 

“Well… think of it as a, er… a sewer.” 
"Oh gracious! A sewer!? Twilight! You know we can’t go through a sewer!” 
“Why not?” 
“Well… it’ll just… get us muddy.” 
“Yes Rarity, it will get us muddy, but that’s not important! We need to get to the engine room, and like it or not, we’re going to have to go through the recycling plant.” 

Twilight was getting annoyed with her. She almost felt like passing her command over to her; she’d be a much better leader than she was being. However, Rarity felt like she had something to prove. She was in the military, and she was determined to do her part. She was also determined not to get any dirtier than she already was, but much to her dismay, duty came before fabulosity. 

Sighing, she reluctantly asked; “Which way to the recycling?” 
Grinning, Twilight replied, “It’s this way Rarity,” and trotted back the way they came. 
Rarity, Fluttershy, Fleur De Lis and Big Mac followed her.

Cautiously making their way back down the blood splattered corridor, something bothered Rarity. Actually, two things bothered Rarity. The first; they hadn’t met anypony yet. No staff, no prisoners, no corpses of staff or prisoners. Only the Griffins in the hanger had bothered to put on a show for them. And the Griffin that killed Bon Bon of course, but she tried not to think of that one. 

There had been so many blockades made of junk and furniture and the odd paper cup that she was getting used to it. Some of the barricades had actually held. Most of what she’d seen so far however, hadn’t. 
Prison riot? Hmmm… It didn’t really fit. 

She’d always envisioned a prison riot to be frantic and chaotic, but this was just… eerie, and Griffins aside, they really should have met somepony by now.

The other thing that was bothering her: 
“Fleur, you’ve got a little something on your chin.” 

The model Unicorn was just as concerned about hygiene as she was, and it was a wonder how she’d let something on her face go unnoticed for so long. She was quieter than she was. Mainly because she spoke a different language, that said, there was a rumour floating around that Fleur De Lis could understand them all perfectly, and could speak their language fluently, but chose not to for some reason. Rude much? Something to do with style, perhaps? Or maybe she just didn’t like them and didn’t want to talk to them. Either way, it was kinda silly, unless the rumours were wrong of course. 

“Où?” Fleur shot and looked expectantly at her. 
I don’t really know what that means but, here we go… She pointed her hoof to a dribbling of vomit just below Fleur’s mouth. 
“Right there.” 

Fleur had already whipped out a pocket mirror and a ball of cotton wool from her saddle bag using her magic. After dabbing and wiping the sick away, she flung the ball of wool carelessly behind her and withdrew her mirror. A glance back showed that the woollen ball of sick had landed on Big Mac’s fore head. 

Stopping next to the large red Stallion, Rarity moaned, “Fleur! You need to be more careful! Look what you did to Big Mac!” 
Fleur just kept walking with Twilight and Fluttershy. 
“Désolé, je ne peux pas vous comprendre,” she called back over her shoulder. 
“That better be an apology, Fleur!” Rarity called after her, and then sighed, “My apologies Big Mac.” 

Using her magic, she unstuck the vomit ball from under his orange, untamed fringe, then was tasked with the stain that was left. 
Doooh! I’m going to have to be generous, aren’t I? 
Turning around and squeezing her eyes shut, she used her tail to wipe the stain from Big Mac’s head. She groaned a little, then turned to see him starring back at her, surprised. Confused. Holding a cloth in his massive hoof. Rarity blushed and squeed. Putting away the cloth, he thanked her, and the two of them trotted on to catch up with the others.

>Luna 1440 hours

Great. Cheerlie’s gone! That’s another star down. Luna thought to herself. 
With her horn glowing, she levitated a bottle of antiseptic, popped the cap, and splashed some liberally on the open gash on the back of Derpy’s neck. She could taste the stuff in her nose and throat. 
Derpy winced, “Ow! That hurts, Luna!” 
“Enough with thy yelping. Art thou a Mare or a Mouse?” 
“Uhh… umm…” 
“That was rhetorical.” She whipped out a large plaster and slapped it over the wound. 
“Lunaaa, that stings!” 

Zecora, Lyra and Applejack spread around the room while Pinkie Pie stood by Derpy, y’know, in case she needed an autopsy or something. 

The room, or to be precise; the infirmary, was cold, cramped, miserable, and cluttered with medical equipment that had been rendered useless. A pathetic blockade that hadn’t held the first time framed the doorway, which no longer had a door in it. The door was in fact flat on the ground, blood forming a miniature lake in a huge dent that had been smacked into it. Oh yes, the blood; it was everywhere, just like everywhere else in the Pony Lisa. Luna had seen more blood on this single civilian ship than she had in all her days on the battlefield. 

For the first time on this gosh forsaken ship, she saw graffiti, scrawled in blood on an overturned table. 
It said: “Tell my family I love them and that I didn’t do it! Not any of it! I swear! Celestia praise us all – Carrot Cake.” 
Oh brother. 

Luna rolled her eyes as she used a hoof to flatten the plaster below Derpy’s blonde mane. She’d sat her on an operating table in the centre of “the room of many tales.” 
“How did thou even get this?” She examined. 
Pinkie stole Derpy’s reply; “She bumped into something super-duper sharp when we passed through a silly blockade earlier on.” 
Cursed blockades, blocking our path. I wonder if Rarity is having this problem.  

With Derpy’s wound all fixed up, Luna rotated to examine her stars. Hadn’t had to use any more ammo to get to where they were now, that was good. And Applejack had shared out her brilliant supply of apples, so nopony was hungry. Lyra was still stewing over the death of Bon Bon, poor Mare. And of course Derpy was whingeing over her injury. 

At the back of the infirmary, a sealed chamber was situated, closed. Locked from the inside. This gained her full attention. 
“Zecora!” She hailed the mohawked Zebra as she approached what would’ve looked like a plain old wall if she weren’t so eagle eyed. “What art thy deal with this?” 

As well as her soldier saddle, Zecora donned huge, golden hoop ear rings, and one of those necklaces that looked like a golden slinky toy. Zebras where also the only other equine species, besides Ponies, that had cutie marks, and Zecora’s cutie mark was that of a spiral, surrounded by outward facing triangles to look like a sun, similar to her sister’s. The colour matched her grey stripes. Apparently, it signified her talent for mixing up potions and remedies, although that hadn’t been confirmed. Still, Zecora would be a magnificent medic.

Zecora rhymed in a deep, wise voice, “The opposite of a cell, a safe room. Somepony will be inside, I presume.” 
“A safe room?” 
“Mm-hm.” 

Derpy sauntered in front of Zecora, seemingly oblivious to her presence, and pushed her ear against the door. 
“Knock, knock!” She voiced in time with her hoof, knocking on the door. 
Luna started, “Derpy-” 
“No, let her be.” Zecora held out a hoof to stop her. “A knock on the door, may be the key.” 

Were it anypony else, Luna would’ve bit their head off, but Zecora was sagacious, and right about a lot of stuff, so she obeyed. 

“Hello! Anypony in there?!” Resumed Derpy in a friendly manner. “Any Griffin in there?!” 
If there be a Griffin behind this door, it will be as good as dead. 

At last! Derpy’s efforts were rewarded with a crackle of static that came from a speaker mounted above the door. 
Well done subjects. 
The other Ponies spun their heads and gathered round. 
“Let me speaketh,” she ordered her subjects. “Art thou ready for some royal Canterlot?” She grinned in Zecora’s face, who put her hooves over her ears with a giddy smirk. 
“Uh-oh!” Exclaimed Derpy, who did the same, as did Lyra and AJ. 
Pinkie Pie took cover under the operating table from the inbound, royal Canterlot bomb. 

Directing her voice like a Scorpion Tank’s main gun at the panic room door, Luna bellowed, “I AM THY PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT, THUS YOU SHALL OPEN THY DOOR IMMEDIATELY!” 
The voice that returned from the other side was female, very dramatic, and a little bit spoilt. “Ugh! Thy Princess of the night, huh?” 
Whoever this Pony was, she came across as unimpressed. 
“THEE ONE AND ONLY!” 
At your service Madam… Depending. 

“Hmph, how does the great and powerful Trixie know you’re really the Princess of the night?” 
Our royal Canterlot voice not proof enough for thou? Wait a minute… did she just tell us her name? 
“HOW DO WE KNOW YOU’RE REALLY THY GREAT AND POWERFULL TRIXIE?!” 
A pause, and then, just audible over the speaker; “Oh horseshoes.” 
Hilarious! She’d let something slip! This was glorious! It made her chortle out loud along with the others. 
“Yes, yes, very funny.” 
She could imagine the Mare’s face, red with embarrassment on the other side. Served her right for speaking in third person.

“So how does Trixie know you’re really thy Princess of the night?” 
“WELL, THOU CAN EITHER TAKE OUR WORD FOR IT, OR WE CAN PROVE IT TO THEE! ONE OF THESE IS THY FUN OPTION, BUT NOT FOR YOU!” 
The Mare behind the door giggled, “Tee-hee! Trixie would hate to take away your fun.” 
She must’ve been trying to get her back for making her spill her name, to no avail. 

Enough messing around, time to get this “Trixie” character to open the door. 
“VERY WELL THEN, BE THAT WAY! THOU HATH TEN SECONDS-” 
“And then we’ll huff,” Pinkie Pie panted. “And we’ll puff…” 
There was a hiss of hydraulics as the invisible door depressed into the wall and scraped off to the left. 
Open. 
Luna continued on from Pinkie, “… And we shall blow thy house down.” 

She took five, eerily slow steps into the shadows of the unlit room. Technically she took ten steps since she was a quadruped and all. The darkness swallowed her deep, sapphire blue coat and flowing, cobalt mane and tail in a demonic fashion. Behind her, the light of the infirmary partially illuminated certain patches of her face and body. She thrust her wings open, making herself look bigger and more intimidating, creating a gust of wind as she did so. 

With an evil smile on her face, she loomed over the puny, blue Unicorn Mare, and got a terrific nose full of her fear. 
Not so confident now, are you? 
The Mare backed up, pupils shrunk, sweat beading the head under the wacky hat she wore. 
“Boo.” 
Trixie squealed in reaction, backed up a little further, and gulped. 
Good. Maybe thou shall tell us what we want to hear. 

The great and powerful Trixie wore a purple, pointed hat and big collared cape strewn with stars. It was laughable, and kinda made her look like a Philly-friendly witch. Her cutie mark and tail were obscured by the cape, but if her tail was anything like her mane, it would be a very pale cornflower blue. Those frightened little eyes were dark violet, and zipped side to side as the rest of the Ponies invaded her private box. Trixie stood and quivered in the centre of the foisty room, using her magic to levitate an M6H Pistol, identical to Rainbow Dash’s, before her. 

Luna and her stars had their rifles aimed at her head. 
“Oh my! You really are the Princess of the night.” 
Ignoring Trixie's gun, Pinkie Pie stated, “Well duh! That’s what she said!” 
“Shut up, Pink Pony.” She shifted her aim from Luna to Pinkie, then back to Luna, locked onto Luna. 
“My name is Pinkie Pie!” 
“Whatever.” Now she really sounded like a spoilt Philly. 
“Drop thy weapon, Trixie,” demanded Luna, stomping a hoof on the deck. 
Sighing, Trixie complied, and lowered the magnum to the floor. 

“Who are you?” Luna interrogated. 
“The great and powerful Trixie, chief medical officer of the transport ship Pony Lisa.” 
Trixie had said that a million times before. To herself or to others wasn’t entirely clear. 

She would have lowered her DMR and ordered her stars to do the same, but then Trixie added: 
“Er… you can lower you’re weapons.” 
That made her want to keep her DMR pointed at her head forever. 

Trixie was giving off a bad vibe to her; she stunk of lies and secrets. They’d had enough secrets with Celestia and Discord, and she’d expected to find out everything she wanted to know here, on the Pony Lisa. 

This “great and powerful Trixie” better co-operate with them, or else they wouldn’t co-operate with her. 
“Thou didn’t even offer us ice cream.” Yeah, like that, and curse Rarity for reminding her of it. “Thou didn’t even say please.” Darn it; Discord was rubbing off on her. 
“Ice cream?” Trixie was now the most confused Pony in the universe. 
Guffaws from her subjects deepened Trixie’s great and powerful frown. 

Pinkie Pie entered rapid fire mode once again. “Yeah! Ice cream! And some cookies! And some birthday cakes! And some punch! And some candy! And some muffins! And-” super excited gasp, “We neeeeed some cupcakes!” 
“Ooh, can I have a muffins Pinkie Pie?!” Derpy asked, full of excitement. 
“Of course you can!” 

Trixie looked like she’d just entered a room full of lunatics. She clearly didn’t like playing the fool. 
Addressing Luna, she said, “Princess, the great and powerful Trixie is not your enemy… Please…?” 
Fair enough, she wasn’t the enemy, but she wasn’t exactly friend material either. She lowered her DMR and the others followed suite. 
Trixie let out the breath she’d been holding in. “Oh, good.” 

“What happened here?” Luna interrogated, looking around the room. “How did thou end up in this room?” 
Trixie tilted her head for a second, the Pony equivalent of a shrug, seemed like acting to Luna, then she answered, “What do you think happened? Ship like this, only one thing can happen. The prisoners got a chance to escape. They rioted, overwhelmed the guards, and took over the ship. Trixie was lucky enough to be in here when it all happened.” 
She was glad about that, Luna could tell, but everything she said carried the odour of rehearsal. 
Lucky? Her scar was itching like crazy around this Unicorn. 
“Hmm… so that is thy story?” 
This offended Trixie. “Ugh! It is not a story! That’s what happened! The prisoners got out and took over the ship.” It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the truth. 
This Pony was crafty, and Luna loved crafty almost as much as she loved mysteries. 

“You know, Trixie, thou art thy first Pony we hath encountered here. Thou might be thy only Pony survivor on this ship.” Putting emphasis on "Pony."
Shock in Trixie’s eyes. “The… only… Pony…?” 
“Indeed. Subjects, scan thy quarters.” 

Her stars barged their way past Trixie, Applejack and Zecora making eye contact with the lonely Mare. 
They can smell it too. Good. 
“I don’t trust ‘er one bit,” AJ muttered to herself as she peered beneath a sink at the back of the room. 
“Beware of what you do. I’ve got my eye on you.” 
Wohoah Zecora! The way she delivered that line even gave Luna the goose bumps. 

Pinkie Pie approached the great and powerful Trixie from multiple directions, including above, sniffing her like a dog. 
“Ugh! What are you doing to the great and powerful Trixie!?” Unimpressed, Trixie shoved Pinkie away with a hoof, sending her on her haunches. 
Then Derpy began to sniff Pinkie Pie in a similar fashion. Howling with laughter, the Pink one rolled around mercifully on the deck while the grey Pegasus sniffed at her ferociously. 
“Tee-hee, stop it Derpy! Bwahahaha!” 
O-kaaay.

Back to Trixie, Luna probed, “Policy on taking Griffin prisoners changed, oh great and powerful one? We don’t recall receiving that letter.” 
“It wasn’t a widely circulated letter.” 
“Thou don’t say.” 
“Trixie is just the medical officer. Trixie doesn’t set policies, she just heals illness and fixes broken bones with her incredible magical skills.” 
Aww, didums. 
“Right. Within this… expansive, medical bay of yours.” 
“Trixie isn’t here to help the needs of any Griffin, just us Ponies.” 
Had she rehearsed that too? 

Luna had a vision of her, curled up on the foam mattress in the corner, listening to the sounds of Ponies crying and screaming and dying. Ignoring all pleads for entry into her tiny fortress. 

Trixie had touched a nerve in her however, she had seen the same grief and bitterness in her eyes that she had seen in the eyes of other Ponies when Reach and other colonies before had fallen. A burning rage towards the Griffins for their near unprovoked butchery of Ponies all over the universe. She’d seen the same in her soldiers, except for Derpy, whose eyes were just out of focus, but surely she hated the Griffins too, right? 

Luna turned her head for a second to check on Lyra, who had been too quiet for too long. The forlorn Unicorn had only just entered Trixie's quarters and trudged past her, head hanging low. Closing her eyes, Luna had a vision of Lyra and Bon Bon frolicking in a flowery meadow, which was soon shut out to make way for an image of what Bon Bon had become and that weird spider's leg. 

Moving aside her sorrow, she continued her interview with Trixie. 
“Tell us about thy Griffin prisoners.” 
“We took Griffin prisoners to gather intelligence. Know your enemy stuff, y’know.” Trixie flicked a hooked strand of her mane that hung down from under her hat, eye lids half shut, not really caring. 
“That is all?” There was definitely more to tell. 
“I’m just the medical officer.” A shield. An echo. 
“Yes, thou said that already.” 
“Oh, did I? He-he.” 

Glaring at her for a while, Luna decided to just move on, and queried, “What art thy Pony Lisa doing here?” 
It was about time they found that out, but Trixie was playing difficult. 

Having completed a decent scan of the room, Applejack and Zecora approached Trixie from each side whilst Lyra sulked on the tatty mattress at the back of the room. Applejack held her brown cowboy hat in her mouth and brushed dust off of it before flipping it back atop her blonde, tied up mane. 

Uneasy, Trixie glanced to each side before answering Luna. “Where is hear? Trixie has been in this room for… she doesn’t know how long. Trixie has no idea where she is. Where are we?” 
“How about you tell us the last place thou were. And then, we’ll tell you if thou art still there.” 
Pinkie Pie was certainly impressed. “Oooooooo, she’s goood,” she mentioned to Derpy. 
There was a bulge in Trixie’s cheek as she moved that snake tongue of hers. Gears were spinning in her sweating head as she thought long and hard. 
Chortling, Zecora commented, “They call that "check" in chess.” She then informed, "If you're so innocent, you would bare not this stress.” 
Grumpily, Trixie replied, “Thank you, Zebra.” 

Luna waited, “... Well?” 
“Ugh, aren’t you here to save Trixie? Is Trixie under arrest or something?” 
Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be. Very well then. 
She had time to play too, right the way up to the Bridge, speaking of: 
“Thou would have command codes to gain access to thy Bridge, correct?” 
Puzzlement washed over Trixie’s face, “Yeeeess…?” 
Finally, Luna relented. She might not like her, but she would prove useful to her quest. 

Giving Trixie the low-down she may or may not already know, Luna explained, “We are off a planet called Threshold, within the remains of Halo. There are Griffins running rampant about thy ship, capable of making a slip space jump. As Cole protocol would dictate, we must dispose of the navigational data on thy Bridge, and thou art going to help us.” 
Panicking, Trixie stammered, “No! N-no! No! No! We need to get off this ship! We need to get off as soon as possible! You came here somehow right?! We neeed to get off!” 
Rainbow Dash would hate this Pony even more than she did. 
“We are sorry great and powerful Trixie, but that is not an option. You’re coming with us.” 
“No! No!” 
“Pleeaase,” she added, grinning and fluttering her eyelids, Rarity style.