When We Saw the Universe

by KKDW

Chapter 7: Applejack

Chapter 7: Applejack

I’d seen plenty of death during my time with the resistance. But they were all strangers, I’d feel sad and sorry for them but it never hurt me personally. All that changed when Applejack was killed. I still feel like that was my fault, despite what Rainbow Dash told me.

– Extract from When We Saw the Universe by Captain Twilight Sparkle

“Ok, you ready?” Liha asked.

Lyra nodded.

“Ok then, here we go.”

A day after the Dominator II had successfully carried out its attack on Celo-7 Lyra and Liha were in the training room where Lyra had talked to Phaurn before, Phaurn himself was also with them along with Bon Bon who was sticking as close to the door as she could. Liha had just finished strapping an A.S.C. onto Lyra and once Lyra had confirmed she was ready Liha activated it. Once again Lyra felt herself changing, but she wasn’t turning into a Bolkarn this time. The bone structure of her back legs began to alter with her hooves widening and her flesh growing to fit their new shape. Almost everything else remained the same. It didn’t take long for the transformation to end.

“Okay, now we need to make sure it worked properly,” Liha said.

She lifted Lyra up by her front leg and arm while her back legs stayed on the ground. Liha held Lyra upright, like this she was almost as tall as Liha.

“Now, tell me when you’re sure you’re steady and balanced,” she said.

Lyra shifted her hooves slightly, and then took a deep brief. “Ok, now.”

Liha let go and stepped back. Lyra wobbled slightly and quickly shifted one of her hooves to steady herself. She took a few more deep breaths before she was absolutely sure she wasn’t going to fall over.

“I think it worked,” she said as a wide smile spread across her face.

“Good, now try walking.”

Lyra’s smile shrank slightly.

“Okay,” she said and took a few more deep breaths.

After Liha had tested the A.S.C. to turn her into a Bolkarn Lyra wasn’t entirely sure about trying to walk. Yes the Bolkarn body was much larger then what she was used to and now she was going to be trying it in a slightly altered version of her own body but unlike ponies the Bolkarn were designed to walk on two legs, even if they had altered hers for the same purpose.

Lyra carefully moved her right leg forward, barely taking if off the floor. After setting it back down again she managed to keep her balance. She tried again with the other foot, again she kept her balance. She took a few more steps, each time taking her hooves further off the floor. She almost lost her balance twice but managed to steady herself. Before long she was walking around the room with ease, the sound of her hooves on the floor echoing around them. She only stopped when she collided with one of the walls. Liha laughed and applauded.

“Well done Lyra,” she said. “We’ve got the basics sorted now, I think the next step would be to try running but I think we’ll leave that for another time.”

“Yeah, I agree,” Lyra said. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to manage running just yet.

“Very good,” Phaurn said. “But I have a few questions. Did you change any aside from her back legs?”

“No, that was all,” Liha told him.

“Then may I suggest some alterations to her remaining foreleg as well,” he replied. “It still has the basic structure of a leg. Even if you do not intend to use it as such I suggest converting it into an arm. Whether or not you wish to add a hand is up to you.”

“Alright, I’ll do that,” Liha said. “Lyra, what do you think?”

“If he thinks it’s a good idea then I say go with it,” Lyra said. “Though I’ll be fine with just one hand.”

“Alright then,” Liha said.

“So, do you think you could teach me sword fighting like this?” Lyra asked Phaurn.

“You may require a bit more practice with using that form,” he said. “But I think I will take you on as an apprentice.”

“YES!” Lyra exclaimed and punched the air, which almost made her lose her balance again.

Phaurn ordered the computer to produce a practice sword for Lyra while Liha sat down next to Bon Bon to watch. Phaurn tossed the sword to Lyra who just managed to catch it and stay balanced.

“I think for now I will teach you some very basic and necessary skills,” he said. “They might also help you get used to that form.”

Lyra nodded and they both took up a fighting stance, with their swords pointing towards each other.

A few hours later Lyra and Bon emerged from the training room, Liha had left a while earlier to attend a meeting of the Red Starfighter investigation committee and Phuarn was staying to continue training on his own. Bon Bon was glad to be out of the training room since it made her feel uneasy. Lyra suggested they head to the ship’s canteen and Bon Bon agreed with the idea so they boarded the elevator at the end of the corridor to head to the right level.

Once the doors opened again and they stepped out into the corridor they spotted Apple Bloom coming the other way. She was walking slowly with her head down, not looking where she was going. Lyra approached her slowly, and bent down to talk to her.

“Hi,” she said gently.

Apple Bloom looked up at her and Lyra saw that her eyes were rather red.

“Hello,” Apple Bloom said quietly.

“You’re Applejack’s sister aren’t you,” Lyra said. “What was your name?”

“Apple Bloom.”

“That was it. Sorry it slipped my mind for a moment.”

Pretty much everypony in Ponyville knew the Apple family, and especially Applejack. Some were just casual acquaintances, some were reasonably close friends, and others were just aware that they existed. Lyra had never really interacted with the Apples, except to occasionally buy food from them.

“So, what are you up to Apple Bloom?” Lyra asked.

“Jus’ explorin’,” Apple Bloom said.

“Ah, you don’t want to spend all your time in that tiny little cabin, right?”
Apple Bloom nodded, then she noticed Lyra’s arm and stared at it with her mouth half open in surprise. Lyra lifted it off the floor and flexed it around, before holding her hand out in front of Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom tentatively raised a hoof which Lyra held and shook gently. She saw a small smile form on Apple Bloom’s face.

“How… how did ya get tha’?” Apple Bloom asked her.

“I’d rather not talk about it,” Lyra said, letting go of Apple Bloom’s hoof.

“Oh… Ah’m sorry.”

“No need to apologies,” Lyra told her. “From what I’ve heard you’ve had enough of your own problems without needing to hear about anyone else’s.”

Apple Bloom nodded. An awkward silence followed.

“Ah… miss mah sister,” Apple Bloom eventually said quietly.

“Yeah, I know Twilight told you what happened to Applejack,” Lyra said. “I miss her to.”

“Y… yah knew her?”

“Yeah, though I didn’t really get to know her until joining the resistance, I fought alongside her a few times.”

“Where yah there when… when it happened?”

Lyra nodded.

“Could yah tell me how it happened?”

“Well… I don’t know if I should.”

“Please.”

Lyra thought about it for a few seconds before finally agreeing.

“Thanks,” Apple Bloom said.

Lyra led Apple Bloom and Bon Bon into the canteen, which was conveniently empty. After they’d all gotten themselves some food they set down at a table at the back of the room.

“Well, I guess I should start,” Lyra said. “Though I don’t really think I’m the right pony to tell you this but I suppose someone has to.”

“Why not?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Well, I kinda feel like Applejack’s death was my thought,” Lyra told her. “You see, she died saving my life.”

Another planet, another mine, another attack. Lyra couldn’t even remember the name of this one. It was one of those worlds that didn’t have a proper name, just a string of seemingly random numbers and letters maybe with a dash or something through in for good measure.

As always Lyra was aboard Carrier 3 which was making its descent towards the planet. She’d been with the resistance for five months now, and the first two and half months of that time had been spent recovering physically and emotionally from her time in one of the Bolkarn mines. She gave her arm an experimental flex. She hadn’t quite gotten used to it yet and she felt it still needed improvements particularly after the last mine raid where the elbow jammed.

As always the Carrier was occupied by several different species, Lyra had been getting to know them slowly over time. The only one she’d really managed to become more familiar with was commander of their small squad, Captain Applejack. She was standing at the far end of the Carrier by the door to the cockpit, clad in the same black body armor as the rest of them with the resistance’s logo on the right flank. Applejack had painted her cutie mark on the left flank like most ponies did, Lyra included. The only part of the armor Applejack wasn’t wearing at the moment was the helmet. Lyra thought she didn’t look quite right without her hat on. This wasn’t helped by the fact that Applejack had cut her mane shortly after joining the resistance, now it was shorter then Lyra’s.

“Now listen up y’all,” she said and a few members of the squad gave their helmets a whack, apparently the translators sometimes had trouble with Applejack’s accent. “We’ll be touchin’ down in abou’ five minutes. Now yah all know that’s its nighttime at the moment on this side of the plane’. Now Ah know we’d all prefer to hit ‘em in broad dayligh’, but it won’t be dayligh’ for another week by mah own planet’s timescale.”

There were a few murmurs from the assembled troops, just to show they’d acknowledged what Applejack had just said. The pilot made an announcement that they were about to land.

“Ok, y’all know the drill, we’ve gone through it enough times,” Applejack said as she put her helmet on. They all felt the Carrier touch down on the planet’s surface. They unstrapped themselves and stood ready for action as the door opened. “Let’s ride.”

They all charged out of the Carrier with Applejack in the lead. In the distance they could see two other Carriers that had already landed, with their occupants spilling out of the back. A third was just touching down in the distance. Before long the area was filled with the sounds of gunfire and being lit up by the light of the resistance’s energy blasters. Eventually the Bolkarn turned on several large floodlights, sweeping them over the battlefield to get a get a better few of their enemies.

Lyra and a few others were using a large mining machine for cover. They could only just hear the bullets ricocheting of the other side over all the other noises around them. They eventually had to abandon that position when two Bolkarn came up behind them and opened fire, managing to kill one of the group as they fled. As they ran Lyra heard a loud explosion, quickly glancing in the direction she thought it had come from she saw that one of the Carriers had been destroyed. Eventually they managed to find some more cover behind a pile of rocks that had been dug out from the mine. Lyra managed to fell three Bolkarn in quick succession, but she had a feeling that something wasn’t right. She quickly gave some vocal commands to her helmet and a series of numbers appeared on her visor. The numbers represented how many troops were still alive right now. There had been fourteen in her squad which was now down to nine, and as for the entire attack force that had been reduced from one hindered and twenty seven to fifty four. They were losing.

Lyra and her squad mates managed to take down a few more Bolkarn, but two of them were taken out soon after. Then over their radios they were given the order to retreat. Lyra hesitated, while the others ran as fast as they could almost immediately, only for nearly all of them to be picked off by the Bolkarn. Lyra fired a few more shots, then took a deep breath and ran. Her horn lit up, creating a shield around herself as well as suspending and firing her blaster at the same time. She needed all four limbs if she was to escape quickly. At the same time she needed to concentrate on firing, running, and protecting herself at the same time. A few bullets bounced off the shield, but then one managed to make its way through and embedded itself in her armor.

Lyra kept going, pushing herself as far as she could go. Then she heard something hit the floor. She looked back but didn’t stop running. She saw her blaster lying on the ground and getting further and further from her. Then something slammed into her, throwing her off her feet and behind a rock just before a hail of Bolkarn gunfire sped past where she’d just been.

Getting back to her feet Lyra saw Applejack standing beside her, and firing shot after shot towards the Bolkarn. Lyra realized that Applejack must’ve pushed her out of the way of the gunfire that would probably have killed her. Around them resistance troops were rushing for the Carriers, and Carrier 3 was just a short distance behind them.

“Thanks,” Lyra shouted to Applejack over all the noise.

“Don’ mention it,” Applejack replied. “Now grab yer gun an’ help private.”

“Yes sir,” Lyra replied and quickly levitated her gun back to herself and joined in with the barrage.

More and more troops ran past them, either to be gunned down or to make it to one of the Carriers, and once each Carrier had enough troops on board they took off back to the Dominator II. Before long only Carrier 3 remained, and Applejack and Lyra were the only ones still out on the battlefield. They kept up their barrage, Lyra squeezing the trigger as fast her mechanical finger would allow and Applejack pounding the firing button on her hoof blaster with so much force and frequency that small cracks were starting to form in it. They were waiting for the right opportunity to run for the Carrier.

Lyra kept on firing, until suddenly her gun stopped working. She squeezed the trigger a few more times, willing it to work but to no avail. She quickly lowered her head and shot a blast of magic out of her horn before ducking behind the rock and checking her gun.

“What’s the matter?” Applejack asked her.

“Power cell’s dead,” Lyra replied.

“Well then, yer no good to me here,” Applejack told her. “Get back to the Carrier, Ah’ll cover you.”

“But what about you?”

“Don’t worry abou’ me, now when Ah say run, run.”

“I’m not going without you.”

“Yes you will, Ah’ll be fine.”

“But I…”

“RUN!”

Lyra ran. She could hear Bolkarn bullets whizzing past her and Applejack’s blaster fire behind her, getting fainter the further she went. It wasn’t long before she was back in the Carrier. She looked back towards Applejack, and saw several Bolkarn closing in around her.

“APPLEJACK, COME ON!” Lyra shouted, forgetting all about ranks in the heat of the moment.

“No time,” she heard Applejack say over her helmet radio. “Go without me.”

“No!”

“Please, go.”

Then Applejack was surrounded, Lyra just had time to see Applejack throw her weapon aside and raise her forelegs in the air as the Carrier’s door closed and the small ship took off.

“Ah surrender,” they heard her say over the helmet radio.

Only four members of the Carrier 3 squad made it out of the mine alive, Lyra included. When the Carriers made their hasty departure they had to endure a volley of gunfire from below, Carriers 2 and 7 had been heavily damaged while Carrier 10 was destroyed before it could make it back to the Dominator II.

The survivors gathered in the hanger for their debriefing as they always did while the engineers bustled around the damaged Carriers and the ones that weren’t were raised back into their storage frames. General En and a few other higher ranking crew members, including Captain Twilight Sparkle, were standing on a walkway that ran along the walls of the hanger several feet above the floor gazing down at them while the surviving squad commanders made their reports of what had happened. If their commanders had been killed the squads just selected someone at random to make the report. Lyra had been selected by her squad to make the report, though she had a feeling it wasn’t due to random selection but because none of them wanted to make it themselves. She didn’t either but decided that someone had to. When her turn came she ran through all the details of what had happened to her and her squad mates, which they’d quickly given her details of on the way back, everything from the moment they’d landed to the moment of Applejack’s capture.

“WHAT!” Twilight exclaimed when Lyra finally reached the last part of her report.

There’d been a few surprised gasps and murmurs from the assembled crowd, which was understandable since none of their comrades had been captured during a mine assault, at least not during the time Lyra had been there, only Twilight had reacted with genuine shock. Lyra could understand why.

After the debriefing was over and the troops had dropped off their body armor and weapons along with picking up their translators if they had them the Carrier 3 squad was called to a small conference just below General En’s quarters. They were joined by General En and Captain Sparkle. Twilight looked stressed and uneasy; clearly she wasn’t taking the news of Applejack’s capture well. After first going through the details of the events again General En started asking them some questions.

“Had Captain Applejack been acting a little differently recently?” General En asked.

They all said no.

“Have any of you seen her doing anything unusual or suspicious?”

Again, no.

“Why?” Lyra asked.

“It may be possible that Captain Applejack has joined the Bolkarn, and her surrender was just a ruse to allow for that,” General En replied.

“NO!” Twilight shouted. “Applejack would never do that.”
“Captain Sparkle, I think most would think the same thing if a close friend of theirs was a potential traitor.”

“No General, with all due respect I’ve known Applejack for much longer then you have, yes she has her flaws but so does everypony, and treason isn’t one of them.”

Twilight was definitely being affected by what had happened, she’d slipped back into using ‘everypony’, and switching to using ‘everybody’ instead had been her idea in the first place.

“Very well then.” General En turned back to addressing the squad. “Do any of you have any idea as to why Captain Applejack surrendered and allowed herself to be captured?”

“Well, I guess she didn’t think she’d be able to make it back to the Carrier before either getting caught or shot,” Lyra said. “Or maybe she used herself as a distraction so the Bolkarn wouldn’t come after us before we had a chance to take off.”

“Yeah, that sounds like Applejack,” Twilight said.

“Very well then,” General En said. “I think we’ve heard just about everything that could be said, you may all leave now.”

“What? That’s it!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Is there something else you wish to discuss Captain?”

“Yes, what are we going to do now?”

“There is nothing more to do Captain.”

“Yes there is, we can rescue Applejack.”

“No, that is utterly out of the question.”

“But…”

“Our attack on UU12-88C was a complete failure,” General En said. “Any attempt to go back down there for a rescue attempt will receive the same result, and the Bolkarn are likely to take Captain Applejack somewhere else which will no doubt be heavily guarded and we would also need to find where that place is.”

“We can’t just leave her.”

“I am not risking my entire crew just for the sake of one.”

“A small group might be able to succeed. A small target is harder to hit then a larger one.”

“And there is less of a small target left when it does get hit.”

“General, I refuse to just abandon her, I’m sure she’d feel the same way if it was someone else in the same situation, even if it was somepony she didn’t even know.”

General En sighed, “You’re really not going to give up on this are you Captain.”

“No.”

“Very well, if you wish to organize a rescue attempt then do so,” General En said. “But I will have no part of it. If anything goes wrong it’ll be on your head and not mine. Understood?”

“Yes general,” Twilight said. “And thank you.”

Nobody knew what the surface of the planet Golgafrincham was like. Around two million years ago a third of the planet’s population that were considered as useless had been tricked into leaving under the belief that the planet was in grave danger and they were the first of a trio of ships meant to transport the planet’s entire population to a new world. Shortly afterwards the remaining population were wiped out by a disease that certain members of the departed third could have prevented. Subsequently the planet had been placed under quarantine and has remained that way ever since.

Despite, or maybe because of the quarantine the Bolkarn had chosen to place a space prison in orbit around the planet. The T.S. Prison station housed many different prisoners, its population included pirates, terrorists and the very rare member of the resistance that was captured rather than being shot on sight. Many who had been imprisoned in the station had attempted to fight off the Bolkarn when they occupied populated planets, including political figures and military leaders. There were even a few Bolkarn imprisoned here, Bolkarn criminals were usually always executed but those imprisoned here were only kept alive because the Bolkarn world leaders thought they may be of use one day. These Bolkarn were considered dangerous even by Bolkarn standards, and they were mostly members of terrorist groups set on overthrowing the Bolkarn leaders and taking their place. In the past some of these attempts had even succeeded, only to be eventually be overthrown by another terrorist group a few decades later.

There were rumors that the Bolkarn would sometimes eject prisoners that were uncooperative or that they just didn’t like from the station down the planet below, presumably to succumb to the same disease that had wiped out the Golgafrinchans all those years ago, assuming it hadn’t died out. If it had they were still being sent to a dead world with little chance of survival.

The Dominator II came out of Hyperspace at the far end of Golgafricham’s solar system. The ship was now reaching the end of its current mission and had just come from an assault on the last planet that had been assigned to it, now it had only one task to carry out. Over the preceding month Twilight had been gathering as much information as she could about where Applejack could have been taken, from spies, intercepted Bolkarn communications and a few other sources, and now she was sure that Applejack was on the T.S. Station. When she wasn’t investigating or seeing to other more important priorities Twilight had been putting together and preparing a small group tasked with infiltrating the station and bringing Applejack back alive.

The squad consisted of Lyra, Rainbow Dash, Captain Quell, nVVe, and Twilight herself. Twilight had wanted a few more but General En wouldn’t let her have any more than four others. The five of them stood in the hanger as the ship drew steadily closer to its destination while a Carrier and two single seat fighters were lowered down from the storage frames. They all knew how to pilot each one of these having gone through a short training period when joining the resistance. Twilight was going to pilot the Carrier herself, while Rainbow Dash and Lyra took a fighter each. The fighters were going to take down any defenses that might prevent them from boarding the station and they were also meant to serve as a distraction. The idea being to give the Bolkarn multiple targets to hit, they were likely to consider the fighters to be a greater threat then the Carrier and focus on destroying them first.

Lyra and Rainbow climbed into their fighters while the others boarded the Carrier and the enormous doorways that separated the hanger from the universe outside began to open. Lyra could just about see the stars outside flicker out of focus sometimes, an effect caused by the thin shield that prevented the ship’s atmosphere from rushing out of the open door. The fighter’s radio came to life and Twilight’s voice came through it.

“Now remember everyone, once we go through that door we’re on our own,” she said. “The Dominator II isn’t going to give any backup and if we’re not out of there within two hours it’s leaving without us. Understood?”

“Understood Captain,” Lyra said.

“Yeah we all know that Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said. “You’ve told us that like a hundred times already!”

“Alright then everybody,” Twilight said, “Let’s move out.”

The hanger was filled with the sound of engines powering up as the three ships lifted off the floor.

“Okay,” Lyra said to herself after taking a deep breath. “Here goes nothing.”

Then Twilight gave the order to launch and they shot through the open door and out into open space. The ship’s swung round the side of the Dominator II and then accelerated towards their destination, the two fighters pulling ahead of the Carrier and flying parallel to each other. Lyra could see Golgafrincham in the distance, and she could just make out a faint shape floating above it that must be the T.S. Station.

As they drew steadily closer the shape of the station became clearer. Lyra had seen pictures and diagrams of it while preparing for this mission but they didn’t do the real thing justice, for one thing it was much bigger then she thought. The station was made up of six short cylinders with a long column running through the center of them and two hemispheres at each end of the column. The different sections of the station were also connected by a series of struts that ran around the circumferences of each one. There were no lights or windows. The whole structure was completely black.

When they were close to the station a command came from Twilight over the radio, “Action!”

The two fighters shot upwards while the Carrier headed down towards the planet. They knew that the entrance to the station’s hanger bay was in the top hemisphere, so that was their first target. They flew straight past the hemisphere and continued on for another hundred feet before flipping the fighter’s over and streaking back towards it, as they did so they began to open fire. They sank several shots into the hull of the station close to the main door to the hanger, but they did little damage.
They flew straight down the sides of the station, and now they were much closer Lyra could make out the smaller details of the structure. She could see the joins between metal panels and the rivets holding them together along with countless scratches and dents. As they approached the bottom they turned the fighters round again, this time with the front ends facing the station. They propelled themselves upwards using the fighters’ vertical jets and then sent themselves circling round the structure, spiraling their way to the top. Now the Bolkarn knew they were there and small panels in the sides of the structure opened up, revealing the station’s weapons. Just as planned.

As the two fighters continued their circling ascent they blasted and destroyed every weapons bank they came to, they didn’t knock out every single one but it was enough. When they reached the top they turned the fighters upwards once again and flew away, just as the Carrier came over the horizon of the planet, having just completed a full orbit. The Carrier came up to join them and then all three ships turned towards the station. Lyra and Rainbow Dash fired a series of explosive charges into the hanger doors. Once the smoke had cleared from the silent explosion the hanger bay lay exposed and open to them. All three ships accelerated and shot down towards the hanger, passing dead Bolkarn that had been thrown out along with the atmosphere as they went. As they drew closer the ships tilted so that their undersides were facing hanger floor, and they saw a protective cover begin to close up the opening they’d made. They sped up once again, managing to pass through the entrance before the cover closed, and finally the ships touched down hard, but silent, on the hanger bay floor.

nVVe emerged through the Carrier’s hull and not too long afterwards Twilight and Quell burst out, both wearing spacesuits. Lyra and Rainbow Dash had to wait until the atmosphere had been fully restored before they could leave their seats. In the meantime they kept their fighters hovering just off the floor with their weapons trained on the two doorways leading to the lower levels of this section.

Twilight had activated one of several computer screens built into the walls. These particular computers only granted access to specific information about the station, they couldn’t be used to take control of it or anything similar, but they didn’t need to do that at the moment. Twilight quickly found a set of records of the prison’s inmates and began scrolling through them until she found what she was looking for.

“Applejack’s in Section 4, Level L, Cell 4L221,” Twilight told them.

Then a voice came over the station’s speakers, telling them that the atmosphere in the hanger bay had been fully restored. Almost immediately the doors opened, each one revealing an elevator full of as many Bolkarn as it could take. As soon as the doors were fully open they began to open fire, Lyra and Rainbow Dash did the same. They kept the intensity of their blasts as low as possible, they didn’t want to damage their only way down to the rest of the station. Twilight and Quell took cover behind the Carrier and added their own shots to the firefight. Before long all the Bolkarn were dead.

Twilight quickly set to work clearly the bodies out of one of the elevators while Lyra and Rainbow got out of their fighters, setting the built in security systems as they did so, Quell did the same for the Carrier.

“nVVe, check what’s directly below us,” Twilight said.

nVVe flashed an affirmative before changing his color, becoming transparent and almost invisible, and descended through the floor. It wasn’t long before he rose up again.

“Main control center. Twenty five Bolkarn present. Currently attempting to contact those we just eliminated. Also preparing to send up another squad. Main elevator shaft in the center of the room.”

“Thank you nVVe,” Twilight said, and then she ordered them all into the elevator she’d cleared.

One thing Twilight had known from the moment she’d started planning this mission was that they had no chance of getting into the station unnoticed. So instead she’d proposed to make their presence know immediately, she hoped they’d make the Bolkarn think they had greater numbers then what they really had and make them panic, and if they were panicking they’d get careless. If that didn’t work, they’d just fall back on killing and destroying everything that got in their way until they got out of there.

The elevator descended down one level and opened up into the dark control room. The place was full of Bolkarn, nearly all of them sitting at one of the many consoles built into the wall. When they realized that the elevator wasn’t brining down some of their colleagues they all jumped to their feet and drew out their weapons, Twilight and the others had their weapons out and ready the moment the doors opened.

“Identify yourselves,” one Bolkarn snarled at them.

Lyra saw a grin spreading across Rainbow Dash’s face before she responded.

“Nanencran Drashiga,” she said, putting strong emphasis on each syllable and making sure she sounded as threatening as possible.

Several of the Bolkarn recoiled when they heard this. The squad saw their opportunity and opened fire. A lot of the Bolkarn hesitated and were taken down with ease and the rest soon began to return fire. Bullets embedded themselves in the back of the elevator and into the walls on either side of it. Lyra could feel the bullets bouncing off her armor or embedding themselves in them. One bullet ricocheted off her helmet, the noise shot through her head and briefly caused her to lose focus as another bullet flew past, just grazing her horn. Just behind her Lyra could hear Twilight whispering to herself, counting down with each Bolkarn that they managed to take down.

“21… 20… 18… 17… 16…”

nVVe meanwhile floated towards the throng of Bolkarn. A few attempted to shoot him but the bullets went straight through him, one shot that pass through him went into a Bolkarn that happened to be right behind him, he was killed almost instantly.

“14…”

nVVe floated into the torso of a Bolkarn, as he did so the Bolkarn started to panic and back away, trying again to shoot the blue light to no avail. Once nVVe had drifted into him the Bolkarn began to convulse, the convulsions soon became more violent and he started to scream. Then he stopped and fell to the floor, dead. nVVe floated away to do the same thing to two more Bolkarn.

“12… 11…”

Lyra heard a bullet bounce of her arm, she responded by felling two more Bolkarn in three shots, the second of the three missing its target and accidentally damaging a console in the process.

“9… 8…”

One bullet hit Rainbow Dash’s helmet visor, it didn’t penetrate it but it caused the visor to crack as the bullet bounced away to embed itself harmlessly in the wall. nVVe drifted into the body of another Bolkarn who wound up shooting and wounding two of his comrades when he started to shudder, Quell quickly took the opportunity to kill those two.

“7… 6…”

Rainbow Dash took down another.

“5…”

Lyra followed with two more.

“4… 3…”

Two left, Quell quickly halved that number.

“2…”

And then Twilight shot both a blast of magic and a shot from her gun at the final Bolkarn, the others also fired a shot each towards him. The onslaught of multiple blasts sent the Bolkarn flying into the wall, smashing a computer screen before it fell onto a console, slipping off it and onto the floor.”

“1,” Twilight announced loud and clear.

As soon as the last Bolkarn was dead they all rushed out of the elevator, Twilight heading for the nearest undamaged console. The rest grouped together around the central column that ran through the whole station. The column had two elevators built into it which were the only way up and down the rest of the station.

“I thought so,” Twilight said. “They’ve warned the rest of the station, there’re some more Bolkarn coming up in elevator 2. nVVe, deal with them.”

nVVe floated through the closed door of elevator 2, they all knew what was going to happen next. They just had to wait for him to complete his task and return. Shortly after that the door to elevator 2 opened, revealing several dead Bolkarn inside. Once they’d confirmed that all Bolkarn sent up there were dead they boarded the elevator and sent it down to section 4, level L.

Each section was made up of twenty levels, each one consisted of a gantry around the edge where all the cells where and four walkways connecting the gantry to the center. There was nothing between the gantries and walkways except a long fall to the bottom of the section. Six Bolkarn patrolled each level, all armed with weapons that weren’t the standard issue for most Bolkarn soldiers. They carried rapid fire weapons, regular Bolkarn guns would have a delay between shots and the guns trigger would need to be pressed for each bullet, for these the trigger was held down to allow for continuous fire. These weapons would be necessary in case of an attempted large scale escape from the prison’s inmates.

It didn’t take long for the elevator to reach its destination, the moment it stopped Twilight slammed a hoof into a button on the control panel that stopped the doors from opening automatically.
“Okay, they’ll probably know it’s us in here,” she said. “So now comes the hard part, you ready nVVe?”
“I am ready Captain Twilight Sparkle,” nVVe flashed.

“Okay everyone; switch your visors’ to infrared.” They did. “Private Heartstrings, open the door.”

Lyra reached for the button, and as she did so Twilight lowered her horn and pointed it at nVVe. The door opened and Twilight shot a burst of magic into the blue light. The whole section was filled with a blinding white light, followed by several screams of pain from the Bolkarn guards. Twilight ordered them all out and they rushed along the walkway in front of them, opening fire on the Bolkarn around them. One fell over the railings and plummeted to the floor below, others just fell dead where they stood.

“nVVe, which cell are we in front of?” Twilight asked when they reached the end of the walkway.

The light hadn’t faded yet and even with infrared none of them could read the numbers above each cell door, infrared also couldn’t detect nVVe but the translator could still pick up his flashes.

“4L173,” he told them.

“And Applejack’s cell is…?”

“To our right.”

“Roger.”

They all rushed off along the gantry, as they did so the white light faded and they all switched off infrared. Lyra saw that they’d managed to wipe out all the Bolkarn on their level but some on the levels above and below them that they’d missed with their initial attack were getting to their feet, they began to open fire. Lyra and Twilight raised their guns with magic and returned fire, nVVe floated through the gantry above them to take out the Bolkarn with his own method.

Lyra glanced up at the signs above the cells, there were just running past 4L200, nearly there. A bullet bounced off her helmet and ricocheted into the gantry above, bouncing off it and plummeting down to the levels below. Finally they reached Applejack’s cell.

“Okay everyone,” Twilight said. “Keep up the defense, this may take a while.”

Twilight lowered her horn towards a panel on one side of the cell door with a series of numbered buttons on it. The cells needed a specific code to open them and for the past month Twilight had been developing a spell that would allow her to discern the code and unlock the door. Her horn lit up, it was giving off much more light than usual which flowed over the control panel. Lyra could hear a hum coming from the magic, and a few sparks flew from Twilight’s horn. She had her eyes tightly closed as she concentrated hard, before long she couldn’t keep them shut any longer and they sprung open with magic light emanating from them. One by one the buttons were depressed, and the control panel emitted a loud beep to confirm that the button had been successfully pressed. As Twilight continued working Lyra saw the elevator descend through a pair of windows set into its entrance, heading down to the other sections where more Bolkarn were waiting for it.

Finally the last button was pressed and a series of clicks told them that the door had unlocked. Twilight collapsed, exhausted and breathing heavily as the door opened. The cell was covered with dank grey walls, and it was completely featureless. And there was Applejack, sitting in a corner at the back of the cell. She was covered in bruises, she even had a black eye, and her mane had been shaved clean off. She still had her tail, but what was now dirty and frayed. She looked up at them when the door opened, smiled at them.

“Wha’ kept ya?” she said.

Twilight, her exhaustion forgotten, bounded into the cell and wrapped her forelegs around Applejack in a tight hug. Applejack winced, but still hugged Twilight back.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t get here sooner,” Twilight said.

“That’s okay sugar cube,” Applejack replied.”

“You look terrible,” Twilight said as she broke away from the hug.

“Ah know Ah do,” Applejack replied. “Ah’d say Ah’ve had worse, but Ah really know I haven’t.”

They both chuckled, and then Twilight said they needed to get out of there as soon as possible.

“Er, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash shouted back to them over the sounds of gunfire, “we’ve got a problem out here.”

The elevator had brought up more Bolkarn to their level, and now they were charging along the gantry towards them.

“Can you run?” Twilight asked Applejack.

“Ah think so.”

“Good, everyone we’re heading for the other elevator. Lyra, stick close to Applejack.”

Then they all sprinted away from the cell with the Bolkarn behind them, Lyra running alongside Applejack, keeping Applejack between herself and the wall. Rainbow Dash brought up the rear with Twilight and Quell in front. nVVe came back down from the upper levels and began eliminating the Bolkarn pursuing one by one. Then a shot from one Bolkarn penetrated Rainbow Dash’s body armor just above her right back leg. She let out a grunt of pain and stumbled, but managed to keep running despite a slight limp.

“Oh no!” Twilight exclaimed. “They must armor piercing bullets.”

Rainbow Dash continued running, but started to lag behind the rest of them.

“You know what, buck this!” she said.

Rainbow Dash spread out her wings and took off. She flew round the whole level, circling it several times and gaining more speed as she went. The Bolkarn tried to shoot her down but kept missing. Then she dived downwards and plowed straight into the Bolkarn, knocking a few of them off their feet and some over the sides. More Bolkarn emerged from the same elevator as the previous group. As they charged along the walkway Rainbow Dash flew straight into them, knock more over the sides to their deaths on the floor below. The rest began to circle round the gantry in the opposite direction.

“We need to get to the next walkway before they do,” Twilight shouted back at them. “Otherwise we’re done for.”

The small resistance group picked up as much speed as they could. Lyra and Applejack began to lag behind them. Lyra could tell that Applejack was starting to struggle. Bullets flew past them and into the walls. One came close to Lyra’s helmet, just scratching the top of it before embedding itself in the wall. Finally, they reached the walkway and turned into it. As they did so Lyra began to pull away from Applejack. nVVe extracted himself from the throng of Bolkarn and joined them, as did Rainbow Dash who landed on the walkway just in front of the elevator door and began opening fire on the two groups of Bolkarn that were slowly closing in on them.

Then Applejack spotted a single Bolkarn who’d detached himself from the rest, he was standing on the gantry facing them, he raised his gun and fired a single shot.

“LOOK OUT!” Applejack shouted, and then she leapt forward and on top of Lyra, pushing the unicorn down to the floor, the bullet went straight though Applejack.

Lyra heard Twilight let out a loud scream. She looked up and saw Twilight lower her head and fire a burst of magic at the Bolkarn that had just shot Applejack. This wasn’t a normal single shot blast but a full stream of magic. The Bolkarn was lifted off his feet and pinned to the wall. Twilight’s eyes were wide and glowing. Lyra could just see the light coming through the visor of her helmet. All anyone could clearly see of Twilight’s face was her mouth, which had now formed into a wide grimace with her teeth being forced tightly together.

Then Lyra realized that she could still hear Applejack breathing, her breaths were harsh and ragged but they were still breaths.

“TWILIGHT!” she shouted, once again forgetting all about rank, “SHE’S NOT DEAD,” she almost ended that sentence with ‘yet’ but decided against it.

Twilight either ignored her or just couldn’t hear her as she continued her assault on the Bolkarn. The two groups of Bolkarn finally met at the end of the walkway, and Quell and Rainbow Dash began to open fire on them.

“Twilight, come on,” Rainbow Dash said. “We need to go NOW!”

“Whuh?” Twilight’s magic attack ceased and she came to her senses. “Oh, gosh! Come on everypony,” she shouted.

Lyra forced herself to her feet, bearing Applejack’s body on her back.

“Applejack, if you can, hold on tight,” she said before darting towards the now open elevator door.

Quell and Rainbow Dash continued to fire on the Bolkarn as Lyra made it through the elevator door, once they were all inside the doors closed and they heard a hail of bullets slamming into them. Quell pressed the button to take them up to the control center. Lyra let Applejack slip off her back and onto the floor. Lyra’s body armor was covered in her blood, blood which was flowing out onto the floor and forming a large red pool.

“A… Applejack…” Twilight said quietly after throwing off her helmet, tears starting to form in her eyes. “Are… are you…?”

“Shush,” Applejack said, but it sounded like she only just managed it. “Don’t cry sugar cube.”

“But… but…”

“It’s okay Twilight, it’s okay.”

“No… no it’s not!”

“nVVe, check her condition,” Quell said.

nVVe floated into Applejack, he only remained there for a few seconds.

“The bullet passed through Captain Applejack’s heart and left lung,” he told them. “Captain Applejack will die in a few minutes.”

“Wha’ did… ACK! Wha’ did he say?” Applejack asked, as did Twilight, Lyra repeated what nVVe had told them.

“No…” Twilight whimpered.

“Ah well, had to happen sometime didn’t it,” Applejack said.

Lyra was shocked at how easily Applejack had accepted that she only had a few minutes to live, in fact Lyra was sure Applejack had realized that long before nVVe had told them. Twilight on the other hand definitely hadn’t.

“Please, hold on,” she said. “Hold on a bit longer, we can get you back to the ship. We can save you.”

The pool of Applejack’s blood had spread to cover the whole of the elevator floor. Lyra didn’t like the idea of standing in another pony’s blood, but still after losing this much Applejack was still alive. Just how much did she have?

“Twi… Twilight,” Applejack said. “Ya know that isn’t gonna happen.”

“NO! We can do it, I know we can.”

“Twilight, if ya ever find Apple Bloom, tell her… tell her…” and then Applejack’s eyes closed, she stopped breathing.

There was a dead silence after Applejack’s last words, broken only by Twilight.

“A… Applejack,” Twilight whispered, nudging Applejack’s body with a hoof. “Come on AJ, speak to me. You can do it, come on… please!”

More silence. And then Twilight gave up. She buried her head in her forelegs and rested them on Applejack’s body. She began crying very loudly, the noise echoed around the elevator. Lyra felt a few tears welling up in her own eyes, and an image flashed through her mind of herself crying over Bon Bon’s dead body. Then Rainbow Dash grabbed Twilight by the face and glared at her, she didn’t seem to care that she was getting blood from her hooves over Twilight’s face. Twilight was already covered in it anyway.

“Twilight, snap out of it,” Rainbow Dash shouted at her.

“But… but… Applejack…”

“…is dead, yeah I know. But we don’t have time to grieve now, you can do that later. But right now, we. Have. To. Get. OUT OF HERE!”

Twilight just stared at Rainbow Dash with her mouth hanging open, after a few seconds she shook herself, as well as giving herself a slap across the face.

“I’m sorry, you’re right,” she said after taking a few deep breaths.

“It’s okay, I feel the same,” Rainbow said gently, giving Twilight a light pat on the head.

“nVVe, check that the command center’s empty before we get there,” Twilight said.

nVVe flashed an affirmative before floating up through the elevator’s ceiling. It wasn’t long before he reappeared and confirmed that the command center was clear, just as the elevator stopped there. They quickly left the elevator and headed for one that would take them to the hanger bay, while nVVe floated through the ceiling to confirm that the hanger was unoccupied Lyra lifted Applejack’d body onto her back and went to join the others, moving slowly and carefully so Applejack didn’t fall off and stepping over the bodies of dead Bolkarn as she went.

Once nVVe had confirmed that the hanger was safe Rainbow Dash fired a few shots into the controls for the elevators in the central column, rendering them useless. Then they ascended up to the hanger bay and quickly headed for their ships.

“You okay to fly that thing?” Rainbow Dash asked Twilight.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Twilight replied as Quell deactivated the security systems for the Carrier. “What about you?”

“I’m okay,” Rainbow Dash replied. “I don’t think it hit anything vital, I guess I got lucky.”

Lyra dropped off Applejack’s body in the Carrier before heading to her fighter. Once the security systems had been deactivated she climbed aboard. After everyone was in their craft Twilight gave them the all clear for their departure. Rainbow and Lyra’s fighters took off first. They stopped few meters from the ceiling and tilted the two ships so that their front ends were pointing upwards. Once again they proceeded to fire charges into it, it took several more then it had the first time but they managed it. The air began to rush out around them, and the two fighters shot out just as the Carrier began to take off below them.

The two fighters pulled away from the T.S. station, with the stations remaining weapons firing shot after shot after them, they managed to dodge every one. Then they both realized that the Carrier wasn’t following them. Turning round they saw that that it was circling round the station and opening fire on it with its own weapons.

“TWILIGHT, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Lyra heard Rainbow Dash shout over the radio. “Lyra, take out as many of the stations weapons as you can. Use charges if you have to.”

Lyra shot her fighter back towards the station, and began to open fire. She sunk charge after charge into the station’s hull, before long the station’s weapons were aiming for her as well. One charge left an enormous gaping hole in the section she hit and she saw a body come flying it, she must’ve punched through the hull and into a cell.

“TWILIGHT! TWILIGHT STOP, SNAP OUT OF IT,” she could hear Rainbow Dash shouting over the radio, but not even the few shots that hit the Carrier were stopping Twilight’s attack.

“Don’t make me do this,” Rainbow said.

Twilight didn’t listen, she just continued to fire shot after shot at the station.

“Okay then, here goes.”

Rainbow Dash fired a volley of blasts into the Carrier, a small explosion burst out from it. Rainbow Dash had taken out the ship’s engines. But Twilight still didn’t stop blasting the station. Rainbow Dash turned the rear of her fighter towards the Carrier and fired a cable from the back which attached itself to the Carrier with a strong magnet. Lyra did the same with hers and together they towed the Carrier back to the Dominator II.

“…and that’s pretty much it,” Lyra said.

Apple Bloom and Bon Bon had both been listening to Lyra’s account of the incident for over half an hour, neither of them had said a word for at least twenty minutes and both of them had their mouths hanging open.

“Once we got back we found out that a patrol ship from the station had returned from its usual round and the Bolkarn on it had boarded the Dominator II, but they’d been subdued by the time we got back,” Lyra said. “Afterwards we were all reprimanded over what had happened. Though most of it was directed at Twilight since she organized the operation, the rest of us had just volunteered.”

There was a brief silence after that.

“Anythin’ else?” Apple Bloom asked.

Lyra shook her head, “That’s all.”

“Oh.”

“Are you ok Apple Bloom?”

Apple Bloom shook her head.

“No, I didn’t think you would be, to be honest I’m feeling a little down myself after telling you all that.”

Apple Bloom sniffed, and soon started to cry once again. Lyra gently pulled Apple Bloom into a hug. She didn’t hug her tightly though because of the hard metal of her arm, she didn’t think that would be very comfortable.

“That’s it, let it all out,” she said gently. “I know those feeling aren’t going to go away, but they’ll lessen over time, trust me I know.”

Bon Bon just watched the two of them, saying nothing. Eventually Apple Bloom stopped crying and Lyra let her go.

“Thanks,” Apple Bloom said, wiping away some leftover tears, “fer tellin’ me what happened to Applejack.”

“You’re welcome,” Lyra said, giving Apple Bloom a light pat on the back. “Like I said, someone had to.”

“One last question,” Apple Bloom said. “Do yah know what she was tryin’ to say when she… wha’ she wanted Twilight to tell me?”

Lyra shook her head.

“Oh.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, please don’t be.”

“Alright.” Lyra paused and then said, “One last thing. I think you should be proud of your sister, even if I didn’t know her for very long she’s probably one of the best, and certainly one of the bravest ponies I’ve ever met.”

“Ah am,” Apple Bloom said quietly. “Ah’d think Ah need to be by myself for a while,” she said as she got down from the table.

“Ok,” Lyra said, “I guess we’ll see you around then.”

“Yeah.” Apple Bloom then walked out of the canteen door and down the corridor to Applejack’s cabin.

She lay down on the bed, thinking about everything that had happened to her and what Lyra had told her. Applejack had died saving Lyra’s life, and Scootaloo had died saving hers. Lyra blamed herself for Applejack’s death. Did that mean that Scootloo’s death was her fault? No, there was nothing she could’ve done to prevent that, either one of them died or both of them did, Scootaloo chose the latter option. And as for Applejack, that’s probably how she would’ve wanted to go. Yes, she wouldn’t want to just waste away over decades and just die of old age or exhaustion or starvation in a Bolkarn mine. She’d want to go out helping somepony, even if that meant giving up her own life to save another.

Apple Bloom looked over at Applejack’s hat which was sitting on the bedside table. Twilight had said that she would’ve wanted Apple Bloom to have it, and Lyra said she should feel proud of Applejack. She was right to. Apple Bloom reached for the hat and put it on.

Comments

[Ariel Schnee]

"No, there was nothing she could’ve done to prevent that, either one of them died or both of them did, Scootaloo choose the latter option."

should be :

"No, there was nothing she could’ve done to prevent that. Either one of them died, or both of them did. Scootaloo chose the former option."