Flash awoke in a glass tube, surrounded by a bright green liquid, and with only a mask pumping oxygen into his mouth. His vision blurred, he could only struggle in a fruitless attempt to escape. After the longest time he'd felt, the liquid began to drain, and letting Flash stand up and drop the mask. The glass that separated him from the outside lowered, letting him fall to the floor and gasp.
"Ugh, ooh, what happened?" He asked, looking around as his vision adjusted. He was in a hall of tubes, not dissimilar to the one he had been sitting in. The metal floors, walls, ceiling gave him the sneaking suspicion that maybe, and just maybe he was still asleep.
"Flash!" came a familiar voice, the boy turning towards the source as she stepped through an automatic door.
"Inapan?" He asked, carefully standing up and wiping the green slime off his... wait, these weren't the clothes he wore when he passed out. This was a polyester jumpsuit, with gloves and bands across them, not dissimilar to Inapan's attire. "Where am I? Why're you here? Where are my clothes?"
"Oh Flash, it's so WONDERFUL to hear your voice again! It's been an eventful circulation." She grabbed him by the hand and lead him along. "I'm sure you have many questions Flash, but right now we need to get something done and over-with." She lead him through more metal halls, the metal grey interior decorated with windows into other rooms where various computers and robots worked diligently. "Now I met your father, so I figure it is only fair you meet my crew... all two of them."
She brought him into a room with couches and monitors, with two large throne-like chairs in the middle. In the couches sat a massive blue, almost square-shaped creature with large, and aggressive eyebrows over its beady blue eyes. It had massive green hands that could have easily crushed Flash if it wished, and Inapan's Sister; Tested, who looked very unhappy and weary.
"You've met my sister Tested, but not my Head of Repairs! Flash, this is Grunt." The large creature got up from where it sat and held out one of its massive hands, expectantly. It wore a larger version of the suit flash wore, but it still appeared to be tearing parts of it. On its feet were the largest pair of boots Flash had ever seen. After checking to see if they had changed his boots too (they had), Flash turned to look at Inapan.
"I-I am d-dreaming, r-right?" He stuttered, the creature taking Flash's hand by force and nearly tearing it out of his socket, and he only giving a whimper of pain as a single tear rolled down the side of his face.
"Oh no, Flash. It is far more WONDEROUS than a dream could ever be!" Inapan said, not seeming to notice his arm had broken. "I am making you, a simple human, my co-pilot and my husband!"
Flash's response was simple to describe: there was none. He froze in place, staring at her with a look of confusion and disbelief.
"Yes, while you were in Cryosleep I had made it official. I am your wife, you are my husband. Isn't it wonderful? Yes, it took a longer while to do it than most marriages of my kind, two of your earth "days" I think they're called rather than two glibners, but I figured you were MORE than worth the wait."
"...I-I'm married?" Flash asked.
"Yes, it was WONDERFUL! Wasn't it, Grunt?" The large creature responded with a yelping noise. "Oh, which reminds me!" Inapan continued. "Let's get you fitted for your universal translator." She grabbed Flash by the arm and drug him out of the room.
"I don't get what she sees in him. His hair is not nearly as pointy as my boyfriend's." Tested said, shaking her head as Grunt made another loud yelping noise.
Twilight and friends stared at the masks built with alien technology and Equestrian magic, each of them unsure of how to progress.
"You have tested these, right?" Rarity asked.
"I... not really?" Twilight said.
"We can't just sit here staring at these things all day." Sunset argued, picking one of yellow color up. "We need to test these things... and I guess I may as well do mine first."
The group did nothing to stop her and just sat and stared as she hesitantly held it to her face, taking deep breaths. No noises were made as Shimmer mentally braced herself for this next step into th-
"Your phone is ringing." Came Fluttershy's phone, the entire room breathing a sigh of relief. "Thank you for investing in public radio, everyone has a story, and yours is that your phone i-" She answered it, excusing herself from the room.
"...I was going to do it!" Shimmer said to the others.
"Yes!"
"Well, of course!"
"We all knew that!"
Fluttershy returned, clearing her throat. "Uh, it was Principal Celestia... sh-she said we need to come to the school as quickly as we can."
"We can do these later, this sounds important!" Twilight said, shoving the masks into her bag before running to the school, all of the girls secretly relieved they wouldn't have to gamble with their lives so soon.
Princess reentered the room, sitting next to her twin sister on the large couch and relaxing.
"So, where's Flash?" Tested asked, not looking away from the absurdly life-like game taking place on the massive screen before her.
"Oh, my hubby's getting the universal translator implanted. It took a while to find where the human brain is... turns out it's where our stomachs are! Speaking of humans, how did your research go?"
Tested lifted a single finger to the screen and it paused. "It was eventful."
"Is that a GOOD eventful or an "I failed and I don't want to get punished" eventful?"
"I... DID find out why their energy levels are so high, for one, and I also found out a few other things as well."
"Excellent!" Inapan said, patting her sister on the back. "Tell me everything."
"E-everything?" Tested asked, nervously.
"Yes Sister, down to the smallest possible detail."
"Do you really want to know?"
"Tell me or I will shoot you out the airlock again."
"Fine! I got into a duel with their leader, Something Shimmer."
"Tell me you didn't."
"She used her powers first!"
"Wait, wait, wait, humans have powers?"
"Barely. The laser she fired was huge, but did pretty much nothing... which reminds me, has the doctor bot gotten all the glass out of me?" Tested turned and showed her back to her sister.
"It seems to be free of debris."
"Good, good. But anyways, I was able to pull a few hairs from her, so it wasn't a complete bust. I put them in the lab for examination."
"Excellent sister! I knew you would get this done. I'll need you to go investigate the statue in front of the building as well. Don't worry though, I'll be sure to set up a diversion..." She walked away from her sister, Tested shaking her head and returning to her game.
Inapan walked through the halls of her ship, smiling happily as she entered a large door. Inside, terrible, and horrifying looking machinations glowing vibrant colors made ungodly noises that could only be described as "brutal". She approached one particularly horrifying machine that twisted and gouged and shook with violent ferocity. Then it stopped and gave a small ding noise as it dropped a metal tube to the floor, pulling it back up with a crane-like appendage and revealing a rather shaken Flash Sentry.
"I-I think I want the dream to end now..." Flash muttered, falling onto her side, and once again too weak to fight her.
"Oh Flash I knew you might feel a bit homesick, so I did something to make you feel better!" Inapan lead Flash through the halls, he only keeping up by leaning on her. Finally they entered a room Flash's new translator told him was "the captain's chambers".
The room looked like a set in a television show, A massive, and a massive bed lay in the center while two nightstands stood on each side. It looked like the room had been formed out of two normal rooms, the one on the right heavily resembling Flash's bedroom. Posters of attractive women and rockstars littering the walls, dirty socks and pants littering the floor and wardrobe, and what appeared to be a window showing the view outside a second story home, complete with tree nearly scraping the window. The left side was more futuristic, a large screen floating directly near the bed, a robot marked "clothes" sat in the corner, and various awards (and a photo of Flash) were on the walls.
"Oh, I also added one more thing!" Mrs Sentry declared happily, clapping her hands. Once she did that, the floor and wall where a Dethwatch poster once stood flipped around, revealing Flash's father, bound to the wall by laser cufflinks.
"Dad?!" The boy shouted, surprised.
"Flash!" The officer returned the sentiment. "Son, get me out of here, I don'-" He was cut off by Inapan clapping again, hiding him once more.
"How did yo- You blasted him with a laser!" Flash shouted to his lawfully wedded wife.
"Oh well, first we were gonna clone him, but then I remembered I had my gun set to eviscerate. So really it was just a process of deviscerating him. He'll probably not live as long, but you should be glad your father cares at all." She set Flash on the bed and began walking away. "Yes, my father was nothing like that. Every time it was "I won't make your graduation from the space academy" or "I'll promise I'll make it to your next play" or "sorry I missed your bat mitzvah, and I had to conquer the Nebulons". But that stupid counsel, that stupid, pointless council!" She stomped her foot. "They took my daddy away from me, Flash! They kept bringing him to war, to diplomacy, TO IGNORE ME!" Flash came to the realization that she was probably insane by intergalactic standards too. "But... now, now with this energy source, we can both rule over the council, and make them realize how much of a mistake it truly was."
"I think I'd like t-"
"We'll both show them. And if Earth has none of the energy, it won't matter! We just tell them it's worthless and have them blast it to bits."
"We?" He gulped.
"Of course, that's assuming you have nothing to say against the love of your life." Flash opened his mouth to speak. "Then it's decided!" She interjected. "I'll find the energy source and bleed the planet dry. You stay in the ship and look pretty. If you get bored, I brought your car to the loading bay!"
She left the room and brushed her hands together. "Now, onto more pressing matters."