Star Flight

by Dainbow Rash

Chapter Seven: Pinkie Pie

Primus Galaxy, Starship Raptorian, Primus Year 269230769W

The ship was in pandemonium.

Frightened ponies scurried across the catwalks and the cold metal floors of the Industrial Research Vessel, the Starship Raptorian. Computer specialists were locked out of their complicated and heavily protected terminals by the skill of an unseen pony who’s knowledge of hacking was far above that of their own. It was as if the spirit of chaos had decided to drop by for a visit, causing enough damage to last for weeks.

“The cages! They’re open!” a frantic, elderly pony wearing a lab coat and glasses exclaimed wildly to the ship’s commanding officer.

“You don’t mean...” The bulky captain started fearfully, reluctantly letting go of the last words. “those cages!?”

The scientist pony nodded with finality. “The danger has reached a whole new level, sir!” he stuttered, trotting eagerly to a nearby computer. “Look! We’re boned!” He pointed to the glowing blue screen.

Server has been locked.
Please call administrator.

“We have one of the most sophisticated firewalls in all of the Primus galaxy!” he said in disbelief. “Nopony could have broken it down alone! Nopony!”

The captain lingered for a minute. Finally, he gestured for the scientist to follow him. “Contact Major Ace... tell him to schedule the ship’s demolition in three hours.” he said as he galloped urgently to the head of the ship. Upon leading the scientist pony to the control room, he activated his own personal terminal and, with apparent difficulty, sent a ship-wide directive. “I’ve just informed the entire crew of the evacuation plan...”

The scientist pony choked out a gasp. “Sir--” he began, but stopped himself.

“If this ship goes down...” he said with determination in his voice as he grabbed a large rifle out of a nearby gun cabinet. “...we’ll lose everything. But that’s not half as bad as letting the information stored on this ship fall into the wrong hooves. And if those creatures escape... there will be hell to pay. I’m taking it all down with the ship!”

Without another word, the captain nervously cocked the rifle with his teeth and trotted out of the room.

-

Two ponies sat in a quiet, dark room. A slightly wrinkled, pea-green unicorn with a graying mane and thick glasses clicked away on the keyboard of a large computer. He focused hard on the bright screen that served as the only illumination in the small, dimly lit room.

“They’re giving me quite a show, these ponies!” he said in a voice that was shaky, but still had a certain tinge of youthfulness left in it. “In a moment or two, I’ll have these dimwits wrapped around my finger!”

“Finger?” the other pony, this one bright pink, piped up from the corner.

This dampened the pony’s elation by just a bit. “Eh, hoof, whatever. It’s an expression!’ he explained with a hint of annoyance.

“Oh, professor!” the pink one teased. “And you wonder why everypony thinks you’re so weird!”

“No I don’t!” The professor broke from his focus completely. “I mean, everypony does not think I’m weird!” he fumed, turning to the pink one, who’s sheepish grin was hidden by the shadows. “I am a man of science!”

“A man!?” the pink mare carelessly let out a fit of loud laughter. “You’re a stallion, professor!”

“That’s it! I’m ignoring you for the next...” the professor stopped to look at his watch. “Thirty minutes!”

“Oh professor, don’t be that way!” the pink one came down from her hysterics. “You know Pinkie’s just messing with you! It’s just that you need to take your snout out of those boring ‘inter-dimensional manuscripts’ or whatever every now and then!”

The professor grimaced, turning back to his work on the computer. “Ok... let’s change the subject...” he said with boredom in his voice. “The strange thing is... these scientists seemed to put a lot of time into fortifying the remote controls on the biosphere creature cells...” he put a hoof to his mouth thoughtfully, scrolling down to read the newly accessed information on the computer screen. “It says here they’re just holding cockatrices in there!”

Cockatrices. That word dug deep into the pink one. A number of uncontrollable twitches and spasms went off simultaneously throughout her body at the mention of them.

She had a bad feeling about this. Her Pinkie sense was definitely tingling.

-

Primus Galaxy, Starship Votum, Primus Year 269230769W

“First-lieutenant, for the last time I. Don’t. Know!” Captain Acharis growled at Starflight. He stood his ground, staring her down.

“I need to know!” He dropped his focus and paced around the control room. “It’s... it’s driving me crazy!”

“As a military we have other, bigger things to worry about!” she said sharply. “And as a captain, I have more important ponies to waste my time on!”

Starflight ignored the unicorn’s gesture for him to leave. “How do you know?” he asked, basking in Acharis’ confused look. “If you don’t know anything about it, how do you know it’s not big enough to be your highest priority!?”

“We assess problems as they arise.” she shot back. “The spacetime rips haven’t caused any problems since that day on the Haydes. Now be grateful you survived that and return to your dorm, or you’ll have nothing to be grateful for!”

Starflight stood for a moment, struggling to find a remark to finish the conversation, but, failing to do so, he grunted and turned to the door.

The Captain’s Up-link beeped with a message from the Starship Raptorian. She looked up from the machine strapped to her leg and called after Starflight. “First-lieutenant!”

He stopped his hoof from pressing the elevator button in mid air and turned to the captain. “Yes?”

“No need to return to your dorm yet...” she said with a cruel smile. Starflight did not like the looks of it. “I have a mission for you: the lucky first-lieutenant who just happened to be in my control room when I received this message!”

-

Starflight trudged inside his dorm drowsily.

“Yo!” Rainbow Dash called. She laid curled up on the couch with a book spread open in front of her. Her tail wagged with delight as she read on, paying only half attention to the dramatic pegasus in the room. “How’d it go with cap’?”

“Terrible!” he whined as he plopped himself down on a dusty armchair. “No answers! And guess what! Another mission!”

“Yeah, yeah, I don’t really care!” Rainbow Dash silenced Starflight. “Did you know, Starswirl the Bearded invented time-travel spells? If he were still alive today I bet he could help us with this spacetime thingy, huh?” Rainbow Dash giggled. “It says here, the ponies of Equestria don’t even know what happened to him! He just disappeared! It’s all here in this book you got me on Libro Novum V!”

“That’s great” Starflight groaned. “But I’m sure he wouldn’t know anything the Primus military doesn’t.”

“Yeah, well he seems like a pretty smart guy!” she argued. “I bet with access to the technology of today he could figure it out!”

“Yeah, well too bad he’s dead!” Starflight concluded.

“Probably dead.” Rainbow Dash corrected. “He disappeared, remember?”

Starflight glanced at his Up-link. “Yeah, whatever. I’m going to hit the hay, I’ll be gone by the time you wake up.” Starflight grunted and lifted himself from the armchair.

“Sure you will!” Rainbow Dash said ominously.

Starflight lingered for a second, but decided not to bother with questions.

-

After getting what seemed like a full minute of sleep, Starflight waddled around his room, throwing his uniform on as he blinked sleep out of his eyes. The main room of the dorm was dark, Rainbow Dash was, as Starflight predicted, still asleep.

After taking a deep breath, he trotted out of the dorm in the direction of the hangar. The lack of closure from the past few week’s events bothered him now more than ever. He thought about it so much sometimes it gave him physical headaches. He lost focus on his duties around the ship and wouldn’t go a day without questioning the captain profusely, much to her annoyance. The unanswered questions swelled in his head uncontrollably, and it was ready to burst.

As if his body was on autopilot, Starflight found himself in the hangar within minutes. Exterminate the Cockatrices. Get out he repeated to himself as he readied his ship for take off. So distracted by his own troubled thoughts, he failed to notice the quietly giggling Rainbow Dash stowed-away in a back-container in the Liberator.

Restless, Starflight conducted the short trip to the Raptorian, which was situated in an adjacent sector to the Votum. Acharis told him all about the situation of the ship: a few cockatrices, get out in less than three hours for a quick and efficient re-entry for the ship’s crew. Easy enough, all of the crew had already evacuated. This was essentially a pest-control mission, the easiest and most boring kind.

As the Liberator approached the silently drifting Raptorian, Starflight made a few observations. The ship itself had the same basic design as the Votum, but looked a bit more bulky and more... advanced. A research vessels were usually much smaller than military ships like the Votum, but this one was gargantuan. It stretched across the black blanket of space like a lost ghost, floating with no sense of direction through the vastness of space.

-

Primus Galaxy, Starship Raptorian, Primus Year 269230769W

Starflight landed the ship inside of the standard hangar, now completely empty. He jumped out and took another deep breath. “And so the long... boring... unbearable, search begins!” he whined to himself. Making a quick check for supplies, he hoofed his laser pistol, already loaded, and the three extra energy cells in his vest. A weapon, a total of 120 charges, and a bullet-proof vest; he was all set. “Okay. Let’s go disintegrate some cockatrices!” he said to himself.

“Alright!” Rainbow Dash said loudly, her voice echoing as she floated out of the Liberator. “I can’t wait to kill something!”

“Just leave the killing to me, I don’t --” Starflight began to say before slowly turning to the excited filly. “Rainbow Dash...”

She smiled broadly at the first-lieutenant’s suspicious gaze. “Yes?”

He grunted through clenched teeth.. “Just answer me this: why?”

Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously. “Well you know, I just had to get out!” she said with misplaced innocence. “Reading books is fun and all, but sitting around all day is just so... boring!”

“But you don’t even like going on missions!” he reminded Rainbow Dash, who looked surprisingly comfortable and unworried. “Did you forget!?”

“Something changed...” she started, still smiling. “Last mission, I realized that... this is what I want to do!” She remembered how amazing it felt to kill that Primus military pony, the righteous energy that flowed through her at that moment was a feeling Rainbow Dash had tried to emulate since she got back to the Votum.

Starflight looked to Rainbow Dash worriedly. “You’re too young to want to be involved in anything like this.” he murmured.

“Look,” Rainbow Dash said firmly. “You and I both know you won’t take me back to the Votum, and even if you wanted to... I wouldn’t let you!”

“Whatever,” Starflight said to avoid an argument. He went down that road before. It wasn’t pretty. “Just stay behind me and... don’t touch anything.” He finished and turned to the exit of the hangar, but felt it was important to turn back to Rainbow Dash for emphasis. “Anything!”

“You’re the boss.” She said, although neither of them actually believed that. “So what are hunting today, boss?”

“Cockatrices.” he spat back, as if the name left a bad taste in his mouth. “Easy stuff.”

“Cockatrices?” Rainbow Dash asked with slight worry. “Aren’t those dangerous?”

She remembered the story her old friend from Ponyville, a filly named Scootaloo, told her about her encounter with a cockatrice. It apparently turned her other friend, Twilight Sparkle, into a stone. If it wasn’t for the sudden bravery of her timid friend, Fluttershy, she would have remained stone for a very long time.

You used to have enough friends to go around, the same voice that wouldn’t leave her alone returned inside her head, not anymore!

Rainbow Dash wished the voice away, almost missing Starflight’s response.

“They would be,” he said with a humorous smile. “If they weren’t so stupid!”

-

Instead of leading to the same pleasant biosphere like the Votum, the exit opened into a multi-leveled, cylindrical room. In the middle was a thick, glowing blue rod that pulsated with energy. Starflight looked up to it from the ground floor, it was protected by glass, and surrounded by catwalks that spread in three different directions. Box-shaped capacitors connected to it through the glass, feeding it more energy.

“Whoa!” Starflight exclaimed, staring in awe at the giant machine. “I’ve read about these things... but I’ve never actually seen one up close!”

“What is it?” Rainbow Dash was only mildly impressed.

“An EIQ8 Energy Drive!” Starflight said in a wondrous tone. “It’s experimental. I wonder why they would put something as powerful as this on a research vessel...” his joy turned to suspicion.

“I don’t know, but--” Rainbow Dash started, but was halted when Starflight raised a hoof to the air to silence her.

He slowly slid his tail into the bag he carried at his side and wrapped it around his loaded laser pistol. Rainbow Dash listened closely, searching for the disturbance. The confusion showed on her face when she looked at Starflight’s hopeful smile.

In a flash, he pointed the pistol, still wrapped in his tail, ahead of him and squeezed the trigger. A brilliant red beam pierced the air and zoomed past the energy drive, through the second floor catwalk and into a lizard-like creature. With a squawk, the lone cockatrice sizzled and died.

“Alright!” Starflight exclaimed. “Direct hit!”

“Not bad...” Rainbow Dash observed.

-

Starflight and Rainbow Dash flew to the second floor and, after killing two more cockatrices, decided to make their way to the bridge.

The silence was broken only by the echoing of the two ponies’ chatter. After Rainbow Dash stopped trying to get Starflight to lend him her pistol, they were silent for a moment. The corridor that lead to the bridge was, like the rest of the ship, quiet and dim. Steam rose from vents in the floor, most of the lights were turned off, the ship must have been running on auxiliary power.

Starflight opened his mouth to say something, but was stopped short when he heard the unmistakable voice of a pony, muffled through the door to the bride. He looked to Rainbow Dash, she heard it too. Gesturing for her to stay still, he pressed his ear against the door.

“I think we’ve dug ourselves into a hole...” a stallion’s voice said.

“What do you mean? I don’t see any holes!” the cheerful, high pitched voice of a female pony chimed.

The stallion groaned. “I mean... I’ve made it harder for myself to access this terminal’s files!” the stallion said tirelessly. “Sometimes my own genius irritates me.”

“I know how you feel!” the muffled female voice exclaimed.

“For some reason I doubt that.” the stallion said, dryly. “Pinkie, why don’t you stand watch outside, make sure none of those nasty birds finds their way in here, huh?”

“Okie Dokie Lokie!” she said, missing the stallion’s sarcasm.

Starflight backed away from the door quickly. “What is it?” Rainbow Dash whispered.

Starflight had his pistol pointed at the door, ready to shoot on a seconds notice. The hatch beeped and a small red light above it turned green. Starflight’s stomach felt uneasy as the door slowly slid open.

Behind the door was a smiling pink mare with a puffy pink mane. “Starflight!” she exclaimed, surprised by the first-lieutenant’s appearance.

“Pinkie Pie!?” Rainbow Dash gasped.

“Rainbow Dash!” she said cheerfully.

“Starflight!” the aged, pea-green unicorn called from behind Pinkie Pie.

“Who!?” Starflight blurted loudly.

“Rainbow Dash!” the green one called, ignoring Starflight.

“Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie Pie shouted, louder than the rest.

“Ok! Ok...” Starflight started. His brain felt as if it was about to explode multiple times. “H-how do you...”

“Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow Dash said almost angrily. “What in the name of the sweet Goddess Celestia are you doing here!?”

“What do you mean!?” she giggled. “I told you already, silly!”

Rainbow Dash stared at her incredulously. “The only thing you’ve done since we got here was shout our names! What kind of explanation is that!?”

“You’re confusing me, Dashie!” Pinkie Pie looked sincerely bewildered and maybe a little hurt.

“By the way...” Starflight chimed. “How do you know my name?”

“That’s a good question!” Rainbow Dash sounded suspicious. “So many weird things have happened since I left Equestria... how do I know you’re the real Pinkie Pie?”

Pinkie thought for a minute, before deciding in her mind. She suddenly dug her head into a bag she was carrying at her side and pulled a out a knife, sheathed in a shiny leather holder. “Look! Proof!” she said through the knife in her mouth. She placed it on the floor for Rainbow Dash to inspect.

Lifting it in her own mouth, she cautiously unsheathed it.

“Careful!” Pinkie Pie reminded.

The knife was shiny and finely sharpened. On one side, small words were etched into the steel. “Rainbow Dash.” she read aloud.

“You gave it to me...” Pinkie Pie said much quieter and with an ounce of sadness, but still smiling. “As a going away present. Don’t you remember?”

“Pinkie Pie...” Rainbow Dash looked up to the pink mare with a new feeling of familiarity. One of her best friends, after months of being separated, was standing right in front of her. The real mare that could make Rainbow Dash smile no matter how bleak the situation. The real element of laughter. The real Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie Pie...” she repeated. Tears welled up in her eyes as she moved closer to the mare. They stared at each other for a moment, Pinkie with a look of unabashed happiness, and Rainbow Dash with a mixture of guilt, sadness, and hope plastered on her face. After a second of stillness, Rainbow Dash wordlessly threw her hooves around Pinkie Pie, pulling her close, not caring what the two surrounding stallions thought. She held her old friend tightly, her body shaking with silent sobs.

“Aww, Dashie!” Pinkie Pie said said cheerfully. “You’re going to make me cry!”

After a few more silent seconds, Starflight piped up. “Ok, now that we’re done with that...” he said, trying to hide his emotional response, “We need answers!”

“I agree!” the unicorn from inside the bridge called. “Why don’t you three come in here?”

Rainbow Dash broke from the embrace, sniffing and wiping her moist eyes. They trotted through the door, Pinkie bounced.

The bridge was smaller than the one on the Votum. The lights were more dim, the machines more unfamiliar. A small bench stood beside what looked like a stasis pod. The unicorn sat at one of the unfamiliar machines, one that looked like a very advanced computer.

“Why don’t they remember, professor?” Pinkie asked as she sat on her haunches in front of the unicorn.

He gestured for the rest to do the same. “Alternate timeline, Pinkie.” He stated matter-of-factly. “Telling them so hastily was a rookie mistake!”

“I’m sorry professor!” Pinkie squeaked. “I just got so excited! I didn’t know!”

“It’s ok,” the professor said, folding his forelegs. “I’m sure you guys are just bursting with questions!” he said, less seriously to the two newcomers.

“Yes.” Starflight said bluntly.

“Well, first thing’s first I suppose.” he said, putting his hoof to his mouth. “Ah yes, introductions! My name is Professor Versos!” he reached a hoof in front of him for a hoofshake.

The pegasus returned it. “Starflight...” he said.

“I know!” Versos said with a smile. “You see, we aren’t supposed to meet until the near future, and under much more grim circumstances, I might add.”

“I assume you were sucked into a spacetime vortex.” Starflight said.

“Well, no” Versos winced. “But I can’t exactly explain that to you... I shouldn’t at least.”

“The captain said no one else was on this ship...” Starflight accepted the professor’s constraint, but looked at him with suspicion all the same. “Are you supposed to be here?”

Versos chuckled nervously. “Define supposed.”

“If by ‘supposed to be here’,” Pinkie Pie cut in loudly. “you mean ‘we’re breaking most of the laws of the Primus galaxy by being here’ then yes! We’re really supposed to be here!” she looked very proud of herself.

“Pinkie!” Versos was flabbergasted. “Well, no. We’re aren’t supposed to be here...” he grunted.

Starflight thought about that for a second. “So then why exactly are you here?”

Versos looked like he was about to answer, but Pinkie Pie cut in again. “To steal a highly classified piece of research!”

Versos shot Pinkie another furious look. “We’re not stealing anything!” he hissed, both to Pinkie and Starflight. “I’m taking back my research.”

“You’re a scientist.” Starflight observed. “Do you work for the Primus military?”

“I worked for the Primus military, yes.” he stressed the past tense. “But something happened... and I chose to leave.”

“Lots of stuff happened!” Pinkie Pie corrected. “Scary stuff!”

“Basically,” the professor continued, ignoring Pinkie. “We’ve been wrongly accused of a lot of... scary stuff.”

“So you’re on the run...” Starflight glared at the nervous professor.

“The Primus military of next year is not the same you know today!” Versos said fearfully at Starflight’s fierce gaze. “You and I are friends not too long from now! I promise!”

This wasn’t news. Sarge said something about the Primus military “changing” . Suddenly, an idea popped into Starflight’s head. “You seem like a pretty smart guy...”

“Yes!” Versos was confident. “I am!”

“Then you can tell me what’s causing the spacetime rips...” Starflight said carefully. This was only one of the many questions that ate at him.

“That’s exactly what we’re here to find out!” Versos’ eyes brightened. “Well... sorta. And now that you’re here, you can help!”

Starflight couldn’t shake his suspicion completely. He looked to Rainbow Dash, who had been silent the whole time recovering from the emotional reunion. “What do you think, Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to offer snappy insight, but looked to Pinkie Pie, who looked overly excited. “What’s the worst that could happen?” she said after a second of hesitation.

A lot can happen! he thought, but said, “Alright Versos. We’ll see what we can do.”

“Great!” Versos clapped his hooves together with excitement. “You can start by taking that distraction,” he pointed a hoof to Pinkie Pie, “into the living quarters. Keep her busy, this is a very delicate procedure, here.” he gestured to the computer he worked on.

With no further discussion, Pinkie bounced in the direction of the door. Starflight looked to a smiling Rainbow Dash. “After you.” he gestured for Rainbow Dash to go on ahead.

-

Starflight was truly amazed at Pinkie Pie’s ability to rapidly and endlessly speak about absolutely nothing. After nearly half an hour of listening to her rant on about cupcakes and oatmeal, intently at that, Rainbow Dash announced, “I need to go to the little filly’s room!”

Pinkie Pie abruptly stopped her analysis of balloons to point a hoof to the left. “There’s one right down the hall!” she said helpfully.

Starflight glanced at Rainbow Dash with a look that said don’t leave me here with this crazy mare! She left anyway, hovering to the restroom with crossed legs. Starflight was left to be tortured alone.

“So, Starflight!” Pinkie Pie said when the door closed behind Rainbow Dash. “Pretend that I don’t already know everything about you already and tell me a little bit about yourself!”

Starflight was duly creeped out, but Pinkie Pie was silent for the first time in what seemed like forever, so he responded. “Well, I’m Starflight.” he started hesitantly. “I’m a first-lieutenant in the Primus military...”

“Not for long!” Pinkie Pie blurted out and giggled. “Whoops, I’m not supposed to tell you that yet!”

The two ponies were sitting at a small square table with a number of scattered, unfamiliar devices. Starflight grabbed one of them and fiddled with it. “Is that a good thing?” he asked coolly. “You can tell me.” He knew she liked to talk, so it wouldn’t be hard to get information out of her.

Pinkie suddenly looked very uncomfortable. “Oooh...” she said uneasily. “The professor said I can’t tell you anything! It could mess things up!”

Starflight looked to into her eyes pleasantly. “C’mon.”

That was apparently enough to push her over the edge. “Okay I’ll tell you!”

“What do you want to know?” she leaned over the table like she was just exploding with things to say.

“Well, tell me about the time we first met...” he pushed. “Originally, I mean...”

“Ohh, that one is a doozy!” her excitement seemed to reach its climax. Suddenly she sat back in her seat, crossing her legs and lowering her head seriously. “What do you know about... the Magisters?”

-

Rainbow Dash finished her business in the small, unwelcoming bathroom. The room had two entrances, the one that she came in through, and another on the opposite side. This heavy steel door must have lead to another hallway, parallel to the one Starflight and Pinkie sat in. She inspected it for a moment, wondering if she should go through it. Curiosity got the best of her and she pressed a nearby button.

The door’s various latches spun and disconnected from the door, leaving it free to slide open. the door led to space. At least that was Rainbow Dash’s first impression. The floor was glass, it offered a clear view into space. Directly below the ship was a planet with a pale green glow. It’s vibrant light illuminated in the room she was standing in. Her mouth hung open in awe. The energy drive from earlier stretched down into this one, ending in a large, dangerous-looking machine. The structure hung under the Raptorian, either feeding the ship energy, or being fed energy, Rainbow Dash couldn’t tell.

The room was silent, so when a sound quieter than a pin-drop whispered behind her she turned quickly. Nothing was there. Thoughtlessly turning back to the wondrous sight before her, she considered going back to inform Starflight or the professor of what she found, she decided against it though, wanting to keep its magnificence to herself for just a few more minutes...

Her euphoria was broken when she heard a familiar squawk sound from behind her. Swiftly, she pivoted around to see a hideous sight. The creature had the head of a chicken with morbid red eyes, sickly attached to the green, scaly body of a large lizard. She gave the pathetic bird some space, chuckling at its face. Backing up, she glared at it with confidence, until her rump bumped into something that wasn’t there before. Turning once again, another cockatrice flanked her from behind. A bit more shaken now, she glanced around the room, finding more cockatrices, to her dismay. They flooded the glass floor, spilling from the balconies. They were everywhere.

“Starflight!!” she screamed, finding herself defenseless. “Pinkie Pie!! Anypony, help me!!”

-

Before she could finish her story (or even begin, really) the terrified voice startled Pinkie Pie. “Rainbow Dash!?” she called and looked behind her.

Starflight, already off the ground, darted toward the now empty bathroom. “Rainbow Dash!?” he yelled with agitation. Upon seeing the opened hatch at the opposite end of the room, he dashed through it. Pinkie galloped behind him. They were stopped short by a barricade of three cockarices. Piercing each with its own laser. They collapsed without much more effort, landing lifeless on the glass floor.

Starflight accelerated past their corpses, flying into the spacey room that was now filled with at least one-hundred cockatrices.

Rainbow Dash hovered above the flooded floor, a cockatrice had its beak around her left hind leg. “Starflight!” she called as she shook her leg desperately. “Pass me your gun!”

Denying her request, Starflight fired off another laser, missing Rainbow Dash’s leg by inches. The cockatrice plummeted to the ground, disappearing into the pulsating swarm of abominations below.

Meeting her halfway, Starflight caught hold of the distraught filly. More of the pests leaped from the upper-level footways with hopes of latching onto the escaping ponies.

“Hurry, guys!” Pinkie Pie called from the ground. “These cockatrices aren’t like the ones from Equestria! And there are a lot of them!”

“No, really!?” Starflight yelled over the chortling of the deranged creatures.

Tossing Rainbow Dash through the hatch with Pinkie Pie, Starflight picked off a few more of the pests before completely using up his first energy cell. He dove through the doorway before any of the enraged beasts could beat him to hit. Pinkie quickly punched the electrical switch, leaving the cockatrices to ferociously slam on the now closed hatch.

“What. the. hell!?” Starflight panted.

Rainbow Dash, looking and sounding very alarmed, cowered in the corner of the bathroom. “Why were there so many!? Where did they come from!?”

“I told you!” Pinkie Pie reminded. “They aren’t like the cockatrices from Equestria! The Primus military made these ones... different!”

“Different how?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Pinkie Pie looked as if she had no idea, but Professor Versos walked into the bathroom at that moment. “What is going on in here?” he glared at the three sweaty, panting ponies on the bathroom floor with disgust.

“It’s not--” Starflight began.

“You know what?” Versos cut in, “I really don’t want to know. Anyway, I just got done hacking into the computer’s research files!” The excitement was apparent in his voice.

“And?” Pinkie Pie gestured for him to continue.

“Ah yes. Well I have good news and bad news!” he paused for a second. “Good news is I found a ton of new information and downloaded it to this thing” he pointed a hoof to his Up-link, “Bad news is it’s only about twenty percent of the data on this ship! I suspect the juicier bits are hidden deeper in the ship! So we’re not done looking yet!”

“I feel like I shouldn’t be letting you get away with this.” Starflight looked at Versos suspiciously.

“Trust me, Starflight!” he said with a warm, yet slightly nervous, smile. “We’re friends, remember?”

“Not yet,” Starflight stood up, glaring once again. “I’ve got my eye on you!”

“Calm down, Starflight!” Rainbow Dash trotted after him. “He’s a friend of Pinkie Pie’s! We don’t need to worry.”

Starflight grunted in agreement or defeat, it wasn’t clear which.

“That’s what I like to hear!” Versos cheered. “On to the Steamworks! We need to go through there to get to the mainframes.”

“Uh, professor?” Pinkie Pie interrupted nervously. “There’s something you should know!”

“Yes, Pinkie?” Versos said with a patronizing tone.

“You know those holding cells you opened earlier?” Pinkie Pie continued reluctantly, looking to Starflight and Rainbow Dash for confirmation, they shrugged.

“Yes, Pinkie” he rolled his eyes. “It happened less than an hour ago. I remember”

“The chemically altered ones?” she tried again.

“Yes!”

“Well...” she looked more nervous than ever. “There’s a lot of them! Like...” she lowered her voice to a whimper. “...hundreds. They must have opened the rest of the cages!”