Pog peered cautiously around a corner, stun rifle at hand. Seeing nothing, he ran for the turbolift and pressed the call button.
He bounced up and down on his heels, nervously looking around as he waited. The turbolift beeped, and he hurried into it, hitting the button for a lower deck.
He suddenly realised he'd forgotten to check that the lift was empty before getting into it, and glanced around fearfully. Fortunately, the lift was empty, and he breathed a brief sigh of relief.
There was another beep as the turbolift arrived at its destination. Pog peered carefully out of the turbolift, looking both ways. He saw no-one.
“Fuel intermix ratio altered. Warp drive thermal efficiency increased by 20%. Warp drive top speed reduced by 5%.”
Pog jumped at the sound of the computer's voice, almost hitting his head on the ceiling. “Computer, where was that change made from?” he asked, once he had his breath back.
Concentrating on the computer's reply, he ignored the rapidly approaching tapping noise, as might be caused by claws on a metallic floor.
“Fuel intermix ratio change was authorised from Engineering Console Four.” replied the computer, promptly.
“So the prisoners are in Engineering.” concluded Pog. The computer made no reply to this conclusion.
The tapping noise stopped with a screeeeeeeeech. That caught Pog's attention, and he looked towards it.
A very surprised Spike looked back, having just come around the nearest corner.
The red alert klaxon began to sound. “Warp core fuel intermix ratio unstable.” said the computer. “Warp core detonation in one hundred seconds.”
* * *
Scootaloo tilted her head to one side, considering Applebloom. “Not bad,” she said, “not bad at all. I liked the bit in the middle where you kicked three levers at once, and making all the red lights go on at the end was pretty good, too I think... ehhhh... eight out of ten.”
“That's pretty good!” said Applebloom.
“Meh.” said Sweetie Belle. “I liked the lights, but this beeping that came with it isn't very nice. I say six out of ten.”
“Hmmm. Okay.” said Applebloom, hopping off the control panel. “Your turn to dance on the controls, then, Sweetie.”
“I hope I can turn off the beeping.” said Sweetie Belle, hopping up to the control panel and preparing to dance on the impromptu stage. “It's really not very musical, is it?”
“It's probably some sorta alien music.” volunteered Scootaloo. “It's got a sortof a beat to it, anyhow. You could dance to it if you wanted.”
* * *
Spike roared, and charged.
With the flick of a dial, Pog set his stun rifle to 'kill'. He aimed, and fired. Fortunately for Spike, a moving target is very hard to hit; and a small moving target even more so. Pog's first shot missed; and where it hit, the floor exploded, leaving a crater.
Spike's eyes widened at the explosion, and he sped up. Pog didn't have a chance to fire another shot before Spike got close enough; his tongue whipped out and wrapped around the stun rifle. He tried to grab it from Pog; but unlike Frem, Pog had a good grip on his weapon, and he managed to keep hold of it.
Which only meant that, instead of dragging the weapon to Spike, Spike dragged himself to the weapon. He grabbed the barrel with both hands, hanging from it; Pog swung the weapon down, so it would point at Spike; and Spike breathed fire at the stun rifle.
The unexpected burst of heat caused Pog to drop both the stun rifle and Spike. “Exit!” he called out. “Exit! Computer, exit!”
“Transporter locking on.” replied the computer.
And Pog vanished from sight.
“These guys all scaredy-cats.” said Spike, firmly. He looked over the weapon he'd obtained, and quickly found that it was possible to open it. Interestingly, there was some sort of crystal inside; Spike wasn't sure what sort of weapon included a snack, but he was definitely feeling a bit peckish, so he ate the stun rifle's focusing crystal.
It was a bit bland.
* * *
“Warp core detonation in thirty seconds.”
* * *
Back on the bridge, Pog frantically paged through the controls, trying to fix the fuel intermix problem “Destitute warp core...” he muttered. “Where's Frem anyway, he knows what these things should be set at... what on earth is going on down there in Engineering, are they just hitting buttons at random?”
* * *
“Warp core detonation in twenty seconds.”
* * *
“What on earth is a warp core detonation in any case?” asked Red Dawn.
“I haven't the foggiest idea.” said Flam. “But a 'detonation' is an explosion, so it's probably for the best that we don't stand too close to any warped cores, whatever that is...”
At their hooves, Frem stirred. Dawn kicked the Ferengi in the back of the head, until she stopped feeling active worry from him.
* * *
“Warp core detonation in ten seconds.”
* * *
Sweetie Belle danced over the controls, flicking levers and pushing buttons at random. She tripped over the edge of a cover over one button, flicking the cover open in the process.
“Oooooh.” she said, looking at the revealed switch.
“What is it? What is it?”
“I dunno, but it's big and red and I'm pressing it!” said Sweetie Belle, hitting the button with both front hooves.
* * *
“Warp core ejected.”
* * *
“What was that?” asked Flam, as the entire ship shuddered.
“Probably that bent core thingy exploding.” suggested Dawn.
The lights flickered out, and after about half a second a second, dimmer set of lights came on.
“Could be.” said Flam, dubiously. “Looks like whatever it was messed with their lights, though.
* * *
“Hey! Where'd the big sparkly column thing go?” asked Scootaloo, pointing at where the warp core suddenly wasn't.
“Aw, no fair! Ah was gonna suggest we smash a hole in it after we were done dancin' on the controls!” groused Applebloom.(1) “Now how're we gonna break the engine even more?”
“I guess we could smash the screens?” suggested Sweetie Belle.
“Nah, that's prob'ly jus' for display of information.” said Applebloom. “We need ta figure out where the actual engine is an' smash that.”
* * *
Pog sat in his chair on the bridge (the more ornate of the two, naturally) and stared with horror at the screens. “No warp core.” he muttered. “No warp core means no engine. No power to run life support and lights for more than about a week. I've got a scaly fire-breathing monster on board my ship that may or may not have already eaten Frem, at least four other sentient prisoners wandering around and some sort of buffalo commando or something who probably rescued them. And a bug-thing which is probably hiding in some dark corner somewhere.”
“I am going to make such a loss on this trip. Especially if I have to hire a towing company...”
(1) Considering that the warp core contains a sustained matter/antimatter reaction, if Applebloom had managed to break through the outer casing and damage the magnetic containment system, there wouldn't've been a ship left afterwards.