//------------------------------// // Chapter 28: Reunion // Story: Equestria's first warp drive - Alternate ending // by CCC //------------------------------// In the depths of the hold of the Ferengi ship, Red Dawn sliced open a cocoon with her horn. “Couldn't've given me ten minutes warning...” she muttered, stepping smartly back to avoid the green goop that fell out of the cocoon, followed by an unconscious Ferengi. She clicked her mandibles together(1), and pointed at the alien. “Carry that one.” she said. Green flashed across Flam's eyes as he stepped forward. “Yes.” he said. His horn glowed, and he lifted up Pog's unresponsive body. “Get it cleaned off,” ordered Dawn, “before our... rescuers... see it.” “Of course.” said Flam, dully. “And, when you're done with that one,” continued Dawn, stepping up towards the second cocoon, “you'll need to clean this one, too.” “Of course.” responded Flam. * * * “Spike!” “Big sis!” “Rarityyyyyy!” “Applebloom!” “Rainbow Dash! RainbowDashRainbowDashRainbowDash!” “Scootaloo! Um... hi, Squirt. So... what's there to do in this place?” “Oh, there's this one room, with all these buttons, and they all do, well, stuff, and we were gonna press all of them and try for cutie marks in alien button pushing buuuuut... we're kinda not allowed in there anymore.” “Probably for good reason.” nodded Twilight. “And then,” continued Scootaloo, “there's these things called replicators, that make stuff just appear when you hit the buttons, and honest, we hardly even touched that one, just kinda poked at it a bit, and we don't know how it got stuck on tree sap, but we're not supposed to touch those anymore either...” “Have you not had a bath all week?” Rarity asked, scrutinising some tree sap still stuck in Sweetie's mane. “No.” said Sweetie. “And where are Red Dawn an' that shady salespony?” asked Applejack. “Ah reckon Ah gotta thank 'em both for looking after mah little sister so well.” A flash of green light passed briefly over Applebloom's eyes. “They're... busy.” she said. “They've kinda been busy a lot of the time. Always together, for some reason.” “Ah.” said Rarity. “I think I understand. Two kindred souls, captured by aliens, held captive far from their beloved Equestria, falling into each other's hooves...” “Ah think,” said Applejack firmly, “you've bin reading too many o' those romance novels.” “And what about the aliens?” asked Rainbow Dash. Sweetie Belle's eyes flashed briefly green. “They're... locked up.” she said. “In a room that locks.” “Do you think there's somewhere we can find some food for the animals?” asked Fluttershy. “If everypony's safe, then we should probably be looking into that now...” * * * “Now, don't bolt it.” Fluttershy said, firmly, as Twilight teleported a bowlful of some sort of alien food(2) and a bucket of water into the cragadile's cage. “I know it's not much, but I'll try to find you something better soon, okay?” She smiled at the cragadile, which snorted at her. “Where did you get these from?” asked Twilight. “I've never seen six bowls of oats so exactly the same before.” “It's from the replicator.” said Sweetie Belle. “The same replicator that you just told us not ten minutes ago that you weren't supposed to touch?” asked Rarity, raising an eyebrow. “Um... but Fluttershy really needed the oats?” squeaked Sweetie, nervously. “I did.” said Fluttershy, nodding. “We really couldn't wait. This poor phoenix's fire is barely flickering.” “And how does the replicator work?” asked Twilight. “You press buttons and stuff appears.” said Sweetie Belle, firmly. “Only you gotta put a coin in the slot first.” added Scootaloo. “But we found this whole bag of alien coins under a pillow in this one room, so we've got enough for a few days.” “And how did you know which buttons to press to make oats?” asked Twilight. “Dawn showed us!” squeaked Sweetie. “Good for her.” nodded Twilight. “She must have found out from the aliens. Now, do you know where we can find her and Flam? We should definitely be start heading back to Equestria.” “We can't leave these fellows behind.” said Fluttershy, waving one hoof at the cells. “They'll starve.” “We'll have to see whether Captain Anderson can tow the entire ship.” said Twilight. “We'll... um...” “Is something wrong?” asked Applejack. “I just realised we can't teleport back.” said Twilight. “Surely a bit of rest and a good meal...” began Rarity. Twilight shook her head. “It's not a matter of energy.” she said. “It's just that I don't know exactly where his ship is. We'd have to find a window and look for it, that's all.” “Ooooh!” Applebloom jumped up. “Ah know where there's a window!” (1) For once, she wasn't wearing any disguise at all. (2) Oats. The cragadile wasn't too impressed, especially since a nice, plump, juicy cockatrice had just slithered into view in the opposite cell.