Prologue

The Pony Lisa

>Prologue
“Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria; there were two regal sisters who ruled the land. The eldest, used her Alicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn. The youngest, brought out the moon to begin the night."

"But elsewhere, on the other side of the world, the race of Griffins became envious. The Ponies of Equestria could manipulate the weather and time of day whenever they liked. The Griffins however, just had to make do with gloomy rain and miserable days. Peace and harmony were only reflected around Equestria, but everywhere else in the world, things weren’t quite so heavenly."

"Secretly, the Griffins built weapons, vehicles, and star ships, with the intent of bringing the Ponies down off their pedestal, and colonizing other, more cheerful worlds. Their home planet became a war zone, where Griffins invaded Pony towns and cities. The different types of Ponies worked together and stood their ground. And each side was careful not to disturb the indigenous Dragons."

"Soon, the Ponies began to manufacture their own technology, based off of Griffin tech, and the United Ponies Space Command was born. Although this helped even the odds, none of it was quite as cutting edge as the original Griffin designs.”

“New world after new world became colonized by Griffins and Ponies, and new world after new world was destroyed by war."

"In the year 2552, the Griffins through everything they had at Reach; a Pony planet, a hub of military activity. A Halcyon class Pony Cruiser named the Philly of Autumn, made a random slip space jump in an effort to evade the Griffin armada. However, when the Autumn exited slip space, its crew and the thousands of soldiers aboard her discovered… Halo. A gigantic ring world that had already been found by the Griffins."

"The Captain of the Autumn entrusted the universe’s last surviving Spartan super Pony with the ships AI, which contained the co-ordinates of Pony worlds, yet to be discovered by the Griffins."

"After fighting hordes of Griffins, and stumbling across some dark secrets… Spartan Pony 117 and the Autumn’s AI found out that Halo was a weapon, built by a long gone race, to wipe out all life in the galaxy. However, the Griffins had heard different, and planned to fire it, thinking they could wipe out only the Ponies."

"To stop them, Spartan Pony 117 used the reactors of the downed Autumn to destroy Halo, thus eliminating its threat.”

“As for the regal sisters, who had sent their private, royal military to join the UPSC, they continued to raise and lower the sun and moon for their crumbling world. Until one fateful day, the eldest suggested they retain equality in their race, and join the UPSC just as so many before them had. Reluctantly, the youngest followed with her sister’s plan, becoming a Sergeant, while the eldest became the Commander of a Prowler class Stealth ship named the Red Horse."

"Since then, the Red Horse has been supporting the UPSC and ensuring the survival of Ponies all over the galaxy.”

“Aah… so that’s how this war started,” Lightning Dust, a blue Pegasus Pony, realized from reading the book that lay in front of her.
She lay on her bed in her prison cell, wearing an orange jumpsuit.
"I wonder what those dark secrets were."

Chapter 1: Easy Come, Easy Go

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OCTOBER 2552 [EXACT DATE CLASSIFIED] SOELL SYSTEM,
INSTALLATION 04 DEBRIS FIELD, “HALO”

>Luna 0610 hours

Sergeant Luna, or if you wanted to rub it in, Sergeant Princess Luna, stood before an object in the cargo bay of the UPSC Red Horse. UPSC stood for; United Ponies Space Command. Darn, Ponies were patriotic about being Ponies.

As for being a Sergeant; her sister, Celestia, had requested she join the military with her, and since Luna was the princess of the night as oppose to day, she didn’t get the same density of treatment that Celestia got.

“We may be the rulers of our race…” she’d told her, "But we should keep ourselves open to the same amount of danger as our subjects. We are all equal after all."
Makes sense, she guessed, even if it didn’t make sense. She stopped trying to understand Celestia sometimes.

Celestia was kind and gentle and all that stuff, though her absurdities often came at the expense of others. Especially her.

And now here they were. Both of them, and some others, on a UPSC Prowler. A Stealth ship. At a far, dark corner of the galaxy.

The only difference between Luna and Celestia, apart from appearance, voice and persona of course, was that Celestia was a Commander and she was a Sergeant. Why? Because Celestia’s the Princess of the sun of course! Everypony loves the sun and day time, unlike her and her dark and scary night.

The object in front of her was either an escape pod from some other Pony ship, or a uniquely shaped piece of debris. She knew it was really an escape pod, but it was so smashed up it looked like a piece of debris.
Must have come from thy Philly of Autumn, she thought.

Around the pod; Medic Corporal Rarity, Tech Officer Applejack, the ever silent Big Macintosh, and "the best pilot in all of Equestria;” Rainbow Dash.

“I’m here Luna!” Came a familiar voice.
Derpy. Rookie. Grey Pegasus with bubbles for a cutie mark. Derped eyes. Ugh, Luna couldn’t understand how or why she was in the UPSC.
Before she could turn round and say; “That is Sergeant Luna to you,” Derpy bumped into the back of her and fell.
Luna kept her self bolted down, like a lamp post or something.
“Oops, sorry Luna,” Derpy giggled nervously.
Luna just rolled her eyes.

“Princess?” It came from Rarity.
Luna liked being called Luna more than she liked been called Princess, but in the military she had to be called Sergeant. She always let Princess slide though.

“May we open the pod? Oh I do wonder what is inside,” Rarity smiled.
“Simmer down, Rarity,” Applejack spoke up, “T’aint gonna be full o’ diamonds if that’s what yer thinkin’.”
“Don’t say that, you’ll jinx it! There could be for all you know.”
Luna replied to Rarity, “Yes, fair Rarity, we shall open thy pod now. See if there really are any jewels inside. Applejack, would thou kindly open thy pod for us?”
“Sure thing Princess,” the orange Earth Pony whipped a gadget out of a saddlebag on the floor with her mouth and plugged it into an exterior slot on the pod. Then she looked at it confused. “Um…uhh…”
What is this farm pony doing here, being a Tech Officer on a star ship?

“Move over Apple-snack,” Rainbow Dash said as she whizzed over in a rainbow coloured blur, knocking Applejack off her hooves.
Maybe the pilot knew what to do.

There was a bleeping as Rainbow used the tip of her hoof to push the buttons. Then a hiss as the pod’s door opened.

>Rarity 0623 hours

The first thing Rarity saw was Rainbow Dash rocketing up into the air, saying “Woah,” and hovering just below the ceiling. Funnily enough, the first thing she sensed at all was a stench so powerful, she would’ve copied Rainbow Dash were she a Pegasus. It was rank. It was moist. It was blood, but she could smell more than blood. Didn’t know what though.

Mixed reactions throughout the cargo bay:
The Princess held her ground as usual, wrinkled her nose and looked disgusted.
Big Mac, who usually didn’t react to anything, simply backed up.
Derpy was facing the wrong way.
Applejack covered her muzzle. “Whoowee! Smells worse than a Timber Wolf’s toenail.”
“Oh Applejack. Everything smells worse than a Timber Wolf’s toenail according to you,” said a deep pink Earth Pony called Cheerlie. “I’m willing to bet that Timber Wolves’ toenails don’t smell all that bad.”
Some other Ponies that were playing cards across the room coughed and complained.

Then the smell brought Rarity to its source. “Oh my...” she gasped, “that… is gross.”
She caught an annoyed glance from the Princess at that.

As for the pod, well, it was like some sort of portable pond. Almost expected to see frogs hopping around on lilly pads. In the blood however, lay a Pony. Pegasus. Mare. Red, with a red mane. Nah, she wasn’t red, but she sure did look like it. Kinda looked like she had dozed of whilst bathing.
Applejack; “Is she-”
“Don’t let them get me!” A scream, a splash, a hoof reaching out.

The Pegasus rose up from her casket, still sat in it. The back of her was encrusted with blood. She wearily looked around. Checked every corner. Every edge too. Everypony that gathered around her.
“Good heavens. Get her out of there Ponies!” Ordered Rarity.

Little time passed as Luna used her Alicorn magic to lift the Pony out of the pod and set her gently on the floor, against the pod. As medic, it was Rarity’s job to fix this Mare, but this Mare wasn’t going to make it, she could tell. So instead, she just bandaged her up and gave her an injection to keep her alive and conscious, if only for a short while. She cringed and moaned when she wrapped a bandage around the Mare’s chest. She had wiped as much blood off of her as she could, but it just kept coming back. The hole in this Mare’s chest was huge and would need stitches. No, scratch that: Not all the stitches in the world could save her now.

On closer inspection, Rarity realised she had a very light blue coat with a two tone orange mane. Would’ve looked formidable if it weren’t for all that red. She was scruffy though; her mane and tail were a mess, and the feathers of her wings were ruffled. Poor pony.

Rarity wiped a cloth over her cutie mark, saw it was a lightning bolt with three stars at the bottom, then it was covered again as more blood leaked down.

“My gosh,” Rarity started, “How did you ever get in such bad condition?”
Before the unfortunate one could answer, or try to answer, the Princess stepped in.
“Can she speaketh, Rarity?”
“She can,” she glanced back.
The unfortunate one coughed, her mouth a red fountain for a second.
“Ew… I tried my best, but she can only talk for however long she has left. I do hope you understand, Princess.”
Luna nodded once, then turned to face the new arrival who might leave at any moment.

“What is your name, subject?” The Princess was world champion of intimidation, even when she wasn’t trying to be intimidating.
The injured Pony tried to speak up, but her voice was broken with post trauma. “Um… no. I dunno… where… we are.” Another wet cough and gargle.
“Thou art safe aboard thy UPSC Red Horse, fair subject.”
Rarity wished Luna would stop calling her “subject.”
“Now what is your name? We wish to knoweth your name.”
Oh Luna, why can’t you use that nice, soothing voice you use when you’re on dream duty?
The injured Pony wheezed, “… Lightning… Dust…”
“Well, Lightning Dust, tis a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Didn’t sound like it. “I am Sergeant Luna, Princess of the night.” A pause, and then, “Why art thou here?”

Nopony on the Red Horse knew why they were at the ruins of a gargantuan, alien ring-world. This “Lightning Dust” was from a different ship however. Maybe she could shed some “lightning dust” on the situation. Commander Princess Celestia and the ship’s AI kept trying to avoid telling them why they were here. Rarity hoped they knew what they were doing.

Applejack paced over and lifted Lightning’s left front fore leg. “Well look ‘a here, we rustled ourselves a prisoner,” she announced.
Rarity; “Why whatever do you mean, Applejack?”
AJ gestured with her muzzle at a bar code around the circumference of Lightning’s fore leg, and an indentation where a tracking chip had been implanted.
“Oh, I see.”
Applejack seemed less apologetic, as did the Princess.

“P… p… please. Nng… don’t huurt…” deep breaths, saying “hurt” hurt. “… Me.”
Rarity never thought she’d feel sorry for a prisoner, yet hear she was. She wasn’t the only one; a crowd had gathered around Lightning Dust.
“We are not going to hurteth you. Just answer our questions and we shall take thou to thy infirmary, and you can sleep… What ship art thou from?”
“Ugh… leesugh.”
Poor, poor Pony, she appeared to be holding back tears as well.
Derpy; “The Ugh Leesugh? That’s a silly name.”
“Derpy, be quiet. Repeat yourself, fair subject.” Luna smiled to reassure Lightning, but it was one of her least reassuring smiles: The intimidation factor just went up a little.
Derpy looked down at her hooves.
“The… Pony… Lisa-aha-aha-ahaa…” More coughs and blood from Lighning Dust.
Rarity wiped Lightning’s mouth clean… ish.

“And what is thy Pony Lisa doing hear, fair subject?”
Luna’s fair subject began to stall. “Huh… I’d… tell you… all… kinds of…things.” Splutter. “I know… I’m dying… I know, but… argh… that’s ok.” Another splutter, then a whimper. “Gurgh… it’s ok… because I won’t… come back. Hargh… I’m clean… hehehe… I… can’t… come back.”
Rarity thought she detected a hint of smugness behind her relief.
“What does that mean?” She questioned.

Luna kneeled down and wrapped her royal, silver shoe clad hoof around Lightning’s filthy, blood-soaked hoof.
What is this Princess? Compassion?
Luna asked; “What do thou mean “thou won’t come back?-””

An ultra-bright flash from the terminal by the pod, to Rarity’s right. The ship’s AI appeared. The oddest looking holographic projection of a creature she’d ever seen… so far. Antlers, each from a Dear and a Goat. Lion paw, Dragon wing and Lizard foot on the right. Eagle talon, Pegasus wing and Goat hoof on the left. And a looong, serpentine body. This was Discord.

“What do you mean you won’t come back?! Come back from what?! Come, back, from, what?!” He desperately implored with over-the-top urgency.
Paw and talon held out like he was carrying a dog, only he had formed claws with his “fingers”. Neck stretching out towards Lightning, his facial expression said; Tell me! Tell me! Oh please for the love of Celestia tell meee!

Lightning turned her head slowly towards Discord. Her eyes widened as she gasped; must’ve been the first time she’d seen a Draconequus. Last time too, for at that moment, Lightning Dust let out one last cough and closed her eyes.
Lightning Dust to dust.

Rarity looked irritated at Discord, who snickered with mischief before straightening himself and snapping the fingers of his Eagle talon. He vanished in another flash. Rarity sighed and brushed her hoof on the ground.

“Oh no! Is she gone now?” Whimpered Derpy.
Rarity donned her stethoscope and used her magic to levitate the end over Lightning Dust’s heart. She was indeed, dead, which she knew already. She wiped the end of her stethoscope with a cloth, only to make it more bloody.
“Yuck...” Facing Big Mac, and Snowflake who had come to watch the show, she said, “Come on you big, strong Stallions. Let’s get her to forensics,” with a false, flattering smile.
“Eeyup,” from Big Mac.

Private Twilight Sparkle had joined them, and wasted little time using her rather impressive Unicorn magic to place Lightning Dust on a stretcher. At each side of the stretcher stood Big Mac and Snowflake, harnessed up and ready to lift. Effortlessly, Big Mac hoisted her up. Snowflake however, was struggling to lift her off the floor. He huffed and panted, until Applejack suggested she try. An embarrassed squee from the huge white Pegasus as AJ trotted by her brother’s side, Lighning Dust between them.

Everypony else exited the cargo bay in separate directions, save for four who continued their card game as if nothing had happened.

Just as Rarity was about to leave to assist Pinkie Pie with Lightning’s autopsy, she realised that Princess Luna hadn’t moved. She just stood there by the pod and the large red puddle, staring at the space Discord had occupied, like she could still see him. Like she had been trying to see into him…

Then Derpy returned with a mop in her mouth and a bucket of water clutched in her hooves, lost grip, and dropped it on the Princess.
“DERRPYYY!” Luna bellowed in royal Canterlot just as the mop came down, forming dread locks over her eyes.
“Oops! Sorry Luna!”
Giggling, Rarity trotted off.

Chapter 2: You, Me, and Discord

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>Luna 0932 hours

So her sister - oh wait; Commander Princess Celestia had requested to meet her in a featureless room adjacent to the Bridge. In the quarters; a table, two stools that were large enough for Ponies to sit on properly, an AI terminal, two TV screens and a big white Alicorn with a pale, multicolored mane that constantly blew in the wind, even when there was no wind. Just like hers.

On one of the screens played an image of Derpy, being supervised by Corporal Zecora and some random squaddies she didn’t know.
Clumsy Mare. Be careful Zecora, she might dropeth a bucket of soapy water on thou too.
It had taken no time at all to dry herself off with her Alicorn magic.

An image of what was left of the Halo artifact and the gas giant Threshold played on the other screen.

“Well sister, shall we begin?” Celestia asked with her ever so soft voice.
Still had the smug air of authority to it though.

Celestia had a white coat and super long legs. Mane and tail; oversized. Hooves clad in gold shoes similar to her own silver ones. Gold tiara much taller than her black one. Golden harness kinda like the black one she wore. Huge wings, huge horn, and a smile that said; I’m ready. Are you ready?

She was ready; “Of course. We hath nothing new to report however.”
“That’s quite alright. It’s just nice to finally spend some time together. How are you finding your time in the UPSC?”

The two of them had spent an equal amount of time serving in the UPSC. She worked on the ground, taking the fight to the Griffins while her elder sister made decisions from a safe place.

“To be honest sister, it is not as fun as you described it.”
“Oh Luna, you need to learn to step out of your comfort zone. Only then can you experience the true excitement this job has to offer.”
Luna thought to herself: Really? I hath been everywhere but my comfort quarters, and I’m still not having fun.
Then she spoke, “Huh, that’s easy for you to say, sister. All you have to do is sit here and tell us what to do. Hath thou even seen a Griffin up close?”
“My decisions are important to our victory sister. They will win us the war. You just need to have faith.” Celestia was oblivious to Luna’s annoyance. Either that or she was just messin’ around.

Neither of them were in the UPSC when it had been founded.

Ponies and Griffins shared the same planet along with a bunch of other races. The fact that Griffins had become space farers before Ponies was nothing short of an astonishment.

When Celestia had, rather politely, asked the Griffins to share their technology with Equestria, they responded by yelling “NO. Get your own,” before blasting off into space, colonizing other worlds, and laying siege to the Ponies. Cos, y’know, Ponies are soo lame.

Battle after battle, the Ponies had recovered much Griffin tech, learned from it, and made their own. And while vehicles and field weapons hadn’t been developed as well as their original counterparts, the star ships had.
Only the Griffins would make weapons.
It was a wonder why the Dragons of their home planet hadn’t followed suit.

Anywho, back to the whole “faith” thing.
“We do hath faith in you, sister, but we also have fear. Fear for our subjects.” And then, “You do care for our subjects, do you not?” Now it was her turn to be annoying.
“Yes, Sergeant. Of course I do.”
Teehee, take that sister.

“Discord…”
Flash, and the ship’s AI appeared with a tuneful; “Tadaa!”
"Ugh, not this guy."

"What's the matter Luna? Am I not good enough for you?" More light consumed the AI for a second as he transformed into a tall, jet-black Alicorn with old timey armour, fluid purple mane and tail, cat eyes and a purple version of Luna's cutie mark. "How about now?"
"Gah!" Luna screamed, backing up and shielding her eyes. "No! Go away!"
Celestia interjected, "Discord! Change back at once!"
The Draconequus disguised as a Pony chortled. "If you insist, Celestia."
He went through the same, split-second process to return to his true form, which was less frightening to Luna, but still a little freaky.

She peeked cautiously over her shielding hoof before lowering it slowly, trying to hide her slight shakiness.
Furiously, she barked at Discord, "Do you not know what kind of trouble thou could have caused?!"
"If by "trouble" you mean "eternal night" then that's all on you."
Grinding her teeth, she growled at him.
"Doh, relax Princess. We're in space! It's always night time in space! All your dreams have come true."
"Excuse me..."
The holographic monster and Alicorn Princess rotated their heads to face Celestia, who now had a stern look on her face.
"I would very much appreciate it if we could get down to business."
Obliging, Luna and the AI stood straight and kept quiet.

“Go on Discord,” whispered Celestia, like a teacher encouraging a shy Philly to go on stage.

Luna missed their old AI, Cadence, who just happened to be based on her niece; Princess Cadence. They had little in common, but she was much nicer than this Discord guy, both to look at and to speak with, and although all AIs never always told you what you wanted to hear, Cadence told it straight. No stalling, no joking, and no secrets.
Discord, however:…

“Ok, so here’s the scoop,” he magiced up a spoon and took a scoop out of the pink stripe of Celestia’s mane and gulped it. “Mm, chocolate,” he chucked the spoon over his shoulder, where it turned into a snail and shot away like a rocket.

An image of a Pony star ship began to play across the left screen.

Discord was totally aware that Celestia was glaring at him, but he continued with a big smile that showed of that giant fang of his.
“The escape pod was launched from the Pony Lisa no more than six hours ago.” He brought his Lion paw up to the image of what must’ve been the Pony Lisa. “The Pony Lisa is a prison ship. A freighter that has been converted to carry some of the naughtiest of Ponies, as well as materials needed to make those amazing weapons you all need.” He rolled his eyes at “amazing,” then grinned a smug, toothy grin towards Luna at “need.”

Proceeding, he said, “The Bridge is at the top, at the front of the ship. And the engines are somewhere below, near the prison cells.” Sounding excited, Discord went a little high-pitched, then back to his normal tone. “Ships like this don’t normally have many weapons on board, in case there’s a riot of course!”
Ha, he liked the sound of that.

The holographic Draconequus zipped over to Luna to link arms with her, his right to her left, and looked romantically into her eyes and cleared his throat before continuing. She didn’t approve, but he didn’t care.
“They usually rely on an escort in those situations. But, alas, the poor girl doesn’t appear to have one…” His "ye olde" acting then turned ominous. “At least not anymore.”

Luna had had enough, and pushed Discord away from her. Folding his arms, he blew a raspberry at her. Mature. And this is the AI running the ship? Dear sweet Celestia. What ever happened to Cadence? AIs deteriorate after seven years, and Cadence had only been in service for three. Discord; much longer. It didn’t make sense. But as Discord would say: “What fun is there in making sense?”
We are not here for fun, Discord... Hmm, why are we here?

The good Commander spoke, “Discord…”
Celestia wanted to get down to business too. Good. Or was it bad? She’d find out soon enough.
Discord; “Oh yes. Commander Princess Celestia here, orders you to take a squad in a Pelican…” a snap of the fingers, and a Trojan Pelican perched on his left wrist, “And investigate the Pony Lisa.”
Luna’s blue eyes alternated between Discord and her sister for a moment before she asked; “Are those your orders, sister?”
To which Celestia replied, “Yes, Luna.”
Hm… why couldn’t thou tell me yourself?

Discord shook his bird violently, making it squawk. It quickly transformed in to a bouquet of black roses, which he immediately stuffed in to his face.

“Discord and I shall organize a squad for you, and update you with the details later. Good luck my sister, dismissed.”
You know what you can do with your luck. She brought a hoof up to her head to salute, turned and opened the door, and just as she was about to leave:
“Oh and Luna…”
“Yes, Celestia?”
“I love you.”
D’aaww, how sweet. Celestia could be… difficult, and her decisions were sometimes… questionable. But she was her sister, and she loved her like one.
Too bad Discord was there to ruin the mood; pointing a finger down his throat and saying; “Urgh, gag.”
They both ignored him.
“I love you too, sister,” and with that, she turned and left.

>Celestia 1003 hours

Discord had watched Luna walk out, and had his back to Celestia. Celestia knew however, he had eyes in the back of his head.
So she stared at him. Turn around. Look at me when I talk to you.
He did.

“What?” He smiled innocently, palms held out saying what he had already said.
She didn’t buy it. “You know more than you have told me.”
“Well I know that one plus one equals two, and I didn’t tell you that.”
“You know what I mean, Discord.”
He snickered, “Yes, I suppose I do.”

“Do you know what is on the Pony Lisa? I don’t like being kept in the dark, especially when it comes to deploying my little Ponies. And especially when my sister is involved.”
“Kept in the dark you say? But there’s plenty of light in here.”
Darn it Celestia. Don’t use metaphors. Never use metaphors.
He always knew what she meant. Always knew how to wind her up too.

“Besides, you’re the Princess of the sun, are you not? Make it brighter.” Another snicker.
“Discord. Tell me what is on that ship. Tell me what it is doing here. Tell me what we are doing here.”
“We are here, Celestia, to do recon,” skipping the first two questions, “And to find, well, whatever there is to find.”
She already knew this. Risking the lives of her subjects to “find whatever there is to find.”

Halo’s debris played across the screen again. A colossal ring, so big it had terrain on the inside surface. Mountains, oceans, deserts, ice caps, jungles, all with working weather. Well, not now of course. Now it was in shatters. The surface; a mosaic of red, orange and black.

All she knew about Halo was; Griffins found it first, but it wasn’t theirs. The UPSC Philly of Autumn stumbled upon it after fleeing Reach; a world colonized by Ponies, a world now lost to the Griffins. A Spartan super Pony known by his or her rank of Master Chief had fought the Griffins on that ring, and destroyed it when he or she found out it was a giant doomsday device.

She had hoped to meet this Spartan. To knight him or her. Find out whether it was a him or a her. Oh, so much to discuss! But, ruler of her race or not, she had orders. And she would follow them.

Celestia interrogated Discord. “What is the Pony Lisa doing here?”
He shrugged and hummed an “I dunno” at her.
Yeah right, as if he didn’t know. Discord was hiding something.
Frustrated, she sighed.

“Reach has fallen Celestia. Our backs are against the wall.”
Snap, and Celestia was thrust against the wall, standing on hind legs. Discord leaned in for some quality face time. The yellow whites of his eyes and different sized, red pupils almost burnt lazers through her. He kept his hands clamped behind his back.
“Extreme measures are necessary to ensure our survival,” topped with a smile.
He then teleported to a spot above her and patted her on the head with his Lion paw. “And don’t you worry your pretty horsey head about wittle Woona… or should I say… Nightmare Moon,” giving her a nuggie and messing up her mane. “There’s nothing Princess loony can’t handle, am I right?”
A long pause that Celestia spent struggling, then another snap of the fingers to put her back on her seat.

Where did that come from? What was that all about?!
Discord sure had the nerve to treat a Commander, Princess, and ruler of Ponies in such a way. And she wasn’t too happy with him calling her sister "Nightmare Moon" and "loony," even if they were both sort of true.
“Discord! How dare you-”
“Hohoho, lighten up, Celestia! Be thankful I know what I’m doing.”

Pointing at the screen that showed the half mopped floor of the cargo bay, he snapped his fingers, just as Luna and Private Derpy entered the frame from separate directions. Derpy carrying a fresh bucket of water. She dropped it, and it landed on Luna, again. The TVs were muted at the moment, but Celestia could still hear her sister’s royal Canterlot voice over Discord’s chortling all the way up from the cargo bay.

Chapter 3: ... And the Horse You Rode In On

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>Luna 1304 hours

Gazing out the Pelican’s windscreen, Luna saw various pieces of Halo’s debris slowly tumbling in the void of space. The planet Threshold provided an illusion of orange sky. ‘Twas beautiful, even if it was all garbage now.

Griffins hadn’t built it. It was something new and entirely alien. Luna hoped to meet its creators some day and congratulate them on their work. Make friends with them. Team up against the Griffins and force them to surrender. Then, possibly, make friends with the Griffins. Darn Griffins, from what she heard about the origins of the war, they were totally in the wrong. However, she felt like she was still on the need-to-know basis.

Speaking of Basis, Threshold’s moon could be seen peeping out from behind the gas giant.
Hmm… could I raise and lower Basis too?

“I see the Pony Lisa now,” announced Rainbow Dash as she piloted the Pelican over an upside-down piece of sea bed. “Hehehe, pretty ugly huh?”
“Yes, quite,” Luna replied, distracted by the very thing they were talking about.
She must’ve sounded gloomy.
“Hey, lighten up Princess. I’m sure it won’t be too bad.”
“I don’t know, fair Rainbow Dash. These are suspicious times.”
“Yeah, well, what can ya do? At least now we’re actually doing something instead of just waiting around on that boring old Red Horse. And who knows, maybe all those pesky mysteries will finally get solved out here.”
She thought about that for a second. “Hmm, you make a good point, fair Rainbow Dash.”
“Of course I do, Princess.”

Out of the cock-pit and into the soldier's quarters, were fifteen Ponies, well, fourteen Ponies and one Zebra, lay along each side. They lay on their bellies with their front hooves tucked in. Each Pony diagonally faced the rear hatch, like an arrow pointing to the exit.

They had all been equipped with weapons too. Most had standard, fully automatic, MA5D Assault Rifles. Corporal Zebra Zecora and Corporal Rarity had much more accurate, three round burst, BR85 Battle Rifles that featured scopes, cos they were special or something. Still, Luna was there to steal their thunder, for she had a DMR: Single shot, longer range, even more accurate, and also equipped with a scope. And then there was the pilot, Rainbow Dash, who had nothing more than an M6H Magnum. A pistol. Wouldn’t save her in a fire fight. Then again, she was a pilot. And if she ever needed a weapon, she could just help herself to the spare MA5D secured by the door to the cock-pit.

All of the Ponies, except Rainbow, wore “Soldier Saddles” on their backs. One saddle bag that hung on the left, full of MREs, ammo, grenades, and in Rarity’s case; medical supplies. On the right, was a mechanical arm powered by Celestia’s very own permanent magic, so it could extend and retract whenever the wearer wanted it to, like it was a part of them. This arm is what handled the Ponies' weapons.

Rainbow Dash's voice came over the speaker, "Uh, Princess? She aint answering on any frequency.”
One of the Privates Luna didn’t know grunted, “Huh. Rude much?”
Yeah, it is quite obvious they cannot respondeth. Either that or there is nopony there to respondeth.

RD continued, “And her engines are coming up cold on the thermal. You think maybe it’s a ghost ship?”
Derpy stuttered, “Oh, oh no!”
“A ghost!” Private Pinkie Pie squealed at the top of her lungs.
Really Pinkie Pie? You giggle through autopsies and then scream when “ghost” is mentioned?
“It is not a ghost ship!” Luna yelled whilst Rainbow laughed over the speaker. “Rainbow!”
“Doh, err… sorry Princess.”

Luna then towered over Derpy, who lay shivering on the floor. It wasn’t that cold in the Pelican. She must still be shook up from that whole “ghost” thing.

Silly Mare, spilling water on her, twice. One time, fair enough, mistakes happen… but twice?!

Most of the Ponies here were poor soldiers, save for Zecora, Big Mac and herself. Some Ponies she didn’t know. But Derpy had to be the clumsiest Pony she’d ever met. All there was to admire about her was that she did at least try her hardest; something she felt Rainbow and Rarity didn’t do. Poor Derpy was just prone to derpin’.

“Sorry about dropping the water on you, Luna.”
Princess!
“I just don’t know what went wrong.”
She had apologised twice before, and Luna knew she meant it. Never responded to her though. Hoped maybe she would prove she’s sorry by not goofing up.

“Please take this muffin as a token of apology.”
What is this?
The blonde maned Pegasus produced a fresh, choc-chip muffin, seemingly from nowhere, and offered it to her.
Nightmare Night came early!
We are pleased with your offering. Smirking, she took the muffin with her magic, dropped it in her saddle bag, and turned to face Rarity.
Still didn’t speak to Derpy, but thought the words; Thank you.

“So, fair Rarity. How did thy post-mortem go?” Luna implored with her more quiet speaking voice that she rarely used.
Puzzlement from the white Unicorn. “You’d be better off asking Pinkie Pie over there. She was in charge of the autopsy.”
She nodded her horn towards said Earth Pony, who beamed and waved ecstatically.
Awkwardness entered Luna’s temporarily soft voice, “… Nooo… I would rather hear it from you.”

Rarity was reluctant. “If you insist, Princess. Lighning Dust had ghastly wounds. It was most disgusting. That hole in her chest… it wasn’t caused by a blade, that much is certain. It took way way way more force to…” she began to cringe, “… pry… her open, like that.”
“Pry? Sounds delightful,” Luna responded dryly.
“Yes, well, I took the liberty of packing extra blood bags. After whatever happened to Lightning, we may need them.”

Using her more frequent tone of voice, Luna playfully showed up Rarity, “Do thou doubt thy UPSC, Corporal?”
“Oh, not at all, Princess. It’s just-”
“Do thou expect some senseless jail Pony to get a “shiv” in one of us?” Better tone it down now; she was starting to sound like Discord.
“Saaaarrge, you know me. I don’t let anypony get too close.” Her tone implied the opposite.

The speaker cracked to life again.
“Princess Luna! Come in! Do you read?! Do, you, read?!” It was Discord.
“I’m hear Discord, what is thy problem?” She replied worryingly into a microphone by the cock-pit's door.
He chuckled.
Fooled us?
“Problem? Who said there was a problem? I was simply asking you if you read.”
Ugh, yep, fooled us.

“Because I’m reading a charming little story right now. It’s about a Sergeant Princess, like you, who must investigate the Pony Lisa. If it be a prison riot, it is up to her to get control of the situation. If the ship be compromised by Griffins or some other hostile force, she must destroy the nav systems."
Well that was subtle. It made Luna inquisitive.

"Pray tell; what other hostile forces could we possibly face?"
"Hm, what? Oh, er... I dunno. Hm-hm-hm-hm." He chuckled, knowing he didn't convince her.
"There's something thou art not telling us, isn't there? What is thy secret, Discord? What peril do we face?"
Answering back, the AI raised, "Do you honestly think I'm just going to dish out spoilers willy-nilly? No! You are either up against prisoners or Griffins or both, and that's all you need to know... for now."
"For now?"

Changing the subject, Discord informed, "Also there is an enormous Griffin capitol ship nearby. Just thought you’d like to know."
Using a hoof to face-palm, Luna sighed, “Understood."
“Goood. And you also understand that we won’t be able to communicate with you without risking our position to that big, mean capital ship, right?”
Oh great, now they were alone.
Still, she understood, and breathed, “Yes, Discord. We may be on our own for a while.”

“I know, I know, it’s tragic. I am as sad as you are. I’m going to miss your charming voice, almost as much as you’ll miss mine.”
“I don’t think so, Discord.”
“Meh, whatever, I’ve got Celestia to keep me company. Adieu Luna!”
“Be careful sist-” That last line came from Celestia.
Be careful? As oppose to what? Don’t be careful? With Derpy on board; not being careful would be a synch!
“Sure sister, I’ll be careful,” she spoke sombrely to nopony.

Gazing down her troops, she noticed they were all a little disheartened about having minimal contact with the Red Horse, or “home” as some called it. Even Pinkie Pie, the happiest Pony in the universe, frowned and looked at the floor.

“Luna?” Never fear, Derpy is here! With an idea that will solve everything!
“Derpy, for the last time, call us- … me… Princess. Thou can call me Luna when we are on leave.”
“... Luna?”
“Ugh, what?”
“If all we have to do is stop the Griffins from taking the navi… gavi… nation… muffin… uh, then why don’t we just go back and destroy the Pony Lisa from the Red Horse?”
Almost as if she expected her to say “you’re right Derpy” and turn the Pelican around.
"It is a Pony ship, Derpy. We are not firing on our own kind."
"They're only prisoners."

Well that was dark. Luna wasn't too sure if Derpy understood the controversy of what she was saying. Her derped eyes and goofy smile implied that she didn't have a clue. Thank Celestia Derpy wasn't in Celestia's position.

“Do not maketh decisions, Derpy. It is not what thou art paid for.”
Rarity joined in happily, “No, they pay us to be fabulous! Right Princess?”
“Really, Rarity?” Luna gave her one of those smiles that Rarity kept complaining about for being grim.
“No. Teehee.”
Way’da lift our spirits though, Rarity.

She’d worked with Rarity for a fair bit of time, and still didn’t know what to make of her. Thought she should take things more seriously, and quit fussing over every little mess, something Applejack definitely agreed with. She also had a tendency to put herself and others at risk for the sake of “fabulosity.” Just another Pony who didn’t belong here.

Despite all this however, Luna knew she wouldn't be here today if it weren't for Rarity. The posh, white Unicorn had performed a life saving operation on her that involved extracting a crystal shard from her thorax. A Griffin armed with a Needle Rifle had been the culprit. Gosh, those things were lethal. Accurate, long range, DMR type thing, only instead of bullets, it fired glowing, pink, crystal needles, that exploded when there were three combined in a target's body. Luna could think of a certain evil king who would crave those things.

“Oh and Princess?” Rarity piped up. “When we’re next on leave, be sure to get us some ice cream again, won’t you.” She motioned her hoof.

The Pelican's troop bay came to life as the Ponies muttered to each other about the last time they were on leave.
"You remember the ice cream?" Applejack asked Pinkie Pie.
"Boy do I!"
Even Fluttershy joined in, "Oh, I don't think I could ever forget a leave as fun as that."
Cheerlie; "I know, me neither. Could you, Big Mac?"
"Nope"
"Will you be getting some more ice cream next time, Pinkie Pastry?" Interviewed Derpy, full of hope.
The Pink one laughed and snorted, "Of course I will!"
On came the speaker as Rainbow contributed, "Aw sweet! I loved that ice cream! Will we be at the same beach as before?"
"I sure hope so," Twilight happily responded.

Ah, the ice cream. Something they had eaten far too much of the last time they were on leave.
Luna announced, “We may not be at the same beach as before. And as for the ice cream, well, I am sure Pinkie Pie will pull through once again. At least we hope so. It wouldn't be a proper leave without ice cream now, would it!”

Prior to the war, prior to the time before the war in fact, Luna had spent a real long time wondering her planet’s moon alone as a result of her sister banishing her there when her evil alter-ego, Nightmare Moon, had taken over. Space travel hadn’t been invented yet, and with nothing to do, she lay on her back and gazed up at the stars.
One. Two. Three. Four. Fi…
… Ten thousand and seventy three. Ten thousand and seventy four. Ten thou…
… Twenty six million nine hundred and fifty six thousand three hundred and eighteen. Twenty six million nine hundred and fifty six thousand three hundred and nineteen. Twe…
... Ninety nine million nine hundred and ninety nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine. One hundred million!
She’d counted one hundred million stars during the time she spent on the moon. She never double counted any of them, never left any out. She counted all of them. But she saw one disappear, right before her eyes. Now there were only ninety nine million nine hundred and ninety nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine stars. It made her stomach feel funny, like she’d lost something dear to her. They were her stars.

She counted the troops in the Pelican: Rarity, Big Macintosh, Derpy, Fluttershy, Fleur De Lis, Zecora, Bon Bon, Lyra, Twilight Sparkle, Octavia, Vinyl Scratch, Applejack, Snowflake, Cheerlie, Thunderlane, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash in the cock-pit. Seventeen in total. They were all her stars now, even if she didn’t know or like some of them. They were her subjects all the same.

“Princess, we’re coming up on the Pony Lisa now,” Rainbow’s voice leaked out of the speaker.
That was her queue: “Ok everypony… lock and load. Be prepared for anything, and I mean anything.”
Then it dawned on her; her squad consisted of everypony who had come into contact with Lighning Dust.

>Rarity 1315 hours

Lurching and shuddering, the Pelican entered a hanger in the Pony Lisa. The soft seal locked on and they had compression. The scraping noise of the hanger door closing outside the Pelican.

Unlike civilian air and space craft, Pelicans had no windows, apart from the one up front of course. But she could feel the drop ship spin round so the ramp would face into the Pony Lisa.

Another shudder as the hatch disengaged and was ready to open at the pilot’s will, then a gentle bump as they finally touched down.
We’re here.

Derpy and Big Mac stood to either side of the gangplank, front legs bent, ready for action.
Rainbow Dash announced over the speaker, “Everything looks clear on the monitors Princess. A little dark though. Oh well, the door is ready to open. Just say the word and I’ll set you free.”
Hmm… whatever did Lighning mean when she said, “she won’t come back?”
Over her shoulder, the Princess spoke, “Yes, fair Rainbow Dash. We are prepared.”
“Go forth and plunder!” And with that, the gangplank lowered like a draw-bridge.

A stench, both dusty and moist, poured into the troop bay. Rarity felt like she was drowning. Everypony in the troop bay coughed and gagged.
“Hehehe. Oh my, somepony’s been eating a lot of beans.”
“Do be quiet Rainbow Dash. You can’t even smell this dreadfulness from in there,” Rarity spoke up.
Rainbow squeaked, “Hahaha, yeah! Lucky me.” She was certainly happy to be staying in the Pelican.
Couldn’t blame her.

The gangplank finally hit the deck with a muted bang that echoed throughout the hanger. Shapes and silhouettes were visible in the red glow of emergency lighting in the passing corridor beyond. Squares and rectangles, indicating containers.

The Ponies paced down the ramp with their weapons pointing forward in two by two formation, and fanned out until the Princess, the last one, had disembarked.

Rarity; “Hmph. No less than three weeks ago, I was walking down a red carpet-”
“Ssssshhhhh!” Everypony shushed her.
“… Well I was-”
“Ssssshhhhh!!”
She caught a glance from Big Mac, who made his annoyance very clear on his face.

Didn’t like upsetting Big Mac. He was a farm Stallion, raised alongside Applejack, but he was an excellent soldier, and had saved her rump many times. It was all that muscle he packed. Very strong Stallion. He always wore a harness for some reason.
She’d asked him about it before; “Why do you wear that grimy old thing Big Mac? Doesn’t it weigh you down?”
His only reply had been; “Nope.”
A Stallion of few words. She liked that. Knew the Princess, who also wore a harness, liked it too. He just kept his head down and did his job.

The hanger was shrouded in darkness. The Princess had requested they all turn the flash lights on on their weapons. Sixteen beams of light cut the darkness into crazy shapes. Pools of light scanned the area, picking out cargo containers, crates, boxes and a forklift. Oh, and a ton of blood.

“Good heavens!” That time she spent on the red carpet seemed to be repeating itself, only in a much more disturbing way. “Eeew, it’s on my hoof!”
“Rarity! Be silent!” The Princess yelled in a louder voice.
Fleur De Lis moaned something in her fancy language that nopony else understood.

Vinyl Scratch got snarky, “Big deal. I’m pretty sure that if anypony was here, we would’ve met 'em by now. But since we havn’t, then everything must be safe. Duh.”
Wow! You are an amazing soldier!
The UPSC may be the wrong-est place for Rarity, but at least she had the common sense to know that an empty room wasn’t safe by default.
At least she didn’t wear vulgar purple tinted glasses.
At least she didn’t start food fights in the mess hall.
At lea-

-A red, banged up fire extinguisher stained with something green rolled out of the darkness, seemingly on it's own accord. It came to gentle stop under Thunderlane's hoof.
Pinkie Pie jumped up with excitement. “Alright! Let’s get this party started!”

Chapter 4: Under New Management

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>Luna 1317 hours

There was a series of clicks as everypony turned the safety off on their weapons. Pinkie Pie was all hyped up.
“Pinkie Pie! Calm down!” She whispered at her, but it was one of those loud whispers.

Twilight queried, “Princess, in all fairness, whoever’s here knows that we’re here too. Perhaps we should make contact, before things turn… y’know… ugly.” Not whispering, but quiet.
Luna adopted this tone. “What art thou saying, Twilight?”
“I just think that maybe, we should talk to them. If they're prisoners, they might co-operate.”
“Hmm… I see what you mean, Twilight.”

Twilight was right. Twilight was always right, and she liked her for that. She was a know-it-all, but that was a useful trait in the military. Sometimes, smart decisions won the battles, not just muscle and fire power.
Celestia and Twilight really should swap places.
She still didn’t like being told what to do by a Private, but since Twilight was the most intelligent Unicorn she’d ever met, and since she was right, she followed her idea, and prepared her throat for some royal Canterlot.

“ATTENTION SUBJECTS!” Her fellow Ponies covered their ears. Funny. “THY PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT, HATH ARRIVED! SHOW YOURSELVES IMMEDIATELY!”
Twilight; “Uh, Princess? That’s not really-”
“-Ow, my ears.”
“Ugh, stupid Ponies.” The whispers originated from within the maze of boxes.
Twilight’s lecture would have to wait.

“Snowflake. Periscope.” Luna returned to her less deafening voice.
Snowflake just stared at her as if to say; nopony knows what that means, Princess.
"Ugh, take a look and tell us what thou see!”
So he did, and so did Bon Bon, Lyra at her back.
Bon Bon stated, “It’s all clear, Princess.”
Yeah, sounds like it. I didn’t even ask you.
“Snowflake, is it clear?”
His trademark response was filled with enthusiasm and testosterone. “Yeeeaaah!”
Somepony shushed him, and he roared “Yeeeaaah,” again, only more distant, like he was in the next room.
How did he do that?

Time for Derpy’s analysis: “Oh my gosh, I just heard something!”
“What is it, Derpy?”
“I don’t know. But it was very squelchy.”
This wasn’t going anywhere - until a hollow bang echoed around the hanger as something whizzed out from one hiding place to another, knocking into a steel barrel.

Partially visible; a Lion’s hind quarters crouched behind a large crate, ready to pounce on somepony on the other side. Closest was Fleur De Lis.
“Fleur!” Luna hissed at her and motioned with her hoof. “Get back! Griffins be there!”
“Oh non, vraiment?”
A soldier that doesn’t even speaketh our language? Thou hath got to be kidding us.

Rarity, Big Mac, Fluttershy and some others were all at the same side of the hanger as Fleur De Lis, who nervously reversed. Big Mac had his Assault Rifle aimed at the box.

The Griffins whispered to each other again, oblivious that everypony could hear them. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
More than two. The wings of the worst hide n’ seek player in the universe spread open like sails. Everypony was raring to fire. Pinkie Pie was ready to burst.
Time to set her stars free:
“Fire!”

>Rarity 1318 hours

Just before the rifles roared in unison, Pinkie Pie cheered, “Party time! Weee!”
Oh Pinkie Pie, do you take anything seriously?
Fluttershy squealed with fright, a look of horror on her face. “I don’t want to do this!”

Rarity stood by Big Mac’s side, she was hopeless with a gun. Big Mac wasn’t.
“Over there Big Maac!” She screamed over the thunder of battle.
“Eeyup.”
Hoowwl! He’d hit one!

No time to celebrate, another one launched up from behind a container. Huge wings nearly filling her view, talons at the front ready to scoop her up. Beak dipped in red. Closing her eyes, she squealed and fired burst after burst from her BR, until the Griffin fell on top of her.
A crushing defeat for you, Griffin! This was a poor reward for her victory.

“Eeew, it’s on me! Get it off! It stinks! It burns! Oh gosh I can feel it bleeding out on me! Won’t somepony save me?!”
Staring expectantly at Big Mac, who had pulled her out of sticky situations many times before, she witnessed a Griffin fall at his hooves, just before he reloaded.
“Now will you help me?”
“Eeyup.”

With both front hooves, he hoisted her out from under the smelly old Griffin.
“Yuck… Thank you kindly, Big Macintosh.”
He nodded: You’re welcome. He then resumed firing.

The ratatatata of the MA5Ds continued to penetrate her ears. Zecora’s BR85 and the Princess’s DMR provided variety to the music. Also adding to the mix, was the Princess’s royal Canterlot voice, throwing insults at the Griffins who ran this way and that, seeking cover.

One of the Griffins sprung out from behind the forklift, and tackled Private Lyra to the ground. The light blue Unicorn bit ferociously into its talon, the Griffin yelping in response.

Countless muzzle flashes dazzled Rarity’s eyes, and she caught a glimpse of something red on her chest.
“Am I bleeding? Oh gosh! I think I’m bleeding!”
Fleur De Lis took a break to reload and tutted at her, “Ce n’est pas votre sang. C’est le Griffin.”
Then Applejack had a go, “T’aint your blood Rarity, it’s the Griffin’s - Woah!” Applejack fired a quick burst, then another, longer one.
“Oh, it’s not mine… That’s even worse!”
“Uh, how could that be…?”

Rarity dove behind a crate as the fire fight continued; opening her saddle bag and pulling out a cloth - when a Griffin ran straight passed her. It was so close it created a breeze that blew her cloth off her hoof and into the darkness.
She squealed, “Aah! My cloth! I need that!”

Desperately, she galloped after it, the sounds of gunfire and battle cries and royal Canterlot incoherence behind her.
Corporal Zecora’s voice could be heard, half masked by the rifles, “Everypony, I have you a tip. The Griffins are trying to take our drop ship.”
Zebra Zecora always rhymed like that. Rarity assumed it was Zebra tradition or some-
At last! Her cloth!

“Gochya.”
Trotting over, she picked up Pinkie Pie’s voice screaming, “Get back here!”
Then the Princess booming, “DO NOT LET THEM NEAR THY PELICAN!”
Once she approached her cloth, she discovered it was lying creased against a box in a sickly green paste.
A sniff of the stuff caused her to real back and gag. “Ptooey! Oh, aha-aha. This is not good.”

"Sshh!” A finger touched her lips.
Ok, she’d had quite enough of being shushed for… wait… A finger?
Not just a finger, but a talon. Looking up the yellow, segmented arm, Rarity found herself face to… side of face, with a Griffin.
Wow.

She had never seen a Griffin so close, or so calm. Griffins usually always wore helmets and sometimes soldier saddles, but this Griffin, along with all the other Griffins she’d seen on this ship so far, wore no helmet or soldier saddle what so ever. The feathers of its chest were slightly ruffled. The talon that wasn’t on her lips was soaked in that green paste she saw earlier. There was a small scar on its side, bordered with dry blood.

She knew she was no match for a Griffin, but this one posed no threat to her. It just sat and listened out for something over the gunfire, which finally died down. The finger on her lips withdrew, and proceeded to point out towards a patch of darkness at the other side of the hanger.

Time to make contact.
“Um… hello, gentle - er… Griffin-”
-Bababababang!
Rarity yelped in surprise as the muzzle of an MA5D entered her view and gave her an earful of ringing. Half the Griffin’s face was shorn off, including its beak. She groaned with the intense drumming in her head, turned round to see Big Mac standing valiantly over her, a puzzled look on his face.
She snapped herself out of it. “Oh, er... Thank you Big Mac. You… saved… my life. Haha.”
The giggle at the end was nervous. The “you saved my life,” was sarcastic, but it came out empty.

“Report!” Barked the Princess in her normal, still loud speaking voice.
Rarity approached with Big Mac, “Everything is fine, Princess.”
“We have three dead Griffins over hear,” Private Octavia perked up.
Then Lyra; “Two over here.”
Vinyl got in her face, “Yes! We win!”

“Enough!” The Princess ordered. “Is anypony hurt?”
"I’m hurt,” Derpy informed with embarrassment.
It was nothing more than a grazed knee. Pinkie zipped over to her aid, knocking Vinyl into some boxes.
“I can fix it! I can fix it!” To fix it, she took Derpy’s hoof and gave it a kiss, like Derpy was a Princess.
“Hahaha, stop it! Hahahaha, that tickles!”
“You see! Much better, right?”
“Haha! Yeah, I guess. Thank you Pinkie Pie.”
“Aw you're welcome.”

Clearing her throat, the Princess was getting impatient. “Ok! Nopony is hurt. We get it. Rainbow Dash, how are things in thy Pelican?”
The Pegasus Pilot spoke over the Pelican’s exterior speaker, “Oh it’s lovely and cosy in here, Princess. I sure wish I had some of that ice cream with me! Hehe, can’t say the same for out there though. Things are looking pretty spooky on my cameras.” Loved to rub it in: She’d pay for that.

Everypony had jealousy in their eyes.
“Can I join you, Rainbow Dash?” Derpy asked, facing the Pelican, as if the Pelican was the one talking.
“Nnn… no.” With that, Rainbow raised the gangplank. No Derpys aloud.

“Oh my! Rarity! Are you ok?!” It was out of character for Fluttershy to speak as loud as she did just then.
“Of course. Don’t worry Fluttershy, it’s not my blood.”
“Oh thank goodness. I thought something awful had happened to you.”

The Princess cut in, “Hold on stars… Where is Bon Bon?”
"Bon Bon's not here?!" Private Lyra panicked, zipping around the troops. "Oh no! Bon Bon! Bon Bon!"
There was no answer.

Chapter 5: I Didn't Put Those In My Bag

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>Luna 1327 hours

Taking out the second Griffin hadn’t been as satisfying as taking down the first. The third even less. Something bothered her. These were Griffins; destroyers of Reach, dangerous warriors, yet her and her squad had just mowed the lawn with them. ‘Twas easy, too easy. Griffins were better than this. They also wore helmets.

Beams from flash lights kept scanning the black hanger in case there was more trouble. Most of the containers were now peppered with bullet holes. Fresh, red Griffin blood crawled on top of the old dry blood that had already been there when they arrived. Almost drowned out by the mysterious, terrible odour of what smelled like a mix of wet cat and rotting egg; the smell of heated weapons and burnt Griffin. Spent shell casings formed a carpet on the sticky red floor, her DMR casings standing out from the puny MA5D ones.

Trying to look heroic, Thunderlane had his left front hoof stood on one of the dead Griffins, like he was posing for a photo. It probably wasn’t even him who killed it. Jerk.

Unlike the Griffins who wore helmets, and sometimes soldier saddles, Ponies wore next to nothing in combat. The royal guards that Luna and her sister once commanded used to wear gold or silver armour. Neither she nor Celestia made those sorts of decisions in the UPSC though. Somepony else was in charge of all that stuff.

The recourses, not to mention the money, went towards the weapons, vehicles and star ships. All this meant was that Ponies were more vulnerable than the Griffins, especially since Griffin tech was more advanced.

Rumour had it; the Griffins had colonized a planet that had some of the finest materials in the universe, including technology that had been left behind by another race. None of this had been confirmed however. But this “Halo” thingy-majig was a weapon left behind by another race, so maybe that rumour was correct.

When it came to protection, Ponies were screwed. Luna and her sister wore decorative harnesses that symbolised who they were, light but strong, and could probably deflect a shot from a Griffin’s Carbine or two.
Big Mac wore a farm harness that had deflected many needle rounds. Much heavier, but thicker, and nothing he couldn’t handle.

Thinking of Needler rounds brought back the memory she had of being shot. ‘Twas her own fault. She had removed her harness to give to another Pony who she felt needed it more at the time, and was shot in the heart with a long, pink, glowing needle from a Needle Rifle. The earth Pony she was offering her harness to converted to a Unicorn with another deadly, pink needle. In Luna’s chest, the sizable, crystal needle had slipped in deep and literally penetrated her heart. Lying on her back, looking up at the Red Horse and some other ships, her vision blurred, just as a Falcon helicopter swooped down to…

Couldn’t remember the rest. Could only remember waking up in the Red Horse’s medical bay, surrounded by the familiar faces of Rarity and her sister.
Celestia giving her a huge, huge hug. “You made it! I knew you could do it!”
Rarity wiping her eyes with a tissue and sighing with relief.

Over time, her heart repaired itself, and with a big ugly scar concealed behind her harness, she was ready to get back out there.

One of her seventeen stars dwindled in her mind. Where in the universe is Bon Bon?
“A sound she heard that was most absurd,” Zecora rhymed to the worrying Lyra. “With the Griffin by the forklift floored, into the consuming darkness she explored.” With that, Zecora aimed a hoof down the hanger at a horizontally passing corridor, and then addressed Luna. “I am so sorry, oh Princess of the night. I was too caught up in the fire fight.”
Luna sighed, “Not your fault, Zecora. Bon Bon has only herself to blame.”

"Don't blame Bon Bon!" Lyra cried hysterically. "It's the Griffins' fault! They're the ones who took her! Grrrrr! When I get my hands - hooves, on those Griffins!-"
"Calm down, fair Lyra. I am sure she will-"
"-And it's your fault for dragging us here! You and your-"
"-Lyra! Thou dare accuseth thy Princess of the night of the disappearance of fair Bon Bon?!" Luna glowered angrily into Lyra.
The frantic Unicorn backed up against a container and swallowed before coming to her senses and exhaling.
"... I-I'm sorry, Princess. I didn't mean to... It's not your fault. I don't know why I..."
"Keep your head, fair Lyra. I forgive you," kinda. "Thou art just a little worried. You need to stay calm."
Sniffling and nodding, Luna's star replied, "... Ok."

Right, time to dish out some orders.
On the radio that poked out of her saddle bag; “Rainbow Dash, you stay in thy Pelican.”
“I don’t think I need to be ordered to do that, Princess.”
Off the radio; “Octavia, Vinyl Scratch, Thunderlane and Snowflake; you can all stay here and guardeth thy Pelican. And clean up those bodies thou art so fond of standing on.”
A blush and squee from the jerk Thunderlane as he got down off the Griffin.
A “Yeeeaaah!” from the dumb Snowflake.
“Uh, whatever,” from the insubordinate Vinyl Scratch.
And a “Yes Princess,” and bow from the lovely Octavia.
There’s a good Pony. Knows how to follow orders.

Derpy; “What about me?”
“Everypony else shall assist me in finding Bon Bon. Art thou ready?”
“But Luna? What about me?”
I just said.
“Thou art with me and everypony else, Derpy. Please listen to what is being said.”
“I was listening.” She really was.
“Ready?”
Everypony stated, “Ready!” as one.
Even Rainbow Dash’s voice came over the Pelican’s speakers.
Well I don’t know what you’re ready for. An eternal wait, perhaps?

The star in her mind that represented Bon Bon blinked, and the scar beneath her harness itched: Something truly bad is going to happen.
“Very well then, subjects. Let’s move!”
One by one, they left the hanger.

The emergency lighting was only on at the entrance to the hanger, which meant the flash lights on the rifles were their only means of vision.

Rarity trotted up beside Luna, “I do hope we find Bon Bon and get off this smelly old ship soon. There is something in the air that’s just going to wreak havoc on my mane.”
Ah, fussy Rarity. Always worried about her mane.
“Don’t get thou hopes up, fair Rarity-aha-aha,” coughing, very smelly old ship. “… We hath much to do.”
“Like what, Princess? Like finding out what’s going on here? I… don’t really think that’s worth getting this dirty about.”

Glancing at her, Luna noted she was drenched in Griffin blood. Rarity hated getting dirty. She hated it with a passion. Yet she was the one who was always covered in somepony else’s blood.

“Hm, I think that colour suits thou.” Luna joked sarcastically.
The Medic stared at her, gone out. "Come again?"
“It really brings out your eyes.”
"... You're joking aren't you?"
"Maybe."
"Well it's not funny! It's going to take me forever to get cleaned up. I do hope the stain isn't permanent."

Twilight was on point, and she came to a sudden halt.
“Oh my gosh! Look!”
They did, and everypony gasped. It was a hoof print in fresh blood, sliding down the wall on the right to join another, larger splattering of the stuff.

Hovering a hoof over it, Twilight informed, “It’s still warm. This must belong to Bon Bon.” A pause as she examined further. “There are even some pink and blue hairs over here. They must be from her mane.”
“Oh no!” Applejack piped up, “The Griffins must ‘a taken her!”
Lyra squeaked with dread. "Please be ok Bon Bon."
Rarity brought a hoof to her mouth.
Big Mac just stood there, hiding his emotions: We must continue.
Luna; “We must continue, fair subjects. Twilight, proceed.”

The purple Unicorn obeyed, and paced forward with caution, the flash light on her MA5D searching left and right.
“There are hoof prints leading to… well… let’s find out,” Twilight said.
There were indeed hoof prints, left in blood, trailing down the corridor. Caught in Twilight’s light, the bloody prints veered left into a doorway, water spilling out over a lip onto the corridor floor. Twilight peeked around the corner and took a step inside.

Splash!
“Woah! Looks like somepony left the tap on. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say we were in the shower block.” The sound of a shower head left running confirmed Twilight’s statement. Luna followed Twilight into the showers, then Rarity, Big Mac, Fluttershy...

Derpy yelled from somewhere at the back, “Don’t drop the muffin guys!”
Luna almost pulled her muffin out of her saddle bag to throw it on the floor and stomp on it, just to rebel.
“Derpy! Keep your voice down or I shall push thou out thy next air-lock.”
Derpy squealed frightfully in response, “Please no!”
Rolling her eyes, Luna followed Twilight through the warm, ankle deep water.

Derpy tripped over the lip that tried to stop the water from spilling out into the corridor.
“Whoops. Careful there partner,” said Applejack with no emotion as she helped her back up.

All of a sudden, there was a slap of something wet against a wet surface, like a slab of raw meat on a table.
“Um… what was that noise?” Questioned Fluttershy, the fear in her adorable voice breaking through.
Luna shushed her. “Twilight?”
“I’m looking. I’m looking. I can’t see anything-”

A wet burble, close, almost like somepony was gargling whilst brushing their teeth. Then, the slapping sound again, and again, and again. Shining her flash light down, Luna witnessed a wave of blood come washing down around her hooves.
Cheerlie spoke for the first time in a while, “Uh-oh. This doesn’t look good.”
Excellent analysis. She was on rear, behind Pinkie Pie. That moist slapping grew louder, and Luna could hear a bit of crunching too.

Stopping again, Twilight looked at Luna, her ears flopped down and she bit her bottom lip as she motioned with her bright purple eyes at the green, tiled wall she was about to go around. Luna’s flash light revealed a bloody drag mark leading around the wall, and her stomach knotted itself. She signalled for Twilight to get behind her so she could take point for this part.

With Twilight between her and Rarity, she forced herself to wade through the bloody water around the wall.
“Bon Bon?”
They’d found her.

Bon Bon lay on her back in the water while an enormous Griffin stood next to her. Stood on her. No, stomped on her. Talons, spattered with blood, came down on what remained of Bon Bon’s upper midsection, crushing it into a scrappy mess with ribs protruding out in different directions. Flesh clung to the Griffin's fingers as it pounded her over and over. Luna’s heart raced, her eyes widened in horror, she wanted to scream “Fire!” but the word was stuck in her throat.
“Ff… fi… ” To heck with it.

Gritting her teeth, she pulled the trigger on her DMR, just as the Griffin transformed Bon Bon’s dead stare into mush.
Bang! Bang! Bang! She couldn’t stop firing, knew that three bullets would be enough, but she just couldn’t stop firing. Rarity’s Battle Rifle joined her DMR, and a few Assault Rifles too.
Click click: She’d used up the rest of her magazine.

“C… Cease fire!” She ordered, stuttering a little.
The Griffin was a sponge with the amount of holes that were now in it. It slouched against the wall, silent, still. Bon Bon’s corpse was barely recognisable as a Pony.
Lightning Dust saying, “I won’t come back.”

“Bon Bon! Nooo!” Cried Private Lyra in anguish.
Kudos to her for keeping relatively quiet up until now.

Luna didn't know much about Bon Bon and Lyra. She knew their names, what they looked like and what Pony species they were, but not much else. But the way Lyra was handling things told her one thing:
They were close.

Lyra rushed over to Bon Bon’s sizzling corpse, tears erupting from her eyes. Bon Bon was a mess. A real mess. Lyra couldn’t even look at her, just shielded her eyes with a hoof and sobbed while Applejack comforted her.
“Oh Bon Bon!”

Rarity’s cheeks bulged as she held in non-existent sick. Fleur De Lis did the same - no, wait. Fleur De Lis was actually sick. Well, that was weak.

Luna gazed into the bolognaise of innards that Bon Bon had become, blood swirling around her in the warm water.
As Zecora came to Fleur’s aid, Pinkie Pie splashed her way over to Luna’s side. “Oooooooo!”
“Art thou… impressed, Pinkie Pie?”

Before the pink one could reply, Lyra cried over them, loud. “I want to go home! I want to go ho-ho-ho-hooooome!”
Applejack tried her best to convince her otherwise, but truth be truth, Luna wanted to go home too.
“Now now Lyra. Don’t fret. I’m sure Bon Bon ‘d want you to continue on, like the good soldier you are.”

Luna looked back at what had been Bon Bon. She felt numb. She had lost her first star.

A pattering of hurried footsteps as a shadowy blur zoomed past the doorway and down the corridor.
“Zecora, what was that!?” Luna demanded.
“Griffins of few! Either three or two!”
“Were they armed?!”
“None that I could see, but I cannot guarantee.”

Bringing up her radio, Luna warned Octavia and the others back at the hanger. Dub step music, her least favourite music, could be heard clearly in the background as Octavia answered her.
“Fair Octavia. Thou hath two or three Griffins embarking on thy way. They may, or may not be armed.”
Octavia’s replies were conducted professionally, but hard to hear over that “music.”
“Understood Princess, we shall not let them near the Pelican…” Forgetting to turn off her radio, she then addressed Vinyl, Snowflake and Thunderlane, who could be heard having a whale of a time to that juvenile music. “Ponies! Griffins are heading our way! We need to-”
Vinyl burped at her. “Chillax Tavi, no Griffin can resist these beats!”
The radio finally clicked off.

Sighing, Luna got to work, using her magic to lift pieces of Bon Bon as she searched for her Pony tags. This activity never bothered her. To put your distaste over the needs of the dead was to be selfish, something Rarity needed to learn.

The derped one approached, “Oh yuck! What are you doing, Luna?! You’re not gonna find anything shiny in there.”
Ugh, Derpy was really getting on her nerves.
She gritted her teeth, “How about thou do something useful and giveth me some light!”
Confused, Derpy shone her flash light into Luna’s eyes.
“Argh! Shine thy light on Bon Bon!”
“But, you said… you… wanted the light.”
Luna growled. “Rarity!”
“Oh of course, Princess.” Rarity answered, making her way to Luna and Bon Bon.
At least some of my subjects have brains.

Behind Rarity, Derpy tried to make shadow puppets with her flash light, as did Pinkie Pie, who successfully made an Eagle… with one hoof.
How…? Never mind. Now that she could see more clearly, she resumed exploring the sloppy mess of Bon Bon.

The Griffin had stomped on her so hard, for so long, that its talon had gone straight through her spine and hit the floor. Bon Bon’s remains acted as a sort of “dam” around the hole, as there was barely any water there.

This really didn’t scan. Griffins were warriors, not monsters. Not one, or a billion dead Ponies registered as victory for them, they just moved on and hunted for more. They did not leave themselves vulnerable in enemy territory.
They did not run around with no weapons or equipment.
They did not pound Ponies into jelly.
They did not do this.

A glint of something shiny caught her eye.
What was Derpy talking about? Of course I’ll find something shiny!
A whip of telekinesis brought Bon Bon’s Pony tags up to her face. They were stained in a red liquid that didn’t really need mentioning, and one of the tags had folded over and been flattened.

What is that? Noticing something long and thin and green within the scrambled eggs of Bon Bon.
Her magic raised it up where she could get a gander. It looked like a giant spider’s leg; pointed at the end, oddly segmented, and a sickly green paste hung like snot from where it had been torn away from whatever it had been attached to. It wasn’t Griffin, and it sure as hay didn’t belong to Bon Bon, but whatever it was, it reeked. It really reeked. Must’ve been one of the sources contributing to the smell of the whole ship.

Luna was stood between it and everypony else. Wouldn’t want to frighten our subjects now would we?
She concealed the spider’s leg under a scrap of flesh.
“Thank you, fair Rarity.”
She turned and waded towards Lyra, who was now holding onto Applejack like a Philly to its mother.
Clearing her throat, she got the crying Unicorn’s attention, Bon Bon’s Pony tags jingling in front of her. Sniffling, Lyra took them with her own magic and dropped them into her saddle bag.
“Thanks,” she squeaked tearfully.
Luna bowed apologetically.

“Princess? The Griffins havn’t shown up yet,” Octavia’s voice crackled over the radio, dub step and partying still in the background.
Snowflake screamed down the radio, making Luna pull her head away.
“Will you Ponies listen to me!”
“Octavia, calm down! What art thy situation?”
“These Ponies just won’t listen to me.”
The Earth Pony was at her wits end, and Luna could make out the sound of a stifled cry - then a discordant scratch on the turn table, where ever they had found a turn table, ceased the dub step, and screams of terror came down the radio, followed by gunfire.
“Oh my gosh! What is that!?”
“Octavia! Speaketh to us!”
But Octavia was being too incoherent, panicking, screaming with the other three and firing her weapon.
“Kill it! Kill them too! Aaaaaaaa…!” A sloppy sound, then the radio cut off.
“Octavia...?” Luna was left even more numb. “… Octavia...?”

Chapter 6: AI Constructs and Alicorn Princesses First

View Online

>Rainbow Dash 1349 hours

Curled up on the pilot’s seat, Rainbow Dash hugged the life out of her teddy, which was really an M6H Pistol. The safety was off, the Pelican’s troop bay was sealed up tight, as was the cock-pit. There had been way too much gunfire for her liking.

Vinyl Scratch, Octavia and the others had been attacked within the jungle of crates and boxes where everything was obscured. The feed from the Pelican’s cameras on the monitors was useless; nothing to see. She kept her eyes glued to them however, in case something came up close, praying that nothing threw itself up against the windscreen to startle her.

Before the assault, she’d reclined back in the ever-so-comfy seat, with her rear hooves crossed on the Pelican’s dashboard, nodding her head in time with Vinyl’s music, her untamed rainbow coloured mane bouncing in and out of her face. Everything went from calm and relaxed to cold and creepy fast.

There was a sudden crack of static that caused her to yelp.
“Rainbow Dash? Art thou still there?”
“Oh, Princess, it’s you. He-he, you totally didn’t startle me.”
“What do thou see, fair Rainbow Dash?”
She hadn’t taken her eyes off the monitors. “I don’t see anything Princess, it’s too dark, and their rifles are just lying on the floor.”
Her throat was dry, and the stench of whatever was outside the Pelican was beginning to ooze its way in. Hesitantly, she pressed a button on the monitor to view images from a different exterior camera.
“I can see the dead Griffins, and - woooaaah boy!”
“Rainbow Dash, what is it?!”
“Something just dragged one of the dead Griffins down the hall!” Ok, now she was getting really jumpy.
“Something? Like what?!” The Princess enquired urgently.
“Something big! Something really big! Do they eat their own, Princess? Cos that’s what it looks like!” She knew Griffins didn’t eat their dead any more than Ponies ate theirs.
“Focus, fair Rainbow Dash! Do not get jumpy!”
“Me? Jumpy? I’m not jumpy. Why would I be jumpy? I’m nice and safe in my Pelican. I’m not jumpy.”
The Princess didn’t buy it. “Dash, keep it together. Can thou patch us through to thy Red Horse?”
“Oh, er... certainly, Princess. Patching you through now.”
It’s always nice to get a call from home.

She fiddled with a few buttons, switches and dials on the dash, until… success! A good, strong signal from the Red Horse.

“Helooooo!”
Ugh, this guy.
“Discord,” the Princess greeted, not too happily.
“Ah, Princess Luna. A sound for sore ears. Did you miss me?”
“Like a needle in thy heart, Discord.”
“Doh I know all about that Luna, and I feel sooo sorry for you.”
Rainbow Dash eavesdropped on Luna’s conversation with the AI Discord, cursing him for replacing their perfectly good AI Cadence.

“And just how do thou know of that?” The Princess sounded a bit cross.
Know of what? Is Luna hiding something? She hoped to find out before… before… something happened, which hopefully it wouldn’t.
“Oh let’s just say that Celestia and I have been spending some quality time together. I suppose you could say she; pierced my heart! Tss-ss-ss-ss-ss-ss.”
Groaning, the Princess replied, “We do not have time for this, Discord.”
“Very well then Luna… what would you like to tell me?”

The Princess then began listing the little intel they had gathered on the Pony Lisa so far; “The Pony Lisa is compromised by Griffins. However, they are acting really strange.”
“Go on…”
“They have no weapons or equipment. And so far, we hath not encountered any Ponies, crew or prisoners.”
“That’s all you found?”
Darn it! What more do you want?!

Frustration entered the Princess’s voice, “You mean other than Griffins on a civilian ship, with no weapons, at thy coordinates of a highly classified, top secret location?”
“Luuunaaa… I heard you.”
“I request reinforcements to aid us in our mission.”
“Tee-hee… Nooo!”
“I wish to speaketh to my sister.”
“Celestia and I are of the same mind, Princess.”
The Princess’s voice increased with rancour. “Requesting…!”

“Negative, Luna.” That was Commander Celestia. How long had she been listening? “I am sorry, but we cannot send anymore reinforcements without alerting the Griffin capitol ship to our presence.”
Bad news, but at least now she was talking to somepony a little less annoying.
“The safety of our colonies locations is paramount, my sister. And the Pony Lisa does appear to be compromised. Ascertain if the Griffins have accessed the navigational data, and if not, destroy it.”
There was a pause. Rainbow Dash put an ear to the speaker, and heard Discord whispering something. Wondered if the Princess picked it up too.
“We shall let you know when it is safe to return.”

“Sister…” the orders came too quickly and too sudden. “Sister, we are down five already, as far as we know. We can journey on, dispose of thy nav systems, and rid this ship of Griffins. But begging your pardon, it’s a very big ship.”
Rainbow heard a clop as Princess Luna stomped her hoof.
“We need more Ponies.”
Celestia sighed with what sounded like deep regret. “Negative sister. You have your orders, and I trust that you will see them through in your usual, spectacular fashion.”
Are you for real, Commander?

“Permission to speak freely, sister?”
“Negative.” Emotionless.
Then Discord resurfaced, “You’re - tss - breaking up now Luna - tssss - You have your - tss - orders - tssssssssss!”
“Discord! Celestia!” Luna growled down the radio, like a Panther warning somepony to stay away. Then another loud clop.
“Darn, that sucks,” Rainbow responded emptily.

Flickering, the batteries powering the flash lights of the abandoned Assault Rifles began to die. She had caught no more action since the Griffin corpse was dragged into the darkness.

After a few seconds, the Princess spoke to her again. “Art thou cosy in there?”
Not anymore.
“Er… Yeah.”
"Alone?” Now it was Luna’s turn to rub it in.
“Um, I think so, Princess.”
"Hmm. Stay where you are. Let us know when thy Red Horse is talking again. When our quest is over, we shall return to stink out thy Pelican.”
Rainbow laughed nervously, “Yeah. And then comes ice cream, right Princess?”
“Hm-hm. Of course, fair Rainbow Dash. See you soon.”
Outside, the last flash light went dark.

>Luna 1402 hours

Twelve stars now. Luna had a burning rage inside of her that had nothing to do with the Griffins. She had her orders. Her lousy, lousy orders: Cleanse the Pony Lisa of Griffins and destroy the navigational data.
I’ll give thou spectacular.

Her subjects gathered around her. Around Bon Bon’s remains. Around the Swiss cheesed Griffin.
“You heard,” she began, looking into each of their sad, scared and angry faces. “Change of plan subjects, we have Griffins aboard, thus my fearless sister hath enacted thy Cole Protocol.”

A protocol established by a high ranking officer in the UPSC, designed to keep the outer colonies safe. A ship that is compromised must have its nav systems destroyed so the Griffins can’t obtain vital co-ordinates and locate more Pony worlds.

“Our primary objective is to destroy the navigational system on thy Bridge, and the backup navigational system in thy engine room.”

Private Fluttershy gulped upon eye contact with her. She paused to reassure her with her famous, intimidating smile, resulting in a tiny squeak from the meek Pegasus, just like a mouse.

Continuing, she announced, “Ascertaining what thy hay is going on here is now a secondary objective.”
Staring into Twilight Sparkle, she added, “Twilight, do thou hath thy rough schematic?”
“Yes, Princess,” she sighed in response.
“Good." Turning to face Rarity, she ordered, "Rarity, you take Big Mac, Twilight, Fluttershy and Fleur De Lis. You shall take care of the backup nav in thy engine room. Destroy it, then we shall regroup back here before returning to thy Pelican. You see any Griffins along thy way, you kill Griffins, understand? I do not care if they are delighted to see thou or not. You do not allow any of them to escape this ship.”
Rarity and Big Mac made a great team.
Opposites work well together, I suppose.

“Yes, Princess!” The curly maned medic bowed and started for the door, not wanting to spend any more time around the Bon Bon casserole.

Luna’s scar was still a little itchy beneath her harness.
“We mean it Rarity; do not let any of them close, is that clear?”
“Saaaarrge, I don’t let anypony close, remember?”
“Well don’t y’all let no Griffins close neither, y’ hear!” Applejack stole the words right out of Luna’s mouth.

Playfully, Rarity giggled, and her curly, purple tail whizzed away into the corridor beyond, the others following her. Scar still begging to be scratched, Luna had an awful, dreadful feeling, that that was the last time she’d ever see Corporal Rarity. The last time she’d ever hear her posh, elegant voice. She hoped, with all her heart, she would be proven wrong.

“Aaww, there’s no gear,” Pinkie Pie sounded disappointed. “Not one of these Griffins has any gear at all.”
“Wha’ d’ ya mean Pink?” Enquired Applejack, puzzlingly.
The fluffy pink Earth Pony went into rapid fire mode. “Well it’s hardly fair, I feel like we’re cheating! Also I love seeing those sparkle-errific plasma bolts whizzing around everywhere! Also I love picking up Griffin's weapons and using them for myself! You ever fired a Needler?! Aaah its sooooo pretty…” This wasn’t going to stop, was it?
“… I remember one time, I jumped up onto a Banshee, and I opened the door, and the Griffin that was flying was all like; “Oh no you got me!” so I threw him out, and then I was flying the Banshee! Those things are sooo fast! They’re all like; “Whoo! Whoo! Whoo! Whoo! Whooooooooo!”” She zipped her head around in all directions when describing what Banshees were like. “Have any of you ever flown a Banshee before?!”
“Enough! We must proceed to thy Bridge,” Luna erupted, ears hurting.
“Okie dokie lokie!” Sang Pinkie Pie cheerfully, bouncing towards the doorway, splashing everypony with the water that wasn’t one hundred per cent water.

“Luna?”
“What is it Derpy?”
“How did Griffins get on this ship? And why don’t they have any toys with them?”
Those toys nearly killed me.
“Hmm, a good question. Say Derpy, how did Griffins get on this ship? And why don’t they have any toys with them?”
Derpy was beginning to stress her out.
We don’t know as much as you don’t know, so let’s see how you handle being asked that question.

“Well after a thorough analysis, a logical explanation would be that they are prisoners, here on the Derpy Lisa.”
Wow! She wasn’t expecting that! It left her derp struck. Clever Derpy, even if she did get the name of the ship wrong. Although, to her knowledge, Ponies didn’t take POWs as much as the Griffins did.

“Riiight… because we taketh so many Griffin prisoners. Oh and by the way Derpy, it’s “the Pony Lisa.””
Together, the two of them walked out of the doorway behind Lyra, who was still whimpering over the loss of her friend.
“The Pony Derpy?”
“Hm-hm. Never mind.”
The wonky eyed Pegasus gasped with inspiration, “The Derpy Derpy!”
Ok, she had to try hard to hide a laugh there, and then she inhaled with realisation:
“Where is Cheerlie?”

Chapter 7: Shadow of Intent

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>Rarity 1431 hours

Things went wrong almost immediately for Rarity. Whilst humming a certain tune, Twilight directed them left and right and down and down again, following the directions on her little gizmo. Apparently, she was leading them on a short cut that would lead to B deck… that would of course lead to the engine room, but there had been so many locked doors, jammed hatches and makeshift blockades that a direct route was impossible.

The corridor they were clustered in now had at least some lighting. Not a lot, but enough that they could see without wasting the batteries of their flash lights. Swatches of blood smeared on the floor, on the walls, on the ceiling, was beginning to get old now. The extra blood bags she’d packed seemed like a bad joke; there was no shortage of the stuff here.

They’d reached a door, bloody hoof prints scribbled onto it, another makeshift barricade on the other side was responsible for it not opening. Not even Big Mac, who bucked it repeatedly with a single, rear hoof, could win the door over.
In stepped Twilight, “It’s no use Big Macintosh; it’s not going to budge.”
Accepting defeat, he gave the door one last, all mighty, double hooved buck.

Over the jarring thud, an ear splitting shriek tore its way up and down the corridor, dissolved into a snort, then drifted into silence.
Fluttershy started to panic, “Aah! What’s that?!”
Her pale yellow body shivered and she hunkered down, face hidden behind her long pink mane.
“Calm down Fluttershy. I’m sure it was just the ship.” Rarity reassured her, but she knew it wasn’t the ship.

Ships made a variety of random noises, like the humming of machinery, the hissing of gasses, and the creaking of vast metal plates resisting the vacuum of space. Whatever that blood summoning shriek was, it wasn’t a ship noise.

“Just the ship?” The timid Pegasus peeked out from her graceful mane.
“Why yes, ships make all sorts of silly noises. That noise was, er… probably just the, er… pluming, or something. Haha.”
Ok, she was now, officially, in denial.
“Oh, are you sure Rarity? Because it sounded more like a-”
“Rarity!” Interrupted Twilight. “I may have found a way around, but you’re not going to like it.” She sounded both proud and worried.

“Why won’t I like it?”
“Well… we have to go through recycling.”
Confused, she played, “What do you mean by that? Are you suggesting we get recycled? How would that even work?!”
The purple Unicorn chortled. “No Rarity, we have to cut through the ship's recycling plant.”
“Ooohh.”
“We’ll have to back track. There should be access to the lower level two junctions down. From there, we can go through the recycling plant and proceed to the engine room!” Pride entered her voice again, and she clopped her front hooves together with delight.

“Twilight dear? I have just one question.”
“Yes? What is it, Rarity?”
“What is this, “recycling plant?”” She felt kinda dumb not knowing what she meant, but it was ok; she wasn’t the only one.

Twilight had a tendency to outsmart even the smartest of Ponies. And Griffins. And even AIs! Maybe she should introduce her to Discord. That’d be fun to watch.

“Well… think of it as a, er… a sewer.”
"Oh gracious! A sewer!? Twilight! You know we can’t go through a sewer!”
“Why not?”
“Well… it’ll just… get us muddy.”
“Yes Rarity, it will get us muddy, but that’s not important! We need to get to the engine room, and like it or not, we’re going to have to go through the recycling plant.”

Twilight was getting annoyed with her. She almost felt like passing her command over to her; she’d be a much better leader than she was being. However, Rarity felt like she had something to prove. She was in the military, and she was determined to do her part. She was also determined not to get any dirtier than she already was, but much to her dismay, duty came before fabulosity.

Sighing, she reluctantly asked; “Which way to the recycling?”
Grinning, Twilight replied, “It’s this way Rarity,” and trotted back the way they came.
Rarity, Fluttershy, Fleur De Lis and Big Mac followed her.

Cautiously making their way back down the blood splattered corridor, something bothered Rarity. Actually, two things bothered Rarity. The first; they hadn’t met anypony yet. No staff, no prisoners, no corpses of staff or prisoners. Only the Griffins in the hanger had bothered to put on a show for them. And the Griffin that killed Bon Bon of course, but she tried not to think of that one.

There had been so many blockades made of junk and furniture and the odd paper cup that she was getting used to it. Some of the barricades had actually held. Most of what she’d seen so far however, hadn’t.
Prison riot? Hmmm… It didn’t really fit.

She’d always envisioned a prison riot to be frantic and chaotic, but this was just… eerie, and Griffins aside, they really should have met somepony by now.

The other thing that was bothering her:
“Fleur, you’ve got a little something on your chin.”

The model Unicorn was just as concerned about hygiene as she was, and it was a wonder how she’d let something on her face go unnoticed for so long. She was quieter than she was. Mainly because she spoke a different language, that said, there was a rumour floating around that Fleur De Lis could understand them all perfectly, and could speak their language fluently, but chose not to for some reason. Rude much? Something to do with style, perhaps? Or maybe she just didn’t like them and didn’t want to talk to them. Either way, it was kinda silly, unless the rumours were wrong of course.

“Où?” Fleur shot and looked expectantly at her.
I don’t really know what that means but, here we go… She pointed her hoof to a dribbling of vomit just below Fleur’s mouth.
“Right there.”

Fleur had already whipped out a pocket mirror and a ball of cotton wool from her saddle bag using her magic. After dabbing and wiping the sick away, she flung the ball of wool carelessly behind her and withdrew her mirror. A glance back showed that the woollen ball of sick had landed on Big Mac’s fore head.

Stopping next to the large red Stallion, Rarity moaned, “Fleur! You need to be more careful! Look what you did to Big Mac!”
Fleur just kept walking with Twilight and Fluttershy.
“Désolé, je ne peux pas vous comprendre,” she called back over her shoulder.
“That better be an apology, Fleur!” Rarity called after her, and then sighed, “My apologies Big Mac.”

Using her magic, she unstuck the vomit ball from under his orange, untamed fringe, then was tasked with the stain that was left.
Doooh! I’m going to have to be generous, aren’t I?
Turning around and squeezing her eyes shut, she used her tail to wipe the stain from Big Mac’s head. She groaned a little, then turned to see him starring back at her, surprised. Confused. Holding a cloth in his massive hoof. Rarity blushed and squeed. Putting away the cloth, he thanked her, and the two of them trotted on to catch up with the others.

>Luna 1440 hours

Great. Cheerlie’s gone! That’s another star down. Luna thought to herself.
With her horn glowing, she levitated a bottle of antiseptic, popped the cap, and splashed some liberally on the open gash on the back of Derpy’s neck. She could taste the stuff in her nose and throat.
Derpy winced, “Ow! That hurts, Luna!”
“Enough with thy yelping. Art thou a Mare or a Mouse?”
“Uhh… umm…”
“That was rhetorical.” She whipped out a large plaster and slapped it over the wound.
“Lunaaa, that stings!”

Zecora, Lyra and Applejack spread around the room while Pinkie Pie stood by Derpy, y’know, in case she needed an autopsy or something.

The room, or to be precise; the infirmary, was cold, cramped, miserable, and cluttered with medical equipment that had been rendered useless. A pathetic blockade that hadn’t held the first time framed the doorway, which no longer had a door in it. The door was in fact flat on the ground, blood forming a miniature lake in a huge dent that had been smacked into it. Oh yes, the blood; it was everywhere, just like everywhere else in the Pony Lisa. Luna had seen more blood on this single civilian ship than she had in all her days on the battlefield.

For the first time on this gosh forsaken ship, she saw graffiti, scrawled in blood on an overturned table.
It said: “Tell my family I love them and that I didn’t do it! Not any of it! I swear! Celestia praise us all – Carrot Cake.”
Oh brother.

Luna rolled her eyes as she used a hoof to flatten the plaster below Derpy’s blonde mane. She’d sat her on an operating table in the centre of “the room of many tales.”
“How did thou even get this?” She examined.
Pinkie stole Derpy’s reply; “She bumped into something super-duper sharp when we passed through a silly blockade earlier on.”
Cursed blockades, blocking our path. I wonder if Rarity is having this problem.

With Derpy’s wound all fixed up, Luna rotated to examine her stars. Hadn’t had to use any more ammo to get to where they were now, that was good. And Applejack had shared out her brilliant supply of apples, so nopony was hungry. Lyra was still stewing over the death of Bon Bon, poor Mare. And of course Derpy was whingeing over her injury.

At the back of the infirmary, a sealed chamber was situated, closed. Locked from the inside. This gained her full attention.
“Zecora!” She hailed the mohawked Zebra as she approached what would’ve looked like a plain old wall if she weren’t so eagle eyed. “What art thy deal with this?”

As well as her soldier saddle, Zecora donned huge, golden hoop ear rings, and one of those necklaces that looked like a golden slinky toy. Zebras where also the only other equine species, besides Ponies, that had cutie marks, and Zecora’s cutie mark was that of a spiral, surrounded by outward facing triangles to look like a sun, similar to her sister’s. The colour matched her grey stripes. Apparently, it signified her talent for mixing up potions and remedies, although that hadn’t been confirmed. Still, Zecora would be a magnificent medic.

Zecora rhymed in a deep, wise voice, “The opposite of a cell, a safe room. Somepony will be inside, I presume.”
“A safe room?”
“Mm-hm.”

Derpy sauntered in front of Zecora, seemingly oblivious to her presence, and pushed her ear against the door.
“Knock, knock!” She voiced in time with her hoof, knocking on the door.
Luna started, “Derpy-”
“No, let her be.” Zecora held out a hoof to stop her. “A knock on the door, may be the key.”

Were it anypony else, Luna would’ve bit their head off, but Zecora was sagacious, and right about a lot of stuff, so she obeyed.

“Hello! Anypony in there?!” Resumed Derpy in a friendly manner. “Any Griffin in there?!”
If there be a Griffin behind this door, it will be as good as dead.

At last! Derpy’s efforts were rewarded with a crackle of static that came from a speaker mounted above the door.
Well done subjects.
The other Ponies spun their heads and gathered round.
“Let me speaketh,” she ordered her subjects. “Art thou ready for some royal Canterlot?” She grinned in Zecora’s face, who put her hooves over her ears with a giddy smirk.
“Uh-oh!” Exclaimed Derpy, who did the same, as did Lyra and AJ.
Pinkie Pie took cover under the operating table from the inbound, royal Canterlot bomb.

Directing her voice like a Scorpion Tank’s main gun at the panic room door, Luna bellowed, “I AM THY PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT, THUS YOU SHALL OPEN THY DOOR IMMEDIATELY!”
The voice that returned from the other side was female, very dramatic, and a little bit spoilt. “Ugh! Thy Princess of the night, huh?”
Whoever this Pony was, she came across as unimpressed.
“THEE ONE AND ONLY!”
At your service Madam… Depending.

“Hmph, how does the great and powerful Trixie know you’re really the Princess of the night?”
Our royal Canterlot voice not proof enough for thou? Wait a minute… did she just tell us her name?
“HOW DO WE KNOW YOU’RE REALLY THY GREAT AND POWERFULL TRIXIE?!”
A pause, and then, just audible over the speaker; “Oh horseshoes.”
Hilarious! She’d let something slip! This was glorious! It made her chortle out loud along with the others.
“Yes, yes, very funny.”
She could imagine the Mare’s face, red with embarrassment on the other side. Served her right for speaking in third person.

“So how does Trixie know you’re really thy Princess of the night?”
“WELL, THOU CAN EITHER TAKE OUR WORD FOR IT, OR WE CAN PROVE IT TO THEE! ONE OF THESE IS THY FUN OPTION, BUT NOT FOR YOU!”
The Mare behind the door giggled, “Tee-hee! Trixie would hate to take away your fun.”
She must’ve been trying to get her back for making her spill her name, to no avail.

Enough messing around, time to get this “Trixie” character to open the door.
“VERY WELL THEN, BE THAT WAY! THOU HATH TEN SECONDS-”
“And then we’ll huff,” Pinkie Pie panted. “And we’ll puff…”
There was a hiss of hydraulics as the invisible door depressed into the wall and scraped off to the left.
Open.
Luna continued on from Pinkie, “… And we shall blow thy house down.”

She took five, eerily slow steps into the shadows of the unlit room. Technically she took ten steps since she was a quadruped and all. The darkness swallowed her deep, sapphire blue coat and flowing, cobalt mane and tail in a demonic fashion. Behind her, the light of the infirmary partially illuminated certain patches of her face and body. She thrust her wings open, making herself look bigger and more intimidating, creating a gust of wind as she did so.

With an evil smile on her face, she loomed over the puny, blue Unicorn Mare, and got a terrific nose full of her fear.
Not so confident now, are you?
The Mare backed up, pupils shrunk, sweat beading the head under the wacky hat she wore.
“Boo.”
Trixie squealed in reaction, backed up a little further, and gulped.
Good. Maybe thou shall tell us what we want to hear.

The great and powerful Trixie wore a purple, pointed hat and big collared cape strewn with stars. It was laughable, and kinda made her look like a Philly-friendly witch. Her cutie mark and tail were obscured by the cape, but if her tail was anything like her mane, it would be a very pale cornflower blue. Those frightened little eyes were dark violet, and zipped side to side as the rest of the Ponies invaded her private box. Trixie stood and quivered in the centre of the foisty room, using her magic to levitate an M6H Pistol, identical to Rainbow Dash’s, before her.

Luna and her stars had their rifles aimed at her head.
“Oh my! You really are the Princess of the night.”
Ignoring Trixie's gun, Pinkie Pie stated, “Well duh! That’s what she said!”
“Shut up, Pink Pony.” She shifted her aim from Luna to Pinkie, then back to Luna, locked onto Luna.
“My name is Pinkie Pie!”
“Whatever.” Now she really sounded like a spoilt Philly.
“Drop thy weapon, Trixie,” demanded Luna, stomping a hoof on the deck.
Sighing, Trixie complied, and lowered the magnum to the floor.

“Who are you?” Luna interrogated.
“The great and powerful Trixie, chief medical officer of the transport ship Pony Lisa.”
Trixie had said that a million times before. To herself or to others wasn’t entirely clear.

She would have lowered her DMR and ordered her stars to do the same, but then Trixie added:
“Er… you can lower you’re weapons.”
That made her want to keep her DMR pointed at her head forever.

Trixie was giving off a bad vibe to her; she stunk of lies and secrets. They’d had enough secrets with Celestia and Discord, and she’d expected to find out everything she wanted to know here, on the Pony Lisa.

This “great and powerful Trixie” better co-operate with them, or else they wouldn’t co-operate with her.
“Thou didn’t even offer us ice cream.” Yeah, like that, and curse Rarity for reminding her of it. “Thou didn’t even say please.” Darn it; Discord was rubbing off on her.
“Ice cream?” Trixie was now the most confused Pony in the universe.
Guffaws from her subjects deepened Trixie’s great and powerful frown.

Pinkie Pie entered rapid fire mode once again. “Yeah! Ice cream! And some cookies! And some birthday cakes! And some punch! And some candy! And some muffins! And-” super excited gasp, “We neeeeed some cupcakes!”
“Ooh, can I have a muffins Pinkie Pie?!” Derpy asked, full of excitement.
“Of course you can!”

Trixie looked like she’d just entered a room full of lunatics. She clearly didn’t like playing the fool.
Addressing Luna, she said, “Princess, the great and powerful Trixie is not your enemy… Please…?”
Fair enough, she wasn’t the enemy, but she wasn’t exactly friend material either. She lowered her DMR and the others followed suite.
Trixie let out the breath she’d been holding in. “Oh, good.”

“What happened here?” Luna interrogated, looking around the room. “How did thou end up in this room?”
Trixie tilted her head for a second, the Pony equivalent of a shrug, seemed like acting to Luna, then she answered, “What do you think happened? Ship like this, only one thing can happen. The prisoners got a chance to escape. They rioted, overwhelmed the guards, and took over the ship. Trixie was lucky enough to be in here when it all happened.”
She was glad about that, Luna could tell, but everything she said carried the odour of rehearsal.
Lucky? Her scar was itching like crazy around this Unicorn.
“Hmm… so that is thy story?”
This offended Trixie. “Ugh! It is not a story! That’s what happened! The prisoners got out and took over the ship.” It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the truth.
This Pony was crafty, and Luna loved crafty almost as much as she loved mysteries.

“You know, Trixie, thou art thy first Pony we hath encountered here. Thou might be thy only Pony survivor on this ship.” Putting emphasis on "Pony."
Shock in Trixie’s eyes. “The… only… Pony…?”
“Indeed. Subjects, scan thy quarters.”

Her stars barged their way past Trixie, Applejack and Zecora making eye contact with the lonely Mare.
They can smell it too. Good.
“I don’t trust ‘er one bit,” AJ muttered to herself as she peered beneath a sink at the back of the room.
“Beware of what you do. I’ve got my eye on you.”
Wohoah Zecora! The way she delivered that line even gave Luna the goose bumps.

Pinkie Pie approached the great and powerful Trixie from multiple directions, including above, sniffing her like a dog.
“Ugh! What are you doing to the great and powerful Trixie!?” Unimpressed, Trixie shoved Pinkie away with a hoof, sending her on her haunches.
Then Derpy began to sniff Pinkie Pie in a similar fashion. Howling with laughter, the Pink one rolled around mercifully on the deck while the grey Pegasus sniffed at her ferociously.
“Tee-hee, stop it Derpy! Bwahahaha!”
O-kaaay.

Back to Trixie, Luna probed, “Policy on taking Griffin prisoners changed, oh great and powerful one? We don’t recall receiving that letter.”
“It wasn’t a widely circulated letter.”
“Thou don’t say.”
“Trixie is just the medical officer. Trixie doesn’t set policies, she just heals illness and fixes broken bones with her incredible magical skills.”
Aww, didums.
“Right. Within this… expansive, medical bay of yours.”
“Trixie isn’t here to help the needs of any Griffin, just us Ponies.”
Had she rehearsed that too?

Luna had a vision of her, curled up on the foam mattress in the corner, listening to the sounds of Ponies crying and screaming and dying. Ignoring all pleads for entry into her tiny fortress.

Trixie had touched a nerve in her however, she had seen the same grief and bitterness in her eyes that she had seen in the eyes of other Ponies when Reach and other colonies before had fallen. A burning rage towards the Griffins for their near unprovoked butchery of Ponies all over the universe. She’d seen the same in her soldiers, except for Derpy, whose eyes were just out of focus, but surely she hated the Griffins too, right?

Luna turned her head for a second to check on Lyra, who had been too quiet for too long. The forlorn Unicorn had only just entered Trixie's quarters and trudged past her, head hanging low. Closing her eyes, Luna had a vision of Lyra and Bon Bon frolicking in a flowery meadow, which was soon shut out to make way for an image of what Bon Bon had become and that weird spider's leg.

Moving aside her sorrow, she continued her interview with Trixie.
“Tell us about thy Griffin prisoners.”
“We took Griffin prisoners to gather intelligence. Know your enemy stuff, y’know.” Trixie flicked a hooked strand of her mane that hung down from under her hat, eye lids half shut, not really caring.
“That is all?” There was definitely more to tell.
“I’m just the medical officer.” A shield. An echo.
“Yes, thou said that already.”
“Oh, did I? He-he.”

Glaring at her for a while, Luna decided to just move on, and queried, “What art thy Pony Lisa doing here?”
It was about time they found that out, but Trixie was playing difficult.

Having completed a decent scan of the room, Applejack and Zecora approached Trixie from each side whilst Lyra sulked on the tatty mattress at the back of the room. Applejack held her brown cowboy hat in her mouth and brushed dust off of it before flipping it back atop her blonde, tied up mane.

Uneasy, Trixie glanced to each side before answering Luna. “Where is hear? Trixie has been in this room for… she doesn’t know how long. Trixie has no idea where she is. Where are we?”
“How about you tell us the last place thou were. And then, we’ll tell you if thou art still there.”
Pinkie Pie was certainly impressed. “Oooooooo, she’s goood,” she mentioned to Derpy.
There was a bulge in Trixie’s cheek as she moved that snake tongue of hers. Gears were spinning in her sweating head as she thought long and hard.
Chortling, Zecora commented, “They call that "check" in chess.” She then informed, "If you're so innocent, you would bare not this stress.”
Grumpily, Trixie replied, “Thank you, Zebra.”

Luna waited, “... Well?”
“Ugh, aren’t you here to save Trixie? Is Trixie under arrest or something?”
Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be. Very well then.
She had time to play too, right the way up to the Bridge, speaking of:
“Thou would have command codes to gain access to thy Bridge, correct?”
Puzzlement washed over Trixie’s face, “Yeeeess…?”
Finally, Luna relented. She might not like her, but she would prove useful to her quest.

Giving Trixie the low-down she may or may not already know, Luna explained, “We are off a planet called Threshold, within the remains of Halo. There are Griffins running rampant about thy ship, capable of making a slip space jump. As Cole protocol would dictate, we must dispose of the navigational data on thy Bridge, and thou art going to help us.”
Panicking, Trixie stammered, “No! N-no! No! No! We need to get off this ship! We need to get off as soon as possible! You came here somehow right?! We neeed to get off!”
Rainbow Dash would hate this Pony even more than she did.
“We are sorry great and powerful Trixie, but that is not an option. You’re coming with us.”
“No! No!”
“Pleeaase,” she added, grinning and fluttering her eyelids, Rarity style.

Chapter 8: First Encounters

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>Rainbow Dash 1445 hours

Rainbow Dash was unsure about who had it worse. Luna and Rarity and the others who had to wonder the dark maze? Or herself, who had to sit all alone in the gloom, surrounded by Pony killing Griffins? She’d lost contact with Luna and the others shortly after the last time they spoke.

She liked Luna. Thought she was awesome. She had been scared of her at first, not that she ever admitted it, since Luna was a big, blue Alicorn, capable of raising the moon over Equestria. She was tough, too; not afraid to get her royal hooves dirty, even if that dirt was the blood of Griffins and Ponies. The Princess also had a respectable kill count, defeating Griffins both with weapons and with her bare hooves.

On leave however, she was a completely different Pony. She was kinda like a confident version of Fluttershy; still sweet and awkward, but louder and not as much of a scardy Pony.

Last time they were on leave, at a beach on a new world not yet discovered by the Griffins, Pinkie Pie had suggested they eat some ice cream, and brought with her a humongous wagon of the stuff. When Pinkie stated that they should all take an oath to finish the entire wagon load, Luna was ecstatic, licking her lips and her eyes glistening, and dove straight in to the ice cream mountain before anypony had finished making their oath. The rest of the Ponies soon lead after Luna and joined her in the alp of many flavours.

So, all of them ate and ate until it was all gone, thus fulfilling their oaths and getting dreadful tummy aches. Once they felt better, they partied til sunset, playing all sorts of fun games like tag, volley ball, and just wallowing in the surf of the sea. What Rainbow remembered most however, was Luna, roaring with uncontrollable laughter, rolling around on the beach. Everypony else was doing the same, but it was strange to hear it from their tough, nerve-wracking, Sergeant Princess Luna of the night. T'was as if they had a super villain on their side, and that felt awesome.

In the cock-pit of the Pelican however, things were a little less cheerful. Rainbow had been chewing gum aggressively, all worked up. She had built up a neat little collection of it, chewed up and stuck under the dashboard. Spitting her latest blob onto her hoof, she pressed it under the dash with the others, then drew out a fresh wad and chucked it in her mouth.

She’d tried reading her favourite book; "Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Statue," but had given up after reading the same paragraph for twenty minutes.

So far, nothing interesting had appeared on the monitors. It was funny though; she was so jumpy, she thought she saw a silhouette with two heads earlier, which was a stupid thing to have thought she’d seen. It must have been her imagination getting all edgy. It must have been. And so, with that out of the way, but not entirely out of her system, she waited...
And waited...
And waited...
Until…

Two Ponies limped into view on one of the monitors, but it was dark, and Rainbow could hardly see who they were. Shining, a pair of tell-tale, purple tinted glasses perched on the muzzle of a Unicorn.
“Vinyl Scratch!” Gasped Rainbow with elation. “Thank Luna! I aint gonna be alone no more!”
Would’ve said “thank Celestia,” but she was starting to lose respect for that one.

Rainbow Dash had always admired Vinyl for her style, her music, and her laid back, relaxed, “chill out” attitude.

She was so glad to finally have some company, she almost exploded. Snickering, she donned her soldier saddle with pistol, hit the controls to lower the gangplank, slid through the door into the troop bay and called them over.
“Vinyl! Other guy! Get over here!”

With her own cerise eyes, Rainbow could now see that they were injured; Vinyl dragging one of her hind legs along the deck, leaving a trail of blood. The other Pony was facing the other way, revealing a cutie mark of a purple treble clef to match Vinyl’s black musical note. Octavia! Vinyl Scratch and Octavia, here to bring some music to her forsaken Pelican!

She never did like Octavia; thought she was stuck up, but that didn’t matter. Right now, Vinyl and Octavia were the two most amazing Ponies ever! Whatever they had fought, they had won. They had lived, and now she was going to hear all about their incredible story.

“Octavia! Vinyl! Come on guys!” She beckoned them over as the gangplank finally made contact with the metal floor.

As Octavia pivoted to face her with a grunt, and Vinyl stepping out of the shadows, she saw that their injuries were worse. Much much worse.

One of the lenses of Vinyl’s radical glasses was smashed, exposing not her eye, not her eye socket, but flesh; brownish green flesh where her eye should’ve been.

Octavia… didn’t even have any eyes! Just gaping black holes in her head, with the burgundy stains of dry blood running down what was left of her face like frozen waterfalls. Three tentacles, tipped with red, feather like… things, formed an untidy cluster, bursting from her chest.

Rainbow Dash was speechless. Too afraid to make a sound… but she’d already made a sound. What had once been Vinyl and Octavia advanced towards her, picking up speed.

Vinyl’s ribs where held up so tightly against her skin, they had ripped through, and were visible along each side. Underneath her, the same three tentacles that Octavia had, wriggled and writhed, aiming forward like eyes, noses, or ears. The broken leg she was dragging along behind her wasn’t a leg. It wasn’t a leg at all. It was a huge, fat tentacle, like a Python that had just eaten a large meal.

Rainbow Dash could hardly breathe, her first instinct was to take off and hover out of reach.
“Woah boy! Er…”
What to do, what to do... Pistol!
Her trusty M6H Magnum had completely left her mind until then.

Aiming down, the retractable arm that held the pistol kicked back with every shot. She missed. She hit Octavia in the head. She missed again.
Did Octavia die? No! She just shrieked, so loud and powerful that her throat began to disintegrate, and chunks of it flew passed her remaining teeth.

The Rainbow tailed Pegasus fired and fired, missing and scoring an equal amount. She hit Vinyl in the spine two consecutive times, but Vinyl just leaped up, higher than anypony could ever leap, and attempted to bite her.

With a burst of wing power, she narrowly evaded the ex-DJ.
“Waa! G… Go away! S… Stay back you two! … You monsters! What have you done with Vinyl Scratch and Octavia?!” She pointlessly yelled at them, resuming fire.
But it was too late.

>Rarity 1450 hours

“We got a plan B?” Twilight queried as Fleur, Big Mac and Fluttershy stomped on the trap-door that led to the recycling plant.
Fluttershy not putting in as much effort as Big Mac. Fleur even less.
“Ooh, I thought this was plan B,” moaned Rarity. “This is taking forever, and we have to go through the putrid recycling plant. Are you sure there is no other way, Twilight?”
“I’m sure Rarity, and I agree, we should be much further along by now. But as you know, almost every route to the engine room is blocked.”

Big Mac stomped on a tiny panel just next to the hatch, breaking it loose to expose a bunch of colourful wires.
“Big Mac! Wait!” Rarity cried out as he lifted his hoof. “Look!”
He followed her pointing hoof to the set of wires, then looked at her, knowing what she was about to do, but then Twilight jumped at the opportunity.

“Rarity, shine your light down here so I can hotwire the lock.”
You may be smart Twilight, but I’m the one in charge, and I’ll make the orders thank you very much.
“No, Twilight Sparkle.”
There was a surprised “Oh?” from the purple Unicorn.
“You shine your light down there, so that I may hotwire the lock.”
“Rarity? Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Twilight didn’t sound too confident.
“Why of course I do. It’s just like sewing!”
“It’s nothing like sewing!” Twilight failed to understand, and Rarity knew that made her angry.

Humming a tune she used to hum when making beautiful dresses back in Equestria, she chose to ignore Twilight.

Hotwiring was easy peasy; you just take that wire, thread that through there, strip that one back, switch those two around and… wolah! Open!

Rarity laughed with triumph, only for a couple of seconds however, as the tremendous stench of sewage billowed its way up and into their nostrils. There was coughing and spluttering from all around the herd.
“We… have to go in there?” Trembled Fluttershy.
Spluttering, Twilight answered, “Yep, aha-aha, urgh! … So… who’s first?” She then scanned the Ponies expectantly, as if somepony would volunteer.

Oddly enough, Fluttershy spoke up. “Um... For the record, I don’t mind.”
“Aaww, are you sure, Fluttershy?” Rarity questioned, already having Fleur De Lis in mind.
Living up to her name, Fluttershy responded awkwardly, “Oh, well, sort of - I mean... no - I mean... I don't know... I'm kinda scared, but... It's ok... I'll do it if I have to.”
Bless her cotton socks.
“Nopony's forcing you down there, Fluttershy," Rarity let her Pegasus friend know.
"Nope," agreed Big Mac.
Already regretting it, Rarity said, "But if you feel up to the challenge then it would be unfair of us to stop you, right Twilight?”
"Of course. But are you one hundred per cent sure about going down there first, Fluttershy?"
To which Fluttershy replied, "Yes."
There was an uncomfortable silence as the others expected Fluttershy to come up with a reason, which eventualy turned out to be:
"Well... I'd rather it be me in danger than any of you."
Darn it Fluttershy, don't melt our hearts like this!

Rarity felt touched, and so did Twilight and Big Mac, judging from the way they stared at her with wide, glistening eyes and warm smiles.

As for Fleur, she just stared in disbelief at the shy one as if to say: What are you? Stupid?
Rarity watched her from the corner of her eye. Don't you dare think bad things about our Fluttershy.

Hating putting Fluttershy in danger, Rarity then decided, “Big Mac, you go in second. Then it shall be me, Twilight, and Fleur can take rear.”

Being on rear was almost as bad as being on point, almost, and Fleur was not too pleased about that.
“Aw c'est quoi ce bordel!?”
“Fleur De Lis, guess what: Nopony knows what you are saying.” She said that with a patronizing manner, knowing it would wind up the model Unicorn.
Fleur rumbled in response as Fluttershy fluttered down the shaft, followed by Big Mac who, as an Earth Pony, awkwardly made his way down the ladder.

A giggle from Twilight as Rarity had reluctance pasted across her face. “Y’know, I think this counts as spelunking!”
“Ha ha ha, very funny. Just stay close, Twilight." Her laugh was forced and sarcastic. She began lowering herself down the ladder. "And make sure Fleur follows you.”
“Yes Corporal!”

Recycling. Bilges. Sewer. It had all the charm of a crypt. Less than a crypt. It stunk of sewage, obviously. The air was moist, the walls were damp, and there was a constant hubbub of recycling machinery, working to make the filthy water worthy enough to return to the mix.

Tanks holding clear water, grey water and brown water lined the walls, like Celestia’s and Luna’s old royal guards, only smellier.

A steady drip, drip, drip, could be picked up, echoing off the walls. The whole place was flooded; the murky, ankle deep water submerging their hooves splashed and rippled with every step they took. Except for Fluttershy however, who hovered just above the surface. Yet another reason to be jealous of Fluttershy.

Rarity was proud to be a Unicorn, but right now, she desperately wanted a pair of wings. There were tonnes of reasons to be jealous of Fluttershy: Her wings, her gracefully long, pink mane and tail, those adorable blue eyes, her triple butterfly cutie mark, and that soft, delicate voice. Rarity may have style and charm, but Fluttershy had natural adorability that turned Rarity’s blue eyes green with envy.

The shy Pegasus was hopeless in battle though; always scared of this and that. The only field she was really any good in was stealth and reconnaissance; quiet stuff.

On top of all this however, Fluttershy was her friend, a very good friend, and Rarity would do everything in her limited power to ensure her survival, as well as the survival of her squad as a whole. Unfortunately, that meant getting dirty, and that made her most unhappy.

Her moans of discomfort must have become a white noise to the others. “Ooohh, this is dreadful. Twilight, can’t you do something?”
Twilight finally grunted, “Well I could… but not without giving away our position to any Griffins that might be lurking by the tanks.”
“Now why would the Griffins do that?” Rarity whined.
“Because they’re Griffins. It’s them versus us. Do you not know that, Rarity?”
“Do they know we’re here? Because if they don’t know we’re here then they have no reason to lurk around down here. If I was them, I'd be nice and cosy in the ship's spa..." She paused for a moment as she pondered. "Does this ship even have a spa?”
Annoyed, the smart one responded, “No, Rarity, it doesn't have a spa. This is a prison ship, remember. And even if the Griffins don't investigate those noises you're making, there's still the possibility of being ambushed by prisoners.”
Good point Twilight… again.

Being corrected by Twilight got old and boring fast. The purple Unicorn was a huge asset, but she was always there to outsmart everypony. She never bragged, but that didn't stop it getting annoying every now and then. However, just like Fluttershy, she was a close friend, and they respected one another. None of this stopped Rarity from moaning though.

“Ugh, how long have we been walking? This is taking forever. My hooves are getting pruney. This smell is nauseating.”
“Rarity, be quiet,” urged Twilight. “We don’t know who or what could be hiding amongst these tanks. We need to tread carefully.”
“Forgive me, Twilight, but I can’t help but wonder if we could’ve tried harder to look for another route that doesn’t involve wading through… whatever it is we’re wading through.”
After that, she decided to be quiet.

The five of them crept on and on through the warm water, then a light bulb pinged on over Rarity’s head.
“Ideaaa!” She sang with sudden inspiration. Facing Big Mac, she asked, “Big Macintosh? Would you be so kind as to give a lady a ride?” She added a dazzling eye flutter at the end.
Said Stallion sighed and gave in. “Eeyup.”
And so, with her hind legs dangling down Big Mac’s right side, Rarity rode the farm Pony through the flooded stink tunnel.
“Thank you kindly Big Macintosh, you are a true prince.”

Not noticing Twilight’s eye role, Rarity did get an eye full of evils from Fleur who brought up the rear.
“Je suis celui qui doit être monté sur un étalon.”
Ignoring Fleur’s tone, and unable to comprehend her language, Rarity replied, “Ha ha! Good one Fleur.”
The slender, white Unicorn growled.
That’s right. You be that way, you grump.

There had been no contact with the Princess or Rainbow Dash for too long. She half expected the Princess and her squad to have already completed their task, and be waiting for them back at the shower block, ready to regroup and return to the Pelican. What if they had waited for too long and left without them? What if they were back on the Red Horse, hitting the showers?! What if… no, the Princess wouldn’t do that, she wouldn’t leave them. To Rarity, Luna came across as more of a titan than a Princess. Strong in the body, and as it turns out, strong in the heart.

She admired Luna, but she’d always liked Celestia too. Luna would often lead them through muck and dirt, which she thought was unnecessary. Celestia just gave simple instructions; "Go over there. Do this. Use the Warthog LRV."

She wished she had a Warthog right now. Marvellous vehicle; would certainly keep her hooves out of this grimy water. But, Big Mac would have to do for now, and that got her thinking:
Who’d win in a tug of war? Big Mac or a Warthog? ... Darn it, focus!
There was much to do, and according to Twilight, much to beware of.

“What was that?” Whispered Fluttershy, hovering in place, barely keeping it together.
“What is it, Fluttershy?” Twilight inquired, almost as spooked as the yellow Pegasus, who squeaked:
“I heard something!”
“Don’t get jumpy Flu-”
A warbling voice rose up above the muted hubbub of the recycling systems. A voice that spoke no words, that didn’t try to, that didn’t know how. It sounded reminiscent of yodelling, only much more discordant, and much much less comical.
“Aah! There it is agai-”
Twilight used her magic to zip Fluttershy's mouth closed. “Sshh! I know you’re scared Fluttershy, we all are, but we have to be quiet.”
Muffling behind her zipped lips, Fluttershy pawed at her muzzle until Twilight made the zip vanish with a flash.

All those concerns about hygiene and appearance fled from Rarity’s mind; riding Big Mac was not the wisest thing to be doing right now. With that in mind, she hopped down from the high riding Stallion with a splash, ignoring the mess it made of her hooves.
“Let’s keep moving,” she murmured with unease.

Marching on, a mighty uproar clawed its way up the bilges, containing a depth and jaggedness that tripped Rarity’s pulse.
Fluttershy began making noises, sniffling and whimpering, fighting her crying, slowly failing. She remained airborne however, something she had struggled to do when frightened when she first met her a long time ago.
“Hold it together Fluttershy,” she announced to her.

They all picked up speed, all had rifles at the ready, all glanced around their disgusting surroundings.
“Twilight, get up front. I don’t care what you say but this water is slowing us down,” susurrated Rarity.
Twilight protested, “But Rarity-”
“Do it!”
Twilight obeyed, and galloped ahead of Fluttershy, just as another blood curdling cry of monstrous rage from a non-Pony, non-Griffin throat, blasted up from behind them.

“Stay close, Fleur!” Rarity called back as she broke into a mad sprint with the others, forgetting her dislike for the fancy Mare.

Big Mac’s thundering hoof steps caused tidal waves of sewage that sprayed onto her face.
“Urgh! Twilight! Clear the water!” She cried, not bothering to be stealthy now; whatever contributed to the growing cacophony behind them knew they were here.
Twilight beamed up her horn, “Here goes!”

Zing! The water split in the centre, forming a moist path through the river of muck.
“Ha! Well done Twilight!”
The water was a zip being undone as the Ponies stampeded onwards. It then closed itself behind them, splashing wildly as the two sides re-met, not to mention the tremor their boisterous pursuers were generating. Gurgles and screeches and roars bounced off the walls to fill their ears. Rarity’s mouth and nose were clogged by the pong of what was once food, leaking from the many storage tanks to either side.

“What are they?!” Now Twilight was asking the questions for once. “They don’t sound like Griffins!”
Fluttershy was still panicking, her lungs puffing in and out heavily as she winged along. “I’m scared!”
Rarity; “Twilight! Ptooey!” Darn water. “Where are you taking us?!”
“Maintenance storage room! There should be access to the upper level from there!”

They were panting, in need of fresh air, not this humid gunk that was drowning them. Rounding a left corner, Rarity spied an open doorway further down the line.
“Is that the storage room?!” She panted, followed by a gag as the stench intensified in her gullet.
“No! Storage is further on! This is just a checkpoint to prevent a flood from spreading!”
Seriously?
“A lot of good that’s done! Everypony! Hold position at… over there… the checkpoint!” She knew that didn’t make absolute sense, but she didn’t care; they all knew what she meant.

Fluttershy spun in mid-air and brought her MA5D to bare, tears in her eyes as she wept in fear, forcing herself to stare at exactly where the follow-ups would emerge from, ready to fire. Twilight skidded and hit the side of the doorway with a crash, and was then sandwiched by Rarity who did likewise. The spell Twilight had been casting faded, and the non-transparent water sloshed back to its natural state, engulfing their hooves. Defiantly, Big Mac planted himself like a tree, gritted his teeth, Assault Rifle at the ready.

“My apologies, Twilight!” Rarity wheezed as the two Unicorns shook their heads clear of stars.
Whirring, the arms of their soldier saddles positioned their weapons where they wanted them to be.
Sudden realisation caused Rarity to gasp. “Fleur...! Where’s Fleur!?”

Her answer came bolting around the corner with all the speed of a Cheetah, pupils reduced to dots, mouth set with inconceivable terror, sewage splattering her pristine white coat and pink tail.
Screaming in her language, she might as well be talking in tongues. “Ne vous arrêtez pas! Continuer à courir! Ils sont trop nombreux! Nous ne pouvons pas prendre! Nous allons mourir!”

She slammed into Big Mac, who stood in front of the doorway, and scrambled manically to get past him.
“We’re holding this position, Fleur! Now get ready!” Ordered Rarity as the approaching footfalls grew louder and nearer.

Fleur wasn’t having any of it. “Non! Nous devons aller! Il ya un trop grand nombre d'entre eux! Sortez de mon chemin!”
Big Mac shoved the weedy Pony out of his sights as she proceeded to sob helplessly in the water.
“Fleur! Do as I tell you!” Snapped Rarity.
Still in a state, the fear crazed Fleur rose up and hunkered down, rifle pointing the way she came, teeth chattering.

This was bad. Had she seen what was chasing them? Without somepony to translate what she was saying, there was no way of knowing.

Anywho, now was the time to find out just what was the source of that deafening unmelodiousness, as the first pursuer came coasting around the bend...

... They weren’t Griffins.

Chapter 9: Inferi Redivivus

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>Luna 1501 hours

At last, they’d found a body. Luna never thought she’d cheer a silent “Huzzah” for that.

Locked door after locked door, blockade after blockade; her herd had been diverted into one of the ship’s few rec rooms. Tables and chairs positioned neatly around the room, with tankards sitting on coasters. Some were half full of Flim Flam brother’s cider; beautiful stuff, but it would never live up to good ol’ traditionally made cider, or at least that’s what Applejack kept ranting on about. Luna had to agree though, and she would have thought about it for longer if she was off duty.

Further down the room; a bar, with more tankards and taps that had been emblemised with the Flim Flam brothers. And pool tables, looking good as new. With fully functioning lighting, and nothing smashed or overturned, or stained with blood, the rec room looked, well, normal.

Except for the body of course. Or two. It was hard to tell. Closer inspection revealed a hoof that she knew to be Pony, a claw that she knew to be Griffin, and a novelty sized protrusion that formed a lump in her throat.

“Err... Pretty?” Pinkie stated with confusion.
“Ew, Luna?! What the muffin crumb on a plate in the fridge on top of a mountain in a Dragon’s belly doing a back flip - is that?!” Derpy pointed as if Luna hadn’t already noticed, Zecora raising an eyebrow at her.

Specifically, she pointed at a great, brownish green hand. Three, long, spindly fingers and a grossly distorted thumb. The remains of a hoof could be seen hanging below its wrist. Death hadn’t relaxed those fingers; the hand was held out as if it was motioning them to stop.
Stop now, turn back, go away, leave this place! That’s what Luna imagined its owner, or owners would say if they were still alive.

Answering Derpy’s curiosity, Luna sighed, “Well Derpy, that there is a hand.”
“A hand?” Lyra perked up, stretching her neck to gaze over Luna.
"Yes, fair Lyra. A hand."
The Mare who was once woeful gaped at the horrible hand with shimmering eyes. "Wow. I wish I had one of those," she announced, drooling a little.
Luna, Trixie and the others turned their heads deliberately to behold the strange Unicorn.

Choosing to ignore Lyra's quirks, Luna decided to keep digging.
“Trixie,” she called, summoning the shifty Unicorn companionably close with her magic. “May I call thou Trixie? We think thou know what this is. Thus, thou shall tell us what it is.”
Trixie squirmed and tried to push herself away, not from her, but from the bodies.
Dragging her in close, Luna intended on giving her a real good eye full of the mess that rotted away in an open cupboard.

Applejack catalogued, “It kinda looks like they got ‘emselves… fused together, or somethin’”
“I know! Isn’t that hilarious!?” Cheered Pinkie Pie with a bounce.
“Pinkie… er… yer startin’ a’ creep me out.”

Pinkie Pie never crept Luna out. In fact, she couldn’t think of a single Pony who could. She knew that when Pinkie was getting all happy over this gruesome stuff, she was really just banishing the fear from her system. Giggle at the ghostly, as Pinkie had sang it, both on leave and on duty.

When Pinkie wasn’t busy having fun being a soldier, or having fun doing autopsies, she was having fun entertaining everypony on board the Red Horse. Often up on stage putting on a show to lift spirits and moral and to make everypony smile.

Off duty, the puffy tailed Earth Pony rarely failed to elicit a smile from her, but on duty, she was nothing short of annoying.

>Rarity 1502 hours

If there was one thing to be satisfied about; it was that there was no area to miss. The heat from her BR85 radiated from her right. The first… whatever the hay it was, came running at them on four hooves; claws and tentacles supplemented from various parts of its misshapen body. Strands of pink mane and tail wisped in the wind of the thing’s loose movement, identifying it as a Pony.
No. That was not a Pony. Not even close to Pony.
Not anymore.

Her troops had opened fire as hundreds more came pouring around the corner like an avalanche of green flesh and broken bones.
The smell of them overpowered the sewage smell, causing Rarity to choke. “Arg! Keep firing!”

The first ugly went down after what must have been over ten bullets from her, Big Mac and Fluttershy. Sickly green goo spurted from the many holes, some of which were in its face.

She shifted fire to a near unrecognisable monstrosity; a claw, a tentacle, a spike. A wing, a paw, a beak…: Griffin. A new, reimagined Griffin. It, along with so many more, pushed past the other forms and scrambled past its fallen comrade, even as - oh gosh, it was getting back up! Rarity knew for sure that the first mutant had been riddled with bullets, she could even see the holes, but it was just… just… getting back up! She screamed with shock and fired her magazine empty at it, at the deformed Griffin, at all of them.

Fumbling for a fresh magazine with her magic, she cried, “They’re not staying down!”
A yelp, as a different form pounced off the ceiling and got close; a small balloon like creature, vaguely parasitic, slithering around on tentacles. Three different appendages tipped with what looked like red feather dusters stretched out in front of it, playing the role of antennae. Somepony shot it into scraps of wet paper.

Fleur De Lis just stood there, jaw dropped, eyes popping out as what used to be Ponies and Griffins staggered and bellowed their way.
“Snap out of it, Fleur!” Rarity screamed in her ear over the weapons, over them.
A gut-wrenching howl that no Pony or Griffin could make brought the stick thin Unicorn around, and coughing with the increasing stench, she pointed her MA5D and fired.

The transformed Griffin fell with a gibber, as did another, and then a grotesque Pony wearing the remains of a prison jumpsuit. Rips and tears in the suit where its new, out of shape physique simply couldn’t fit. Well, they’d found the prisoners, and by the - oh gosh, the redesigned Griffin was also thrashing its way back up!

Weeping, Fluttershy fired her rifle with squinting eyes, head turned away slightly. Big Mac hadn’t flinched, just held his position, scored most of the kills, even if some of them immediately resurrected, and provided covering fire.

“Rarity!” Strained Twilight, her voice warbled by the kick of her rifle. “You think maybe we should-”
WWRRRRAAAAAIIIIIII…!!
Ears ringing, Rarity resumed fire, and called out, “What did you say, Twilight!?”
“I said; we should fall back!”
Bababababang!!

Every time one creature was floored, two more seemed to take its place, then it would just go ahead and rise up from the icky water.

In reply to Twilight, Rarity screamed, “If we fall back, they’ll swamp us! Aah!”
A tentacle Pony’s head flew apart with bullets. New, spiny limbs bloomed from its oesophagus like an ugly flower, and it kept going, never stopping, even as bullets continued to penetrate it.
Over the thunder of their weapons and their targets, Twilight informed, “If we stay here; they’ll swamp us sooner!”

There was a splash as Fluttershy plummeted into the water that was now filled with spent shell casings. It had gotten too much for the Pegasus to handle, and her wings had finally locked up.
“Doh!” She whimpered just before her muzzle became submerged in the sewage.
Rarity rushed to assist her as Big Mac reloaded and continued shooting, shrieks of rage and hunger rattling the walls.

“Fluttershy! Darling! Get up!”
Slipping her way out of the water, Fluttershy spat out a shell casing and a chunk of something brown, her tears camouflaged with the water on her soaked face.
“Oh Rarity! I can’t do i-ahi-ahiiit!” She sobbed, crying her eyes out.

Rarity had already resumed fire, and shifted her attention to Twilight’s suggestion.
“Very well Twilight! Everypony! Fall back! Use grenades!”
As the Ponies began to squeeze their way through the doorway, unwilling to turn their backs to the ravenous torrent of mottled flesh and tentacles, Twilight urged, “No! No grenades! We’re too close to the hull!”
“Uh! Too late Twilight!” Oh my, she practically bit her gosh darn head off.
It didn’t register with any of the Ponies though, as they retreated down the subsection of recycling.

After pulling the pin on a grenade, she magiced it over to a very precise spot within the impending horde. A spot where it would inflict the most damage.
Who says attention to detail serves no purpose in the military?
A second grenade soared over her head and became lost in the horrific crowd. Who it came from, Rarity had no idea.

Before she could retreat through the doorway, the grenades exploded with an all mighty boom! The force of the explosion propelled her back, through the doorway, and slamming into Twilight. All the air fled her lungs, her vision blurred and her ears buzzed. Fresh, warm water sloshed over her stinging body as Twilight yanked her up with a burst of telekinesis.

“Keep...! Keep...!” Rarity really needed air.
With closed eyes, she couldn't begin to imagine how hopeless and ridiculous she looked. She kinda looked like a little lost Philly in the shallow surf of a beach.
Spitting and spluttering, she finally cried, “Keep moving!”
The water had intruded her nose and throat, making it ache and burn, and leaving a foul taste in her mouth.

A glance back revealed that the grenades did the trick; the walls and ceiling had caved in, and a barricade of flotsam and scrap metal in the doorway was born. The crowd on the other side couldn’t have been too pleased about that.

A glance forward revealed Fluttershy, slumped on Big Mac’s back as he galloped away towards the sealed door of the maintenance storage room.
That’s right, keep her safe.

Her hearing slowly returned to the sound of frantic snarls and roars, muffled by the heap of metal that separated her squad from their new found enemies, but another sound could be heard amongst their babbling: Screams. Cries.
Twilight, Big Mac, Fluttershy... Oh no.
“Fleur De Lis!”

“No! No! Aaaaarrrrrggh!” Squealing from the other side, Fleur was being mauled by those… those things!
Rarity became numb, her mind blank. She never really knew Fleur in person until the start of the mission, and her first impressions of her were… well… let’s just say she didn’t like her. But now she was dying, getting eaten alive by those horrible, horrible freaks, and that made things different. Fleur just wouldn’t stop screaming. Blood stained water waved up from under the jumble of girders and panels.

Sombrely, she stared past Twilight and whatever that dark figure was moving around next to her, and at Big Mac, who had set Fluttershy down, and was pointing his rifle in her direction.
Moi? Are you aiming at-

He opened fire at the dark, looming figure to the right of her vision. It howled an alien howl and slashed Twilight’s side with a whip of bone. A blade of body. Startled, the fringed Unicorn squealed with sudden agony, her blood spraying and peppering the water. Big Mac walked towards them, still firing, the thing still making disturbing noises, some of which could be recognised as a sick, screaming Pony.

As Rarity opened fire herself, the thing attempted to unjam its appendage from Twilight, who continued to wail and wail. Twilight’s legs lost their energy, and her hooves scraped across the submerged floor.

Shrugging off bullets from both sides, the creature that possessed hooves and a mane but wasn’t a Pony, threw all of its strength to remove the distressed Twilight from its arm, and launched her through the air. Twilight’s scream came to an abrupt stop as she crunched up against the edge of the ceiling and dropped down amongst some storage tanks.
“Twilight!” Rarity cried out in anguish. “Noooo!”

Facing the direction of Big Mac’s bullets, the Pony that wasn’t a Pony thundered and stomped its way towards him, dragging its organic samurai through the blood swirled mix.

As Fleur’s screaming faded, and the pack of beasts began beating at the scrap metal, Rarity ran at the ex-pony’s back in a blind frenzy, crying a pitiful war cry, and latching onto it.
“You! ... Killed! ... My! ... Friend!” Snarling through gritted teeth, punching it in what she could only assume was its head, she let out an increasing groan of determination.

The creature she rode on flailed around, became weaker, weaker, dropped to the ground, still wriggling, but weaker…
Not moving…
Still…
Wriggling again…
Still.

Valiantly, she stood, the pummelled corpse providing an island for her in the dull liquid, leaking the same green paste she had discovered in the hanger. She panted, not believing what she’d just done. Big Mac not believing what she’d just done. Fluttershy:
“Oh goodness! Rarity! I can’t believe you just did that.”

Rarity became lost in the sight of her hooves, stained with the green blood of what was once a Pony, with a life and friends and a family... probably.

Responding to Fluttershy, she heaved, "Me neither."
“R… Rarity...” came a frail voice from within the storage tanks.
Rarity and Fluttershy inhaled. “Twilight!”

Creaking and scraping; the droning mass of melted play-dough models proceeded to push their way through the blockage. There was a snap as something gave way on the other side; it wasn’t going to hold for long.

Rarity, Big Mac and Fluttershy had rushed over to Twilight, who had become wedged between two septic tanks.

Nestled within the gash in Twilight’s side, was a pulsating wad of pus; finger-like tendrils dug in to her muscle structure. Whatever it was, Rarity engulfed it with her magic and pulled. Those tendrils were rubber bands that stretched as it was gradually yanked from Twilight, who seemed oblivious; not moaning or screaming, only wheezing. With disgust, Rarity shot the bug back into the water.

Having wasted little time slipping Twilight out of the tanks and onto Big Mac’s back, they trotted eagerly to the maintenance storage room.
Praying for the best, Rarity voiced, “Twilight, talk to me.”
A groan in response.
“Talk to me Twilight.”
Her friend hurled up a portion of blood. “… ‘s fadin’…”
“Twilight, don’t do this. We need you.”
“W… where…” confused, disoriented… but still hope, always hope, right?

She would treat her right here, right now, if it weren’t for those abominations, craving for them, not to mention this filthy, filthy water!

“Don’t die on us Twilight!” She hissed. “Don’t you dare! That’s an order!”
The poor Mare just wheezed heavily as they reached the locked door, blood dribbling out the side of her mouth.
“Hang in there, Twilight,” Fluttershy offered, the sounds of imminent doom echoing through the recycling sub-chamber.

Knocking on the door with her hoof didn’t open it, not to worry; there was another circuit panel identical to the one that she hotwired earlier to get them all down here in this mess. She deeply regretted that now.

Rarity cursed herself for not being more insistent with Twilight about finding another way. She was suppose to be in charge. She wished she had put her hoof down and said; "No, we are not exploring the sewer."
What a useless leader I am, she thought.

With Fluttershy comforting Twilight, and Big Mac facing the shuffling scrap heap, it was time to get to work.
As soon as she removed the panel, Fluttershy piped up, “Oh my, she’s really bad. Look at her face. Rarity, look!”
Rarity yanked a wire and looked. What looked back was not Twilight.

Chapter 10: Dead Or Alive... Actually, Just Dead

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>Luna 1503 hours

Luna had her orders: “Find out what thy hay is going on” was at the bottom of the to-do list. “Get to the Bridge” was at the top, but at this rate, she wasn’t likely to complete the first without knowing the last.

“So, great and powerful Trixie, what exactly are we looking at?”
They hadn't left the rec room, and Luna gestured with her hoof towards the body or bodies that spilled out of the cupboard. Whatever came out of Trixie’s mouth would come out sideways, but she could make it honest.

Belittlingly, Trixie enlightened, “Well, Griffins get sick too, in case you havn’t noticed.”
“We are noticing right now, are we not?”
“Yes, well, how you found me without coming across any of these things is beyond Trixie.”
“That is because we did not enter this room before we found thou.” She knew what Trixie meant, but her frustrated groan and reddening face made Luna feel a little warm inside.
“Nng! Not these specific bodies!”
Luna kept a blank face; something Celestia did around her a lot.

Applejack took a step in. “Hey! Remember who yer talkin’ to, Trixie!”
“Oh be quiet, hayseed,” Trixie snapped back at her.
She then continued her lesson as AJ gave her the evils.

“Moving on, we noticed this sickness in some of the Griffins. Any prisoners displaying the symptoms were quarantined. We took every precaution against it.” Looking down, she repeated, “Every precaution.”
Taking a pause, her dull purple eyes were now glued to the pile of body parts.

Next to the cupboard in which the muddle laid, stood a potted plant. Clean, no blood splatters on its leaves or stalks. It gave Luna the shivers; the thought of someone chucking dismembered Ponies and Griffins into the cubby, then doing a spot of gardening.

Trixie continued explaining. “We did some tests. It’s an alien virus. Anypony infected became aggressive. Savage. Not to mention ugly.”

Taking a step back, Applejack covered her muzzle with her brown cowboy hat and coughed. “What in tar nation?! We’ve been breathin’ around this thing!?”
Laughing, Trixie gave AJ the stare that the high society Unicorns of Canterlot reserved for rural Earth Ponies. “It doesn’t work like that.”

“Did it jump from Griffins to Ponies?” Luna interrogated pryingly.
Pinkie Pie became excited and pointed a hoof across the room. “Can it jump from here to that table?!”
With that, she launched into the air with a “Weeeeeee” and crashed down on top of a table at the far end of the room, catapulting an empty tankard onto Derpy’s head as Lyra and Zecora spectated.
The rookie Pegasus derped and flopped over.
“Pinkie!” Yelled Applejack.
“Oops, sorry,” the pink one apologised with a sheepish grin.
“Enough!” These soldiers were getting on Luna’s nerves.

At least she had Zecora to restore some normality, even if she couldn’t stop rhyming. The Zebra came to Derpy’s aid, murmuring something that made Derpy chortle.

Back to Trixie, Luna reiterated, “Trixie, did thy virus jump from Griffin to Pony? Yes or no?”
A dull boom reverberated through the floor and walls. The cider in some of the tankards rippled.
Grenade?
Trixie had looked alert, but she soon relaxed and answered her question:
“... It did.”

>Rarity 1507 hours

Twilight! Stop that at once! You’re scaring me!
“Twi… Twi…” the words got stuck in her throat.

Twilight, or more accurately, the thing that stared out from behind Twilight’s white, bulging eyes, rose up with a howl that Twilight, or any Pony for that matter, couldn’t make. Bubbling green-gold foam rapidly spewed out of her wound and overlapped it like bio-foam, solidifying. As what used to be Twilight snarled and gibbered, she - no, not she. It. It opened its jaws to the point of dislocation, drooling with blood and olive green gloop.
It sprang out at Fluttershy.

The Pegasus cried and screamed, “Aaaahh! Hnng! Help!”
The thing that was once Twilight embraced Fluttershy, and Rarity did not want to risk hitting Fluttershy.
Twilight, how could you?
Blood ran down Fluttershy’s face were Twilight was biting her. Biting her! Eating her alive!

Even as Big Mac fired point blank into the side of the creature, Twilight’s front, right leg began rippling like liquid. Something beneath her skin writhing, transforming, bursting from her wrist in an explosion of red and green blood. That hoof, that hand, that infernal claw, soared up like a magic bean stalk, the purple hoof still clinging on underneath.

Having spent a whole magazine with full automatic fire, Big Mac resorted to bucking the alien with both mighty hooves. The skin on Fluttershy’s face stretched as she sobbed in excruciation; the monsters projections within Twilight’s mouth were stapled to her cheek.

Another brutal buck from the huge Stallion sent the Twilight creature flying back into the water. There was an audible tearing as a scrap of Fluttershy’s flesh remained clamped in the thing’s jaws.

With Fluttershy screaming the whole place down, Big Mac reloading, Twilight flailing and thrashing in the water, and the ravenous platoon of nightmares pushing against the makeshift barricade, Rarity snapped herself out of the trance that had engulfed her and nailed her possessed friend with bursts from her Battle Rifle. The ex-Twilight made an ill noise that unfortunately sounded like a warped neigh, and dropped into the water like a rag doll.

Another cur eliminated, and Rarity wasn't sure she even knew herself anymore. That cur was her friend... and she killed her... and for what? To survive? To save Fluttershy? Because Twilight would've killed her? Closing her eyes, she waited to wake up from what had to be a bad dream. Opening her eyes, she-

A deafening roar pummelled Rarity's ears as the repurposed friend she thought she'd just ended rose back up from the water. Twilight, who was still in there somewhere, screamed in pain and fear as she was forced into a leap. A leap so impossibly high, Twilight's ruptured horn almost hit the ceiling.

Big Mac shot Twilight’s head and one of her legs clean off in mid leap, causing the brute to flop and land with a splash.
Dead... again... for now.

SSCRRREEEEEEEE…!! The mass of mutants bellowed from the other side of the shifting metal.
Big Mac glanced at her; we need to move.

Fluttershy traded screaming for crying, hyperventilating unevenly, inhaling deeply and exhaling vocally, interrupted by a variety of coughs, gags, sniffs and groans.
“Ah… R… Rarity…” she squeaked with all the volume of a mouse, voice containing upward worry. “My… my face…” sniff, “… it hurts.” Turned into a dog whistle at “hurts,” she continued to bury her blood soaked face in her hooves and mane.
Rarity’s brain had departed; she just resumed hotwiring the door controls like a robot, aware of Fluttershy, aware of the angry mob behind them.
“I know darling. I know,” lacking all emotion, her tone was vacant, even as she tried to hum the tune she hummed the first time she hotwired a hatch on this ship.
It came out trembling and dotted with heart stopping thuds from behind.

At last! The lock clacked off and the door scraped open, allowing water to flow inside.
“Got it,” she exclaimed with muted celebration, not sounding celebratory at all.

Creeping through, the other two followed close behind her, Fluttershy still suffering from shock.
“Seal it shut,” she ordered, knowing Big Mac would do it anyways.

With a deep bang, the door sealed shut, filling the tiny room with darkness. Fluttershy’s uncontrollable hyperventilating and whimpers dominated the silence of the pitch black room.
“Darn it, where’s my flash light?” Rarity announced to thick air as she fumbled with her rifle.
No need; a blinding white light panel on the ceiling buzzed on, illuminating the whole room.

A Griffin stood before them on hind legs and open wings, looking down at her. Cricket bat in one talon.

Chapter 11: Be Careful What You Wish For

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>Luna 1507 hours

“So thou art trying to tell us that one of said plaque carriers got out, and took a Pony into thy cupboard to-"
Do they eat their own, Princess? Cos that's what it looks like! Rainbow Dash's voice echoed through her mind.
“… Curl up and nap.”
It started out as an interrogation aimed at Trixie, but after the memory of Rainbow’s question, it sounded more like a ponderous statement.
“Ugh, I guess.” Trixie kept making that disapproving grunt before she spoke, and when she did speak, she was stuck in third person.
Why? It was driving Luna crazy. She really was condescending, kinda like her sister, only this one seemed to be doing it deliberately, where as her sister seemed oblivious to her own patronization. She still missed her though.

This "great and powerful Trixie" had a false sense of greatness and powerfulness, and thought she could just walk all over them like a stuck up cat. One of these days, she would learn her lesson: She isn't better than anypony.

“You guess?”
Trixie nodded, her hat sliding back and forth atop her head.
Luna examined her for a beat before relenting. “Very well then, let us journey onward. Lyra?” She called the aquamarine Unicorn over as she turned her back on the bodies and marched towards a sealed exit.
It's about time we left this room.

“Uh… yes, Luna? I mean, Princess?” The lowly Unicorn was still gradually getting over what happened to Bon Bon.
“Can thou open thy door?”

Opening locked doors was Applejack’s job, but the farm Pony was useless with anything technical. Better to ask a Unicorn like Lyra, or Rarity if she was with them; that Pony was an artist at hotwiring. Of course Luna could’ve done it herself, but she didn’t want her stars to feel… insignificant.

It was a coded lock, and Lyra simply poked the “open” button with her horn.
“It’s locked, Princess.”
Pinkie sighed with disappointment, “Aaww.”

Walking up behind them, Zecora said, “Oh dear, another locked door? Not a problem anymore,” and stared intently at Trixie.
Zecora, thou art a genius!
No doubt the great and powerful Trixie would know how to open this door.

With that in mind, Luna started on Trixie and motioned her DMR at the door. “Well? Be our guest.”
“Moi? What would you have the great and powerful Trixie do?”
“Open thy door, of course.” She knew that didn't need saying, but then why was Trixie stalling like this?

Gulping, the blue Unicorn paced over to the control panel and tapped in a series of numbers, muted bleeps with every push, until the door hissed and parted.

A pulsating ball of green-gold flesh and gnarled tentacles sprung out of the doorway. Three antennae-like appendages holding red gristle, stretched forwards towards its prey. ‘Twas the fugliest thing Luna had ever seen in all her life. The tentacles that acted as the things legs were definitely familiar: She'd found one within Bon Bon's corpse back in the shower block.

Things just kept getting worse for Lyra; she was the closest, the most eager to leave, the one who now had the foul little bug strapped to her face. She screeched, muffled, choking on a thick, lumpy tendril that the squid-like creature shot down her neck.

“Aahh! Shoot it! Shoot it!” Shouted Trixie with urgency.
As Luna engulfed the overgrown parasite with her magic, Lyra thrashed and reared up on hind legs, alternating between screams and ear-splitting, grating roars that were impossible for Ponies to make.
“Get it off me - RRUUURRGH - aha-ahaahh!”

Derpy and Pinkie Pie grabbed the tentacles that served as the thing’s legs in their mouths; terrible thing to do when dealing with infections. Applejack and Zecora worked on pulling Lyra free from the snot-bag’s embrace, and with Luna’s magic at the aid, together they freed Lyra… too late.

Missing a lot of tentacles, the parasite self-destructed in a cloud of olive mist and goo. Lyra, on the other hoof, was more alive than ever, even as her left eye rolled back and her right eye shot out like a bullet to make way for a thin, ghastly tentacle, which continued to grow into a mammoth, segmented limb.

Roaring and shrieking, what was once Lyra paused and strained, “Ooh,” as her left front hoof transformed into a hand, reminiscent of the one on the corpses in the cupboard back there. With her wish come true, Lyra resumed her gruesome chorus.

Bullets struck the remodelled Unicorn from all directions, causing it to dance with the impact. Finally, Trixie delivered a great and powerful buck to Lyra’s biped form, launching her through the doorway into a fast approaching swarm of slithering parasites.
Pinkie Pie squealed, “Waa! Open the door! Oops, tee-hee, I mean; close it! Close it!"
Trixie tossed a spell at the controls, slamming the door shut, Lyra raging behind it.

“Oh no! Lyra!” Anguished Derpy, who galloped her way to the controls. “We have to save her!”
“No Derpy! No!” Luna held a hoof out and guarded the controls.
“But… but… we can’t just leave her in there.” The dim one’s eyes began to shimmer as the tears built up.
Luna never expected to see Derpy sad. It kinda made her sad too.
“We have to leave fair Lyra, fair Derpy. She hath joined thy dark side now.”
“You mean,” sniff, “she’s turned into a squid?”
Sighing, she stated, “Yes, Derpy. Lyra hath turned into a squid.”
“Oooo, you mean like a tickle monster? I'd love to be a tickle monster!” Pinkie stated before noting the surrounding faces of disapproval. "Um... sorry... I really am sad for Lyra." Letting out a long breathe, she added, "... Poor Lyra."

Opening her wings, Luna towered over Trixie and spoke, “You knew what that thing was, didn’t you? Virus my hind quarters.”
“Ugh, why must you accuse Trixie of everything? What would Trixie even know? Trixie is just the medical officer… ehehe…” She gave Luna one of those smiles that said; I'm lying!
In other words; yes. Luna stopped herself from hurting the devious Pony... almost.

>Rarity 1510 hours

A tiny purple Dragon with green spines and an orange prison jumpsuit jumped between Rarity and the Griffin that held a cricket bat.
“Don’t shoot!” He held up his claws, urging her to stop doing what she hadn’t yet started.

She spared the Griffin, for now, and had no reason to shoot the Dragon, though she kept her BR85 zeroed in on the Griffin’s feathery head, as did Big Mac. Fluttershy just curled up on the floor and fought back her waterworks, not really caring about the Griffin.

They’d tumbled into what Twilight had assured them was the maintenance storage room. Shelves holding tools lined the left wall. On the right there were a couple of cubicles that contained wash basins.

Rarity would sure like to get clean before pushing on, if there was any time that is, which there probably wouldn’t be. The Griffin blood that had splattered her in the hanger had dried and gone all crusty.

At the end of the room, a ladder stretched up into a narrow, square shaft that faded into darkness.

The cricket bat; a rectangle-ish slab of wood stained with green, grasped in the Griffin’s claw confused her immensely.
Where did the Griffin find that? When and where would anypony get a chance to play cricket?

Pleading, the mini Dragon continued yapping, “She’s not infected! It’s ok! Just don’t shoot!”

Dragons were neutral in the conflict, but if either side of the war disturbed them too much, they could lay waste to everything. Not this one however; this pipsqueak came across as harmless as a butterfly. Well, a butterfly that could still breathe fire that is.

“Uh, my name’s Spike. I’m a prisoner, but I’m innocent! I didn’t do anything, I swear!”
“That is a Griffin you are protecting,” Rarity motioned her rifle at the brute; half Eagle, half Lion, all uncouth.
Three feathers on its head had been styled to look like some sort of quiff.
How garish.
“Why would we care if it is infected or not?”
Infected? This is madness!

Big Mac’s eyes were lasers, pointing directly at the Griffin’s belittling face. The Griffin continued to stand on hind legs, wings spread, cricket bat still raised. Its head was quite square and it had a pretty small beak, still capable of pecking a Pony to the ground though.

The Dragon called Spike preceded begging to spare his pet, and it almost got to Rarity. He was prepared to die for a Griffin.
“Plea-hea-hease, don’t kill her! You gotta understand; things are different here. This isn’t the Griffin’s fault this time. She’s cool. We’re cool. She’s my friend. She’s the only one I’ve had to talk to. She’s clean, just, don’t shoot! Please! I beg of you!” Spike looked so lost and lonely.

Big Mac wrinkled his muzzle either with fury at the Griffin or with the stench that seeped through the door behind them. Things could get ugly fast, and Rarity’s brain worked overtime to think of a solution without resorting to violence. Besides, given their location, making noise would not be the wisest thing to do right now.

“So be it,” she let the Dragon have it his way. “Lower your weapon, Big Mac.”
The Stallion looked a question at her, then reluctantly lowered his MA5D, not taking his eyes off the Griffin. In turn, the Griffin tucked the cricket bat under its wing and dropped down on all fours.

A quick glance back showed that Fluttershy was ok, curled in a feeble, shivering ball, whimpering and covering her bleeding face. Rarity desperately wanted to rush over and give her the treatment she needed, as well as replenish her blood supply, but she would have to wait until the situation here had fully calmed down.

“Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!” Spike the Dragon cheered with joy, and ran over to Rarity, giving her a super grateful hug that lasted about three seconds.
Cute.
“But if that Griffin tries anything funny, looks at us the wrong way even…” she trailed off, staring into Spike’s green, reptilian eyes; he knew what she meant.
“Yeah, ok. That’s fair. Pee Wee’s cool. We’re clean. Hey, there are more of you coming right? You’re here to get us out right?”
The Griffin sighed and face palmed.
Pee Wee?! A Griffin called Pee Wee who uses a cricket bat?! Now she’d seen everything.

Interviewing the Dragon, she inquired, “Excuse me? Did you just call that thing Pee Wee?”
“Yeah, I mean, I don’t know her real name. I just call her Pee Wee and she calls me Spike, although she doesn’t really pronounce it right, cos, y’know, she doesn’t speak our language.”
Just like Fleur. Poor Fleur.

Filling Spike in, she stated, “I happen to know; Griffins speak our language fluently.”
“Really?” Asked Spike, one eye brow raised.
“Mm-hm,” Rarity hummed, gazing at the Griffin through accusing eyes.

Spike turned to his Griffin pet. “Pee Wee? Is that true? Can you talk…?”
The Griffin squeezed its eyes shut and gritted its beak in frustration.
“… Say something Pee Wee!”
Finally, the Griffin exploded.

“Ugh! Yes! I can talk! Now stop calling me Pee Wee!” Pee Wee shouted, pointing a long, sharp finger at the diminutive little Dragon, who jumped back in surprise.
Big Mac raised his rifle once more.
“Woah! You can talk?!” Pondered Spike, mind blown. “We’ve been hanging out down here for over a day! Why didn’t you say anything?!”
The Griffin’s voice was aggressive and tomboyish, similar to Rainbow Dash’s, only deeper and gravellier. “Because you’re lame and I don’t like you!”
“But… I thought we were friends…” Spike joined Fluttershy in the waterworks club, only for a different reason.
He gave the Griffin an adorable, puppy dog look.

Compassionless, the big mean Griffin explained, “Huh, please. As if I’d ever be friends with a dork like you.”
“But… but…” stammered Spike.
He wasn’t the only one to have made a mistake, as Rarity pointed out. “Sooo, since you two aren’t friends, I suppose we can eliminate the Griffin now?”

Eyes popping wide, the Griffin realised the error she had made, and held out a talon, urging the Ponies not to shoot. She no longer had Spike to defend her now.
“Woah, woah, er… take it easy guys. Er… I’m cool, remember? Hehe.”
“Hmm. What do you think Big Mac?” Implored Rarity as she raised her own rifle with his.
“Nope.”

“Aw come on guys, don’t shoot me. I’m cool, right Spike?”
The Dragon didn’t answer, just turned away and folded his arms.
“Right Spike,” she snarled through a gritted beak, nudging the Dragon to talk.
“I dunno,” he spoke slowly, thinking about what he was saying. “But I suppose we could just use you to help get us off this ship, right?”
Oh snap! Good thinking Spike!
“That sounds like a splendid idea.” Rarity thought about lowering her Battle Rife, but decided to keep it zeroed in on the Griffin's head, just for a little longer.

Quick check on Fluttershy; she was silent, but visibly breathing, face obscured by her mane.
Soon Fluttershy. Soon.

“So you're lettin' me live? Yes!” The Griffin hissed with relief, pumping a fist in the air. “Booyah! Wait a minute." Curious, she pried, "... What do you mean; "use me?"”
Giving the Griffin the answer she sought, Rarity giggled, "You will be our canon fodder!"
Outraged, the Griffin exclaimed, "What?! Me? Canon fodder? That aint my role, man. That's for you Ponies to do. You guys drop like dominos on the field." After a serious rumble from the white Unicorn, the Griffin mentioned, "Well it's just an observation."

The Griffin would come in handy; they were strong, formidable and elite fighters; perfect for any combat scenario. In other words; not canon fodder. But Rarity didn't want to pay any compliments to someone who may be responsible for some of her friends' and fellow Ponies' KIAs.

Lowering her rifle, she gestured for Big Mac to do likewise.
“Well, Pee Wee, what do you say?” Rarity implored patronizingly, still not trusting her, not one bit.
“Dude, my name aint Pee Wee, alright! It’s Gilda,” snapped the Griffin, pointing at her. “You got that?”
Oh, she got it alright. “Well Gilda, what do you say to us for sparing you?”
“Uh, thank you Pony,” Gilda answered with low spirits, saying “Pony” like a curse word.

“Oh Gilda, please. You may call me madam Rarity,” she ranted, the Griffin growling as she continued. “He is Big Macintosh, and she is Fluttershy,” she addressed both of the prisoners, pointing to each Pony as she spoke their names.

Craning her neck, Gilda spat, “Fluttershy, huh? Yo Spike, come ‘ere.”
The jumpsuit wearing Dragon stepped over.
“Wha-d’ ya make o’ Fluttershy over there?” She queried, pointing at said Mare.

Standing at the Griffin’s claws, Spike peered past Rarity and at Fluttershy, who now tried to hold her stomach, her face still obscured by her trailing pink mane.
He gasped and aimed a shaky finger at the wounded Pegasus. “She… she’s been infected.”
“Whatever do you mean infected?” Rarity wondered, sort of knowing what he meant, not wanting to believe them, unwilling to accept truth from a Griffin.

That mighty Griffin wielded her bat, stood on hind, Lion legs again, and spread her wings. Spike, a speck against Gilda, eyes darting around, looking for a weapon. Once more, Big Mac had his rifle raised at the Griffin.
Uh-oh, things were getting ugly.

“Um… Rarity?” Fluttershy squeaked as her legs strained to lift her off the floor. “I… I don’t feel so good.”

Her face now visible, a mottled patch of olive green encrusted the wound on Fluttershy’s cheek.
“I… I - YYRRRAAAAAH - aha-aha-ahaah!”
Big Mac and Rarity spun to point guns at Fluttershy; their dear, darling Fluttershy, who sobbed with agony and panic, voice breaking, tears gushing from under her bulging blue eyes.

“Rarit-eeeeee! Aha-aha-ahaah! Hnnnnngg… help meee!” She gurgled, choking on something, spewing up lumpy blood.

Rarity’s jaw dropped as her friend transformed right before her eyes. Fluttershy cried and wailed and shrieked an alien shriek, and resumed crying.
“It… it…” babbling with a fresh upcoming of bloody vomit, “It… it h-h-h-huurrrts!”
The poor Fluttershy screamed at the top of her lungs.

“What are you waitin’ for?!” Gilda the Griffin shouted over the transforming Fluttershy. “Kill it!”
Big Mac fired into Fluttershy’s - correction, the mutating pile of flesh and organs that used to be Fluttershy, he fired into its side.

Her body crackled and bubbled, skin fetid, mane and tail malting rapidly, eyes bulging in excruciating pain as her left wing exploded into red and green gloop. A gigantic limb with an integrated, organic blade, longer than the Griffin, burst out and penetrated the metal deck.

The thing that controlled Fluttershy’s body reared up and let out a gut-wrenching roar crossed with the sounds of a petrified, tortured, puking Fluttershy.
"WRROOUUGH-arugh! Hurgh! Uurraa-AAAAARRGH-aha-aha-ahurgh! Urgh! Urgh-YYRRAAAA...!"
Not at all like the soft, adorable voice of Fluttershy.

Big Mac continued to spray it with bullets. The ex-Fluttershy groaned and wheezed, fell to the deck in a puddle of many fluids, closed one of its recognisable eyes, the other one; welded open with whatever encrusted her cheek, and lay still.

Rarity could not believe what she had just witnessed. First Twilight, now Fluttershy. She had a horrible, dreadful feeling down in her stomach that one of them would be next. The odour of Fluttershy’s smoking, decaying corpse wasn’t helping her sickness.

As she stifled a cry that made her throat ache, she remembered what Lightning Dust had said as the Princess held her hoof back on the Red Horse:
I’m clean. I won’t come back.

Looking sorrowfully down at Fluttershy’s remains, bottom lip trembling and a sore throat coming on, Rarity said to Big Mac, “You… killed Fluttershy.”
The Stallion reloaded and nodded. “Eeyup.”
You killed her, and you killed her real casual like. It had cost you nothing.
That can’t have been true. Surely Big Mac had a heavy heart when it came to killing their infected friends, right? She knew she did. That said, the friend she "helped" did resurrect, and the official kill was handed to Big Mac.

Rarity started emptily, “Her Pony tags-”
“Doh forget the Pony tags!” Interrupted Spike. “You gotta rip these bodies up! Rip it up! She aint dead enough-”
“That’s barbaric!” She gasped over him in disbelief. “There is no way I am going to desecrate my friend! How could you even suggest such a thing!?”
“But Rarity! You don't understand! She’s not dead!”
“She is! She is!”
Isn't she?
“She aint! We gotta take her apart, or she’s gonna come back! If you leave them enough… all the important bits, and… they just come back!”

She’d had just about enough of this, even if she knew, deep down, he could be right, and raised her Battle Rifle at the Dragon.
“She’s dead.” Darn it hurt to say that.

Spike backed up against Gilda’s muscly Lion legs and snorted a tiny burst of green flame from his nostrils in warning. A fierce stare from Gilda made Rarity feel small and hopeless, but that was ok; she had Big Mac at her back. Big Mac had always, and would always be at her back. His warm fetid breath, his muted groaning, his claw creeping up her neck and into her fabulous mane. Oh gosh, she closed her eyes and prayed that it wasn’t what she thought it was. What she knew it was.

A distorted whisper; "You’re… going… to LOVE ME-" cut short by a burst from an MA5D.
There was a synthesized drone as Fluttershy died a second time, and the sound of stomping, stomping, stomping.

Rarity forced herself to open her eyes and turned to behold Big Mac, right hoof splashed with red and green, pounding down, over and over on Fluttershy’s mid-section.
Deja-vu: The Griffin in the shower block crushing Bon Bon.

“Big Mac! Stop it! She’s already de-he-he-head!”
She wrapped her hooves around the Stallion to pull him off, but it turned into a cuddle and she buried her face in his short, orange mane.
Spike twiddled his thumbs while Gilda rolled her eyes and said, “Oh brother.”

Wailing on and on, she eventually let Big Mac free from her hug, sniffled, then spoke to Spike n’ Gilda with a croaky voice. “Is… is there another way out of here?”
The Griffin replied, “Yah,” and pointed at the ladder at the end of the room like it was so obvious, which it sort of was.

Wiping her tears with a front hoof, she took the prisoners under her pathetic command.
“I see… We’ll give that a try… You’re on a prison ship; so you must be hard-core,” she theorised with Spike. “Be a dear and take Fluttershy’s rifle over there, won't you.”
The Dragon objected however. “I’m not that hard-core, nobody’s that hard-core! She touched it! I aint touching it, I aint even going near it!” He shuddered, grossed out by the idea.

Suddenly, Gilda jumped in. “Hey, I’m hard-core! I'll take Flutter's gun. Hehehe.”
The Griffin strode over to the pudding of Fluttershy until Rarity skidded into her path to block her.
“Ah-ah-aah! Nooo. Never, in all my life, will I gladly hand a weapon to a Griffin.”
Said Griffin moaned, “Aw come on!”
“Nope. Spike, take it.”
With that, she magiced the MA5D Assault Rifle into his claws.

“But… what about Gilda?” He whined. “Gilda deserves a better weapon.”
“Isn’t it enough that we havn’t shot her?”
Rubbing his shoulder, he sighed, “Yeah, I guess.”
“Gilda can keep her cricket bat, and she can be the one on point.”
The Griffin was livid. “You gotta be kiddin’ me!”
A humourless glare and motion of the Battle Rifle from Rarity, and the Griffin finally accepted.
“Nnnngg. Fine!”

“Lovely. Gilda, Spike, me and Big Mac, in that order. Ready?” No response. “... Onwards.”

Gilda clawed her way up the ladder, slurring incoherently to herself, Spike following her.
“No one’s in charge of this ship,” the Dragon murmured. “The Flood got out. There’s no one in charge of this ship anymore.”

Chapter 12: Shut Up and Get Behind Me... Ma'am

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>Luna 1510 hours

Well, she’d lost another star. Luna shook the pain from her right, front hoof. If only she could shake the pain she received from letting Lyra down, or the itching of her scar.

“Never hit somepony in thy jaw, fair Derpy.”
“But you just did, Luna!”
“But of course. How silly of me.” She stared down at Trixie who cowered before her, covering her muzzle with both front hooves. "Very silly indeed."

“Luna, why did you hurt her? She’s not a Griffin is she? Or is she?!” Gasped Derpy, hailing the attention of Pinkie Pie.
“Trixie’s a Griffin? Hmm, how about that.”
“Trixie is not a Griffin!” Luna snapped, losing her patience. “She is just a bad Pony, is that not clear to you?”
"Well, yeah, but err..." Applejack hesitated.
Pinkie and Derpy thought long and hard.

“Please… Don’t hurt Trixie!” The Unicorn whimpered, veiled under her pointy hat.
“Aw come on Luna, look at her!” Derpy whizzed over to the weak Unicorn. “Can’t you see she needs our help?” Addressing Trixie, she said, "Here you go Trixie.” And pulled a mouthful of straw from her saddle bag and dropped it before the great and powerful Trixie who lay on her belly.
“How will this hay help Trixie?” Trixie said bewilderingly, staring down at the slobbery straw.

Then she started speaking quietly to Derpy's ear. "Oh, um, you wouldn't happen to have any peanut butter, would you?"
Derpy strained her brain, "... Umm..."
"How about crackers?"
"... Umm..."
"Peanut butter crackers?"
"... I have some grenades."
Trixie snorted, "Ugh, never mind."

Turning to Luna, Derpy asked, "... Er... Luna? Do you have any... er... cracker butter peanuts?"
Plainly, she replied, "No," and spun to face the cupboard and its overflowing contents.
"Luna, what's with you?" Derpy called from behind. "Why are you been so grouchy?"
Pinkie paced up next to Derpy and added, "There's no fun in hurting other Ponies, Princess."
We are not here for fun, Discord. Well... Pinkie Pie, but...

Applejack looked around awkwardly, deciding whether or not to speak up. She clearly didn't sit well with what she'd done.
Before she could come to a decision, Trixie sighed, "Thanks Ponies. It's nice to know some of you have common sense."

Gazing into the mangled corpses in the cupboard, Luna could only think of one thing. Why? Why did this happen? How did this happen?

She could hear the other Ponies being silent, if that made any sense. Could feel their eyes boring into the back of her head. Were her stars disappointed in her? Maybe. She regretted nothing however. She was wise, as oppose to Pinkie and Derpy, but she expected more from Applejack. She rotated to face them, noting Zecora standing on her own, away from Trixie and her defenders. Those defenders were her stars once... and they still were.
What's Zecora's opinion on all this? She wondered.

"Would you like to know what my opinion is?" A familiar, high class voice echoed through her mind.
A voice she hadn’t heard in a very long time, and hoped never to hear again. Her heart sank with dread and her ears flopped down.
"Oh no. Not you! What art thou doing here?!" She demanded from the presence in her head.
"The same reason I was here last time. To help and guide you."
"I do not needeth your help."
"Hmph, we shall see about that."
Luna ignored Nightmare Moon, wanting nothing more than for her to go away.
"Your stars. They will all take Trixie's side. They will betray you. And when that happens, I'll be there."

Her vision blurred, her head grew heavy, and her temperature rose.
The stern expressions of her soldiers shifted into worry as AJ said, "Princess? You alright?"
Everything snapped to black.
"Princess!"

“... Luna! Wake up!” A hoof smacked her across the face. “Luna! Come back to us!”
Gradually, her vision regained, revealing Derpy standing over her. The others were peering out from behind the Pegasus.
“Is her face gonna stay that way?” Pinkie’s hyper-active voice reverberated.
Then Derpy; “Uh-oh! It looks like I’m gonna have to give her Der-pee-R!”

Plunging her face down at hers, Derpy opened her mouth and fought against Luna’s resistance.
“No Derpy, no!” She yelled. “I am fine! You have no reason to do this! Get off thy Princess of the night!”
She flung Derpy off of her with her back legs, rolled onto her front and attempted to stand.

She felt weak and freezing cold as oppose to the hot flush she had earlier.
“Ugh, what happened?” She asked woozily, swaying side to side.
“I have no idea,” the Pink show Pony answered. “First you started talking to yourself, and your eyes went all,” she somehow transformed her Pony eyes into cat eyes for a second. “Then you just went “bleh” and fell over! You ok?”
I went "bleh?"

Before she could reply, Derpy suggested, “She must be suffering from muffin withdrawings! ... I get them all the time.”
Applejack face-palmed with her hoof. “Derpy, what is it with you n’ muffins?”
“What is it with you and oranges?” Derpy shot back, and then urged, “Quick Luna! Eat the muffin I gave you! Before you explode!”

“I'd say she encountered Nightmare Moon." Zecora's deep accent sounded from Luna's left. "A lack of muffins will not make her go boom.”
Excellent diagnosis Zecora, but what would you know about… her?

“And just who is this, "Nightmare Moon?"” Trixie was still there, and now it was her turn to do the interrogating. “Is there something you’re trying to hide from the great and powerful Trixie?”
Trixie and the others gathered around her, suspicious, but luckily Zecora was there to rap to them.
“The Princess of the night, stirred up quite a fright. When her bitterness consumed, Equestria was doomed to night time eternal, making the land dark and infernal.”

This gained Luna’s attention, and made her slightly flustered. “Zecora! How do thou know of all that?!”
In reply, Zecora stated, “‘Twas a conversation I had with PONI. So unless the officer I spoke to was a phony...”

PONI; Pony Office of Naval Intelligence. A mysterious branch of the UPSC, who were also patriotic about being Ponies as it turns out. Always experimenting, always conniving, always breaking the rules for “the greater good.”

It made Luna suspicious. What has Zecora been doing, liaising with PONI staff?

“You got that information from PONI?!” Trixie stomped her hoof. “Then why hasn’t Trixie heard of Nightmare Moon? That information must be, like, super top secret!”
This made Luna even more curious. Hmmmm.
Sarcastically, Luna suggested, "Maybe thou hath not heardeth of Nightmare Moon because thou art not working for PONI, right?" She wasn't too sure if she sounded as sarcastic as she was in her mind.

It took Trixie five whole seconds to come up with an answer. "Oh, er... of course not. Why oh why in the wide, wide world of the universe would Chief Medical Officer great and powerful Trixie have anything to do with, er... DONI was it? Ehehe."

“Subjects.” Luna hailed, still feeling dizzy, and incredibly suspicious of Trixie. “Search that Pony.”
“Whoa, hold on. The great and powerful Trixie does not want - ahahaha!” Her spoilt tone dissolved into laughs as Pinkie Pie and Derpy sniffed and groped. “Tee-hee, that tickles!”

As Applejack tossed an ice-pack onto Luna’s head, Zecora winked at her and turned to face the bar. That was one mysterious Zebra.

Zebras where mysterious in nature, much like PONI. PONI would often implant their personnel into the field without telling anypony for the purposes of research and evaluation. The possibility that Zebra Zecora was PONI was a very big maybe.

With the ice-pack making her head even colder than it already was, she wordlessly levitated it back into Applejack’s saddle bag and twisted to face Trixie, who now rolled on the floor laughing as Pinkie and Derpy searched her.

“I found a hat!” Derpy cheered with accomplishment, lifting the pointy hat off Trixie’s head, exposing her pale blue mane.
“Oooo, and look what’s in the hat!” Exclaimed Pinkie, who peered inside it, flinging out objects with her mouth.
Derpy dropped the hat.
“There’s a mallet, some flowers, a balloon, a teddy bear, a dumbbell, a rubber ducky. Oooo there’s a lot of cool stuff in here!”
She somehow crawled her whole body into the hat, like it was bigger on the inside.
As she continued, random objects flew out of the amazing hat in time with her listing. “A sink, an anvil, a ball, another hat, oooo a cupcake!” The sound of munching, a burp, then an empty bun case shot out of the hat. “Oh, what have we here?”
Poking her head out of the hat, Pinkie held an identity card in her teeth.

“Hey! You can’t take that!” Trixie started, prompting Luna to take it and give it a read. “That’s…”
“Pony Office of Naval Intelligence, Section three, Major Trixie Lulamoon, Research and Development,”
she read aloud, blankly.
The foulest tasting title she’d ever uttered.
“Hm. Thought so.”

“Well speak to the Devil,” commented Derpy.
And I thought Zecora was PONI. She still could be.
“Officer on deck, subjects!” Luna informed, doing her best to stand straight after her faint, the other Ponies copying her.
She loathed having to treat this Trixie Pony like the superior she undeservingly was; she was the Princess of the night darn it!

“Whoa nelly,” said Applejack, noting the great and powerful anger on Trixie’s face.
Pinkie Pie was a tortoise in Trixie’s hat that still lay on the floor.
Trixie's newly discovered power may be enough to daunt Luna's stars, however, nothing could daunt the Princess of the Night.
“Why didn’t thou identify yourself… ma’am?” Luna questioned through gritted teeth.
“Let’s cut the ignorance, ok Sergeant! Trixie outranks you. It doesn’t matter why Trixie didn’t tell you her rank.”
She donned her hat. “Effective immediately; we abandon ship and destroy the Pony Lisa from a the Red Horse. The great and powerful Trixie cannot get infected.”

Pinkie Pie popped out from under Trixie’s hat. “Why? Are you immune?!”
Using her magic, Trixie shook Pinkie free of the hat and re-donned it.
“Unfortunately, Trixie is not immune. She is considered the greatest and most powerful Unicorn in the universe and is a vital asset to the UPSC and PONI.”
And thou art saying this to thy Princess of the night? Wow.
"Hold up," Applejack requested. "How do you know about the Red Horse?"
Patronizingly, Trixie answered, "Trixie is with PONI, hayseed. That means she knows everything."
"Mah name. Aint. Hayseed."
"And Trixie couldn't. Care. Less," she shot back, turning her back on the Earth Pony.

“Trixie knows you came here somehow. That Pelican? That landed in the hanger? Which you all exited? Perhaps?”
“Well somepony’s been watchin’ us,” Applejack grunted.
“Hmm, yes, anyway, Trixie orders you to escort her to your Pelican and fly us to the Red Horse..”
Luna didn’t answer, just thought of Rarity, Twilight, Big Mac and the rest, and wondered if they were still alive, and how far they were with their mission.

“Oh. Princess of the Night. Right.” Clearing her throat, Major Lulamoon bellowed up into Luna's face. "I ordereth thou to escorteth thy greateth and powerfuleth Trixie to thy Pelican... eth!"
How dare thou!
Luna was fuming, face reddening with anger. In an attempt to calm down, she took a deep breathe and exhaled.
Ignoring the Major's major insult, she grated, “I have Ponies on board that I cannot contact, ma’am.”
“There have been many casualties in this war. There will be many more.”

Oh, well, that sealed it. At the risk of being court-martialled, as well as losing the respect of her stars, she reared up and punched a hoof into Major Lulamoon’s face.
“Holy derp!” Exclaimed Derpy, hooves on head.
What regiment did she think she’d joined? The Philly’s Auxiliary Kindergarten Society?

Luna’s hoof throbbed with the impact. “Curses! No PONI spook is going to leaveth my stars in thy dark! Ouch. Rarity would haunt us if we did, and she’d be a truly bothersome ghost. Ow, that stings.

She thought about her encounter with her old alter ego, Nightmare Moon. It was bad. Things were bad enough when it was just the Flood, but now she had to fight herself as well? No, not herself, because Nightmare Moon is different, or so she kept telling herself.

She also had to bare in mind that she was pretty much kidnapping a PONI Major. She chuckled in her mind at the thought of how much trouble she'd get into when they'd return to the Red Horse. How would the Alicorn Princess of the Night be punished?

Her scar had been itching like mad once she had regained consciousness, warning her of a storm coming their way, and she felt pretty sure that Trixie would play a big part in it. She also doubted Zecora. With the way things were going, she wouldn't be surprised if they all mutinied.
Nightmare Moon did say my stars would betray me. Maybe she is right. Maybe I should accept her help - no. No no no! Definitely not!

Between Nightmare Moon invading her sanity and the Flood plucking off her stars one by one, what chance did they stand?

To her stars, she asked impatiently, "Any questions?"
There was no argument from them; good to see. Maybe her stars would stick by her side after all.

Trixie had done her a favour when she opted to abandon Rarity's squad. You didn’t leave fellow Ponies behind, even if there were big bad viruses out there. Especially not then.
“Um…” except for Pinkie Pie.
Was she going to have a problem with Pinkie Pie?
“Pinkie?”
Teeth gnashed and hind legs crossed, the pink one requested, “Can we stop at the little Philly’s room on the way?”

>Celestia 1515 hours

Celestia stood in the Bridge of the Red Horse, gazing at the main view screen. To the right; a bunch of mumbo jumbo about Threshold, Basis and Halo’s debris. To the left; the Pony Lisa, drifting around like dead thing. And in the middle, a titanic Griffin capitol ship anchored just beyond the debris field.

Her crew worked hard to avoid chunks of the artifact, as well as to keep the Stealth ship’s movements off of the Griffin’s radar.

In a flash, Discord appeared, arms spread out in celebration.
“Todos del partido!” He cheered with exultation.
The “do” at the end of “partido” acted as a switch that caused the holographic Draconequus to commence shuffling to an increasing beat that came from the Bridge’s speakers. Computerised, the kind of stuff that Private… what’s-her-name, would play. Awful stuff; not at all harmonious. This music was building up to something, and she’d stop it before it could.

“Discord! Turn that off!”
“Oh come on, Celestia. You need to get into the swing of things,” he advised, wrapping his Lion arm over the back of her neck, head bopping in tune with the beat.
“I mean it, Discord.”
“Oh Celestia. Why must you be such a buzz kill? Fine.” Releasing her, he snapped his fingers, ceasing the poor excuse for music.

There was a long pause before Celestia spoke to the helmsman; an Earth Pony Stallion with an hour glass for a cutie mark.
“Helm, bring us up on the Pony Lisa. I want Sergeant Spitfire and her team prepared and ready for dust-off as soon as we are alongside.”
He began to reply, “Yes, your majest-”
“Wait!” Cried Discord, reaching his paw out.
Helmsman; “Uh…?”

Spinning to face Celestia, he yapped, "You. What do you think you are you doing?” He placed his hands on his hips, like he was her dad and she’d been naughty or something. “Our orders say that if recon, or a loss of recon, indicates that the Pony Lisa has been compromised, we are to fire a Shiva missile and destroy it, regardless of passengers and regardless of revealing our position.”

Celestia caught the eye of the helmsman, who hesitated and bit his bottom lip. She nodded at him.

“Yes Discord, I am aware of our orders.”
“So… what are we waiting for? Let’s blow that ship into oblivion!” Followed by malicious laughter.
She refused. “No, Discord. We are not destroying that ship.”
Waving some holographic papers in his talon, he sang, “Celestia… Orders…”

True; she had orders to destroy the Pony Lisa when it had been confirmed compromised beyond retrieval, but she chose to ignore them for now. What's the worst her superiors could do to the Princess of the Sun?

“I am not firing on a Pony ship with Ponies on board.”
“Well in that case, I’m going to have to reassess the situation. Yes.” He folded his arms and nodded.

It was impossible to intimidate an AI, especially if that AI was a Draconequus called Discord, and especially if you were a Pony Princess with a pale, rainbow-like mane, but she gave it a go anyway and leaned in.
“We have not been granted any information with which to assess the situation, Discord. We are to destroy the Pony Lisa if it is compromised, but by what, I do not know.”
“Chaos of course!” He pointed out, chortling.

Proceeding, Celestia announced, “If by chaos you mean Griffins, then I am certain that Luna and her squad will be more than capable of handling them. I have total faith in my sister. So I say again; I have not been given any information that would warrant firing on a Pony ship with Ponies on board. Prepare a Pelican and bring up the Red Horse. I suspect you could tell me what I need to know, and I suspect you will not. Thus I see no alternative but to conduct further recon.”
Discord just stood there, stifling. She really missed Cadence.

“I don’t know who or what you are based on, Discord, but we Ponies do not abandon our own. We do not turn and leave them.”
She realised then, she was talking to a reflection of herself, only she had Discord’s ghastly yellow and red eyes and gruesome fang.
“Oooo, look at me, I’m a Princess! Obey!” Discord mocked, raising Celestia’s blood and draining her patience.

She deeply worried about her sister.

Luna was tough, dependable, and a good thinker, but not entirely mentally stable. She’d always seen her as an emotionally fragile war-horse, in fact. Well, after she was a lovable sister and enchanting friend.

There had been a few problems with her in the past, like her evil alter-ego, Nightmare Moon, that had assimilated her and driven her mad. Celestia fought against her sister, against Nightmare Moon, but she was powerful. In the end, she was left with no choice but to wield Equestria's number one defence; the elements of harmony. Not only were they her only resort, but they were her last resort. With a heavy heart, she banished her beloved sister to the moon.

Looking back at the day her sister finally returned, there were no words to describe the joy she felt. They had always had their differences, but they had worked around them and rebuilt that special sister bond that she shared with nopony else.

The time she got shot in the heart was, well, heart breaking. Watching her sister wheezing on the hospital bed, bleeding out, a giant shard of crystal protruding from her chest. But Luna made it through. Luna always made it through. She was the Princess of darkness, and she wouldn’t be stopped that easily.

She’d almost suffocated Luna with a humongous hug when she finally woke up from the operation Rarity had done, and felt indebted to the petite Unicorn.

Signing up for the UPSC was not something she regretted, but having her sister sign up too, was something she regretted, quite deeply. Should’ve joined alone, let Luna stay in Equestria with the real Princess Cadence, but she knew her sister would be a much more valuable asset on the ground than anypony else could ever be.

Now that her sister was roaming around a dead prison ship for reasons that not even she understood, she had a sickening feeling in her gut that she had let her sister down. Had a horrible vision of her, yelling at her for sending her to her death, for not knowing what to do, for making her sign up for the UPSC, for… well, for everything really. Come to think of it, she hadn’t been a very good sister, or leader, but mainly sister.

“Ehe-ehem,” Discord cleared his throat, no longer mimicking her form.
He lifted her chin with his talon and murmured, “Somewhere private, Celestia. I have something to show you. Something you won’t want your crew to see.”

Chapter 13: Delusions and Grandeur

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>Rainbow Dash 1520 hours

Hooves and talons, claws and tentacles, carried her along like a living conveyor belt. Dark forms, warped and distorted, recognisable as Ponies and Griffins. Prisoners wore orange jumpsuits that stretched and bulged over the odd lumps that had moulded onto the bodies within. Redesigned Griffins, kings of the horde, even when they had been reduced to clusters of tentacles with Griffin parts.

Rainbow Dash had never felt so far away from home in all her life. Whatever happened to rustling up clouds on her weather duty? Whatever happened to competing in flying competitions and races? Whatever happened to hanging out in Ponyville, having a bite to eat at the local bakery?

She’d gone down fighting, but she’d gone down. Both her wings were broken, three of her legs were broken, she was covered in scars and bite wounds, and had suffered a black eye.

Now, she was slung over Octavia’s back, staring backwards at the tentacle horrors that brought up the rear. Crew Ponies, Pony and Griffin prisoners, Vinyl Scratch, whose mouth was overfilled with long, brown teeth that didn’t fit properly.

At the very back was a changed Snowflake, even more twisted and hideous than she thought he already looked, and making disturbingly similar noises to the ones he used to make.

She’d tried reasoning with them when fighting became a farce, often yelling, “Vinyl! Please take me back to the Pelican! I know you’re still in there.”
Or she’d mumble, “Octavia, I know you don’t want to do this. I know you want to help me. Please, please, help me.”
One time she even said, "If you could just let me go, I could do the rest. I can find the Princess… explain it was a mistake.”

Bitterly, she laughed, then dissolved into ignored sobs. Everything was past repair, what was done was done, and there was no escape.

All the hopeless Mare could do was be still; moving hurt, and her struggles were often punished with her blood being spilled. So she banished her energy, and waited to see where Octavia, Vinyl, Snowflake and their new friends would take her. They had their orders, and they didn’t come from the Princess.
What if they’re all waiting for me at the Pelican?

>Luna 1527 hours

“Tis a rather large virus,” Luna piped up, forcing Trixie ahead of them.

Major Trixie had told them of her ejecting the empty escape pods to stop the parasite from spreading, as well as stopping survivors from surviving, although she never admitted to that last one.

“It's not a virus. More of a… infestation.”
“I thought ya said it was a virus,” Applejack judged with suspicion.
“Isn’t it an infestation of viruses?” Analysed Pinkie Pie.
“Do my hooves hurt?” Derpy derped.
Trixie was getting almost as stressed as Luna - no, forget that; nopony was anywhere near as stressed as she was right now, unless Rainbow Dash or anypony from Rarity’s squad had landed themselves in even worse bother.

“It came with the Griffin prisoners, and just… spread,” Trixie continued. “The more bodies it took over-”
“Taking over bodies! That’s crazy!” Pinkie studied ecstatically. “I wonder what it would be like to control somepony else’s body.” She thought about it for a few seconds before giggling.

Trixie resumed her biology lesson, if that’s what it was. “It was a Flood infection form that took your Unicorn friend.”
Derpy pondered, “Who? You mean Twilight? Twilight was never with us silly.”
“Right, then it’s not Twilight.”
“Rarity?”
“Trixie doesn’t know any names, Bubbles,” referring to Derpy’s cutie mark.
“Zebra Zecora? She’s right here! And she’s not a Unicorn, she’s an Earth Pony!”
The Pink one giggled. “Oh Derpy, you’re so funny!”
Zecora just kept quiet and followed.
All out of rhymes there, eh Zecora? Probably not.

“Anyway,” Trixie sounded awkwardly. “The Flood will assimilate her entirely, and make a better weapon out of her. A Flood combat form is immensely difficult to stop. They don’t register any pain. Don’t require all organs functioning. And they’re mindless as… well… as you guys.”
Gosh, Trixie had the nerve to say that.

Luna had hurt Trixie twice. Nothing too bad; no blood or broken bones. Just a sore jaw. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for Trixie, and half of her felt a little guilty for erupting like she did. Someday, Trixie would get her revenge, and she’d be ready to restrain her. But right now, Trixie was being shifty, even if she was being somewhat open about this “Flood” stuff.
Luna needed to get her message across to her: Don’t play games with me, Trixie; it gets you nowhere.

Abruptly, Trixie halted and felt around the wall on the left.
Impatiently, Luna demanded to know, “What art thou doing now?”
“There is a concealed door right here. Just give Trixie some time and she’ll have it open for you.”
“Huh, well you’re been helpful for a change.”
“The sooner you get to the Bridge, the sooner Trixie gets off this ship.”
Applejack joined in. “Trixie, Trixie, Trixie. Is that all ya care about?”
And then, guess who. “Derpy, Derpy, Derpy! That’s my name.” She grinned, cut off by a guttural groan from around a corner, ten metres ahead.

“Be quiet,” hissed Luna.
Everypony froze, the sounds of growling and crashing echoing just around the bend: A barricade was being trampled.

“Get to it, Trixie,” she ordered her superior.
Trixie had slid open a coded lock and began punching in numbers, a steady bleep, bleep, drowned out by whatever angry monster fought its way through the blockage.
“That’s get to it, ma’am,” corrected the blue Unicorn.
“Whatever.”

The door sighed open, and Trixie whispered, “Its open. Everypony get inside.”
Trixie entered first, of course, and Luna gave courtesy to Applejack and Zecora, beaming up her horn to levitate Pinkie Pie and Derpy in with her. One last crash and piercing uproar to mark the destruction of the barrier, followed by uneven foot falls.

“Close thy door.”
Pinkie was closest, and she didn’t hesitate to bop the shiny, red “close” button with her nose. Gently, the door slid shut, and the herd waited in complete silence as the heavy thuthuthud, thuthuthud, of irregular, three legged running grew louder…
Louder…
Louder…
... Drifting straight past.

The six of them remained hushed for at least another ten seconds before finally exhaling the breath they were all holding in.
“Phew! That was closey wosey,” exclaimed Pinkie Pie, followed up by Derpy:
“Yeah. Too closey wosey.”
“Let us proceed,” Luna ordered, still with a hushed tone.

A short walk down the tunnel lead them to what Trixie had called, “the lab.” Glass smashed to hell and back sprinkled the white, tiled floor. Banks of equipment lined the edges of the lab, computers sparking every now and then. Containment beakers stood shattered on metal tables, a strip of unrecognisable flesh hung from one of the shards. The floor had been glazed with red and green blood, and even a pile of vomit in one corner. Green fungus reached from the floor, up the wall and to the ceiling, like some sort of bio-mass. It stunk. The whole room stunk. Everything Trixie said stunk. Stunk, stunk, stunk. Why did everything stink so much? Why couldn’t things just smell nice for once? Anywho, whatever had been here had moved on. Whatever Trixie had been up to on the Pony Lisa, it had started here. This... was ground zero.

“Geez, Pinkie Pie!” Derpy groaned, as if the Pink Pony was the one to blame for the pong.
“Hey! That wasn’t me! Who smelt it, dealt it,” Pinkie retaliated.
Funnily enough, Zecora joined in. “Who said the rhyme, did the crime.”
A pause, as Pinkie and Derpy stared at her, then Derpy stated, “You always say the rhyme.”
“Zecora dealt it!” Announced Pinkie Pie before Luna silenced them with a “Sshh,” and then addressed Trixie:
“Pray tell; what were thou doing here?” She interrogated a little less forcibly.

Trixie slumped onto her haunches and wiped a hoof solemnly across a ruined console, sighing.
“Research and Development,” she began, a touch of sadness in her voice. “Just like PONI’s always done. You should be thanking Trixie… We discovered something that will make Griffins more vulnerable to our weapons. And something that will help treat wounds made by Griffin weapons.”
“Like a needle in thy heart?” Luna inquired, remembering her own injury, her scar itching a little less, but still itching.
“Well, as great and as powerful as Trixie may be, she’s still a long way from "resurrection."”

She was right; that needle should have killed her, but it didn’t. ‘Twas a miracle. How, in all of Equestria, did she survive it? She’d cheated death before, but nothing like that.

Applejack inspected a dent in the floor, lined with red and green, surrounded by brown feathers.

“What about your "Flood?"” Luna asked, more concerned about them than anything else.
Trixie rose slowly and adjusted her hat. “The Flood is… relentless… Primordial… Pure of intent. And it is a virus; spreads as fast as one. Trixie had to study it.” Correcting herself, she said, “We had to study it.”
“Ya didn’t have to do anything,” Applejack spoke, an annoyed looking face beneath that brown cowboy hat.
“Such measures will be what wins us the war. Don’t tell Trixie you’re getting soft for the Griffins now.”
“How will studyin’ a plague help us win the war against the Griffins?”
“That plague is a weapon in itself. Trixie needed to see how it worked, how it spread. It’s just…” she hesitated, shaking her head slightly. “It’s strong… It’s so strong.”

“Thou were testing on prisoners?” Luna interrogated, already knowing the answer, and appalled at it.
Even as Trixie answered “No,” Luna pieced together a jigsaw in her head:
The Red Horse explores Halo’s debris to find whatever there is to find, and they stumble across a prison ship full of parasites, with PONI personnel on board? Coincidence? Yeah right.

“Thou were not trying to cure plasma burns,” she growled, unable to even look at Trixie. The volume of her voice increased. “This is a prison ship! A civilian prison ship! THOU WERE TESTING ON PONY PRISONERS!” Royal Canterlot always got the message across. Always.

Trixie squeed, a face that weak Ponies used when you’d caught them doing something bad, but they weren’t really sorry. AJ, Pinkie, Derpy and Zecora congregated to each side of Luna, surrounding Trixie, who began to sweat, eyes darting from face to face.
“Um… er… Ponies! Arrest the Princess!”
Ha, pathetic. Luna’s stars did no such thing, even if, by UPSC rules, they should.

“We aint arrestin’ our Princess,” stated Applejack.
Pinkie shook her head. “No sir-ee.”
“What a fool. How could you be so cruel?” -Zecora, of course.
And lastly, Derpy; “That’s bad! You’re bad! Bad, bad, bad!”
“Ugh! Very well…” the guilty Unicorn croaked, frightened by the crowd of armed Ponies around her. “You’ve done what you thought was necessary. And now… so is Trixie.”

Holy moley, she was fast! She was panicking, but she was fast! A glow from her horn sent shards of glass rocketing at Zecora. As soon as the Zebra yelped with the sting, her BR85 rifle was yanked from her soldier saddle and under the power of Trixie, who galloped for the door they had come through, firing burst after burst behind her, at them.
“I’m sorry, but Trixie is leaving!” She called out over the sound of her new toy.

Pinkie, Derpy and AJ dove for cover, as did Luna, but Trixie’s explosion had come too fast, too sudden, too unexpected. A three round burst from what had been Zecora’s rifle, slammed into her harness, right where her scar was. The force rocked her back, she reared up and whinnied in pain before collapsing onto her side, wheezing for air, even if that air was clogged with the odour of the Flood.

Before she knew it, Trixie was closing the door, whispering the words, “Oh no. What have I done?”

“Is everypony ok?” Probed Pinkie Pie, regaining her composure.
“Land sakes! The Princess!” Applejack cried out, and rushed over with Pinkie and Derpy.
“Oh no!” Derpy whimpered, “Princess! Speak to us!”
Groaning faintly, Luna strained, “I… can’t… breathe.”

Her harness had been dented inward by the impact, and pressed hard against her chest. Against her scar.

“Go… check on… Zecora.”
“Oh, right! Zecora!” Pinkie Pie complied, returning in a matter of seconds to deliver the news direly. “She’s gone.”
Derpy pointed a hoof at the still Zebra on the floor, shards of glass protruding from the front parts of her black and white striped body. “But, she’s right there.”
“No Derpy. I mean…”

As those two continued on, Applejack tended to Luna.
“Don’t fret now Princess. Yer gonna be just fine,” she reassured her, plonking another un-needed yet refreshing ice pack on to her sweating blue head. “Come on y’all.”
The farm Pony nudged the Princess of the night off her side and stabilised her on her belly.
“Thank you… fair-”
“You two! Ya gonna help us out or what?!”
“I am here for you, Luna.” That wasn’t Applejack, nor was it Pinkie or Derpy, but she recognised it all the same.

“Nightmare Moon… You are… no longer needed.”
“Poor little Luna. What have those ungrateful Ponies done to you? Imagine how much easier things would be with my help.”
“Your help… is not required… You’re evil.”
“That’s no way to talk about yourself.”
“We are not… the same!”
“We are the same, Luna.”
“We’re not!”
“We are.”
Nightmare Moon wasn't going to relent, was she? It increased Luna's frustration.
Not knowing what else to say, she bellowed, “Nnnngg! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!”

She came around, panting, sweating despite the ice pack, much easier to breathe now. Her harness lay on the floor before her. Her three remaining stars jumped back with fright; made her feel all the more monstrous.
"Oooo, she's doing that thing again," Pinkie Pie analysed.
“Uh, Princess? Y’alright?” Worried Applejack.

It felt weird not wearing that shiny black harness anymore; she felt more loose and free, and boy was it good to breathe.

Clearing her throat, she assured, “Yes, fair Applejack. Thank you. I just…” She was embarrassed to talk about it, especially with these Ponies.
She didn’t like advertising how unstable her mind really was, arguing with alter-egos n’ stuff.

Before she could finish her hesitation, Pinkie Pie pointed at the scar on her chest and gasped in awe. “Woah! What’s that?”
Getting a close inspection, Derpy pushed her muzzle against her aching reminder, saying, “Cool,” and prompting her to weakly shove her away.
Great, more embarrassment.
“’Tis a scar,” she mumbled.
"Coool, how'd you get it?"
Luna sighed. “I got it when I was shot with a Needle Rifle.”
“But don’t needle rounds explode?” Pinkie asked curiously.
“If enough rounds made it in me, yes. But only one found me.”
Wide eyed, Derpy asked, “And you survived?!”
“No Derpy, I didn’t survive.”
“…”
“Of course I survived, Derpy. I am right here.”
“Ooohh! Haha.”

Removing her harness was what earned her that big ugly scar in the first place, and now she had to complete the rest of the mission without it. Well, Derpy, Pinkie and AJ had made it this far without harnesses… what could possibly go wrong?

Chapter 14: Andron Ad Inferos

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>Rarity 1530 hours

Rarity and her three followers crept along a high rising corridor that lead into a mixture of blackness and green mist. The end of the corridor couldn't be seen.

They had been lucky; nothing was waiting for them outside the hatch.
Thank goodness, nothing attacked the Griffin! She never thought she’d be thinking that.

“Where are we?” She asked Spike.
“I dunno. Guard’s tea room. Celestia’s waitin’ room? I didn’t exactly get a tour of the ship y’know.”
“Spike. There is no need to be rude.”
“Sorry Rarity. I just hate this situation we’re all in. Maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess if you Ponies and you Griffins would just get along.”

“Hey!” Gilda the Griffin chirped up. “There aint no way in heck I’m ‘a make friends with a lame-o Pony!”
“I beg your pardon!” Rarity grated furiously. “We Ponies are noble and majestic. You Griffins are just… brutes!”
“Yeah, and that’s why we’re kickin’ your sorry flanks!”
“On the contrary; I most certainly believe that it is us who are kicking your flanks!”
“Ha! How’d ya work that out?”
“Well, have you seen what we've done to your precious Halo?”
“Oh whatever. It aint even ours.”

Mercifully, Spike interrupted. “Stop it! Can’t you see? Its behaviour like this that’s making the war rage on! Is it too much to ask for us all to just be friends?”
The answer came from both Rarity and Gilda; “Yes!”
“Sheesh.”

Rarity continued to throw coal into the boiler.
"What do you even see in that big, bedazzling ring? I thought you Griffins hated anything that is in anyway beautiful."
"And what exactly makes you think that, huh?"
"Oh, y'know, just everything about you beasts!"
"Oh yeah. We Griffins are beast, and don't you forget it!" Gilda certainly seemed proud to be labelled a beast. "And if you must know, we wanted Halo cos it can wipe out all Ponies in the galaxy." She threw a wild eyed smile back at Rarity and Big Mac.

Unwilling to believe such a horrible thing, Rarity took her time answering. "... Your making that up."
"Nope, hehe. Why? You scared?"
"How would that even work?"
"I dunno. Just "set phasers to Ponies," I guess."
Rarity spent another few seconds in puzzlement before announcing, "As oppose to "set phasers to Griffins?" Oh, I am so going to tell Commander Celestia of this."
"And what's you namby-pamby Commander gonna do? Beg us to stop? Ha, you Ponies are pathet-"
"-Shut up!" Erupted Spike, at his wits end. "Shut up, shut up, shut up! You're gonna alert the Flood to where we are! Just shut up and be quiet! Both of you! Please! I can't take it anymore!"

Rarity liked the Dragon. He was nice and cute. She felt bad for dragging him through the middle of this ordeal with herself and Gilda.

Sorrowfully, she told him, "... I'm so sorry, Spikey Wikey... I suppose there are bigger problems on this ship right now."
Agreeing, Spike affirmed, "Yes. Yes there is."

To the Griffin up front, she wondered, "So Gilda, are you going to behave?"
"That depends. Are you gonna give me the respect I deserve," came Gilda's returning answer, before her list of reasons as to why she deserved her respect. "Y'know, for going first, helping you guys, putting my life at risk, just being awesome-"
Getting the point, Rarity reluctantly complied, "Yes, Gilda. I will respect you, as long as you respect me and Big Macintosh."
The Griffin sighed and grunted, "Deal."
And that, everyone, is how to end a war.

Onto Spike; Rarity had really misjudged Dragons. Where it any other Dragon, he would’ve probably ended the Pony-Griffin argument with a burst of flame, but Spike was better than that. She could tell it was aggravating for him to be caught in the middle of this near pointless conflict. It was only a matter of time before the rest of his species would take it no more, and the war would gain a third faction. Well, forth if you count this… "Flood."

Breaking the silence, she spoke to Spike, much softer than when she was quarrelling with Gilda. “You said "Flood" before. What did that mean?”
“Right. The Flood. Well… I dunno," he started informally. "There’s a lot of em. They’re very ugly. Very scary. I think it was a biological weapon, still in development.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Well, there was a Mare from PONI on board.”
“Oh," she now understood one per cent of the situation on board the Pony Lisa, one per cent more than what she originally knew. "Nothing good ever comes from PONI.”
“Eeyup,” agreed Big Mac at the back.

It was odd; Big Mac usually never spoke if it could be avoided.

Spike continued. “I… I think they were… testing it… on us prisoners. They took some of the Ponies and Griffins. No one they took, ever came back. Whatever happened, well, I guess the Flood got out. And the Griffins made a break for it, and released some of the Ponies, didn’t you Gilda.”
“Ugh, yes. But only for the same reason I released you,” the grumpy Griffin joined in. “I wonder; whatever did happen to Dusty.”
Dusty? Could that be…?

Rarity had two questions she wanted answering, and didn't know which one she should ask first.
Eventually, she inquired, "Why did you release Spike? If you don't mind me asking."
"He makes a good flame thrower."
Joyfully, Spike checked, "I do?"
Stomping on the Dragon's sand castle, Gilda said, "Don't let it go to your head, lil' dude. You aint nothing compared to a real Dragon."
Spike drooped.

A couple of seconds passed before he sighed and proceeded explaining. “So yeah, the guards weren’t very happy about that and they started on us. Then the Griffins got mad and started on everything Pony.”
Gilda chuckled, “Oh yeah, that was sweet!”
“And of course the Flood started on anything that moved. Since I’m a Dragon, I didn’t have Griffins to worry about, so I teamed up with Gilda here and we’ve been hiding ever since.”

Rarity thought that was a very interesting story. “It must have been absolutely barmy on this ship.”
“Yep, sure was!" The Dragon chortled nervously. "By the way, Rarity?”
“Yah?”
“Uh… Thanks for rescuing us. It means a lot, really.”
“You’re welcome Spike.”
“And I never thought a soldier could be so... stunning,” he blushed and rubbed his arm.
Bless, she thought, flattered.
“Aaww, why thank you, Spikey Wikey. Aren't you just a little gent.”
“Oh brother,” Gilda groaned unsentimentally.

The butterflies kept on coming from Spike. “The curls in your mane are to die for.”
Giggling, Rarity began to respond, “D'aaww, Spike, hmhmhm. Your-”
“Give it a rest would ya,” in butted Gilda. “Your making me gag.”
Rarity exhaled as Spike whispered to her:
“We’ll talk later.”
Smiling, she nodded.

As they kept walking down the dark corridor, Rarity continued to think about what it must be like for Spike and the other Dragons in the middle of this war, and proceeded to make conversation with the Griffin.

“So… Gilda… Why is all your technology purple?”
“Because it is, alright!” Gilda snapped back at her.
Rarity sighed, then added, “I am so envious,” with a giggle.
“Huh, yeah, I bet you are.”
“Oh but I am! It’s so much nicer than all this icky grey and green stuff the UPSC uses. What sort of paint do you use? I might see if I can paint my weapon that colour, or would I get court martialled for that?”
Sounding a little embarrassed, the Griffin revealed, “We don’t paint em. Purple is just… the natural colour of the metal we use.”
“Oh really?!” She exclaimed with vast interest.
“Hehe, yeah. Really. Pretty funny huh.”

“Well I think it’s rather unfair that you Griffins get your claws on that beautiful material, and all we Ponies get is boring old drab stuff,” she admitted jealously.
“Are you kiddin’ me? Have you seen them fruity purple Spectres we got? As much as I hate to admit it; I'd rather be cruisin' in one of your Warthogs.”
“Is that so? Well in that case; we should swap.”
“Hehe, sure. If I ever see you on the battlefield, I’ll cease fire so we can exchange stuff.”
Rarity raised an eyebrow. “You’re joking aren’t you?”
“Well duh.”
Rarity laughed, and the Griffin laughed too.

Finally, the end of the corridor materialised into view. It ended with a solid wall that had been smothered with green, and a narrow, steel door to the left. An arrow on the floor pointed to the door. Rarity knew that where ever the door lead, it would be printed on the arrow, but a bloody red drag mark obscured the letters.

“Spikey Wikey," she called. "Do you know where this leads?"
“Yeah, D cell block. I think the engines are on the other side.”
The engines? Oh, yes, the engines! She’d almost forgotten her objective.
But then Spike added, “We should find a different way.”
“Pray tell, Spike. Why should we find a different way?”
Trembling, he informed, “Th… that’s where they took all the dead. It’d be like going into an angry bee hive right about now.”

>Luna 1537 hours

After checking Zecora’s prone form, all Luna had scavenged was some ration packs, ye olde frag grenades, and some BR85 ammo, which was useless considering nopony here even had a BR85.

“Rest in peace, fair Zecora,” she murmured gravely, magicing up her pony tags and placing them into Applejack’s waiting hat.

She had found no PONI ID on the Zebra, but that didn't mean much; Zecora could place an item in her bag right in front of her, and if she searched the bag, she'd find it empty. Zebra's where the true magicians, as no pony knew how they did it. Unicorns were born magical, but Zebras were just stripy Earth Ponies, more or less. They were greater and powerful-er than any Major in the PONI, that's for sure.

As AJ donned her hat, Luna stated, “That was my fault. Not yours.”
“Aw, shucks Princess. ‘Tweren’t yer fault,” comforted AJ, along with Pinkie and Derpy; her last remaining stars.
“Yeah! Cheer up Princess! That wasn’t your fault at all!” Exclaimed Pinkie Pie, bouncing over and offering her a cupcake.
Before Luna could pass on the treat, Derpy swallowed the whole thing, casing and all, and burped feebly prior to saying:
“Yeah Luna - I mean, Princess. Its Trixie’s fault for doing… er… it.”
“Art thou calling me Princess now, fair Derpy?” Luna queried, shocked that Derpy had finally learnt.
“Yes Luna,” Derpy replied with a huge, cheesy smile.

Pinkie pulled the ice pack off Luna’s head with her mouth and flipped it into AJ’s saddle bag.
Wobbly, Luna rose to her silver clad hooves. “Thank you, loyal subjects.”
“No need to thank us, Princess,” grinned Pinkie Pie. “We’re just doing our job, as well as helping out a special friend.”
“Yep. But yer welcome anyway,” added Applejack with a bow.

Derpy trotted to a door and stood before the three of them. “Now, are you Ponies ready?!”
Applejack; “Yeehaw!”
Pinkie Pie; “Woohoo!”
A pause as Luna remained silent, unsure, looking around sheepishly.
Derpy enquired, “Lunaaa… What about yoouu?”
She looked into the faintly smiling faces that surrounded her before coming around.
“Alright subjects. Let’s do this.”

And so Luna and her three stars walked, and walked, and walked, down the longest corridor in the universe. ‘Twas also the darkest corridor in the universe.

She had ordered her stars to use flares; Applejack’s throw reaching further than their flash lights. Pinkie and Derpy took it in turns to retrieve the sizzling, red flares and pass them back to AJ who threw them again.

Luna's pulse raced in the suspense of it all and she sweated like crazy. She half expected Trixie to emerge from a secret door in the wall, trying to make her way to their Pelican, then banished the thought. Trixie would know the layout to this ship like the back of her hoof. And she was alone, odds are she wouldn’t even make it to the Pelican. She'd probably drown in a flood of… well… Flood. And what would Rainbow Dash think when some random Unicorn with a cape and hat just shows up out of nowhere and tells her to fly away? RD wouldn’t do that… right? Didn’t matter yet, she’d put Trixie through a harmful ordeal. Whether Trixie made it off the Pony Lisa or not, she would remember her.

As the flares spat flickering, red light up against the walls, the herd cautiously walked onwards. The sound of their hooves clopping against the deck provided a constant noise in addition to the hissing flares. Hooves where never silent, no matter how hard you tried.

Derpy used her wings; cleaver Mare after all. It was tempting for Luna to do the same, but the three round burst to the chest had left her a little weak, and she wanted to conserve her energy for when it really mattered. Also, the corridor was quite narrow, and her gigantic wing span would be a major obstruction to her and her stars. At least the-

“-Stop!” Pinkie Pie halted abruptly, Derpy slamming into the back of her and dropping to the ground.
“What is it, fair Pinkie?”
“I heard something,” she informed, looking around with suspicion.

Clicking the safety off her DMR and pointing it forward, Luna hissed, “Applejack. Flare.”
AJ complied and tossed out a flare, only for it to bounce off the back of Derpy’s head as the Pegasus rose, and knocked her down once more.
"Derpy. On your hooves,” Luna whispered, using her magic to levitate the Pegasus out of the way.
“Sowee,” Derpy apologised, as Applejack had a second attempt at throwing the flare.

Brilliant throw. Landed by a sealed door on the right, illuminating a silhouette just beyond.

“Is that…?” Pinkie began and then trailed off, handing it to AJ:
“It can’t be!”
Then Derpy cheered, “It’s Cheerlie! It’s definitely Cheerlie!”
Cheerlie? She disappeared at the start of thy mission!
However, despite whatever happened to her, it was indeed Cheerlie. The ex-teacher came hopping over to greet them, a massive smile on her dripping face. Cheerlie was so delighted she couldn’t even speak, only make a “Hnnnnngg” noise.

“... Hold on,” Luna commanded, keeping her DMR on “Cheerlie.” “… That is not Cheerlie.”
“What are you talking about Princess?” Whimpered Pinkie Pie. “It is.” She faced Luna, tears gathering at the bottom of her shining blue eyes and a trembling lower lip. “It is!”
“It sure looks like her,” commented Applejack, shading her eyes.

This was insanity; her stars where so in denial. Cheerlie didn’t have an appendage growing along the back of her neck. Cheerlie didn’t have one leg three times the width of her other legs. Cheerlie didn’t have a smile that split her whole head open. And she didn’t have her MA5D rifle integrated at an obscene angle into her chest.

To snap the Ponies out of whatever had taken them, the thing that used to be Cheerlie howled and gurgled, reverberating through all their ears. Cheerlie then picked up speed.

“Fire!” Shouted Luna, and she fired accurate shots from her DMR in unison with the other’s spray guns.

As the abomination came closer to the flare, super heavy footfalls thundered from behind the door to the right, quaking the whole deck.

Cheerlie reached the door - and something with all the speed and weight of a freight train blasted through the double doors, breaking them loose, and side-swiped into Cheerlie, smashing her off her hooves and splattering her up against the steel wall. The form, complete with limp wings, a gaping beak, and a Lion tail, stood on hind legs and wrapped a tentacle around what had been Cheerlie’s neck, roared in her face with enough force to peel off dead skin, and shambled its way towards the Ponies, holding Cheerlie out in front like a shield.

“That’s a Griffin!” Applejack observed in awe.
Pinkie Pie stated, “I’ve never seen one so big!”

On hind legs, the Griffin’s head almost bumped the ceiling. Its lower beak hung useless below the quivering top half and waggling tongue. A pulsating pustule of beige, mottled flesh morphed its chest, and a ragged hole clustered with flailing tentacles indented the surreal protuberance.

Luna’s heart skipped. She panicked, both with fear of the creature and of having a heart attack.
Wide eyed, she bellowed the necessary commands: “Applejack, drop and go for thy legs! Derpy, aim for Cheerlie! Pinkie Pie, heart! And I shall take out thy head! Now resume fire!”
The Ponies' weapons commenced spewing bullets once more before Luna had even finished speaking.

The Flood infected Cheerlie wriggled free like an oversized worm and went prone. Bullet after bullet tore into the Griffin’s skull and dissolved brain, doing nothing to slow its advance.

Luna growled with increasing determination as Applejack cut it off at the knees, but it just kept coming. Derpy joined Pinkie in bombarding the thing’s thorax with bullets, slowing it, weakening it, still not stopping it. There were enough holes in the mutant Griffin to mistake it for a sponge.

Lying on its belly now, the nightmare scrambled towards them, dragging its body across the floor, leaving a trail of sloppy green blood. It continued shrieking with indescribable rage, until it puffed a final gargle and loosened, slumped on the blood soaked deck, still.
... Dead?
... Dead.

“Huzzah! Well done subjects!” Luna applauded, extremely proud of her beloved stars, then sighed with relief.
A round of celebrations from Pinkie, AJ and Derpy:
“Alright!”
“Whoowee!”
“Oo-rah!”
“WWRRUUUUUUU…!” Cheerlie joined in, with a monumental smack of her gargantuan left hoof, exploding Applejacks head against the wall, denting the metal panel.
AJ’s hat and Zecora’s pony tags ricocheted off the ceiling.

Pinkie Pie had just started reloading, and squealed in alarm as she got caught in the back lash of Cheerlie’s oversized, rutted hoof. A biological serration on Cheerlie’s hoof sliced through Pinkie’s cranium, converting her head into a half open jam jar.

Panicking, Luna backed up, fumbling her DMR, needing to reload, straining up her magic. Cheerlie pivoted and advanced on her, groaning, revealing a set of irregular, razor sharp teeth in that cave of a mouth.

From above, Derpy slammed down on top of the creature and began beating it with her rifle. Beating it with her hoof. Not stopping, never stopping, even when it was motionless, just kept pounding her hoof through Cheerlie’s mutated corpse, again and again and again and again and again and-

“Derpy! Enough! She’s already dead!” Luna wept, the loss of two more stars sucking the entire motive from her soul.
“I’m sorry Luna!” Derpy wailed, wrapping her cleanest front hoof around her and nuzzling her flowing, blue mane. “I just don’t know what went wrong!”

The mistake had been thinking Cheerlie was still Cheerlie, and thinking she was dead when she was alive. A grave mistake, and one she was determined never to make again.

Derpy withdrew from the sad hug she shared with Luna and sniffled. “Where to now, Luna?”
Unable to swallow the frog in her throat, and the odour of rotting flesh not helping, Luna replied emptily;
“Thy objective hath not changed, fair Derpy.”

Chapter 15: Swarm Of the Century

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>Rarity 1544 hours

Spike was insistent that they take another route, however Rarity was even more insistent that they stick to this one. Her orders where to get to the engine room, and that’s exactly what she was going to do.

Not for the first time, she wondered how Luna and her squad where doing, whether they were waiting in the shower block, ready to proceed to the Pelican, or if they were all already dead.

The jumpsuit wearing Dragon had informed her that to get to the engine room, they’d have to go through D cell block. And to get to D cell block, they had to go through a cargo bay.

Similar to the hanger, the cargo bay was full of crates, boxes and containers, only there was no Pelican to provide reassurance, and a more open area to move about and breathe. Not that breathing felt any good; everywhere in this ship stunk of something.

“Gilda was the one who sprung me out,” Spike announced, breaking the silence. “There was a guard. Some Stallion called Braeburn. He was… he wasn’t… she took care of him. Saved me.”
“Yeah, then he started whingin’ on about his lame-o “Dragon code,”” contributed Gilda distastefully, then mocked the Dragon. ““Oh Griffin, you saved my life! I owe you my life Griffin! It says so in the Dragon code, Griffin! It says! Dragon code, Dragon code, Dragon code!” That’s when I decided not to talk.”
“You ignored me for that?!” Spike was flabbergasted.
“Yah, it was annoying.”
“But I would’ve done whatever you wanted me to do!”
“Would you have shut up?”
“Well… yeah.”
“Huh. I sure wish I knew that sooner.”
Spike folded his arms. “Ignorant much.”
“Shut up Spike.”
“No. You don’t deserve my services.”

Rarity butted in, “Do I deserve your services, Spikey Wikey? We are sort of saving your life after all.” Queue the eye flutter.
“Well… I guess so..." Bringing a claw up to his head to salute, he pronounced, "Spike at your service. What would you have your Dragon do, most beautiful one?”

She wasn't too sure if he meant all these compliments he was bestowing upon her, since she was shrouded with blood and sewage and her tail was still tipped with Fleur De Lis’ puke. Maybe he was sweet talking to her like this so she would overlook whatever horrible thing he swore he hadn't done to get thrown in a Pony prison. Or maybe, just maybe, he did mean it.

Nether the less, she humoured the diminutive Dragon.
“Haha. Oh my, Spikey Wikey," she giggled. "How chivalrous.”
“I’m here to assist.”

“Would you…” she thought hard, trying to think of something he’d say no to, just for laughs. “... Would you jump into a crowd of Flood?”
The green spined Dragon hesitated. “Really?”
Another eye flutter made him blush, and he eventually said, “For you, yes. Anything. Er… you don’t actually want me to do that though, do you?”
“Oh of course not, Spike. That would be most dreadful.”
“Phew.” He wiped sweat from his forehead.

Gilda re-joined the conversation. “Would you have done that for me?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact I would have," Spike answered back sternly. "But you’re too late Gee. You should’ve taken advantage when you had the chance.”
The Griffin growled, regretting declining Spike’s services.

Rarity glanced back at Big Mac as they strode across the open floor, forgetting he was there. Forgetting what he did to Twilight and Fluttershy. Remembering why.

A large, orange shipping container stood separate to the clutter of cargo at the right of the room. The doors had been beaten open, and dusky red blood stains splashed the floor and open end of the container. Rarity thought of it as a mouth that had spewed up not long ago, and hadn't been cleaned.

There were a few splatterings of the oozy green Flood blood present as well, and three visable bodies. A Griffin that lay on top of the failed fortress; head and talons dangling over the entrance. A yellow Stallion who had dragged himself clear of the horror scene. And a Flood infected Pony, lying on it's back, half in, half out of the container. The Pony's hind quarters and rear legs had been melted and reformed into a hideous whip of a tail.

Rarity spun her head to face away from the repulsion, her curly purple mane swishing with the sudden flash of movement.

“They learn,” Spike stated distantly, almost startling Rarity.
Rarity; “... Come again.”
“The Flood. They take what you know... and learn.”
Now what in the world could that mean?

Another staircase bridged the deck and the platform above where they needed to be to reach D cell block, and as Rarity and her herd paced their way up it, a small bag of snot leapt down from the high ceiling and used its tentacles to propel its self at the Unicorn.

“Whoa-”
“Move over dweebs,” the great Griffin pushed Rarity back, hard.
The impression of her talon gave her the goose bumps.
“I got this.”
And with that, the Griffin smacked the living tumour into oblivion with her cricket bat.
Did a Griffin just… save me?
Rarity began to gratify the Griffin. “Why thank you Gilda. You save-”
“Yeah yeah, whatever. Quit babbling and whack these suckers. If you can, that is.”
So much for gallantry.

However, the Griffin was right; more of the infectors where raining down from above. As the blizzard of disease came bucketing down in the hundreds, Rarity and her squad opened fire. Luckily, these weren’t the ravenous mutants that had chased them through recycling. They were tiny, foul, pint-sized things. One shot, one kill. And they were everywhere, so it was impossible to miss, unless you were a purple Dragon named Spike, who could barely handle the power of Fluttershy’s MA5D.
Don’t worry Fluttershy; the weapon that is your legacy will continue to fight the good fight.
Poor Fluttershy. No time to dwell on that though; every time one pod popped, a dozen more claimed its place.

Big Mac fired his Assault Rifle in bursts, clearly more suited to the BR85 that she had. Spike wasted a whole darn clip on three of the infection forms, then set about breathing scorching, vibrant green fire at the swarm of horrors as he reloaded.
“Use controlled bursts Spike! You’re just shooting all over the place! Wahaa!”

One came in close, and she caught it with her magic, got a good eye full of it as it's tentacles stretched eagerly at her face. Disgusted, she flung it back into the Flood.

The screech of an Eagle echoed around the room as Gilda nose-dived with her formidable wings, swooped in over the sea of plague, and brushed her bat through about ten of the little goitres at once.

Unbeknownst to Rarity, another parasite snuck up behind her, and leapt from the container it slithered around on. The rowdy Griffin scored a home run on that one, and Rarity could have sworn she looked a little gleeful.

>Celestia 1559 hours

Celestia found herself deep in the bowls of a Griffin star ship. Metallic purple walls glistened in the blue flames of destruction. Bloody drag marks lead away to heaps of rotting carcasses in the corners of every room and corridor.

She levitated a captured Griffin’s energy sword before her. Stunning thing to look at. A double pronged blade, crafted entirely out of ionized plasma, plus the metal handle where her magic gripped.

Slinking through a door that had been jammed open, she entered a large room full of sleek, purple crates, a couple of Ghost light reconnaissance vehicles, and a burning Wraith tank that dominated the artificial cavern.

A voice, a whisper, an infernal scream, shot her heart rate straight up. Dark forms emerged from the Griffin architecture, tentacles slithering across the deck and equipment.

Backing up, she screamed, slashing her sword in the air pathetically, charging up her horn to deliver a shockwave of devastation to the gibbering nightmares that closed in around her. Thump. Her back was against the hatch that had conveniently closed itself. A swift buck of her rear hoof did nothing.

Turning to face the misshapen army of freaks - Luna was in her face. Wild appendages spewed from the sides of her head. Her once sweet face mutated into a jagged mountain ridge, one eye bloated, the other one dangling from a socket clogged with spongy green mass. Three grotesque limbs that didn’t belong on anypony, protruded from her sister’s right wrist, and thrashed Celestia across the face.

In a flash and a cry of dread, everything was gone. Her surroundings, her enemies, her reanimated sister, all gone, replaced by the featureless room she previously debriefed her sister in, and the holographic Discord hovering before her with his arms folded.

As she lay on her tummy, shivering with steady streams breaking through her tightly shut eyes, Discord gave her a low down.
“As you can see, Celestia, sending another squad into that kind of mess would be foolish.”
“Discord…” she squeaked, barely audible, had never been reduced to such a state before. “I don’t want my sister in there… I don’t want this to happen to her, or my subjects… I want her out of there, Discord.”
“Aaww, I suppose I can see you wanting that.” The Draconequus lifted her chin, red pupils and yellow whites gazing sorrowfully into her eyes. “But don’t worry... I’ll keep you company.”

“No!” She shouted, rising to her hooves and pushing Discord's Lion paw away. “I will not let my sister become absorbed by this Flood.”

Celestia leaned in for what she was about to say.
“You knew about this all along, didn’t you,” she accused the AI, who snaked back and stroked his goat beard with a smirk. “Ever since day one you’ve been keeping secrets. You had your own orders. Who did they come from, Discord?”
Cheerfully, Discord replied, "Oh Celestia. You and your wild accusations. You crack me up."
Cracks had reached all the way up Discord's body, and when he stopped talking, he crumbled.

Speaking to the pile of Discord hued rubble, she grated, "Do not take me for a fool, Discord. We have both been hiding secrets from my subjects, and my sister. Why must we be so secretive, Discord? What do you know that I don't? Who have your orders come from?"

Discord leaped through the surface of his terminal like a Whale getting some air, a splash as he did so, and swallowed his own rubble in the process. Standing normally on the projector, it was his turn to lean in. Celestia held her position.
“If you must know, my orders came from PONI, and-”
“-PONI? I should have known.”
“Yes, you should’ve, now don’t interrupt. It’s very rude.”
“If I can’t send in a squad to rescue my sister, then I have no choice but to rescue her myself.”

Trotting to the door, she came up short upon Discord’s disapproval. “Ah ah aah. We can’t do that, Celestia.”
“You can’t, but I can.”
Discord snapped his fingers.
Uh oh.

“Oh Celestia. Your blind impulse charms me so,” he began, dragging her back by her long rippling tail like a tractor beam, and nuzzled his chaotic face against hers. “But there’s a lot you need to know, oh Princess of the sun.”
Pushing herself away from the Draconequus didn’t stop him from droning on.
“Rule number one; no back up, and no survivors.”
“No... survivors?”
“Rule number two; the Flood must not reach any colonies. For if it should; the universe will be doomed. Doomed to a fate of pain and misery and boring stuff like that,” he yapped, spinning his wrist twice before holding his palm out.
"You just said "no survivors." What position does that put my sister in?”
“She won’t make it. Nopony will. Nopony other than the two PONI personnel that are on board that ship. It's rule number three.”

So my sister is pretty much KIA? Great.
Celestia did a better job of hiding her melancholy this time, and proceeded to fish for information that would hopefully paint a brighter picture for her sister.

“And just who is on that ship?” She demanded from the AI.
“Well, let’s see. There’s Luna, Rarity, Zecora, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Big Mac-”
“-Who, on that ship, is with PONI?!”
“Well, if you must know, there is a Major Lulamoon on board, running the project. There is also a Pony in your sister’s squad, who has been ordered by yours truly to clean up any "little messes" at the end of the op.”

Celestia sighed. Her sister and her subjects really were as good as dead. A lump formed in her throat and her gut tied in a knot. She had never felt more guilty, more useless, more of a let-down than she did right then.

Discord continued matter of factly, “If the Flood were to reach one of the colonies, it would be overrun within a matter of days. More food for the Flood. More knowledge of where to find food. Sending reinforcements would only increase the Flood’s chances of winning." He took a quick pause and gazed out of the window at Threshold, Basis, and Halo's debris. "They learn. They take what you know... and learn." He waited for a response from her, and when it never came, he listed, "Use guns, drive vehicles, manoeuvre ships. Everything their hosts know, they just... learn.”

Dreading the thought of such a thing, Celestia hung her head in shame. My sister must really hate me right now.
“Oh well. Better the loss of one familiar face, than the loss of the billions that is the Pony race,” Discord rhymed, not caring.
“I hate you,” Celestia spat with her spirits at an all time low.
“Yes." Sniff. "I hate you too, amicum.” The AI wept false tears and pulled her in for a suffocating hug.

Chapter 16: Infinity Devil Machine

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>Luna 1602 hours

What had once been Lyra chased them toward the Bridge, howling and gibbering and raising a chorus of answering snorts.

Luna and Derpy, her one remaining star, had caught a glimpse of her scratching around inside an air vent, and bolted.

Lyra's left front hoof, now a bizarre hand, claw, whatever you call it. Soldier saddle still mounted on her now bony back. The mechanical arm, still equipped with Celestia’s permanent magic, whirled around like a fourth tendril, the other tendrils sprouting from her sides and neck. The fetid brown skin of her face overextended back, revealing parts of her skull and the unseeing pupils of her odd facing eyes.

“They’re gaining!” Cried Derpy in alarm. “How many are there?”
Luna glanced back, then looked forward again, fast. “Too many! Derpy! Keep up with me!” She demanded, jumping up off her hooves and flapping her enormous wings.
Another glance back presented Derpy doing likewise with her smaller wings, and Lyra getting too close for comfort.

Hooves and hands and tentacles pounded the deck into wobbling jelly. Up ahead, the chunky security door to the Bridge was ajar. A chair in the doorway kept it from closing.
How convenient.
“Ready yourself, Derpy: This is going to be tight!” She informed over Lyra’s fragmented screams of distress.

Soaring through the dense, malodourous air, Luna scraped through the gap, hurting her wings, while Derpy crashed face first into the steel door. Luna snatched up her tail in her teeth and dragged her into the Bridge, flicking the chair out into the corridor with a front hoof, allowing the door to close; something it had been trying to do for who knows how long.

The door shuddered as Lyra made like Derpy and crumpled into it, then went about attacking it, trying to beat it open. Darn, she was strong! The door wouldn’t hold forever, but it would hold for long enough… hopefully.

Wincing with the pain in her wings, Luna urgently checked, “Art thou ok, Derpy?” Determined not to lose her last star.
“I’m fine, Princess.”
“Art thou sure?”
“Hmm, well I do feel hungry.” She gasped, “Could that be a septum of the Flood?!”
“You mean "symptom."”
“Septum?”
“Symptom.”
“Spectre?”
“Symptom!”
“Muffin?”
She gave up and shared a chuckle with the funny Pegasus. “Oh Derpy.”
“Derpy by name, Derpy by derpa-derp.”

Scanning the Bridge, Luna noted the leviathan window; a spectacular view of Threshold and Halo’s ballet dancing debris. The consoles and terminals, some working, some not working, some destroyed. Arcs of blood and drag marks decorated the walls and floor, along with a dead one of those things. Somepony had nailed a beasty before going down. Good to see. The floor was a glass platter of spaghetti as tangled wires and conduits scribbled the deck. Outside the cacophony of the Flood hammering at the door, a clattering of loose scraps of metal drew Luna’s attention.

“Is this the nav system?” Puzzled Derpy, balancing a chunk of metal containing wires and circuit boards on her nose.
Oh, right, thy nav system! She had completely forgotten, and not for the first time.
The Cole protocol was a ripple next to the whirlpool of trouble they’d gotten themselves into.

A closer inspection of the object Derpy balanced, and it was indeed the nav system. Fubar.
“Commendations are in order, fair Derpy. Nice one.”
Derpy dropped the piece of garbage and clopped her front hooves together. “Woohoo!”

Positioning her front hooves on a terminal that was in poor condition but looked like it still had life, Luna examined the array of buttons, switches, dials and screens, seeking a communications system, as did Derpy.

“Uh, Princess? It says here that only “automatic personnel” can use this stuff,” the precious Derped one chimed.
Luna peered over and read the screen Derpy was inspecting. It said, “Authorised Personnel Only,” and there was a device for swiping an identity card, along with a microphone and speaker.
“Kudos again, fair Derpy. We can use this raise the Red Horse!”
“But how? We’re not automatic, unless… are you a robot?!”

Ignoring Derpy’s non sequiturs, Luna pulled Major Trixie’s identity card from her saddle bag and waved it in Derpy’s face.
“Did I ever tell thou we can touch type?”

>Rarity 1608 hours

At last, the engine room! Now what?
Rarity and her crazy herd of a Pony, a Dragon, and a Griffin, had made it to their objective; destroy the backup nav system in the engine room. Were it so easy.

Crouching down behind the low barrier of a three story high balcony, she had a brilliant view of the pandemonium below. It was Flood central. A million Flood forms shuffled around aimlessly, some trailing the same orange prison garb Spike wore.

Stood in the middle of the hustle and bustle of tentacle abominations, was Vinyl Scratch. Impractically extensive teeth poked out through her muzzle. Those trademark glasses were shattered and had a bent frame, and perched upon her nose, failing to cover her ruptured eyes. Or eye. She only had one left, swollen and veined. The eye socket that had once been home to her other eye had vanished, replaced by the stained, decaying skin of her face. Her neon blue mane and tail had been reduced to untidy clumps that clung to her disproportionate head and hind quarters.

The plague-ridden DJ began walking, dragging a horrendous, fat tentacle behind her where a leg should have been. Crossing paths with a colossal Griffin, ruptured like a pile of clay that had been stepped on, the two Flood combat forms almost seemed to nod at each other.

All of them, the prisoners and the guards, Ponies and Griffins, united, in total harmony. Of one mind.

Rarity peered up at Gilda, who was checking the doorway behind them. She met her eyes, and shared what must have been kinship with the Griffin. It didn’t matter anymore that Gilda was a Griffin and she was a Pony. They were all in this together.
“What are you lookin’ at?” Gilda eventually snorted, trying to apply her tomboy attitude. Too much the noble warrior, right?
“Nothing, sorry.”

Big Mac gulped and looked a question at her; their orders didn’t seem to apply anymore.

Getting a gander, Spike started to scream, but was cut off by Big Mac who clamped a hoof over his mouth.

On the deck below, towering up to the ceiling and filling the vast room, was a mammoth clot of mucus. No, not mucus. A membrane. A membrane bigger than a house. Bigger than two houses even. Maybe even bigger than three. Its skin rippled and shifted, odd shapes moving around within, struggling for release, like a water bed full of drowning rabbits.

Oh gosh, those shapes resolved into Horse shoes, bare hooves, Unicorn horns, wings, Griffin claws and beaks... And the faces... The faces. Ponies and Griffins trapped inside, pushing the unyielding skin of the hulking sac. Alive.

Rarity ducked down and nuzzled against Gilda’s Lion leg, the Pony-Griffin war erased from her mind, and brought a hoof to her mouth to stop whatever she felt coming up.

The Griffin wrinkled her beak in disgust at the Flood, glanced at Rarity who latched onto her leg like one of the parasites, and let her be. Big Mac still had Spike silenced, those tiny Dragon claws grasping his brick of a hoof, not struggling though.

“Dude, there’s a live one,” hissed Gilda informatively.
Rarity got up and followed the Griffin’s gaze, as did Big Mac.

An infected Pony. A soldier. Octavia. Missing her eyes, hardened blood encrusting both of her melted cheeks. On her back, another Pony. Pegasus. Not infected. Beating against what had been Octavia with her hooves. A blue coat and trademark rainbow coloured mane beneath the red stains confirmed her identity.
“Don’t let them take meee!”

Rarity’s heart punched through her ribs. She put both front hooves over her mouth, recoiled, and sagged back against Gilda.
Rainbow Dash.

Chapter 17: Light Fuse, Run Away

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>Luna 1613 hours

What art we fighting for? The question rang loud in her mind.
“Me gots a signal, Princess! Booyah!” Derpy pumped a hoof in the air.
“The Red Horse?”
“I’d say it was more of a grey ship than a red horse but yeah.”
“Well done, fair Derpy. Thou hath proven yourself useful as of late. I apologise for doubting thee.”
The Pegasus Mare grinned cheesily with a squee as Luna fiddled with a couple of dials.

“-is the UPSC Red Horse to the Pony Lisa. Come in Pony Lisa. Anypony hear me?”
“Discord!” Luna had been praying to speak to anypony but him.
“Luna?! You're still alive?! Oh my! You sure know how to-”
“-Discord; no time. I need to speaketh to my sister.”
And yes, of course I am still alive. I am thy Princess of the Night; thou art not going to get rid of me that easily.
“Do not interrupt, Luna.”
"Her name is Princess!" Derpy corrected. Whether Discord heard her or not was a mystery.
For the second time, Luna demanded, “Put Celestia on!”
“On where? The table? If you say so.”
“Discord…” she growled, her impatience increasing every second.
“Tee-hee. Say please.”
“Please.”
“D’aaww, my apologies Luna, but Celestia cannot take your call right now. However, we are-”
“-Put her on, Discord!”
“Perhaps you didn’t hear. Celestia. Cannot. Answer. And what did I just say about inter-”
“DISCORD! LET ME SPEAKETH TO MY SISTER IMEDIATELY!”
The Draconequus winced with the ear-splitting volume of her trusty old royal Canterlot voice. “Ok, ok.”

“-Luna! Is that you!?” Celestia’s voice came through urgently.
Luna jumped for joy, butterflies forming in her stomach. “Celestia! Oh I am so glad to hear your voice!”
“Luna, listen to me. We-”
“-Sister! We have something more important to discuss.” She didn’t want to cut her sister off, and felt awful for it, but she wanted to lay everything down as soon as possible.

“We hath all thy recon thou will ever need. This ship is PONI, with a certain Major Trixie Lulamoon most recently in charge. Section three sent it here to experiment with a virulent parasite called the Flood that Spartan Pony 117 encountered on Halo, although PONI may not hath known about all of Trixie’s project "enhancements." But at thy very least, they came here to secureth a sample to study, and they brought Guiney Pigs with them too. Under Trixie’s orders, they have been deliberately infecting Pony prisoners and…” She paused, unable to believe what she was saying. “… And Griffin prisoners as well. Griffins and Ponies. Our own. Infecting them, thus transforming them into these putrid abominations. These curs. And nopony told us.”
Discord and Celestia had been hiding something for a very long time. This had to be it.

“I know sister,” Celestia responded gravely.
“Celestia?”
“Major Trixie is en-route to the Red Horse in your Pelican. She has informed us of the situation.”
Her stomach roiled and hatred crept into her boiling blood. How had the spoilt Mare even made it to the hanger?

“Sister… sister…” she gritted her teeth, speechless.
“Trixie did fail to mention however, that any of you had survived.”
“Big meanie!” Shouted Derpy angrily, eyes more out of focus than ever.
Luna placed a hoof over the grey one’s back as her exposed scar begged to be itched.

She swallowed, and it ached. “She is a liar, and a traitor, and a war criminal!” Reduced almost to incoherence, “Everypony lost on this ship, my stars, thy crew. If not for Trixie, they would still be with us.”
She could barely contain her rage at Trixie, nor her disappointment at herself for letting her escape.

Resurfacing, Discord stated, “There, Trixie’s story has been verified.”
“I’ll destroy her!” Grated Luna, a spark of rage spat from her horn.

Celestia interviewed, “Sister, having witnessed this Flood firsthoof, what is your assessment? What if the Flood were to reach one of the colonies?”
Grinding her teeth, she stabbed back, “I’m not paid to assess things, Commander.”

Discord began documenting, “We have no defence against such a foe. Any planet to come into contact with the Flood would be overrun in a matter of days. A cure must be sought.”
“A cure? A cure!? Thou cannot cure this! According to Trixie, this was never about a cure! This was about control! About creating mindless monster soldiers she could control! Who knows what Trixie was doing that is not in thy record, but a cure?! Hath thou seen what we’ve seen?”
“We have Luna. We have,” sighed Celestia.
What?!

“Listen to me Luna, my… beloved sister.” Celestia squeaked, then breathed, “Our orders… are to destroy the Pony Lisa… But all is not lost, my sister. There are two escape pods… down on the lower deck… or so Discord tells me."
"Two escape pods? But Trixie said she jettisoned all the escape pods. Why would she keep two?" Luna wondered out loud.

Funnily enough, Celestia had an answer. "For her and the PONI operative in your squad to escape."
"Wait; there was a PONI operative in my squad?!" She exhaled. "I knew it! Zecora!"
"Zecora?"
"She knew all about Nightmare Moon. She said she got the information from PONI. It must have been her. But no..." she balanced the thought. "... Trixie killed her."
Discord admitted, "Yeah... Trixie didn't know who it was either. Only I know."
With a tone that was quieter but all the more serious, Luna pried, "Who is it then, Discord?"
But of course, Discord didn't do simple answers. "Well that depends: Who's alive?"
"Just me and Derpy here."
Astonished, the Draconequus howled, "Derpy survived?! Bwahahahaha! That's priceless!"
The Mare in question looked down at the deck sadly.
"Oh, well, I can asure you; it's not Derpy. Tss-ss-ss-ss-ss! You have nothing to worry about from PONI."

Pondering whether or not to ask Discord a second time, Luna decided to chance the AI's words, and assume PONI's operative had passed on. She felt pretty sure it was Zecora anyway, whatever her purpose might have been.

But what about Rarity and her squad? Luna never gave up on her stars. Not until they had been proved KIA, however Rarity wasn't that much of a soldier. She had Big Mac for muscle, Twilight for brains, Fleur De Lis for a mascot and Fluttershy for... something. What chances did they stand against the Flood? What if the PONI operative had been with them? What if some of them were still alive? Luna kept her hopes low, not expecting to be pleasantly surprised. She had one star, end of.

Celestia advised, "If you are planning on escaping in those pods, you must make haste, my sister. Trixie Lulamoon has brought the attention of the Griffin capitol ship upon us.”
Celestia and Discord knew about the escape pods; why they were there, Trixie and the PONI operative. They knew a lot more than they'd told her until now.
“You knew,” she murmured, stung by betrayal.

A tremendous boom shook the entire ship, forcing her to grab hold of the console as Derpy toppled over onto the deck.
“What was that?” Celestia enquired, alarmed. “Are you still there, Luna?”
“Yes, sister. We are.”
Her sister paused, not knowing if that was good or bad, then said, “You don’t have long, Luna. Good luck…” Then she squeaked, “I love you.”
“Thou hath let us down, Celestia… I hate you-”
Bang! Furiously, she bucked the console into a crinkled mess and looked at Derpy.
“Uh, Princess? Are you alright?”
No.

Eyes glowing white, she beat the console in an uncontrollable frenzy, shrieking like she had been infected. Like she had been possessed. She was possessed. The white noise of Lyra and her Flood buddies banging against the door was drowned out by Luna’s synthesized screeches and the clatter of the terminal being demolished. Blackness crept up her legs and over her blue coat in a wave of what looked like plasma, but wasn’t. Her mane and tail materialised into crazy splats of sparkling purple, her black cutie mark also turning purple.

“Princess!” Derpy cried out and lunged at the possessed Alicorn, shaking her like a doll. “Snap out of it, Princess!” Then, at the demon that was taking her over, she demanded, “Get out of my Princess you bully!”

Light spilled from Luna’s eyes and howling mouth, and her horn glared, building up in finality.

Out of options, Derpy squeezed the life out of her in a cuddle. Intense light built up around the two of them, and a blinding flash knocked Derpy to the ground. After a fair few seconds had passed, she shakily looked up to behold her Princess...

... Luna sat before Derpy, still blue coat, eyes, mane and tail, and still a black cutie mark. Same old Luna. Good.

She had fought Nightmare Moon again, and damn near lost. Thank Celestia she hadn’t. No, don’t thank Celestia; it was Celestia’s fault they were even in this situation. Her and that snake in the grass, Discord. Unless the white Alicorn came to rescue them in the short time they had left, Luna would never forgive her, and she cursed her name right to the bottom of her soul.

Panting, she asked, “Derpy… Art thou alright?”
The derped one stood and rubbed her head under that untamed blonde mane. “Ow. Yeah, I’m alright. But what about you? Why do you keep having these derp-strikes?”
“It’s… just something wrong with me, fair Derpy. It is nothing to be concerned about.” Meaningful fib: It most definitely was something to be concerned about.
“I was scared.”
“So was I.”
“Will it ever happen again?”
“I don’t know, but I do know one thing..." she spoke as she forced herself up off the floor and towered defiantly before Derpy. "... We are getting off this sinking ship.”

Her legs shook and started to give in for a moment. She grunted with unease and would've collapsed with exhaustion were it not for Derpy who came to her aid. The Pegasus sat Luna down gently on the floor.
Make haste? Sure. We shall get on that soon.

After she'd counted thirty seconds in her mind, she was ready to force herself to be ready. With a little help from Derpy, she strained to her hooves and spread her wings.
“You and I shall get cosy in thy pods, make it back to thy Red Horse, and have a nice, long talk with my sister," she declared.
Derpy nodded.
"We shall report Discord for rampancy. And then we are going to find thy great and powerful Trixie, and we are going to take our time with her.” She noted the same yearning for revenge on Derpy’s face. “And then… then what?”
Sniffling, Derpy answered, “And then comes a muffin, Princess.”
“Erm, well… it’s actually ice cream but… ok. A muffin would be nice.”

She levitated the muffin Derpy gave her from her saddle bag and broke it in half. She couldn’t help but think that this was the last time she’d ever eat. The last Pony she’d ever talk to. An ending.

The Pony who wound her up to the point of exploding, was now her best friend, and possibly her only friend left in the universe.
“To friendship,” she toasted, and chucked her half of the muffin into her mouth.
“To friendship,” Derpy followed suite, and the two of them enjoyed a few seconds of ambient picnic.

With the surrounding Bridge in a post-apocalyptic condition, the Flood hammering at the door, the occasional explosion from deep inside the ship, and a beautiful view of Threshold and Halo's debris; Luna knew she would remember this scene for the rest of her life. She could only hope that life wouldn't end too soon.

Wordlessly, she checked her weapon; full magazine. Ammo was dwindling, but they had grenades a-plenty. Sealing her bag, flicking the safety off her DMR and trudging over to the door controls, Luna came up short upon hearing Derpy speak up from behind.
“Princess Luna?”
She stopped abruptly and rotated to face her little star.

“... What happens if we don’t make it?” Derpy’s eyes twinkled.
Voice softer than usual, she answered, “We will make it, fair Derpy. We just have to banish our fear, never give up, and have faith in me, as I do in thou.”
“But what if we die? I don’t want to die, and I definitely don’t want to come back if I do,” the sweet Mare sniffled, a tear running down her cheek.
Eyes glistening with Derpy's, Luna lifted the Mare's down-cast face with a hoof and wiped the tear away.
“Now now Derpy, don’t you worry. I shall not let that happen. And thou most certainly will not come back…" Gulping, she added, "I will assure it." She paused to see if Derpy would say something, and when she didn't, she proceeded, "I shall not leave you, but if I go down, I order thou to fly. Fly away as fast as you can. Get home safely, get to the Red Horse, and tell everypony exactly what happened.”
Eventually, Derpy croaked, “... Ok. I just… I really want to go home. I really want to live. But I-”
Luna wrapped her hooves around the one star she had left and held her tight for a good ten seconds.
“We are going to live, fair Derpy. We are going to live.”

She pulled back, still hugging, staring meaningfully into her derped eyes for a beat. Wordlessly, she let go and paced over to the one door that separated them from the Flood...
... And hit the controls.

>Rarity 1613 hours

Aiming down the scope of her BR85, Rarity had Rainbow Dash’s head in her sights, and debated whether or not to pull the trigger. Big Mac and Gilda lunged at her and lowered her rifle.
“What are you, crazy? There’s too many of em dude,” susurrated the Griffin.
Big Mac’s expression agreed with the feathery titan.

The Flood where a choir of screeches and howls and roars in some sort of tribal celebration, as Rainbow Dash and Octavia carved a straight path through the sea of malformed bodies.
Rainbow continued to beat at Octavia, screaming and bawling, “No! No! Please! Let me go! Put me down!”
All the pilot’s terror and desperation echoed around the cold engine room and resonated in Rarity’s ears. The dead Octavia hauled RD up with ease and pushed her into the vast blob of mucus. And then she really started screaming.

Rarity couldn’t take it anymore. Couldn’t watch. Ducked down and slumped against Gilda’s leg again, squeezing her eyes shut and covering her ears, but that did nothing to stop Rainbow Dash’s screams of terror from intruding her brain. She bit down hard on her lip until it was sore, stifling her sobs and failing at it, tears slicing through the grime on her face. Another good friend lost.

She peered up at the only friends she had left; Big Mac, and a Dragon and a Griffin she’d just met. Gilda stared at her, expressionless, while Big Mac flopped his ears in sadness and kept Spike quiet.

A thunk and crackle thumped her heart as a nearby intercom sounded on.
“-is the UPSC Red Horse to the Pony Lisa-” It was Discord.

The Flood erupted into a rancorous wrath, spasming and spinning this way and that.
“Why are they doing that?” Rarity whispered to the Dragon, more than a little frightened.
Big Mac moved his hoof away from Spike’s mouth.
“They go crazy when they hear something that might be food, they go crazy. They’ll look for where it’s coming from-”
Big Mac shut him up again.

Flood combat forms leaped impossibly high into the air, battering speakers off the walls with their tendrils. A glance up confirmed that there was a speaker directly above them. Not good.
Other voices came crackling through the speaker; Celestia’s, Luna’s-
-Oh, Luna!
Rarity gasped with excitement, not too loud. “The Princess! She’s alive! We’re not the only ones!”
Her remaining Stallion neither smiled nor frowned, just gazed up at the speaker with the toy Dragon in his hooves.
One could at least show some enthusiasm.

The four of them listened fascinatedly as her beloved Princess unlocked all the secrets of the Pony Lisa to Commander Celestia and the AI Discord, listing the many sins of PONI, who turned out to be responsible for this whole mess.
Spike pointed to nowhere in particular and muffled something when Princess Luna mentioned the name "Major Trixie Lulamoon."
Distastefully, Rarity commented, “I should have known. Where there’s a mystery, there is PONI.”
Inhaling slightly, Big Mac said, “Eeyup.”

Celestia’s voice announced, trembling a bit, “There are two escape pods… down on the lower deck…”
Excitement coursed it's way into Rarity's veins. “Oh goody! We can escape! Did you hear that?”
“Aw sweet!” Exclaimed Gilda.
Spike muffled something happy behind Big Mac’s chunky hoof.

The more she thought about it, the more Rarity understood what the Flood might be doing. Shoving pilots into their sac of depression, hooked up to the engines and the trans-light drive.
“That atrocity they just shoved Rainbow Dash into...” she began, still thinking about it, mind blown by the insanity of it all. “They must… I don’t know, but I think they’re trying to hotwire the ship’s engines without Bridge control. And even if they’re not, that engine is important to them. It must be destroyed. It must. It must!”
Big Mac looked at her like she was a crazy Pony. Spike didn’t know what she meant either.
Gilda shrugged and said, “Uh… I guess that’s a possibility.”

“Alright then, but before I do this; Gilda, take Spike’s weapon,” which was actually Fluttershy’s weapon, but she didn’t want to think about that right now.
“Aaww yeah!” Gilda cheered, snatching the rifle from Spike’s claws. “Time to kick some Flood butt!" Smiling at the Unicorn Mare, she reminded, "Huh, I thought you’d never willingly hand over a weapon to a Griffin?”
“Hm-hm… Yes I may have said that, however that doesn’t matter. No offense Spikey Wikey, but you are a terrible shot.”
The Dragon grunted, offended.
Well you are… just saying.

Crouching on hind legs and admiring her new weapon, Gilda paused and chirped, “Wait a minute... before you do what?”
“When I give the signal; run like the wind, and everypony stay close.” This was the best decision she’d ever made in the UPSC, she figured.

The white Unicorn Mare used her magic to open her saddle bag, pull the pins off all her grenades, and place them in very specific spots down below. Near the trans-light drive, to be exact.

Struggling, Spike’s eyes widened, his orange jumpsuit rubbing against Big Mac.

All at once, the grenades detonated, creating a secondary explosion from the engines that rocked the whole ship.
“Go! Go! Go!” Signalled Rarity, bolting out of the room, Gilda soaring overhead on her wings, duel wielding her cricket bat and MA5D Assault Rifle. Must have felt like her birthday.
Big Mac charged after her, Spike on his back.

Rainbow Dash had stopped screaming at last.

Chapter 18: Warning: Hitchhikers May Be Escaping Convicts

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>Celestia 1616 hours

The Bridge of the Red Horse was silent as the crew went about their duties. A faint murmuring from the staff and the humming of machinery provided a soft ambience.

Obliterating the peace, Discord’s voice echoed from the many speakers. “Good news, Celestia! Major Trixie is safely on board the Red Horse, and since you insist, Spitfire and her team have locked her away in solitary, just for you!” His voice bounced around the Bridge, the crew hard at work, ignoring him.
“Oh, and the good news keeps on coming! A Shiva missile has been armed and is ready to fire at the Pony Lisa, on demand. I suppose the only bad news there is to report is that your sister is doomed to a demise that doesn’t involve being reincarnated as a flesh-eating monster… although that is really a good thing. You should be grateful, Celestia. Oh, and I almost forgot, there’s a humongous Griffin capitol ship bearing down on us, haha! But I wouldn’t worry about that-” He materialized before an empty space where Princess Celestia should have been standing. “We’ll be long gone before… it… arrives?”
Realising he had been talking to nopony all this time, he looked around the Bridge in confusion.
“Celestia?” He called.
No answer.
“Celestia?”

“Hang in there my sister,” Celestia prayed to herself behind the controls of a Pelican drop ship. “I will not let you down this time.”

With practiced ease, she manoeuvred the drop ship through the constantly moving debris field, avoiding all the flotsam and jetsam that was once a majestic, alien ring world. Up ahead, the Pony Lisa was nowhere in sight; too much debris. Neither was the Griffin capitol ship, which she presumed was somewhere above.

Peeking at the rear view monitor to her right; the Red Horse vanished behind multiple portions of the Halo super-structure.
I wonder how Discord is going to react, she contemplated.

And speak of the devil:
“Celestia! What in the world do you think you are doing!?” The AI's voice buzzed angrily over the radio.
Into the microphone on the headset she wore, she told, “I’m rescuing my sister, and you cannot stop me.”
The Draconequus made those groaning noises he made when he was frustrated, which was a rarity.
“Fine, just make it quick!” He gave in, not quite. “If you are not back before that Griffin ship is in position, I’m firing the Shiva and bailing.”
“That is a risk I am willing to take.”
“Oooo, how noble," he reacted sarcastically.

Discord then notified, "Also, take heed; I’ve detected a spike of energy coming from within the Pony Lisa. It seems the slip space engine has been ruptured, and could blow completely at any time.”
The bad news just kept coming. Nether the less, Celestia knifed the Pelican between a tree and a mysterious, alien structure that came with a chunk of Halo's debris, and rocketed towards the Pony Lisa's co-ordinates.
“Then I have no time to lose.”
“Of course. Farewell Celestia. ‘Twas nice knowing you.” He broke the connection.
Good riddens.

Her plan was to scoop up Luna’s, and of course Private Derpy's escape pods once they had been ejected, then blast back to the Red Horse if Discord could get the better of his impatience, and she’d order the AI to make a jump for home. For Equestria. Still a warzone, but still home.

She had total faith in her sister. Luna could take on this Flood no problem, right?
The image of Luna infected that Discord had subjected her to slid through her mind.
What if she couldn’t fight the Flood? And even if she could, what about PONI? Discord had mentioned that he’d persuaded a Pony to clean up any “messes” at the end of the op, should there be any messes, which there definitely was. Which Pony? Was he or she still alive? What did he mean by “messes?” Victory against the greatest threat to Ponies since the Griffins, only to be defeated by one of their own. Not on her watch.

>Rarity 1616 hours

After prudently placing the grenades and running like mad, Rarity thought she heard Celestia say; “Good luck.”
The words lingered around her ears. She’d always admired Celestia. Always stuck up for her when the other Ponies complained about her in the mess hall. And now, all she had to show for it was; “Good luck. So long. Nice knowin’ ya.” She felt sick to her stomach. Violated even.

This was it. This was the end to the nightmare. The grande finale. The ship was about to blow up, the Flood where on their tails, and they had an escape plan. This was where the mission was won or lost. The final run.

Spike clenched his claws around Big Mac’s muscly neck as he charged by Rarity’s side like a run-away locomotive. Gilda flew above them, not leaving them like she could have easily done.
“If we can… just make it to the pods… we’ll be ok!” She panted over their noisy progress.

The blood-curdling sound of a million Flood forms rolled up from behind them. If she didn’t know any better, she’d say they had the entirety of the infestation hot on their hooves.

Emergency red lighting strobed on and off, and an alarm wailed as the whole ship shook and rattled; the engines tearing themselves apart.

She had no map, no schematic, no Twilight Sparkle, and intersections went flashing by.
“Which way is it?!” The Griffin demanded, firing a burst from Fluttershy’s rifle at something behind them.
“I don’t know! I’m just looking for signs!” Rarity shouted back.
The Griffin grumbled, "You've gotta be kiddin' me."

“Spike… If you need to defend yourself… Just use… your flame breath,” she ordered the Dragon over the bellow of the Flood.
Spike just held onto his Stallion for dear life as they shot along. “Waa! Er… yes, my lady,” trying to sound magnanimous, to no avail.

They hastily approached a right pointing green arrow on the ground with the words “Pod Bay” stencilled onto it in white, and a severed Griffin's hind leg left unattended in a puddle of blood just next to it.
"Look! There's a sign!” Exclaimed Spike, aiming a finger at the print.
Out of breath, Rarity panted, "Oh...! So there is...! This way...! Well done Spikey... Wikey."

Celestia saying “Good luck.” Her brain was cursed with the thought.
Was there really nothing she could do to save them? Commander Princess Celestia, Princess of the sun, co-ruler of the Pony race; and she can’t even keep her own subjects alive. Not even her own sister, Luna.

At least Luna, the other co-ruler of Ponies and Princess of the night, was there for them. The Sarge would have a plan. The Sarge always had a plan. But the increasing volume and ire of the tentacle mob behind them might just foil those plans. The Flood had certainly foiled a lot on this mission.

Back to Celestia; she had always had grace and elegance, more so than Luna, a tad bit less than her niece and previous AI of the Red Horse; Cadence. She would always join them on leave, usually on the side-lines, laughing as Luna and her subjects frolicked around on the beach, splashing the surf of the sea, stuffing their faces with ice cream.

Ah, the ice cream, oh how she couldn’t wait to unite with Luna and share a tub. After they’d escaped this hell hole of course. And after they had got cleaned up; the Griffin blood she had been rewarded with in the hanger had turned hard and was cracking like the plate tectonics of a planet, leaving stains on her white coat, along with sewage from the recycling plant, and her tail which was still tipped with sick.

Unfortunately, when leave came, not all her friends would be there to play and eat ice cream with this time.
Playing on the beach and eating ice cream. Does that even exist anymore?

>Luna 1620 hours

After their massacre of the Flood waiting outside the Bridge for them, Luna only had one grenade left. Derpy had none at all.

Lyra had crumpled her head against the door so hard, and so many times, it had been reduced to, well... nothing.

The headless Lyra and the many Ponies and Griffins that were on her side had blown up into bloody ribbons, and still half of them got back up. Hopping, crawling, or simply running on regenerated appendages at them, failing as gunfire converted them into Swiss cheese, and the blast from Derpy’s last grenade threw them up against the walls and ceiling.

Now, as a variety of Flood forms came between them and their destination, Luna reluctantly used her last grenade, then reloaded her weapon as Derpy provided covering fire.
“Do not let them close, Derpy! Or thou shall turn into one!”
Derpy didn’t respond, just gritted her teeth and took to her wings to avoid the biological blade of what was once a Pony. The Pegasus Mare snarled and bucked it into the ground.

There was a mighty bang as Luna’s last grenade exploded, sending mutilated corpses in many directions.

One of the abominations slithered up from behind Derpy. A tentacle, morphed with a heart two thirds of the way up, shot out of it's mouth and wrapped tightly around Derpy’s rear hoof.
“Aarrgg! Luna! Help me!” The Mare cried in fear; the thing dragging her to the ground.

Even as more living dead came howling out of the vents in a frantic rage, Luna flew up on her wings and nose-dived the horrid ex-pony off of her precious star.

A clump of flesh impaled on her horn. Magic soon fixed that, as well as sending out a pulse wave that knocked all combat forms within the vicinity off their feet.
“Get up Derpy! We are almost there!” She encouraged.

Taking flight once more, the unlikely duo raced down the corridor, battering the rising Flood on their way. Turning right; Luna and Derpy raced down a lengthy stretch of clear, open corridor and approached an elevator.

Luna's magic pried the doors apart like a crowbar. Checking to see if the coast was clear; she poked her head through the doors and peered down the empty elevator shaft that plunged into green mist.
"It looks clear for-"
-Crack! The elevator came scraping down from above and struck Luna in the skull. She felt her head being squeezed as it got caught between the shaft and the tonne of metal. Her horn twanged like a ruler over the edge of a table once the elevator had passed. The impact was so heavy, it caused her vision to black out, and her magic to fade; the elevator doors slamming shut. Luckily, Derpy was there to pull her away from the trap.

Crash! The elevator made it to the bottom floor.

"Oh my gosh!" Derpy shrieked, assisting her. "Princess! Are you ok?!"
Rolling on the deck; Luna screamed in agony, hooves holding her bloody head. "Aaaaaarrg-ngahaaaa! Oww! Nnnnnguh!"
Panicking, Derpy pleaded, "Princess! No! Don't go! Please!"
Luna gritted her teeth and winced with the trobbing pain in her head. "Nnnng...! I am not going... anywhere, Derpy."

Unsure if she had suffered brain damage from having a whole elevator clip her head, Luna tossed her crowbar spell at the doors, only to discover her magic wasn't working. She tried it again and again, praying that her magic would return, but it just wouldn't work.
To heck with it.

"Are you gonna be ok, Princess?" Worried the last star as Luna reversed back the way they came.
Spindly shadows crept around the end of the corridor.
"Princess, where are you going? We just came that way, didn't we?"

With a distance between herself and the elevator doors, Luna galloped at the maximum speed she could conger up, leaped, and shoulder barged through the steel doors, Flood style.
Derpy exclaimed, "Holy muffin!"

Hovering in the shaft, Luna looked up to make sure no more elevators would rain down on top of her, then back to Derpy and a background consisting of Flood.
"Quickly, Derpy! Down here!" She ordered, shooting down the shaft, blood streaming off her head.
Derpy zipped away after her.

>Rarity 1620 hours

A dull boom that indicated a grenade found her ears over the rumblings of a disintegrating engine and the disharmony of the Flood hounding after them.
“That must be the Princess!” She gasped, both in excitement and out of breath. “Come on!”

A misshapen form possessing a beak and Lion parts rolled out before them from a junction. Rarity cut it off at the knees with her BR85 while Big Mac punctured it’s chest many times, and a final club from Gilda’s bat took its head clean off.

Rarity couldn’t remember the last time she’d ever run so fast, ever been so zealous to get away.

An open hatch set flush into the deck, and a Pony in prison clothes came scrambling up it, head split vertically and sporting teeth. A trio of weapons grinded the atrocity into bloody scraps, only enraging it. Pressed for time, the herd stampeded past the flailing monster, Big Mac stomping on it and Spike torching it afterwards. It wailed and jarred back down the hole in the floor.

Rounding a right turning corner, something huge crashed through the ceiling and dented the metal deck. Rarity, Big Mac and Spike bumped into the mutant as Gilda soared over it's head. Correction: She soared over it's heads. A Pony and a Griffin, sharing the same, malformed body; their heads fused together along with the rest of their bodies, and their two mouths joined as one. The freaky couple almost seemed to strain, "Kill us," as the warped monster they had become shrieked and lunged for them, a second mouth full of tendrils spanning both of their chests.

Spike screamed with terror.
"No!" Wailed Rarity as she reversed and fired at the behemoth with Big Mac, the pursuing Flood getting closer with every shot.

Rarity witnessed Gilda return from behind the combat form, and clobber it with her cricket bat as it pivoted to face her.

With it's back turned, Big Mac seized the opportunity to push down on the rear of the Flood form and stomp it down, flattening it until it was nothing but a door mat; a door mat that was still alive and wriggling.

The two Ponies jumped over the cur to join Gilda, Spike setting it ablaze with his green flames, and the four of them double-timed it through the red lights of hell.

Scrambling after them, the burning ex-pony/griffin was accompanied by the arrival of hundreds of furious Flood, who trampled over their wounded freak of a friend and - Boom! The Pony Lisa's engine decay very kindly decided to set off an explosion in the Flood's wake; killing some, blocking the rest.

Well its about time something broke our way, Rarity thought, tempted ease down their pace so she could catch her breath.
That would be a silly thing to do though; the Flood were already pushing against the debris that blocked them, and no doubt there would be even more Flood on the ship already embarking on separate routes.

"Sorry I left you guys for a sec," Gilda apologised as she flew by Rarity and the other two. "I didn't realise y'all were in trouble 'til I was about to turn this corner right here."
Rounding said corner to the left, Rarity and Big Mac skidded with their consistent speed.
"No worries, Gilda... Thank you - aha-aha!" Rarity gagged.
"Your welcome, Pony."

“I am reloading my gun!” A familiar voice fizzed in through her radio.
To the mic that protruded from her saddle bag, Rarity yelled disbelievingly, “Derpy...?! Was that you!?”
“Rarity!?” Luna’s voice wheezed.
“Princess...! Oh... you would not believe... how good it feels to... hear your voice!” The joy in her heart was uncontainable, even when she was running from the life absorbing Flood.
“Likewise, fair Rarity," returned the Princess. "Who is with you?”
“Big Mac.” She hesitated, eying the Griffin as she booted an infection form down the corridor, scoring a goal in the doorway ahead. “… And some survivors.”
How am I going to explain Gilda to her? She isn’t going to like this. Not one bit.

The Princess enquired, “You know where thou art heading?"
With her lungs working over time, Rarity answered, "Yeah... Escape pods on the lower deck... right?"
"Right. Keep moving, fair Rarity. That ice cream is not going to eateth itself.”
That was certainly reassuring.
“Oh of course Princess...! Heehee!”

Supreme happiness filled her motive, making her run even faster. She had never been so relieved to report for duty. They were going to make it! They were going to get off this ship. If she could just persuade the Princess to spare the Griffin.

Clang! An air vent on the right broke open, and something with swords for hooves and a missing lower jaw scraped its way out, slashing Rarity’s side with a spray of blood. Her blood. She neighed with excruciating pain and went hurtling into the opposite wall. Shock and fear consumed her as what appeared to be Thunderlane roared at her, blowing hot, stinking breath into her face, and came slashing her way.
Thunderlane. How could you do that to me?

As Gilda hosed it with bullets, Big Mac shunted into the living cluster of knives and tentacles, stomping it out, and Spike baked the once dashing Stallion with his fire.

Sinisterly, the only Pony she had left, who she often thought of as a friend; the Stallion who always had her back and always helped her when she was in need, turned to point his rifle at her.
“B… Big… Macintosh?” She huffed weakly in shock. “Y-You wouldn’t… would you?”
Twilight, Fluttershy… You might.

Her stomach lurched as something tucked her under its belly, and the breeze of its vast wings cooled down her ever rising temperature.
Gilda scooped her up, flew over Big Mac and Spike, and kept going.

>Luna 1620 hours

Whilst waiting for Rarity and her gang; Luna had attempted to build a force field in the entrance to the pod bay, but no matter how hard she tried; she just couldn't get her magic to work. It made her frustrated beyond the pale.

Her head had been dripping with blood after the whole elevator incident. A fair bit of scrubbing with multiple face clothes had removed a alarmingly large amount of blood from Luna's face and head. And the pain. The pain. Luna was skilled at ignoring pain, and experienced, but she just couldn't ignore her pounding head. It felt like her brain was trying to break free of her skull.

Anywho; she was about to reunite with Rarity. And Big Mac. And that made her so delighted, she was literally jumping around in circles.
“Rarity lives! Rarity lives! Rarity lives!” Luna could barely contain her excitement.
Neither could Derpy who jumped around in circles with her inside the life pod bay.

“Wait,” Luna halted, Derpy slamming into the back of her. “Two pods… Two of us… Some of them…”
“I suppose we’ll have to split the pods in half, like what we did with the muffin,” suggested Derpy.
“Actually, some of us may have to share. It’ll be a tremendous squeeze; these pods are only built for one.”

Looking the two open pods up and down, the contours of her face expressed her concern. She was an Alicorn. A large Alicorn. It would be a squeeze for her even without a buddy. And Rarity said she had Big Mac with her; a hulking great Stallion, plus some survivors they’d picked up.
What to do, what to do.

“Priiinceeess…” Derpy strained, rifle pointing out of the air-lock and down the corridor beyond.
Multiple forms came surging around the corner.
“Griffin!” Alarmed Derpy, ready to pull the trigger with Celestia’s permanent magic.
“Hold your fire!” Luna barked at her, witnessing the Griffin flying towards them:
Assault Rifle in one talon, cricket bat in the other, and Rarity cradled beneath. Not even the strangest thing she’d seen all day.

“Derpy. Do not take your mind off thy trigger,” she spoke out the side of her mouth, bringing her DMR up with Derpy’s MA5D.

The thing that stopped her from mincing the Griffin was Rarity, who cried out to her, holding out a hoof, pleading her not to do what she had been trained to do.
“Princess…! Don’t shoot…! Gilda’s good… really… just please… don’t shoot!”

Against the Griffin, and with Big Mac and a rider coming into view, the Unicorn looked tiny. Red, green and brown stains shrouded her coat, mane and tail. Her BR85 was gone, but she still wore a soldier saddle.

Hastily, the Griffin screeched to a mid-air halt with a, “Whoa!”
Rarity continued to babble, “Her name is Gilda…! She’s friendly… ish… And is no threat to you…! Don’t shoot!”
Gilda, huh?
“If thou say so, fair Rarity. Come hither!”

She really didn’t trust this Griffin, but Rarity trusted it enough to hand it an MA5D Assault Rifle, and it hadn’t killed her. Judging from the elongated, fresh gash in Rarity’s side, it had saved her from what must have been one of those ugly things. Or tried to save her, at least. Luna had been so glad to regain two of her stars, but it looked like one of them was going to leave her for definite pretty soon. What about that ice cream? What about all that time she had dreamed spending time with her and the many Ponies who weren’t present, in the future?

Hopping down from Big Mac’s back; a teeny purple Dragon stared at her like butter wouldn’t melt, then rushed over to Rarity and the hovering Griffin.
“Oh my gosh! Rarity! Are you ok?!” He asked desperately.
Hold on… a Dragon?! A Griffin and a Dragon? What is a Dragon doing on this ship?

The Dragon had a round head with a mohican of green spines, and had the voice of a young Colt; not the threatening monster she remembered from way back.

Two escape pods, some of them. Who was it to be? Her and Derpy? A dying friend and a ghost of a Stallion? Some random little Dragon and her worst enemy by default?

Increasing, the stomach-churning pandemonium of the Flood billowed into the pod bay like the foul stench that ruled the ship, along with the dull explosions of engine decay. What had Rarity been doing?

The Griffin hovered in the air, looking around impatiently, holding Rarity in one cricket bat wielding arm like a rag doll.
“What, pray tell, is this worthless cur doing here, Rarity? Thou said survivors.”
“Hey! Who do ya think ya callin’ cur? Cur!” The Griffin piped up, offended.
Big Mac; “She didn’t mean it.”

Everypony, Griffin and Dragon flicked their heads at the Stallion who never spoke. Not enough time for that jumpsuit wearing Dragon however, as Big Mac pressed the muzzle of his rifle against its head, and fired a sustained burst.

“Spikey Wikey!” Rarity cried weakly in anguish.
Gilda the Griffin stared puzzlingly at the red farm Pony and said, “What the heck, dude?! Why’d ya do that?!”

Shifting her aim from the Griffin to her star, back to the Griffin, back to her star, Luna had no idea what to do, and went to work saving the other star that had stood by her throughout this arduous journey.
“Derpy, get in a pod. Flee, and get back to thy Red Horse. Save yourself.”
Protesting, Derpy stuttered, “B-but… w-what about you?”
“I can take care of myself, fair Derpy. Now go.”
“But-”
“GO!”

Glaring down her DMR at Big Mac, who alternated between the four targets, she heard the sounds of Derpy prepping an escape pod. Big Mac’s rifle pointed at the true star behind her.
“Don’t even think about it, Big Macintosh.”
He switched to the Griffin, who continued to hover and hold the poor, whimpering Rarity, pointing its own rifle at his head.

A hiss, then a clack as Derpy’s escape pod armed and jettisoned itself free of the ship. One star saved.
Victory?

>Rarity 1623 hours

Just audible over the fast approaching Flood, wailing alarm, and the Pony Lisa tearing itself apart, was the hypnotic voice of Discord seething out of a nearby speaker.
“Shiva missile is armed, will fire when convenient. The Pony Lisa’s slip space engine has been tampered with, and shall detonate… oh I don’t know, soon. A Griffin capitol ship is moving in on us, we will be leaving shortly... Bravo to anypony listening who managed to survive up to now. Bravo.” There was a pause as Discord breathed a sigh of regret, something Rarity never thought she'd hear from the AI. "... It was never meant to end this way," he stated sombrely. "... I am so sorry, Luna."

Oh... Celestia does care... Haha... How about that.
If there was any voice fitted to sealing your fate, it was Discord’s, and Rarity could feel the life evacuating her body. Her blood dripped down to form a puddle on the deck. Gilda’s feathery embrace felt like a warm, comfy bed that Rarity just wanted to fall asleep in.

Staring at her Stallion partner who blurred in and out of focus, who held a gun at her and the Griffin, she picked up the Princess's voice saying, “You’re with PONI… Aren’t you, Big Mac?”
Closing his eyes briefly and tilting his head up, Big Mac replied, “Eeyup.”
“PONI?” Rarity questioned, mind boggled.
The Princess interviewed, “Pray tell; what purpose do thou serve with PONI, Big Macintosh?”
“It’s nothin’ personal. There were never meant to be any survivors,” the Earth Pony spoke in his calm, seldom voice.

There was a crash as more Flood forms joined the hunting mob; they could come shrieking around the corner at any moment.

“Did Discord put thou up to this?” -Luna again.
A long suggestive pause, and then, “Nope.”
The Princess sighed as Big Mac glowered into Rarity’s eyes.

“Rarity, get down. You can walk,” he directed at her.
She doubted she could even stand, let alone walk, and she always thought Big Mac knew that kind of stuff. Now, she wasn’t entirely sure she even knew him anymore.
Staring daggers at the Griffin, he demanded, “Gilda, put her down.”
“Ugh, fine!” Gilda grunted, lowering her to the ground.

Rarity hunkered down, front hooves feeling like jelly, felt like she was going to be sick, noting the sick that tipped her tail that she had wiped off of Big Mac prior to their trip through recycling.
And this is the thanks I get.

Footfalls came strong and a-plenty from the Flood hurricane somewhere beyond the air-lock.
Closer...
Closer...
“Gilda can have my ice cream,” Rarity whispered.

Using all the energy she had left, Rarity reared up and wrapped her hooves around the huge Stallion, just as the ocean of Flood came crashing around the corner. Squeezing her eyes shut, she staggered back toward the army of twisted and warped bodies, pulling Big Mac with her, his rifle firing in all directions. Using her rear hoof, she tripped Big Mac over, and they rolled ever closer to their howling fate.

The Flood washed over the two of them. Engulfed them. Roaring and gibbering whilst Luna and Gilda set their guns blazing upon the Flood. Upon them. It didn’t really matter. A bullet lodged itself nice and cosy in her side. Luna would never mean to hurt her, and neither would Gilda, right?

Big Mac screamed with pain. Screamed with terror.
“Don’t let them take meee!” He bawled.
She had never seen Big Mac scared before, and she had hoped never to see him scared in her life. Still, it felt kinda good to be scary; must be what it feels like to be Princess Luna.

It felt sad to kiss her leave good bye. All the fun and laughter she would’ve shared with Luna and Derpy and possibly Gilda. All the reminiscing. All the ice cream. All down the drain.

As Flood forms continued to stab and scratch and bite, Rarity looked back at Luna and Gilda, who stood, framed by the doorway, shooting into the horde that she would soon be a part of. They were safe.

Relief washed through her, and she closed her eyes.

>Luna 1624 hours

Luna was getting really tired now, but her heart was racing like a trip-hammer as she fired bullet after bullet into the plague of claws and tentacles.

Gilda shrieked like the Eagle she partly was and fired her MA5D on full automatic, point blank into the Flood.

Rarity was in there somewhere, and Luna reviled the idea that some of their bullets were hitting her, then thought the better of it; hopefully she won’t come back.

The same could be said for Big Mac, but after his betrayal and the murder of an innocent Dragon, she didn’t really care much for him anymore.
You think you know somepony. Discord must hath had something to do with this, surely. It has him written all over it, she thought.
She also thought Zebra Zecora was PONI's operative. Still, there could have been two operatives; one that her sister wouldn't tell her about. Didn't matter now though.

Hungry, Flood forms climbed over their fallen and barged past each other, gurgling and screeching. Eventually, there was a click as the Griffin ran out of ammo, and she hurled her rifle hard enough to knock an infected Pony off its hooves. The Griffin then raised its cricket bat.

Luna inserted her last magazine into her DMR and opened fire methodically.
“Rarity! Big Mac!” She cried out over the hullabaloo of the Flood and Bang! Bang! Bang! Of her DMR.
Pointless. Stupid. All her stars were gone. She could only hope that Derpy would make it back to the Red Horse safely, and in good time.

Across the ceiling came the nasty little blighters, dead set on infecting them and transforming them into the hideousness that scrambled into their bullets. One by one, she shot them in the air as they launched themselves at Gilda; their squid-like bodies dissipating into puffs of green spores.

Luna screamed as one landed on her head, but it was knocked off immediately by Gilda’s bat.

Retreating deeper into the room, Luna slapped the controls with a hoof, slamming the doors shut on an infected Griffin. Beating away at her fellow Griffin, Gilda splintered her cricket bat, grunting furiously with every hit. With the poorly Griffin reduced to a pulp and sliding back into the gathering crowd, the door could finally close.
Safe?

No: A cluster of the head-sized parasites had made it inside. The snot-bags zoomed around the floor, walls and ceiling, evading some of Luna’s precision shots. One got close, so she jumped, spun a full three sixty, bucking the parasite in the process, and landed facing where she was originally facing; a move that came from Rarity herself, surprisingly enough.

Pushing Luna aside; Gilda went all epic on the disgraces, batting two into oblivion with a single blow, catching one with a back lash, jabbing the bat forward into one that leaped for her. She punched the last one so hard against the wall that the panel dented, her Eagle fist dripping with sickly green paste. Reeling her beak, she waved the spores away from her face. Safe.

As the two titans among species stared at each other, the whole room shook under the force of the Pony Lisa crumbling away, and the evilest creatures in the galaxy pounding at the door. It wouldn’t hold for long.

Buzzing over a speaker once more, Discord said, “Farewell my darling little Luna. I will miss you so.”
Gilda’s shoulders lowered. The air-lock door dented inwards with a super loud bang, eliciting a flinch from Luna and the Griffin.

The corpse of the Dragon that Rarity had called "Spikey Wikey" lay face down on the deck. A dark red tunnel going through the side of his head leaked blood onto his orange jumpsuit and onto the floor.

The Flood went mental all over the doors, pounding a gap into the middle of them. A hulking mass of tentacles that resembled a Griffin attempted to squeeze through the miniature opening, but became wedged half way. A thin, wire-like appendage burst from it's eye socket, tipped with what could only be described as a poorly venus flytrap, which proceeded to flail and snap around wildly.

Stood at a fair distance from their howling fate, the two survivors turned their heads away from the Flood, even as the infected Griffin slowly scraped it's way through, and more gaps appeared in the flimsy doors for the little parasites to come slithering in.

Luna stared into the Griffin’s eyes, and the Griffin stared back. They understood how it was all going to end.
'Tis a big bad universe, and Griffins are not thy worst of it.

As the two mortal enemies ignored the crashing and roaring of the Flood breaking their way through the door, Luna yanked her soldier saddle off with her teeth, tossed it aside, and gazed deeply into the Eagle eyes of Gilda. The Griffin looked around, came to a decision, and threw her crooked bat away. A tear rolled down Luna’s face as she smiled at the Griffin, and Gilda’s eyes even started shimmering as she smiled back.

Closing their eyes, the Pony and the Griffin reared up, cradled each other snug, and cuddled.

United in total harmony.

Author's Notes:

Use Times New Roman and Medium Dark background, altho I suppose that don't matter no more cos this was the very last chapter lol! It also helps to imagine the Halo theme tune when reading this chapter (the same music you hear when you're driving the Warthog at the end of The Maw.) Holy crap it's been a good run! Hope y'all enjoyed readin' it as much as I enjoyed makin' it. I've really gotten into this whole fanfiction thing. I was really just intending to write the Pony Lisa n' leave it at that cos the idea was stuck in my head, but now I'm thinking of ponifiying Halo CE. Expect that to arrive some time next year lol.

Update: I've already started work on the Halo CE/MLP crossover that I'm calling, "Once Upon A Time, On An Alien Ring World." If it sounds like the kinda thing you'd be into then stick around! :D

Thank you everypony, good night! >:D

Q the credits:

Written by me.
Cover art by UrbanCowboy117 on Deviantart. http://urbancowboy117.deviantart.com/art/The-Pony-Lisa-397134850
Original Mona Lisa by Jeff Vandameer n' Tessa Kum.

Voice cast:

Make this into a freakin' Hollywood blockbuster already n' I can do this lol!

Special thanks to:

Lauren Faust
All the guys at Hasbro
All the guys at DHX
All the guys at Bungie n' 343
My cat cos he make me happy
You guys who have read my story

The Pony Lisa

by Hi World

For the best read. (Not a part of the story, lol)

Prologue

Chapter 1: Easy Come, Easy Go

Chapter 2: You, Me, and Discord

Chapter 3: ... And the Horse You Rode In On

Chapter 4: Under New Management

Chapter 5: I Didn't Put Those In My Bag

Chapter 6: AI Constructs and Alicorn Princesses First

Chapter 7: Shadow of Intent

Chapter 8: First Encounters

Chapter 9: Inferi Redivivus

Chapter 10: Dead Or Alive... Actually, Just Dead

Chapter 11: Be Careful What You Wish For

Chapter 12: Shut Up and Get Behind Me... Ma'am

Chapter 13: Delusions and Grandeur

Chapter 14: Andron Ad Inferos

Chapter 15: Swarm Of the Century

Chapter 16: Infinity Devil Machine

Chapter 17: Light Fuse, Run Away

Chapter 18: Warning: Hitchhikers May Be Escaping Convicts