//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: A promise // Story: Aliens: Pony Marines // by Renegade Thunder //------------------------------// Bishop was in the pilot seat, controlling the drop-ship towards the massive processing station. An infernal engine was roaring out of control, as steam blasted and swirled while lightning zapped around the superstructure. The drop-ship moved towards the station, it flew through the massive archway in front, entering the belly of the beast. Twilight pulled out two weapons from a storage rack and tied their barrels together with the M-41A strap. She then levitated some tape around the stocks, securely fastening them together. When she was finished with the tape she threw it on the ground. And then places the pulse-rife and the flamethrower down on the floor. Applejack was sprawled in a flight seat, while bandaging her-self up. She gave herself a shot of painkillers to stop with the pain, and then looked over at Twilight, looking at what she was doing. In the cock pit of the drop-ship, Bishop looked around, finding a good place to set the ship down. He looks over to the right and sees a narrow landing platform, which were twenty levels above the ground. The drop-ship hovered over in the blasting turbulence, and settled down on the platform with a ‘CLANG.’ Lightning arched all around the platform and the ship, as the station began to self-destruct. Twilight worked rapidly, preparing for what she was planning to do. She slapped a magazine into the rifle, and the counter of the rifle read ‘95.’ She then taped Applejacks’ locator onto the barrel of the rifle. While the guns’ were hanging over her shoulder, she pulls out a few M-41A grenades from a box and stuffed the gear quickly into a satchel. Twilight pick up a packet of flares and a bandoleer of grenades, shoving them into the satchel. Bishop then came aft from the pilot’s compartment, “Twilight...” “I don’t want to hear it, Bishop. She’s ALIVE and there still time,” snapped Twilight, before letting Bishop finished what he was about to say. “In nineteen minutes, this area is going to be a cloud of vapour the size of an Ursa Major,” said Bishop, as he determined the size of the blast. “Applejack, don’t let him leave,” said Twilight, as she ignored his warning. Applejack was holding a bandage over her left eye, “We ain’t going anywhere.” “I promise you Applejack, I’ll get her back,” said Twilight, as she stared at Applejack one last time. Applejack just laid back and nodded. Twilight then nodded back and ran to the doors controls. The door opened to a side access ramp. As Twilight ran down the ramp, crossing the platform to the closed doors of a large fright elevator, she hits the button. The doors opened and Twilight moved in. In the background the wind was blowing rapidly and machine thunder blasted in a rage. There was a mares voice of the warning systems, “Attention, emergency. All personal must evacuate immediately. You now have fifteen minutes to reach minimum safe distance.” The elevator descended, while Twilight crouched on the floor and loaded up the grenade launcher on the M-41A. She loaded four grenades and then cocked it. Setting the weapons down, she removes a flare packet from her satchel, pulling out six flares and stuffed them into her pants pockets. While the elevator continued going down, the level counter decreased...fifteen...fourteen...thirteen... Twilight then removed her leather jacket and places a battle harness directly over her t-shirt. Her eyes burned with determination that holds the gut-panic in check. She then puts on a bandoleer of grenades around her chest; afterwards she hefted the guns up by her side and stood ready. Twilight closed her eyes for a second, and thought to herself, this was the most terrifying thing she had ever done. She was soaked in sweat. The voice of the warning systems echoes down the tunnel. The voice was calm and mechanical, “Attention. Emergency, all personal must evacuate immediately. You now have fourteen minutes to reach minimum safe distance.” As the elevator reached to the bottom, Twilight primed the flamethrower. A blue flame emitted by its barrel. The lift motor whines, as it slowed down, hitting the bottom with a bump. The safety cage retracted, slowly opening. Twilight stood there, swivelling the weapons, as steams cloud swirled all around her. Twilight moved out of the lift, teeth gritted and heart racing. She looked around, and lets out a jet stream of flame from her flamethrower, spraying out above. Before her was a network of piped, which stretched in every direction. Some glowed cherry red, from the heat build-up. She moved into a tunnel ahead and let out another jet of flame into the open space above her. Continuing forward, she fires again, lighting up the tunnel, and setting a few pillars on fire in the process. Rounding the pillar, Twilight looks back and sees the elevator doors close with a band. There was no turning back now. As she looks around the corner, she aimed the gun watching out for any aliens. She then looks on the locator and aims it down the set of stairs. It beeped slowly, showing the range to its target. A blast or energy went off to her left, causing Twilight to close her eyes for protection. She then opened her eyes and quickly moved down the stairs, approaching ‘Sub-Level 03’ stairway, the bottom was obscures in mist. Twilight reached the landing with an overheated red-hot pipe over it. She ducked down and moved straight on to a two-way junction. She looks back at the locator and pans the guns around. The beeps became faster as she paned the gun to the right. Twilight moved on, but came to a halt as she was just outside the entrance to the alien-encrusted tunnel. Before Twilight entered the alien-encrusted tunnel, she sprayed a blast of flame scorching ahead of her. She then pulled out a flare, and ignited, afterwards she threw the stick down. As it fell to the ground, it almost disappeared in the encrustation. Momentum speeds up as Twilight continues forward as fast as possible; her guns were aimed straight ahead at all times, ready for anything. Her breathing was fast and hard. Coming to another stairwell junction, she flames straight ahead. Twilight moved around the stairs, stopping at a corner to peer around in its terror. Her breathing had became short and gasped, her heart beep raced, ‘THUMP-THUMP, THUMP-THUMP’ beating loudly. The locator had begun to beep faster by the second. She checked it and the aimed her guns towards a nearby descending staircase. Twilight dashed down the stairs, at the bottom, she quickly moved around the stairs and begins up another corridor. The locator’s beeping had increased again. Stopping under a flashing yellow klaxon, she sends a burst of flames out ahead of her. Twilight moved forward, swivelling to look everywhere, another flare was lit to mark the way back. Appearing out of the steam clouds, Twilight came to a corner. She points the locator around and heads right. She run-walked along the corridor until the locators signal had became a stream of sound. Looking on the locator’s digital counter, it reads zero. Twilights eyes widen as she couldn’t believe it. She looked down at the ground and saw Applebloom’s tracers watch, lying in the sticky encrustation. All hope receded, disintegrating into mindless chaos, as she grips the bracelet hard and begins to weep. Mean while, somewhere very near, was Applebloom, cocooned in a pillar-like structure at the edge of alien egg cluster. Her eyelids fluttered open and she became aware of her surroundings. The egg nearest her began to move...it opened like an obscene flower. Applebloom stared, transfixed by terror, as jointed legs appeared over the lips of the ovoid one by one. Applebloom screamed. Her scream echoed through the tunnel. Twilight suddenly heard the screams and breaks into a run. As Applebloom watched the face-hugger emerge and turns towards her, Twilight came around the corner just in time as it was about to leap. She fired her M41A pulse-rifle, blasting it all over the place. Suddenly out of nowhere, a figure of an adult warrior came bouncing along the corridor’s walls like it was a spider. Firing from the side, Twilight drills it with two controlled burst which catapulted it back. Two more warriors suddenly showed up, and Twilight toke them out without hesitation, she had a murderous expression on her face. “Twilight, Twilight!” cried Applebloom as was trying to off of the wall. Twilight runs to Applebloom and began tearing at the fresh resinous cocoon material, freeing the filly. She pulls her up onto her back, strands of the sticky resin stretched between them. “Grab onto me! Hold on!” cried Twilight as pulled the filly out from the wall and placed her on her back. Twilight turned to retrace her steps, only to have an explosion on a lower level engulf the passageway in an enormous fireball. She retreated, moving through another stream-filled corridor. She and Applebloom emerged into a large chamber. As they entered the chamber, Twilight stopped and turned. Her expression changed to worry as she scans the entire area. They both were standing in a room full of eggs. Dozens and dozens of them line the floor everywhere around her. She hears something and turned around slowly. Applebloom and Twilight watched as a strange tube-like membrane placed an egg on the floor with the other. It then retracted; dripping slimy, gelatinous ooze from the tube’s opening onto the egg. Twilight’s gazed along an egg-filled abdomen which swelled and swelled into a great pulsing tubular sac suspended from a lattice of piped and conduits by a web-like membrane. As if some vast coil of intestine was draped carelessly among the machinery. Finally, Twilight looked up and sees it...or her. A massive silhouette in the mist, the Alien Queen glowers over her eggs like great, glistening insect-Buddha. The Queen’s deep, heavy breathing echoed around the chamber. As Applebloom and Twilight watched, the Queens’s legs, arm and massive inner jaws extended. She hissed loudly at them, but suddenly turns into a chuckle. The chuckle was a silent call for her guards. Three drones stepped out of the shadows and mist around the chamber. One hissed at Twilight. She sees them, and sets Applebloom down, pushing the filly behind her. As the Queen looks down at Twilight and Applebloom, she slowly moved her head out of the shadow herself and revealed and even more nightmarish thing. Twilight’s eyes widen as and month opened wide. “Y-You” hesitated Twilight, as she stared at the familiar face of the Queen. “Yessss, Twilight! It is I, Queen Chrysalis,” chuckled, Queen Chrysalis. Her form was completely changed; her form was no longer a changeling’s form, but something different. Her arms were extended and grew claws along with two extra limbs by her torso. Her hind legs were long and slender, and her tail was no longer hair, but long with a sharp tip at the end of her tail. Her head was longer, almost like her crown had melded with her head. Her eyes were gone, as Twilight couldn’t see her eyes, but on the side of her head was long green hair. “Where are your friendsssss now?” asked Queen Chrysalis, as a huge smile stretch across her face. “Right here!” said a voice coming from the shadow, as a huge explosion burst through the wall. Suddenly Pinkie jump out of the wall and rolled next Twilight and Applebloom. She got up staring at Chrysalis in the face with the most dreaded smile. As she stared at the Queen, Pinkie’s mane was puffy, and in a ponytail. On the right side of her eye were a deep cut, sliced to the top and bottom part of her eye. Red blood dripped down the side of her face. Her chest plate was completely gone, and was now wearing a grey tank-top. “P-Pinkie, You’re alive!” said Twilight in surprise. “Told you, I’ll keep you safe,” smirked, Pinkie. “Well isn’t thisssss just lovely, friendsssss coming back from the grave,” said Chrysalis while smirking. “How many rounds do you have?” asked Twilight. “Half a clip, what about you?” asked Pinkie. “A full clip,” said Twilight looking at her guns. Pinkie, Twilight and Applebloom then carefully moved backwards towards the tunnel they came in from, stepping gently and firmly. They stopped at the entrance to the tunnel. Twilight scanned the room and noticed an egg unfolding near her. She thinks for a second, and then unleashes the flamethrower, igniting the field of eggs with an insane fury. Queen Chrysalis went into a berserk, screeching like some psychotic steam whistle. She claws in the air, trying to get at Twilight, but she was too far and was stuck in her throne. Twilight glanced at the walls of the chamber and sees the three drones coming for her. They were blown off the walls that they cling to, by Twilight’s and Pinkie’s pulse-fire. They kept firing, focusing all their rage on the burning eggs. They exploded on contact with the bullets, as they both kept firing. Until Pinkies’ gun ran dry of bullets and Twilights’ had only fifty rounds left in her rifle. They both stopped firing and pumped the slide on their grenade launchers. Twilight aimed and fired at Queen Chrysalis’s egg sac. The grenade punched deep in the sac and exploded. Pinkie fired her four grenades at the remaining eggs that she and Twilight missed. She lifted the rifle and swizzed the trigger to lunch the grenade at the far back of the chamber. Eggs and tons of gelatinous matter sprayed across the chamber floor. Twilight pumped and fired again and again and again. Four times in the egg sack. “Let’s go!” Twilight Shouted to Pinkie. Twilight, Pinkie and Applebloom began to back up into the exit tunnel. Twilight continued firing the flame unit into the chamber, igniting the eggs. Applebloom looked behind them and saw one of the warriors moving towards them, “Behind us!” She quickly turned and blew away the approaching warrior, it dropped to the floor, and she finishes it off with the remaining ammo into it. Grabbing Applebloom with her magic and placing her on her back. She and Pinkie moved around the corner, but Twilight stops and unslings the bandolier of grenades and throws the whole thing as far as she could into the egg chamber. They dashed into the catacombs and were hurled forwards by the shock wave of multiple explosions. The explosions around the Queen had caused her supports to break, dropping her into the flames around her. She lashed out in pain and anger, and then suddenly pulled herself free from the egg sac, ripping it away and dragging torn cartilage and tissue behind her. Twilight and Pinkie ran, blindly, with panting intensity verging on hysteria. They saw one of the flares which Twilight dropped earlier and turns to see another. Twilight sprints towards it as the foundation of the world shakes. Rounding a corner they find the stairs Twilight came down and dashed up them. At the top, the entire superstructure rocked as another explosion ignites within the heart of the station. They both held on and then kept running. Upon rounding another corner, Twilight sees the lift. They sprinted to it, gasping for air, as Twilight hits the up button. Nothing happened. She hits it again, and then looked up the lifts shaft for the elevator. She sees the lift slowly coming down the shaft. Twilight moved to the adjacent lift and hits the up button. The sound lifts motor’s started to whine as it began to slowly descent as well from several floors up. Twilight was frantic, hitting the buttons over and over again, hoping for some faster action. A sudden enraged screech echoed in the corridor behind them. Twilight and Pinkie turned; their eyes were wide with terror. Twilight then began hitting the buttons again. “Come on! Damn it!” shouted Twilight in frustration. The screech echoed again, getting closer. She looks up the corridor once more and sprints for a nearby ladder going up. “Hold on to me,” said Twilight to Applebloom. She then turned to look at Pinkie for a second, “Stay behind me, okay?” Pinkie nodded and waited for Twilight to climb up the ladder, but something caught her eye as she was about to climb the ladder. A silhouette of figure of Queen Chrysalis came around the corner and slowly made her way up the corridor. Twilight backs down the ladder, as the Queen sees them and hisses. The elevator then stopped and opened for them. They suddenly raced into to it and jam the up bottom. As Queen Chrysalis quickly moved her way up the misty corridor, screeching at the top of her lungs. Twilight dropped Applebloom and readied her weapon to fire, as the same for Pinkie. The lifts cage then slides closed just in time as the Queen came up to it. Twilight fired her Flamethrower through the cage, burning the side of Chrysalis’s face. She screeched and reels back. She kept firing until the unit ran dry. Pinkie aimed down the iron bar and went to squeeze the trigger to fire at Queen Chrysalis, until she heard a sudden ‘CLICK’. Her gun was dry of ammo as well. The elevator then started moving upward quickly. A sudden explosion made the lift sack and rattle, as the lift descended upwards up. Some debris falls on the roof of the elevator, along with a huge fireball that slightly engulfed the lift. Back at the bottom, the second lift reached to the bottom and opened its doors for anypony. The queen looks over and freezes, as if contemplating the open life cage. The ride up was not comforting as the explosions constantly shock the tiny lift and it occupants. The mechanical voice of the warning system was heard again, but it was much shorter now, “You now have two minutes to reach minimum safe distance.” The lift reached the top and Pinkie and Twilight with Applebloom hustled out onto the platform. Twilight looked around through wind-whipped streamers of smoke and she saw...nothing, the ship was gone. “No...,” hesitated Twilight, as she stared at the platform, it was completely empty. She looked up and shouted with an outrage at the final betrayal, “Bishop! Damn you!” She slumped over in defeat, breathing heavily. A sound suddenly came behind them and catches Twilights attention. She moved over to the adjacent lift cage and looked down. Looking down she saw the second lift slowly coming up. Clouds of fire exploded all around it. Twilight and Applebloom back away from the doors. She checked her gun and saw the counter reads zero. She dropped her weapons, and picked up Applebloom. They back towards the railing where Pinkie was waiting. There was no place to run, as there were multiple explosions detonated in the complex far below and all around them. Huge fireballs burned upwards through the machinery. The platform bucked wildly, while nearby a cooling tower collapsed with a thunderous roar and shrieked of rending steel. Chaos and destruction totally surrounded them, offering no reprieve. The second lift then stopped. Twilight and Pinkie stare were transfixed as the safety cage opened, “What is that?” asked Pinkie. “Bad news,” replied Twilight, as she stared at the lift. Flashes from the explosion gave a glimpse of the apparition within. Then, it moved it full view, Queen Chrysalis came was starting get out of the lift. “Close your eyes, Applebloom,” said Twilight to her, covering her eyes with her hoof. “There is no escape!” shouted Queen Chrysalis. Suddenly the drop-ship rose up right behind them, it’s hovered as it’ jets roared. Applebloom looked and saw it first, “Look!” Twilight turns and sees it too; she looks back at the lift. Chrysalis was screeching madly at them, and was moving forward. Pinkie and Twilight lifted Applebloom onto the loading stairs extending from the ship’s side. She crawled up, turning to help Pinkie up. Pinkie jumped up on the loading stairs and extended a hoof for Twilight. “Come on! Come on!” shouted Applebloom, to Twilight. Twilight grabbed and crawled up. Just as she got half-way up the ramp, a tremendous explosion ripped through the complex below. She quickly moved inside, hitting the close bottom on the ramp, while running to a flight of seats with Applebloom and Pinkie. The explosion hitted the ship, slamming it sideways, its extended landing legs foul in a tangle of conduits, grinding with a hideous squeal of metal on metal. Twilight cradled Applebloom and began strapping in, Bishop wrestled with the controls. The landing legs retracted, ripping free, but still trailing some debris. Pinkie slammed her seats harness home. “Punch it, Bishop!” shouted Twilight. The entire lower level of the station disappeared in a fireball. The air vibrated with intense heat waves and concussions. The drop-ship engines fired, Twilight was slamming back in her seat. The ship vaults out and up, Bishop standing it on its tail, pouring on the gees, Twilight and Applebloom saw everything in a blur. The drop-ship lunges up out of the clouds layer into the clear high night. Below, the clouds light up from beneath from horizon to horizon. A sun hot dome of energy burst up through the clouds layer, whiting out the frame. The tiny ship was slammed by the shockwave, tossing forward...and climbs, scorched but functioning, towards the stars. As Bishop checks over the instruments for damage, he picked up the inter-ship mike, “its okay. We’re okay.” Twilight heard Bishop’s words and closed her eyes, in relieve. She looks at Applebloom in her lap, “Hey?” smile Twilight as Applebloom looked over at her, “We made it.” “I’d knew you’d come,” said Applebloom in relieve. Twilight smiled and hugged her. They then turn and look out at the welcoming stars of space. The tiny ship rocketed upwards, heading back home to the C.M.E.ZECORA. The scorched and battered ship once again sits in its drop bay. Steam blasting from cooling vents beside the engine, rotating clearance lights sweep around the large chamber. Twilight inspected the comatose Applejack. Bishop and Applebloom were behind her, “She’s going to be alright. She’s just out. I had to give her another shot for the pain.” Twilight started to lift the seat restraints to take him out, but Bishop stopped her, “We need a stretcher...to carry her up to medical.” She nodded and lowers the restrain back, she then looks over to get Pinkie, but noticed that she was asleep in the harness as well. Twilight sighed and walked out of the ship. Twilight and Bishop walked down the loading stairs, “I’m sorry if I scared you. That platform was just becoming too unstable. I had to circle and hope things didn’t get to rough to take you off.” He stopped under the back landing leg of the ship. Twilight catches up and stops before him, “Bishop...you did okay.” “I did?” asked Bishop. Twilight nodded and smiled, “oh yeah.” They suddenly heard a sizzling sound from below Bishop. Looking down, they saw a tiny innocuous drop of liquid splashed onto the deck next to Bishops’ hind leg shoe. ‘SSSSS’ a hole began to form. Suddenly something burst from Bishops’ chests, spraying Twilight with milk-like android blood. It was the razor-sharp scorpion tail of the aliens Queen. Driven right through him from behind; Twilight Pushed Applebloom back, out of the way onto the floor, as Bishop thrashed spraying white blood out of his mouth. He seizes the protruding section of the tail in his hand, as it was slowly lifting him off the deck and up to the Queen’s chest. Above them, the queen glowers from its place of concealment among the hydraulic mechanisms inside the landing-leg bay. She blended perfectly with the machinery until she began to emerge. Seizing Bishop in two great hands, it ripped him apart and flings him aside, shredding, like a doll. Bishop’s upper-half landed hard on the deck near the front of the drop-ship. His milky blood covered him; he then looked over at what did this to him. The Queen descended slowly to the deck, the rotating lights glistening across her shiny black limbs, dripping acid and rage. She was huge, powerful...and very pissed off. She descended her six limbs unfolding in an inpony geometries. Twilight moved with nightmarish slowness herself, starring hypnotized...terrified to break and run. Never taking her eyes off the once queen of the changelings, she motioned Applebloom with her hoof. “Go...Move.” said Twilight. Applebloom crawled slowly backwards, but chrysalis saw her and hissed. “No! Here...Here!” shouted Twilight moving forward slightly, waving her arms making herself a decoy. As Chrysalis turned her attention to Twilight and hissed. Her open jaws were filled with long, sharp, translucent teeth. Drool dripped from her opened maw. Twilight slowly backed away. She called to Applebloom, “Run.” Applebloom got up and ran to an open maintenance hatch in the deck, dropping in. Twilight continued waving her arms at the Queen, getting her attention. The Queen loomed in front of her, standing sideways on the landing strut, ready to attack. “Here!” shouted Twilight, suddenly falling into silence as she slowly lowering her arms and backed up carefully. But it wasn’t careful enough, as the Queen saw her movement and didn’t approve. Queen Chrysalis hissed at Twilight again. She noticed an open cargo bay behind her. Twilight suddenly turned and sprinted towards it. The creature leaped for her, moving like an out-of-control locomotive. Her hind feet slam, and echoed on the deck behind her. Twilight cleared the cargo door and quickly hits the close switch. The cargos’ heavy door closed half-way, when Queen Chrysalis hits the door. But she back up and the door closed completely. Angrily, she rammed the door again and again. Twilight backed away from the door, gasping for air, as the Queen was outside continuing to slam into the door. She looked around and noticed something that would help her out of the situation. She quickly moved to it. Bishop was still on the floor, he flailed around, positioning himself to see the Queen. She walked the maintenance to where Applebloom went hid herself. Her feet clomped on the deck, while Bishop watched quietly. Applebloom was looking through the grille-work flooring. Light played across her shadowed face in the bars. The Queen came into view overhead, looking down at the floor for Applebloom. She passed over Applebloom’s hiding spot. But then backed up and saw her, noticing the movement of Applebloom’s head as she watched. Queen Chrysalis hissed, pulling up the flooring with her big claws and reached in for her. Applebloom screamed and scurried away. She crawled along quickly like a rabbit as the looming figure of the alien appeared above. A section of grilled in front of her was ripped away. She retreated, crawling back the where she came; only quickly turning away in to another direction. Applebloom suddenly stopped and stared up through the flooring, watching the Queen move around above her. She paused, seeing Applebloom, she noticed and scurried away again, but the Queen beats her and ripped up the flooring right above her. Applebloom froze in fright, while screaming; as the alien reached down to get her. Suddenly a loud ‘CLANK’ echoed through the chamber as the door to the room Twilight went into, opened. The Queen pins at the sound of it, turning to see what it was. The door opened revealing an inpony silhouette standing there. Twilight moved forward out from the shadows, wearing two tons of hardened steel. She lifted the arms horizontally beside her and stomped out...the massive feet crash-clanging on the deck. She stopped midway to Queen Chrysalis, “Get away from her, you BITCH!” The Queen hissed with pure lethality. Applebloom looked out of the flooring at Twilight. Twilight moved the arms up for combat, both in swinging position and takes two steps. The Queen screeched and charged. She slammed the right hydraulic arms, and catches her on her hideous skull, slamming her onto the deck. The Queen got up and Twilight hits her again with left one, sending her into some heavy cargo boxes. Queen Chrysalis rights herself, standing in a lethal stance. She hissed violently, and was clearly pissed off. Twilight swung around, positioning herself towards the Queen, “come on!” shouted Twilight, taunting the Queen. Queen Chrysalis charged and Twilight closed the right arm’s fork on her skull. She lashed and writhes with incredible fury, coming within inches of her exposed body. The alien tried to bite at her, but Twilight moved away slightly. The Queen was desperate to get free and brings up her spear-like tail to strike. She swings it around twice, slapping it against the crash-bars next to Twilight. Twilight released the clamp, freeing the Queen, She backed away. Both stood their ground now, Twilight, constantly moved her arms around, keeping the Queen back. Queen Chrysalis continued hissing, clawing, and striking her tail to get her. Twilight sensed this and changed the game plan. She pressed some key command and made the door of a rectangular pit opened in the background. The Queen sensed the change in direction of the fight and charged. Twilight lowered an arm and closed it around the alien’s neck. Queen Chrysalis screamed, as her face was now right in front of Twilight’s. The striking teeth extended almost a meter from inside its fanged maw, shooting between the crash-bar. Twilight ducked and the Queen strikes again. She duck again and flick open the cutting torch trigger on the control joystick. The flame on the torch shot out, right into the alien’s face. The Queen screamed and moved her head away. Twilight screamed with exertion as she lifted her right arm, bringing the alien off her feet. She dangled in the air writhing, while Twilight hits the turning controls. The upper body of the loader swings right, bringing Queen Chrysalis with it. She was hanging over the open loading airlock. She bends the loader forward, dropping her into the lock. Suddenly Queen Chrysalis grabbed the loader, pulling it off balance. Twilight Screamed as they toppled and fell together, over the pip of the pit. They crash together five metres below. The loader pinned The Queen, she shrieked and clawed in pain, trying to get free. Applebloom saw them go over and jumped out of the sub-floor channels, “TWILIGHT!” In the loading lock Twilight frantically pulled her arms out of the controls of the loader and clawed towards a nearby service ladder. She started to climb up the ladder quickly, but when she got halfway up. Queen Chrysalis loosened herself slightly and seized Twilight by the ankle. “Where do you think you are going?!” screamed Chrysalis, as held on tight to Twilights’ ankle. Twilight gripped the ladder rungs tightly, fighting against her strength. As she fights the pull of the Queen, next to the ladder was an airlock actuating control panel. She quickly hits the red-‘inner door override’-button. A klaxon began to sound and red warning lights came on below Twilight. Queen Chrysalis was still screeching and trying to free herself. Twilight then pulled down the outer door lever. As the doors opened, there was a hurricane that shrieked of air as the door on which the loader and Chrysalis were lying part, revealing an infinite pit of stars below. The airlock became a wind tunnel, blasting and buffeting Twilight as she struggled to hold onto the ladder. The air of the vast ship howls past her into space as she locked her arm around a ladder rung, feel it almost torn out of its shoulder socket. Applebloom screamed as the hurricane air stream sucked her across the floor towards the airlock. Bishop, torn virtually in two, was having the same problem, but manages to grab hold of the barred flooring right next to the lock. Applebloom also grabs hold of the flooring. The doors opened slowly, due to the weight on them, but they finally opened completely. The loader tumbles clear, falling into the void. Queen Chrysalis falls free, hanging in the opening of the door by Twilight’s ankle. She screeched in the wind as the air pushes against it with extreme force. Twilight was losing the fight. Her strength was almost gone, her arm felt as if it was going to rip free at any moment. Suddenly Pinkie dropped into the opened airlock, while rope was tired around her waist. She grabbed Twilight, helping her with her arm. While Pinkie was helping her, Twilight screamed in pain as her shoe ripped away from her hind hoof, dropping Queen Chrysalis into the depths of space. Queen Chrysalis spins away from the open airlock door, tumbling into the darkness, shrieking and clawing from survival. With all Twilight strength, Twilight fights the blasting air, while Pinkie helped her up to the lip of the inner doorway. She then started to climb over it. Applebloom’s strength was gone and she slides away from the equipment that she held onto toward the open airlock. Bishop reached out desperately for her as she slides past him. “BISHOP!” shouted Applebloom, as she pulled herself into him. Pinkie and Twilight crawled over the lip of the airlock and lays on the deck, Applebloom claws up to Bishop and held onto him. Twilight yanked at the closed override panel on the deck and pulled it open. She hits the inner door close. The door closes next to her, as she pulled her leg out of the way. The turbulent air eddies and settles. She rolled over and lies on her back, drained of all strength. Gasping for her air, weakly, she turned, seeing Bishop and Applebloom together. She then looked up and saw Pinkie on ground breathing heavily, as she was getting her breath back. Twilight slowly crawled over to them and grabbed Applebloom, She turned and hugged her desperately. Bishop looked up at them. He was encrusted with his own vanilla milkshake blood. His voice was gargled with the fluid, “not bad for...a pony.” Twilight looked down at him. He gives her a small, grim smile. She then turns back and clings to Applebloom. *** *** *** Mean while in the hyersleep, Applebloom stands by Pinkie pie’s capsule. Bishop was enclosed within a plastic membrane. Applejack was in the foreground, asleep in her capsule with bandages over her face and chest. Applebloom stood watching as the capsule door whine closed. She then walked over to Twilight at the hyersleep controls board. Twilight punches in a few more commands and closed the keyboard. They both moved over to Applebloom’s capsule. Applebloom got in and sat up. “Are we going to sleep all the way home?” “All the way home,” smiled Twilight. “Can i dream?” asked Applebloom. Twilight smiles and brushed a strand of hair from Applebloom’s forehead, “Yes, honey. I thing we both can.” She suddenly pointed to something on Applebloom’s shirt. She looked down and Twilight flicked her nose. They both giggled and Applebloom lied back in the bed, “Sleep tight.” “Aye-fermatvie,” said Applebloom, closing her eyes. Twilight then got up and moved to her capsule. She lies down onto the bed, and then closed her eyes as the capsule began to shut close. As all the capsules were shut, the lights dimmed and the ship began its journey back to Equestria. The End.