//------------------------------// // Chapter 12 // Story: My Little Yamato // by Gideon020 //------------------------------//         The ambient hum of the dominating powerhouse that was the Wave Motion engine resonated gently throughout the Yamato. The departure from the Dark Star had been a bit hair- raising. During liftoff, a strong gust of wind had impacted the ship’s broadside, and had threatened to make it keel over.         Of course, it was nothing insane amounts of power couldn’t fix. The huge holes drilled into the ash from the stability thrusters would likely be there for a long time.         And so, the mighty ship was now cruising happily through the blackness of space. Having just completed its escape burn from the strange planet, the booster had been shut off, allowing the engine to focus its charge on the upcoming warp.         Rainbow Dash was oblivious to the ship’s happenings, though. She was far too preoccupied with the strange artifact she had picked up from the market pony at Axial.         “Come on! Do something!” she grumbled at the miniature screen in her hoof, that constantly mocked her with its nine little buttons.         “Argh! Open up!” she shrieked, attacking the device with a series of random patterns.         ‘Incorrect pattern. Please try again in thirty minutes,” It displayed, almost smugly.         “Hey Rainbow I-” Apollo said from the doorway to her room, before he was quickly silenced when a small black projectile slammed into the wall just beside his head.         The stallion looked down briefly at the object, before glaring up at an increasingly sheepish looking Rainbow.         “That was rude,” he said flatly.         “Don’t you know it’s rude to come in to a ladies room without knocking?” Rainbow chided.         “Yes, but your door wasn’t locked. Why? You doing something I shouldn’t be seeing?” he smirked.         Rainbow’s eyes narrowed. “What if I was?”         Apollo’s eyes did the opposite and widened slightly. “Didn’t think you were that kind of mare Dash,” he joked as he moved over to the star filled window.         “What? I’m not entitled to some privacy?” she returned, following his path with her head.         “Yeah alright. But in all seriousness Rainbow, I came in here for a reason,” he said, continuing to look outside.         Sensing it was something serious, Rainbow dropped the dirty talk and listened in. “Yeah?”         “You saw how Twilight was acting after she saw those pictures,” he began, turning to face her. “I haven’t seen her since then. We might have to call in somepony else to initiate the warp, I think she is freaking out. Big time.”         “Yeah, I mean, she didn’t look too good. But they were only a couple pictures of Equus! I don’t know why those affected her so badly,” Rainbow admitted.         “Well that’s why I came here. You’re one of her friends, and seeing as you’re currently doing such valuable work,”- he motioned to the box. -”I was hoping that you would be kind enough to talk to her.”         “Why can’t you do it?” Rainbow shot back.         “I don’t know how much experience she’s had with stallions. Being as much of a recluse as she is, I can’t imagine it would be a lot. She might have seen something in those pictures that we missed, and it's affecting her on a personal level. If i go in there, she could lock up and not talk about it,” Apollo explained.         Rainbow dismounted her bed, heading for the door. “Okay, gotcha, go talk to Twi. But I just have to ask, why are you so interested in us?” Rainbow added.         “Perks of being First Officer. While the captain may look after the whole ship, I get to look after the executive crew. Don’t think it’s just you and your friends, I know every X.O by heart.” Apollo revealed. “That Doctor guy is weird,” he added.         “Well, when you put it that way...” Rainbow pouted in mock hurt, “I thought I was special.”         “Those puppy dog eyes don’t work on me, Dash,” he said as he moved towards the door.         “Pfft, yeah right,” Rainbow giggled, flicking her tail in Apollo’s face as she passed, causing him to scrunch his nose in annoyance.         “I’ll have that shaved off if you do that again!” He called after her as she galloped down the hall, giggling madly.         The door to Twilight’s chamber glided open. The interior was very much the same as Rainbow’s. The bed, kitchen, window and bathroom were almost exactly in the same location. The only major, and most obvious difference was the enormous amount of ‘stuff’ cluttering the room.         Back in Ponyville, Rainbow was considered the slouch, what with having food packets and socks tossed carelessly on furniture and over doorways, Twilight, or at least Spike, kept the library immaculate.         On the Yamato, the roles seemed to have flipped. Rainbow’s room had been kept clean on account that she had spent less than twelve hours total in there. Twilight however, seemed to have crammed a lifetime’s worth of electronic and paper garbage into the tiny space.         Partly disassembled constructs lay all over the room. bundles of cables both thick and thin were snaking over the floor, around the bedposts and up the wall. One of said walls, was completely covered in various documents and pictures, all with a tack pushed into them with a different colored strand of yarn spanning between them.         In the center of all the chaos, was one Twilight Sparkle, who was currently going through, what Pinkie had once described as; ‘full freak out mode’.         The poor unicorn looked deeply disturbed, jumping around the room, ranting to herself under her breath. Without Spike around to help regulate these ‘situations’, her sanity had gone downhill fast.         Recovering from her shock of seeing the room in such a state, Rainbow spoke up. “Uh, Twi?”         The slightly batty pony either didn’t hear or was too preoccupied to take notice of her pegasus friend, continuing instead to mumble to herself.         “Twilight!” Rainbow said a bit louder, jumping up and waving her forehooves to get her attention.         It worked too well.         Twilight’s head whipped around to her friend, before snagging the mare with her magic, a small ‘eep’ sounded on Rainbow’s part, before being shoved, muzzle first, into the wall of pages.         “Oh, excellent, you’re here Rainbow Dash! I needed a second set of eyes to help out! Oh! Before I forget!” She said in an almost sadistically, happy tone. A magical tug forced a small feather to come free from Rainbow’s wing.         “Ow! Hey, not cool! Give that back!” Rainbow shouted, squirming in her suspended airspace.         “I’m sorry Rainbow Dash, but I need a pegasus feather to test the weather factory conspiracy.” She giggled as she took herself and the feather over to the other side of the room, leaving Dash to study the wall.         “Did you know that there is evidence to support the rumour that rainbows are made from magical essence? Specifically, from ponies?” Twilight commented, as if what she said hadn’t been worryingly creepy, still ignoring that she had her friend in suspension.         In any other situation, Rainbow would have corrected her about the rumour. Right now however, she could only think of one thing. Getting her feather back.         Rainbow thrashed more violently in the grip of Twilight’s magical hold and snarled as she tried to free herself, “I don’t give a flying buck! Twilight Sparkle, you will give my feather back before I remove your teeth through the back of your head!” If there was one thing that was guaranteed to piss off a pegasus more than doubting their flying skills, it was taking one of their feathers without permission. Keeping feathers was a way of preserving memories, and the giving of a feather to loved one was considered more heartfelt than actually declaring their love for that pony.         It was a literal sharing of themselves, and because of that, stealing or taking a Pegasus feather from the owner was seen in many pegasus-heavy populations and pegasus cities as a form of sexual assault. It was for this reason as well as the anger running through her blood that Rainbow doubled her efforts to get free.         If she didn’t set Twilight straight, there was a chance that the oft-naive egghead would tell someone about what she did and if there was a pegasus nearby, there was no question that they would immediately become violent. “Oh,so that’s where I left that!” Twilight exclaimed, foolishly releasing Rainbow from her grasp to pick up some random article from beneath a small bench. Rainbow wasted no time in rocketing across the room and colliding with the back of her friend with the fury of a locomotive. “Give me back my feather before I do something really stupid!” she cried, holding her friend in an immobilizing grip. “Ow! Rainbow that hurts!” Twilight cried out from beneath her, relinquishing the small blue feather from her hold. It didn’t flutter for long, as Rainbow’s hoof immediately shot out and snagged it from the air. With her property now safely in her grasp, she sat on her haunches and held it to her chest as she fixed on Twilight with a hard glare. “The hay is wrong with you Twi! First the Dark Star and now this?!” Rainbow growled. The impromptu wrestling match seemed to shake Twilight from her whacky state. The harsh words seemed to only hit home harder, and the unicorns bottom lip began to quiver. “I-I’m so sorry Rainbow! I don’t know what I was doing! I- I was- I’m just scared!” She blurted out, a dry sob threatening to release the tears she was obviously hiding. Instead of comforting her, like she probably should have, Rainbow decided to choose to take the path more travelled, and turn the heat up. “You basically groped me! I know that you know pegasi customs! Scared or not, you should know better than that!” Rainbow returned, still clutching the precious feather to her chest. Instead of responding, Twilight shrunk under the scrutiny. The sound of a saddened whimper escaping her. A brief silence fell over the two. The only noise being that of Rainbow’s angry breathing, and the always present hum of the ship around them. Finally cooling down, Rainbow spoke up again. “Apollo asked me to come talk to you. I didn’t think you were that bad, but nopony in their right mind would try and pull a stunt like that if they had their heads on straight. What's going on Twilight?” The unicorn looked up at the pegasus. “I’m scared,” she squeaked. Rainbow softened. “Of what?” Twilight cast a glance around the room. “All this.” “It got me thinking,” she continued. “Celestia lied to us about the Yamato. She lied to us about Little Rock. It got me thinking, what else is she hiding from us?” “I didn’t think much about it ‘till I saw those pictures. It was like those old UFO photographs, except from the other end. If all those conspiracies were true, what about the others?” Rainbow remained unconvinced. “You really think that’s reason enough to go psycho crazy bonkers?” Twilight looked up sadly at Rainbow. “It’s as if you’ve heard what some of those theories are.” “Ever heard of the Rose Well Incident?” she added. “Twilight you can’t... You can’t think that every idea that comes from those little tinfoil hat wearing nutjobs are true! Yeah, aliens are, or at least were real. So what? Did you think we were the only ones here? It all needs evidence, Twilight. You, of all ponies should know that. Besides, did they ever turn up anything from the Rose Well incident?” “That’s just it Rainbow! A meteor falls to Equus, and it’s cordoned off by a heavily armed military force only days later? And then there’s the official statements! One pony says that there was an artificial object in the meteor, perhaps extra-terrestrial, and then barely a day later another pony replaces him and says that there was nothing in it!” She had started pacing again, but Rainbow knew that this time Twilight was just venting, though she remained vigilant for more feather yanking, “And then there’s the base! It proves the theories were correct! There was an alien base on the Dark Star like Light Throat wrote about! And they were watching us!” Twilight turned towards Rainbow, “What if she was right about them being in contact with Celestia? What if the Princess lost contact and raised the Yamato in order to find out what happened to them? If she kept the truth from Little Rock from us, what else could she have kept secret? I’m her personal student! I thought I knew her!” And there we go. Rainbow suppressed the urge to sigh. If there was one thing that would set Twilight off, it was her relationship with the captain. Every pony had secrets, so why wouldn’t Celestia? Yeah, it had hurt a little finding out that Little Rock was a lie, but the scientists and their families were alive and they had been working on the Yamato, so it wasn’t that bad. But to think that the captain was talking to Aliens and had been taking orders from them? Rainbow knew Twilight was trying to justify this side of Celestia that she had clearly never seen before, but this was just going to lead her into a spiraling loop of depression. So Rainbow Dash stood up, walked over to Twilight who looked on the verge of tears again, and quickly swept her friend up into a tight hug. “It’s okay to be scared, but the captain’s not just your teacher, she’s the ruler of our nation and her own pony, Twilight. Everypony has secrets, even Celestia, the trick is to accept that we’ll never find out everything about the ponies we know.” Twilight sniffled into her friends chest. “But how can you ever trust them?” Rainbow sighed. “I don’t know Twilight. I really don’t.” The familiar cloud of ice exploding from the outside of the Yamato’s hull, signified its departure from warping. Fortunately, Twilight had felt well enough to come to the bridge and fulfill her role. Now, the ancient ship was in an even older region of space. And it was boring. There was very little in the way of anything interesting nearby. The last planet had been the Dark Star, now that they were bordering the edge of the decidedly small star system, they had entered the debris cloud. Leftover rock and ice from the formation of the system had been pushed out the edge of the sun’s grasp, surrounding the system in a huge ball of rock. Most large ships might find the obstacle hazardous, or even lethal if they tried to maneuver through it. Yet most ships weren’t the Yamato. Eyeing the field of space flotsam from out the large windows, Celestia spoke. “Ready shock cannons. Low charge for obstruction clearance.” Hearing the mention of the the devices that fell under her jurisdiction, Rainbow’s ears perked. “Captain, should we not test the type threes? We’ve already had a successful test of the shock cannons, we should see if the other armaments are working,” Rainbow pointed out. “An excellent point, Officer Dash. Load the type three rounds into gun three, prepare to fire upon asteroids,” The captain commanded. A quick nod of the head showed Rainbow’s confirmation. “Gun three. Load type three rounds and await targeting parameters,” Rainbow said, tapping upon her console, locking onto to three rather chunky asteroids. “Come on! You heard her!” The team leader of the gun bellowed. Each gun housed three crew, while the two cannons nearest the bridge were smaller than the rest, the crew treated them no different. One of the other crew within the armament, slammed his hoof down on his spartan console, starting a rattle from below him. Winches and conveyors grabbed and picked up the bullet type ammunition much like battleships back on Equus did. The three thousand pound explosive rounds were hoisted upwards through the belly of the ship until they were inside the gun. The small gap between where the crew sat and the breeches of the barrels, produced three, huge bullets. The door of the breach unlocked and opened, allowing entry to the type threes. Thankfully, the crew inside the house were wearing their standardised, pressure suits. So that they did not suffocate when the breaches were opened. A series of clanks sounded, indicated that the rounds were in place. The breach doors swung close behind them. A quick transmission from the bridge gave the gunnery crew their target. With a powerful whine, the small turret swung over to Starboard and the barrels pointed towards their targets. “We will fire them in sequence. From left to right,” Celestia decided. “On my count.” “First fire. Three. Two. One. Fire!” A meaty bang thundered around the ship. Because the type threes were bullets, the kick was far more pronounced that the shock cannons. An angry black and orange cloud spat forth from the muzzle of the leftmost barrel, the neck of the weapon slamming back into the housing, absorbing the force. It would have been impossible to follow the projectile. One second there was an asteroid. Next there wasn’t. The only remnants of the rock being that of the cloud of ice shooting out from where it had been. “Second fire. Three. Two. One. Fire!” Celestia called again. The middle barrel fired this time. Not having had time to recover completely the gunnery crew was still in a daze. Another cloud blasted the foot of the bridge tower, billowing forth, almost reaching the lower bridge. The second, larger asteroid went out completely differently than the first. Where the first one had been obliterated, the second sheared in half. One side spun in place, while the other rocketed off to impact into a nearby asteroid, causing both to shatter. “That was awesome!” Rainbow squeaked quietly to herself, causing Apollo to snicker under his breath. “Third fire. Three. Two. One. Fire!” A colossal, bone mashing bang threw the ship downward. The crew aboard the Yamato were ferociously thrown around in their seating or to the floor. Several of them smashing their heads against something. Another black cloud erupted from the cannon. This one however, seemed far larger and worryingly off centre from where it should have spouted from. Alarms began to blare throughout the bridge. Those who had not been injured frantically scurried to solve the problem. Rainbow Dash was not fortunate enough to be among them. A nasty gash on her forehead, leaked crimson into her fur and mane. A rather sharp corner of her station sporting a splatter of blood. The voices in the pandemonium around her were muffled as blackness encroached her vision. The last thing she heard clearly before passing out was. “We’ve got fatalities!” Rainbow Dash stormed out of the infirmary, ice pack securely fastened to her head by means of a bandage. It had only been two hours since the incident and the doctors had managed to get Rainbow to come to rather easily. “Rainbow, you have a concussion! You really shouldn’t be walking around,” Fluttershy sang out after her, flying up the hall to her. “Sorry shy, but I gotta find Apollo, or the captain. I need to know what happened.” “I don’t know where Celestia is, but Apollo was in the infirmary,” Fluttershy offered. “What?” “Yes, he was making sure no one was badly hurt. The he went to intensive care.” “Alright, where's intensive care? Down the hall around the corner right?” Rainbow replied, wincing slightly as the ice shifted around on her wound. “Yes Rainbow, but there’s something you should know,” Fluttershy said quietly to her friend. “Apollo came to intensive care because he was carrying you.” the yellow pegasus revealed. Rainbow blinked. “Well he was sitting right next to me, it makes sense.” “I’m not so sure, Rainbow. He looked really worried,” Fluttershy pointed out. “He was just being a good friend. I know I would carry you if you hit your head” Rainbow concluded, walking away to intensive care. The door to intensive care slid open with a quiet swoosh as Rainbow stepped inside. It was strangely darker in here than the rest of the ship, and had the lingering smell of anesthetic. The circular room had a small sunken rotunda in the middle, where long, hospital beds were arranged, with a small pole terminal in the centre. Off to one side, a window displayed a brightly lit operation room. It looked impossibly advanced compared to a hospital back on Equus. After all, liquid submersion vats were not a standard in any emergency room. Two of the beds in the centre were occupied. A pair of ponies lay upon them, one stallion, one mare. Both had cords snaking out from under the bedsheets into the floor, which presumably hooked into the terminal. The ever present IV bag was hung on a pole protruding from their bed heads. Sitting on a bench fastened to the wall, was Apollo. His face was sombre, yet calculating. The first officer looked up as Rainbow entered, through his expression changed little. Motioning with his head, he gestured for Rainbow to come over. Once the mare had come within whisper range, he spoke. “You alright?” he asked quietly. “I’m fine,” she swatted away his concerns with a stern tone. “What happened back there?” Apollo sighed. “The last round was faulty. The charge detonated inside the barrel, there was no way the breach would have been able to contain it.” “So the-.” “The explosion backfired into the gunhouse. They had no idea what happened,” he pointed back to the ponies in the centre. Who, upon closer inspection, were covered in severe burns. “I-they, uh.” Rainbow faltered, tearing her attention away from the injured ponies. “Weren’t there three ponies in the gun?” Apollo closed his eyes, bowing his head and letting out a long sigh. “There were.” Rainbow gasped quietly, bringing a hoof in front of her mouth. “So he- he’s....” “He was standing behind the breach when it happened. I’m sorry Rainbow. He’s gone.” Rainbow felt tears begin to build behind her eyes. A pony had died, under her jurisdiction. He had been doing what she had asked of him, and now he was gone. Rainbow Dash was never one to let others see her cry. Especially not a colt, but this was far worse than missing out on any cider. Her ears pressed flat against her head and she shut her eyes tight, looking down towards the floor. She was shaking, she could feel it. Before she succumb to choking sobs, she quickly turned tail and bolted out of the room. “Rainbow! Rainbow, wait!” Apollo called after her, breaking into a gallop after her. The two began to sprint down the halls, Rainbow blasting past ponies without so much as an excuse me, leaving Apollo to apologize in her wake. Despite being very fit, Apollo simply couldn’t keep up with the athletic mare. After a while, the gap between them grew and Apollo slowed, out of breath, watching Rainbow’s tail disappear around a corner ahead. A curious onlooker approached the first officer. “What was all that about?” she asked. Deciding to respect Rainbow’s wishes of not being seen crying, he replied. “Her friend is in the infirmary, she just found out.” “Oh, that’s terrible!” the pony replied. “I hope she gets better soon!” Apollo sighed, “Me too.” The door to Rainbow bedroom slid open. For the second time that day, Apollo entered into her room, this time however, to console the mare within. Rainbow was lying on her bed, head in her hooves. She wasn’t crying, or at least, didn’t seem to be. The covers on the large bed were messy, obviously a result of much tossing around. “Rainbow?” he said softly, moving to the bedside. No response. Sighing, his wings sprung open and he flapped up to sit beside her. A comforting hoof found its way to her shoulder, rubbing around in small circles to sooth her. “Rainbow, don’t beat yourself up over this. Nopony could have know that was going to happen.” A murmur sounded from the mare, before her head shot up, whipping around to stare at him angrily, with puffy eyes. “It was me who wanted to test those rounds! If we had used the shocks like Celestia said, he would still be alive!” she screamed, voice cracking. The stallion sighed, bringing a hoof up to her forehead. “You did well to run all the way from I.C to here with that. Where’s your ice pack?” he asked concerned. “What about that stallion’s family? What if he had kids?” she weeped, ignoring Apollo’s question. Apollo grimaces as he pushed a forelock out of the way to reveal her injury. “You didn’t do yourself any favours ditching that icepack. And where are the stitches?” “I’m fine!” Rainbow cried, swatting his hoof away. “No, you’re not Dash. You can’t blame yourself for what happened, everypony on this ship knows the dangers and they take responsibility for it themselves.” “That stallion knew the risks he was taking when he stepped into that gun. You’re no different. Just because he answered to you does not make you responsible for his death.” “I didn’t even know his name!” Rainbow shrieked, sitting up fully to emphasise her point. “I made him out to be some no-name gunnery crewpony! I didn’t even bother to actually talk to him, and now he’s dead! I’m the Chief Tactical Officer, and I didn’t even give the effort to find out about the ponies I’m in charge of!I didn’t even get to ask what his name was!” Rainbow shouted, a new wave of tears coming through. She didn’t get a chance to continue though, when Apollo pulled her into a hug. Letting the mare adjust to the sudden closeness, she began to cry softly again, when he spoke. “Nopony is going to hold this against you Dash, but seeing as you are, i’m going to have to tell you something,” he sighed. “If you blame yourself for this, it is never going to go away,” he stated. “Hm?” rainbow murmured. “You’ve seen my cutie mark yes? A ladder and a fire axe?” he asked, feeling her nod against his chest. “Did you know that, before I came on the Yamato, I was a firefighter in Bittsburg?” “Huh?” Rainbow sniffed, already beginning to calm down. Seeing that his tactic of opening up the her was working, he continued. “You remember the big fire that nearly wiped out half the city a few years back? I was right there in the thick of it, directing everypony,” he recounted softly to her. “That’s what landed me here. On the Yamato. Celestia herself recognized my efforts and asked me, in secret, to come work on this. Turns out my leadership skills are second to only the princess herself,” he chuckled. “Y-you were a fighter in those fires? That’s amazing, you’re a hero-” “Don’t say it Dash, I’m really not. I stood there in the middle of the city, pointing other firefighters to the action, I didn’t do anything,” he said firmly, but not harshly. “If I had my way, every other  fighter would have been praised.” “But, without you so many more ponies would have died. Even if you weren’t there at the action you were just as important. You saved all those ponies,” Rainbow said, even managing to smile weakly. “I saved ponies yes. But not all of them,” Apollo sighed. Seeing Rainbow was now curious, he continued. “It was way back when I started out as a firepony. Just a few months into the job we got called to a house fire.” “Pretty standard really. Parents out for the night, and the kids were left at home. two fillies if I remember it right. The older one was trying to cook. I forget what, I think it was hay fries.” “There were only three of us on that call, two pulling the wagon and me. The others stayed behind to put out the fire, and I went inside to get the girls,” Apollo retold, his voice growing more and more saddened with each word. “I managed to get the older one out, but when I went back in for the other, the roof collapsed. I barely got out myself, but the filly. She... She didn’t.” “Apollo I-” “I blamed myself for years over that. Everyday I’d be thinking; ‘How could I have saved her? What could I have done differently?’ I very nearly went mad over it.” “It took me a long time to figure out that, no matter what I did, somepony was going to die in that house. The parents, and the sister never blamed me, yet If I could go back and do it again, the pony that would have died in there would have been me.” “I-I had no idea, Apollo, I’m so sorry,” Rainbow said. “Don’t be sorry for me, Rainbow. I came to terms with it long ago. If anything, feel sorry for that filly that never grew up. Or her parents that lost their daughter. The point I’m trying to make here Dash is that you can’t blame yourself for something you had no control over.” Rainbow sunk back into the stallion’s chest while reflecting on the new information she had just received. She still felt awful for the poor gunpony, but knowing that nopony blamed her was comforting to say the least. Rainbow may have battled fearsome enemies in the past, and even been a bit gung-ho, but she had never witnessed death, at least not so pronounced and close to home. It was a fine indication that no matter how tough her exterior seemed, she was still an innocent little filly underneath. Yet here she was. Surrounded in metal. Dependent on a device that was designed to do nothing but kill and destroy, how could she ever feel safe knowing that? Neither pegasi knew how long they sat there on Rainbow’s bed. One was busy thinking of recent events, and the other was focusing on the first, making sure she was calm. After a long time of simply being there in the silence, a sound made their ears prick up. A few moments later, they heard it once more but it was louder,this time a series of staccato pops that suddenly had Apollo on his hooves and Rainbow looking at the door with trepidation, “What’s going on?” “I don’t know.” Apollo replied as the pops were now joined by shouts. Both of them grabbed their ears as alarms began to blare and the lights switched to red emergency lighting as the shouts were now joined by screams and yelling. The two ponies watched the door as the sound of hooves on metal came closer and it hissed open to reveal a pony in converted ship body-armour and armed with a converted assault rifle, “You two! Get ready!” “Wait! What’s going on?!” Rainbow asked as the armoured pony moved to leave, prompting the pony to turn back. “We’re taking control of the ship! That accident was the last straw! As of now, we’re declaring a mutiny!”