Cryo-7

by Metal Pony Fan

Live by the Gun, Die by the Hoof

Twilight leaned against Astral as they walked down the hall. The bright station lights made her feel like she was walking through a fog. She kept her eyes closed as much as possible, relying on the stallion next to her for guidance.

She was talking to Treehugger, or Growl, as she went by now, and the next thing she knew, she was being helped to her hooves by Astral. The look on his face at that moment was stuck in her head, and would be for a while. A complex expression, practically requiring an in-depth analysis, showing a slightly deeper glimpse into the pony she still didn't fully understand.

He was angry. The tension in his jaw, muscles coiled tight like a spring as he bit back his words, told her that much. The sideways glances as he kept an eye on Growl, told her the target of that anger. There was confusion there as well, eyebrows pulled down in concentration as he tried to reason through something. And, he kept his body facing her, even when he had to turn his head. He was wary of her.

But, when he turned away from the older mare, his gaze lost its edge. "You ok?" he asked. "Don't try to move, take a moment." It took her a moment, not to move, but to realize that he was talking to her. His eyes were wide with concern, and his mouth was slightly open, corners pulled - not into a smile, nor a frown - into something in between.

"I'm alright," she answered that look of worry, even though it was a lie. Her head hurt. Also, her chin, as well as most of her mouth, was numb.

The relief that she saw flood Astral's face made the lie worth it. His jaw relaxed, and a sigh escaped his lips. His eyes closed, and he shook his head slowly, lips pulling back again, this time into a small, pleasant smile. "Phenomenal magic power, and a glass jaw... your stats aren't balanced in the slightest."

If she hadn't been wearing her jacket, she would have smacked him with a wing, but she settled for smacking his leg with her hoof as she laid there.

"Sorry," he said in an unusually somber tone, concern returning to his face even though it was only a shadow of his previous expression, "let me help you up."

And he did. And she let him. And now, here they were, walking through the halls of the space station under the watchful eye of several armed guards while the rest of the crew stayed with the shuttle. But, for some reason, all she could think about was how concerned he looked standing over her. And how terrified he looked when was facing Tekrin for the first time on Sevus. How broken he looked when she discovered his injuries on Picus. How soft those expressions were compared to what he wore the rest of the time.

For a moment, she even pictured the pure hatred on his face the first time they stood face to face. She never wanted to see that face again. At least, not directed at her. But it never would be, would it? They had come too far for that. They were friends now, right? Friends didn't look at each other like that.

And for some reason, that reassuring thought was all she needed to feel safe, even though they were being dragged somewhere by a bunch of aliens in combat armor, led by a former hippie who lost her memory at some point. Yep. Totally safe. "Astral," she groaned, "I think I have a concussion."

"You hit the floor pretty hard," Astral agreed, giving her a reassuring nudge, "but you were only out of it for a few seconds. We'll have Radio check you out soon."

Twilight stayed silent, only offering a short nod as a reply. She was too surprised by his simple action to form a coherent thought. It was quick, and he probably didn't put much thought into it, but that short press of his snout into her neck - not a nuzzle, just a quick bump - was enough to dissolve any remaining worry. She may not know exactly what he thought of her now, but he didn't think of her as an enemy.

That was enough for her.

"Pip!" Growl shouted out, "Over here a moment!"

Astral stopped, and Twilight stopped with him. Her head hurt a bit less, and the light wasn't as blinding, so she opened her eyes. The sight that greeted her took a moment to understand. The first thing she saw looked like red wine with ice floating in it, but a pool of it stretching the entire floor of a large warehouse. There was no light that didn't come from a portable source. Every panel or light fixture on the wall was dead. Only small fixtures set up on tripods cast their harsh glow. Beyond that...

"This is cargo bay three," their earth pony guide explained, "What's left of it anyway."

She gestured to the torn left wall, where a crew in white suits crowded around the damaged wall like maggots in a rotten wound. The wall itself was being disassembled in places, twisted and scorched sheet metal was being removed to make room for replacement paneling. Power conduits and other wiring, the veins of Canter station Delta, carrying its electrical lifeblood, were being carefully severed at precise points before and after damaged sections.

The only being not focused on the repair efforts was a single pony that stopped inspecting wall panels when Growl had called out earlier. He was making his way over, white suit and boots protecting his fur from the puddles of staining liquid he had to walk through.

As he neared the entryway, he passed an emergency light, confirming that the pony was indeed a he, but also that he was an earth pony pinto. White, with brown markings, if the pattern on his face was indicative of the rest of him. A rare color scheme for a pony, despite how tame it might seem against the vibrant or pastel colors most ponies had.

He climbed up out of the cargo bay, and Astral noticed that he was fairly young, maybe early twenties. He also looked a little mopey, like something wasn't going his way today. Given what had happened here, that wasn't surprising.

"G'day, ma'am," he greeted Growl with a cheerful accent, "what brings ye callin'?" He unzipped his clean suit a little, letting cool air in, and exposing the red bandanna tied at his neck.

Twilight gasped, stepping away from Astral for the first time since leaving the shuttlebay. "Pipsqueak?"

Growl and the young stallion both looked over in surprise, but only the stallion let out a gasp of his own. "Miss Sparkle?" He stood up straight. "I, uh, I mean-" He bowed low. "Princess!" He straightened up again, then turned to Growl. "This is her," he said excitedly, "she's one a' the ones we told you about. She lived in my hometown when I was young, worked as a librarian before she was a princess, even taught me ta weld, back when it meant hookin' electrodes to magically charged crystals."

"You-" Growl's eyes were wide in shock at the colt's reaction. Her head moved slowly, back and forth with her refusal to believe it. "Are you sure?"

"Princess?" Astral asked quietly.

"Long story," Twilight shushed.

"A'course I'm sure." Pipsqueak nodded to the alicorn. "She's the reason anypony's alive today. Ask any o' the others, they'll say the same thing. Every pony from Equestria knows her."

Growl didn't respond. She was too busy staring at the floor. Her breathing was shallow and rapid, and if it continued like this, she would hyperventilate in moments. With a grunt, she turned away from everypony, tail whipping against a nearby light.

Pipsqueak wrapped his hooves around the flimsy tripod before it could tip over. His surprise at Growl's reaction showed on his face as he stabilized the light. "Ma'am? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Pip," she forced out between clenched teeth. With a snort, she raised her head, and without looking back, she stated, "I'm not convinced, but you two are free to leave whenever you wish." She started away, muttering to herself, "the sooner, the better."

Twilight pointed after the mare, and leaned towards Astral. "She hit me, didn't she?"

Her unicorn companion raised an eyebrow. "You're just figuring that out?"

Pip watched until Growl rounded a corner out of sight before looking back at the two jacketed ponies. "Miss Sparkle? What happened? I've never seen Mrs. Growl that upset."

With a sigh, Twilight answered, "she's a friend, from ponyville. She just doesn't remember it."

---

Pipsqueak smiled the entire trip. It was a charming smile, and he had the energy and voice to match. Every store they passed, and nearly everypony as well, he would point and say a few words. Sometimes it was just the name. Others, it was a brief description. But, for most, it was a story.

Twilight walked close to Astral, just in case her dizziness should return. Radio's scans showed that she didn't have a concussion, but that didn't mean she wasn't feeling the effects of getting knocked out cold.

Honestly, the dizzyness might be from revelation that, after all the time she spent searching for the lost ponies of Cryo-seven, hundreds of them were living in orbit, almost directly above her. Dozens more lived on the surface of Canterlot, and many were even students at Luna's Academy. And still more had gone off to find their way in the galaxy after... something.

Pip never actually said what. In fact, it seemed like every time he caught himself before saying it, he quickly dismissed it as unimportant. She could tell though, everypony was rebuilding their lives after a shared event of some significance. Business were being started, skills were being learned, and not one of the stories that Pip told occured more than seven years ago.

Their pods had to have been opened earlier than that. Pip was at least twenty-three now, and he was just shy of twelve when he was put in stasis. So, at least four years were missing from his stories, possibly more.

By the time they made it across the commissary, Twilight was drained. She wanted to fall on the floor and lay there until whatever passed for morning on a space station came and went. She should feel happy right now. She should be overjoyed that there were so many ponies safe and sound. But for some reason, she felt dread.

Twilight looked back as their group followed Pipsqueak out of the commissary and into a large lift tube obviously meant for cargo or heavy machinery. The others didn't seem to share her worry. In fact, they seemed to have enjoyed the tour. Berry had bounced from window to window, taking in the sights, Mac and Fluttershy spoke between themselves, pointing things out to each other every so often, and Radio spent a good deal of the time walking backwards, turned around to watch some sight as long as ponily possible. And Astral...

Twilight jumped back. Astral had been looking straight at her when her eyes finally drifted in his direction. "Now what's wrong?" He asked quietly, the lights flying past them flashing in those steel-blue eyes. "You're awfully somber for somepony who just had a major breakthrough in their life's work."

"Am I?" Twilight shook her head. "I think I'm still a little out of it from getting hit earlier."

"That was an hour ago," Astral reminded her, moving closer so their conversation remained their own. "I thought we were done with all this lying to each other, and not being honest, and... stuff."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Lying and not being honest?"

"The difference is subtle, but it is there." The unicorn shrugged after a short pause. "Ok, I was trying to sound deep and failed. Are you going to tell me what's wrong, or not?"

"Fine," Twilight sighed, "I just... I feel like we aren't getting the whole picture here, you know?" She tilted her head to where their Pinto guide had gotten trapped in a conversation with Berry. "Treehugger didn't react very well to being told she's from Equestria, but she is loved and respected by a large group of ponies who know full well that they are from Equestria. Not only that, but almost all of them live on a space station that she seems to... own?"

Astral raised his hoof to point out, "you forgot that she is also a nurse, a psychotic former mercenary, has a small army at her command, and is married to a rather large Gryphon, who is also head of medicine for said station. Maybe you shouldn't try too hard to understand her all at once."

"Wait, when was she a mercenary?" Twilight flinched. "I mean, she's not psychotic, just... defensive? And when did she say anything about being a mercenary?"

"She said she was from Choria." The unicorn shrugged. "I went there once on cargo run. It's a Gryphon planet with a small dragon population, where you're either a monk, a mercenary, or supporting them. And, mercenaries are the only ones who ever leave." With a small shiver, he added, "planet's cold as hell, too. Unless you're in the equatorial jungles, then things get plain miserable."

"That doesn't make me feel any better." Twilight shook her head. "It just feels like there is something big here that we aren't seeing, and I don't know how to find out what it is."

"I might," Astral said with a shrug. He turned his head to their tour guide, and, before Twilight could even think of stopping him, shouted, "Yo, Pipsqueak! What are you hiding?"

Twilight wrapped her hooves around Astral's snout, and pulled him around to face her. "What are you doing?" she hissed. "I can't even begin to put into words how rude that was, and that's not to mention that you are accusing one of my subjects, a bright young stallion that I tutored as a colt, of lying to me. In Equestria, that's kind of a big deal."

Astral's eyes narrowed. "Subjects?" he asked out of the corner of his mouth. "You... had subjects? Like, for real, subjects? Like, the princess thing was actually a position of power- and not some rich family with history sort of thing- sort of subjects?"

She released her grip on his snout with a weary sigh. "I can't take you anywhere," she muttered. "Pip, tell him you're not hiding anything." She looked over at the pinto, but he looked away, chewing his lip in silent guilt. "Pip?" Twilight lowered her voice, quietly, and a bit unsure, she asked, "you aren't hiding anything, are you?"

"I never have been a good liar, have I ma'am?" He looked up, meeting her eyes for a second, then quickly looked away pain showing for just a moment. "I... I don't think it's my place to say, but I'm sure nopony blames you. E... even if they do... I don't." He let out a soft breath that may have been a sigh. "For what it's worth."

Twilight watched in silence as the colt's hooves reached up to his bandana. Her breath caught when he pulled it away and held his mane back. There was a single line of ugly scarred skin across the back of his neck, hard to see when his mane was down, and completely hidden with the addition of the red ascot.

He was silent for a moment before speaking. "We didn't wake up on the friendliest planet. There was a strict caste system, and since we weren't even from that planet, we ended up bottom of the ladder." He let his mane fall, and started tying his bandana back on. "We were... forced labor, for a time, up until Growl came along. She was hired by the king to track down escapees, but when she realized what was going on, she went to war to free everypony." The young stallion shrugged. "I was hoping you and Growl would get to meet, Princess, but I was hoping it could be as friends. 'Cause the lot of us owe both of you our lives."

"I... I..." Twilight floundered for words. "Forced? You mean, you were slaves?"

"When was the last pony freed?" Astral asked quickly. "Are there any that were left behind? And is there anything that could have been done in the last three years to improve the situation?"

"Uh..." Pip was thrown for a loop by the sudden questions, but he answered them. "The last ponies freed were from the foundry, and they were freed five or six years ago. They came home with the last of the fighters. Everypony was... accounted for. And the last three years have been some of the best in our lives. Building this station up to be our home has occupied all my time, and the same is true for everypony else. We're safe here, surrounded by friends, other folks are joining the community we built from nothing, businesses are growing, and shoot, I've even got a marefriend." He scratched his mane and quietly added, "Though, that kinda happened recently."

"Do you guys kiss?" Berry piped up from the back of the crowd, triggering a blush from the pinto and two specific larger members of the group.

"Inappropriate question, Berry," Astral said, cutting off any possible answer.

"Astral," Twilght questioned, "what are you doing?"

"Telling Berry off for asking inappropriate questions," the Stallion replied. "Why? What's it look like I'm doing?"

Twilight shook her head. "Astral, you don't have to try and shield me from this. This was my fault, and I-"

"No, no it's not." With a sigh, Astral rubbed his forehead. "Twilight, everything that happened to them happened before you woke from stasis. They even resolved the situation without you. Nothing you did before leaving Equestria, or since waking up, would have made any meaningful difference in their lives."

She shook her head, not yet convinced. "Astral, why are you doing this?"

"If you haven't noticed, I'm getting a little tired of you bottling up your feelings about things like this. Mostly because you tend to take everything out on me all at once. But, maybe this time, this one time, we look at the fact that you couldn't possibly do anything about it, and focus on what you can do moving forward?" Astral glanced over at Pipsqueak, and quietly asked, "She's really a princess?"

The colt nodded.

"See?" Astral sat and raised both hooves towards their guide, "I was not expecting that." He stood back up, and pointed at Twilight. "You are full of surprises, so surprise me this time, and don't get depressed over something you had no part in.

"Uh, yeah," Pip agreed, moving next to the unicorn, showing his support by standing by him as he stood by his argument, "You should focus on helping the others."

The entire shuttle crew turned to face Pipsqueak, and he shrank a little under the sudden attention. "What others?" asked several of them all at once.

"Uh," the young stallion extricated himself from the center of the group, and looked over at Twilight, "the Tankrans didn't find Cryo-7. They bought the stasis pods on the black market, thinking they were some kind of weapon, and got one a' the mercenary groups to open 'em. Growl has more information. She's made it her mission ta keep tankra from ever getting its hooves on more pods. If you smooth things over, maybe you could work together."

It didn't take Twilight any more than two seconds to decide on a course of action. "Astral? Let's go pay pay that crazy mare a visit."

It took Big Mac less than two seconds to point out the flaw in her plan. "What if she hits ya again?"

And it took Berry less than a second to distract everypony. "Oops." All eyes turned towards the pink earth pony as she fumbled a piece of circuitry in her hooves. An access panel was open, and the lift was slowing to a halt. "Um," she held the device in her hooves back up to the opening she pried it from and tilted her head to one side, "I don't think this is supposed to be here."

"Not supposed to go there?" Radio demanded, crossing his hooves as the lift doors opened behind him. "Then why'd the lift suddenly stop? Huh?"

Berry sheepishly pointed past the colt, out into a cavernous bay where unused machinery lay scattered, but only near the lift. "Because it was stopping anyway."

"Oh," the colt glanced back before offering a quiet, "sorry." He took a better look out the doors, and into the bay beyond. It was easily as large, if not larger, than the shuttlebay on the solomon's ring, with a vaulted ceiling several stories above them. A ship was parked in the center of the bay, away from everything else and surrounded by a holographic ring of the word caution, repeated over and over in orange letters.

It was fairly large ship, at least 8 full decks top to bottom, but it didn't look like a freighter. It was too sleek for that. But it didn't look military, its design was too friendly. At one time, serious thought was put into making this thing look elegant. It's configuration was slightly unusual as well, all the parts you would expect- shield emitters, thrust vents, gravity ports- they were all there, but not in their usual places. Also, time was not kind to it. What may have been white paint was almost gone, and there was the separate matter of it looking like someone took a can opener to it; a terrible gash was torn across one side, and several smaller injuries marked where explosions or plasma blasts had occured inside the hull.

"Where are we?" the colt asked. "A junkyard?"

"Oh my gosh!" Berry bounded past him and into the bay, heading in a straight line for the ship. "Look at the integrated crystalline components on those emitters! They're degraded, but that looks like the technology Granpa used to study!"

Twilight tore her eyes away from the Philomena's sorry state, and focused on Berry. "Your grandfather studied Equestrian technology?"

"I guess!" she answered with a shrug. "He didn't call it that though, and there was older stuff too, but he was most interested in the stuff that integrated magic crystal and computer circuitry. Especially anything that could be considered a crossover between binary and base magical computing."

Twilight brought her hoof to her chin. "If he was interested in crossover circuits, Philomena's processor core would have been his holy grail. It's probably the most advanced piece of technology we had. Even our-" Her head jerked up. "Wait, did you say older?"

Berry nodded. "He told me he once owned a computer that was like twenty thousand years old, but that's not important right now."

The alicorn's mouth hung open. "How is that not important?! That could potentially rewrite the entire history of the galaxy!"

"Um," Pipsqueak nervously inserted himself back into the conversation, "so could everypony here, and at least half the station's population."

"Oh!" Berry looked at the pinto stallion with fresh surprise. "You work here, don't you?" She held her piece of equipment under his snout and gave it a little shake, whipping his nose with the broken hookup wires. "Why was there a low-powered sensor module in the lift's control panel?"

The young welder pulled his nose away from the onslaught, pushing the device away with a hoof as he fought back a sneeze from the tickle of tiny wires. "A what?" He gave the device a cursory glance. "That doesn't look like any sort of sensor module we use." He gently traced his hoof along two black wires coming from the devices casing. They terminated in small black bulbs taped to the side of the case. "Is this a transmitter?"

"It could be," Berry shrugged, "it also had a secondary power source, but I disconnected when I removed it from the panel, so it wouldn't activate."

"Bloody hell!" Pip ran to a communications panel beside the lift, furiously punching commands into a keypad mounted below a small screen. "Nothing's going right today!"

The screen came alive, showing a dozen armed and armored beings, a mix of bipeds and quadrapeds, running full tilt down a hall. Black armor and energy weapons were not the sort of thing you wanted to see moving in that much of a hurry. The camera bobbed and ran with them, most likely connected to one of the runners. Growl's angry voice blared from the speakers. "What is it?! This had better be important, that thing woke up!" The platoon took cover where the hallway was about to turn a corner, and a green hoof appeared on screen. It closed in on the view, and the camera was pulled off her chest and repositioned with a dizzying amount of movement. When it stopped, growl was facing directly into it wearing substantially less armor than those around her, only a vest and helmet with a clear visor. Her voice quieted as everyone around her continued to advance. "We traced it's signal to the shuttlebay. If there's a firefight in there, it could mean hull damage. Pip, I need you to suit up and be on standby for exterior repairs. Get your equipment, and anypony you need to help you and wait at maintenance airlock five."

He nodded quickly. "Yes, ma'am." He glanced back at Berry and her device. "You should know, ma'am, we found something that may be related. One of Miss Sparkle's crew found a remote sensor hooked to a transmitter hidden in the main cargo lift."

"It's a medical scanner," Radio piped up. "An old one, but easy to reprogram."

Pip looked back at the device. "It looks like the ones we used to identify..." He cast a quiet glance at the ponies behind him. "Um, it looks like the kind we ran DNA tests with."

Astral moved to Pip's side, quietly asking the younger stallion, "does this lift connect to the shuttlebay?"

At the nodded response, Growl and Astral locked eyes. Astral was the first to speak. "Whoever it is, they're after me."

"And that sensor may have been their way of finding you." Growl looked down, contemplating something. "Don't worry. No matter how I feel about you or your crew right now, I'll be damned if I make it easy on them."

"Let us help," Astral asked in his best bargain voice, "there must be something we can-" A wave of motion interrupted him. The deck beneath them pitched slightly before returning to normal, like a boat cresting a small, but unexpected wave.

Onscreen, it was a different story. Growl was thrown to the floor by an unseen force, mane and tail whipping about as the roar of rushing wind overloaded the speakers on the comm-panel. Barely a second passed before everything fell silent. Growl was able to pick herself up, and the look of terror on her face as she realized what happened made Astral's stomach twist. "No..." the mare whispered to herself. She ran out of view of the camera, leaving it discarded where it landed. "No!"

"Decompression?" Pip stared at the screen in disbelief. "I- I have to go!" He ran into the lift and hit the controls. "Wait here," he said as the door slid closed, "I'll send somebody!"

Twilight sat down and yanked her jacket over her head, tossing it on the ground. "Astral!" The unicorn looked back at her. "I'm going to go help."

He nodded once. She was the only one who could right now. His eyes locked on something behind her as her horn started to glow. "We'll be right behind you."

Twilight's face showed a brief look of confusion before she disappeared in a flash of magic. As soon as she was gone, Astral broke into a run. He headed for the Philomena, and everypony else followed.

Radio flew ahead of the group, breaking through the caution holograms and landing at the ramp of an open boarding hatch. "So," he called back as everypony else caught up, "I assume this thing flies?"

"Surprisingly well," Astral answered as he passed the colt, "we'll just have to reboot some of the emergency systems."

Mac was the last one in, and he closed the door behind him. "Philomena!" he bellowed, "Initiate liftoff procedures and prepare for rescue operations!"

There was no response.

"Philomena?" The earth pony repeated in a quieter voice. "Please?"

"You know the ship," Astral observed. "I'm pretty sure the main computer was damaged. We'll have to do everything manually."

"Nnope." Mac looked over at Fluttershy. "Take Radio to the auxillary bridge, I'll call ya in a minute." He looked at Astral and Berry. "I need y'all ta help me with somethin', we can bypass Philomena, and route everythin' to one place." He headed down the hall shaking his head. "Ah hope she's alright."

"Twilight will be fine." Astral watched the corridor that led to engineering come and go as he followed Mac deeper into the ship. "I've seen what she can do in open space."

"Ah know," Mac agreed, turning down a small hallway, "Ah'm more worried about Philomena." He turned down one last, even smaller hallway, and stopped in front of a pair of glass double doors. "Good," he said, voice a low rumble, "none a' this has changed."

"This is coolant systems access," Astral pointed out as he followed Mac in, "I thought were going to bypass the computer."

"It's complicated," Mac offered in explanation. There were tanks and pipes along the far wall of the room, and pumps operating beneath the floor, visible through small regularly spaced windows. There were two doors in the room, left wall, and right. He opened the door to the right, and stood in the entry to a small alcove packed tight with control podiums, cabling, and bins of spare parts and cables. "And some a' this has changed." The farmer poked his hoof in the nearest bin of parts, rummaging around for a few seconds before correcting himself, "a lot a' this has changed."

Astral edged past the other stallion, and peeked in the box before heading to one of the podiums. It was a twin to the one he used to disable life support and gravity when he was attacked by Eckrt. "The salesman called this was a janitorial closet when he gave me the tour, but this looks like a control hub. We could run half the ship's systems from in here."

"Everythin' important, anyway." Mac pointed at two of the other podiums. "If they kept the order when they changed the consoles, that should be engines and sensors. "Yer standin' at life support," he told Astral. "We should be able to disconnect these from the main computer system, and run everything through manual controls on the auxillary bridge. It ain't gonna be easy ta fly like that, but we ain't goin' far."

"Sounds like a plan," Astral said with a nod. "Where do we start?"

Mac pointed to the podiums. "Disconnect everythin' from main computer?"

Astral nodded again. "And how do we do that?"

Mac gave the unicorn a blank look. "Why ya askin' me?"

"Okaaay," Astral said quietly, "on our own for this then." He grabbed a bin full of data bypass cables and leaned over the top of his podium, careful not to hit any of the controls. He unlatched the back panel and moved it out of the way. "Berry, think you can crawl behind there and tell me how it's connected?"

"Yes, sir, Captain Uncle Astral, Sir!" She answered happily as climbed up and over the engine panel, hopping behind the podiums and landing with a thump. "Oof. Wish I had brought my tools," she said as she made her way to the panel Astral had opened for her, "I wasn't expecting a damaged ship on a space station." She went quiet for a moment, staring into the guts of the console. "Whoever made these panels used parts from four different sources. Looks like they were designed to be cheap, and there is very little automation ability. It looks like that was relegated to the main core. I can see the data hookup down here."

Astral held out a bypass cable. Berry identified the parts much faster than he would have. She was running the show from here on out. "Think you can work with it?"

"Oh, yes," Berry answered quickly, "this is in a whole lot better shape than anything I ever had back home." She grabbed the cable and bit off one end, spitting out the plastic connector. "But whoever installed it was super-duper sloppy about it."

Mac hit a control on the wall while berry stripped wires with her teeth. "Shy," the red pony said into a small microphone, "ya hear me?"

"Yesss..." came the answer, and Mac wasn't sure if there was static on the line or not.

"We're workin' on overridin' the computer now," the earth pony explained, "let me know if ya start gettin' control up there."

"Will do," answered Radio. "Everything's dark right now except for Communications. We've already contacted station operations and they've cleared us for egress the moment we're fired up. Airlock's waiting on our signal."

"That was... fast," Mac observed. "What'd ya say ta convince 'em so quick?"

"The truth," the colt answered. "That there was an explosive decompression on the station, and we don't have time discuss this."

Before Mac could say anything, Astral looked over. "How's it looking?" Astral asked Radio through the intercom.

"A bunch of panel lights just came on," came the answer, "but nothing is actually being displayed."

Astral groaned and handed another set of bypass cables to Berry as she crawled around behind the console. His horn was already starting to hurt from acting as a living soldering gun, because Berry was yanking out a component every few seconds and pointing something out for him to modify. The sweat dripping from his face, clinging to his coat, made the cramped alcove that much more opressive, and made him realize that there wasn't even any airflow. "Focus on life support, get it active, but don't worry about bypassing the controls, we won't be adjusting it at all. Then try the navigational systems, as long as we can reroute sensors and get viewscreens going on the bridge, somepony can control the engines from down here." He wiped black grime from his face after peering into a crack in a floor panel. "Mac, help me with this."

The red pony squeezed into the alcove and grabbed the panel once the unicorn pried it up far enough with his sputtering magic. Once he had it, Astral moved around to the other side and worked his hooves under as well. They lifted at the same time to keep the panel from wedging, and leaned it up to the side.

"What the hell is that?" Asked Astral, getting his first good look at the device he glimpsed through the crack in the floor. It was a large crystalline formation, roughly torroidal, but with jagged protrusions pointed at metal plates with an almost holographic coating. The thing glowed with a violently swirling lavender light, and what looked like magic aura seeped and faded from an ugly grey crack. The unicorn stared for a moment, lost in the strange familiar feeling, then held a hoof out towards it, like feeling for heat from a fireplace. "And why does it feel-"

Mac held his hoof out to keep the unicorn from moving any closer. "That's one a' them crossover circuits Twi was talkin' 'bout. Unicorns shouldn't touch 'em." Mac edged closer, lowering himself halfway into the recess in the floor. "Ain't damaged too bad." He examined the crystal for a moment, then checked the reflective plates. "Miss? Could ya help me right quick?"

Berry's head popped up from behind the console, the brown streaks in her mane accented by streaks of dark grime. "You talk funny," she pointed out as she worked her way out into the alcove with the the two of them. "But everypony seems to talk a little differently, but you can still understand them, and... ooh, pretty." She stopped talking when she saw the crystalline device hidden below. Her eyes followed lines of circuitry, and slowly started moving to get a better look at where different cables disappeared beneath the floor. "This is what was blocking data flow. The other three are all right, but those handle secondary data processing, and this one is responsible for routing that back to the bridge. That crack must be disrupting the energy and corrupting the data. It's too bad the main computer is still running self-diagnostics. It might have been able to repair this."

Mac nodded. He wasn't about to ask how she knew how many crossover circuits were installed on the ship after being on board all of five minutes. Or how she knew these systems were capable of self-repair. He could chalk it up to Berry being descended from Pinkie. "Miss Pie, ya ever grown any plants?"

"What?" Astral shook his head in confusion. "How does that help us?"

Berry ignored the absurdity of of the question, if she even noticed it, and gave the workhorse an honest answer. "Lots and lots of 'em. Grandma and Granpa taught me to grow my own food, cause if we didn't, we wouldn't have enough to eat. And Grandma used to make me talk to the plants a little everyday, because it helped them grow."

"Eeyup. If ya ain't used ta usin' yer magic, talkin' helps focus it." Mac placed his hooves on the crystal, and the movement of light changed a little. It slowed, calming down ever so slightly. "Ah need ya to put yer hooves on the other side there, and talk to the crystal like yer talkin' ta one a' yer plants."

Even Berry showed some confusion at this. "Um, it's a crystal in a computer system, not a plant."

"It's a magical crystal in a computer that's older'n dirt," Mac corrected, "and us earth ponies need to stabilize the magic before Astral can fix it."

"Ok!" Berry accepted the explanation and quickly hopped into the recess, shimmying in between the crossover and a coolant pipe.

"And how am I supposed to fix it?" Astral shook his head. "I've never even seen one of these before."

"Just touch it with yer magic," Mac replied, "that oughtta be enough."

Astral shook his head. "You just said unicorns aren't supposed to touch it."

The farmer shrugged. "Unless its bein' stabilized," he ammended.

Berry gently placed her hooves on the crystal, avoiding the jagged parts. She was a little disappointed that the thing didn't react to her touch the way it had to Mac's. "Ok little crystal," The flow of energy shifted, and Berry's eyes lit up, "we want-"

Mac nodded to Astral, and the unicorn reached out with his magic.

"Hello."

Astral blinked. "Twilight?" He stared at the purple pony in front of him. "What are you doing here?"

"Who?" She asked.

Astral moved to step forward, jerking his hoof back, startled by the lack of floor. It wasn't just floor, he quickly realized. There were no walls or ceiling either. No ground. No sky. Just black. And two ponies standing in the midst of it, perfectly well lit despite the lack of visible light.

Not just two ponies, Astral noticed, but two unicorns. This Twilight had no wings. And seemingly, no memory of him. Her expression was devoid of recognition as she studied him in silence.

A silence that she broke with a question, "What is your name?"

"Astral Plane," the stallion answered. "And yours?"

She contemplated the question for a moment. "I'm not sure. It's been so long... I think. Or has it? I'm not sure. The clock says it has been Six thousand and fifty-four years, five months and eleven days, three hours, twenty-two minutes, and nine seconds since this circuit was activated. I don't think that's right. I don't feel like I've been here that long." She looked up at him. "Astral Plane, I am the one who built the crossover circuit you've touched. The fact that we are speaking now means that you are following proper repair procedures and have two earth ponies stabilizing the artificial ley lines within the crystals."

Astral waited for more explanation, but none followed. "Um, sure. What do we do next?"

"Next?" She shook her head, and gave him a smile. "The crystal will repair itself, using the magic you've provided." White energy swirled around her for a moment. "This is what you've given. It isn't much."

Astral rolled his eyes. "Well, sorry, not everypony can be as powerful as you."

The unicorn Twilight blanched at the rebuke. "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean it like that." She scratched her neck. "I just meant that the repairs won't take much and that you don't need to worry about exhaustion, or anything like that."

"Forget it," Astral waved off the apology with a hoof, "don't get flustered over it. I just have to give you a hard time about how overpowered your magic is." Astral shrugged, and joked, "hey, if we ever formalize our crew arrangement, I'm going to get it put in the contract."

Twilight smiled and sat down. "Do you... know me?"

The stallion blinked, and sat down across from her. "Right, you're a magic echo, aren't you?"

"I suppose," she answered, suddenly sitting next to him. She looked down at her hooves. "But, I don't really feel like an after-image. I'm more likely an imprint, a partial copy. The crossover circuit is basically a computer, one meant to bridge the gap between the magical and the electronic. It is entirely possible that I am a copy of my original's mental state at the time of the circuit's activation, written in a preserved sample of her own magic." She looked up at him. "If you know me, what's my name? As an imprint, I only know what the original was thinking about at the time. Unfortunately, that didn't include many personal details."

He looked at her for a moment. It made sense that most ponies wouldn't go around thinking about their names all the time. But certain magic spells required you to visualize yourself as a starting point, was that what was imprinted? Then, was this Twilight, Twilight as she saw herself? She was a little bit shorter than the alicorn he knew, but still average height for a unicorn mare. Her mane was a tiny bit shorter as well. Both of those details surprised Astral, if only for the fact that he noticed them. "Your name is Twilight Sparkle. Princess, professor, or first mate, the title is your choice."

"I've been busy," she mused. "Miss or Misses?"

"Miss," Astral answered. "Odd thing for you to be concerned about when you're trapped in a crystal."

She shrugged. "I think I knew there was a risk of this happening, an acceptable risk, given that the fate of the world hung in the balance. So, I'm not all that bothered by it. Besides, concern for the future is deeply ingrained in my personality, including concern for my personal life. Though, to a lesser degree than the well-being of Equestria as a whole."

"That sounds like you." Astral nodded slowly. "Will the same thing happen to me? Am I going to be leaving a copy behind once the crystal is repaired?"

"I might like that," she giggled, "a little company would be welcome." With a sigh, her ears drooped. "Sadly, your magic is well suited to this task, and you hold no risk of imprinting your personality to the crossover circuit."

"That has to be the first time my magic has been well suited for anything," Astral replied with some surprise. "Why would it be any better than yours? You have so much more than I do, and I've seen what you can do with it. You have control, quantity, quality, everything a unicorn could ever want from their magic. And, me, well, when I was younger, doctors thought I was sick because of how little magic I produced."

She shook her head. "Call it too much of a good thing then. My original has so much power that it gets left behind sometimes. It's good magic, so it doesn't cause any harm, but it leaves energy behind like a residue, and that's what I am." She looked up at him. "You need every drop you have, so you learn to conserve. The energy you touched the circuit with, I doubt it was even visible."

Astrall blinked in surprise, looking down to meet her eyes. "It wasn't," he said slowly," but, how could you know that?"

"I can feel it," she answered, "when you touched the crystal, I shared that magic for a moment before it was pulled into separate leylines. By the way, that's why it takes two earth ponies to perform the stabilization, each one is separating out one unicorn's magic, so repairs can be made without interference." She smiled at her explanation, pride written on her expression. "Designed the system for that myself, or rather, my original did. Anyway, your magic was so pure and concentrated, like a drop of the clearest water you've ever seen. There was no waste, no excess energy, and I can't imagine magic like that having a visible aura."

"Well, geez," Astral scratched his mane, "that's gotta be the nicest thing anypony's ever said about my magic." Echo or not, this Twilight was being nicer to him than the real one. Is this the pony he would have known if they had met differently? "Most ponies call the lack of aura a parlour trick, a few have called it a dark skill."

"I know a few dark skills," she said dismissively, "that's not one. Anypony who thinks otherwise doesn't know what they're talking about." With a sigh, her voice softened. "Long ago, you might have been a focuser, possibly even mine. Your element is right for it, and with the proper training, you would be capable of things beyond your imagination."

"What element?" Astral asked cautiously, as far as he knew, he didn't have one. At least, that's what the doctors and all his magic proffessors told him. "And what could I possibly be capable of when I can carry more on my back than in telekinesis?"

"You'll find out," she said, voice suddenly sounding breathless, "soon enough." It was odd, such a sudden change. She almost sounded scared. She raised a hoof, and looked down at it.

Astral leaned down to keep her face in view. Was she crying? No, not yet, but he could her eyes starting to water. "What's wrong?"

"Astral," she held her hoof out to him, trying to keep tears back, "can I hold your hoof?"

He stared for a moment, but quickly took her hoof. This was definitely a copy of the Twilight he knew, and she retained whatever trait it was that kept her from telling everypony else what was wrong the first time they ask. "Twi?"

"The repairs are almost complete." She held his hoof tight. "The next step will be a reset, that places your magic in control of the crossover. Any previous magic will be purged to prevent cross-contamination."

"Purged?" Astral's eyes went wide and he looked back down at the hoof he held. Imprint or not, this was real. She was real. Trapped as pure magic, but distinct and alive. "Then... what happens to you?

"If what you told me was the truth, and my original is alive, there is a chance I will return to her." She looked down at the other hoof as it started to lose form, drifting away like sand under a desert wind. "If it was a lie, and I have long since passed, then thank you, Astral Plane," she looked up with a smile on her face, and tears in her eyes, "thank you, for sharing these final moments with me."

Astral pulled her to him, reaching to grab her before she disappeared completely.

"No!"

Mac looked up, and Berry jerked her hooves away from the crystal. She looked back and forth between Astral and the crystal that now shone slivery white. "What? What is it?" She asked quickly. "I was only going to say, 'we want to see you fixed." She looked down. "I didn't even get to finish saying it, and now the colors are all different." She looked up at Mac and whispered, "Is that bad?"

"Nnope," the earth pony said, raising his eyebrows as he appraised the circuit's new color. "It's all good." He removed his hooves and pointed to where the crack used to sit. Freshly grown crystal protruded from the spot. "We can grind and polish it later."

"Hey, guys!" Mac looked up towards the intercom as Radio's excited voice came through. "I don't know what you did, but the displays are working. It looks like we have shield control, navigational sensors, life support, and weapons."

"Good job," Fluttershy added.

"Hey guys," Radio called out again, "I've gotta cut off the intercom real quick, I'll call back in a minute."

Mac smiled and looked over at Astral. His smile fell when he saw the unicorn quietly pressing his hooves to his face. His breath came in heaves, and his shoulders shook with each breath. "Astral," he prodded softly, "you ok?'

"Yeah," the unicorn answered in a cracking voice that didn't convince the earth pony. "How long was I in there?"

"In?" Mac looked down at the crystal. He was always told that magic could be a strange thing for a unicorn, and that you didn't always know how it would manifest when you tried to mix magic from two or more ponies. Whatever happened when this unicorn touched the crystal, it took a toll on him. "Yer magic fixed everythin', took less than a second. Berry didn't even get ta finish talkin'."

Berry nodded with slow, somber movement. "Uncle Astral, um, you look, like, really sad, almost like Granpa when Grandma died. Are you ok?"

Mac stared at the other earth pony as the unicorn answered. "Yeah," Astral repeated, getting his breathing under control, "I'm ok. We have more important things to worry about right now."

"Pinkie's gone?" The red stallion's quiet voice went unnoticed, until he cleared his throat. "Berry and Ah can finish up here, Mr. Plane. One pony can fly this thing without Philomena's help, but it's a lot easier with two."

"Right," the unicorn replied, taking one last steadying breath before heading for the door. "I need to drop by the bridge first, then I'll head to the auxillary."

"Watch out," Mac cautioned, "if we take off 'fore we check the stabilizers 'n damping systems, things'r liable ta get a might bumpy."

"You talk really funny," Berry said, looking up at the other earth pony with a slow nod, "I kind of like it." She trotted back behind the podiums, squeezing between two of them. "Toss me another cable, and see if you can find some pliers, or a soldering gun."

Astral left without another word, only stopping when he put a few doors between himself and the computer hub. Closing his eyes, he leaned against the wall, pressing his face to the cold metal. He couldn't allow himself long to... What was he doing anyway? Greiving? No, there was nothing to greive. Nopony died. A little bit of magic slipped into the aether. It happens all the time.

It shouldn't hurt this much.

With an angry grunt, he shoved himself away from the wall. Wasn't there something he could have done? Couldn't he have done something to save her? He shook his head. There was no her, he tried to remind himself. There was a remnant of her, an echo of her personality playing like a simulation in a little bit of magic. Nothing alive.

Right?

It sure didn't feel that way. Astral sighed as he came to the door to the bridge. There wasn't much left of it. It was cut open in a quick and messy way, most likely to get at him when the ship was discovered floating dead. He stepped over the charred edge. It was plasma cut, by somepony fairly skilled, maybe that pinto who gave them the tour. But it was definitely done by hoof in a hurry.

For a moment, he could imagine that colt sitting there, hood on and rushing to cut the door through. Behind him, sheilding their eyes from the bright light of the torch was the medical team. Growl probably, and at least one of the nurses he met earlier.

He realized then, how lucky he was. Stepping onto the damaged bridge of the Philomena, forcefield spanning the gashed hull in front of him, Astral stepped into the understanding that his luck was not his own, but made up of the ponies around him. The medical team, his family - both here and gone, every single pony who gave him a chance as a freelancer back when he was just a colt, even the echo in the crystal.

They all pushed him to where he is now. He owed so many ponies so much, and he finally found a way to give back. He could become their luck this time around. And it was all thanks to one more pony. The Twilight he knew, whose mission he shared.

Through the tear in the bulkhead, Astral could see the far wall of the storage bay split in two. A thin seam of black appeared, rimmed by the faint glow of an energy field. As the seam grew, the unicorn turned around, heading to the storage lockers. He went straight to the end, where the last locker held a spacesuit identical to the one he wore when the Philomena was attacked.

On the top shelf of the locker, there sat two small boxes. Each matched the suits colors, except for several blue circles scattered across all but a single face. Thrust emitters. These were maneuvering packs for the spacesuit.

Astral latched the packs to each side of the suit and started dressing himself in the hi-tech armor. His magic set to sorting through everything that was dumped out of the other lockers. He pulled a box closer, a sealed medkit. Undoing the latches, he broke the hermetic seal with a loud pop.

The first thing he did was check the underside of the lid, among the indicators, he was most worried about one; radiation exposure. The decontamination was over, or so he was told, so the Philomena was safe now. But that didn't mean the ship's contents weren't damaged. Luckily, this particular item showed safe, on the high side of it, but still safe.

The Philomena surged, and gravity shifted, turning his stomach as the ship's artificial gravity started to compete with the station's. The doors opened wide, a toothless black maw, stars beyond hidden by forcefield light. The damaged ship rose slowly, swaying slightly as it crept towards the black.

"We're moving!" Radio shouted over ship-wide intercom. "We don't have anti-gravs, so station control is pushing us out. We do have thrusters, life support, sensors, and most importantly, tractor-repulsor fields! More systems keep coming on line, but we have everything we need to get out and help. Let's go ponies!"

Astral got his helmet on, using his magic to stick an adhesive patch of circuitry to his cheek, trailing a small sensor on a springy wire that he could bite down on if neccessary. "Radio," he said, calmly, "can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, captain!" The voice didn't issue from the intercom this time. Or, maybe it did, but Astral only heard it through his suit's comm system. "What's the plan?"

"I'm suited up for controlled E.V.A. right now," Astral responded, "and I have a full Hyper-Ox medkit in my hooves. Anything medical I need to know to make this go better?"

"Yeah, let me think." Tapping hooves clicked into the microphone. Radio was most likely sitting in the captain's chair, tapping the arm as he mumbled to himself. "Where are you now? As soon as we're out, we can use the repulsors to gather any victims close to your location. Once we do, you head out with the meds. It's been over two minutes, so you'll need to apply the shock injection to each victim's neck, followed by the neural stimulator patch to the forehead and temples. Because it's been so long, we can't give anyone the oxygen tab or the temperature regulator until we get them out of open space. With the current timeframe, brain damage won't be an issue, but you need to be fast about this. And we don't know what other injuries were sustained."

"Understood." Astral faced the gash in the bulkhead as the Philomena pushed through the forcefield into open space. Her wounded hull creaked under the change in pressure, but held firm. And, with only one forcefield between him and void, Astral could once again see stars. Last time he saw stars through this opening, he was watching Twilight leap into space. This time, he was preparing to make the same leap, to join her. "I'm on the main bridge. There is a large hull breach on the port side of the command deck, I will egress from there."

"Engaging thrusters, hold on."

The Philomena tilted, bringing the outside of the station into view. It was bright. The light of Canterlot's sun lit the station brighter than any planet's noon, and the spacesuit's visor darkened in response. Astral could see the jagged remains of the shuttlebay doors several decks below them, the only damage across the untouched hull stretched below them.

"Captain?" Radio's voice was quiet, lacking its earlier enthusiasm and energy. "There's nothing out here."

Astral responded in kind. "No life signs?" The unicorn shook his head. That couldn't be right. It's only been a few minutes, less than five for sure. Decompression was survivable within that time frame. "Try a thermal scan."

"It's not that." Astral heard beeping over the com. "There's nothing out here. No lifesigns, no bodies, no organic material in any appreciable quantity... I've got the scan radius narrowed as far as it can go. There isn't even any debris."

"Berry? Are you hearing this?"

"Yessir, Captain Uncle Astral, sir!" Big Mac grunted in the background, amid a clatter of falling parts. "Oops, sorry. Anyway, I just checked and double checked, but I could go back and triple check, and the sensors are about the only system that doesn't have massive amounts of barely repairable damage!"

It was Fluttershy who voiced an explanation. "Twilight."

Astral chuckled, knowing that she was probably right. "Radio contact the station. It looks like Twilight did all the work for us this time, but double check that everything and everyone is-"

"Captain," Radio interrupted, "they're contacting us. I'm going to patch it through the intercom." Astral listened quietly, but after a few seconds, Radio's voice was the one to break the silence. "At least, I'll try to."

"Oh, wait," Berry shouted, "let me try, I think I've got-"

A burst of static made everyone wince, but it was quickly cut by a welcome voice. "Guys?" Twilight asked, not for the first time, judging by her tone. "Can you hear me?"

"Now we can!" Berry answered happily.

Astral smiled and unhooked the helmet of his spacesuit. "Great job, Twi! You get everyone?"

"I did." Cheers answered her statement, and she chuckled lightly, backed by a faint scratching noise. Astral could just imagine her blushing at the compliments being hurled by her crewmates. "It was easier to just do a mass teleport than try and grab everypony one at a time, so I kind of got all the debris too."

"We noticed that,"Radio responded, "threw us for a bit of a loop."

"Well, anyway, um, Growl wants to say something too."

"Yes." The nurse took a deep breath. "Thank you. All of you. Even after my actions earlier, you risked your lives to save the lives of my security team. I... I'm..." She cleared her throat. "I am grateful. But, this isn't over."

"So close," Astral muttered as the Philomena pitched away from the station. Radio must be returning the ship to port. He donned his helmet once more and walked over to the forcefield, looking out at the station as they passed over the damaged shuttlebay. He didn't know what it was, but the sight made him uneasy. Perhaps it was the the fact that they still didn't know who was responsible for all this? "Would an apology kill you?"

"There was a drone among the wreckage transported in," Growl continued, ignoring him. "Twilight's quick thinking and application of magic has disabled it, but it was not damaged until she got hold of it, and the weapon it had was not capable of causing a hull breach of this magnitude. From what I can see through the stupidly tiny windows on the emergency bulkhead, the damage was extremely limited. There's minimal scorching, no blast damage. It's almost as if-"

"Somebody cut their way out with a powerful laser?" Astral asked, realizing why he was uneasy. The shuttlebay was empty. "Radio, please tell me we have weapons of some kind." He knew it was a long shot. He didn't have the funds to purchase an offensive package when he picked up the Philomena at the junkyard, but maybe there was something hidden away that Berry's probing would uncover.

"Let me check."

Astral scanned open space until he spotted a star moving differently than the rest. "Radio, expand the scan radius, we've got a ship almost straight ahead of us. Berry get the shields up!"

"We have weapons, captain, holy crap do we have weapons. Lasers, plasma cannons, rail guns, and things I can't even identify. I thought you said this thing was a freighter." There was a slight pause. "And, I can see the ship. It's our shuttle, and it appears to be drifting."

"Shields up!" Berry shouted.

"Not drifting anymore!" Radio shouted. "It's turning towards us and accelerating!"

Astral saw a flash, or maybe a glint of light off the shuttle's hull. It was too far away to see clearly. It was also too far away for lasers to- "Crap. Radio! Fire lasers, defensive spread! And keep firing!"

"Ok!" Radio shouted back, accompanied by the flash of a thousand beams of searing green light lashing out at random points ahead of them. Twice a second, the beams fired, altering their spread slightly each time. "Why am I doing this?"

Astral didn't answer him immediately. "Berry, tighten up the shields, configure for energy and radiation. I hope I'm wrong, but we might have a nuke incoming."

"There!" The lasers stopped firing. "I see it on sensors, targeting railguns!"

The deckplates rumbled with rythmic timing as five glowing pulses shot forward from somewhere on the underbelly of the ship. Astral turned and ran from the bridge, bracing himself against the cut up door, pressed to the side away from the opening.

"Target hit, we have detonation. Brace for shockwave! Impact in three, two, one."

The blinding light thrown through the door beside him told Astral that Radio's shot hit their mark. His helmet's visor went nearly black trying to block it all, and then the ship shook. He heard the muffled crash of something on the other side of the wall, and the sizzling sound of the last of his personal belongings burning in nuclear fire. "Stay ready," he cautioned, "there might be more. Check radiation levels. Is the shuttle within firing range?"

"No, it's staying outside railgun range, and we don't have any missiles of our own. Radiation... minimal within the hull. There are medical scans that cause worse exposure than this."

"Good, cause I think we just lost the last of our medical supplies. Track the shuttle, we'll have to chase it, and fire the second it's in range. If I remember right, there are eleven more nukes on board. Don't let it get off a second shot! Berry, how are shields?"

"They're good! We didn't get hit, so everything's fine."

Astral blinked as the visor started to lighten. Next to him, the shadow of the door was baked into the smoldering carpet. His suit was rated to protect from high levels of energy like that, but he sure didn't want to test it. "Berry, it takes-"

"Hey! What gives? The shields just dropped!"

"It takes a few seconds to cycle out the energy from that much radiation exposure," Astral explained. "The shields may weaken, but it was a conventional nuke, and not a ion bomb, so we should be able to flush the shield and get back to full power."

"Well, duh," Berry countered, "everypony knows that. I mean the shields just turned off. Like totally down, dead, kaput, kaplooey! Rear shields are up, but it looks like the main power conduit for the forward shields is damaged somewhere around level three. I'm trying to reactivate the secondary conduits, but a lot of those are damaged too."

Astral nodded. "Ok, I'm headed for level three. Radio, you heard that, right? Flip us around, and keep us between the shuttle and the station."

"Understood. We have rear facing railguns, so we should be ok, even if they launch another-" A buzzing noise sounded through the intercom. "Captain, the shuttle is hailing us, audio only."

Astral started off for level three at a full gallop. "Answer it, and buy us some time."

"Wait, it's Twilight!" Radio laughed triumphantly. "Routing her through the intercom."

"Twilight?" Astral asked in confusion.

"Yes," she answered sheepishly. "Sorry it took so long. I should have realized that the shuttle was missing when I was in the shuttlebay. Good job taking out that missile."

"That was Radio's doing," Astral chuckled, "our resident hotshot's a damn good shot."

"Of course I am," the pegasus replied smugly, "I've only been doing this since I was born."

Twilight laughed. "Well, now that that's over, do you guys think you can tow me back to the station? That robot thing had itself wired to the controls, and when I tore it free, most of the console came with it."

"Negative," Growl's voice interrupted. "We still don't know who's behind this, or where they're hiding. Until we have more information, having a combat capable ship at the ready is in our best interest."

"Understandable," Twilight agreed, "I'll freeze the shuttle in a temporal bubble, just in case any systems are still compromised, and teleport over to the Philomena in the meantime."

"Bring our stuff when you do." Astral resumed his trek to level three at a much calmer pace. "If we're going to be here a while, we may as well make the most of it."

"Ooh, goody," Berry said with a clap. "I need some tools if I'm going to keep, uh..."

"What ya see?" Mac asked quietly.

"The controls for the engines just went dead," she answered.

---

"Repeat that?" Astral ordered through the intercom.

Berry looked up from the back of the propulsion kiosk. Not that there was anything to see there anyway. All the lights were dead. Diagnostic indicators, power confirmation leds, the faintly glowing fiber optics... all dead. "The engine controls just stopped doing their thing." She sighed as the big earth pony tried to get a look at things. He was never going to fit back here, so she was kind of on her own here. "Well, this stinks," she told him. "I just got that working!" Even the faint hum of certain circuits had ended. "And I can't see anything wrong here. Did something happen to the engines?"

Mac shrugged, offering her a noncommital grunt before speaking into the intercom. "Bridge, anything change up there?" He stared into the intercom with grim intensity, like it was bread, and he was waiting for it to rise. His voice was soft, yet firm, low, but not overly so. He didn't need to force others to listen, his voice and accent naturally drew the attention. and he kept his words simple, to the point.

Berry craned her neck to watch him wait, studying the red pony with a critical eye. She glanced back at her panel every so often, but it remained lifeless, so she focused on him. He was an earth pony, like her, but he was much larger. Then again, most ponies were larger than her. And he was much larger than most ponies. He was definitely the largest pony she had ever seen, stealing the title from Fluttershy.

"No," oh, it was Fluttershy who answered, "ssstill have all screensss." Yeah, Fluttershy was definitely larger than most ponies too. She was also different in other ways. She was the only pegasus Berry knew of that had fangs, or different colored eyes, or super soft fur. Not that she ever felt more than maybe seven or eight ponies' fur in her lifetime, and most of those were from the last few days. But the weird wing was kind of cool, and the growling, and the really pretty voice despite not knowing all her words quite right. Plus, it was fun, playing that game with her earlier. That was the first time she played a video game with anypony since Granpa died.

"Not anymore," corrected Radio, "half of them just went dead." The other pegasus. He was annoying. But also, he was really nice. He was always energetic, and cracking jokes. Too bad a bunch of them were at her expense. And he kept teasing her! One of these days she would get him back. He was really a lot of fun, sort of like she imagined having a brother might be.

"Radio?" Captain Uncle Astral's voice. He sounded concerned. He had a nice voice too. It wasn't as pretty as Fluttershy's, but it was nice in it's own way. It had a lot of expression, you could tell how he felt from hearing him say something. But, only if he wanted you to. He could hide it. She didn't like his voice when he did that. When he was talking to other grandpa, Tekrin, which she probably shouldn't have listened to, he had a terrible voice. It was cold, scary and distant. She didn't want to hear that again.

"Several displays are showing errors, but the engine controls are the only ones not responding to input." That was Radio again. He was confused about something. "Interface error. E-22138786871. Handling error. E-2214-"

"Wait a minute," Berry interrupted. "Those aren't the right codes."

Mac looked over. His expression stoic, like usual, but Berry could see one eyebrow lift a millimeter higher than the other. No, maybe one half of a millimeter? Six tenths of one at most. "How d'ya mean?"

"Well," Berry scratched her forehead, "That, 'E,' stands for, 'error,' but that means it's a human, or pony, or curaxxan or gryphon component returning the error message. But there's eleven digits. If it was a curaxxan component, the number of digits would be some power of 2. If it was a human component, it would be a hexadecimal, or would start with, '343,' not, '221.' The Global Earth Spaceship Standards Organization guidelines designate the standard prefix for a shield component as, '343.' But, '221,' is a weapons system. And it probably wouldn't be eleven digits long anyway. A pony component would mix more letters and numbers, or contain pictographic, or arcane glyph symbols. Maybe also reference a manufacturer, and say which instruction manual can be used to interpret the code."

"What about a gryphon part?" Radio asked.

"The error code would be instructions for fixing the problem," Berry replied.

Radio's dejected, "oh," was drowned out by the clatter of parts outside the small computer room. Both earth ponies looked out the glass door. A tray, similar to the ones scattered about in the room they occupied, had fallen from a coolant pipe.

Berry took a step closer to the door, getting a better look at the new-formed mess. It was mostly tools. Pliers, wrenches, power meters, and even a laser based wire welder. "Well, that would have made everything a lot easier."

Mac held his hoof up, and the pink mare bumped into it before she could go retrieve the tools. "Ah don't like this," he mumbled. "Why didn't that fall when everythin' was shakin' earlier?"

Berry looked up at the other earth pony. He stared into the the other room, unblinking, eyes scanning the shadows. His face was set in stone, jaw tense, eyebrows pulled into a stern scowl. It was an expression that would have been a little scary if it was directed at her, but was kind of comforting here.

There was another sound, faint, a click. It could have been something settling, but with the current tension, it made Berry jump. Was it always that dark out there? She hit a control near the door, locking it in place. "This place is kinda creepy."

"Eeyup," Mac voiced his agreement. He glanced over, and his eyes fixed behind the mare. "Uhh... yer tail..."

Berry glanced back. Her tail was twitching. She was so focused on watching the other room that she didn't feel it. She grabbed it, stilling the errant motions. This was the power that made her an outcast on Sevus, she didn't want others to know about it. "Something else is going to fall," she murmured.

Mac nodded and looked back into the other room. "Just like Pinkie."

"Oh." Berry joined him in watching for movement in the dark. It made sense that if he knew her grandmother, he would have known about the twitchy tail. There were other things too. Pinkie sense, Grandma called it. Granpa called it Telesthesia. She wasn't sure how it worked, only that sometimes she would get a vague feeling about something, or that she would get a twitch, or that she would get the overwhelming urge to do something unexplainable.

Right now, it was just the twitch. Twitching tail meant something was about to fall. But what? Berry couldn't see anything out there, so with a long sigh, she closed her eyes. Once her breath was out, she held it for a moment, letting herself listen to her surroundings. The hum of electronics, white noise for everypony else, resolved itself into a greater picture for her.

Relays clicked behind her, as commands came from the bridge. Interface circuits beeped as they communicated with each other. And underneath it all, the deep hum of the crossover continued at a steady pace. Beside her, the breathing of the other pony paused. Did he notice what she was doing? He was more observant than he seemed.

The ship continued to breath though. The ventilation fans that activated with the rest of the life support systems continued to turn. Except for one. It was slowing down. The motor directly above them was off, and the fan was coasting on its bearings.

She looked up. She could hear a servo motor. There shouldn't be any of those in the ventilation system. She saw yellow behind the grating, and slammed herself into Mac's side.

Still focused on holding his breath, the sudden impact threw him off balance. As small as Berry was, she was still an earth pony, and stronger than she looked. They fell out of the way as the ceiling erupted in sparks. The vent fan and grating crashed down, leaving a smoldering pile of debris where they stood.

Mac shoved Berry out of the way as a yellow-clad form jumped down from the hole in the ceiling, landing with the clang of metal on metal. It was smaller than the last one, and armed with a weapon that looked a lot like Growl's plasma rifle.

Mac lunged forward, catching the barrel of the weapon below his hooves, bending it with a satisfying squeal. The drone pulled the trigger, and was answered with a sputtering sound as Mac drew back his hoof. He punched the drone across the face, feeling sheet metal bend beneath his hooves. It was a different sensation than when he hit that drone on the station, and much more satisfying.

The drone dropped its weapon and lashed out in retaliation. It got in a single strike, hoof cracking across his cheek. The earth pony spit out blood from where the inside of his cheek split against his teeth, and bounced back from it with a headbutt before shoving the machine back. This small drone was drastically weaker than the last one.

He slammed it against the wall and pinned it with one hoof, and started raining down blows with the other. He targeted the back of the neck first, but this drone didn't seem to share that weakness, so he pummeled it with indiscriminate strikes, causing as much widespread damage as he could.

"Mac!"

He glanced back as another drone jumped through the hole. He planted his front hooves and bucked it out of the air before it could land. It crashed against an open panel, destroying the electronics in a shower of blue light. The front leg, grasping another long energy weapon, lay snapped off in front of the earth pony.

He grabbed it, and shook the metal hoof off before taking aim at the drone lodged in the wall. He pulled the trigger, and a blast of yellow light and heat shot back behind him, plasma blast obliterating the first drone and leaving Mac with a mild scorch mark across his cutie mark.

He froze for a moment, then quickly flipped the weapon around. But before he could take aim a second time, Berry jammed the stripped end of a wire against the drone's exposed frame. She dove away from it and smashed her hoof against a nearby switch hard enough to snap it off the wall.

The sound of electricity crackling accompanied the smell of melting plastic as the lights dimmed and the drone twitched and shuddered. Sparks danced across its body, and small fires broke out as o-rings melted and oil leaked from its joints.

Mac sat down, shouldering his weapon as the drone cooked. "Good thinkin', miss Pie," he complemented. A flash of blue in his peripheral vision caught his attention, and he started to turn his head. "What was-"

The door exploded inward, catching the farmer in a shockwave of shattered glass and throwing him away from the frame. Berry's hooves flew up to protect her face, reaching her snout a second after several stinging shards. All sound was replaced by the ringing in her ears.

When she looked back up, another drone entered the room through the broken door. It watched the small earth pony, ignoring the larger one laying prone and bloodied atop the crystal circuit below the floor. When it cleared the door, it raised its weapon, a small silver blaster, bound to the hoof, like the one Berry wore when she first confronted Astral.

Berry stared back at the black visor, seeing only herself in that dark mirror. She had to fight her own body just to breath. Why hadn't it fired yet? She was helpless, it could kill her, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Her mouth was dry as she opened it to speak. "Why are you doing this?"

There was no answer, except the blaster being lifted a little higher.

Berry stiffened as the drone stepped closer. No, she realized as it forced her back to the wall, this one was moving differently. The ringing in her ears was fading, but she couldn't hear any servos. This one was a pony.

She was shaking as the blaster traced along her cheek. Still, she didn't take her eyes off the visor. Somehow, knowing it was a pony, and not some unfeeling automaton changed the fear. Deep inside her, something fought with her fear. The blaster pressed to her neck, and she realized what it was.

Anger.

Yellow plasma shot past them, missing wildly and blowing a hole in what remained of the doorframe. It was enough of a distraction for Berry to act. She rammed into the other pony, shoving her back until they hit they slammed into one of the control kiosks. She turned her head and bit down on the flailing hoof that was pressed to her neck just seconds ago.

The suited pony struck at her with the free hoof, squirming as the small earth pony kept their bodies pressed against the kiosk. Berry's hooves hooves wrapped around the hoof she had in her mouth, fighting the pain of getting hit in the side as her hooves worked over the blaster.

With a soft click, the power supply popped free of the blaster, and Berry kicked it down into the hole in the floor, where Mac was starting to pull himself off the now damaged crossover circuit. His left side bled from countless small cuts, and his right from one long gash bearing shards of glowing grey crystal. He still held his plasma rifle, and attempted to aim, but his pained expression and constant blinking told Berry he wouldn't be able to fire for fear of hitting her.

"Run!" She shouted, before being dropped by a piece of debris smacking her in the head. She recovered quick enough to dodge a second piece, launched at her by a peach colored aura.

It was a unicorn in that suit! She dodged another piece of debris, only to get hit in the flank by a cloud of shattered glass launched in its shadow. She fell with a shout, and grabbed a piece of debris of her own, a discarded length of rigid conduit. Granpa always said, you deal with a unicorn by knocking out their magic. She swung it in an upward arc that the unicorn dodged by stepping back, but Berry was ready for that.

She leapt forward as she brought the pipe down, scoring a glancing blow to something hard inside the soft suit's helmet. Horn or not, it worked. The unicorn staggered back, clutching at its head, and Berry pressed the attack. She spun, and like she had seen Mac do earlier, planted her front hooves and lashed out with the back. She was rewarded with a cracking sound as the unicorn hit the side of another kiosk.

She ran back to Mac, half helping, half dragging him up out of the crossover pit and towards the hallway. She could hear servos again. More drones were on the way through the airvents, and if they were all armed the same, she and Mac wouldn't stand a chance.

Mac limped to the door under her guidance, and she opened it, putting them face to face with another drone. It saw them and raised its blaster, a larger version of the one the unicorn wore. Mac fired first, but in his disoriented state, he only managed to hit it in the shoulder. The drone fell forward, leg blown off and weapon discharging into the floor, sending lines of lightning out in radiating circles away from its body. Two more blasts of plasma destroyed the drone and shut down its weapon before the lightning could reach its intended victims.

The two earth ponies out into the ship's corridors. A second, much larger drone approached from the left, and Mac fired three shots before he followed Berry off to the right. The only blast to hit the drone burned off a good portion of its suit, revealing the armored carcass below, but left no other damage.

"This... is bad," Mac panted as Berry took the plasma rifle from him. He was running on a waning supply of adrenaline, and he was starting to feel the pain in his right side. "That type don't get hurt easy."

If the mare replied, he didn't hear it. Come to think of it, he couldn't hear anything. Muffled sounds that he couldn't make out, mixed with the bell tone of tinitus, were all he heard. But, his vision was clearing up at least. He didn't want to know how badly he was injured. He vaguely remembered an explosion, and that meant it was probably very bad.

By the time they reached an actual room, a cavernous chamber rimmed by doors and spaced by columns, he was gasping in pain with each breath. He made it as far as one of the columns in the center of the room before giving out completely. He let himself fall into the column and slide down to the floor.

"No, no, no!" Berry rushed back to him. "Get up! You can't stop here."

Mac looked up at her. At least his hearing was returning, if only on the right side. "Give me... the gun," he said, propping himself up with a grunt. He couldn't keep going, but she could. "Down the next hall, there's a hatch with a ladder. Climb it, and you'll reach Shy and Radio."

Berry shook her head, clutching the rifle close. "Please stop talking like that. We just have to keep going a little more. If I can find another control hub-"

Mac grabbed the rifle, though he lacked the strength to wrest it away from her. "Tell Shy, I'm glad I got to see her again."

A door behind them opened, and Berry spun around, raising the rifle.

"Whoa, it's me!" Astral raised his hoof, seeing the weapon pointed at him. Berry lowered the rifle, and he saw the blood running down her face. There was a decent cut on her forehead, and smaller cuts on her snout and flank. "What the hell happened?"

Another door opened, at the far end of the room, and Astral turned to see an all too familiar figure, a pony clad in a yellow hazard suit. He dove behind the nearest column as it raised its hoof. Berry raised the rifle and fired several shots. Each shot hit the drone, or came very close, blasting away its suit with each impact, and cratering the walls with each miss.

She ducked behind the column with Mac when she realized that the drone didn't even flinch. Blue lightning streaked out from the drone's outstretched hoof, arcing out in front of it. It jumped randomly, sometimes tearing across the floor and ceiling, and sometimes streaking far ahead through the air. Sparks flew with a terrible squeal wherever the lightning hit metal, and lights shattered when it grew to close. It had a short range, but the drone was slowly moving forward, and with it moved the field of destruction.

"Shit! That's a chain blaster!" Astral looked back at Berry and Mac. Berry wasn't too badly hurt. The cut on her face was superficial, and she had some small scratches on her side, but she was still moving. The farmer was a different matter. It looked like someone threw him headfirst through a window. The left side of his face, no, his entire left side, was messed up and bleeding from countless small cuts. He was burned along his right flank, and he had a glowing blade of crystal sticking out of his side a bit forward of the scorch mark. The silver-grey light marked it as the crossover they only recently repaired. "Berry, you run through that door I came through, use the frame as cover and start shooting. If you can blind that thing, I can try to drag Mac out."

"Better idea!" Berry shouted over the crackling energy, "Toss me that jet pack, the thing on your face, and one of your boots!"

"What?" Astral shook his head. Whatever, no time to argue. He detached one of his magnetic boots from the rest of the suit, and used the free hoof to peel the control circuit from his cheek. He tossed them over, and set to work removing the thrust pack. By the time he had it undone, berry had ripped out the fabric lining of the boot and was prying at something inside it using the battery cover from the plasma rifle. "I hope you know what you're doing!"

"Don't worry!" A large chrome-colored puck broke free suddenly, and Berry jumped to catch it before it hit the floor. It remained tethered to the rest of the boot by a bundle of colored wires, and the pink pony started biting through some of them. "Granpa taught me how to make and use all sorts of weapons."

Astral slid the thruster over. What sort of weapon could she be making out a battery powered thruster and a magnetic boot? Both of those items were designed to be safe, nonvolatile, and highly energy and or explosion resistant.

Berry tied the puck to the thruster with the cloth boot lining and discarded wire, then jammed the battery cover into the port used to connect the thruster to a spacesuit. She dug around a little, then drew the piece of metal back before jamming it in like a shiv. "Point it at the thing,"she directed, "but use magic, don't hold it!"

Astral did as he was told, grabbing the cobbled together device and peeking out from cover. Lightning was starting to creep around the next column over, and his would be next, followed by the one sheltering the earth ponies. Astral shouted in pain as an errant bolt impacted the ceiling above him, showering him in sparks that stung like welding slag. He gritted his teeth and lined up Berry's weapon, shouting back to her when it was done. "Whatever you're gonna do, do it now!"

Berry shoved the bite sensor and and main circuit from the suit controls in her mouth and clamped down. Then, with a grunt, she used her hoof to bend the main circuit in two, shorting out some component with a tiny spark.

The thruster rumbled to life, shooting forward like the rocket it was at heart. Astral did what he could to guide it's flight path, but as it neared the drone, Berry spit out the bite sensor.

"ZWHUMP!!"

The magnetic puck activated with more force than it was ever meant to as the thruster shot straight up. The drone was pulled into the puck and slammed into the ceiling, its head caught between reinforced decking and a runaway rocket.

Berry leapt from hiding as the drone fought to free itself. The chain blaster stopped firing while it shifted its aim to the rocket. The earth pony aimed her plasma rifle at thing, and pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened. Astral looked over, and Berry stood statue still, holding the trigger down and keeping her aim focused on the drone. The side of the plasma rifle was pried open, and parts of it were dangling out.

"Oh..." Astral winced as she realized she had done. She had removed the charge limit safety from the main capacitors. "Berry..."

"I know..." She shared the wince as an audible whine started to issue from the weapon. "This is gonna hurt."

The drone fired its blaster into the thruster, shorting both it and the electromagnet. It fell to the ground, and Berry release the trigger. The rifle's barrel erupted in one huge blast of bright neon plasma. Astral shielded his eyes from the sudden light, and felt the heat wash over him as Berry was launched back by the recoil. When he looked back up, only the drone's extremities remained where it once stood. Two columns were missing sides where the energy blast had grazed them. And the wall behind the drone, and the wall behind that, and the wall behind that, were melted straight through. The wall behind those was seriously misshapen.

Berry lay on the floor, groaning. She still clutched the handle of the plasma rifle, even though the barrel was completely missing. "Whoo!" She pumped the hoof holding the decimated weapon in the air. "Score one for reverse bite pressure on those control dealies."

"My favorite setting," Astral agreed as he made his way over to make sure she was alright, "it's just so handy."

Berry nodded an affirmation as he helped her up, then they both headed over to Mac. He was unconscious, but still breathing. Astral checked him over. The cuts to his face were mostly superficial, but there was bruising below them, and his ear was badly damaged. The burn was light, probably just a graze. His fur was damaged worse than his skin. These were injuries from an explosion. The worst of it was the crystal lodged in his side. He didn't seem to be losing much blood, but there was no way to tell if there was internal damage. Astral couldn't tell how deep it went, and he wasn't about to try and move it.

"What do we do?" Berry asked him, in a shaky voice. "There's more of those things, and we don't have anymore weapons." She paused and looked at Astral's spacesuit. "Unless, um, do you have the disassembly tool for that thing on you?"

Astral shook his head. "It's on the bridge, and probably got incinerated." He glanced back the way he came. "I was headed to you after communications cut out. The intercom went dead after you told Radio that the error codes were wrong." With a sigh, he added, "our best bet is to try and make it to the auxillary bridge, Radio might be able to help Mac, and we might be able to mount some sort of-"

Three doors around the room opened up, revealing smaller drones in each one.

"-defense." Astral groaned and hung his head.

"I really hate these things," Berry moaned.

Astral spun around with a battlecry, pouring as much magic as he could into tearing the nearest drone's weapon away. He succeeded, but before he could do anything else, a small fireball, roughly the size of and color of a pear, impacted the thing right in the visor. It seared through the suit, and melted through the drones head in less than a second, leaving a clean hole rimmed by molten metal. half a dozen more fireballs, hit the drone in a staggered volley, effortlessy cutting through its body, neck and limbs.

The drone's freshly ventilated body was immediately wrapped in violet aura, and the molten bits of metal around the holes were pulled from the frame. Thousands of glowing droplets looped through the air at high speed, cooling into long spikes that were then launched at the closest drone.

The magically assisted projectiles chewed through the drone, leaving a perforated shell to crumple in their wake. Its weapon, some critical component damaged, caught fire with a searing blue-white baze that melted through the drone's frame, and the floor below a few seconds later.

Astral looked back, tracing the origin of the fireballs. Wings pumping, and horn glowing, Twilight charged through the corridor Berry burned through the walls. She shot into the room, and looped around, slapping her hoof against the last drone's head before hooking back into a tighter loop meant to bring her skidding to a stop near Astral.

She misjudged the distance and slammed into the unicorn. The two ponies tumbled across the floor, coming to a stop against a column. Astral, upside down beneath the alicorn breathed a sigh. "Thanks for the rescue."

As they untangled themselves, the drone reached for the glowing blue orb attached to its head. Once touched, the gravity mine popped, instantly condensing the front half of the drone into a chunk of metal the size of a grape, which fell to the ground with a clear, bell toned impact as its back legs twitched.

No sooner than Twilight managed to stand up, she was tackled by a crying pink pony. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Berry whimpered into the purple mane, as they sprawled on the floor. "That was so scary! I never want to go through that again! How did you find us?"

Twilight pointed to the recently added tunnel through the ship. "I followed the explosion."

Berry's ears folded back, and she sheepishly pulled away from the alicorn. "Sorry, I'll try to fix it later."

Twilight chuckled as Astral helped both mares back to their hooves. "Mac's hurt," he interrupted. "Twi, can you get us to the auxillary bridge? And please tell me you brought Radio's medical gear."

"What? Yeah, it's all in the hall." She nodded back the way she came. "That way, off to the left. I dropped it when I saw the explosion. What happened? Everypony was talking about error messages, then communications cut off. And now there's robots everywhere?" She made her way to the injured earth pony, and her eyes went wide. "Mac!" She looked back at Astral. "You said hurt, not almost dead!"

"Focus!" Astral countered. "Get us to the auxillary bridge!"

The unicorn's shout snapped her out of her anger. Her eyes went unfocused for a second, as her thoughts turned. "Right!" She shut her eyes, and disappeared in a flash. She reappeared a second later with Radio's bags, Berry's toolkit, and various other pieces of equipment. There was another flash, and all four of them, plus the gear, were deposited on the floor of the Auxillary bridge.

Radio jumped at the sudden commotion behind him, yelping as his head hit the underside of the console he was working on. "What's going on?" He asked as he rubbed his head. "Communications went dead and-" He looked back and saw the condition of his crewmates. "Oh, jeez!" He ran to the pile of gear and grabbed his bag. He was next to Mac, bag unzipped and hooves digging through it before he spoke again. "What happened?"

"We were attacked by construction drones in the control hub." Berry explained. "Mac was fighting them off, and even took the weapon away from one. But then, the pony controlling them blew up the door, and Mac got hurt, and then that guy tried to kill me, but Mac distracted him, and I was able to bite him, and take the battery out of his weapon, but then he used magic, and hit me in the head, and threw broken glass at me, so I hit him in the head with a pipe, and kicked him as hard as I could, and then we ran, and then we ran into Astral, and then-"

"We're under attack by the main force of the drones that attacked the station," Astral shortened. "The pony pulling the strings is on the ship. And we can't rule out mutated prills being used to attack us either."

"Radio..." Twilight looked around the bridge, realizing that something very important was missing. "Where's Fluttershy?"

The colt gasped, and looked up from the scanner he pulled from his bag. "She left for the control hub when communications went down."

Twilight and Astral looked at each other. "We have to go find her," she said, horn glowing. A single item rose from the pile of gear.

Astral looked over at it, and took his new pistol from twilight's magic. "Berry, see if you can get sensors back." He started rummaging through the equipment, digging out their Furian-issued communicators and tossing one to each pony. He found Berry's toolkit, and floated it over to her. She took it without a word and dove under a nearby console. Astral kept digging though. "Twi, where's the other one? That revolver I got on Furia?"

She shook her head. "I didn't see it. Where was it?"

"I had it right with to this one." Astral found the box for the new pistol and looked inside. The ammo was all there for both pistols, including the clips of semi-incendiary and tannerac rounds that he added, but the weapon was not. "Twi, that thing still has tannerac rounds in it."

"You don't think they have it, do you?"

"If they do or not, it doesn't make much difference, does it?" Astral looked at Radio as he took two extra magazines and stuffed them in the collar of his spacesuit. "Do you still have that weapon from Sevus?"

The colt nodded without looking up from his scanner. "It's in my bag."

"Guys," Berry called from the consoles, "It looks like they've been disconnected back at the control hub. I can access a bunch of local services though, and one of them is a defensive system for this room."

"Ok." Astral ran his hoof over his mane. He also floated the plasma rifle he nabbed from the last drone over to Berry. "Berry, can you activate the defense system, but delay it long enough so we can leave? Radio, you stay here with Mac, and keep your weapon on you at all times. It's a phase pistol, so it should work on those drones despite their armor. Twilight, you're the only one who can really wander about safely, so you take Berry to the control hub to get sensors working. I'll come with you, and hopefully we'll find Fluttershy along the way."

"And if you don't?" Radio asked. "She was telling me about the ship earlier, and there are four control hubs. Well, three, and the main computer. She didn't say which one she was heading to."

"Then we wait for sensors," Astral answered. "There will be two ponies wandering around, and Twilight and I will each head for one of them. One will be Fluttershy, and the other wants me dead. Any questions?"

"Ooh!" Berry crawled out from under the console, trailing loose pieces of wire in her mane. "Looks like we don't have to wait for sensors!" She activated a screen and started manipulating controls. A hologram shimmered to life above, a representation of the Philomena, limited in color and low resolution compared to most modern holograms. "There was a whole separate sensor network," Berry explained excitedly. "A really complex one. There are also cameras, holographic projectors, and another intercom system."

Twilight headed over to the panel. "Philomena..."

Astral joined them. "The A.I?"

Twilight glanced over. "Well, she's not really... You know what? Not important. Berry, can you pull up life signs?"

"Working on it." The earth pony bit her lip as she manipulated the screen. "It doesn't look like this was ever meant to be manually... There!" She looked up as the hologram populated with red and yellow dots. "Found Fluttershy!"

Berry zoomed in on the highest concentration of yellow. They resolved themselves into amorphous blobs moving in approximations of the sensor data. One yellow blob zigzagged through the corridor while the others tried to converge on it. Many that got close faded from the display, and others where pushed back. One blob even split in two as the first blob impacted it, then shot away.

A red dot in the crowd marched towards the fray, and the fast blob grabbed the nearest other blob and launched towards it. The blob that was dragged along faded before the other yellow blob impacted the red dot. They rolled, then the red dot was tossed. Yellow was on top of it immediately, lifting and slamming the red dot to the floor over and over.

"This feels kind of familiar," Berry mused as Twilight and Astral joined her by the hologram.

Twilight shook her head as she watched the commotion. "Berry, what's going on? What are these different colors?"

"The red ones are the power sources in the construction drones," she answered, "yellow ones are lifesigns."

"Well," Astral said with a shrug as the red dot faded out, "looks like she's got a handle on things. Berry, can you see if there are any other isolated lifesigns?"

The earth pony glanced down at the console. "I'm not sure how to do that, but I think I know where to look." She shifted the view to a small room where a single yellow blob sat among several red ones. "Still in the control hub," she growled.

A red dot walked up to the yellow one and faded out. It faded back in a moment later, and the yellow blob ran from the room.

Berry's head tilted to the side as she tried to reason out the odd behavior. When she, did, she voiced her opinion on it. "Uh oh." The red dot grew in intensity, becoming brighter in the holographic representation. "It's a bomb! Everypony hold on!"

Berry braced herself against the console, and so did the ponies beside her. Radio pulled his hooves away from Mac's injuries, and spread his wings to protect the earth pony's side from any impacts.

It was a hard and fast jolt, a hammer's strike from below. Their belongings clattered, and the hologram above them died, along with most of the lights. Mac groaned, starting to regain consciousness from the impact, but Radio knocked him back out with an injection of sedative. "Sorry, dude, you don't want to be awake for what I'm about to do."

Berry jumped back underneath the console. "I don't think we're getting that back," she said in a panic, "everything that we rerouted is gone! Engines, weapons... uh-oh, even life support. Somehow, the atmospheric shields are still up, but only at about fourty percent, and they're the only thing left. Well, aside from artificial gravity, there's no computer controls on that, so it wasn't affected."

"Meaning?" Twilight inquired.

"Meaning," Astral answered, "whatever air and heat is left on the ship, that's all we get, and we're leaking. Temperatures are about to drop, and the air will start to get thin." He looked back at Mac and Radio, then over at Berry. "Twi, can you get them to the station?"

She nodded. "What about you?"

"I'm going after Fluttershy." He checked his pistol, Twilight had already loaded it for him. "She was down on level three, two sections fore of the cargo bay, and headed away from it. I should be able to follow her wake once I get there."

Twilight nodded quickly. "I'll come back as soon as I can. I enchanted your bullets for you, they'll emit an ion pulse whenever they hit something. It should be enough to take down those drones, but I can't be sure."

"Better than nothing," Astral said with a shrug as he headed for an access hatch across the bridge. There was a flash behind him as everypony else disappeared. He was now alone on the Philomena, searching for one pony, while being hunted by another. "I'm really starting to hate this ship."

He took off his three remaining magnetic boots before crawling through the hatch. He wished he could keep them, in case something happened to the gravity, but it was awkward to move around in only three. He needed to keep his mobility if he was going to face more drones and Prills. There was a ladder in the shaft beyond the hatch, and Astral was able to grab hold of it easily. At least he still had his armored suit.

He started down the ladder. The auxillary bridge was on the top of the Philomena, towards the back of the ship, while the main bridge was on the middle level, four, at the front. Level three was just above the bridge, and contained utility rooms, access to the cargo bay, and a lot of specialty rooms that puzzled both Astral and the salesman who gave him his initial tour. There were hallways full of glass, lockdown mechanisms on doors, and a confusing ventilation system, most of which had been cannibalized long ago.

Astral opened a hatch to let himself out on the second level. He remembered from his previous walkthroughs that the level three hatch was welded shut. There was another access point he could use.

Level two was quarters, enough for a crew of several dozen to have large private rooms. Not all of the rooms were private though. Most were, nestled off the sides of hallways that were downright spacious by spaceship standards, but others were common areas, basically wider sections of hallway, filled with bunks or seating Most of the furniture was gone, but there were still scattered beds and caches of personal belongings.

In one of these common areas, Astral saw a construction drone among the bunks. He hid back in the hallway, and it was facing away from him, but there was no way forward without backtracking half the level.

Gritting his teeth, Astral moved forward, weapon at the ready. Time to see if Twilight's enchantment worked as advertised.

The drone, one of the smaller model started walking towards a door at the far end of the area. When it reached the door, it glanced back at the unicorn who was carefully aiming for the back of its head. "Fire, and I kill her."

Astral froze in place, but didn't lower his weapon. The voice was digitally distorted.

"In case it isn't clear, this is merely one of my drones. I've seen what would happen to me if we spoke face to face."

"What do you want?" Astral asked quietly, staying still. He wasn't about to provoke this pony, but he wasn't about to let his guard down.

"I want Eckrt back, but that isn't going to happen. I will settle for causing you as much pain as I can before you die."

"You want me, right?" Astral glanced back to make sure he wasn't being snuck up on. "Then why attack the station? Why involve innocent ponies and make an enemy of the entire Canterlot system?"

"To see him one last time. To gain access to this ship. I will kill you here, where you killed him. I've stunned the deformed pegasus, and will keep her alive until you reach me. If you die before then, I will execute her and ram this ship into the station. So, fight well."

Astral tensed up as the drone lifted a hoof to the door. It pulled it open and was bowled over by a charging Prill. Four more followed on its heels. Astral started shooting at the lead. Unlike last time, he put two rounds in its chest, knowing full well they wouldn't penetrate the hide. When it roared, he charged forward, grabbing sheets from nearby bunks.

He threw the sheets out in front, obscuring himself as he ducked in between the prills, and blew the eyestalks off the one he shot in the chest. Striking blindly, the lead prill attacked one of the others before they could free themsleves from the bedsheets. Two of them leapt on the blinded one, and only the smallest remained focused on Astral.

Beyond them now, Astral started retreating through the door they came through. He held his fire until the small prill leapt for him, and his first two shots buried themselves deep in the beasts head, dropping it immediately. Somehow, the ones fighting each other weren't distracted by the dispatching of their comrade.

Astral turned an ran. It was good to know that some of the prills were vulnerable to gunshots. Would it always be the smaller ones? Or is a bulletproof hide a random mutation that only some have?

Astral didn't have to wait long to test it. After ducking through two more empty common areas, a construction drone stood at the access point for level three. He was flanked by three more prills. All larger than any of the first batch, and apparently trained. They saw Astral approach, but waited until the drone raised his hoof before rushing forward.

Astral's first shot downed one of them, a clean strike in the head. His second shot ricocheted off the skull of his second target, not even slowing it.

Astral dodged sideways as the second creature leapt. He aimed for the third, who was advancing more cautiously, but Astral was still moving, and couldn't take the time to aim a properly. He let loose, aiming for center mass. Shots hit, and others missed. But by the time Astral stopped firing, he had one bullet left, and the prill collapsed, clawing at its punctured chest.

Astral ducked out of the way as the bulletproof prill leapt for him again. Large as it was, its lumbering movements didn't match the speed it pounced with. If he got caught by one of those leaps, he would be crushed. Luckily, it took the monster a moment to recover between them.

Astral turned his attention to the construction drone and charged. It was a larger drone, carrying aplasma rifle, but it hadn't joined the fray. It stood on top of the hatch that led to a ventilator maintenance space. That space also opened onto level three. He had one shot at getting rid of both obstacles, and he had to do it before the drone started fighting.

He whipped the gun back, flipping it upside down and ejected the magazine. The spring loaded cartridge shot up and out of the weapon, and Astral shoved the replacement into place. Having left a round chambered for the switch, he didn't have to cock the weapon. Instead he raised it and shot the spent magazine.

Catching the magazine in his magic, Astral dragged the now-jagged metal across the back of of the yellow plastic suit the drone wore. It sliced through the cheap material, revealing the metal below. As the drone turned to face him, Astral kept slashing, running a wide circle around the drone as it tracked him. Each slice showed more and more metal, until a cut made higher up revealed green, glowing glass.

There it was! The weakness Growl told him about. Astral stopped avoiding, and charged straight for the drone. It raised its weapon, and Astral's gun, floating behind the drone in the unicorn's magic unloaded round after round directly into the brain tank at point-blank range.

The effect was immediate. The drone didn't collapse, but it did stop tracking Astral's movements. And it seemed to settle on its joints. Astral reached the drone and grabbed its rifle. He turned around, dropping to the ground to aim as the prill readied another leap.

The monstrous beasts legs coiled and Astral's hoof found the trigger. There was a bright flash, and the next thing Astral saw was the beast's smoking headless corpse sailing over him to crash, uncontrolled, on the opposite side of the room.

Astral sat there panting for a moment. That was the first time he had used an energy weapon since... He shook his head. That wasn't important right now. He had to make it to Fluttershy, and save her. But, whoever it was playing this sick game knew the route he was taking. They knew the layout of the Philomena.

Astral headed back the way he came, and took a turn in the hallway that led away from the access hatch. He was still heading towards the front of the ship, but he had to get to level three in a way that his opponent couldn't anticipate.

He found that way in one of the common areas. He remembered the area from the tour. It was an exercise lounge, supposedly, but the floor was a little lower here than in other areas, and the ceiling higher. There was less room for crawl spaces under the floor here, and just as important, two water coolers along the far wall. Each one was topped decorative tank, full of water.

The unicorn found a spot away from the walls in the center of a floor panel. There were no seams or installed hardware that might indicate reinforcement. Astral held the plasma rifle in his magic above the point he had chosen and retreated to the far side of the room.

He fired into the floor, each blast heating the air in the room as it melted the floor beneath. This plasma rifle was locked in at a lower setting than he would have expected, but it only took a few shots before there was a hole in the floor.

Astral dropped the rifle to the side, and made his way to the water tanks. He carefully tipped them over, and shoved each one towards the hole. The exertion, combined with the heat cooking off the floor, left the unicorn drenched with sweat. Once the coolers were dangling over the opening, Astral grabbed an exercise weight, and smashed the glass globes. Several liters of water poured out of each one, steaming as it washed over the molten floor.

He climbed up on the frame of the water cooler to avoid the molten rim of the hole as he looked down through it. The water did its job, and cooled whatever slag actually made it to the floor below. Luckily, most had been vaporized by repeated plasma blasts.

Astral swept what remained to the side along with the broken glass. He couldn't be sure he got all of it, but that was a risk he would have to take. He grabbed his pistol and borrowed plasma rifle and jumped through the hole, careful not to touch the sides.

It was a hard landing with the extra weight of his suit, but the one maneuvering thruster he still had kicked in automatically to try and slow his descent. It only succeeded in rolling him, but it still lessened the impacted. Also, he didn't burn or cut himself, and wasn't surrounded by prills or drones, so his plan was successful so far.

He started forward only to find that the doors in this section were different. If he remembered right, he was nearing the sections with the glass walls and unique ventilation. The door to leave this section of hallway was a reinforced airlock. He never noticed it before, most of the doors where locked open when he toured this section. These rooms must have been laboratories.

He wouldn't be able to pry this one open. Astral walked up and peeked through the small, circular window on the door, making sure there was nothing to surprise him on the other side. Satisfied that there wasn't, he retreated several steps. Aiming the plasma rifle, Astral blasted the airlock. It deformed, but held. Another blast blew it open, but only partway. A third shot... didn't happen.

Astral looked down at the rifle, and pulled the trigger again. It made noise, but it was the beeping of a battery indicator. He dropped the charge pack and inspected it. Empty, but rated for nearly fifty shots like most energy weapons were. He didn't fire it anywhere near that many times. It wasn't fully charged in the first place.

Was that intentional? To prevent him from gaining another weapon? Astral dropped the rifle and faced the door. He should have checked the weapon's capacity. He had assumed that there would be plenty of uses left, since the drone hadn't fired it. If he had taken the straight path, and used the plasma rifle in combat, it could have cost him his life.

The door wasn't open wide enough. The edges were glowing, fading quickly, but Astral knew they would remain hot enough to cause horrible burns for a while. He didn't have time to wait.

He ran back down the hall, to where he first jumped through the ceiling. The dumbell he used to break the water jugs was there among the broken glass. He grabbed the five kilo weight and ran back to the door.

He threw it at the door, hard, using it like a sledge hammer without a handle. It was tiring, but it was moving the door. After a few hits, the door was open wide enough for Astral to fit his head through. His shoulders, with the added bulk of his suit got stuck. Astral tossed his gun through, braced himself for an unpleasant ride, and brought his hoof to his chest. He hit a control, firing up his thruster pack for forward motion.

Metal squealed as his suit pushed against the mangled door. Astral could still feel heat baking off the metal. He relaxed the hooves not on the controls, so he wouldn't break them in the tumble he knew was coming.

He cranked up the power, approaching twenty percent thruster output. It didn't seem like much, but these packs were made for movement in space, for navigating around the outside of a ship. There were probably warnings about not using them in cramped corridors like this.

After a few seconds more of not going anywhere, Astral pushed the thruster to twenty-five percent. It worked. He shot forward, free of the door. The thruster, sticking out from his side caught on the door, twisting him sideways before it was torn free of his suit, and he was launched out into the next hallway.

He hit the deck hard, but the impact was taken on the shoulder of his suit, a layer of armor an padding protecting him. He rolled to a stop, just shy of a bend in the hall. He looked back and retrieved his pistol before peeking around the corner.

He jerked his head back immediately.

He found them. He was deep in the heart of the lab area. The walls up ahead were floor to ceiling glass, and he could see the unicorn up ahead holding Flutershy hostage. It was perfectly framed by the wall section, like a picture. She was unconscious, and leaned up against the only opaque wall in the section, and her captor was facing the other direction, where two of the larger drones flanked a door off to the side, waiting to ambush whoever came through.

From here, he had a straight shot to the room where Fluttershy was. There was no visual cover, and a long hallway. Past this corner, there was no way he wouldn't be seen. But, the drones would have to go through two sets of walls to reach him. Astral only had to go through one.

He checked his gun. Four rounds in the magazine, and he had lost his spare somewhere along the way. It wasn't in these last two hallways, either. He had to assume he lost it immediately after gaining the plasma rifle. Counting the round in the chamber, he only had five shots. He had to end this quickly.

Slamming the magazine back in place, he ran around the corner. Dead run. He knew the drones would see him, and so would their master. He needed to act before they could.

He put three rounds into the glass separating him and the other ponies. It was one hell of an introduction. The unicorn in the yellow spacesuit ducked in surprise. As Astral galloped down the hall, Fluttershy's captor looked up. Their eyes met through the cracked visor. One brown eye fixed on the grey unicorn in anger, the other was hidden by part of the black glass plate.

The pony in the yellow suit looked over at a nearby table. Astral saw his magic engulf something, but couldn't quite see what. But then, it was lifted. The revolver! Astral reached out with magic as the unicorn tried to turn the weapon on Fluttershy. He pulled the trigger, and the high caliber firearm put a tannerac round into the nearest wall.

The unicorn suddenly stumbled. Papers kicked up, Fluttershy fell over, and the cracks from astral's shots into the glass widened. That solid wall was the hull! Astral was seconds away from reaching the glass. He had to get in, get Fluttershy out, and get her somewhere where the atmospheric shields still worked. He tried to take deep breaths to saturate with oxygen, but at his current sprint, it was a futile gesture.

Her captor went for the revolver again, and Astral gave it a sudden yank. The unexpected pull managed to point the barrel towards the bottom of the glass panel. Astral pulled the trigger as he leapt for the glass, putting his shoulder into it and shielding his head with his leg.

The glass exploded inward, compromised by the fourfold stresses. Astral's original shots, the tannerac round that punched straight through it, Astral's weight behind his suit's armor, and the rapidly changing atmospheric pressures finally overcame the strength of the transparent wall.

Astral crashed to the ground amid a whirlwind of air and debris. He couldn't hear anything but roaring wind, and he was being pelted with glas. The other unicorn was in the same boat though, bracing against the wall as he tried to concentrate his magic.

The revolver rose from the ground near Astral. He saw it, and swatted it with his hoof, pushing it away as it tried to aim for his head. It fired. It's deafening sound muted by lack of air as it punched a hole in the deck. Astral had pushed it sideways enough to save himself, but as close as he was, the powder flash washed over his face, a burning wave of heat and flame.

Astral fired back with his pistol, his aim compromised by his stinging eyes. He hit a light fixture, showering the other pony with glass. Everything was blurry, and he tried to blink it away, but it felt like he was running sandpaper over his eyes instead. And, he had one shot left.

Revolver forgotten, the yellow-suited unicorn picked a shard of broken glass and lunged at Astral. Astral barely got his hooves up in time to grab the other pony's leg, keeping the makeshift dagger away from his face. As they struggled, Astral could feel himself giving out. The air was almost gone now, and each gasping breath was giving him less oxygen than the last. He had to... do something...

Astral suddenly pulled the glass dagger towards him, catching the other unicorn off guard. He also deflected the improvised weapon enough to shatter it against his suit. Hooves free, now that he wasn't holding a bloody death at bay, he punched the other unicorn in the face, twisting his entire body to throw his attacker off of him.

It worked. The other unicorn hit the ground, suit tearing on impact with some of the larger shards of glass. He started scrambling for the revolver, but Astral was able to get his magic around his pistol first. He couldn't trust his eyes. The lack of oxygen was getting to him, and he couldn't blink the double image away. But, as the unicorn in the yellow space suit stood up, finally gaining hold of the revolver, Astral was already moving his pistol towards him.

Tearing the rest of the busted faceplate off his helmet, the unicorn turned to face Astral. His chest bumped into the muzzle of the pistol, and Astral pulled the trigger. Astral couldn't hear the shot over the sound of his own blood rushing in his ears, but he saw the flash, barely. His pistol fell to the ground right after. He didn't have the strength to hold it up anymore, and besides, there were no more shots.

The other unicorn didn't fall. Astral tried to breath, gasping harder, faster, for air that wasn't there. He didn't go down! The other unicorn was still standing, a look of shock in his eyes as he brought his hoof to his chest, and it came away bloody.

He looked back at Astral, and took a step towards him.

In panic, Astral reached out with the last of his magic, pulling the trigger on the revolver. It wasn't pointed at him yet, and discharged into the floor. He pulled the trigger again, before the other unicorn could aim, putting another hole in the floor. One more trigger pull, and the revolver clicked on an empty chamber, having spent all five rounds.

The revolver fell to the floor as the other unicorn stumbled forward in desperation. He fell on his gasping opponent with his hooves outstretched.

Astral lost consciousness as those hooves wrapped around his throat.

Author's Note:

Whoo! It's a long one, but I had fun with this. I've been wanting to do a suspense/thriller sort of scene for a while. I have some work events this weekend, so the next chapter will go up on Monday.

See you then!

Comments

[PrincessLunaTheGamer]

Oh boii, this just got interesting

[Vinx]

Damn, that was one intense chapter!