//------------------------------// // Inapan: Resurrection // Story: Equestria Girls: Secrets Beyond the Stars // by GoldenGoomba900 //------------------------------// Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie watched as the three leaped through the hole in the wall to continue their battle, turning to see Tested attempting to escape. "After her!" Pinkie shouted, leaving Fluttershy in the dust to deal with the whole "evacuation" thing. As the crowd of people formed around the hole in the wall, the fallen Cinch, and the exits, Fluttershy was in a bit of a bind. "You!" Pinkie shouted as she chased Tested through the winding halls of Crystal Prep. "Get back here, I promise I just want to talk!" "I'm through talking!" the alien responded, "Last time we talked I ended up locked on the roof! Give up your chase or I WILL have to end it myself!" Tested rounded a series of corners, Pinkie getting worn out and pausing. "I don't want to hurt you!" Pinkie responded, panting and looking around, confused as to where Tested vanished to. "I do!" Tested responded, Pinkie looking up and seeing her on the ceiling. "Oh, I see, because you can fly." Tested landed in front of Pinkie and entered a battle-stance. "No mere human can fight me." She warned, Pinkie putting on her mask. "Yes I can." She smiled, Tested staring at the mask, slightly confused. "You can? I-I mean, no, no you can't!" Tested shook her head. "Lemme prove you wrong!" Pinkie said, charging full force at Tested as she held her head, reacting too late as Pinkie gave her a bearhug. "Let me go!" She said, trying to break free of Pinkie's shockingly vice-like grip. "Only if you look me in the eyes!" "What? No! That's stupid!" Pinkie moved one of her gloved hands and began noogieing the smaller alien. "Look me in the eyes and tell me we won't fight!" Tested turned and looked Pinkie in the eyes, her mask active. Tested immediately froze, realizing what was happening, a bit too late. "Aw, look at you! Now that I see you head-on, you're kinda cute for an evil alien threat!" Tested blushed. "Now repeat after me." Pinkie began, Tested staring dead into her face. "You will not fight with your good friend Pinkie Pie!" "You will not fight with your good friend Pinki-" Tested shoved her away, holding her head and forcing the control out of her head. "No! You can't do that to me, human! I am NOT going to be mind-wiped by you!" Tested glared at Pinkie, staring into her eyes again. This time, Pinkie stared back, and the two were locked in a psychic duel. Pinkie held out her hand while Tested preferred to hold her temples, the women glaring intently on one-another as their minds melded. Their brains surged, transferring thoughts and messages into one-another's subconsciousness. While Pinkie's mask gave her a good foothold, Tested's species had been bred and trained for psychic warfare. The mind was the Venusian's favored battlefield, even with their strength and flight, but Pinkie's mind was more like No Man's Land than an arena. Similarly, Pinkie had never delved into another being's mind before. It was as befuddling and awkward as those dreams where you wandered school in your underpants, but instead of people pointing and laughing, they attacked you! It's not sure how long this was taking before Second Sunset came bursting from a nearby door, disrupting both of their concentration for long enough to make a pivotal strike. Both backed away, clutching their skulls as Second Sunset and Applejack ran past. Looking up at one another, Pinkie noticed Tested's nose was bleeding a mysterious orange liquid. She blinked and realized some blood was running down the side of her head, out her ear. "You were good, earthling. A far more powerful opponent than I ever anticipated." Tested confessed. "But I had underestimated you. That will not be a mistake to be made again. Goodbye!" Tested ran away as Pinkie fell to her knees, panting. Taking off her mask, she confirmed that she was, in fact, bleeding. "Wow! That was a rush!" The pink one concluded. Sunset Shimmer stepped out of another doorway, seeing the bleeding Pinkie on the floor. Hobbling over, the two girls looked at one-another and let out a weak laugh. "Well, at least the civilians are safe." "I guess, but it's still kinda annoying that we get all beat up and Dash's the only one who can get back up." Pinkie said, getting up and leaning on Shimmer, the two girls heading back to the camp. Simultaneously, Applejack and Second Sunset stared one-another down, Sunset on the edge of a window and Applejack still coated in bleach. The clone knew it wasn't going to fight Applejack, and Applejack knew as well. Unfurling its wings, the clone fell backwards out the window, soaring away. Applejack dropped her stance and took off her bleach-covered uniform, keeping the mask on to avoid the fumes. In the ship, Inapan emerged from the master bedroom, Flash passed out on the bed behind her. She took a satisfied sigh and went to the lab. Tested had explained the basics of the clone Flash's purpose to her, and how to access him remotely. Settling down at a master computer, Inapan ran the string and began watching the footage, starting over from when the recording began. Princess learned numerous things from her unwilling spy, all of them good for her. She found out the location of the girl's camp, and that some of them had gained powers from their tech. She learned the Crusaders had indeed stolen from her and Twilight was studying the device. She learned where the crusaders were hiding and how to access it. Fast forwarding, she found one more curious piece of information: the clone Flash was returning to base, and she highly doubted it was for a reunion. The sly girl skimmed her finger on the control panel, humming. "He's done a good job, but he's not any use anymore. Plus he scares my darling king, and we can't have that." Her finger hovered over a switch labeled self destruct. "I suppose we do need someone to find Grunt though." Inapan stared as the Flash clone grew closer and closer to the ship, smirking gently before hitting another small switch. It brought up a mic leading directly into the clone's robotic brain. "Hello, this is your Captain speaking." She smirked as the Flash clone looked around, confused. "No, you're not hearing things, Flash. It's me, Inapan. Captain Princess Inapan Sentry, the woman you're hard-wired to listen to." "I d-d-d-don't have to listen to you! You're hurting my friends!" Flash shouted at seemingly no one. "Friends?" Inapan asked, making sure the mic didn't catch her. What was this idiot babbling on about? ...The girls he was sent to spy on, perhaps? Inapan took the mic again, but began laughing the moment she opened her mouth. The clone looked around, confused. Inapan's laughter echoed through him. "Oh my goodness, Flash. Enough humor, I have a job for you." She said, calming down and wiping a tear from her eye. "Find Grunt. He's big, he's blue, and he's shaped like a square. You cannot miss him if you tried." "A-a-and why would I do that?" Flash asked. "You seem absolutely intent on blowing up this marble, and considering I'm on it at the moment, I don't see what I get out of the deal. Especially considering I have f-f-friends here." Inapan paused to laugh again, the clone now annoyed and laughing back, mockingly. "O-Okay, Flash listen to me. You're not the real Flash. You never were the real Flash. You aren't even half the man my husband is. The real Flash is in my bed, resting after giving me three wonderful hours." "W-w-wonderful for you or him?" "You are a clone. You have a brain with robotic implants. In front of me is an entire remote control that's designed so I can use you like the toy you are. So, unless you want to lose that "free will" you seem to have gotten attached too, I suggest you find Grunt and bring him to my ship." "You're bluffing!" Flash responded, Inapan hovering her finger over the self-destruct button once more. "Alright, let me show you how serious I am." Princess hit a switch at random, the result quickly apparent to the clone. With little warning, the left side of his body completely shut off. His arm went limp and he fell over, his leg giving way to the rest of his weight. He became cross-eyed, the left eye turning lazy and the left side of his mouth going numb. "Fwa-fwa-fwat dish you do?" Now laying in the dirt, Flash's clone struggled to get any response from his body, to no avail. "I gave you what humans call a stroke." She said as bluntly as possible. "I can do it to the other side of your body if you want, so you're nothing but a living pile of meat." "No, p-p-pweash! I dea wachu wa!" He plead. "Good boy." Inapan hit the switch and the clone felt his senses slowly return. "I-I-I heard of being turned off but that was just silly." The clone mumbled, standing up. "What was that?" "I w-w-was asking about that Grunt guy!" He bluffed. "Right. Grunt is our head engineer, and he's been missing for three days. I shouldn't need to tell you how much repair and maintenance an interociter needs to keep it running, so we kind of need to find him now." "W-w-where do I start looking for the guy?" "If I knew, I wouldn't be sending a braindead clone out to find him, would I?" Inapan asked. "One more thing: if you want to live to die with your "friends", watch your mouth and remember your loyalty to us, because we're watching you." "Before we stop this thr-thr-chilling conversation, can I ask one thing?" The clone Flash asked. "Am I anything like the real Flash?" "No and no." Inapan turned off the mic, setting the monitor to record and heading off to wake Flash up for Lunch. "G-g-good. I have enough trouble on my hands without a bipolar suc-suc-succubus literally sucking me dry..." He headed deeper into the woods, looking for Grunt with only a vague description and a metaphorical gun to his head.