>Rarity 1530 hours
Rarity and her three followers crept along a high rising corridor that lead into a mixture of blackness and green mist. The end of the corridor couldn't be seen.
They had been lucky; nothing was waiting for them outside the hatch.
Thank goodness, nothing attacked the Griffin! She never thought she’d be thinking that.
“Where are we?” She asked Spike.
“I dunno. Guard’s tea room. Celestia’s waitin’ room? I didn’t exactly get a tour of the ship y’know.”
“Spike. There is no need to be rude.”
“Sorry Rarity. I just hate this situation we’re all in. Maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess if you Ponies and you Griffins would just get along.”
“Hey!” Gilda the Griffin chirped up. “There aint no way in heck I’m ‘a make friends with a lame-o Pony!”
“I beg your pardon!” Rarity grated furiously. “We Ponies are noble and majestic. You Griffins are just… brutes!”
“Yeah, and that’s why we’re kickin’ your sorry flanks!”
“On the contrary; I most certainly believe that it is us who are kicking your flanks!”
“Ha! How’d ya work that out?”
“Well, have you seen what we've done to your precious Halo?”
“Oh whatever. It aint even ours.”
Mercifully, Spike interrupted. “Stop it! Can’t you see? Its behaviour like this that’s making the war rage on! Is it too much to ask for us all to just be friends?”
The answer came from both Rarity and Gilda; “Yes!”
“Sheesh.”
Rarity continued to throw coal into the boiler.
"What do you even see in that big, bedazzling ring? I thought you Griffins hated anything that is in anyway beautiful."
"And what exactly makes you think that, huh?"
"Oh, y'know, just everything about you beasts!"
"Oh yeah. We Griffins are beast, and don't you forget it!" Gilda certainly seemed proud to be labelled a beast. "And if you must know, we wanted Halo cos it can wipe out all Ponies in the galaxy." She threw a wild eyed smile back at Rarity and Big Mac.
Unwilling to believe such a horrible thing, Rarity took her time answering. "... Your making that up."
"Nope, hehe. Why? You scared?"
"How would that even work?"
"I dunno. Just "set phasers to Ponies," I guess."
Rarity spent another few seconds in puzzlement before announcing, "As oppose to "set phasers to Griffins?" Oh, I am so going to tell Commander Celestia of this."
"And what's you namby-pamby Commander gonna do? Beg us to stop? Ha, you Ponies are pathet-"
"-Shut up!" Erupted Spike, at his wits end. "Shut up, shut up, shut up! You're gonna alert the Flood to where we are! Just shut up and be quiet! Both of you! Please! I can't take it anymore!"
Rarity liked the Dragon. He was nice and cute. She felt bad for dragging him through the middle of this ordeal with herself and Gilda.
Sorrowfully, she told him, "... I'm so sorry, Spikey Wikey... I suppose there are bigger problems on this ship right now."
Agreeing, Spike affirmed, "Yes. Yes there is."
To the Griffin up front, she wondered, "So Gilda, are you going to behave?"
"That depends. Are you gonna give me the respect I deserve," came Gilda's returning answer, before her list of reasons as to why she deserved her respect. "Y'know, for going first, helping you guys, putting my life at risk, just being awesome-"
Getting the point, Rarity reluctantly complied, "Yes, Gilda. I will respect you, as long as you respect me and Big Macintosh."
The Griffin sighed and grunted, "Deal."
And that, everyone, is how to end a war.
Onto Spike; Rarity had really misjudged Dragons. Where it any other Dragon, he would’ve probably ended the Pony-Griffin argument with a burst of flame, but Spike was better than that. She could tell it was aggravating for him to be caught in the middle of this near pointless conflict. It was only a matter of time before the rest of his species would take it no more, and the war would gain a third faction. Well, forth if you count this… "Flood."
Breaking the silence, she spoke to Spike, much softer than when she was quarrelling with Gilda. “You said "Flood" before. What did that mean?”
“Right. The Flood. Well… I dunno," he started informally. "There’s a lot of em. They’re very ugly. Very scary. I think it was a biological weapon, still in development.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Well, there was a Mare from PONI on board.”
“Oh," she now understood one per cent of the situation on board the Pony Lisa, one per cent more than what she originally knew. "Nothing good ever comes from PONI.”
“Eeyup,” agreed Big Mac at the back.
It was odd; Big Mac usually never spoke if it could be avoided.
Spike continued. “I… I think they were… testing it… on us prisoners. They took some of the Ponies and Griffins. No one they took, ever came back. Whatever happened, well, I guess the Flood got out. And the Griffins made a break for it, and released some of the Ponies, didn’t you Gilda.”
“Ugh, yes. But only for the same reason I released you,” the grumpy Griffin joined in. “I wonder; whatever did happen to Dusty.”
Dusty? Could that be…?
Rarity had two questions she wanted answering, and didn't know which one she should ask first.
Eventually, she inquired, "Why did you release Spike? If you don't mind me asking."
"He makes a good flame thrower."
Joyfully, Spike checked, "I do?"
Stomping on the Dragon's sand castle, Gilda said, "Don't let it go to your head, lil' dude. You aint nothing compared to a real Dragon."
Spike drooped.
A couple of seconds passed before he sighed and proceeded explaining. “So yeah, the guards weren’t very happy about that and they started on us. Then the Griffins got mad and started on everything Pony.”
Gilda chuckled, “Oh yeah, that was sweet!”
“And of course the Flood started on anything that moved. Since I’m a Dragon, I didn’t have Griffins to worry about, so I teamed up with Gilda here and we’ve been hiding ever since.”
Rarity thought that was a very interesting story. “It must have been absolutely barmy on this ship.”
“Yep, sure was!" The Dragon chortled nervously. "By the way, Rarity?”
“Yah?”
“Uh… Thanks for rescuing us. It means a lot, really.”
“You’re welcome Spike.”
“And I never thought a soldier could be so... stunning,” he blushed and rubbed his arm.
Bless, she thought, flattered.
“Aaww, why thank you, Spikey Wikey. Aren't you just a little gent.”
“Oh brother,” Gilda groaned unsentimentally.
The butterflies kept on coming from Spike. “The curls in your mane are to die for.”
Giggling, Rarity began to respond, “D'aaww, Spike, hmhmhm. Your-”
“Give it a rest would ya,” in butted Gilda. “Your making me gag.”
Rarity exhaled as Spike whispered to her:
“We’ll talk later.”
Smiling, she nodded.
As they kept walking down the dark corridor, Rarity continued to think about what it must be like for Spike and the other Dragons in the middle of this war, and proceeded to make conversation with the Griffin.
“So… Gilda… Why is all your technology purple?”
“Because it is, alright!” Gilda snapped back at her.
Rarity sighed, then added, “I am so envious,” with a giggle.
“Huh, yeah, I bet you are.”
“Oh but I am! It’s so much nicer than all this icky grey and green stuff the UPSC uses. What sort of paint do you use? I might see if I can paint my weapon that colour, or would I get court martialled for that?”
Sounding a little embarrassed, the Griffin revealed, “We don’t paint em. Purple is just… the natural colour of the metal we use.”
“Oh really?!” She exclaimed with vast interest.
“Hehe, yeah. Really. Pretty funny huh.”
“Well I think it’s rather unfair that you Griffins get your claws on that beautiful material, and all we Ponies get is boring old drab stuff,” she admitted jealously.
“Are you kiddin’ me? Have you seen them fruity purple Spectres we got? As much as I hate to admit it; I'd rather be cruisin' in one of your Warthogs.”
“Is that so? Well in that case; we should swap.”
“Hehe, sure. If I ever see you on the battlefield, I’ll cease fire so we can exchange stuff.”
Rarity raised an eyebrow. “You’re joking aren’t you?”
“Well duh.”
Rarity laughed, and the Griffin laughed too.
Finally, the end of the corridor materialised into view. It ended with a solid wall that had been smothered with green, and a narrow, steel door to the left. An arrow on the floor pointed to the door. Rarity knew that where ever the door lead, it would be printed on the arrow, but a bloody red drag mark obscured the letters.
“Spikey Wikey," she called. "Do you know where this leads?"
“Yeah, D cell block. I think the engines are on the other side.”
The engines? Oh, yes, the engines! She’d almost forgotten her objective.
But then Spike added, “We should find a different way.”
“Pray tell, Spike. Why should we find a different way?”
Trembling, he informed, “Th… that’s where they took all the dead. It’d be like going into an angry bee hive right about now.”
>Luna 1537 hours
After checking Zecora’s prone form, all Luna had scavenged was some ration packs, ye olde frag grenades, and some BR85 ammo, which was useless considering nopony here even had a BR85.
“Rest in peace, fair Zecora,” she murmured gravely, magicing up her pony tags and placing them into Applejack’s waiting hat.
She had found no PONI ID on the Zebra, but that didn't mean much; Zecora could place an item in her bag right in front of her, and if she searched the bag, she'd find it empty. Zebra's where the true magicians, as no pony knew how they did it. Unicorns were born magical, but Zebras were just stripy Earth Ponies, more or less. They were greater and powerful-er than any Major in the PONI, that's for sure.
As AJ donned her hat, Luna stated, “That was my fault. Not yours.”
“Aw, shucks Princess. ‘Tweren’t yer fault,” comforted AJ, along with Pinkie and Derpy; her last remaining stars.
“Yeah! Cheer up Princess! That wasn’t your fault at all!” Exclaimed Pinkie Pie, bouncing over and offering her a cupcake.
Before Luna could pass on the treat, Derpy swallowed the whole thing, casing and all, and burped feebly prior to saying:
“Yeah Luna - I mean, Princess. Its Trixie’s fault for doing… er… it.”
“Art thou calling me Princess now, fair Derpy?” Luna queried, shocked that Derpy had finally learnt.
“Yes Luna,” Derpy replied with a huge, cheesy smile.
Pinkie pulled the ice pack off Luna’s head with her mouth and flipped it into AJ’s saddle bag.
Wobbly, Luna rose to her silver clad hooves. “Thank you, loyal subjects.”
“No need to thank us, Princess,” grinned Pinkie Pie. “We’re just doing our job, as well as helping out a special friend.”
“Yep. But yer welcome anyway,” added Applejack with a bow.
Derpy trotted to a door and stood before the three of them. “Now, are you Ponies ready?!”
Applejack; “Yeehaw!”
Pinkie Pie; “Woohoo!”
A pause as Luna remained silent, unsure, looking around sheepishly.
Derpy enquired, “Lunaaa… What about yoouu?”
She looked into the faintly smiling faces that surrounded her before coming around.
“Alright subjects. Let’s do this.”
And so Luna and her three stars walked, and walked, and walked, down the longest corridor in the universe. ‘Twas also the darkest corridor in the universe.
She had ordered her stars to use flares; Applejack’s throw reaching further than their flash lights. Pinkie and Derpy took it in turns to retrieve the sizzling, red flares and pass them back to AJ who threw them again.
Luna's pulse raced in the suspense of it all and she sweated like crazy. She half expected Trixie to emerge from a secret door in the wall, trying to make her way to their Pelican, then banished the thought. Trixie would know the layout to this ship like the back of her hoof. And she was alone, odds are she wouldn’t even make it to the Pelican. She'd probably drown in a flood of… well… Flood. And what would Rainbow Dash think when some random Unicorn with a cape and hat just shows up out of nowhere and tells her to fly away? RD wouldn’t do that… right? Didn’t matter yet, she’d put Trixie through a harmful ordeal. Whether Trixie made it off the Pony Lisa or not, she would remember her.
As the flares spat flickering, red light up against the walls, the herd cautiously walked onwards. The sound of their hooves clopping against the deck provided a constant noise in addition to the hissing flares. Hooves where never silent, no matter how hard you tried.
Derpy used her wings; cleaver Mare after all. It was tempting for Luna to do the same, but the three round burst to the chest had left her a little weak, and she wanted to conserve her energy for when it really mattered. Also, the corridor was quite narrow, and her gigantic wing span would be a major obstruction to her and her stars. At least the-
“-Stop!” Pinkie Pie halted abruptly, Derpy slamming into the back of her and dropping to the ground.
“What is it, fair Pinkie?”
“I heard something,” she informed, looking around with suspicion.
Clicking the safety off her DMR and pointing it forward, Luna hissed, “Applejack. Flare.”
AJ complied and tossed out a flare, only for it to bounce off the back of Derpy’s head as the Pegasus rose, and knocked her down once more.
"Derpy. On your hooves,” Luna whispered, using her magic to levitate the Pegasus out of the way.
“Sowee,” Derpy apologised, as Applejack had a second attempt at throwing the flare.
Brilliant throw. Landed by a sealed door on the right, illuminating a silhouette just beyond.
“Is that…?” Pinkie began and then trailed off, handing it to AJ:
“It can’t be!”
Then Derpy cheered, “It’s Cheerlie! It’s definitely Cheerlie!”
Cheerlie? She disappeared at the start of thy mission!
However, despite whatever happened to her, it was indeed Cheerlie. The ex-teacher came hopping over to greet them, a massive smile on her dripping face. Cheerlie was so delighted she couldn’t even speak, only make a “Hnnnnngg” noise.
“... Hold on,” Luna commanded, keeping her DMR on “Cheerlie.” “… That is not Cheerlie.”
“What are you talking about Princess?” Whimpered Pinkie Pie. “It is.” She faced Luna, tears gathering at the bottom of her shining blue eyes and a trembling lower lip. “It is!”
“It sure looks like her,” commented Applejack, shading her eyes.
This was insanity; her stars where so in denial. Cheerlie didn’t have an appendage growing along the back of her neck. Cheerlie didn’t have one leg three times the width of her other legs. Cheerlie didn’t have a smile that split her whole head open. And she didn’t have her MA5D rifle integrated at an obscene angle into her chest.
To snap the Ponies out of whatever had taken them, the thing that used to be Cheerlie howled and gurgled, reverberating through all their ears. Cheerlie then picked up speed.
“Fire!” Shouted Luna, and she fired accurate shots from her DMR in unison with the other’s spray guns.
As the abomination came closer to the flare, super heavy footfalls thundered from behind the door to the right, quaking the whole deck.
Cheerlie reached the door - and something with all the speed and weight of a freight train blasted through the double doors, breaking them loose, and side-swiped into Cheerlie, smashing her off her hooves and splattering her up against the steel wall. The form, complete with limp wings, a gaping beak, and a Lion tail, stood on hind legs and wrapped a tentacle around what had been Cheerlie’s neck, roared in her face with enough force to peel off dead skin, and shambled its way towards the Ponies, holding Cheerlie out in front like a shield.
“That’s a Griffin!” Applejack observed in awe.
Pinkie Pie stated, “I’ve never seen one so big!”
On hind legs, the Griffin’s head almost bumped the ceiling. Its lower beak hung useless below the quivering top half and waggling tongue. A pulsating pustule of beige, mottled flesh morphed its chest, and a ragged hole clustered with flailing tentacles indented the surreal protuberance.
Luna’s heart skipped. She panicked, both with fear of the creature and of having a heart attack.
Wide eyed, she bellowed the necessary commands: “Applejack, drop and go for thy legs! Derpy, aim for Cheerlie! Pinkie Pie, heart! And I shall take out thy head! Now resume fire!”
The Ponies' weapons commenced spewing bullets once more before Luna had even finished speaking.
The Flood infected Cheerlie wriggled free like an oversized worm and went prone. Bullet after bullet tore into the Griffin’s skull and dissolved brain, doing nothing to slow its advance.
Luna growled with increasing determination as Applejack cut it off at the knees, but it just kept coming. Derpy joined Pinkie in bombarding the thing’s thorax with bullets, slowing it, weakening it, still not stopping it. There were enough holes in the mutant Griffin to mistake it for a sponge.
Lying on its belly now, the nightmare scrambled towards them, dragging its body across the floor, leaving a trail of sloppy green blood. It continued shrieking with indescribable rage, until it puffed a final gargle and loosened, slumped on the blood soaked deck, still.
... Dead?
... Dead.
“Huzzah! Well done subjects!” Luna applauded, extremely proud of her beloved stars, then sighed with relief.
A round of celebrations from Pinkie, AJ and Derpy:
“Alright!”
“Whoowee!”
“Oo-rah!”
“WWRRUUUUUUU…!” Cheerlie joined in, with a monumental smack of her gargantuan left hoof, exploding Applejacks head against the wall, denting the metal panel.
AJ’s hat and Zecora’s pony tags ricocheted off the ceiling.
Pinkie Pie had just started reloading, and squealed in alarm as she got caught in the back lash of Cheerlie’s oversized, rutted hoof. A biological serration on Cheerlie’s hoof sliced through Pinkie’s cranium, converting her head into a half open jam jar.
Panicking, Luna backed up, fumbling her DMR, needing to reload, straining up her magic. Cheerlie pivoted and advanced on her, groaning, revealing a set of irregular, razor sharp teeth in that cave of a mouth.
From above, Derpy slammed down on top of the creature and began beating it with her rifle. Beating it with her hoof. Not stopping, never stopping, even when it was motionless, just kept pounding her hoof through Cheerlie’s mutated corpse, again and again and again and again and again and-
“Derpy! Enough! She’s already dead!” Luna wept, the loss of two more stars sucking the entire motive from her soul.
“I’m sorry Luna!” Derpy wailed, wrapping her cleanest front hoof around her and nuzzling her flowing, blue mane. “I just don’t know what went wrong!”
The mistake had been thinking Cheerlie was still Cheerlie, and thinking she was dead when she was alive. A grave mistake, and one she was determined never to make again.
Derpy withdrew from the sad hug she shared with Luna and sniffled. “Where to now, Luna?”
Unable to swallow the frog in her throat, and the odour of rotting flesh not helping, Luna replied emptily;
“Thy objective hath not changed, fair Derpy.”