“Any sign of warp drive instability yet?” Pog's voice asked, emerging from the communicator resting on the console in Engineering.
“Nothing yet.” said Frem, double-checking behind the console for any prisoners on the loose. “There doesn't seem to be anyone in Engineering, and I've locked the doors, but perhaps I should stay here to make sure they don't -”
There was a *clang* from behind Frem. With a squeal of fear, he spun around to face the air vent's grating.
Which was on the floor.
Frem's gaze travelled up the wall, passing the hole where the grating was supposed to be, and then a little further, meeting the gaze of the baby dragon crawling upside-down on the roof.
“What's going on there?” asked Pog's voice.
Frem grabbed for the communicator, holding it up to his face. “They're in the air vents!” he squealed. “They're in the air vents!”
“Stun them!” said Pog.
Frem grabbed for the weapons at his belt, pulling out not the stun rifle, but rather the dart gun. In his panic, he fumbled slightly, almost dropping the weapon...
...and Spike's tongue shot out, covering the metre-and-a-half distance between them and wrapping itself about the dart gun. Frem screamed and would have backed away, were the Engineering console not in his way, as Spike pulled the dart gun into his mouth; and then turned aside and spat, dropping it to the ground.
Spike turned to face Frem again, and grinned very widely, making sure to show all his teeth. He let loose a little puff of flame.
Frem screamed again, and ran for the door; he unlocked it with his earprint and fled the room.
Spike watched the Ferengi leave, and dropped to the ground. “Scaredy-cat.” he said, quietly. He gave the dart gun a wide berth – he had no intention of being teleported somewhere else yet again – and went to look instead at the console that Frem had been standing at. “I wonder what he was so busy with...”
Of course, he had to climb up onto the console before he could see what was going on there.
“Frem?” asked Pog's voice, from the communicator still on the console (incidentally causing Spike to fall off the console again in surprise). “Are you still there? What's going on?”
Spike clambered back atop the console, looking over the strange box. Some kind of voice transmitter, perhaps?
“Frem?” asked Pog's voice. “Is everything alright? Are the engines stable?”
“Hey,” said Spike, to the box, “I don't think we've been properly introduced. My name's Spike, and I'll be standing right behind you when you least expect it.”
“Oh, destitution!” said the box. Then it sighed. “Did you kill him, or are you holding him for ransom?” it asked.
* * *
Frem's panicked retreat screeched to a halt when he suddenly found himself facing a unicorn stallion, three fillies, and what appeared to be a buffalo, coming the other way. He screamed, again, and grabbed his stun rifle, pointing it in the general direction of the ponies and firing.
Flam's horn glowed, and the stun rifle was pulled to the side, the stun beam splashing harmlessly against the wall.
“Get back, girls!” called out Red Dawn, pointing at the nearest corner. “Stay out of sight!”
With a glance over his shoulder for the terrible beast that he was certain, even now, was still pursuing him, Frem tried to pull the stun rifle back to pointing at the ponies. He fired a few more shots; and when one passed just over Applebloom's head, the three Crusaders decided that discretion was the better part of not getting recaptured and followed Dawn's command.
Dawn waited until the fillies were out of sight before interfering in Flam and Frem's long-ranged tug-of-war, by leaping at Flam from the side, tackling him into the corridor wall. A touch of changeling magic helped to ensure that Flam fell asleep, for a few minutes at least.
Then green flames burst around Dawn, as she dropped her buffalo disguise.
Frem screamed again, firing several panicked, shaky bolts down the corridor. Dawn fired just one stun bolt back. The difference was, Dawn's single bolt hit; Frem collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Dawn bent down, touching her horn to Flam's head, and performing a little memory magic; just slightly fogging his memories of the last few minutes. Then she trotted over to Frem, and touched her horn to his head as well; she was pretty sure she couldn't reliably edit Ferengi memories, so she just deleted the last several minutes' worth.
Another bolt of magic, this one on a timer, ensured that Flam would wake up after a few seconds; and then green fire wrapped around Dawn again, as she recreated her buffalo disguise and trotted back to Flam's side.
“What happened?” asked Flam, when his senses returned.
“You were brilliant.” said Dawn, giving him a peck on the cheek. “You knocked him out with just one shot!”
“I did?” asked Flam.
“Oh, yes.” nodded Dawn. “Even though I was pushing you aside from his of his shots at the same time, you nonetheless managed to hit! You saved me!” She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “My hero!”
There was a retching sound from a little down the corridor. Dawn glanced to the right, where Scootaloo was pretending to throw up.
“I think it's really sweet and romantic.” said Sweetie Belle.
“Ah think it's nowhere near as bad as that love poison.” stated Applebloom, confidently.
How long have those three been back? Dawn asked herself, suddenly worried. How much did they SEE?