The shuttle was small. A white, hexagon-pyramid shape with a large viewport on the front. Night Rain looked at it through the viewport as the crew in the hangar bay used a torch to cut the door open. She hadn't heard from Fluttershy in twelve years. Hell, she assumed the worst... But then the shuttle was found. Its design matched those that were used on the Grendel, Fluttershy's ship. So Night had newfound hope that her mare was alive.
The crew pulled the cut section of the door out, and let a scanning probe do its work; checking the interior for potential threats. They then entered the shuttle, and after a few minutes they brought out a hypersleep capsule. Night's eyes lit up at the sight of it, and she wanted to run down and see who was inside, but she restrained herself. She knew it wouldn't look good, especially with her superior standing right next to her. She brushed a few cyan and purple strands of her mane out of her bright red eyes, and drew in a slow breath. She turned to the stallion next to her, and his gaze was locked onto the ship below them.
Scrapper was by no means a pleasant stallion to work with, but he could get a job done. His black coat seemed to pull in light like a black hole, his horn sharp enough to impale anyone unlucky enough to piss him off and the blood-red points in his black mane were enough to say he wasn't to be messed with.
She had the same coat and eyes, but she was a lot nicer than most of the crew despite no longer being a normal pony (which had an added benefit of being in space; no direct sunlight). She flexed her wings a little, and started to walk away from him.
"Where are you off to?" he asked, his voice low and commanding, if not threatening.
"To see if my hopes are well founded," she replied without turning around.
"Don't let your emotions get in the way of the job at hand," he warned.
"Even if it's not her, I haven't seen any of them in twelve years. I'd like to catch up and see what happened."
"And if it is?" he looked at her.
"No one's getting between us," she said slowly. "Not even you."
*****
Fluttershy's POV
My eyes open slowly. The room a white blur as the steady beep, beep, beep of a heart monitor sings its annoying tune beside me. I stare at the ceiling, which is quickly cut by a black, cyan and purple blur as the mare looks down at me. As my eyes focus, I realize very quickly just whose red eyes, wet with tears, that I'm staring into, and I slowly raise a hoof to caress her cheek.
"Fluttershy?" she says in a slightly shaky voice, and I smile a little as my response comes.
"Mhm..." my tone is weak and fragile, but I have no doubt she heard me.
My movements are slow and my joints crack a little as I move them, but she gets the hint and wraps her legs around me, hugging me tightly as I slowly return it. How much time has passed? What happened while I was gone? My mind is all over the place. Well, until she kisses me and brings me out of my questions and into her arms. I immediately kiss back and close my eyes, I never thought I'd be able to kiss her again. We hold the kiss until I swear I'm about to pass out from lack of oxygen, and then, as soon as we break, she hugs me tighter than she ever has, putting my head in the crook of her neck.
"I never thought I'd see you again, baby... But I knew you were alive... I'd never give up hope," she says, her voice getting slightly shaky.
"H-how long was I gone?" I ask weakly. My limbs still feel a little heavy and I'm starting to get a headache, but nothing's too bad.
"It's been about... twelve years."
I was not prepared for that. "T-twelve years?"
"Yeah," she says sadly, "twelve of the longest years of my life."
"Have you...?" I start to ask, fearing she may have moved on without me.
"Not a chance," she says, holding me tighter. "I'm yours for life, till death do us part. And unless I get a body, I'm not leaving you for anyone."
"B-but we never got..."
"Shh," she gently places her hoof over my mouth. "I don't care about that. Because we don't need to be married for me to say it."
I nod a little and kiss her hoof, placing mine over it and holding it tightly. She gently kisses my forehead, right between my eyebrows, and I smile a little bit at her touch. I just want to stay here, in her arms. She slowly positions us so I'm laying on top of her, my head nuzzled into her neck as she slowly wraps her wings around me like a midnight black blanket. I smile a little more and look up at her, and her bright red eyes lock onto mine, and my smile only grows wider. It feels exactly as I had remembered, and a little better considering the last time I had thought about this... hiding from that... thing...
"Did anyone else make it?" she asks, and my ears instantly flatten against my head as I look down, shaking my head sadly. She tightens her grip around me, and strokes my mane gently. "There's nothing you could do..."
I nod a little, thinking about how no one was safe from that monster. How I survived, I'll never know. It had killed everyone... Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Twilight and Rainbow Dash. They were all gone. I'm the only one left, the last Element of Harmony... and the one everyone cared least about. The one nopony decided to listen to. That hurts more than anything else.
She kisses my forehead, and I slowly look up at her, tears in my eyes as she nuzzles into a gentle, loving kiss. I instantly kiss her back, closing my eyes and getting lost in the sensation that it provides for me. I need a distraction otherwise I might go insane. I eventually feel her pull away, and when I open my eyes; she's gone. The room is dark and way too messy. I slowly get out of the bed, and look around.
"N-Night...?" I call quietly, but there's no response. I walk to the door, and it slides open as I approach it.
Exiting the room, I notice that the hallway is extremely messy. And is that blood on the walls? Several sparking wires hang from the ceiling, and I can hear something padding through the hallway. I quickly walk in the other direction, not wanting to know whatever it might be. I turn left when the hallway forks in front of me, and see the one thing I never wanted to see. Night is restrained to the wall, her eyes rolled back and a trail of blood from her mouth down her neck and chest... which had been torn open from the inside. I stand numb as I stare at her body, and tears start running down my face as I start wailing loudly. I don't care if it finds me. Night's dead, the one mare I had lived through the horror of watching my closest friends getting picked off, one by one, to see again. She's gone. I can't live without her...
"Fluttershy!"
My eyes flash open in a heartbeat, and I cry out before noticing her face right in front of mine. It's Night... she's alive. It was a dream. I let out a heavy sigh as she holds me close, stroking my mane gently as I let my tears go. I must have been crying in my sleep, there's a wet patch in her coat where my head was.
"It's okay, baby. I'm right here," she whispers soothingly into my ear, and I nod a little as I pull away and wipe the tears away from my face. She helps with the tips of her wings, and kisses me on the forehead. "I'll always be here, baby girl."
I nod and kiss her chin, and she gives me a gentle kiss on the lips before giving me another on my forehead.
"I-I thought you were d-dead..." I whimper. "I-I saw you... y-you had one of them b-burst out of your ch-chest..."
"No, I'm here. I'm alive," she nuzzles the top of my head, and I nod again. "I'm not gonna die without giving you the night of your life first."
I blush a little, then nod and chuckle a little as she kisses my cheek. Everything's fine. There's nothing to worry about. That's all I could ask for.
*****
"So, let me get this straight," Scrapper sighs as I finish speaking. "You encountered a hostile, alien life form that, if I'm remembering correctly; gestates inside a living host before ripping its way out and then killing anything that moves."
"I know what I saw," I say quietly, and Night rubs my shoulder a little.
"I can't see why she would lie, Scrapper. Look at her, she's clearly traumatized," she says gently.
"I'm not blind, but I still don't buy it," he growls. "Some murderers I know of have been traumatized by their own actions, so why should I believe she didn't do it herself and make the whole thing up?"
"Why don't you go out there and see for yourself then?!" I snap.
"Because we've scoured every known planet in the galaxy with no reports of any hostile alien life, or any alien life in general," he replies calmly.
"Well I know exactly what I saw. I saw a monster that wiped out my best friends in less than a day. If you don't believe me, I'd happily bring you along," I growl a little. "Of course, given you can pay me enough to go anywhere remotely near the system we found that thing on."
He starts to respond, then closes his mouth and leaves, the door closing behind him.
"Go fuck yourself, Scrapper!" Night yells after him, and I couldn't agree more.