Remember the Dawn...

by The Crimson Harbinger

Possession (Revised)

"Ash?" Starblazer called again, her voice weak. "No," She trotted quickly over to the impaled chip, still panting from the skirmish. "No." She repeated, gently scooping up the chip in her hooves as she slumped to the ground. "Ash, you've can't leave me, not here, not yet." A tear rolled down her face and fell onto the icy spike, freezing instantly. "Not yet." She whispered.

"Such compassion for something that was not living," A familiar voice rasped down the hall, "you are as pathetic as you are foolish, girl."

But Starblazer didn't hear a mocking word he spoke. All she cared about was the small, lifeless chip that she held, the one thing, no, the one pony she had actually cared about.

"Why?" She looked up at no one, tears spilling from her eyes. "Why did she have to die?" The only response she received was the sound of her own voice echoing down the now empty hall. The only reassurance she received was the knowledge that she would have to continue on, even if she had to do so alone.

"I'm sorry," She whispered, softly guiding the chip into it's rightful place in the back of her helmet. "I am so sorry."

She wiped away her tears and slid on her helmet, the cracked visor dimly blinking to life. She stood, and upon slinging her rifle over her back, limped slowly down the hall, heading in the direction that Chip had once been leading her.

...................................................................................................................

Starblazer had only been walking a few minutes before she came to a door marked "Railway", but to her, it had felt like an eternity. She walked in silence, with no quirky remarks on how dull the ship was or how all this made being stranded on the Celestia's Sun seem like an island vacation. Oh, what she wouldn't give just to lose to her one more time in one last game of chess, to see her smiling face as she carved another tally under her name.

But all that was history now, and she had to focus on the task at hoof. She had to, for Ash, for Velvet, for anyone else who still alive on this ship. She would see this through.

She stepped through the door and was greeted by the railway system. It was a long and narrow rail that was suspended over a deep drop-off by rods attached to either side. A tiny metal walkway was all that separated Starblazer from the invisible floor that lay deep beneath her. She spotted a lone car stopped at a loading dock, and made her way carefully across the gorge to it. The car was also long and narrow, having enough space for at least ten ponies and a pilot. It, like the rest of the ships' interior, was a matte grey color, the only variation being a bright orange stripe down the side.

The car wobbled on the rail as Starblazer climbed inside, and she examined the interior. The floor was covered in a dark red carpet, stained by what appeared to be a hundred tea spills. The layer on the chairs fared no better, and the entire cabin stank of mold and dust, her helmet's filtering system unable to keep the stench from reaching her nostrils.

She made her way to the front, and peered out the shattered windshield down the dark forbidding rail before her. She looked down, and upon examining the controls, fired up the car. The cabin flickered to life, and light flooded the space. One of the lights, from being unused for so long, burst into a shower of sparks, and Starblazer held her breath, praying that they wouldn't ignite the old carpet. The shower came to rest on the floor, and she sighed in relief as each went dark. She turned her attention back to the controls and eased the car forward. The car shook as it jerked forward, then gained speed.

Once she had set the car at a decent speed, she found a chair that was semi-clean and took a seat. As she sat there, she began pondering on all that had happened in the last hour. It had all happened so fast, she just couldn't figure out where it had all gone wrong.

"Hi there!" A sudden voice startled her, and she nearly feel out of her seat. "Oh my, I terribly sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!"

"It's alright," Starblazer reassured, sitting back in her seat. "Who are you?"

"Oh, that's easy! I'm, well, uhh..." the voice trailed off, "Hmm, I can't remember. I don't remember. That's funny. You'd think a girl could remember her own name." She chuckled. "Well, that's embarrassing. What about your name?"

"Starblazer," she said, turning to look out the window at the greyness outside, which wasn't really much to look at.

"Starblazer, hmm? That's a pretty name, you know that? You, Starblazer, have a pretty name." The voice stated. "So, Star, do you mind if I call you Star?" The voice paused for a second, "Yeah, you don't mind. Anyways, how are you doing, Star?" She asked, never allowing Starblazer to answer the first question.

"I'm doing fine." She replied, although she knew that she was lying. But there was no reason to go through the trouble of explaining the past events to this disembodied voice, it would probably just try to kill her like everything else on this blasted ship.

"Really?" She sounded shocked. "Fine? For someone who just lost their best friend?" Starblazer's head jerked up.

"How do you know about that?" She asked suspiciously.

"Please darling, I know everything that happens here. This is my ship after all." She said it as though it should have been something everypony would know.

"Your ship?" She asked, skeptical that this voice could be the captain, "You're the captain of the Manehattan?"

"Of course not!" She laughed, "I'm just the humble caretaker. Besides, I doubt they'd let an AI be captain of Equestria's second-largest ship."

"Of course we wouldn't, foal," The voice boomed with a sound like thunder, shaking the car as it spoke.

"Oh no," the AI said, her voice filled with a sudden dread. "This is not good."

There was a sudden explosion as the front half of the cabin was ripped away and fell off the rails into the blackness below. The front of what was left scraped against the rail, showing Starblazer with sparks, and she grabbed the nearest chair to stabilize herself.

"Ho ho, what do we have here?" A deep voice said, "Come now, child, did you really think it would be that easy? That I would just let you complete your task?" Icy tendrils grabbed at the moving car, each striving to slow it's course. After shattering through half of them, a giant tentacle of black ice slammed into the rail in front of it, and the car smashed into it, flinging Starblazer into the cold wall. She winced as she quickly got to her hooves, a sharp paining running up her hind legs. The ice retracted, dragging what was left of the car off with it, stranding her on the thin rail. She struggled to hold her balance as the rail shook, reminding herself not to look down.

"Ah, much better. Now we can speak without any more distractions." The voice cackled. "That artificial intelligence was quite annoying, was it not?" Starblazer swore she heard a faint response, followed by the sound of breaking metal.

"What do you want?" Starblazer growled in the general direction from which the voice spoke.

"I want many things, my little equine friend, things that I plan to obtain without any resistance."

"And just how, pray tell, are you planning to obtain these objects of interest?"

The voice cackled as more ice formed under Starblazer, and before she had time to react, it lifted her up into the air as it grew into a massive spire. It came to a sudden stop not far from the ceiling, and Starblazer dug the claw tool into the icy top of the spire to prevent herself from hurling into the blackness below.

With a single heave she hoisted herself over the edge and back onto the flat top and took a moment to rest. When she had caught her breath, she sheathed the tool and turned to face the icy form that had materialized on the wall above her.

"That, my friend, is where you come in."

"If you think I'll ever help you, then you're sadly mistaken." She scowled.

"You will aid me," He said sternly, "even though you shall not do so willingly."

"Is that a threat?" Starblazer took a defensive position.

"A promise," The icy face smiled, "now, if you'll just hold still, I'll try to make this a painless as possible." The form opened his icy jaws and a cold shadowy mist rolled out and rushed toward her. Starblazer dove to the side as it whisked past her, and turned to see it barreling back towards her. She attempted to dive again, but found that the ice where she was standing had grown up around her hooves and had frozen her in place. She attempted to pull her front hooves out, in hopes that one might come free and allow her to use her rifle, but the ice refused to give up it's hold on her, and so she remained in that place. By now the shadow had reached her, and it collected around her, surrounding her in a tornado of black shadow.

"It is a shame really," the voice said, not sounding too disappointed, "you were so determined too. But all things must come to an end at some point." The shadow swirled faster around her, growing taller as it did so. "Good bye, Starblazer of Equestria." The shadow ceased spinning, and all at once rushed at her, seeping through the the cracks in her helmet and armor, consuming her entire body. Her mouth and nostrils were filled with it, and Starblazer began to choke as shadow replaced oxygen. Her lungs screamed out for air, and yet none came. Starblazer felt very lightheaded as her vision began to cloud, and she stumbled out of place, the ice's grip now non-existent. She gasped for air, but only took in more shadow. She staggered near the edge of the melting spire, and then she fell. She heard the air rush around her, but she only felt the cold that now overwhelmed her body.

"Sleep now, my servant. Sleep." The creature's words were the last thing she heard as she fell into the darkness and a deep unconsciousness.

"Sleep..."

Author's Note:

And the plot thickens...
Sorry it took so long to revise, I had to fix quite a lot this time, although the plot and most other parts stayed the same. If you see anything that I still missed, feel free to shout it out. Otherwise, I hope that it's fixed permanently so I can move on to the next chapter. See you all very soon!

Comments

[dancing mop]

You...copied a scene from Halo 4.

Not the best place to pull story elements from.

And much of the text was exactly the same. Really? I expected better from you.

Also, you never actually described this 'spire' that a good portion of the chapter took place, on? Next to? Above? It made the whole villain rant scene pretty hard to picture.

So, this disembodied voice. Is Ash gonna come back somehow? Yaaay!

[The Crimson Harbinger]

Well, that did not go as planned...

[The Crimson Harbinger]

3536953 Please forgive me if I come off as rude, but I'm sure if I'm taking what you said the right way. I can see the resemblance between Cortana's death scene and Ash's, but I don't think I copied anything from it, but then again, I haven't played Halo 4 in months. The spire scene took place on top of the spire. Sorry, I had a hard time with that part. And if there were any repeating lines, it would be because it took me three tries to get this chapter right. Basically, I took the two original chapter drafts and merged the stuff that was good into a third chapter. Sorry if that made the chapter repetitive. Derp on me.

[dancing mop]

I guess it was...ok. I think that part would have been better just left in the last chapter, with Ash just...dying. Abruptly. The shock would have hit Star and the readers like a ton of bricks!

I am interested in seeing where we go from here. What the hay does this seemingly all-powerful villain need with a gun-totin' space jockey? I guess we'll find out shortly.

[The Crimson Harbinger]

Okay, so I was reading back through this chapter and I realized something: I accidentally forgot to cut the second part of the Abyss' rant! That would explain why it sounded repetitive. I can't believe I didn't catch that! Anyways, sorry about that and I'll be sure to fix it soon.

[dancing mop]

Hey, I just saw the revision! Much better now. Let's see what the next chapter is like!