//------------------------------// // Chapter 14 // Story: My Little Yamato // by Gideon020 //------------------------------//         “Watch where you’re walking!” A gruff, brown unicorn stallion spoke sternly down at the pegasus mare whom he had just collided with, and was now cowering at his hooves.         “I-I’m sorry, I wasn’t looking where I wa-”         “I don’t want to hear it! It’s bad enough they let anti-Yamato activists onto the ship, now we’ve got grovelling mares too?” he shouted angrily.         “I’m sorry, I-”         “Save it,” he ordered, holding a hoof up at her. “It’s not even worth my time,” he grumbled as he pushed past her, the ever so faint mention of ‘pathetic’ coming from under his breath.         Fluttershy whimpered, quietly to herself as she went about collecting the papers that she had dropped. She knew she shouldn’t be that upset with the stallion, everypony had been high strung since the mutiny a few weeks ago, but being treated like dirt was starting to get to her.         This wasn’t the first time the kind mare had been on the receiving end of a verbal backlash of some higher-up, and it was taking its toll on her. Being on the Yamato in constant danger had been frightening enough. The mutiny had only worried her further, especially after she heard what Apollo had done to Skyline.         To think that one pony who she had eaten lunch with, and talked quite animatedly with, had killed another pony who she had actually worked with was a surreal experience.         When she had heard of it for the first time, she refused to believe it. She had been talking to Skyline Vista just a few hours before the mutiny, when the mis-fire in the turret had occurred.         Back then, she had thought nothing of it. But looking back now, it was easy to see that as soon as word of a critical failure in one of the ships systems had reached her, she became eerily quiet.         Once the mutineer’s leader had been ‘neutralized’, the rest of them quickly surrendered. Apparently, the brig was far cozier than it appeared, as all of them seemed to be quite comfortably enjoying their sentences.         Most of them would be serving time until the mission was complete, though a few of the ‘less-than-built-for-prison-life’ were being paroled on ‘good behaviour’. After all, what good was there in having a few dozen or so ponies aboard a ship using up supplies without helping out?         Nevertheless, the rest of the crew were still very shaken up, knowing that there were ponies out there who disagreed with the Yamato and everything that it stood for.         Not only were random ponies Fluttershy had never even spoken too, were stressed out, so were her friends.         Applejack and Rarity didn’t seem to affected, mostly just ruffled from the skirmish. Pinkie appeared to be as normal as ever, but on more than one occasion, Fluttershy found her pacing back and forth down the corridors, hair dead straight.         Twilight was almost to the point of tears in the days following the attack. Being one bullet from death had scared her immensely, and only furthered her hatred of guns.         The pony taking it the worst though, was Fluttershy’s oldest friend. Rainbow Dash had taken the mutiny the hardest. Applejack had theorized that a mutiny was the epitomization of betrayal, thus, would have rattled the element of loyalty greatly.         While it may have been the cause, Fluttershy could tell that there was more to it than that. None of them had been there when she had been confronted by Skyline and all surveillance had gone down when Dash had ripped the circuit BUS from the bridge.         All Fluttershy knew that when the medical staff had arrived, they found her crying in a pool of Skyline’s blood, with Apollo standing guard over them. To think that one of her closest friends had to see that made her realize just how unprepared they all were for this journey.         Pushing aside the fact that her thoughts were very similar to that of the mutineers, she continued to ponder their current situation as she dragged her hooves down the oppressive steel hallway.         Cold, lifeless, alien metal and an ever present hum of the ship’s heart constantly reminded her that she was as far away from Ponyville as possible.         Fluttershy whimpered again, squeezing her eyes tight as she thought of her true home. She missed the blue sky, the wind blowing through the trees and her cottage creaking in the morning sun.         She missed being woken up at the crack of dawn by the call of her rooster, and feeding all the critters that travelled to her home in search of a safe haven. She missed going out to market, to buy all the food for them, just so she could come home and see their happy faces.         But most of all, she missed her Angel bunny. The stubborn, irritable, bossy white rabbit was the closest thing she had to a family in Ponyville, minus Dash. Her real family lived far north, between Canterlot and where the Crystal empire reappeared. She had only lived in Cloudsdale a short time with her sister, so that she could learn to fly, but after she graduated, she decided to move to a quieter town.         It had been hard living so far away from her parents and siblings, but she had soon gotten used to living along with dozens of animals to keep her company.         But now, millions of miles away from anything remotely familiar. she truly began to feel lonely.         The sound of rapid hoofbeats coming up behind her stirred her from her internal debate. Turning to look, she saw two, young mares galloping towards her, genuine smiles on their face and a look of excitement beaming from them.         They soon shot past Fluttershy, allowing the mare to catch a snippet of their conversation. “-said that you can see it off the bow, at about one o’clock. It looks as blue as-,” one of them trailed off as the ran out of earshot, still galloping madly.         Curious, Fluttershy began to follow. While not too extremely well-versed in sailing mumbo-jumbo she managed to grasp that whatever they were talking about was just in front of the ship, off to the right.         Deciding to see what the fuss was about would be a better use of her time than aimlessly carting documents around, she followed to the nearest window.         It didn’t take long for Fluttershy to find a spot that had a good view of the ships heading. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for other ponies to, either. Half a dozen ponies were clambering over top of one another, blocking the view to whatever they were oohing and awing at.         “Uh, um ex-excuse me. Could you please move over?” she whispered, getting no response.         “Um hello? I would like to look too, if you don’t mind,” she smiled, receiving the same response.         Noting that she was either being ignored of drowned out, she rolled her eyes before her wings sprang open, letting her flutter up over the mound of ponies to a clear spot. Settling down, she peered outside into the blackness, taking a moment to thank the creators of the Yamato that what she was doing was actually possible.         It took her a few moments to find what everypony was talking about. Against the backdrop of stars and nebulas, it was difficult to make out the tiny blue and green ball against it all.         She cocked her head as she looked at it. For a moment, she thought that it was Equus, but she knew that that wasn’t possible, there was no mention of a course correction.         She continued to peer at the strange object until the shipwide P.A sounded. “This is Captain Celestia. Some crew may have noticed a strange planet of the Yamato’s bow. We are terming this new body as ‘Eden’. We will be making planet fall shortly. That is all.’         “Planetfall?” A pony spoke up. “Nopony said anything about this! Oh this is so exciting, even if it is last minute!”         “How is it any different to the Dark Star?” another asked.         “This one is completely new! Look at it! It almost looks like home, maybe its got life on it!” the first pony squealed, jumping up and down happily.         Fluttershy looked back out to the growing orb. ‘Eden...,’ she thought to herself.         ‘...Sounds wonderful.’         The Yamato’s approach to the planet was far smoother than when it had set down on the turbulent Dark Star, and the mood on board the ship was infectious as crew took the time to watch the exterior view of the re-entry being shown from the shielded external cameras. Here, they could all see the fiery plume created by the friction of metal meeting atmosphere, a few gasping in wonder as an arc of burning plasma shot past the camera. But even through the burning gas, the black void of space slowly but surely gave way to a sapphire-blue sky as the plasma faded and the cameras shifted to allow the watching crew a view of the planet. Automatic subroutines immediately kicked into action, shifting the nozzles of retro-thrusters as they fired retrograde to kill the rate of descent in long spears of blue exhaust flame before the swept wings of the Yamato extended and locked into place. Flaps opened and positioned, rotating the ship’s bow to level the great vessel in mid-air, before air-brakes opened to further slow the ship’s descent, as it’s prograde became less of a straight drop and more of a controlled glide. The sub-thrusters fired at that moment, and as the ship’s altitude became closer and closer to the ground, the ship soon stopped falling and began gently cruising along the tops of the trees. And on board, everypony got their first look at the planet called Eden. It was an amazing sight, large alien trees with blue-green leaves dominated the landscape, and in the distance large mountains could be seen as the ship passed over a large river with green water. Eventually, the ship’s lazy cruise brought it to a halt above a natural clearing near the river, and with flaring retro-thrusters, settled to a stop as the ship’s anchors fired into the dirt, digging in deeply, before the engines began to shut down down with a low rumble. “Attention all crew, we have landed on Eden. Please wait until the atmosphere has been deemed safe and timetables for exploration and shore leave have been posted. Thank you.” Fluttershy wasn’t listening, she was staring at the beautiful world out in front her through the cameras of the Yamato, and wondered what it would be like to live out there. Huge tropical trees that towered higher than the skyscrapers of manehatten poked up through the multi-level canopy. Vines were draped down and over branches, for up close, they were bigger than bridge cables, and probably just as strong. The Yamato however, still towered over all, its two toned, grey and red scheme sticking out like a beacon among the foliage. In the lab, having finished delivering her stack of papers, Fluttershy listened to the scientists talk about the possible opportunities that could be found out in the jungle. Truthfully, she wasn’t really interested in all that, but she was interested in the talk about possible wildlife and that made her feel giddy with excitement.. Unless they were scary, or big, like dragons. She really hoped that they weren’t like dragons. The intercom chimed again, “Attention all crew, the atmosphere has been deemed safe and breathable. Timetables are now being posted for the first shore-leave rotation and exploration parties.” And just like that the lab emptied of ponies as Fluttershy remained behind to make sure the experiments wouldn’t burn or explode before following after them. As she exited the lab and entered the ship’s corridors, she could see that there was a rush of ponies towards the cafeteria, which had become an unofficial common area apart from the observation deck with its couches and large windows offering a superb view of the planet outside the hull. In fact, there were so many ponies that Fluttershy had to start flying above them, and even then she was nearly rammed by several pegasi zooming forward to get there before everyone else. After a few more near misses, she managed to reach the cafeteria where a large sign-board had been set up with the schedules and already she could hear cries of delight and moans of disappointment as ponies checked to see if their names were amongst the first few rotations or exploration parties. Carefully flitting above the ponies at the door, she began making her way to the board, “Excuse me. Pardon me. I’m terribly sorry, could you please move? I mean, if that’s okay.” She carefully tried to fit between the gaps created by pegasi leaving in disappointment before she finally managed to reach the sign-board and start reading. She blinked in surprise at the names on the first exploration team, most importantly she saw that her name was listed as ‘Wildlife expert’ in neat block letters. “Oh my…” It wasn’t that she wasn’t excited about going out there. It was being listed as an expert. Surely taking care of animals in Ponyville didn’t qualify a pony to be an expert in wildlife? Especially after what happened at the Grand Galloping Gala as well. Still, she was first to go out into that jungle and find some cute and adorable animal friends! Any other pony might have cheered, but as this was Fluttershy, what came out was a quiet, “Yay!” She immediately fluttered back to her room, Being among the first ponies to investigate possible living alien life on another planet called for a lot of preparation. There was drawing supplies so she could sketch anything, a sharp knife to cut down any fruit for study, some Equestrian food so she could see how they reacted to a foreign food source, so many things! As she packed what she would need for the trip, Fluttershy heard a knock on her door, and called out, “Come in!” She turned as it opened to reveal a pony in security armour, “Oh, hello. Can I help you?” The pony smiled, “Miss Fluttershy is it? I’m Mayhem, and I’ll be heading up security for the exploration party. I’m just going around and introducing myself to the other party members.” “Oh.” Fluttershy blinked, “Well, it’s very nice to meet you.” “Fascinating.” The scientist muttered as she studied a large plant while other scientists looked over other items that aroused their curiosity, but above them, standing on a large tree branch, Fluttershy was more interested in finding something more alive than plants. “Oh please let there be something alive out there,” she whispered as her eyes searched the undergrowth for the tell-tale signs of animal movement; foliage moving, sounds, anything that would be obvious through the silence of the forest. After a few more seconds, she sighed and sent a glare back at the Yamato. They’d never find any animals after all the noise that ship made, they’d need to go deeper, but the security ponies were very firm that they were not to go out of sight of the Yamato, and it was annoying the yellow pegasus mare that they couldn’t explore deeper. ‘As if we need to be protected by those giant cannons.’ Fluttershy grumbled mentally as she looked back down to see Mayhem staring up at her, before he waved and she waved back with a wing. At least the atmosphere was Equus-like, meaning the expedition crew could venture out virtually unclothed, aside from the gas masks they were all hanging around their necks, in case some strange plant released several thousand spores that were toxic to them. Jumping off the high branch, she joined the rest of the crew on the forest floor. Down here, the humidity was so great it felt more like walking through soup than air. The steam from rotting plant matter created a translucent green fog that obscured everything past a few dozen body lengths. It was then that the group heard a musical chittering, and Fluttershy turned with a smile at seeing a slender creature with long ears seemingly melt out of the undergrowth to climb on top of a fallen tree trunk and stare at them with wide, strangely coloured eyes, ears twitching minutely as the ponies shifted. Fluttershy smiled as she studied it, it was so cute! It looked like a mix between a rabbit and a cat and though she couldn’t see it, with those sharp claws for climbing, she guessed that it should have a long tail for balance way up in the treetops. She took a tentative step forward and noted the way that the creature’s ears twitched and focused on her. As she took another step, the creature’s eyes shifted to study her and it bobbed up and down, as if gauging the distance between them. “Miss Fluttershy, I suggest you step back, it might be dangerous.” She heard Mayhem speak up behind her, but shook her head. “Everything’s going to be fine.” The creature slowly began climbing down and Fluttershy smiled, “See? He’s just curious.” She moved closer as the creature stopped and stared at her, “Don’t be frightened, I’m your friend. Come on now…” The creature seemed increasingly anxious as Fluttershy approached, its ears splaying flat against its head and its hackles raised. Fluttershy didn’t seem to notice the however, as she was far too preoccupied with trying to coax the animal towards her. She could see that the tail of the creature was very long and Fluttershy’s eyes followed it when she suddenly heard a shout of warning, before a gunshot rang out behind her, and the small creature was replaced by a splash of something wet and warm on her fur. She had no time to even make any sort of response when she was tackled from the right, launching her into a bush. “Ms. Fluttershy! Are you alright? That thing could have done anything to you!” Mayhem spoke from his position atop of her. Fluttershy said nothing, only bringing her hooves up before her, and surveying the gore matting her coat. Dark red blood and tiny chunks of flesh dotted her front, like the gristle from a squeezed orange. One of the larger parts slowly slimed its way down her leg, before falling off onto her chest. Stepping off her, Mayhem looked at the now trembling mare, concerned that she may not have taken that particular event well. “Ms Fluttershy?” The timid mare’s trembling caused one of her long bangs to fall infront of her face, revealing what looked like an eye, tangled into her pink hair. She began to retch violently, her previous meals making the journey in reverse from her stomach. A chorus of ‘ewws’ sounded from the team as Fluttershy harked up the contents of her stomach in front of them all. Tears were streaming from her face, from both the event she was just audience to, and the burning of her stomach acids in her throat. Eventually, she stopped sicking up and turned to look at her colleagues. Her face was a mix of tears, blood and vomit, sticks from the bush she had just been pushed into stuck at weird angles in her mane and between her feathers. “I knew she shouldn’t have come along,” one of the mares on the team whispered to another, thinking that Fluttershy was unable to hear her. “She’s useless.” That did it for the poor mare. All the harsh comments she received on the Yamato, all the pain she saw during the mutiny, the destruction of an innocent creature just mere feet from her. It was too much. Wings snapping open, Fluttershy bowled through the ponies before her, before blasting through the dense scrub of the forest behind them. “Fluttershy!” Mayhem screamed, immediately giving chase, ignoring the other ponies. Several other security guards joined him, however seeing as how the team had rather stupidly consisted of only Earth ponies and Unicorns, but when the chase was taken to a thick thorny bush that seemed to stretch for miles in each direction, Fluttershy easily evaded them. “Fluttershy! Get back here!” Mayhem bellowed while the unicorns tried desperately to lock onto the mare with their magic. Without the magical prowess of Twilight Sparkle or the Captain, nor a line of sight, they failed miserably. Whipping his head around, Mayhem shot orders at the closest guard. “Well what are you waiting for?! Get the captain on the line, immediately!” “What do you mean she, ‘ran off’!” Twilight demanded, throwing her hooves out in front of her. “The Security head of ‘expedition team one’ said that she reacted negatively to the neutralization of a native species,” Celestia said as she flipped through Fluttershy’s personal record. “Neutralization? Ya mean death?” Applejack asked, wondering why the captain had needed to put it into such an emotionally devoid phrase. Celestia nodded, “Yes, apparently, it was seen as a threat to her and was dealt with. It seems that she didn’t agree,” she said, riffling through the document, looking for any previous history that may have contributed to Fluttershy’s actions. Finding nothing, she looked to the five mares gathered. “We can’t risk her being out there by herself. We all know Fluttershy’s views on fighting, if she were to come into contact with a hostile creature, she may very well not return.” “Not only am I concerned for her safety, but also that of the crews,” the captain said, earning a confused look from those around. “Fluttershy is one of the Elements of Harmony. If she were to die here, they would no longer work. I’m sure you all know that the Elements only function with all six of you, and what kind of danger everypony aboard this ship would be in if they ceased to function?” Rarity nodded before speaking. “I understand what you’re saying captain, but right now we should be worrying about Fluttershy, and making sure she returns to the ship safely. We can worry about the Elements later.” Celestia turned to regard her. “You’re right, I’m sorry. You must realize that I have to think about the wellbeing all of my little ponies. Now, to the matter at hoof. I want you five to go out and find her. It’s obvious she suffered some sort of detrimental breakdown, and sending armed guard after her would likely scare her even more. What she needs now is friends, ponies who understand her.” Twilight nodded sagely. “You can count on us, Captain.”         Celestia smiled warmly, before bending to their level to speak face to face with them. “As I said, I have to think of the well being of all my ponies,” she said softly, looking to each of them in turn.         “You are all important to me, please bring Fluttershy back, but be careful yourselves. I couldn’t stand to lose any of you,” she admitted.         Taking a deep breath, she stood back up to her full height. “Good luck, girls.” The muddy soil squelched under hoof as four of the five mares stepped onto the alien terrain. Rainbow Dash stayed in the air, head on a constant swivel, looking for her old friend, hoping she had come to her wits and returned to the Yamato. “Alright girls, the rotation of this planet is almost three times slower than that of Equus. In comparison, its about ten in the morning here, that gives us about twenty-four hours till sunset,” Twilight confirmed, looking at the timer she had strapped to her hoof. Setting it to start, she continued. “We’re all going to be sticking together. I don’t want anypony else running off and getting lost. Not even the Yamato’s radar could get through most of this growth so it’s uncharted territory from here on it.” “Fluttershy was wearing a tagger we she went missing. Normally, we would be able to pinpoint her, but the Yamato can’t pick her up through the scrub, so we need to wear these,” she pointed to a small clip on her ear. “Their mobile relays for the ship, if you get within three hundred metres of Fluttershy’s tagger, it will start beeping.” “Alright girls, hooves in!” Applejack said, holding her hoof out, allowing the others to pile their own on top. “Three, two, one, hoora-” A bloodcurdling screeching permeated the air around them, the painfully high pitched call of some wild animal. “What was that!” Pinkie said, looking around curiously. Twilight's head spun, left to right, looking for the source of the alien sound before Rainbow called out. “Up there!” The mare called, pointing to the sky, were a huge cloud of black beings were quickly closing in on them. Huge bat-like creatures crested the horizon in an angry black cloud. An angry face like a vicious dog and over six feet long, the flying creatures screeched into the air as the flew towards the Yamato. Disgustingly long claws hung from their feet, bobbing up and down as their huge leathery wings pushed them forwards. Their numbers were uncountable, the swarm numbered well into the hundreds, the screeching becoming more frequent as they neared. Applejack’s eyes widened. “Get down!” She bellowed, snagging Rarity in her grasp and launching both of them into a nearby bush. Twilight quickly teleported to the safety of a huge tree root that had arched out of the ground, hoping that she wasn’t spotted. Rainbow Dash used her impressive speed to quickly burst into a tall tree, hiding amongst the table sized leaves. Pinkie all but vanished from the scene, just in time as the first of the horrid creatures slammed into the side of the ships hull. “What the?! What are those things?!” Applejack asked as Rarity cowered. “I don’t know, but they’re horrid! Why are they attacking the Yamato?” Rarity replied, flinching at a particularly loud impact against the hull, “They have to know they can’t scratch that thing!” Applejack shook her head, “I think they’re trying to drive it away, the ship must have landed in their territory! Let’s just ho-” Her eyes widened as the guns along the side of the Yamato shifted, “Oh horseapples! Cover your ears!” The dozens of anti-aircraft guns aimed at the swarm swirling around the ship, and even though Applejack hadn’t seen them in action, she could easily imagine them being just as powerful as the main guns. The ball mounted cannons soon opened fire with a vicious buzzing sound, far louder than the bats could ever hope to achieve. Unlike the main guns this wasn’t some massive blast, but a barrage of red bolts of energy sprayed into the swarm, causing red puffs to appear as the ponies flinched from both the noise and violence. Designed to shred spacecraft to pieces, the bat creatures had no chance of matching up to the ship’s fearsome defenses. Bat creature bodies dropped like flies around the ship and in the trees. Twilight got a good view of one as it took a bolt straight through its mid-section, cutting the creature in two. “Okay, the ship has this handled, we shoul-” Applejack was about to finish shouting over the loud, body-shuddering buzzing made by the guns, when a rumble caused her to stumble, “Oh now what!” The ground visibly shifted and bulged as something massive moved underneath the ground, and before the eyes of the five ponies, long tentacles burst from the ground. Each one was easily as thick as a house and as black as the night, complete with the strange star patterns.  The clearing collapsed into a deep chasm as the tentacles slammed into the hull of the Yamato and wrapped tightly around it. The engines came to life in a frantic attempt to escape, but the grip of the monster tentacles was too strong and a pair took offense to the engine, smashing into it multiple times until they visibly sputtered and died. A deep, bass roar that was more like a moan, so loud and deep that the ground, the trees, and the teeth in their mouths rattled, filled the air as the tentacles slowly dragged the Yamato into the pit. The engines coughed, trying to come to life again, but the same pair of tentacles that shut them down were joined by two more, violently striking it until the engine shut down again. As if to make sure it wouldn’t try to escape, the Yamato was slammed into the walls of the pit, each impact making an earth-shaking crunch of metal on soil and rock. Satisfied, the moan sounded again, and the five ponies watched the Yamato disappear underground. In the sky, the survivors of the swarm simply turned and left, apparently heading to new territory, as silence filled the air. As the five ponies stared at the gaping hole that was now bored into the ground, not a single one of them could quite accurately display what just happened. The Yamato was gone.