Equestria's first warp drive - Alternate ending

by CCC

Chapter 16: Escape

Pog glanced at the various bridge readouts. There were no other ships around within sensor range, and the ship's internal sensors couldn't pick up the locations of any lifeforms with any particular accuracy – not surprising, given that the hull materials had been at least partially chosen for their ability to mask lifesigns and smuggle a whole brig full of slaves past even fairly sophisticated scanning equipment.

Hurrying back and forth between two consoles, he quickly sealed off the bridge (all the better to ensure that no pesky prisoners bothered to bother him) and began to prepare the transporters.

* * *

*CLANG!*

The grating shook as something hit it, hard, from the inside. It dented, but it held.

*CLANG!*

*CLANG!*

On the third kick, the grating finally flew from the wall, the latches that had held it in place finally giving way and snapping. A pair of small yellow hooves drew themselves back into the gap, and after a moment, a small yellow filly's head appeared in its place.

“So?” asked Sweetie Belle, from further in the duct.

“Ah dunno.” said Applebloom. “It looks like someone's room. There's a door, but Ah can't see if it'll open or not.”

“Well, go and see!” called out Scootaloo, from further in. “I'm sick and tired of this air duct!”

“Ah dunno if Ah'd be able ta get back in here.” said Applebloom. “It's quite a bit down...”

“Oh, come on!” objected Scootaloo. “This air duct is horrible! Anywhere would be better than being stuck in here!”

“Yeah,” said Applebloom, “but at least here, we got a way ta move on. If we can't get back in here, we might not be able ta get outta that room. An' then we'd be stuck. Ah say we go on ta the next one, an' try there first.”

There was some muttering from inside the tunnel, and then Scootaloo's voice said “I vote that as soon as we get a place with a bit more space, we make Applebloom go in front.”

“Yeah,” agreed Applebloom, “that would probably be better.”

* * *

The Ferengi ship contained a grand total of eight forcefield-shielded cells, in a short corridor that ended in a dead end on one side and a turbolift on the other. The original inhabitants of each cell, as was the case on leaving Equestria, were as follows:

On the left, as one steps out of the turbolift, the first cell contained a manticore.
On the right, the first cell contained a changeling.
On the left, the second cell contained a very stubborn timberwolf.
On the right, the second cell contained four ponies (three fillies and Flam) and a baby dragon.
On the left, the third cell contained a snow leopard(1).
On the right, the third cell contained a pheonix.
On the left, the fourth cell held a cragodile.
And finally, on the right, the fourth cell held a very nervous cockatrice(2).

The forcefields that had guarded the first and second cells on the right were no longer functional. Pog had to conclude that one of the prisoners had done something to those particular cells. And whoever had broken out of the cells had been intelligent enough to either wait for what seemed a good time, or realise that it was possible after some time spent thinking about it; either way, it didn't seem like the sort of thing a wild animal would do. Or perhaps, for some reason, they were unable to escape until then...

But why break out the insect-pony? Possibly the ponies had some sort of personal attachment to it. But Pog hadn't spotted any of them in the cities while he was walking around there, and it wasn't mentioned in the book on Equestrian Wildlife he'd got from the Flim Flam brothers... moreover, this particular specimen had been picked up quite some distance away from both Ponyville and Canterlot(3). So it was unlikely that any of the prisoners were personally associated with the insect-pony; and if it were intelligent enough to work out how to escape, it would presumably have done so in the week they'd held it before kidnapping the ponies.

So it was logical to conclude that the insect-pony had some ability or abilities that would have been helpful to the escapees. Probably including some means of damaging forcefields. Perhaps the ponies had been spending those three days carefully training the insect-thing to use its abilities on command, and then getting it to get first itself and then them out...

...which would mean that, with any luck, the dragon would be unable to escape on its own.

Presumably, the other wildlife was not as easily tameable. Fortunately, there were other lockable rooms on board the ship... some of which could be locked from the bridge...

* * *

An air vent rested in the wall. Some force took hold of the screws holding it in, and turned them, one by one. The vent fell to the ground with a clatter, revealing what appeared to be a small white blank flank alicorn filly.

Red Dawn flew down to ground level, and walked out towards the door. Since it was not locked, it opened immediately. She grinned and stepped out, her escape now securely in her chitinous hooves; within ten minutes, no-one would be able to associate her in any way with a certain escaping buffalo identity...

“Hello. Who are you?”

She'd forgotten about the little dragon, still waiting outside Frem's room.

“Um, I'm...” think quick, there are only three genuine alicorns, everyone knows Celestia, everyone knows that Luna is dark, that only leaves... “Princess Cadence?”

Spike frowned. “Twilight's old foalsitter?” he asked. “No, you're not.”

He would be the only dragon in the world to be on first-name terms with the real thing, wouldn't he? Just my luck...

Dawn sighed. “No.” she admitted. “But I like to pretend. I'd be a pretty princess in a pretty castle and... um...” what do pony foals do? I bet it's not the same as changeling larvae... “um... play with my pretty pony dolls all day long?”

She grinned, putting every ounce of innocence and guile that she could find into that facial expression.

Spike looked sceptical. “And what are you doing here?” he asked.

“Oh!” said Dawn. Good, an easy one. I can even tell the truth – at least, part of the truth. “There was this thing, like a diamond dog but shaved, and he shot me with this dart thing, and then I was suddenly in here, and I had to crawl through the air ducts, and now I can't find the exit and I just want to go home and I miss my mommy!”

She burst into well-practiced tears.

Spike walked hesitantly towards her, and patted her gingerly on the head. “There, there.” he said, nervously. “I need to find the exit, too. I'm just waiting for some friends, and then we'll all look for the way back home together, okay?”

*sniff* “Okay.” whimpered Red Dawn. More than anything else, she found herself wishing for somewhere nice and unobserved, to switch to a less confining disguise; magic shouldn't be uncomfortable to wear, but this filly form was definitely several sizes too small...

* * *

*CLANG!*

*CLANG!*

*CLANG!*

Again, it was on the third clang that the grating flew from the wall.

“What's in this one?” asked Sweetie Belle.

“Dunno.” said Applebloom. “Lotta chairs, some windows – hey it's the middle o' the night, Ah can see some stars out there.”

“Can we get out of this stupid air duct now?” asked Scootaloo, sounding more than a little annoyed.

“Sure, Ah don' see why not.” said Applebloom. “If we gotta go back, we can push one o' them chairs under the vent(4). C'mon, let's go rondey-voo Spike.” She hopped out, dropping to the floor with a solid thump.

“It's rendezvous with.” said Sweetie Belle, landing more quietly. “We're rendezvousing with Spike, not rendezvousing him.”

Applebloom gave Sweetie a suspicious glance. “Y'said it meant the same as 'meet'.” she said.

With a buzzing of tiny wings, Scootaloo lowered herself to ground level. “Oh, at last!” she said.

“Yes,” said Sweetie Belle, “it does. We're going to meet with Spike.”

“I'd just started getting a cramp in my left wing!” said Scootaloo.

“We're gonna meet Spike.” said Applebloom. “So we're gonna rondey-voo Spike.”

Sweetie Belle sighed.

“Do you girls have any idea how good it is to be able to stretch again?” asked Scootaloo. “That vent was way too tight!”

“Rendezvous isn't that sort of verb!” insisted Sweetie Belle. “It's, well, okay, technically it's a noun, taken from Fancy...”

“Ah could speak Fancy once.” pointed out Applebloom. “Ah bet Ah'd know how ta' rondey-voo Spike properly!”

* * *

“Thank you, Captain. That information will come in very useful later, I'm sure.” said Twilight. “But I think it's best if we stopped here.”

“Really?” asked Captain Anderson. He and Jorge had been taking alternating half-hour shifts reading to these mares from the publically accessible computer files for several hours now.

“Yes, really.” said Twilight. “I know I'm starting to find it harder to concentrate; and right now, it's more important that we keep this spell going than hear more about Klingon-Betazoid relations. And I'm the Element of Magic; I think some of my friends must be getting a bit tired.”

Behind the glow that filled her eyes, Twilight glanced surreptitiously at Rarity, on her left; and then at Dash, on her right. Both were staring at the rainbow trail outside the forward observation port with single-minded intensity, as if the combined intensity of their gazes could somehow shorten the length of that pathway.

“...or maybe not.” Twilight conceded.

She didn't notice, behind her, Fluttershy trying to conceal a tiny yawn.

(1) An Equestrian snow leopard is, of course, a leopard made entirely out of snow.

(2) A cragodile, consisting as it does entirely of rock, is immune to a cockatrice's stare; in fact, it is the major predator of cockatrices in the Everfree Forest. The cockatrice, having seen the cragodile in the opposite cell, had immediately taken every effort to hide from the fearsome predator; of all the creatures in the cells, it was the only one that had not yet discovered the forcefield in front of its cell.

(3) In the desert near Appaloosa.

(4) They couldn't, as it happens; the chairs in a Ferengi forward observation deck are bolted to the ground. The last thing one wants in a spaceship that's making sudden turns is loose furniture flying around.

Comments

[Shadow_8472]

I gave in, I'm on the alt first. I'm a little worried about the incomplete status, though.

It can't be healthy to stay awake as a living warp core for that long.