The snapping mandibles of the giant alien ant dripped with what looked like poison. The bug chittered menacingly, as if it were laughing at the tiny yellow pegasus before it. Fluttershy dared not move, paralyzed with fear. There was nopony to bail her out this time, she was on her own now.
A long, narrow leg stepped forward, the large ant intentionally making a slow approach. Whether or not it was a scare tactic developed by instinct or if it was actually enjoying watching her terrified face, Fluttershy couldn’t tell, but it was working.
The mandibles snapped again, much louder than before. Yellow, viscous, spit flying off and landing on a tree branch near her. One of the leaves that had been stuck began to shrivel and wilt.
Being assertive wasn’t going to help her out here, nor could she use the stare. From her position, she couldn’t even see if the ant had eyes to begin with.
Eyes.
A sudden string of ideas shot through Fluttershy’s head at speeds that the Yamato’s computers would respect. The mare locked up, halting her breathing to almost nothing. The ant continued to advance on her, making it difficult for to not return to shaking like a leaf.
A large leg speared the ground directly in front of her with a weighty thump, to which she couldn’t help but whimper at. From the extreme close range, she could see the minute hairs on the hard, black leg. The mare didn’t even come up to the ‘knee’.
Risking movement, she ever so slightly tilted her head down to see where the leg had struck. The bag that she had brought with her had been impaled by the sharp leg of the ant. The large creature slowly removed the bag from the ground, making sure it had a good hold on the bag, before smashing it into what it passed for a mouth.
Knives, water bottles, sketching tools and the food contained within all were forced down its venomous gullet. A few tense moments passed as the feelers on the bugs head waved around in the air. Despite not being very fond of the ship Fluttershy desperately wished the Yamato would crest the canopy and save her.
After a few tense moments, the ant finally moved away, freeing the mare from the confines of the two large tree roots on either side of her. Taking extreme caution, she slowly flapped her wings until she could maneuver herself away from both the tree and the ant.
Fluttershy’s breathing returned to near hyperventilation as she fluttered away. The ant wasn’t bearing over her, but it was still very close. This being the case, the mare was far too preoccupied with watching it rather than where she was going.
The already on-edge mare let out a piercing scream, stupidly having flown into a bundle of hanging vines. The feeling of their slimy, sap covered strands, tangling up in her wings, ruining her stealthy retreat, her screams gardening the monster ants attention, like a fly caught in a web.
The ant let out a chittering screech, rapidly closing the distance between the two like a charging bull. Fluttershy desperately wrestled with the ensnaring vine, hoping she could free herself before the creature could get her.
The horrifically familiar sound of insectine jaws snapped dangerously near her head. With the amount of struggling the mare was doing, the ant failed to accurately grab hold of her, instead snapping at the vines, hoping to snag her.
Much to her fortune, the monster’s wild snapping managed to tear and slash several key vines that had ensnared her. Wasting no time, she quickly righted herself before bolting as fast as she could in any direction the ant wasn’t.
As she retreated, the sound of an angry, chattering roar echoed in the foliage behind her. The antennas of the ant waved angrily, mandibles clicking in rage that its easy meal had escaped.
“Fluttershy!” Twilight bellowed, the voice boosting spell that Luna had so eagerly given her coming in handy as the small herd searched for the butter yellow pegasus.
The apple farmer of the group waved her hat before her face, trying to blow off some of the heat that clinged to her body in the humid undergrowth. “See anything up there, Dash?”
Rainbow Dash scanned her surroundings, a hoof over her eyes to block the alien sun before calling back.
“That’s a negative Appleja- Whoa!” she flinched at a table sized fruit spider, that was hanging just beside her.
“These things are so nasty,” she called back, quickly removing herself from the creepy arachnid. Meanwhile, one of the two other mares that were leading up the rear were having their own small crisis.
“So. Much. Filth!” the muck ball formerly known as Rarity shuddered. “I have never been so disgustingly dirty in all my life! Not even that time when I willing threw myself into a mud pool!”
“Quit ya whining, Rares, a bit of mud ‘aint never hurt no pony,” Applejack huffed.
“I’ve got mud in places I didn’t know I had!” she called back.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at the bickering pair. One of their friends was lost, their only method of transport, not to mention safe haven was gone, possible destroyed and they were bickering about getting dirty!
“Girls! Quit arguing before I come down there and make you!” Rainbow screamed, pointing a hoof as she did so.
“I ain’t arguing, I’m stating facts down her-”
*beep*
All mares suddenly silenced as a collective blip from their earpieces sounded.
A few moments passed before Twilight spoke. “Was that-”
“Sssh!” Pinkie silenced her, planting her hoof in the unicorns mouth as she did.
*beep*
Rarity perked, “It is!”
The beeping slowly increased in frequency, though not that it mattered, as an altogether different sound indicated the pegasus’s proximity.
“Oh Celestia help me!” the painful screeching of a terrified pony filled the air, drowning out any ambience the forest made.
“Shy!” Dash called, rushing over to where the sound was coming from. “We’re over here Flu-Ack!”
A nearby bush exploded, it’s projectile a terrified yellow blur launching straight into the stomach of her oldest friend.
“Rainbow Dash! Oh thank the sisters I found you! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, I don’t know why I ran off I was just so sad I couldn’t-”
“Shh,” Dash cooed, employing her motherly tactics she had developed from soothing Scootaloo whenever she came to her in tears, “That doesn’t matter now, Fluttershy. You’re safe now.”
Fluttershy shook her head in Rainbow’s chest. “No. No I’m not! None of us are! There’s a- a thing following me! It’s been chasing me!”
The rest of the group came over to console their friend. Happy that their circle of friends was back up to full strength. Twilight always wanting to be a step ahead, quickly approached the yellow mare.
“Fluttershy. I’m happy you’re okay, but you said something was following you?”
Fluttershy sniffed as she stood, before nodding. “Mmhm, A big ant creature. I was so scared, it wanted to eat me!”
The five other mares cursed under their breaths, a short explanation of their previous encounter with a similar creature filling the yellow mare’s heart with terror.
“Can- can we please go back to the Yamato now? Eden isn’t a very nice place,” she whimpered, her innocent question earning a sigh from Twilight.
“Uh, about the Yamato. I’m sorry to say this Fluttershy, but the Yamato was... Captured. We don’t even know if it’s still functional,” Twilight recounted sadly.
“What?”
“I- um, well it got grabbed by something, big. It was pulled underground while we were outside.”
“But... What about all the ponies still on board?”
Twilight’s breath hitched in her throat. “I don’t know.”
Fluttershy stared at Twilight, before a low whine escaped her throat, growing in volume until she dropped the forest floor with a wail, “I want to go home! I want go back to my cottage, back to my animals, back to my life! I don’t want be here! I want to go home!”
Twilight winced at the volume as her eyes swept the undergrowth, this wasn’t good, “Fluttershy, calm down! We need to find out what the happened to the ship, so please get up!”
Fluttershy just kept crying, the stress of her experiences finally causing a full-blown breakdown, refusing to budge as she lay there wailing. The other mares looked at each other, not knowing what to do.
Except for Rarity, who stomped forward and with a brusque application of telekinesis, forced Fluttershy to look at her. And before any of the others could react, struck her, hard.
“Now see here, Fluttershy! I know you’ve been reluctant to go on this journey, I know that you’d rather be home with your animals, and living a normal life again, but get a hold of yourself!”
She glared at the pegasus, who placed a hoof to her cheek with wide eyes, “You can cry and complain about your homesickness later, we have to find the Yamato, because quite frankly, this is not the time for crying, this is the time to get back on your hooves and push through it!”
Rarity dropped Fluttershy back to the ground, “I am filthy, stinky, and have never felt more unclean in the entirety of my life, but I am not going to start collapsing in a crying heap until I know that the only way off this planet and the ponies inside are safe!”
She jabbed a hoof towards the pegasus, now on a roll, “You’ve stared down dragons, faced Discord, and proven time and time again that you are one of the bravest ponies I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing, so be brave! We need you to be brave because if you aren’t, we are going to die here!”
Rarity’s rant finished with the mare breathing heavily as everyone stared at her, before she blushed and coughed delicately, “Goodness, while that was cathartic, perhaps it was a tad much to put on you, Fluttershy.”
“No.” Fluttershy rose to her feet, eyes closed, and after taking in a deep breath, she released it and opened her eyes, now determined and firm, “You’re right. I need to be brave. I can cry when everypony is safe.” She trotted over and hugged Rarity, “Thank you, Rarity.”
Rarity smiled as she returned the hug, “Any time, darling.”
“Um, not to interrupt the touching moment…” Rainbow’s voice drifted down from above, “But we have company incoming! A lot of them!”
“Well then, girls.” Applejack stated, “I reckon this is where valor meets discretion! But what do we do? We can’t just keep running from those varmints!”
Twilight’s expression was scrunched up in deep thought, before she suddenly stomped a hoof on the ground, “I got it!” She turned to the others, “We’ll head back to the hole where the Yamato was taken! Maybe we can lure them down to that creature, they’ll swarm it, and in the distraction we can escape this planet!”
“If the Yamato is still around, that is,” Dash muttered to herself.
Applejack nodded, “Good a plan as any! Let’s get outta here!”
As if waiting for the right cue, a trio of ants burst through the undergrowth, hissing as their jaws clacked menacingly, antennae twitching wildly as the six mares dashed into the undergrowth. After a few seconds, one of them waved it’s antennae in a searching pattern, before they stiffened and as one the three ants began unerringly moving in the same direction as the ponies, the undergrowth shaking as loud clicking and hissing became audible.
Up ahead, the six mares finally arrived back at the sinkhole created by the Yamato being dragged down into the planet, Fluttershy whimpering slightly before she shook herself, forcing her expression to harden while Twilight walked up to the edge of the sinkhole.
Looking over, the unicorn began casting an Eagle-Eye spell, hoping to find some way to reach the bottom of the shaft or spot the Yamato, when her eyes widened at what she was instead seeing along the walls.
Ants, countless ants, seethed along the walls as they worked to seal up the gaping hole. Twilight stared dumbly at the sight, before she grimaced, “Of course, a large predator providing scraps for them to feed on.” She stated quietly, “A symbiotic relationship, which means…”
Twilight’s mind raced as she tried to come up with a plan, any plan, before her gaze fell on Fluttershy flying overhead with Rainbow Dash, and it came to her like a bolt of lightning, “Fluttershy!”
The yellow pegasus turned to face her as the group stopped whatever conversation they were having as Twilight finalised the details of the plan in her mind, “Your ability to Stare, how powerful is it?”
Fluttershy blinked at the question, before looking uneasy, “Um, if I really put an effort into it, I can make animals do things they normally wouldn’t. I don’t like doing that, it demeans the animal.”
Twilight smiled, “And would using it at that level be demeaning to those ants? Because I just figured out how we could get down to the Yamato.”
She turned to Applejack, “Feeling up for some wrangling, Applejack?”
The orange mare blinked, before a thin smile spread across her muzzle, “Sugarcube, I’m always up for a good wrangling. Just tell me what to do.”
Twilight nodded, “Okay, here’s the plan…”
A small rabbit like creature quickly hopped for its life, the giant ant above it not even bothering to deal with the fluffy morsel. The giant creature had followed it’s prey deep into the thickness of the foliage, occasionally having to duck and weave it’s body in unnatural ways to fit under low branches.
Waiting with baited breath on a tree ahead were the six ponies. Having being lifted onto the branch by the two pegasi of the group, the small herd waiting anxiously for the large insect to stroll beneath them.
Applejack waited cautiously for the signal from Twilight. When the ant was in position, the two unicorns would magically freeze the creature in place, while the farmer mare tied its mandibles together with a rope she had fashioned from several spindly vines.
Sweat dripped from Applejack’s brow, from both the humidity, and the stress of her task. Not that she doubted she could do it, but this was the first time she’d tried to wrangle a creature that actually wanted to do harm to her. Not to mention it was far larger, and one hundred times more dangerous than any cow.
The studious purple unicorn sat on a branch below her, her gaze fixated on the approaching colossal ant. The two pegasi hovered higher still, waiting to zoom in and do their respective roles. Fluttershy was tasked with perhaps the riskiest of jobs, to drop onto the creatures head, find if it did in fact possess any eyes and stare it into submission, while Rainbow protected her.
Fluttershy shivered. She hadn’t been able to note any eyes on the last one, if her assumption was correct that they might not have any at all, then this entire plan could be for nought.
A hissing, chitter sounded directly below them, the ground thumping slightly with the ant’s movements. With a sudden flick of her head, Twilight’s horn lit up, signalling to the mares who were watching her it was go time.
A multicolored hue of purple and white surrounded the ant, making it hiss madly in confusion at the strange force. With practice ease that was almost muscle memory, a loop of vines darted through the air, snagging the snapping jaws and closing around them, keeping them tight.
The angry ant spat desperately at the bindings, hoping to burn through them with its acidic poison, yet unlike the leaves the vines where one of the few plants in the forest that had developed an immunity to the ants spit.
“Now, Shy!” Applejack called, watching the two flying ponies swoop down on the struggling insect. Rainbow Dash shot through the air, delivering a powerful kick to the ant’s hard head.
The short daze it received gave the slower mare enough time to touch down on its scalp, and desperately began searching for anything similar to an eye.
“Please, please, please let there be an eye!” she thought to herself, cling for dear life as the ant began to thrash its head again. More spittle flew from its mouth, seemingly frothing at the mouth with rage.
The ants head was a strange thing. Multiple plates of jaggard armour laid over top of one another, its thick exoskeleton making finding any features difficult. Fluttershy screamed, as a rather violent thrashing knocked loose her hold.
Scrambling for a hoof hold, her foreleg quickly jammed itself into a tiny gap in the top of it’s head. A pained hiss sounded from the ant and all its movement stopped. Fluttershy quickly climbed over the creature to see what she had done.
But sheer luck, the small crease she had planted her hoof in contained a beady, black eye deep within it. Her hard yellow hoof had been rather forcefully jammed into it, and without any form of eyelid, it had almost paralyzed the creature with pain.
“I’m sorry,” the animal loving mare whispered. Standing up on its head, she looked upside down into the eye slit. Giant blue eyes stared into tiny black ones, the ant began to resist the ponies less and less till the point that Twilight and Rarity could release their spell.
Stepping away from the creature, the ant tittered before its legs quivered and gave out, falling to the forest floor with a great thump. Fluttershy briefly entertained the horrific thought that she had hurt the creature, until she saw it’s feelers poking the air.
Tentatively, she approached, her friends respectfully keeping their distance, but poised ready for a fight. Placing a hoof on the hard exoskeleton between the creatures eye slits, she cooed softly to it as she stroked. The giant insect made whatever passed for it’s version of a passive moan, which still sounded menacing. “Oh it’s okay mister ant, we’re not going to hurt you.”
Sensing no threat from the now docile ant, Applejack approached Rainbow Dash. “Does she realize that it can’t understand her right? Alien and all?”
“Give her some time AJ,” Rainbow said. “She’s having a moment with the... Ant.”
“Okay girls! No time to waste, we’ve got a spaceship to find!” Twilight clapped her hooves, looking at the ant with a worrisome grin.
“Get some more vines, Applejack.”
The familiar thump of thin insect legs impacted the forest around the six ponies, all of which were riding atop the giant creature. Several dozen strands of venom resistant vines were strung around the ant, in a makeshift bridle.
Applejack sat at the helm, not really doing much however, as the ant seemed hellbent on taking them to where Fluttershy had asked it to. Rarity, Twilight and Pinkie sat further back along where its spine would be, while Rainbow flew alongside, occasionally flying ahead to scout.
Returning from one particularly long scout, Rainbow pointed a hoof accusingly at the captured steed. “You’re stare doesn’t work on aliens, Shy. This guy is taking us straight to his nest!”
“What do you mean, Dash?” Twilight asked.
“I mean it’s taking us to a big hole in the ground with lots of other giant ants coming and going!” she cried, pointing back towards where she had just returned from. Twilight made to respond but was promptly silenced by the crashing of a tree near her.
Quickly zipping to the creature’s side, all the ponies instinctively cowered as a much larger ant than their own stomped over a small tree it had just felled. Easily twice as large, the colossal creature strode past them in great paces. Thankfully, it failed to notice the multi-colored spots its brethren was sporting.
As it passed, the ponies all got a very detailed look at the mammoth insect. Unlike their own ‘mister ant’ this one was not entirely black, but had dull orange highlights between each of its armour like plates.
Every available surface seemed to sprout a jaggard barb, specifically designed to rip and tear flesh as painfully as possible. It also seemed to sport a couple more eye slits than the smaller ant, as well as a secondary pair of terrifyingly large mandibles.
The (now rather inappropriately named) ant, loomed past them, breaking a hole in the treeline ahead of them like they were little more than soggy bread. The angry creature looked equipped to give even the Yamato a decent fight.
The small, what Twilight now assumed was a worker ant, that they were riding quickly followed in the wake of the larger ant’s destruction. As Rainbow Dash had said, they were in fact headed to a deep hole burrowed into the side of a shallow hill.
Looking more like a sinkhole than an ant’s nest, the giant hole was constantly making way from hundreds of giant ants to scurry through. The giant soldier ant that had overtaken the ponies thundered forth into the gaping hole, all other smaller ants around it cowering almost in fear.
The ponies wisely clutched to the safety of their own ant, silently counting their lucky stars that they had not encountered a soldier ant prior to now. Waiting its turn, their ant finally managed its way into the nest, taking all those onboard with it.
The noise of chittering insects all around them was almost deafening in its intensity. Hundreds of thousands of black monsters all scuttered past on another in the ever narrowing tunnels, the larger tunnels seemingly reserved for the soldier ants.
Branching off into a side tunnel, the ponies began to descend into a deeper, somehow darker part of the labyrinth. Without the traffic of other ants, they began to make good headway, until another ant rounded the corner on them.
Both ants halted immediately to avoid a collision. Rainbow Dash inhaled sharply, cling harder to the side of her ant, daring not to move. The opposing ant waggled its feelers around before snapping once with it’s great mandibles. In response, the ponies’ ant snapped equally as loud, seemingly in anger.
The opposing ant seemed unconcerned, pushing past and placing its feelers on the pony-ridden ant’s side. Fluttershy whimpered almost silently, the enemy ants feeler coming dangerously close to her body.
Needless to say, if the other ant discovered the strange, fuzzy growth on the side of it’s colleague, all hell would break loose.
Mercifully, after several tense moments, the other ant pulled away, chittering a few times before moving off. The girls riding all let out a collective sigh of relief as their ant began to travel.
Even with how tense the situation was, Twilight was fascinated by what she was able to make out in the rapidly growing darkness of the ant tunnels, and her eyes swept over the sight of labyrinthine tunnels with ants scurrying through them in neat lines, carrying an array of objects.
Applejack was also impressed. Even with the threat of discovery and a horrible death over them, she could appreciate the hard work these ants were putting into their colony, much like the ones back home, noting how easily they cooperated in moving large pieces of wood, plants, fruit, and though she felt a little queasy at seeing it, meat as well. Thankfully, none of the pieces looked like they belonged to a pony. Yet.
Rarity suppressed the urge to leap off the ant as she spotted what looked like an underground lake full of water. As much as she wanted to get the filth off her body, the seamstress had work to do and ponies to save.
Besides, that water was probably just as, if not more, filthy than she was. And who knew what sort of parasites bred in those brackish depths?
Pinkie was never one to stay still, anypony could see that from the way she moved normally, but here? The pink pony stayed very, very still. Looking over at her, Applejack briefly wondered if the party pony had been replaced by a statute, because that was how still she was remaining in the makeshift seat offered by the vines.
“Gotta say, Pinkie, ya’ll are being pretty quiet over there,” the cowpony whispered as the ant made a turn down a particularly twisting tunnel, shifting her hooves to cling to the insect as it suddenly began crawling along the ceiling of the tunnel.
Pinkie smiled shakily, “It’s really hard, but I’m promising myself that if I stay really, really still, I’ll throw a party to celebrate getting off this planet.” She shuddered, before quietly singing under her breath. Out of respect, Applejack focused her attention back on the journey.
Near Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash carefully tapped her friend with a wing, “Hey, Shy, are you sure this thing is taking us to the Yamato?”
Fluttershy nodded, “I made sure to give the command in a really stern tone. I just hope it understood me.” She looked away, “I shouldn’t have run off.”
Rainbow fixed her with a harsh glare, “No you shouldn’t have,” She barked suddenly. few silent moments passed before she sighed and continued. “but considering the last few days, I guess I would have been more surprised at you for sticking around. By the way, before we went out to search for you, I found out why Mayhem shot that thing you were trying to make friends with.”
Fluttershy turned her head slightly, “What did he say?”
Rainbow shifted as the ant came back down to the floor, “He shot it becau-”
“Over there!” Twilight suddenly hissed and the group turned to see something in the darkness; flashing lights, and sparks.
The familiar smell of acrid smoke and the throaty bangs of the Yamato’s AA guns filled their senses. In a brief muzzle flash the six ponies saw the shape of the Yamato as it fired down into the massive cavern, the ant trundling along without a care as it approached the massive shape of the ship as the guns continued firing before ceasing, barrels glowing in the darkness.
“No way! It survived!” Rainbow gaped in awe. Looking up, she saw a tiny hole that was letting in light, but the illumination was only there to mark it’s location, and with her eyesight Rainbow could faintly make out shapes as it slowly shrank.
“We need to get inside.” Twilight announced suddenly, raising her voice to be heard through the echoing cacophony of hissing ants and the reverberating sound of the AA guns, before the air was filled with noise as they opened fire again, bolts of energy blasting into the horde below it, filling the air with the stinging scent of the ant’s toxic ichor and the char smell that only came with burning materials.
“The heck are we going to do that Twilight? Not like we can just knock on a door or something.” Applejack questioned as she gripped the vines around it’s head and forced the ant to approach the Yamato from another angle.
Twilight pointed at the bridge, just as the AA guns resumed another barrage of fire, “We can always knock on a window. If Princess Celestia knows that we’re alive and on the Yamato’s deck, she can send someone to open an accessway for us.”
Rarity looked up at the stuck ship, then down at the chittering, hissing horde below it, “Let’s just hope you’re right Twilight, otherwise we’ll have far more problems.” Twilight glanced back at Rarity, and the white unicorn pointed at the AA guns, “They’ve been firing less and less as time’s gone on. I think they’re losing power.”
That motivated Applejack to force the Ant to pick up the pace. The sea of ants before them only making their appearance noticed by their deafening chattering. Manoeuvring around the outside of the majority of the swarm, they eventually made it to the lowest point of the ship. One of the large fins that jutted out from the Yamatos main thruster had dug into the soil, creating a perfect ramp.
“Come on! The Yamato has to have an entrance hatch around here somewhere!” Twilight hissed, jerking her head up the slope. A quick flick of her horn and the bindings wrapped around the ants body loosened and dropped.
The mighty creature gave a shudder, snapping its previously bound jaws before moving off, having completed its task. Fluttershy whimpered as the ant moved off into the darkness.
“Thank you,” she said softly, before turning and galloping up the slope.
As much as she disliked the ship, Fluttershy couldn’t help but feel a great sense of relief wash over her as soon as her hooves were firmly planted on its alien deck. From her position at the very rear of the mighty vessel, she was grateful the two catapults that were for launching fighters were blocking her from the ants, less they try and swarm the ship.
Wasting no time, the small herd of ponies swiftly moved along the port side of the craft, putting as much of the Yamato between themselves and the ants. The parties small expedition was suddenly halted however, by the roar of the AA guns above them. The deafening snarl of the rapid fire guns was enough to drop them to their bellies, clutching their ears in pain.
“What are they firing at!” Rainbow screamed. “The ants are on the other side!”
turning her head, the rainbow mare peered out into the darkness to try and spot whatever the muzzle flashes would illuminate. Bright red rounds from the cannons sliced through the cavern air, yet all seemed to mysteriously vanish in the darkness ahead of them.
The cannon fire ceased after a few short moments, letting the ponies up. Rubbing the ringing out of their ears, they all turned their attention to whatever the Yamato was firing at.
A guttural moan, that sounded like someone was blasting a foghorn down a plastic pipe echoed in the distance. Rainbow Dash took a cautionary step backwards at the noise, wings flaring out in defense. Another few moments passed, in the darkness, none of the were able to see the huge tentacle slam down on the ship’s hindquarters.
The Yamato shrieked with the force of being struck, the weight of the appendage forcing the Yamato to keel over into an almost horizontal position. The deck of the ship quickly became the wall, and without any light to help keep them upright, the mares soon found themselves falling.
“Ack!” Twilight spluttered as she landed directly between two round AA guns. Applejack and Pinkie soon falling into a similar position. Rarity wailed in pain, her hip striking a sharpened metal segment of the bridge tower.
Rainbow Dash managed to jump into the air, saving herself from falling, yet the less athletic Fluttershy wasn’t so lucky.
“Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!” the yellow pegasus screamed as she fell. Not being so fortunate as to land on the bridge tower she instead continued to fall. A loud resonating ‘bong’ of flesh on metal reverberated over the noise of the ants as Fluttershy made contact with the railing on the opposite side of the Yamato.
Fortunately, the railings acted as a hard net, catching her before she could fall into the swarm of snapping ants now very close below her. Vollies of acidic spit began to fly up at her, forcing her to dodge the glowing blobs in the pitch blackness.
Another earthquake moan sounded behind the Yamato, this time louder and far angrier. Another giant appendage struck the ship giving the mare very little time to adjust herself. The force of the impact dislodged what little footing Fluttershy had, forcing her to fall over the side of the railing, now completely exposed.
She screamed in terror again. With a grounded Yamato above her and hundreds of angry ants beneath her, she could feel her hoof start to slip.
“Fluttershy!” the frantic voice of Rainbow Dash called out from somewhere above her. “Where are you! I can’t see anything!”
“Here! Here!” she screamed back, a splatter of ant spit impacting and sizzling through the metal just beside her.
She managed to catch the first part of Rainbow’s response, but her cries were drowned out by the horrific thump of a massive creature behind her. Turning her head over her shoulder, she could barely make out the silhouette of a giant soldier ant stomping towards her.
Her breath hitched in her throat. She desperately wanted to fly away but her wings refused to open, frozen to her sides in absolute fear. She wasn’t even sure she could fly, what with the almost pitch blackness and the never ending stream of projectiles flying her way.
The soldier ant stomped its two forward most legs into the ground before pitching its head high and letting loose a cavern shaking banshee wail. Fluttershy clenched her eyes shut tightly, the sound of the soldier ants massive legs scraping against the Yamato.
The sickly smelling air that blasted her from below when the mighty ant snapped its mandibles together almost forced her to lose her grip. She didn’t want to die, she had so much left to do in her life. The last thing she wanted was for this to be how she died.
The mare tightened her grip around the railing, tears flowing freely now. The Yamato being the only thing she could try and hold in a vain hope at safety.
Suddenly, Fluttershy felt her body get hot, a great light invading her vision even through her eyelids. Risking a glance, she peered up. To her absolute joy, several massive spotlights affixed to the ships hull had warmed and began shining onto her.
The massive ant below her hissed in pain, its eyes being cooked by the strong light. Frantically looking around, she spotted an open bulkhead door, sitting at the base of the Yamato’s tower.
In the confusion, Rainbow had managed to locate the doorway in her attempts to find her friend. Immediately throwing it open, she wasted no time in finding the controls to the floodlights mounted on the deck.
“Come on Fluttershy!” The voice of Twilight called out, sounding from the door.
The yellow pegasus felt a great joy come over her. Feeling the fear fade from her, her wings allowed themselves to open, and she began to slowly lift herself upwards towards the entranceway.
The massive black leg of the soldier ant below her suddenly flew up from her left. Quickly dodging it, she faltered with a scream, while the ant matched it with its own massive howl of frustration.
Again, another huge legs flew up towards her, halting her progress as to not get spattered. With every dodged attack, the creature let loose a roar of anger. Fluttershy screamed in pain as one of the barbs on the tip of its leg sliced across her lower back.
The burning in her wound was enough to keep her stationary for the next attack. The colossal ant threw its jagged foreleg high into the air, eager to obtain a new morsel for the colony.
Its prize was taken from it however, when a large black mass jumped in front of its swipe, grabbing the mare and taking the hit for it.
The smaller worker ant hissed in agony, the huge leg of its massive brother easily cracking through its exoskeleton. Landing hard on a solid segment of wall ahead, the ant tumbled and turned before releasing the mare in its grasp.
Fluttershy shook violently, the shock of the pain starting to kick in. She made to move past the ant until she noticed something.
Rope burns around its mandibles.
“Mister ant?” she asked quietly. The creature didn’t respond to her question, but one look at it’s eye buried deep within its armour confirmed it. And a look at it’s ruined, broken body confirmed that there was no saving it, ichor leaking out of gashes in the carapace and several limbs were bent in ways that would certainly mean it was crippled if it somehow survived.
Fluttershy also knew that the tears coming to her eyes weren’t entirely from the chemical smell of it’s vital fluids. “Thank you,” she said softly, patting the ant between its eyes as it lay there dying. She didn’t have time to nurture it, as much as it hurt to see the hapless being that had saved her die.
Taking one last glance back, she saw its entire form go limp. Biting back more tears that threatened to spill, she bolted for the ship’s door, avoiding the screeching soldier ant. It was only when she was safely inside did she allow the tears to fall.
“Why are we still here! I want this ship out of this hole pronto!” Rainbow hollered, fully employing her status as an X.O to a group of engineer ponies.
“We’re working on it ma’am, but when we got pulled down here, we got dropped on our main thruster. The shock loading was enough to not only damage the main thruster, but it also stalled the engine,” one of the orange suited ponies replied.
“So how long will it take to fix it!”
“The engine wasn’t damaged, it just turned off. We’re going to need to use the Elements to jump start it again, that’s why we couldn’t go anywhere until you six returned.”
“All right. Girls, you ready?” Rainbow inquired, more so asking the two injured ponies. Rarity responded with a weak nod, her now broken rear left leg being supported by a strange wheel contraption that trundled along beside her.
Fluttershy also nodded, wincing as the last of her stitches was administered and the bandage was wrapped around her.
A muffled moan from outside the ship made itself known, a bang of the colossal monstrosity that had pulled them into the chasm still out there somewhere. Thankfully, the secondary power source that powered the artificial gravity and life support would last a few hundred years without the main engine, so the strikes on the Yamato’s hull did little to disturb those inside.
“That thing was trying to crack us open earlier. I guess we were too tough of a meal for it, because it gave up after about an hour of stressing the hull. The Yamato ain't weak but I hate to think how strong that thing is to have been buckling the armour,” the engineer pony shuddered.
“Well we won’t have to deal with it much longer. Once we start the engine this ship is getting off Eden as fast as possible,” Twilight spoke up, stomping her hoof for emphasis.
“That might not be possible,” the pony replied.
“Like I said we were dropped on our tail. Having the whole weight of the Yamato shock loaded onto our main engine wasn’t to good for it. I doubt it functional and without it, we might not even be able to make orbit.”
“We’ve still got the subs right? Those things have some kick in them, don’t think we’re out just yet,” Twilight cautioned.
“I hope you’re right, miss. I really do.”
The familiar and uplifting sound of the Yamatos great engine filled the ship. All systems coming back online with their beeps and warbles. After starting the engine, Rarity and Fluttershy had retreated to the infirmary. Now the power was back to full strength, the onboard doctors could give them a full checkup.
Rainbow Dash shifted in her seat at the head of the bridge. The quaking roars of whatever beast that was in the darkness to the ships left still sounding aloud. The spotlights mounted on the ships deck were still active, shining their intense light down onto the swarm of ants to the right.
Each time the ‘noises’ came, the ants would retreat a few paces. Whatever was lurking in the darkness was obviously terrifying to them. She would be lying if she said she wasn’t worried, they were surrounded by creatures out for their blood, and their only means of survival was likely crippled. While the Yamato was an impenetrable fortress to the monsters, if they stayed her for long enough they would more than likely find a way in.
Rainbow sighed. The one pony she did want to speak with wasn’t even here. Apollo, being the second highest ranking official on the craft was busy helping elsewhere in the ship. He wasn’t essential to the launch so he didn’t need to be in the bridge, this made Rainbow anxious.
The pegasus felt stupid. It was plain for anypony to see that what Apollo had done to Skyline was eating her, yet instead of talking to him about it she was foolishly avoiding him. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she was scared. Of what she couldn’t place, but confronting the stallion about how he had... dispatched, Skyline Vista made her anxious.
Without any real distractions to take her mind off her internal strife, she zoned in on the conversation behind her.
“-hen the AA guns fired, the ‘thing’ out there hit the Yamato, which is why were sitting at an almost one hundred and fifty degree angle,” Twilight recounted, referencing the keeled over position that the Yamato was currently in.
“I see. All out sensors were down since we fell, I was curious as to how we suddenly ended up on our starboard side.” The princess responded, gazing out the large windows.
“Captain,” Twilight began. “Do you think we will make it?”
“I believe so, Twilight. The subsidiary engines should posses enough power to remove the Yamato from this chasm.”
Twilight shook her head. “That’s not what I meant, Captain.”
“Do you think we will make it. To the Origin?”
Celestia blinked. The term ‘the Origin’ was a proposed code name for the co-ordinates they had received from the star message. While not a secret name, it was fairly new, she hadn’t expected the name to have caught on as quickly as it did.
“Do you think we won’t?” Celestia finally responded.
Twilight sighed, “I don’t doubt that the Yamato can make it. I just... Can we make it? We’ve barely crossed the start line and we’ve already lost lives. Can we do this?”
Celestia put a hoof on her pupils shoulder. “I believe so. But we must believe in one another, we are all one on this ship, and the Yamato is our body. If we can’t work with each other, then the mission is as good as over.”
Twilight gave a closed eye nod in response. “I think I understand.”
“Good,” Celestia smiled, hearing the small two tone beep she had been waiting for from her console. “Because right now, we’re going to need all help we can get. Battle stations!”
Celestia’s loud command relayed throughout the ship. Instantly, ponies were at their places, waiting for commands.
“Battlestations? Why?” Twilight asked, looking at the commotion that had kicked up around her in just the bridge alone.
“Trust me Twilight, you didn’t see that... thing. We need to be ready for a fight. Tactical Officer!” Celestia called, earning a snap to attention salute from Rainbow Dash.
“All guns to portside, wait for my command,” she ordered, climbing into her seat while Twilight galloped over to her console.
“Aye aye ma’am!” Rainbow reply sharply, turning back to her vast console. The huge array of buttons, switches, levers and monitors all belonging to her.
“All batteries to nine O clock! Open the missile silos and await my command!” Rainbow’s scratchy voice rang out through the ship.
The large hexagonal ports mounted in the ships’ former smokestack shot open with a hiss of compressed air, revealing the nasty warheads beneath. All five of the mighty battleship’s monstrous cannons spun to their requested heading, the menacing gun muzzles eager to rain oblivion on any target.
“Go Twilight,” Rainbow nodded to the mare beside her. With a grunt, the unicorn twisted the yoke anti-clockwise. Concealed, hull mounted thrusters exploded into action. Their great blue jets of fire incinerating a few dozen unlucky ants like a young colt with a magnifying glass. The combined power of the small thrusters boosted the ship back to it’s upright position, giving the gun an even better angle.
A thought occurred to Rainbow. “Direct all spotlights to port!”
The rounded high intensity lamps mounted on various surfaces of the ships deck all rotated over to the direction the guns were pointing. With several dozen beams of light shining into the blackness, one feature stood out.
Teeth.
Thousands of jagged, pony-sized teeth, arranged in hundreds of rings going around the inside of the massive creature’s maw glinted in the burning light. The huge hole that was its mouth could easily swallow the Yamato’s bow. There wasn’t much else aside from the huge tentacles that had been assaulting the ship since landing.
Now that the creature knew it had been revealed, it made itself known.
‘GUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHH.’
The Yamato quaked with the force out the deafening roar. Even the ants that had been a constant companion to the ship began to flee. Rainbow couldn’t help but release a small murmur of both shock and terror.
Two, unbelievably massive appendages rose from the back of the colossal creature. Their star patterns similar to that of an Ursa Major reflecting powerfully off of the black skin. Reaching high into the cavern, the two tentacles slowed when the reached their full extension. They hovered in the air like two manehatten skyscrapers, before the creature let them succumb to gravity, aiming them right above the ship.
Celestia wasted no time in a counter move. “Open fire! Combat speed one! Aim for the exit!”
“Fire!” Rainbow shouted, letting the gunnery crew do their thing.
The unfathomable might of the Yamato’s main cannons roared with the fire of gods. The beams of pure Wave Motion energy striking the insides of the creatures mouth. It recoiled in pain, the insides of its teeth and gums burning and melted, dropping a few razor sharp teeth out of their place and into its flesh.
At the same moment, the thrusters kicked into high gear. The two sub engines that hung below the hull blasted the stone behind them with molten heat. The main thruster made to fire, but ultimately sputtered and died, leaving the smaller engines to pick up the slack.
Without the immense thrust the central engine provided, the take off was far slower than anypony would have liked. The Yamato managed to dodge one giant tentacle, but the second collided hard with the back of the ship, pitching the bow high into the air.
Sensing an opportunity, Rainbow called into her mic again. “Fire missiles!”
Dozens of compact explosives rocketed from the ship’s stack. With the Yamato’s inclination being as high as it was, the silos were almost perfectly aimed to strike the creature.
Explosions rang out from behind the craft, the entire chamber filling with smoke. While slow to start, the subs quickly boosted the ship out of the hole that it had been pulled through, into the blessed daylight.
Smoke shot out behind the ship, blocking it’s view back into the chasm. The subs roared with all their might, but it was plain to see that they simply lacked the force to get the Yamato out of the planets gravity.
‘GUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHH.’
“It’s still alive!?” Rainbow shouted, devoting one of her consoles monitors to display an image from a rearward facing camera.
Sure enough, a huge black mass exploded from the cavern. Propelled by some alien force, the terrifyingly huge creature launched itself after its escaped prey.
Finding a newfound determination, Twilight pushed the throttle forward to the point she felt as though it would snap. The main thruster continued to whine and splutter, but refused to fire, allowing the angry monster to gain on them.
“Come on. Come on please!” Twilight pleaded with the controls.
The treeline shot quickly past them as they sailed high over it. The sub engines struggled to push the ship past the sound barrier, the thicker atmosphere proving difficult.
An alarm began to blare, making one of the bridge crew cry out. “The subs are overheating! If we keep at this we’re going to lose them too!”
Celestia closed her eyes. She didn’t want to do it, but it was this creature or her ponies.
Snapping them open, she gave her command. “Kill thrust! Rotate ship one hundred and eighty degrees!”
“Captain?” Twilight asked.
“Now!” she bellowed, her tone indicated for utmost trust in what she was planning to do.
Reluctantly, Twilight pulled the throttle back to its dead position, before quickly spinning the ship around to face the approaching black mass.
Several kilometers separated the two, with the distance closing fast. Twilight shivered as she stared down the gullet of the creature.
“Transfer control to Tactical officer,” Celestia spoke calmly.
“What?” Dash said.
Twilight complied, albeit confused. “Roger, control transferred.”
Rainbow Dash’s console suddenly began to display dozens of new pieces of information. A much smaller yoke popped out of the console, wobbling left to right trying to keep the ship steady.
“Open firing aperture, raise the target scope,” the captain said, still eyeing the approaching monster.
Rainbow’s breath caught in her throat. Those were words she did know. “Captain. You’re not suggesting-”
“I am,” Celestia cut her off. “We’re going to use the Wave Motion gun.”
Rainbow suddenly felt very nervous. Despite being trained on how to operate in, she never once thought that she would need use it. “Aye aye. Target scope open.”
A thick sheet of holographic glass rose from the top of her console, directly at her eye level. The specially modified trigger unfolded before her chest, the small metal gun-like piece looking dead ahead.
“Begin charging the firing core!” Celestia commanded as Rainbow aligned the firing axis on the ever closing best.
“Disengaging safety locks,” Rainbow grunted as she leant down under her seat to pull at the lever. A huge clunk, and several bangs sounded in the firing room. The airlock to the Yamato’s muzzle clanking as the four locking pins slid out of the mating receptacle.
The huge firing cylinder mounted several metres behind it began to whir. All the power of the Wave Motion Engine being forced into the suspended core.
“Power at sixty percent... Eighty... One hundred.” a crew pony said, making Rainbow grab at the trigger.
“Wait,” Celestia said sternly, causing Rainbow to pause.
“Power at one hundred and twenty percent! Firing chamber reaching saturation point!”
The creature roared again, now much closer. In a few moments it would reach them.
“Ten,” Celestia began her countdown, motioning for everypony to put on their heavily tinted goggles.
“Nine,” she said, the anti-shock and anti flare defenses coming down over the bridge’s windows, plunging the room into a deep darkness.
“Eight.”
“Seven.”
“Six.”
“Five.”
“Four.”
“Three,” Rainbow grabbed the trigger firmly, pulling the small slider on the rear of the trigger out.
“Two,” The young mare began to feel the sweat pour from her, the creature approaching very quickly.
“One.”
“Fire!”
Rainbow Dash pulled on the trigger. The electrical signal shot down the wire into the firing core. The huge, horizontal orange cylinder quickly slid forward, colliding hard with the receptacle.
The sound of crackling electricity deafened all those inside the Yamato. Even with all the precautions against it, the light from the head of the ship still forced Rainbow to bring a hoof before her eyes.
In the split second following, the gun fired. The noise could be heard for thousands of miles in every direction. An absolutely massive, thick beam of blue-white energy forced itself from the Yamato’s bow.
The giant creature had no chance to escape the huge beam of ungodly energy. Its entire mass being atomised in just a few seconds. The beam did not stop however.
Punching a hole clear through the monster it raced down it a perfectly straight beam of death. Impacting the planets surface, trees spontaneously burst into flame for miles in every direction. Soil and Rock was rendered into dust, the unbelievable power from the Yamato slicing through anything that dared get in it’s way.
Creatures both large and small had no idea of their fate as their entire bodies were turned to fine ash faster than their brains could process the pain of burning. Entire building sized trees were turned into vapour, the sheer monstrous heat that bled off the beam not even having to touch them.
Thousands upon thousands of miles of land was decimated in just a few moments. An entire tectonic plate of Eden suddenly not existing anymore, being replaced only by a massive scar on the once green planet’s surface.
The beam faltered before dissipating altogether. The sheer power that bled off from it keeping the planet swallowing clouds from enclosing on the Yamato. The destruction of such a large land mass and forced so much dust into the air that it was beginning to circle the planet, blocking the sun out for a few hundred years.
Without realizing it, the crew of the Yamato had just killed an entire planet.
“I- I don’t,” Rainbow stuttered, failing to find the correct works. Looking down at her hooves, she instantly wrenched them away from the trigger, as if it were diseased.
“How could- How- How could it...” she breathed sharply, looking at the red scar of the once lush planet below them.
“I didn’t... I didn’t mean to,” she whimpered to herself. Feeling the onset of tears coming, she sprang out of her chair, galloping for the exit.
“Rainbow!” Twilight called, moving to go after her, before she was stopped with a simple head shake from Celestia.
“I’ll send Apollo after her. If what you told me about her little... episode is anything to go by, we best solve this problem before it gets any worse.”
Twilight nodded, turning back to look out the window.
An entire continent. Gone.
Never once in her time aboard the Yamato had she thought it possessed this much power. Never once did she believe that even though it was a warship, it was capable of this.
She didn’t want to admit it, but maybe the mutineers were onto something. Perhaps they just weren’t ready for this kind of power yet. It began to finally sink into Twilight’s mind that the Yamato was not some science experiment, or creation from a book.
This was a warship. And it had only one function.
To kill.
Deep in the blackness of space, a lone alien craft hovered. Relaying signals to and from its sensor groups. Suddenly, every monitor within the small craft went crazy with huge numbers of information, displaying ridiculous levels of power. Alarms briefly blared before a claw lazily tapped a button and killed the noisy alerts. A deep monotone voice demanded action.
“Report.”
“Captain! Massive energy readings from long-range sensor group seventeen! Approximate location, sector Delaz-Nine-Nine-Tor!” The crewmember manning one of the many sensor consoles inside the sensor-ship reported as it’s screen flashed warnings.
Instantly the rest of the crew began murmuring amongst themselves as the Captain tapped a button on it’s command chair and brought up the sensor report for itself, “Focus long-range arrays twelve and forty on Sector Delaz-Nine-Nine-Tor,” it commanded in a bland monotone unlike the nervous excitement of the crewmembers.
“Focusing array twelve, by your will!” One crewmember shouted as it tapped rapidly on a console with it’s claws.
“Focusing array forty, by your will!” A second shouted from a more distant part of the sensor-ship’s massive bridge as the screen changed to display an increasingly higher-resolution readout as the Executive Officer stepped up next to it’s Captain.
“Those arrays aren’t going to improve the image all that much, perhaps three more arrays?” It suggested in a voice like silk. The Captain met the Executive Officer’s eyes as nictitating membranes blinked, before nodding.
“Focus arrays nine, thirty-seven and twenty-two!” It commanded in a loud voice, monotone not changing.
“Focusing arrays, by your will!” The respective console operators shouted back as they got to work, the other operators watching the unfolding spectacle with rapt attention.
The readout began to improve, but the image being created was still too fuzzy for the warbook to match, and the Captain’s voice now held a tiny note of annoyance, “Arrays fourteen to eighteen, arrays six, seven, and ten!”
“Focusing arrays, by your will!” Was the roar in reply as more and more of the massive deep space sensors were turned towards a lonely area of the galaxy. Steadily, the image began to improve as the warbook began to match details to it’s memory, and a shape began to emerge from the blob, one that seemed faintly familiar.
The Captain would not leave identification to chance, “Focus all Arrays!”
“Focusing all arrays, by your will!”
The Executive Officer allowed a faint tremor of unease to appear, “Are you certain that is wise? We require a number of arrays for the continuing war effort.” The Captain shifted its gaze to the Executive Officer, who bowed its head though it’s own eyes remained firmly fixed on the Captain’s, “Of course, by your will.”
“Captain! High-resolution image is now ready for display!” One of the crew sitting at a forward intelligence console reported, ending the strangely charged moment between the two as the Captain slowly turned to the crewmember, who saluted, “Displaying now!”
The image changed into the image of a vessel and the Captain raised an eyebrow. The Executive Officer knew that the action was an indicator of how disturbed it’s Captain was as it stepped forward, “Warbook identification! Now!”
The outline was traced, and immediately the profiles of various ships began to rapidly flash, as the computer program began searching for an identical image, and the Executive Officer frowned as the program displayed, Not found in current database. Standard Archive Search?
“Initiate Standard Archive Search!” The Executive Officer commanded as the Captain kept it’s eyes focused on the image as more images were compared, the program running through the Standard Archives that ran back nearly five hundred years, more than sufficient for the ships that currently sailed the blackness of deep space, before it’s eyes widened as the program reported back, Not found in Standard Archive. Historical Archive Search?
“I-impossible!” The Executive Officer sputtered, “A ship not inside the Standard Archives that reach back five hundred years? Historical Archive Search! Now!”
The Captain raised a claw, “Belay that,” it commanded in it’s monotone, “Search Special Section Archive.” The computer beeped in acknowledgment as the Executive Officer turned, confusion plainly visible as the Captain continued to speak, “It is older than the Historical Archive, I know it.”
The Executive Officer took in a breath to regain it’s composure, “As you say.” It trotted back to it’s Captain’s side, leather-protected claws clicking on the metal floor as it resumed it’s normal position next it’s Captain, although closer than protocol normally allowed.
Initiating Special Section Search. Stand-by.
The crew watched, uncaring of anything else, all eyes focused on the floating holo-screen, the Captain, and the uneasy Executive Officer. It was as if history was being made. Silence filled the bridge, until a loud beep from the computer caused the crew and Executive Officer to jerk back, the Captain remaining impassive as it announced, “There.”
WARNING! Extreme Danger!
1st Generation Terron Battleship! Profile match 100%! Error margin 0%!
Wave Motion Energy presence 100%!
DO NOT ENGAGE! DO NOT ENGAGE!
“T-that’s not possible! Not even the terrons have ships that can survive that long!” one of the crew called.
“Do not speak out of line!” The captain snapped, raising his voice for the first time.
“List all first generation Terron ships,” he said after a moment of cooling down.
Searching... One result found.
BBY-001. Name: Yamato.