B.B.T.S. Adventure #1: Zailiner Edition

B.B.T.S. Starbound Adventure #1:

Zailiner’s Rescue Mission

“Central command! Central command, please respond! The gray mare shouted into her control panel on board her space craft as she held her bruised flank, and the fractured femur contained inside. “Commander Moshi! Lieutenant Conrad! E-Shredder! That… that purple dragon thing! If anyone can hear me right now, please send a rescue pod to my coordinates! My scout craft crashed on the target planet, and… I think I broke one of my back legs… buck it hurts.”

The fractured screen on the injured mare’s vehicle crackled to life, as a hologram of a faceless white mare dressed entirely in a black suit appeared in front of the mare.

“Ah, good morning, vice-commander Zailiner, I trust you have slept well?”

The white mare’s sarcasm didn’t process well with the gray mare, as she made a weak gesture of sweeping across the hologram with her free hoof.

“I’ve no time for jokes artist! My ship crashed on Tartaurus-3, and I think I broke one of my legs. Please, just send help! I’m dying over here!”

Zailiner could swore the white mare gave out the hint of a smirk underneath that faceless skin of his.

“Oh my, it would seem even the great vice-commander Zailiner have her… how you say, “forgetful days?” If I recall correctly, the criminal brothers you are currently pursuing have the power to shift gravity to their advantage; surely, a great navigator such as yourself would have remembered to steer your ship, ahem, far away from them, before attempting to apprehend them, yes? Well, I suppose even the greatest of space captains can have her-

“Oh shut it you dumb foal!” The gray mare became more than annoyed with the combination of the white mare’s irritating remarks coupled from the periodic dull pain pulsating from her fractured femur. “Look, will you come help me or not?”

“Ah, yes… unfortunately for you, dear-vice commander, your ship’s targeting system seemed to have damaged in the landing. I’m afraid you have to manually fire a flare upward into the air in order to attract our attention.” The white mare spoke in a rather nonchalant tone as he put his hoof over the com-link button. “I shall monitor the planet carefully for any sign of a flare; here’s to hoping you are not on the opposite side of the planet as I am!” Before the injured captain could respond, the white mare severed the connection between them, leaving the mare’s ship in a strange and eerie silence.

The gray mare grumbled as he carefully lifted up the cockpit window of her broken ship. The air on Tartaurus-3 is breathable, but tasted arid and dry, with a hint of copper mixed in between. The barren planet is composed of nothing but plateaus made from various metallic elements; the fact that the sun beams down onto the surface of the planet 30 hours out of 32 hours of the planetary day, coupled with metal’s excellent heat conductivity made the planet a literal oven. Zailiner began to sweat bullet soon as she lifted open her cockpit window; she dared not touch the outer walls of her steaming-hot metallic craft. She cautiously reached into her utility belt, lifting up her trusty flare gun with her bare hoof. With methods and forces unknown to human folks, she aimed the device up toward the cloudless sky, and somehow pulled the trigger with her flat, stubby arm. A single bright mini-flare missile jettisoned into the air, intending to fly its way into outer space, and cause a big shiny explosion right as the friction from the atmosphere melt away its delicate outer shell. However, even before the projectile could begin the pierce the atmosphere, the missile began to slow down, then began its sharp, unnatural descend toward the ground. With a loud bang, the flare missile exploded upon a dark, sleek giant beetle’s shell.

“Well lookie what we have here fellas!” A dark beetle the size of a mini-cruiser, dressed in a western cowboy attire, spoke toward the two identical-looking beetles adjacent to him. “If it isn’t the lil’ lady that’s looking to get our bounty! Well, I guess you’ve found us. Please, let us show you why they call us the ‘bad beetles brothers!’”

Zailiner leaped away just before the beetles fired their laser toward the cockpit. The explosion blew her into the sky, forcing her to land with only her training reactions. Unfortunately for her, that meant landing on her broken leg. With a sharp “SNAP!” The gray mare screamed in horrific pain as a sharp shock coursed through her body. However, she had no luxury of hesitation, as she dodged a barrage of laser beams coming from the three beetle brothers. On any other day, the gray mare would have dodged the shots with ease; however, her limp made this task close to impossible. She tried her best to enlarge the distance between him and the shooting beetles, but the brothers picked up on that.

“Whoa there lil’ lady! Ya can’t just leave without seeing the ability that made us famed across quadrant-5!” The beetles stopped shooting their lasers, and began grunting while their hard beetle shells. A dark aura began to emit from all three of them as the vice commander began to feel a slight tug on her mane. The tug became more intense as nearby metallic pebbles began rolling toward the grunting brothers, as the space around them began shifting toward them.

“You see, lil’ miss, us outlaws are tired of being hounded around by bounty hunters like yourself, so we’ve started a bounty board of our own!” The beetles began churning out more dark aura, as the gravity around them intensified. “You came around at a bounty of 20,000 pixels when turned in alive, and we aim to collect!” As Zailiner regained her senses, she found herself to be floating in midair, hurtling toward the center of the beetles’ gravity.

Hours of intensive training had prepare the gray mare for this kind of situation. With her hooves extended, she pushes against the biggest of the beetle brothers just as she made impact with him, and propelled upwards. The intense gravitational field flung her over the beetle brothers; she did a twirl mid-air, as she landed on her front hooves, far away from the band of criminals. With the beetles in a temporary moment of confusion over her little “disappearing act”, the gray mare began limping away from them as quietly and swiftly as possible.

“We shoot brother! We’ve lost them!” One of the smaller beetle siblings whined to his eldest brother as the beetles ceased vibrating, and withdrew their dark aura. The older beetle tipped his hat at the sun, and smirked.

“Don’t you worry about that none; our little horsy friend done crash landed on top of a plateau. With that bum leg of hers, there ain’t no way she’s getting’ off of this piece of rock.” The eldest beetle began ascending into the air, as his little brothers followed suit. “Billy! You get to the foot of this plateau; me and Jim will fly to 2 other ends of the plateau’s foot. I believe it’s time we do the ‘beetle-muda triangle!”

Zailiner limped across the heated metallic plateau, taking care not to let her bum leg touch the floor. Each time her heart beats, the four-chambered pump sends her precious blood through the punctured part of her arteries serrated by her sharp, broken bones, pooling a little bit more of her blood into her already swollen flank. She almost wished that her heart would stop beating, so the pain can stop. As she stumbled across the heated terrain however, she came across what seems to be a snail shell. The lone, rustic shell the size of a 4 off-terrain vehicles stood alone in this barren, metallic landscape. It’s brown, ancient shell is laden with graffiti of different styles, culture and languages. Zailiner stood in amazement: through all her years studying languages from around the quadrant, taking special care to memorize the origin of each language and style. The different amount of languages written the on snail astounded her; each different word or phrase seemed to originate from a different planet. The visual expression from the phrases are unique in their own right; truly, Zai thought, this was a masterpiece lost in a sea of steel. Of course, Zai had more uses for this shell than a mere sculpture. She gently placed her front hooves onto the ground, and lifted up the shell with her good hoof. The entry point of the shell revealed to have a thick, white mucus covering it, indicating that the owner of this shelter is still moist and live. “Sorry to intrude!” Zailiner spoke to the shell, knowing full well that it’s owner will not understand nor mind her entry. “hope ya don’t mind a lone straggler staying in your shell for a while.”

The gray mare carefully lifted over the snail’s green membrane cover, revealing an opening just small enough for her to enter. She gently squeezed past the snail’s thick mucus-covered body, and found her way into a cozy air pocket inside of the snail’s shell. The snail’s unique ability to breathe through its body supplies the air pocket with ample amount of fresh air, though this ventilation does nothing to reduce the heat and moisture inside the snail. The smell of mucus is thick inside, and the humid heat made the gray mare sweat; though this is paradise compared to the nightmare of the barren wasteland outside. Zailiner licked the surface of the snail’s body in order to retrieve some much-needed fluid; this was nothing new to her, as she had endured conditions way more arduous during her combat training back on the space station. The snail’s semi-lucent shell allowed the gray mare to see out into the sunny sky, which distracted her from the pain shooting up her bad leg. She reflected upon her actions today; for the first time in what seemed to be an eternity, she didn’t have a plan. Ever since she was but a sub-lieutenant, she’s always fond of predicting her opponents’ next move, and make plans accordingly. No mission of hers would be executed without at least 3 different attack plans, and 5 different plans of escape. However, she never knew that all of her plans require her to be physically fit. Whenever her teammate is in trouble, the plan is for her to save them; whenever the plan fails, she would be responsible to get everyone out of danger. She would love and tolerate all the members of her clan… except herself. As the years went by, she became less and less aware of her vulnerability, of her mortality. And now, her carelessness finally caught up to her with a bang. All 5 of her of attack and capture for this mission required her to perform a flying buck toward the beetle brothers just as they wield their gravitational powers; however, all of her plans went over the plateau as the beetles brothers brought down her spacecraft before she could even land. And now she lays face up inside the shell of a snail, awaiting for her rescue… or demise. Whichever comes first she supposed.

It took her a whole minute to realize the plateau the snail rested on was shaking and fissuring. She tilted her head up for as much as she can, trying her best to look at the ground through the semi-translucent snail shell. For some reason, the entire plateau is fracturing and sinking to the earth, as if being sucked in by some sinkhole.

“By Celestia, the brothers are trying to take down the entire plateau!” Before she could have finished her thought process, the metallic ground gave way, and a crack that appeared right below them sucked them into the abyss below.

Zai grasped onto the snail’s inner body tightly as her body floated slightly upward during the descent. Fortunately, the snail’s hard shell protected the two of them from the impact, and the snail’s soft body saved the gray mare from the fall.

However, despite the rather “softened” landing, the mare’s leg snapped once more, almost as if someone had pushed the two splintered femur together, and gave it a 180 degree twist. Zailiner grunted through the pain, knowing full well that she could not afford to scream, when she could see one of the beetles right outside of the semi-translucent shell.

“Hey brother!” The beetle shouted into the distance. “Sun’s goin’ down! Should we take a two hour break, and wait for the sun to go up again?”

The injured mare could hear the eldest brother shouting back from a distance away:

“Heck no! That mare be a crafty one! Comb the area for her body; assume she’s alive if ya can’t find it! We need her to be in one piece and/or breathing to get the ‘alive’ bounty on her!”

As the brothers conversed with each other, the injured mare lie motionless inside the semi-clear shell; having exhausted of all her strength, she was unable to move. She looked at the back wings of the beetle brother that was closest to her, knowing that the inevitable moment would come when that beetle finishes conversing with his big brother, and make a 180 degree turn that would place her within his sight range. She held her breath; hoping for the conversation to last for as long as possible.

“Alright! I’ll keep an eye on that!” The beetle began to turn as he started searching the terrain. The injured mare held her breath as he swept his range of vision across the snail shell, only to turn back again, focused on the tiny mare trapped inside the snail shell. The sight of her in this disposition surprised him for a slight fraction of a second, as he exclaimed:

“What the…? Hey! Big brother! I think I-

Before the beetle could even finish that sentence, a dark mass swept across his face, and knocked it down with one fell swoop. Before the other two beetles brothers could react to their brother’s fall, two more dark shapes swooped upon them as well.

“Take your positions! She’s here!” The eldest beetle shouted orders at his siblings as a swarm of dark mass swarmed above them, like a sea of storm that was about to rain down upon them. The swarm circled around the beetle brothers, as the dark figure descended from the eye of the storm. The slim, tall figure is around 2 times bigger than individuals at her swarm, each one the size of a regular pony. The big black mare had holes all over her hooves, wings and hair; her horns are twisted, and her smile reeked of evil.

“Behold! The queen of changelings have arrived! Cower in fear, for I shall unleash a never-ending nightmare upon you for injuring my fri-

The Changeling queen could not finish her sentence before feeling the intense gravity emitted by the three beetle brothers. Her loyal drones began to have great difficulty holding their positions, as the shift in gravity caused them to swing out of orbit. One bumped to the next, and the two bumped into four more. Her entire squadron began to fall out of position, forcing the queen and her drones to land.

“Why if it isn’t a famed Lieutenant Conrad-7!” The eldest beetle emitted even darker auras as gravity around him intensified. “While our gravitational powers have very little effect towards melee users, all ranged attacks are doom to fail! The three of them curled up into a ball, causing all the drones that got dragged into their gravitational field to bounce back onto the metallic ground. “With these shells of ours, coupled with our ability drag flying projectiles off course, your bullet drones stand no chance at cracking our outer shells!”

Zailiner could see through the snail shell that her changeling friend was obviously ticked off. She could see the changeling queen spouting profanities at the beetle trio, as he hurled her subjects at the three balls of gravity. “Conrad really hate it when somebody treats her subjects like objects… though she really have a strange way of conveying their love to them….”

A sudden shift within the snail’s membrane alerted the injured mare of her new threat. The snail, possibly intimidated by the battle at hand, begun puffing up its membrane inside of its shell, slowly closing the pocket of air which Zai resides in. “No! Wait! Stop!” Zailiner shouted various commands at the snail. “You’re…you’re crushing me!”

The poor mare desperately tried to shift her body to a finer position as the space between the snail’s shell and membrane became smaller and smaller. Each increment of the snail’s skin snaps the mare’s fracture by a bit more, causing her excruciating pain beyond the tolerance of a normal pony. It took only seconds for the mare to be pressed against the semi-translucent snail shell, having barely enough space to breath. The snail puffed up even more, pressing the mare’s body against the soft, slimy membrane. She could see from beyond the shell, her changeling friend doing her best smacking her subjects on the hard outer exoskeleton of the beetle bros. As Zailiner touched upon the soft snail membrane for what she thought to be the last time, she reached a sudden realization:

“The snail isn’t puffing up because it is scared; it’s charging for an attack!”

The snail’s membrane miraculously restored itself back to its original position the moment Zai thought about that. She breathed deeply as the murky, wet air refilled her near-collapsed chest. A blue glow seemingly filled the area outside of the snail’s shell as everything on the outside begun to float upwards.

“What’s happening brother?!” The panicked beetle sibling uncurled itself as all three of them begun to float upwards into the atmosphere.

“Darn it! Something be canceling out our gravity power with theirs!” The panicking eldest beetle and his other sibling uncurled themselves in their confusion, as they come eye to eye with the gigantic graffiti ridden snail shell, floating up into the sky.

“By the gums! This be the legendary anti-gravity snail, hopping from planet to planet using its anti-gravity powers! It’s our biggest weakness!”

The trio of beetles, the changeling queen and all of her subjects, along with the snail shell along with all the broken boulders floated up high in the sky, just as the morning sun began to rise over the valley, ending the brief night of darkness.
As the beetles rose upward into the sky, the eldest of the beetles spotted a pink blur flashing in between the floating boulders, getting closer and closer to them.

“What in the pixels is going on here?!” Before the outlaw could respond to the sudden change in his situation, a pink mare holding a bazooka appeared in front of him.”

“…So, were you saying something about ranged weapons being ineffective against you?”

“Wait a minute…. You’re, you’re-

The pink mare held up her custom-designed bazooka in between the beetle’s eyes, the missile cocked neatly inside, ready to explode at a moment’s notice.

“Don’t blink.”

Zai squeezed her way out of the snail’s shell just in time to see the brilliant flash of pink explosion. She raised her hooves, and waved at the black mass coming toward her, accompanied by a certain pink bazooka pony, carrying three very unconscious beetles.

“Heeeeeeey! Over here!” The gray mare waved her arms back and forth. The changeling queen swooped over the snail shell, grabbing the gray mare and lifting her into the air.

“Holy Celestia, Zai, your leg is banged up! We gotta disinfect that back at the base! And just what the heck is that thing you were on anyways?”

“Just a friend.” Zai uttered, as she watched the floating shell floated slowly toward the morning sun.

Mission Report

Dear Clan Leader Moshi:

Today, I have apprehended the criminal trio known as the “Bad Beetle Brothers”. I had encountered some difficulty restraining them, but thanks to you and Conrad-7, things turned out pretty ok. But the most important thing I’ve learned today is that I need to take care of myself every now and then! Helping our clan members might be fun and rewarding, it’s still pretty important to make sure to have a plan to save yourself, in case of life-threatening emergencies that could happen at a moment’s notice. On an unrelated note, someone has been putting a reverse-bounty on our clan members as a sign of retaliation; during the battle, the beetle brothers informed me that I actually have a 20,000 pixel bounty on my head! Well, whoever put money for my head won’t be paying that money for a while, that’s to be sure. I have also encountered the legendary anti-gravity snail on my adventure too! I had a great time with it. When it visits a planet with sentient people, they would often leave a mark on his shell for prosperity. However, I do wonder if anyone would ever notice the green hoof print made inside of its shell?

-End Report-

PS: Obviously, Spike didn’t get to help out today, because he was busy sweeping up the mess the other ponies made during that huge party yesterday. I should definitely consider granting him a day off for his-

“Ted! What are you doing with my tablet?!”

“Uh, nothing Zai! Let me jus-

-Transmission Terminated-

B.B.T.S. Adventure #2: Inky's Past

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B.B.T.S. Adventure #2

Inky’s Past

“Alright, listen up,” the pink pony on the control screen began talking as First Corporal Inky piloted her ship. “We’ve set your autopilot to Klinon-5. Once you arrive there, you have about 1 hour to evacuate the last two creatures out of there, before the sun in its system goes super-nova, and fry all of you.”

“You can count on me commander!” The dark gray mare responded with confidence. “Although this job seemed like a descent mission… for a lieutenant, don’t you think so, Moshi?”

“I see where you’re getting at….” The pink mare caught on to Inky’s implications. I will think about it…. Once you rescue both of these dare-devils outta there, ya got that? Anyways, good luck on that rescue mission; you have three hours.”

And with a click, the pink pony vanished from the control screen. Inky’s grin went away soon as Moshi signed off. She knew why Captain Moshi picked her for this mission, especially when Conrad-7 is more suited to these “forced eviction” jobs. Klinon-5 was Inky’s birthplace, a place she once called home.

Ten years ago, when Inky was just a little filly, she lived in a tiny village close to the dark side of Klinon-5. The village was set atop a steep mountain, with a clear, running river to the south, and a metallic junk yard to the north. Inky lived by herself in an abandoned house. Her parents had abandoned her before she could remember, most probably due to her strange powers, for you see, this little black mare can make her drawings come to life. Whenever she draws something, if her feelings for it are strong enough, her artwork would peel out of the crude paper she drew it on, and began acting in its intended purpose. Her powers are not absolute however; rain is a frequent sight in her side of the planet, and once her creations comes in contact with water, it will begin to melt away until it is nothing more than a black puddle waiting to be dried in the sun. Of course, not all her drawings are intentional. Sometimes, she would draw things, things that horrified her. She kept those pictures in a small, black box, and locked it up with a small padlock she salvaged from the scrap yard, hoping to never let anyone else see them.

Despite her powers, she made little friends with the “real” people in the village. They were afraid of her power; some says her power came from a deal she struck with nightmare moon; some even went so far as to say she was responsible for turning her parents into ink, and melting them in the drenching rain. All the people she had met shunned her, and tried their best to refuse their service to her, to starve her out. But there are two creatures back in her life that didn’t ignore her; one of them is a light-brown stallion called Earth Star. He was a young street urchin not unlike her; he didn’t see her as a monstrosity, or an evil enchantress. He thought of her abilities as a GIFt, and comforted her when all else loathed her. He would pay frequent visits to her house, and share some of his “daily earnings” with her, so that she won’t starve. In their, the two of them played together in the junkyard. They looked for bits and gears, climbed scrap hills, and built a base deep inside the bowels of the scrap yard. In a way, Inky considered Earth Star to be her big brother, and her best friend, forever. Though times were tough for the little filly, Earth Star made her life just a bit more bearable.

Inky began sprinting toward the two creature’s last known location. The denizens of this planet had all been safely evacuated, except for two unknown being, who refused to leave. At the planet’s final hour, the sky glowed eerily red, as the sun began to lose its gravitational pull on itself, and began to stretch outward toward the doomed planet. Inky briefly wondered the significance of risking life and limb for two simple creatures; Moshi recommended this mission to her the moment she caught wind of it; she was reluctant to take this mission, but she simply couldn’t turn down an offer made by the pony who saved her from-

The inky gray mare’s train of thought was cut short by a large, humanoid figure slouching around inside the scrap yard. It is a large diamond dog with an eye patch one of his eyes. His fur is mostly grayed out by prolonged period of being exposed to light, and his claws are well worn from years of scavenging. He paused his scavenging work, and slowly turned to face her.

“Well, well well! Isn’t this a nice surprise!” The diamond dog rose up from the scraps, towering over the dark gray mare. “After all these years, you came back for poor old Gruff. I’m touched! Is the little missy going to help this poor old man away from this planet?”

“Yes Gruff.” Inky’s eyes turned even colder as she stared into the greedy eyes of her oldest adversary. “I’m here to take you off this Celestia-forsaken planet, and I’m going to lock you away for what you’ve done to me, and to this village; this I promise.”

The diamond dog held his extended stomach as a led out a hearty laugh. “Little miss Inky is going to lock poor gruff in the slammer? Good one!” His expression turned into a mocking grin as he pointed his dirty, dulled finger at the space Corporal.

“I might be old, but my memory is still sharp as wit! Now, let me refresh your memory for a jig; you might want to forget about that nasty business you did back in that bloody stormy night, but old Gruffy remembers it all too well. It was you who destroyed the village! You, and you alone are the one to blame, little girl!”

There were two creatures who didn’t shun Inky as a filly, and unfortunately, one of them was the diamond dog named Gruff. A scavenger by trade, Gruff spent most of his days scavenging for food at the junk yard. When he caught wind of Inky and her powers, he began sneaking into the village, and tried, times and again, to steal her away in the dead of night, and sell her in the space market for a fabulous amount of money. No one cared about her enough to help her in that time of night; however, he underestimated Inky and her little “pets”. Inky’s drawings can live, and fight for its master. These drawings gain power from Inky’s emotions, and when she is threatened by the diamond brute, their powers amplified by leaps and bounds, which gave them the strength to repel the bandit times and again. However, the sly bandit learned with time. He began brining water buckets with him, and launches his nastiest of attacks during the rainy season. This forced Inky to stay indoors, and keep as much ink and paper on her as possible. Although, Inky knew, deep down in her black little heart, she couldn’t hide forever; one day, that darned diamond dog will claw through the walls of her house, and take her away to be sold as a mere object of someone else’s affection.

“You want to know why I chose to stay on this dying planet my lil’ ducky?” The old diamond dog walked over to a crudely disguised lever, and pulled on it. “There’s a group who put a handsome bounty on every mercenary and bounty hunter on the whole bloody galaxy, and I simply can’t let this money-making opportunity pass me this easily!” Gears began turning amidst the junkyard as mechanical cranes from the top of the scrap piles lowered down a mechanical scrap monster.

“I was going to hand over whoever blunt enough to save little old me to the hands of the syndicate, but I believe you’ll fetch more than a pretty penny down at the auction house in quadrant nine!” The old dog hopped into his mechanical beast, and the machine began coughing up plumes of soot stacks as it marched, rather, bumbled toward the dark gray mare.

“I’ve fought with you a good portion of my life, and I’m onto all your little tricks, love.” The mechanical beat bellowed as streams of molten steam filled the surrounding area. The heat from the dying star only fueled the steam, making everything hot and moist. “Sorry about the fumes, but your little toys won’t be able to help you when the whole bloody yard is dripping wet! Once you are tucked away nice and cozy in the trunk of my bot, we’ll have a grand time at the auction house, and I guarantee you; once you are sold to the highest of bidders, we won’t ever see each other again!”

The black gray mare affixed her stare on the greedy dog. With calmness and composure, she spoke:

“So, are you telling me there is a syndicate who put a bounty on every mercenary in the galaxy?”

“Ay mate. I have no bloody idea why they put so much money targeting the mercs, and I have no idea what they have against them; but there are money to be had, and I for one, aim to collect!”

The menacing scrap giant bellowed out soot and steam as it marched toward the lone pony. The gray mare stood firmly on the group, arching her body for an attack.

“One. Last. Chance.” The mare calmly warned her attacker. When she received no response from her opponent, she leapt to the side, and vanished into the steamy mist.

It was a stormy and thundering night, possibly the biggest storm Klinon-5 had ever seen. Inky sat in a corner of her room, trying her best to avoid the drips of rain leaking down her thatched roof. Gruff came at his usual hour, and began pounding on her door. Only this time, He climbed up to the roof of her house, and began tearing away at the poorly lined straw roof. Piece by piece, Inky’s roof fell into the house, and the rain began pouring into the house. Her drawing began getting wet as the creatures she conjured up melted away in the downpour. Inky screamed as the rotten mutt dropped down into her houses, dripping wet with greed and desire. Inky could no longer defend herself as the diamond dog inched closer to grab her; at that moment, the poor mare felt her personal space being invaded the likes of which she had never experienced before. For almost the first time in her life, Inky panicked. She screamed for her life, crying out for any help that she could get. Suddenly, the mad dog stopped dead in his track, turned around, and fled for his life. Inky sat in the pouring rain, and paused for a moment to assess the situation, before realizing that the padlock on her black box is broken.

The dark gray mare looked up. Towering way above her are the abominable colossi she tried to keep hidden from the rest of the world. As the rain beat down on her horrendous creations, they shrieked as the falling liquid melted their skins. The monstrous giants stumbled across the village looking for shelter, knocking down houses like cardboard boxes. As their houses crumbled to the ground, villagers began pouring out from them, and fled in terror as the melting monstrosities roamed the streets. The gray mare watched as the innocent creatures she created tore down the very place that she called home. All that she knew was crushed beneath the soles of their feet. As the mare tried to walk towards her creations of destruction, an injured mare grabbed her by the hoof. Inky turned only to find one injured mare lying on the pool of ink. It was Earth Star.

The hurting mare bled profusely, but somehow managed to utter out words: “Inky… you need to go. They are looking for you. They know it’s you who let those monsters loose. Run, run and never look back Inky. You can live through this. I know you can….”

Amidst the thunder storm, giants and waves of villagers running about, Inky ran. One hoof after the other, she trotted across the ruined village, across her ruined shack, and ran toward the rising sun. She dared not open her eyes, for all she would see would be the leftovers of a ruined dream.

“Oy! Where’d you go little missy?! The Diamond Dog brought his clanking machine to a screeching turn-around seek out her opponent. “It’ no use lass!” Gruff barked at the rising mist. “You can’t ambush old Gruffy without your little ink pals, and the steam won’t let you spawn any of your friends to help ya! You have no hope! Give up now, and let’s go get myself some money, hear?”

Before he could finish his rant, he felt a shadow swooping down from above, and a powerful kick in his neck sent him tumbling down his robot.

“Do you think I really need to make more of my ink friends to protect me just so they could perish? I don’t do that anymore; rather, I refuse to invoke my powers anymore, because I have real friends now. My friends, my…family, gave a roof to stay under, and taught me how to fend for me self. They taught me martial arts, they taught me survival tactics, and most importantly, they taught me to be… a pony. For the first in a long time, I could laugh, I could socialize, and I could sleep in a soft, comfy bed without the fear of being snatched away at any given moment.”

With one swift motion, the mare tore apart the critical clamp that held the top and bottom part of the robot together. She walked toward the diamond dog, and swooped past him. As the dog tried to locate his prey in the thick mist, the mare shifted behind him, and bound his arms behind him with a piece of steel. As the dog tried to take off the piece of steel bound to his arms, Inky swiped his feet into the air, and began bounding his feet and body with the pieces of metal lying around.

“I’m not the same old Inky you saw ten years ago. Even though none of my friends are with me right now, I am not alone. The skills that they passed onto me will remain with me, and make me strong. You will not beat me again, with or without my powers!”

Once again, the old mutt led out a hearty chuckle. “Ay lass! It seems old Gruffy are no match for you now that you’ve grown!” The crafty bandit grinned. “But aren’t you forgetting someone else right now? There’s another pony stranded in this bloody hot planet, and you got less than 25 minutes to rescue him!

Inky checked her trans-communicator. The blue touch screen displayed a timer she set before she landed on the planet. Indeed, she has 23 minutes to evacuate the planet before the dying star swallows them all.

“Let me give you a hint there, since we’re wastin’ daylight, and I doubt I can leave without you!” The dog’s voice is slightly coarse after the hearty chuckles he’s done. “The second one that you needed to save is my superior; he was the one who asked me to kidnap you all these time, and organized all the raids! So please, do go on and save him; he is situated in yer secret base, if you catch my drift! But hurry up though; you only have 25 minutes left!”

Once again, Inky ran. One hoof after the other, Inky trotted toward the expanding sun. The secret base was the last of her sanctuary on this planet. Somehow, she knew the pony that awaits her within this place; only one other pony knew of the location of her base. Gently, she lifted the lid hiding the entrance to her base. As Inky descends into the depth of her lair, pictures of her spare drawings entered her vision. There are various artworks depicting plants, animals, still lives, and portraits of other ponies. She had no time to collect these drawings as memoirs; her trans-communicator warns her of the sun’s impending demise. She has only 14 minutes to collect her final passenger and get back to her craft. She walked over to the curtain connecting the hallway to her main base; that person must be in here, behind the curtains. Without a word, she pulled open the curtain’s cover. The mare siting in the throne room was exactly the pony she expected; although he was not the pony she once knew.

The stallion sitting atop the throne inside the secret base was but a weak, pale sickling, a pony shell, supported only by his fading will power. His gaze slowly turned toward the dark, gray mare as she entered the room. “Why hello there; it’s been too long.”

Despite his rather drastic changes in appearance, Inky recognized him right away. The pale ghost of a mare sitting in front of her was Earth Star. No words was needed to convey the idea to Inky; Earth Star was the one who manipulated her, and got to know her secrets, so his diamond dog lackey can finally snatch her away, and sell her to the highest bidder. Of course, that wasn’t the first thing on Inky’s mind right now. She uttered:

“Earth Star…what happened to you?”

“It looks like have a massive amount of ink seeped into your blood doesn’t do a pony good.” The frail mare chuckled weakly while shifting to get a better position.

A brief silence befell the cave. Inky tried to form words from her mouth. It took them several tries to convey what she wanted to say.

“So, you’ve been keeping me alive just so you could sell me huh?”

“That would appear to be the case, yes.”

Before Inky could respond, a huge gale blew into the room as a jet craft floated outside, with Eshredder leaning over the passenger seat, with the bound diamond dog in tow.

“Common darling! We have to go! The sun is going to undergo super nova in 8 minutes!

Inky looked into Earth Star’s eyes. “You know, when we were little, you were my best friend. I enjoyed every minute we spent together, no matter what your motive will be.

She paused for a moment, and turned away from her childhood friend.

“Come with me. I need to take you off this planet, and get some medical help.”

The sick mare suddenly looked visibly relieved. With what remained of his strength, he leaned forward, and looked deeply into Inky’s deep, black eyes.

“So, after all this time, after all that I’ve done, causing you all the pain and suffering to you, you will still forgive me?”

“…That would appear to be the case, yes.”

A small grin appeared on the frail pony’s face. It almost seem he had not smiled for the longest of time, until now. “It’s… ta bit late for that now, don’t you think?” He rested his head back on his chair once more, and closed his eyes.

“I’ve lived on this planet my entire life, and I’m not about to leave now. Go on; your friends are waiting for you.”

Eshredder began getting impatient, as she began yelling into the base:

“Inky! Common! We need to go! The sun is about to explode!”

Inky looked away from the pony responsible for her childhood, the good and the bad.

“I’ll see you later then. Good bye, Earth Star.”

Eshredder spotted the gray mare popping out from her burrow. As Inky ran past the hovering space craft, the eager white mare lifted her up into the craft, and closed the air-seal gate. Inky felt the inertia tugging on her as the ship entered hyper-drive propelling them away from the doomed planet.

“Three minutes till super-nova!” Eshredder yelped as she navigated her craft away from the sun.

Inky pressed her hoof on the carbon-fiber pane of the space ship. The expanding sun had begun to heat up her home planet; in a moment’s time, it will ruthlessly engulf it.

“Two minutes till super-nova! Dear Celestia, I hope we can get out of range!”

Inky was rather relived in a way. Before she met the clan, that world was all that she knew. Now, the death of the insignificant globe means would not mark the end of her life, or the end of everything that she had. She has wings now. She can go anywhere.

“One minute! By Luna I think we’re getting out of range!”

Earth Star sat by himself inside the secret base. At the final hour of his home planet, he would be the last pony in the world. His world began to shake as the dying sun starts to expand into his planet.

“Ten years eh? I wonder why I led her go… must be that part of my chest again. Hehehe….”

The gray mare watched as the sun engulfed that tiny pile of rock in its path. She closed the blinds, and headed down to the cabin to get some rest.

Achievement unlocked: eviction notice.

Mission Report:

Dear Clan Leader Moshi:

Today’s mission was a…partial success. We’ve managed to evacuate one out of the two citizens left on the planet before the super-nova destroyed it once and for all. The convict Diamond Dog Gruff is now in our custody, and will be transported to the galactical prison planet shortly.

I had also received news of a syndicate that had put a bounty on every mercenary and bounty hunters in the entire system. It seems we need to be on the lookout for malicious criminals dropping in during our missions, and take us in for profit. I believe this rumor does deserve examination of some kind.

Also… I wanted to personally thank you for saving me from Klinon-5. Today marks the ten-year anniversary from the day you rescued me from my old life; I would have remained on that planet at the moment of the super-nova if you hadn’t come along. So thanks, for everything.

-Inky

PS: I will never attempt to write a fanfic with depth to it, ever. The end dragged on waaaayyyyy to much, and I can swear I used similar sentences with upmost repetitiveness. Next time, I’m doing a happier episode, I swear.

“Spike! Stop breaking the 4th wall! That’s Moshi’s job!”

“Look, you can’t expect me to write your logs for you without me giving my own two cents on the issue! I sucked at gridmark and I’m going to own up to it. Period.”

“Well can’t you do it in your own time? This is my mission log you know.”

“Everybody’s a critic I suppose.”

-END-

B.B.T.S. Adventure #3: Shopping With Conrad

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B.B.T.S. Adventure #3:

Shopping With Conrad

“Let’s make it quick guys!” The dark Changeling queen, surrounded by her floating subjects, commanded the black and blue mares as they dragged multitude of gift bags along.

“Ophff! I can’t believe… that stupid Conrad… is making us drag bowling balls, bowling balls! Can you believe this?!”

“Um… yeah… sure… bowling balls….” The black mare tried to act worn-out as he toted several bags of pillows across the shopping center.

“Come now you two!” The Changeling queen squibbed on her royal checklist as she crossed off yet another present on her list. “Moshi’s Birthday is in a couple of weeks, and I certainly want to surprise her with the latest massage chair! I might even ask Teddeck to set it up for you!”

…. Hold your ponies! I’m here already! So… yeah, I um… overslept. Anyways, you might be wondering why three mares are having a shopping spree in the of-season of the whole year. Well, you see, Moshi, who is the head of the B.B.T.S., one of the most famous clan in the entire Milky Way Galaxy, is having her birthday in a couple of week. It has been an unspoken tradition for the top members of the clan to buy massive amounts of presents, and distribute them amongst the, ahem, lesser members of the clan, so that they may have a present for their favorite clan leader without having to empty out their wallets. And of course, Conrad, being the most generous Changeling Queen (And the only one, I might add) and one of the most influential leaders in the clan, have decided to bring some new recruits on her little “Present Spree”. So yeah… you see that blue pegasus heaving those bowling balls? Her name is Atrixy. She might be new, but she sure knows how to draw a fine portrait! (Hello EShredder! Looking good as always!) That black Pegasus carrying those pillows is Talyn; he’s also new, but he can definitely handle himself. (Although I can never understand what drove that pony into eating batteries.) And last, but definitely the least, those black swarms that circles around Conrad are her changeling drones; Conrad doesn’t usually abuse them, since she spends most of her day abusing the flood of new recruits that gets into our clan on a very regular basis. (Yes, we’re a THING now; deal with it.) So there you have it, an abusive changeling, 2 very antsy pegasii along with a small army worth of changeling drones have shipped themselves to a cramped, crowded shopping mall near the inner core of the galaxy; nothing can go wrong.

“Hey Conrad, can we please take a break??” Atrixy dropped her bags of bowling ball on the floor in order to raise her objection.

“Oh come now! We’re only half-way there!” Conrad pouted as she walked toward the furniture store. “I’m going to need a lot of help carrying that massage chair I’m getting for Mosh-“

With a gentle “ugh”, the mighty changeling queen bumped herself onto an imposing figure standing in front of her. She looked up only to see an imposing brown minotaur standing in her path.

“Oh. Sorry about that big guy.” The Changeling queen apologized to the Minotaur and tried walking around him, only to have the gruff Minotaur side-blocking her way.

“You! Yes you!” The Minotaur struck a few awkwardly brutish poses while he spoke to the troupe of pony shoppers. “My name is Steel Mill, and I… am the toughest, strongest, and most amazing underworld boxer this side of the quadrant!” The ponies made an awful attempt to hide their lack of interest as the Minotaur continued his awkwardly positioned poses.

“You! You with the holes on your body!” The Minotaur struck yet another lame pose, pointing his muscle-bound index finger at Conrad. “Steel Mill has heard of the high bounty on your head, and Steel Mill won’t leave this mall until Steel Mill cashes you in at the nearest underworld-bounty-redeeming station!”

Conrad instantly knew what this muscle-headed mare wanted with them. Rumors have been circulating in the clan that a mysterious group of people that calls themselves “The Syndicate” had placed a bounty on major bounty hunters and mercenaries in the system. The hefty bounties enticed criminals from around the galaxy to band together, and turned the table on bounty hunters from across the galaxy. The muscle-man performing lame feats in front of the powerful changeling queen is no doubt yet another criminal that wanted to reap the bounty atop of the queen’s head; she had successfully dispatched more than a few scums this month; however, the changeling queen had never seen someone so foolish as to intentionally throw away the element of surprise by confronting the queen and her army of powerful drones on a head on combat…alone… and without any armor. A part of her almost felt sorry for the obtuse bull in front of her; of course, she threw that part of her away a long time ago.

“Enough small talk!” The brown minotaur struck a final awkwardly positioned pose before continuing his rant once more. “Steel Mill knows of your deceptive ways, one with many holes! Steel Mill won’t wait around for your dirty little tricks! Steel Mill will pummel you right now!”

The queen almost sighed as the fool-hardy bull charged toward her. “Atrixy! Talyn! Finish this guy while I check out the sales on that massage chair!”

“Will do, can do!” The black and blue mares dropped their shopping bags, and began circling around the minotaur, out flanking his sides, and began charging towards him.

“Oh no ya don’t ya grass-munching amateurs! You’re going down!”

Just as the two pegasii are about to land their hooves on the muscle bull, two beams of light lit up on both sides of the minotaur, sending the two pegasii flinging backwards. The mad bull ran unimpeded, and Conrad could not react before the muscle-bound maniac penetrated her sides with his steel-tipped horns.

The changeling queen shrieked as she fell to the floor. The sparse crowd that roamed the mall began panicking as they ran toward any given exit. The minotaur pulled his horns out of Conrad’s body (don’t you dare take this out of context) and began pounding the injured queen with his twin meaty fists, only to be stopped by the swarms of changeling drones rushing over him. “Miserable insects!” The furious minotaur swung his arms around, punching each individual changeling drones, one at a time, in their respective eye panels. A sound wave inaudible to Minotaur rang inside the mall, causing the drones to panic and scatter throughout the building.

“Excellent! Now then… what the?” The minotaur looked below his legs, only to see the changeling queen, as well as her subordinates, vanished without a trace.

~Intermission~

“I think we’re safe now.” The blue Pegasus peered out of the counter in the store they are hiding, to see the angry minotaur tearing through the now empty mall, looking for his prey. All of the few staff and customers in the mall have evacuated, yet the three ponies could not safely retreat to their respective space crafts with the changeling queen in near-critical condition, and her drones scattered throughout the mall.

“I gave you one job, you guys… one job, and you still messed it up!” The changeling queen held her oozing wound as she yelled in the lowest of voice possible. “All you have to do is to kick that maniac straight on the side, and we would have had a much better resolution!”

“It wasn’t our fault.” Talyn tried his best to sooth the injured queen as he tended to her wounds. “The bull had friends; he had aerial support with him, and we couldn’t react to it in time.”

“Figues.” The queen tried her best to stand up without agitating her wound too much. “Ever since the Syndicate put a price on every vigilante’s heads, every criminal came with supports. I was foolish to have thought a simpleton like him would have had no back-up, and I paid the price. Atrixy, Tayln, listen to me. I will try to stop whoever it is that’s shooting from the sky; you two try your best to hold him off while I gather my minions back, and resolve this little situation; that’s an order!”

The two mares knew not to disobey a direct order from the great changeling queen herself. They nodded to each other, and snuck out from under the counter they’ve been hiding for so long.

~Intermission~

“Come out little ponies!” The minotaur furiously swung common house appliances around an electronic store in a meager attempt to drive out the ponies in hiding. “I know you are in here! Come out now and face me cowards!”

Two little mares appeared before the minotaur’s eyes as he lifted a fridge out of his way; the black and blue pegasii from their earlier encounter had returned, and they are looking for a rematch.

“Steel Mill doesn’t care about small fries like you!” He dropped the fridge he was carrying to the floor. “Steel Mill wants your leader to be present, and Steel Mill will have her head on a pike by the end of the night, whether you cooperate or not!”

With a noisy grunt, the mad minotaur charged at the ponies head on with his sharp horns. The two pegasii took to the air, and kept themselves out of the bull’s range.

“The same trick won’t work again, ya grass muchers!” A shower of bright rays began raining down onto the mall, penetrating multitudes of holes through the ceiling of the appliance store, while conveniently missing the minotaur.

“Tayln!” The Blue Pegasus shouted to his comrade. “Cover me while I take the bull out to a china shop!”

Talyn closed his eyes. Lights began to shift around him as the storm of energy beams were “bent” toward the black mare, and his body began to glow. With the energy beams drawn elsewhere, Atrixy flanked the raging bull once more, and kicked him straight on the side.

The bull landed onto the floor with a heavy “thud”. He clutched to his side as he stuck his stubby thumb to the tiny communicator to his ear. “I thought you are going to shield me! That blue guy totally out flanked me man!”

Atrixy could almost hear the audible whine coming from the minotaur’s tiny comm-link. The tiny-pitched whine yelled at the minotaur: “It’s not my fault ya milk-drinker! That black horse is absorbing energy! Well, let’s see how that grass-mucher does with missiles!”

Talyn could hear whistles of dropping projectiles coming from above. “Atrixy! You take care of the missiles, and I’ll handle the big guy!?

“Roger that good pony!” The blue Pegasus flew through one of the holes in the ceiling, and took to the air. But before he could reach the flurry of missiles coming at the mall, he was overwhelmed by a huge swarming mass.

“Go help your comrades!” The black swarm commanded. “I’ll take care of the missiles!”

“Grrrrrrr!” The minotaur growled at the glowing black mare. “You ponies have done it now! Steel Mill will make mincemeat out of you! Steel Mill will make you regret the day you crossed paths with Steel Mill!”

“Not gonna happen pal!” Tayln’s bodily glow began shifting and focusing onto his hooves. “Not only can I absorb any energy sources given to me, I can redirect them, and use it as an energy blast!”

Talyn lifted his hooves toward the Minotaur, and discharged his beam of energy stored in his hand right at the confused bull. The power of 50 energy beams impacted the bull at once, and the sheer force of the blast propelled the bull backward, slamming him into a cluster of housing appliances.

“You stupid little brat!” The enraged minotaur pointed his stubby fingers at his communicator. “You were supposed to back me up, and now I’m getting blasted left and right by a skinny little squirt! Get me my support now, or Steel Mill go go up to your stingy little spacecraft, and tear a new vent in it!”

In the space orbit high above the mega shopping mall, a medium-sized assault craft circled silently around the planetary orbit. A tiny mice inside the space craft clicked on his keyboard at a frantic speed, as his com link was being bombarded by a multitude of complaints from a very angry minotaur.

“Calm down ya sausage-head!” The mice worked around his controls as he tried his best to calm his partner down. “I’m sending those missles down at ya so keep ya pants on!” He punched a few more inputs into his computer screen, and booted up yet another program. “Let’s see how these ponies deal with heat stress… I’m sending in the napalms… what the-“

The mice was knocked off from his seat of control as a multitudes of heavy explosions bombarded his ship.

Changelings, riding the very missiles that he sent down to the planetary surface, have infiltrated his outer-space lair with the weapons he designed. The rat rose up from the floor, only to see the heavily injured Changeling queen staring back.

“So, having fun with aerial support are we now?” The changeling queen’s stare had never been more intimidating. “mind if I beat thy to a pulp?”

“You know, I’m no fighter, but I’m pretty sure you can’t do anything to me with that huge injury you have! You might as well give up now ya stinking changeling scum!”

“Oh, no. I won’t be the one doing the beating up around here.” The queen advanced toward the poor mice as drones of changelings literally crawled out of the woodworks. “Why lift a single piece of my hoof when my drone shall be more than a match for a cretin like you?”

Without a constant stream of support from the sky, the minotaur isn’t faring too well against the onslaught of attacks coming from two very capable B.B.T.S. recruits. Though there are no energy to be gained, Talyn and Atrixy had little problem maneuvering over the clumsy oaf, and strike him at his soft spots. He placed his finger on top of his tiny comm-link once more, and began demanding for help from above. “Listen up you little mice! Steel Mill is having a tough time handling things without air support! I’m going to give you 10 seconds; I better see something dropping out of the sky, or Steel Mill is going to have a chat with you when Steel Mill comes back to the ship empty handed! That’s and order and don’t you forget it!”

Almost soon as he turned off his comm-link, the enraged bovine could hear whistling sounds coming from above. “Ah! Here comes the air support! Steel Mill knew shouting at thigns usually fixes it, I… what?”

The minotaur watched in disbelief as his entire assault craft is falling toward him at terminal velocity. The black changeling queen, along with her drones holding up the unconscious mice, shouted at the mares down below.

“Hey! New guys! You better get a move on, because I’m about to take the whole mall down!”

The bull was dumbfounded as he tried to figure out the situation that had just transpired. Atrixy and Talyn flapped their wings as fast as they can as they propelled themselves away from the mega-mall.

“Alright boys!” The black queen leapt from the doomed craft as she commanded his subjects. “Here comes my patented final move: Meteor Strike!”

The fleeing pegasii could literally feel time and space distorting itself as the entire shopping center was torn away by the sheer force of the explosion. The resulting super-nove like explosion expanded to critical mass, and disappeared just as quickly as it started. It wasn’t until after a while that the blue mare commented:

“Wow. I’ve heard about Conrad getting violent when she’s on her shopping binge, but holy buck dude… holy buck!”

Achievement Unlocked: Here’s Your Bucking Aerial Support

Dear Clan Leader Moshi:

Today me and Talyn accompanied lieutenant Conrad on her shopping adventure, and I met more interesting characters than I could have shaken a stick at. We had also taken the opportunity to apprehend Steel Mill and Rat Face, two underworld criminals of some renown. Conrad was injured in the fight, but se stuck through it to the end like a… dare I say it? Like a BOSS. If I had learned anything today, it is to never mess with Conrad; she will punch you in the face even if she had to ride a missile into outer space to get to you.

Sincerely,

Atrixy

PS: I will never shop with her again, not *just* because she blew up the entire mall this time, but because she had done that for the past 8 years in a row.

B.B.T.S. Adventure #4: The Last Party

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The pink mare struggled to turn off the digital alarm ringing beside her bed. Her eyes winced as the raw solar beams shone through her radiation-protection window. She is on board the BBTS home base, a drifter space station that shelters hundreds of mercenaries and bounty hunters, most of them ponies and pony related. As the captain of this fine space station, as well as the leader of the BBTS mercenary corp, it is her job to tend to the mountains of paper works to be signed, and massive amounts of on-board complaints to be addressed. However, the pink mare can rest easy for today, knowing that her own adopted baby dragon Spike shall tend to those paper works with his flawless forged signatures, and her co-captain Zailiner shall tend to the complaints... in her own, punchy, punchy kind of way. Indeed, her loving team mates have spared no expense to allow their own dear leader to have today off, for today is their Clan Leader Moshi's Very birthday.

BBTS Fanfic #4: The Last Party

“GREETINGS! HOW ARE YOU GENTLECOLTS ON THIS FINE DAY TODAY?!”

Moshi shifted her gaze toward the top of the Ferris wheel. A lone hooded humanoid figure stood atop the highest of the Ferris wheels. He shouted in a rather loud and prepubescent tone as he addressed the drones of ponies below.

“MY NAME IS OBELISK, THE DESTORYER OF WORLDS! I HAVE COME TO THIS PATHETIC PLANET IN ORDER TO REVIVE THE FALLEN PRINCE OF THE MAD, THE CHIMERA KING HIMSELF! THIS WORLD SHALL TREMBLE IN FEAR AS I SUMMON THE LORD OF THE NEATHER BACK INTO THE LIVING-“

“Hey! You! The stupid guy on that Ferris wheel!” Zailiner, the grey alicorn rudely interrupted the ranting stranger. “The B.B.T.S. clan rented out this place for the day, so go preach about your little cult somewhere else, and come back tomorrow!”

With one quick flick, the gray alicorn chucked her carbonated drink right at the premature summoner. The sugary drink landed square on Obelisk’s face, splashing its contents all over his acme-ridden face. He wasn’t amused by this gesture.

“INSOLENT FOOLS!” The teenage cultist screamed at the hordes of elite mercenaries that began gathering below his improvised podium. “YOU HAVE NO IDEA THE PAIN AND CHAOS THAT IS ABOUT TO BE INFLICTED UPON YOU AND YOUR KIND!” He strained his arm into the air as he strained to make an overly complex hand gesture, sending out a signal to his hired-hands. “I HAVE ANTICIPATED RESISTANCE, AND BROUGHT SUITABLE ALLIES TO DISTRACT YOU WHILE I COMPLETE THE SUMMONING RITUAL! BEHOLD!”

A stoutly built bear with a whip popped out through the photo booth. He is Klostav, the infamous whipped menace wanted for kidnapping circus-goes and forcing them to perform ridiculous stunts. From below the kiddie pool rose a grotesque humanoid eel man; nick named “death by lightning”, this horrible eel creature had accumulated quite a bit of bounty from stunning unsuspecting tourists from random water rides, and taking their prized possessions before they could recover their mobility… in around 10 days. A gigantic Chameleon that had been clinging to the fun park statue uncloaked itself; formerly called “big invisible”, this crafty lizard used its big size to bully unarmed civilians out of their monthly wages, then use its seamless cloak to escape authority persecution. Go-tron, the robotic menace popped out from inside the fun-house. This engineering marvel went rouge after getting its circuits rearranged by stray bolt of lightning; it now spends its days terrorizing appliance stores and liberating his mechanical brothers by making them sentient with his mad powers. In a strange twist of fate, 4 highly-deranged and dangerous criminals had pledged loyalty to a mad teen with a volume control issue, in order to complete his dream of performing a ritual based only on superstition. This entire scenario sounded ludicrous to the wise B.B.T.S. clan leader. However, Moshi had no time to think this over, as the lunatics are beginning their assault on her clan members.

“Well, this is certainly a nice change of pace.” The cool-headed walked over to a pale, skinny humanoid sipping cactus juice on a nearby bench. He is Arcadas, a Zsythine gun-slinger who came from a rift in dimensions, and pledged loyalty to Moshi after their rather embarrassing encounter. “Hey! Arcadas!” The pink mare commanded the unholy spawn. “You take care of the rusty tin can!” With a nod, the Zsythine rose from his seat, and flicked out his dual pistol.

Moshi briskly walked over to the yellow Pegasus resting under the shade. This Pegasus was given the name Agile Lightning, though the folks in the clan are used to call him by the name Aeridan. He may not be the best of flyers in the clan, but this pony really knows how to swings his modified Chakrams around a battlefield. “Hey! Lightning! Take care of the bear will ya?” Moshi shouted to the golden Pegasus.

“No one calls me Lightning!” The golden Pegasus is slightly annoyed, but eager nonetheless. “I’ll take care of this, you just worry about the rest of them Moshi!” The golden colt lifted up his favorite pair of Chakrams, and shuffled toward the bumbling thug.

“Artist-1-Million!” Moshi instructed the faceless white colt in a suit lurking in a dark corner of the fun park. “Take care of the lizard when you have the time.”

“And what time would be better than the present, my dear leader?” The faceless pony acknowledged Moshi, and disappeared into the shade.

The pink leader then motioned toward the blue cat-like thing munching on his order of endless salad: “Shinx! Show that fishman what you can do!”

“Roger that good captain!” The blue cat put down his salad bowl, and briskly rushed toward the hulking eel man.

“As for the rest of you guys….” Moshi gestured toward her remaining clan members looking at her with anticipation.
“Just keep enjoying the fare! It’s not often we get a day off like this, so feel free to have yourself some cupcakes!”

“Oh no you don’t!” The hulking bear advanced toward the rather unconcerned clan leader. “Klostav will not have puny pony lower their guard while he is around!” The bear splayed his thick leather whip at the pink pony, only to be stopped by the golden pegasus wielding his deadly chakrams.

“Puny pony! Get out of Klostov’s way!” With a flick of his wrist, the bear wrapped his ship around both of his foe’s weapons, and ripped the chakrams right from the pegasus’ very hooves. But just as the bear chucked away his opponent’s weapons, Aeridan pulled out two more chakrams from his concealed pockets.

“You know something Klostove?” The golden pegasus flicked away the bear’s second attempt at wrenching his chakrams from him. “I used to have a real problem with having my weapons taken from me; but I learned from my mistakes.” The colt began flicking his wrists at an amazing speed, sending hundreds of deadly spinning blades toward his unfortunate foe. “After the dreadful defeat that united me with our dear clan leader, I’ve taken on the habit to pack on extra gears just in case this happens!”

“No…that’s impossible!” The bear tried his best to assume a defensive stance as the blades flew towards him. “Syndicate told Klostove puny tourists are supposed to be easy target; what is this nonsense!?”

The blades struck the bear all over his body, barely avoiding his vital arteries. The circus-act moaned in pain as he collapsed to the floor, unable to move due to the severe cuts on his body. “Well, I guess that takes care of that.” The golden Pegasus turned from his fallen opponent, only to come face-to-face with the rouge AI approaching him with his army of animated fun-house electronics.

“Nega-tory,” The robot screeched with his cold-apathetic voice. “Ally Klostov had underestimated your power; I will not make the same mistake.” The antennas on the side of his head began beeping as his robotic minions advanced toward the golden colt. But just before Aeridan could form a defensive stance against his new enemy, the Zsythine gun-slinger standing behind him sprinted in front of his comrade. The twin pistol in his hands glowed lava-red, as they sprayed a storm of flashing-red bullets, tearing the mechanic minions to pieces.

“Improbable.” The robot puppet-master hummed in his emotionless sound track as he scanned his broken cronies for any signs of life. “The Argon-9 fun house mechanisms are equipped with triple-reinforced steel; no bullet ever manufactured can pierce triple-reinforced steel. Identify yourself. Who are you?”

The equally-as-cold Zsythinian did not respond to the robot’s query. He loaded more of his special “hell-fire” bullets into his lava-resistant pistols. “The B.B.T.S. has a no kill policy, so I haven’t be able to really let loose.” He aimed his loaded pistols toward the robot’s quadruple-alloy-armored chest plates. “But I can see why Moshi chose me to deal with the likes of you; robots don’t mind being torn to tiny pieces, do they now?”

The cruel robot lifted his chain-gun infused hands toward the eager gunslinger in response. “I have a lightning-fast processor that can open fire before you even press your trigger; I believe you will find it to be quite difficult to match my firepower-“

The robot looked to his chest, only now realizing that he had been shot by the pale gunslinger. Magma spewed from the bullets lodged within the machines circuitry, melting the robot’s inner circuits and lighting the robot’s inside on fire.

“Implausible! The Syndicate promised us an easy victory! This strays from all of my calculations! We were betrayed!”

Before the robot could even initiate his fire_extinguish.exe, a thick storm of molten bullets impacted the rambling AI, tearing the robot into multiple pieces of flaming steel. Armed with his fire-resistant skin, the gunslinger waded into the ire, and lifted up the robot’s central core processor before it could burn.

“That’s close enough to not killing, I suppose.”

The gigantic chameleon watched in terror as his partners in crime fell like common fodder. “These people aren’t the normal They must have intercepted our plan, and set up an ambush here at the park.” The crafty chameleon blended himself back into the sceneries, and tried to scuttle past the army of ponies inside the park. “Better get going while the going is good.”

The invisible chameleon stopped dead in his track just as a faceless pony in a black tuxedo stood right in front of him, his eye-less sockets somehow starting directly into the chameleon’s very being. Slowly and steadily, the mysterious pony pulled down the mask covering his face (or what would constitute as one). The chameleon froze in horror as he stared at the face of the tuxedo pony not meant for mortal eyes. The color on his skin changed in rapid succession as he scrunched himself into a ball, curling on the floor in a fetal position as the mysterious tuxedo colt covered his face back up once more. “I’d like to go to jail now.” The horrified lizard confessed, while lying on the floor in his own mess.

The eel man furious ripped through the stalls, gurgling incoherent sounds from his mal-formed vocal cord; the fall of his friends did nothing to improve his mood, and he is now angrier than ever. The ponies walked away from his rampage to honor their leader’s wishes; however, one blue cat stood bravely in front of the monster’s destructive path.

“Mister eel monster?” The small blue creature looked at the deformed monster with an innocent gaze. “I know you are busy and all, but if you are not busy at the moment, can you find it in your heart to leave us alone on our leader’s very special day?”

The eel creature was not amused. He lifted yet another stall from the park, and was about to smash the poor cat’s face into its skull, when he suddenly realized the furry blue cat’s facial expression had contorted to a rather nasty knot. The feline’s hairs began to stand on its end, as jolts of electric potential energy jumped across its tiny frame. He yelled at the top of his small lungs:

“And if you don’t leave this place at once, I will ELECTRICUTE YOUR BUCKING BEHIND!”

The eel man screech in response, and sent out his own brand of jolting electricity toward the electrified cat. However, years of salad consumption had rendered the blue cat immune to all forms of electric attacks; the jolts of miniature thunder shock became intermingled with the electricity jumping on the small cat’s hairline.

“ELECTROCUTION!” The small cat screeched as he led loose bolts of electric potential toward his unsuspecting foe. The eel screeched as he fell to the ground, nearly paralyzed by the attack. He screeched again when the small cat shocked him once more with his powerful electric attack, while shouting his witty catchphrase:

“ELECTROCUTION!

ELECTROCUTION!

ELECTROCUTION!”

The bluish cat stopped electrocuting the already paralyzed eel fish. Something isn’t right; the sky began to take on a shade of red as the air smells of thick rust. The amusement park became relatively quiet, as all oppositions had died down. The temperature rose, making the now reddish planet a feeling of fire and brimstone. The only audible sound in the entire park is the prepubescent summoner standing atop the Ferris wheel.

“MY HENCHLINGS MAY HAVE UNDESTIMATED YOU, BUT THEY HAVE BROUGHT ME ENOUGH TIME TO COMPLETE THE RITUAL!” Obelisk’s hands shook, his arms waving frantically in the air, as he tried to remain balanced on top of the Ferris wheel amidst all of his excitement.

“THE LORD OF CHAOS IS HERE! THIS PLANET IS DOOMED! THIS UNIVERSE IS NOW DOOMED! DOOMED!”

The planets very foundation began to shake; a red ritualistic symbol formed to the ground, and a crack began opening in the center. A gigantic bear paw rose from beneath the expanding crack, and pushed itself against the firm ground, lifting up a humongous horned draconiques goliath with it. The horned gigalith stepped his molten hooves and claws onto the surface of the planet, causing a minor quake as he landed his hooves to the ground. Zailiner devoted her free time into studying myth and histories from around the galaxy; it did not come to her as a surprise that the monstrosity imposing before her was the legendary spirit of discord, said to have caused complete and utter disharmony across 30 different solar systems, before finally being put to sleep by the heroes of the old. “Moshi, this guy is no joke,” The intrepid gray mare warned her pink partner. “If we let this thing get out of this planet alive, it could cause real trouble across the galaxy.”

“Then our choice is clear.” The cool and collected clan leader stepped up on top of the umbrella table she had been sitting on, and began informing her clan members of her elaborately thought out plan:

“Hey everybody! We need to take this big guy out! Bring our your best weapons, and let’s all attack at once!”

As the world began to collapse under the monster’s sheer power output, all the mercenaries, ponies and cat (singular) rose up. One by one, the hundreds of clan members charged up their weapons, unsheathed their swords, and prepared their fighting stances. Never in the history of B.B.T.S. had Moshi witness all of their beloved team members gear up for one simultaneous attack. The horned monstrosity began taking notice of the near-insignificant crowd of ants forming below his massive frame. He lifted up one of his phoenix arms, and a fireball began to quickly take shape beneath the scorching sky.

“Fellow warriors! (And Shinx)” Moshi shouted with utmost eagerness while gazing down her massive opponent. “Let him have it!”

The entire B.B.T.S. Army leapt into the air, their weapons and salad (singular), ready and loaded, pointed toward the massive creature lowering his fireball toward the dentizens.

“All bronies! Open fire!”

~Intermission~

“Welcome back to the news. I am Steven Flex, and you are watching Galactic news, the … second most informative and second most accurate news network in the 3rd quadrant! Universal news can kiss our best viewer rate in universal history, and I was paid to say that on television! Our biggest news tonight involves an incident at the ever-popular Argon-9 fun park. Certain cultist leader by the name of Obelisk had recruited 4 deranged criminal in an attempt to terrorize the establishment out of business. However, their plans came short when a rather famous clan rented out the entire amusement park on the day of their attack. After a devastating fight that involved the destruction of the entire park, all members of this cultist group had been apprehended by the entire team of the Bronies Beyond The Star Clan. However, despite the fact that one of the deranged criminal was left only as a moldering mechanical head, the cultist leader Obelisk was the most injured personnel in this incident; B.B.T.S. co-founder Zailiner’s hoof had lodged itself so far into his arse, special construction vehicles were called in to finally dislodge the gray mare’s hoof from his behind. We shall have more coverage on that as the situation develops; until then, this is Steven-“

With a flick of the remote, the reclusive man turned the mega-screen TV off. And eerie silence befell the luxury space liner traveling through space. He motioned his index finger toward his well-waxed sleek sofa handle, and pressed down on the big red button nestled seamlessly on the sofa’s handle. Within seconds, an owl-headed butler carrying an all-inclusive service tray descended from a service hole in the room’s ceiling. He gazed at his master with an impeccably classy and yet humble stare.

“Is there something the matter, master?”

The reclusive man crossed his palms under his chin, staring all the while at this blank television screen.

“Obelisk was taken down; the bronies took out 4 of our best pawns.”

“It’s a shame sire, it really is.” The owl man proceeded to produce a warmed china tea cup from atop his service tray, and gentle dripped sweet-roasting tea into the reclusive man’s empty tea cup. “If only he would have had more time to summon the demon king; things might have turned out differently then.”

“No, that’s not it.” The reclusive man remained motionless as he tried his best to recall the events that had transpired in the theme park, as relayed by his loyal B.B.T.S. spy. “That man actually managed to re-awaken discord, and he apparently did it in record time too; however, those bronies took him down. They took him down before he could really do any damage at all.” He gently picked up the steaming cup of aromatic tea placed before him, and issued his commands at his loyal butler:

“Plot a course to the B.B.T.S. Home base; send them all of our elites. We cannot afford to underestimate them again; for the world to be filled with chaos within our two year time limit, the bronies must perish.”

“As you wish sire.” The owl man made a gentle bow as he retreated from the television room. “Anything for the Syndicate.”

~Intermission~

Meanwhile, inside the gigantic space station that is the home to all of the B.B.T.S. members, the party is still alive and kicking. Zailiner casually walked toward a rather troubled-looking Moshi, who seemed to be out into the endless depth of space.

“Common! Moshi! It’s your birthday!” Zailiner used her best of expressions to get Moshi into the party mood once again. “Quit moping about the business stuff and let Spike handle it; he loves work!”

The pink mare squinted her eyes toward the reinforced window, trying her hardest to spot the tiny particles floating toward the space station. She hesitantly replied to her partner:

“Hey, Zai, do you see something coming toward us? What could it be?”

The gray mare mimicked her partner’s squint, and looked toward the projectiles floating calmly toward their base. From this distance, the gray mare could not even make out the shape of the traveling projectiles.

“Oh, it’s probably just nothing.” Zailiner tried to comfort her over-worked leader. “Look, we can sort this out later; the party is still-“

The mare was suddenly cut off by a pink hoof raised over her face. Moshi’s eyebrows made a 180 degree turn when she vaguely made out the titanium spinning drills and the powerful jets mounted on top of the projectiles heading towards them. The experienced war pony instantly knew just the kind of crafts heading toward them; these jet propelled drillers are boarding crafts, generally used by armies to send out their troops inside of heavily-armored space crafts, just like the B.B.T.S. headquarter.

With one quick shove, the pink mare pushed his second-in-command away from the window just as the thick drills penetrated the ship’s hull, heavily grazing the clan leader on the side. All the ponies in the room began to panic as the dill craft’s explosive entrance blew away most of the ponies within close proximity of the blast. Fortunately, the massive drill machines had become lodged inside the outer hulls of the ship, preventing the air inside the space station to be vented out into the vacuum of space. Amidst the utter chaos and confusion, 7 lone souls stepped out of their individual drill pods.

The first of the creatures to emerge from the pods is a bipedal alligator wielding two alloy-infused scimitar. He goes by the name of Chompy; once the captain of the royal guard for the jarl of a certain desert planet, this elite blade-dancer now swings his blades under the flag of the Syndicate. A rabbit strong-man carrying a heavy-chain gun sprinted in front of the alligator man. Before he had retired, his comrades in the galactic army corp used to call him by his given nickname “the devil”, due to his ruthless warfare tactics as well as his blatant disregard for his fellow soldiers. This bad bunny had recently come out of his retirement in the name of the syndicate, due to reasons unknown. A gigantic tortoise-creature trotted next to the two armed fighters. He is known as Sheldon, a corrupt galactic federation politician who formed an alliance with the syndicate in order to gain enough votes to remain in power, and to suppress his competitions. Though his political cunning is unparalleled, he is not above using his massive body to get what he wants in life. Kant, the owl-head man briskly exited his craft, and caught up with the trio. As the head butler for the elusive Syndicate, this cunning servant knows every form of hand-to-hand combat known to owl kind. Next comes Philadelphia, the sentient phoenix that reigns over and entire branch of the syndicate, and at the same time acting as the syndicate master’s loyal pet. She would often be asked to melt away entire mountains with her unrivaled solar blasts, so that syndicate troopers may construct more of their dastardly mega structures without the galactic federation’s approval. Last but not least, the cat and dog twin, Topaz and Victor, lagged behind the marching troupe. These two elite rogues have mastered the secret stealth techniques of the eastern galaxy; not only can they break open locking mechanisms with easy, these two crafty assassins have the power to eliminate unsuspecting foes with their arsenal of poisoned weaponries. These two devious cutthroats now work under the syndicate’s payroll by eliminating anyone that dared to oppose their company; it can also be said that they enjoy their job just a little too much. These scoundrels make up 7 of the 8 of the syndicate’s elites; and now, they are about to unleash their own special brand of evil down onto the panicking and unprepared bronies in their own home base.

“Alright, everyone! Listen closely now!” The owl man carefully adjusted the tiny glasses nestled on top of his beak. “Our brony spy is currently installing a thermo-detonator on their nuclear reactor, which means we have roughly 30 minutes to clear out as many bronies as possible, and evacuate the area before the entire station blows up in a glorious atomic fire.”

“Well Alrighty then!” The alligator grazed his alloy scimitars against the metallic station floor, sending a wave of sparks across the ship’s frame. “Let’s kill all of the bronies! Let them bleed on the floor! Let them burn! Burn!”

The alligator man’s bloodlust riled up the rest of his comrades. Like a pack of hungry wolves, the 7 elite killers spread themselves out into the lobby, and began hacking away at the unsuspecting ponies. However, it soon dawned on them they the ponies can still fight back; each pony fares no fighting chance against the syndicate elites; however, even in times of certain doom, the ponies are standing next to each other, taking turns between enduring blows and retaliating against the incredibly powerful attackers. In a miraculous turn of events, the frail, lightly trained mercenaries from that one brony clan had somehow managed to hold off against the waves of powerful attacks dealt by some of the strongest beings in the entire galaxy.

The 7 of the syndicate elites quickly found themselves overwhelmed as a pink and red blur began cutting into their battles. The pink blur began pushing them toward each other, until all 7 of them are pushed back toward the center of the party lobby.

“Wait a minute!” The owl man queried to his fighting buddies. “There’s 7 of us and-“

“8 of us, technically.” The tortoise gently reminded the owl man of the secret operative installing the thermo detonator inside the reactor room.

“Um, why of course! Surely, all 8 of the syndicate’s elite would have absolutely no problem dealing with her!”

The pink and red blur stopped in front of the maniacs. Moshi is close to the end of her ropes; the big wound at the side of her flank still bleeds, and her whole body is riddled with graze wounds. However, the wrecked mare is still standing, being held up by the sheer fury of her injured and fallen comrades. The custom pink bazooka in her hand had long ran out of shots, and so, the mare swung her massive weapon toward the syndicate elites in a desperate attempt to keep them away from her precious memebers. The elites scattered around the injured mare, dancing around her as they traded blows. Try as they might, their attacks made little effect to the angry captain; she powerful swings and tactful blow are too much even for the best the syndicate has to offer. With each passing seconds, more and more mares fled to their respective escape hatches, and the syndicates realized they are slowly getting beaten by one small-sized equine. One by one, blow by blow, the elite forces of the unknown fell to the ground, writhing in pain as the grief-stricken captain held the seven of them back, so that his members can evacuate to safety.

The entire deck suddenly went quiet as the last of the elite fell to the floor. All of Moshi’s precious members have loaded themselves upon their respective escape pod, and launched themselves into the depth of space. Sheldon the Tortoise pushed against the metallic floor in order to stand up once more, but he can see a zombie of a pony standing ominously in front of him. The pink mare, now poisoned and wounded beyond the mortal threshold, lifted up his battered bazooka high into the thinning air, and made a gesture to smack the tortoise into a bloody mess.

“W-wait a minute!” Sheldon implored to his dying opponent. “Perhaps we can work something out! Now I’m sure we can work something out if we can talk for a minute or two….”

Moshi is un-amused by the tortoise’s desperate plea. “You break into my clan, maim my friends, almost killed my co-founder, and you want me to forgive you?! What right do you have for hurting my friends?!” The maimed mare’s eyes glowed blood red as her thirst for vengeance over took her. She made a spine-chilling roar, and began assaulting the tortoise’s head with her broken weapon. The wounded tortoise howled in anguish with every impact, all the while waiting desperately for the dragon behind him to fire his ray gun.

“By all that’s revere, you darned bleeding heart! Take the shot!”

Moshi’s battered face froze. She turned her head slowly toward the purple-and-green dragon behind her. The miniature baby dragon was Moshi’s adopted son, Spike. She and Zailiner found him as an egg during one of her missions, and raised him with care ever since he hatched. However, the syndicate somehow managed to recruit him as one of the 8 Syndicate elite member, and at the same time, coercing him to give out valuable B.B.T.S. top secret information to the syndicate, as well as planting a deadly thermo detonator in the B.B.T.S.’s very own nuclear reactor chamber. And now, in the B.B.T.S.’s final hour of destruction, the purple and green dragon aimed the very ray gun Moshi had given him for his birthdate back at the surrogate who had raised him from his birth. Moshi look at her own son with sheer horror and confusion. She tried her best to form audible syllables from her broken lips:

“S-Spike? Spike, put down the gun sweetie; what are you doing with that gun Spike? Spike?”

The baby dragon stared at his master with a look of regret: “I’m sorry mother. But for the syndicate to reach its goal, you must perish. I’m sorry; I truly am.”

As the purple dragon pulled down on the trigger, a flash of bright purple beam erupted from the ray gun’s tip, and traveled right through the pink mare’s torso. The combination of injury an shock finally became too much for the war veteran, and she finally collapsed onto the floor like a flimsy stick mare. With the dangers passes, the syndicate elites pulled themselves away from the metallic floor, and began assessing I new situation.

“Well, she was certainly a firebrand.” The owl man lifted his fine linen gloved hand and dusted himself off in the slightest. “She actually managed to hold us all off long enough to evacuate her entire clan! That takes constitution.”

The tortoise held his bruised head with his massive palms. “What a crazy wench she was! Spike! You should have shot her before that woman gave me a grutzpa of a wicked concussion!”

“Sorry about that. She was my mother after all.” Spike gently walked toward Moshi’s mangled, breathing body, and gave it a light kiss on the cheek. “I never wished for this to have ahappened; I truly didn’t. Happy birthday mom; I would have brought you a present, but this isn’t the time.” After the deed is done, the sorrowful dragon looked up toward his new team members with a rather apathetic expression. “We have roughly 2 minutes until this place blows; let’s move out before it does.”

And so, the Syndicate fled to their respective ships just as quick as they came. The drill jets dislodged themselves from the space station, and fled to the outer reaches of space, leaving seven massive holes for the airs in the space station to escape to. The battered mare watched at all the party decorations flew out of the leak hole, her heart sank just a little bit. On her very birthday, her clan was attacked, her people scattered, and her son had stabbed her in the back. However, she was satisfied; all of her companions are safe from the syndicate’s evil grasp, and though the thought of never seeing her companions brought a tear to her eyes, and pink mare was at peace with herself.

“Let it come, old girl.” Moshi silently uttered to herself.

“Let it come.”

~Achievement Unlocked: Party of None~

“Good morning, afternoon and evening wherever you may be. I am Steven Flex, your humble host for Galactic news, the most viewed news channel in universal history! Our top story tonight involves a new ordinance, proposed by our kind congress Sheldon the Tortoise, that had just been passes. This new ordinance outlaws all mercenaries, bounty hunters and clans of any kind from operating within the entire Milky Way system! This new ordinance will definitely pose as a threat to our friends at clan infinity and the B.B.T.S., who had been keeping criminals under control for the last 245 years! However, this news reporter is confident that the Galactic Federation is working on a plan to re-integrate all the bounty hunters back into society, and back to protecting us in a new, more responsible manner. We will go into more details regarding the new ordinance later tonight- uh, just a minute folks; we have just received breaking news of epic proportion! An adorable blue cat and a cute blue filly had crash landed on Fifth Street close to our studio, and began launching what seemed to be bowls of salad and toy swords at the passer-byes! I will personally exit the studio, and attempt to conduct an interview with these cuddly health-responsible critters from outer space! .... Oh, and apparently prison inmates from around the world have suddenly began to break out of prison, wardens suddenly sabotaged, electrick locks suddenly inactivated… you get the jist of it. But who cares! Cute kittens! And Ponies! With salads and toy swords! More on that when we get downstairs!”

After that fateful day, all Tautarus broke loose. Vigilantes of the galaxy ran and fled as they are being persecuted for delivering justice to common folks; left unchecked, the criminals ran rampant throughout the galaxy, causing destruction and mayhem as they see fit. The syndicate had taken a form of puppet control over many local star governments, of course, the criminals are still left rampant, since most of them causes destruction while being on the Syndicate’s secret payroll. The galaxy have fallen into despair without the clans to keep it united; and now, two years have passes since the destruction of the B.B.T.S., and things are only looking worse and worse.

Dear Clan Leader Moshi:

-No New Messages-

B.B.T.S. Adventure #6: Departure

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BBTS Adventure #6:

Departure

The pale gray pony, wrapped in a thin blanket, shivers inside the unheated metallic basement. Time had not treated her well; the infection on the stump here her glorious horn once was is beginning to take its toll on the poor alicorn, but without proper antibiotics, she could do nothing to stop the pathogens from seeping deep into her now fragile body. All she could do now is to sit on her straw mat of a bed, waiting patiently for a certain colt to emerge from the poorly-constructed operating room on the other side of the rusting steel wall. To distract her from this terrible situation, she closed her eyes in order to envision the times she once had in the rather-distant past:

Her name is Zailiner. Just two years ago, she was the co-ruler of clan that went by the name of Bronies Beyond the Stars, a rather popular clan of mostly brony bounty hunters that hunted down countless felons, evildoers as well as masterminds that tries to take over the Milky Way times and again. Their exploits were legendary, and she was amongst the greatest assets the clan has ever had. In fact, the only other pony that could have rivaled her was the leader of BBTS that went by the name of MoshiMoshi, a pink pony capable of wielding a pink bazooka bigger than even the colt himself. Together, the two leaders were unstoppable; they traversed across systems after systems, stomping out villains as they emerged, and kept the galaxy safe for those that seek to harm it. However, their exploits became their downfall, as certain organizations began to view them as a possibly hindrance to their mysterious plans for galactic domination. A mysterious organization that went by the name of the Syndicate decided to ambush them on a fateful night, and tore their space station asunder. Fortunately, most of the BBTS clan members managed to retreat through the escape pods, Zailiner herself included. However, Moshi failed to retreat from her own space station in time, and received the full brunt of an atomic explosion as her precious station blew to pieces. When the Syndicate retreated, and when the atomic radiation died down, Zailiner found Moshi’s charred, but breathing body amidst the wreckages of the space station, clinging desperately to the leaking oxygen supply just as his consciousness begins to fade. The gray alicorn managed to drag the charred warrior onto a nearby planet named A-Trixy prime just in time to receive news of the Syndicate’s victory over the entire galaxy; somehow, they have gained control of the majority of the galactic counsel, and, before anyone can react to this terrible news, they have outlawed all mercenaries and bounty hunters within the entire system. Anyone that dared to persecute criminals are being branded as criminal themselves, and those that dared to continue their spree of justice is hunted down by the syndicate’s private army. Being the wanted mares that she is, Zailiner could not take the badly injured Moshi to any hospitals, clinics or wards for fear of persecution, fortunately, she had located an illegitimate scientist who was willing to operate on Moshi, in order to make him better again. For two years, they hid underneath an abandoned bunker, collecting scraps and medicine in order to fix the dying colt bit, by bit, by bit. And in those two years, the world fell around poor as criminals ran rampant in the streets. With each passing day, the alicorn found her job to be increasingly difficult, as criminals and the government attacked her on sight. The countless bruises on her body aches, but she felt a breath of contention in her, because the illegitimate doctor had informed her of the possibility of Moshi finally waking up once more by the end of today’s surgery. With any luck, the great leader she once knew might finally re-awaken once more, and the two of them can finally-

The iron door made a sharp screech as it was heaved agape with some effort. A light-blue pony with a full head of muddled white hair, twitchy hooves, and a broken horn, coupled with a bloody lab coat as well as a pair of gold-rimmed glasses stepped out of the makeshift operating room.

The twitchy doctor spoke in a solemn tone: “Ah, yes, miss Zailiner. The operation has reached its conclusion; you may come in now.”

“Oh for Celestia’s sake, how is he doing doc?” Zailiner asked in a rather wispy tone.

“Oh, I think that’s for you determine, yes?” The doctor calmly motioned for the alicorn to enter the operating room. “I think I did a… rather wonderful job, with all the equipment that I was supposed to… improvise with. Come inside and have a look; I think you will either be pleasantly surprised, or try to kill me; either way is fine, eh?”

The pale-gray mare shed her ragged blanked and tried her best to stumble over into the operating room. For two years, she has poured her heart into reviving the charred warrior, and now her efforts are finally about to be paid off. Her eyes are feeling woozy just from standing up, but she could see him, on the operating table, sleeping.

“Finally, after all these years; we’re finally together again.” With the infection coursing through her arteries, Zailiner felt a sudden drop in her blood sugar.

“Um, Miss Zailiner, you don’t look quite that well there.” The light-blue doctor reached out his hooves right as the pale-gray mare began to collapse into the operating floor. “Perhaps you should take a tiny break, yes?”

“Ha… me and moshi, we’re the best team ever.” The gray mare struggled to keep her eyes open for long as physically possible. “When we’re together again, we’ll be unstoppable. Put a thousand syndicate scums between us, and we’ll kick them all the way… back to their mama crying. Yeah… after all these time, we’re finally together again… we’ll be… unstoppable….

Once….

More....”

The light-blue colt carried the unconscious mare back into her hay-bed, and covered her with her near-torn blanket. “You just rest now, Miss Zailiner; I know exactly what to do with Moshi, and exactly what to say to him.” The light-blue colt gently pushed the operating door shut, and picked up a tarnished cattle prod from the end table.

“Given the circumstances, I did the best I could. There are times where I wondered about the dangers of using an rusty scalpel, or a recycled syringe needle, but this tough son-of-a-colt managed to sit through all those operations in one piece.” The blue colt bent down, and plugged the extension cord that connected to the near-broken cattle prod into the electrical socket below the blood-stained operating table. The cattle-prod sparked itself to life akin to firework, spraying the sparks through the metallic room.

“I COULD wait until you wake up through natural means” The blue doctor colt raised the cattle prod high up into the air, “but that’s simply too mundane and, frankly, boring. And since Miss Zailiner isn’t here to stop me, why not start this thing with a bit of dramatic flair?”

With a sudden thrust, the mad doctor jabbed his unconscious patient with the active cattle prod.

“Wakey Wakey, eggs and Moshi!”

A strong jolt of energy coursed through Moshi’s newly-constructed body, waking up all of his cells within his body. The colt rose up with a horrifying scream, all of his memories from two years ago rushed back into his cranium all at once, causing a sudden jolt of intense spasm throughout his being. Moshi screamed louder than he ever did, rising up from underneath his surgical covers, as if waking up from a horrifying nightmare. It wasn’t until about an entire minute after his unwarranted shock therapy had he realized his disposition; he is no longer familiar with his surroundings.

With a puzzled look on his face, the clan leader turned to the only blue colt in the room, and inquired:

“Alright, I’ll be frank; where in Tartarus are all my crew members? Are they hurt?”

The blue colt was rather taken back by his blunt and rather unconventional queries. “You know, the first thing ponies generally ask when waking up form a two-year coma inside of an abandoned and very much run-down makeshift operation room are usually in the tones of ‘where am I?’ and less in terms of ‘what happened to the rest of my mercenary buddies?’” The twitchy doctor sauntered toward his bloody end-table, and retrieved a surprisingly well-preserved green-rimmed hand-mirror from the drawer with the least amount of rust caked on it. He held up the mirror, as steadily as he possibly could, and gently shoved it unto his patient.

“My name is Franswicz,” the blue twitchy colt announced. “Despite operating on you for two whole years, you may NOT call me a doctor, for I simply don’t have the license for it.”

The twitchy doctor motioned for Moshi to gaze upon the mirror in his hands. “Your friend found your charred and barely living body and carted it out to me for repairs. For two years, I have been collecting certain… parts from those who no longer needs them, in order to patch you up as best as I ponily could. However, I don’t have the correct body parts in order to make you back to what you once were, and so, you may find yourself to be a bit… altered.”

Moshi gazed back into the mirror, and saw an image he was not quite expecting. The pony that stared back at him had a light-green skin from head to hoof, and a head of deep-green mane. However, the pair of surprises that shocked him the most are the two functional Pegasus wings firmly planted unto his back.

“I’m… a Pegasus now?!” Moshi rubbed his hooves against his sturdy wings in an attempt to dispel this “illusion”.

“Ah, yes. They were… harvested from your sympathizers, for you see, there were more of us before you woke up. However, we fought against the Syndicate with stones and planks. All of the others gave their lives in order to keep you safe; and when they died, they offered me the resources necessary to-“

“To bring me back.” Moshi completed the doctor’s sentence in a rather solemn voice. “They died to protect me; their blood is on my hands.”

“Yes, well, don’t beat yourself up for this… minor setback. What matters is that you are alive, and capable of fighting against the plague cast upon the galaxy.” Doctor Franswicz gave the newly-formed Pegasus a lift down onto the ground. “In the two years that you are in a coma, the organization that crippled your base took over the galactic counsel, and made ponies like you into criminal.”

The doctor consolidated the last of his items into a cloth bag, and heaved it onto his back. “Now that you are capable of walking again, we can finally plan our next moves without having to worry about leaving this place undefended. The Syndicate is bearing down on us, but we have planned a way out of this rock. There’s an industrial-sized news cruiser landing here tonight; you and I are going to hijack the ship, and all of us can blast off form this Celestia-forsaken planet before the feds came down onto us like a pack of-“

“Woah, hold on just a minute here!” Moshi interrupted the old colt before he could have finished his thought process. “I am NOT going to hurt innocent civilians just to make things right again! Two wrongs don’t make a right, and I’m not the kind of pony that will hurt others for no reason!”

“Oh, but I’m afraid you do.” The doctor lifted the unconscious alicorn up from her hay stack, and plopped her down into the operating table. Moshi was rather shocked to see his oldest of friend lying down on the operating table, bruised and battered beyond a normal pony’s tolerance, an infection brewing up from the sawed-off stump that was once her prized alicorn horn. He could not help but to utter:

“What the?! Just what in Tartarus happened to her?!”

“Yes, well, about that….” Franswicz averted his gaze from the wounded and unconscious alicorn, “She sustained those bruises whilst getting the supplies for your surgery; but I was the one who cut off her horn-

A red mist came upon Moshi, and with a quick flex of his hooves, the raging green Pegasus pinned the twitchy doctor to a nearby steel wall.

“You better give me a darned good reason for cutting off her horn, right here, right now!”

“I had no choice!” The doctor trembled as he stared at Moshi’s second front hoof pointing straight at him. “By the time your bleeding body was carted into my house, you are nothing less than a pile of smoked flesh! It took us a miracle to bring you back, a miracle… that is that alicorn’s horn!”

The twitchy doctor can already see Moshi’s intense brows tightening ever further despite his best efforts to explain his motives.

“The alicorn horn is now inside of you; not only can you use the wings of a Pegasus, you can also utilize the alicorn’s powers to your own devices! And now, she is suffering from a huge infection, but as long as you stick to the plan, and hijack that news cruiser, we can get the antibiotics from the med-bay, and treat her so she can-”

Before the mad doctor could have finished his speech, Moshi’s hoof landed squarely on the side of the doctor’s jaws. “And that’s your twisted sense of justification for hurting my best friend?! I’d rather die than to make her suffer like some sort of animal!”

“She was the one who told me to do this! She wanted to suffer, so you can live!”

Despite the doctor’s incessant pleas, Moshi was relentless with his punches.

“I didn’t call for this to happen! People DIED because of me! My friends suffered because of me! And now… now you want me to ruin more people’s lives in order to save my dying friend! This is messed up! Everything is messed up!”

Suddenly realizing what he had done, the green Pegasus’ hooves stopped, and he backed away from the bruised doctor, and retreated to a corner of the room. Franswicz can taste the metallic scent of blood dripping from his cut lips; he wiped his mouth with his hooves as he rose up from the dusty floor.

“Moshi, I agree with you. Nothing in this world is what it used to be, but unless you have the guts to do what has to be done, things will remain this way for a good, long time.”

The blue colt extended hooves toward the green Pegasus: “If you refuse to make more sacrifices, the ponies that died for you would have died for naught; so, unless you want to nullify the work all of us have invested into you, I believe the two of us have some work to do.”

Moshi could not take his eyes off his sleeping comrade lying face-up on the operating table. After what seemed to be an eternity of silence, the Pegasus rose form the ground, and gently carried his best friend on his back. The Pegasus turned his gaze toward the weathered doctor, and uttered:

“Fine. I guess it’s high time we get out of here.”

A wave of nausea and headache forced the gray alicorn to open her eyes. Zailiner found herself on the back of a peculiar green Pegasus, with a weathered blue colt toting a dusty bag lagging close behind. The Pegasus gently turned his head toward the pathogen-infested alicorn, and assured her:

“Don’t worry Zail. We’ll get you some medicine; you’ll be alright in no time.”

“Moshi… you’re alright!” Zailiner immediately realized the identity of the always-reliable clan leader. “And… you’re a Pegasus! That’s a surprise to me!”

“Let’s keep our voices down,” Franswicz warned the chatting duo. “We’re close to the cruiser’s landing point.”

“By the Luna, is it that time already?” Zailiner struggled to pull free from the green Pegasus’ back, only found her already worn-out muscles to be uncooperative. “Crud; I’m not ready for this.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Moshi tried his best to console his pale companion. “Me and Doc there will take care of it, won’t we now?”

“For the last time, I am not a legitimate doctor! But save your squabbling for now; we’re here.”

The blue colt heaved himself over the stony rubble that was once a sturdy skyscraper. The once bustling city was reduced to ruins after two years of warfare; the mighty stadium, now reduced to patches of grass and broken walls, became one of only places of the city not filled with tons of rubble, and is now being used as a makeshift landing spot for the few ships that manages to take the time and stop in this soiled corner of the galaxy. The trio made their way into the outer edge of the stadium, where they took cover behind a piece of broken-down bleacher seats that happened to broke off during what seemed to be a mortar assault on the stadium itself.

“Alright, we’re hidden.” The doctor calmly assured his teammates. “The security around here has gone to the dirt ever since the war broke out, so with any luck, we should be able to-

The stadium suddenly came to life as a dozen of the stadium’s former floodlights poured their rays of photon unto the dead, yellow grass below. Moshi shielded his eyes from the intense light squeezing its way into his cornea. Just as he adjusted his vision to see in the intense flood of lights, the green Pegasus spotted a rather rotund middle-aged mule in a sleazy tuxedo, standing on his two hind legs on the ruins of the stadium stage, closely followed by what seemed to be a huge mechanical knight holding a colossal trident made out of a bluish metallic ore.

“Ah! Welcome to the stadium my rebel friends!” The sleazy mule spoke in a rather relaxed manner: “My name is Edward Pullington, and I am the mayor of this cozy little city that you have tainted with your… bile.” He pulled out what seemed to be a imitation cigar, and placed it into his gaping mouth in an attempt to display a certain air of fanciness. “I realized that you were looking for a specific… how you say, news cruiser, which was supposed to land here, no? Well, unfortunately for you three, an anonymous do-gooder tipped me off to your nefarious deeds, and I have managed to delay the cruiser’s entry by about 24 hours, which leaved me plenty of time to deal with the lot of you, and have time to scrape your dead bodies off the stadium ground; wouldn’t want the press to give our little planet a bad reputation, now would we now?”

The chubby mule motioned toward the mechanical goliath accompanying him: “Alex! Dispose of them, but make sure to get the head of that gray one! Her head fetches a great price on the syndicate bounty board, much more than the two nobody friends, that’s for sure!”

“I shall comply.” The steel giant answered the mule without hesitation. With one mighty stomp, the hulking golem leapt into the air, and landed itself right between the trio and the gap in the stadium wall where the three of them came in. The metallic creature pulled out his blue trident, and turned the pointy tips of the trident toward Moshi and his companions.

“This isn’t good!” Moshi screamed at the doctor. “We need to fall back! Fighting against an ambush won’t help us here!”

“That’s not going to work!” The doctor replied. “That metal man is creating an invisible force field that will keep us from escaping! But fortunately, he was a former ally to us! I believe we can ask him to join us if you can just put down Miss Zailiner for a moment and help me convince-“

“Out of the question!” Moshi gave the doctor a stern and swift reply. “So, all we have to do is to beat this guy, right? Well, me and Zailiner are more than a match for this freak of nature!”

Zailiner can feel a wave of magical energy radiating into her all the way from Moshi’s hooves. The alicorn energy planted inside of him is feeding her a stream of magical energy, making her magically powerful, for the time being.

“I was never one for magic, but I think we can do this!” A drop of tear fell down the gray mare’s face, as the legendary duo are back in action once more. “Alright Moshi! I’ll worry about the long ranged attacks; you focus on giving him a dose of your close combat!”

“Interesting.” The trident knight replied. “Do you really think long-ranged attacks will inflict any form of damage to a person such as myself-“

The knight instinctively shielded his face just as a blast of alicorn energy blasted him squarely in the face. Before he had time to lower his dense armored arms however, the duo appeared right behind him, and the knight felt a hefty kick right to the side of his ribcage. This proved to be more than futile however, as the metallic goliath made a steep turn, and the pony duo felt the cold embrace of the blue trident, as he swung the massive thing by a whole 360 degrees. Moshi was brutally knocked far into the air, only to stop mid-air due to his newly-found wings.

“Ow! That stung!” Moshi took one of his hands from carrying Zailiner and rubbed his bruised sides. “This guy hits hard… way harder than anyone I’ve ever faced!”

“We need to change our tactics.” Zailiner consoled the green Pegasus. “He’s no ordinary opponent, but he has to have a weakness! Let’s do a few hit-and-runs and see how far that takes us!”

“Negative.” The knight spoke in a mechanical tone. “I will not allow you to test me. Prepare to be annihilated.”

The two ponies flapped their wings in unison and circled around the oversized knight, launching flurries of magical bolts which bounced off every single inch of steel on his armor. The steel knight seemed to have lost his patience with the duo; with one huge swing of his throwing arm, he sent his gigantic blue trident spinning into the air, flying towards the duo.

“Moshi! Strafe left!” The green Pegasus swung himself to the side just in time to avoid the spinning trident, only to find himself fixated in mid-air, unable to flap his wings.

“Crap!” Zailiner shouted in astonishment. “He’s trapped us… in some sort of eastern magic! I can’t stop it!”

The metallic knight lifted his hands upward, and, with a flick of his wrist, the blue trident changed its trajectory, and began spinning toward the helpless and weakened alicorn strapped behind the valiant Pegasus.

“Zail! Watch out!” Moshi barely had the time to utter those words from his lips before feeling the coldness of the trident coming right behind him-

“W-what is the meaning of this!?” The blubbery mule looked in bewilderment as a tiny blue cat creature seemingly plopped out of nowhere, and slammed the trident right down into the ground. “Alex! What are you doing!? Stop them! Stop them all!”

“A minor setback.” The steel knight tried his best to retain his composure. “I will simply eliminate you before putting the alicorn’s head on a pike-

“Impossible. Someone… someone is canceling out my powers-

Moshi felt a wave of relief as the enigmatic force that kept him into the air dissipated, and he gently floated down toward the ground.

“What are you doing you oaf!” The mule frantically leapt up into the air as the rebels before him are being freed for whatever force that once kept them paralyzed. “Take them out! If they so much as to hurt my chances of getting a good review from that news cruiser, I will have your metal head! Do you hear me Alex?! Stop them RIGHT NOW!”

The steel knight looked toward the blue cat clutching his prized trident like a plush toy. “No. You are not the one responsible for freeing them. Reveal yourself this instant.”

“Not bad.” A blue-and-dark dog-like warrior appeared right behind the blue cat creature. “It’s just too bad I possess the same eastern power as you have; otherwise, we’d be defenseless against you.”

The steel knight was not amused by this sudden change of events. “I don’t kill unnamed foes. Identify yourselves!”

The blue-and-dark warrior raised his hands into the air, and stretched out his legs in a standard eastern-battle stance. “I am the knight of Aura; I was trained in over 200 martial arts, all of them capable of putting quite a nice dent in that suit of yours.”

“And I am Shinx!” The bluish cat proudly proclaimed. “I like salads and long walks never, but I think that’s beside the point; we are both proud members of the proud BBTS, and you’d better watch out; you’ve got some nerve fighting an injured mare like this, and we’re going to dish it all right back at you!”

“A likely story.” With yet another flick of his arm, the blue trident popped out of the cat’s tiny paws, and flew right into the knight’s hand. “My power still exceeds yours; try as you might, you cannot defeat me now, not with the state you are in as of now.” The knight pointed his trident toward the team of four: “This little farce had gone on long enough; I shall end this-

A sudden burst of realization struck the metallic knight as he briefly pondered about the mechanism that brought about these fighters to him. He could feel the stadium receiving much more light than the floodlights can pump out. The knight looked up to the darkened sky, and noticed the colossal cruiser that was flying over the stadium, the lights fixed on the bottom of the ship radiating its intense burst of light down onto the weathered stadium ground.

“What is the meaning of this?!” The chunky mayor stared at the gigantic space ship hovering overhead. “I thought I told them to come in tomorrow!”

The gigantic shutter mounted on the bottom of the cruiser began to slide open, as Moshi, Zailiner and the doctor found themselves shrouded in a warm, bright light, and in the process of being lifted into the ship.

“The cruiser we’re supposed to hijack is actually helping us?!” Zailiner uttered in disbelief, looking down only to see the metallic knight advancing toward them with the gigantic blue trident.

“Oh no you don’t!” The dog-warrior made a swift decision, picking up the blue cat creature beside him, and chucked it toward the mechanical warrior.

“Too easy!” The metallic knight attempted to deflect the incoming projectile with a mighty swing of his trident, only to have the blue furry creature sticking right on the trident’s neck.

“Excuse me sir,” the blue cat inquired, “have you accepted the church of electrocution?”

The knight felt a jolt of energy coursing through his entire being as the clue cat sent several Giga-volts of electrical energy through the conductive trident. Try as hard as he might, the knight’s metallic armor was unable to resist pure electricity from reaching his veins. For what seemed to be the first time in a long, long time, the knight shrieked in pain, as he forcibly ripped the blue cat from his armor, and flung him across the worn-out court. With that done, the knight armed his trident once more, only to find his Pegasus targets disappearing into the ship.

“Well, this was certainly unexpected.” Franswicz attempted to fix his frizzled white hair before getting a better look at his new surroundings. This news cruiser seemed to have been fully modified for open warfare; drones of ponies, humanoids and other creatures alike donned the attire that donned the unmistakable label of “BBTS”.

“Friend of yours, Moshi?”

For a few seconds, the Pegasus seemed to be frozen with glee. He could see most of his old friends, trotting about the cruiser as if life for each of them has returned to a time before their precious space station blew up. The green Pegasus leapt straight amidst the crowd, shaking and hugging each and every one of their former friends that he saw. Most of them a more surprised to see this strange green Pegasus being unreasonable friendly to them; although all of them are more than glad to see their precious co-leader, harmed but alive, resting comfortably on his back.

Moshi’s spree of rampant hugs was interrupted by a certain news personality approaching from within the bridge.

“At first, we thought it’ll be a fool’s errand to go against the Syndicate; but I believe, with you on our side, we may just be able to do this.”

The rather livid news cast stopped right in front of the green Pegasus as well as the worn-out alicorn, and extended his hand toward them in good faith.

“Hi there, Steven Flex, news anchor, TV personality, and an ally to your cause. It’s been too long, Miss Zailiner, and you too, Moshi.”

The green Pegasus, upon hearing his name, slammed his right hoof smack in the news cast’s hand. “Honestly, you were the LAST person I expected to save my sorry hide. I guess we’re even… you know, from THAT time.”

A more than satisfied grin spread across Steven’s face as he began to recount his side of the story: “Ever since you disappear about two years ago, the galaxy had gone mad, and that’s why I’ve decided to bring my own special brand of justice back into the system, and, with just a bit of luck, I managed to convince my supervisor at galactic studios to pay for a special trip across the galaxy. For the last two years, I have been traversing across the galaxy on this news cruiser, exploring exotic places under the guise of doing a news cast, while secretly gathering up BBTS members that became stranded when they’ve fled the space station. I managed to gather several members just by happenstance, but I’ve somehow managed to convince an oracle to help me on my search. With the oracle’s help, I’ve been able to locate lost BBTS members with ease; I was also informed of your location, and the changes that had been done to one very special pony. I have nearly located all of your lost friends, but I believe we have a more pressing matter at hand. You’ve suffered through much, Moshi; let us bring your alicorn friend into the medic bay so we can apply some antibiotics and I can show you around the ship a bit before we-

The news cast finally noticed the blue doctor colt standing close to the teleporting station; he seemed to become rather pale, sweating profusely and twitching a whole lot more than usual. “Well, we’d better get your doctor friend into the med bay as well, come, friend; let’s get you lying down on one of those soft hospital beds before we-

“WE CAN’T!” The doctor sharply exclaimed, “Uh, I, I mean we can’t relax just yet; that metallic knight fellow we fought before was a friend; he just need a bitof convincing to fight for our cause!”

“Plus,” Moshi added, “He also have a force field that prevents us from leaving too!”

“A force field?” Steven inquired. “Well, our sensors didn’t find any of these force fields right now; perhaps he turned it off?”

The blue doctor began sweating even more as he fiddled with his words: “Look! I… I need to stop him, I mean, to convince him to join us, alone; you can’t come with me. I’m sure this will be quick, plus, this planet has no defenses against space ships, so, if you could all just give me about 5 minutes to convince the guy to come back with us….”

“Are you sure about that” Moshi questioned the unnerved colt. “That guy was pretty dangerous; maybe we should let Aura come with you, so he can dispel his weird eastern magic that he-

“Just wait for me!” The doctor screamed at the crew before pressing hard against the “descend” button inside one of the teleporter chambers. A beam of light threw him onto the dry grass beneath, and the panicking blue colt made a mad dash toward the broken-down town hall. Soon as he was certain he was outside earshot of the allies back on the cruiser, the twitchy doctor began spewing all forms of swear and curse words, condemning every single pony inside of the cruise ship, as well as their ancestors and all their possible descendants. He tore through the empty streets, cursing with every single step he took. He sprang the broken double doors of the office building wide open, ran past the empty, guard-less halls of justice, and darted right into the only lit office in the entire building, violently swinging the office door open, revealing the mayor and the knight, sitting side by side, their conversation frozen mid-sentence due to this appearance of a twitchy intruder.

“Wha-what is the meaning of this?!” The mule of a mayor demanded. “The nerve of you rebels! The very nerve of you to intrude on my personal office! Alex! Kill this lout! Poke him with your… spear thing and roast him over a fire! Make mincemeat out of this… Alex?! Are you even listening to me? Alex!”

The steel knight did not respond. He simply sat there, silent and motionless, staring at the mad and loosely sane blue doctor of a pony. The poor creatures trembled in a mix of rage and disappointment, barely latching onto the door to keep himself from collapsing onto the office floor. Beads of sweat and refuse clung to his dangling white hair, dripping down as the doctor gasped for breath. The mule and the knight stared in solemn silence for what seemed to be minutes on end, before the quivering clown of a doctor finally began to speak.

“For two years, two, long and arduous years, our plan went without a hitch. Nobody caught on to us, or even suspected us. One by one… we killed off all the ponies that stood by him, fought for his ideals. Heck, we even managed to get that fat, disgusting pig of an alicorn to give up the only thing of value on her just so we can beef him up, making him unstoppable. We could have manipulated him; we could have made him into our greatest asset. All that was left to be done… was for you to kill her tonight. That overweight, pus-covered, ingratiating, ugly, spoiled, dreadful, stupid wench! We set up the perfect trap, and lured them right into it. If we would have killed that dribbling, hornless, BRAINLESS waste of space, he would have been ours to control, to do as we please. We could have had a GOD at our command, but thanks to that oaf of a reporter who literally came out of thin air, both him and that, that repulsive sub-creature are now under the influence of an army of… them! …I should have done it. I should have strangled her when I had the chance. She was just sleeping there, this morning, right before he woke up. All I needed to do, was to place both my hooves on that, that revolting mare, and twist her blubbery, grimy neck until she was blue in the face- no, until she was purple, until her sickly, big, red eyes popped out of her eye socket like a, a-

The twitchy blue colt suddenly found himself unable to draw breath, due to a sharp piece of the trident’s head somehow became lodged inside of his abdomen, piercing his diaphragm, nearly ripping it in two. The metallic knight leaned in close to the colt as he desperately moved his jaws in a failed attempt to draw breath, and watched as the doctor’s face contorted due to the cold piece of steel penetrating his entire being.

“And just so you know,” The knight whispered, “I actually thought she was kinda cute.”

With one forceful jerk, Alex pulled his giant trident out of the dying doctor, and watched as his former conspirator slumped to the floor. With that done, the metal knight stepped over the fresh corpse, and began marching out the door.

The fat mule is rather perplexed at his body guard’s motives. “Wait, just where do you think you are going? Come back and help me with this corpse!”

Without turning his head, the knight spoke to his former employer for the last time:

“Sorry mayor, but I think I’m going to take a walk. That green guy, he has potential, and once he gets used to that new body of his, he is going to be a force to be reckoned with.” And with that, he began waltzing away from the office filled with drying blood.

“It’s been fun; I think I’ll work on my moves a bit more; can’t lose to him on account of lack of effort, now can I?”

Achievement Unlocked: I thought she was cute, too

“There is but one more thing you needed to do before the night is done,” Steven guided the green Pegasus a
s they walked toward the bridge of the cruiser. “We managed to retrieve the internal black box of your space station from your wreckage, and deciphered the emergency signal the station sends out to alert all the members of troubles, and to inform the members of the current location of the station. We’ve integrated the very signal into our own ship, and, if you were to press that big red button in the middle of the master control panel, our ship would send out a signal throughout the galaxy that will not only alert all the remaining clan members of your where-about, it will also let the Syndicate, as well as the rest of the galaxy realize that justice didn’t really die. Now, Moshi, you don’t have to press that button if you really don’t feel up to the task, we are equipped to take on the Syndicate in a, more covert manner. And yet, I think I already knew what your response shall be.”

Moshi leaned over the master control panel, his face reflected from the shiny red button sitting neatly amidst all the complex levers and switches. The face that looked back at him was no longer the happy pink pony clan master that he once remembered; rather, it is that of a nameless green Pegasus possessing nothing but the skin on his body.

“And so, it begins again.”

*click*.

Dear Clan Leader Moshi:

It took us two years to build you back together. We scrapped together the best parts we could possibly find, and infused them, along with an alicorn horn into your very being, in order to create the perfect fighting machine. However, I now realize that the thing that made you powerful was not your implant wings, nor your enhanced muscle, or even that rare and precious alicorn horn nestling inside of you. You have will power, and with that will power, you can exceed even the body you have today, and fight amongst the gods. I look forward to meeting you again someday, when all of the bureaucracy is done and over with. Let’s have a rematch then, just the two of us.

Sincerely,

Alex

B.B.T.S. Adventure #7: Beyond The Stars (Part 1)

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BBTS Adventure #7:

Beyond The Stars (Part 1)

“Something the matter, m’lord?” The fancy owl gently lifted the fancy teacup from the silver platter, and placed it on top of the tiny circular plate atop the dark, mahogany table. The entire room fell into a brief moment of silence, as the reclusive bear listened to the gentle hums emanating from his space cruiser’s enormous engines.

“Kant.” The bear finally spoke. “Do I look like a monster to you?”

“Well, I suppose all of us are at some point.” The owl made a gesture to leave the room, though the bear could just barely detect the hint of annoyance his servant had toward the subject.

“We did the right thing you know.”

The owl halted his gentle steps, still retaining barely any hint of his eagerness to avoid this subject, long as he could, as the lonely bear sitting in the middle of this luxurious suite continued his rant.

“As the leader of the Syndicate, my objective is simple; as long as we can push the universe toward complete and utter chaos within a two year limit, everything would have been alright; we could have rebuilt society from scratch, and I might have been the man leading this newly-reformed galaxy. We thought of awakening discord, the prince of chaos, to achieve our goal almost instantaneously. However, those… mercenaries, who called themselves the Bronies Beyond The Stars, stopped the prince from his revival, utterly crushing him with their combined strength. So in order to prevent them from reaching their goal, we crushed them, those… people that had done nothing wrong.”

The bear paused for a moment, trying his hardest to recall the memories that are still fresh in his mind.

“After that, we took control of the government, and led criminals loose into the streets in order to raise the chaos level; not only did we managed to slaughter even more bystanders, we’ve still haven’t managed to reach total chaos within our galaxy.” The bear took hold of the tiny teacup in front of him, inhaling the soft aroma emanating from his warm drink. “And now, that Bronies Mercenary clan reformed itself, just in time for our two year deadline to end as well.”

“Master, surely you are not suggesting for us to abandon our plan?” The butler owl queried in anticipation.

“I’m afraid not, Kant.” The bear sank back into his sofa, his face became grim with worries. “We had wronged too many lives for our plan to end now. Send words to the bridge. The final option is at hand; we have the BBTS’s new coordinates, and we must eliminate them before-

“The End.”

Meanwhile, a massive news cruiser, filled to the brim with BBTS members, drifted about the empty void of space, unaware of the impending doom that was about to befell unto them. Moshi, a green Pegasi that had barely escaped his atomic doom just 2 years ago, have finally returned to take charge of his beloved clan; however, all is not well at this moment, as a pesky blue cat in a pink, frilly dress somehow managed to sneak his way into the ship’s conference room, making a slight scene as he pestered the newly-revived clan leader about his ordeals back on the ground.

“Look, Shinx,” The green Pegasus tried to comfort his teammate. “I’m sorry we didn’t pick you up at the stadium, but that was a… rather intense situation, and we were definitely in no shape to have formulated a sound plan-“

“Oh for your sake, Moshi!” The blue cat creature in a frilly dress interjected the green Pegasus. “While you were relaxing in this awesome space ship with indoor heating, me and Aura were freezing our respective butts off in that stupid 5-star galactic hotel! They didn’t even have a thermostat for each room like we do! Oh, by the way Mr. Flex, we sorta used your credit card number on some things; don’t worry about it too much ok?” The blue cat made a rather adorable gesture to the bittersweet-looking Steven Flex, who could only be glad that the massive drain on his three bank accounts was not the result of a sabotage made by the syndicate.

“Anyways, do you even know what I have to do to just, survive in the streets?!”

“I thought you had Steven’s credit card.” The green Pegasus had a puzzled look on his face. “Does it have something to do with dressing up like that?”

“Uh…no.” The blue male cat with the frilly dress gave his clan leader a rather estranged look. “This is boring. I need to go potty.” And with that, the rather eccentric blue cat trotted out, leaving the entire conference room in utter silence.

“Well, I believe I was just forgiven.” Moshi breathed a sigh of relief and contention. “Anyhow, onto the matter at hand.” The confident leader turned his attention to the recently-robbed news reporter. “I believe you’ve had news to report?”

“Well I do indeed.” Steven Flex regained his composure. “The antibiotics are working wonders on your co-leader, Zailiner, an alicorn who had her horn cut off, and left it exposed for a rather prolonged period of time. However, she doesn’t seem to be getting any better; her infection is gone, but she just seemed to be failing, somehow.”

“Well, what’s wrong with her? Do we, do we not have enough medication for her?”

“That’s the thing.” Steven tried his best to answer the clan leader as gently as possible. “There is nothing wrong with her, except for the fact that her organs are wearing down at an alarming rate. It was almost as if she’s just… getting old.”

The news reporter made a slight pause, waiting for the clan leader to interject. He looked up, only to see the clan leader, in a rather fit of panic, standing up from his chair, grabbing him by his shirt collar, and flung him toward the hallway. Before the reporter had time to regain his composure, a deafening blast, coming from the window, next to the chair he was just sitting on, propelled him into the hallway, just in time for the green Pegasus, with several shocked BBTS members in tow, to rush out of the meeting hall whilst depressing the “lock room” button on the side of the hallway. The metallic doors to the conference room slid shut before the vacuum of space could have sucked anyone into the void of space.

It took the shocked reporter a full minute to register the direness of the situation: the news cruiser is under attack, by the only other force in the galaxy that wishes to eliminate them; the Syndicate, a mysterious organization that took over the galactic counsel, wishes to eliminate all traces of mercenaries within the universe, and, from the sounds of cannonballs outside, the reporter had gathered that the syndicate is in the process of launching a full-on assult at the BBTS’s last bastion of existence. He lifted himself up from the ship’s floor, and bolted toward the ship’s bridge. As he approached the cruiser’s steering control, the panicking reporter could identify their attackers via the huge display windows sprawled across the control room. The Syndicate’s flag ship, a mega-Cruise ship, just slightly more massive than the news cruiser, swept itself across the news cruiser with the speed of a juggernaut, hurtling massive balls of explosives at the unprepared cruiser. BBTS members throughout the bridge scrambled to their stations, launching waves of intercepting missiles in order to blow up the onslaught of the explosive cannon balls right before they made impace to the cruiser. Steven motioned to the cadet sitting at the sitting at the main control deck, as he assumed control of the cruiser. Eight years of news-van piloting experience seemed to be finally paying off, as the seasoned news reporter glided the ship a smooth 130 degrees by sheer reflex.

“Mr. Flex! What is your problem!?” One of the co-pilots voiced his complaint, as the massive cruiser just shifted itself 40 degrees away from the horizontal position.

“Oops, I suppose this isn’t a bloody van now is it?” Steven’s coat pocket began to vibrate slightly, as he pulled out his touch phone from his front shirt pocket. “Hold on; gotta take this call. This is Steven, what’s up?”

The green Pegasus’s voice emanated from the phone: “Steven! Where are you right now?”

“I’m at the bridge mate!”

“Ah, so that was you shifting the ship just now.”

Steven tried to imagine the Pegasus’ facial expression as the colt made a slight pause. “I do believe I’m stuck here for now.” Steven replied. “Anything I can help you, bridge-wise?”

“You are right where I need you to be!” The clan leader answered. “Listen; I’m going to need you to launch missile pod #3, stat!”

“No can do, captain!” The reporter rebutted. “You’ve probably haven’t seen what’s coming at us right now, but that thing is bloody massive! There’s no way our missiles can even make a dent on those titanic walls, not unless… we….”

Steven poked the control panel’s touch screen, shifting through the various images of the different rooms within the ship. He snapped his finger as the screen focused itself on a rather vacant training room on a remote part of the cruiser’s west wing. He pressed the intercom button on the control panel, and shouted his commands into the room inside his monitor:

“Er… this is your pilot speaking er… please vacate the room er… over.”

The reporter watched as several civilian ponies scrambled away from the near-empty training room. As soon as the last mare’s hind legs are out of the door, the hot-blooded reporter slammed the training room door shut with a lockdown command.

“Mr. Flex! The co-pilot flew into a panicking rant. “Something’s wrong with missile pod #3! There’s some maniac stuffed inside the chamber with a load of C4 stuck on the igniter! We can’t fire-“

The co-pilot paused his rant, realizing that the reporter had already depressed his finger on the missile’s launch button.

“Mr. Flex! What the hell’s your problem?!”

“Alright rookie!” Steven replied as a sharp, ripping sound echoed through the launch bay. “This is what we professionals like to call a ‘killer shot’!”

The side of the cruiser led out a bright, orange explosion as a green Pegasus inside of a tattered space suit was forcibly flung out of the cruiser’s cannon-head. A shield made of pure magic surrounded the Pegasus, shielding him from the blast of the explosion, and keeping him from freezing to death in the sheer vacuum of space. The force of the explosion propelled him toward the massive enemy cruise ship at an alarming speed, a speed that is still not capable of penetrating the thick hulls of the enemy cruise ship.

“I’m not done yet, Moshi!”

The reporter redirected the intercom to broadcast throughout the entire ship, and shouted into the microphone.

“Er… this is your pilot speaking er… you might want to hold on to er… oh sod it all! Hey! All of you! Grab onto something nailed to the floor! This is going to get bumpy!”

“Mr. Flex!” The nervous co-pilot exclaimed. “We can’t just repeat that stunt again! We’ll all die!”

The co-pilot’s words fell into deaf ears, as the reporter spun hard onto the ship’s virtual steering wheel. The entire news cruiser made a sharp groan as the powerful engines thrust the entire left flank of the cruiser sharply toward the massive enemy cruise ship.

“Mr. Flex! What the hell is your problem!?”

“Alllllllrighty mate!” The excited reporter shouted into the still-active intercom, his blood-shot eyes fixated on the flying streak of green Pegasus flinging toward the massive, cannon-ball-spewing warship. “Listen up! This is what we professionals like to call ‘I’m three days into my field work without a break and I really, REALLY need my COFFEE right now!’”

The enormous news cruiser’s western flank impacted the cruiser at a huge and accelerated speed; the now-empty training room absorbed most of the impact as it crumpled into oblivion. Steven cranked the engines on the ship to maximum speed; a dull groaning sound echoed throughout the news cruiser, as it strained itself, pushing against the gigantic enemy cruise ship with all its might. The enemy cruise ship began to rotate itself under the great force exerted by the equally as great news cruiser; the wide-open launching decks began to point toward the incoming, speeding Pegasus. The enemy cruiser seemed to have taken note of this sudden change of events, as it began to slowly closing the launching deck gates shut with its impressively impenetrable sealing gates. The engines on the opposing side of the enemy warship began roaring into life, as the entire body of the massive ship pushed back against the news cruiser in an attempt to turn its ever-narrowing openings away from the daring green Pegasus.

“Mr. Flex! What the hell’s your problem?!”

A grim and unnervingly serious look came onto the reporter’s face, as his blood-shot eyes turned itself away the exploding battlefield of death, and onto the sweating and panicking co-pilot whimpering inside of his seat.

“Do you want to know what my problem is?”

The co-pilot dared not to answer that question.

“I’ll tell you what my problem is, private.”

The reporter lifted up a secret patch underneath the control panel, and gently rested his trembling index finger dangerously close to the skull and cross button hidden beneath the controls.

“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always wanted to live fast. I’ve made make-shift cars out of soap-boxes and spare wheels I found on the neighbor’s kid’s bikes, but that wasn’t satisfying enough for me. I wanted to be faster, faster than anyone, or anything had even been, and that is why I’ve taken a job driving news vans across the galaxy, which led us to this very point in time.”

Steven took his eyes away from the traumatized co-pilot, and resumed staring into the explosion-riddled battlefield.

“For 20 years, ever since I’ve gotten enough money to purchase this magnificent beast of a news cruiser, I’ve been modifying it in secret. With every part I’ve added to it, my ship became stronger, faster, and more resilient than the rest of the scrap heaps combined!”

Quivering with sheer excitement, the reporter with the blood-shot eyes began to depress the skull-and-cross button that led to a secret francium reactor that had remained dormant for decades.

“No… not when I shift into MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE!”

A massive burst of radiation emanated from the right side of the ship, as the cruiser pushed back against the enemy warship with renewed strength. The dual engines on the enemy cruise ship could not match up against the sheer strength of the incredible francium turbo boost led out by the news cruiser, and gave way to the crushing force of the boosted impact. The launch decks pointed itself directly at the speeding Pegasus right as the boost died down, despite the openings becoming ever thinner.

“No, no no! They’re closing too fast! He’s not going to make it!” The reporter groaned, until he realized that his co-pilot just launched a fat rocket right at the speeding clan leader.”

“Private!” The reporter screeched. “What the hell’s your problem?!”

A colossal grin spread across the co-pilot’s face as he looked at his handiwork in action.

“Don’t worry Mr. Flex; watch this.”

The fat rocket whizzed past the magical green colt, and aimed itself toward one of the closing launch gates. It managed to get itself stuck inside of the launch gate, forcing the gate to leave an opening just wide enough for a colt to travel through. Moshi positioned himself for a diving maneuver, as he rushed into the opening of the gate, right as the fat rocket led out a dull explosion, its smokes obstructing the views from the insane reporter, and his equally as daring co-pilot.

Sweat began to bullet down the reporter’s forehead as he scanned the vicinity for any signs of the audacious green Pegasus.

“By my retirement fund!” The news anchor exclaimed. “Did he, did he make it?”

The metallic doors behind the green Pegasus slammed tight as they snapped the recently-exploded rocket in half. Moshi found himself to be inside of the enormous loading deck inside of flagship of the most powerful organization in the galaxy.

“Alright, Moshi, you can do this.” The green mare attempted to psych him up for the upcoming assault. “If I could just hijack the ship’s bridge, I can stop the cannonballs from bombarding my ship, and I’ll have more time to sort this all out, somehow.”

Moshi could sense footsteps encroaching toward him. The green colt’s explosive entrance have attracted quite a bit of attention toward his general area, and, as the drones of syndicate troopers approached him, Moshi could sense something is very wrong.

Conrad, the changeling queen as her swarm of changeling minions, approached from the catwalk. Eshredder, piloting her ridiculously over-sized and over-modified fighter jet, hovered above. Kuyon, the gray mare with a love for pastries, wielding Moshi’s old modified bazooka, now painted with a shade of gray, and armed to the brim with muffins, approached from the loading bay, whilst Teddeck, the astute brown unicorn of arcane magic, teleported to surround Moshi on the side. Moshi was stunned; the mares that donned the syndicate uniform, who stood before him, was once members of the BBTS; they were once comrades in arm, and yet, they now aimed their respective weapons at their former leader, with spite, bitterness and guild on their faces.

“Conrad! E-Man!... Guys!” Moshi exclaimed. “What are you doing here?! Why are you all doing this!?”

The changeling queen peered unto Moshi with a look of anger and remorse. “Look! Boss! There’s no time to explain!” She readied her minions, as the rest of the former BBTS members cocked their weapons. “We shouldn’t have defeated discord; and now everything is messed up, more messed up than you can imagine! There’s not much time left! Your ship busted our secret weapon just now, and now we really, really don’t have time for you right now!”

The queen looked at her comrades, who share her mixed feeling of sorrow and regret. “You know the protocol, guys. Aim at the head; we can’t let him live a third time.”

The green Pegasus jumped high into the air right before Eshredder fired her colorful missiles at the ground where he once stood. He glided into the air, masterfully evading the colorful explosions that only managed to shake off the excess of changelings flying about. Kuyon, launched a barrage of oversized-explosive muffins toward her former clan leader, and, as Teddeck’s horn began to glow, the muffins was transformed into magically-infused-homing-exploding pastries of death. The deadly muffins, explosions and flying minions proved to be futile however, as the green Pegasus, armed with both wings and magic, managed to avoid, deflect or even redirect the incoming projectiles with some difficulty.

“What are you doing you louts?!” Conrad made some rather angry demands of her teammates. “Aim! Aim at that green… flying thing!”

“Well, I didn’t expect him to have wings and magic!” Eshredder screamed, as he tried his hardest to collect the speeding green streak inside of his focal lens. “I can’t even track him!”

As Kuyon began to load another muffin into Moshi’s old cannon, she found herself unable to lift up her weapon.

“What in the world?!” The poor mare proclaimed, only to a blue wolf-like humanoid holding her bazooka in place with his special eastern magic.

“Ted!” The mare exclaimed, “Help me stop this crazy guy!”

The magical unicorn attempted to use her magic, only to be interrupted when A pink pony inside of a space suit hoisted her up into the air, and flung her toward the other end of the room. The changeling queen swept her army of darkness toward her partners in distress, only to have her precious flock led astray by a purple Pegasus, the entire swarm distracted and disoriented by the signals gave off by the purple flying pony.

“Curse it all!” the changeling queen swore at the top of her lung. “Where did these loyalists come from?!”

“By the Luna.” Eshredder’s sight became fixated on the weary, hornless gray alicorn inside the loading dock, using what remained of her magic in order to teleport BBTS members into the enemy warship little by little. “Looks like our old co-leader is leaking her men onto our ship!” She aimed her heavy missile launchers at her former superior. “We’re so close! I can’t… I just can’t let her do this right now! I’ll regret it late; but for now, she must be elimin-

Eshredder’s enormous jet shook violently as a bolt of blue thunder crashed into the left main thruster. The skilled pilot struggled to keep the jet plan from crashing into the sides of the launching bay, as she re-routed her aim toward the blue Pegasus that bumped into her flying vehicle. The blue flying mare goes by the name of Atrixy, her old partner back in the BBTS.

“Eshredder!” Atrixy addressed to the pony in the jet plane. “We were friends! Comrades in arms! What happened to you that made you betray Moshi like this?!”

“I don’t have to explain anything to you!” The pilot shook her hooves into the air. “The BBTS ruined everything! I’m just here to make things right again!”

“By killing everypony?!” The blue Pegasus yelled. “You can’t fix anything with murder!”

“Get out of here Trixie.” Eshredder look at her once valued partner with disgust. “We don’t have time for this, but if you want to stop us, to stop the world from turning then….”

“I will stop you with all that I am!”

The jet fighter roared to life, chambers on its hulls lifting themselves up, revealing a multitude of turrets, missiles, and rays. The blue Pegasus motioned toward her leader to flee the premise, as even more former BBTS syndicate members flooded the room, greeted only by the multitude of loyal BBTS members, teleported to this deck by Zailiner’s waning magic.

“Moshi! We’ll handle things here!” Atrixy yelled. “You need to get to the command center, and stop those syndicate bullies from destroying our entire ship!”

“I can’t just leave you!” Moshi sternly replied. “I can’t abandon my teammates-

“THIS IS NOT UP FOR DISCUSSION!” The normally calm blue Pegasus became almost unnaturally forceful as she tried to force Moshi out of the ensuing bloodbath. “You need to go! Now!”

Moshi was hesitant, but he understood what must be done. He doesn’t know why his beloved former members had turned against him, nor does he know why a mysterious group that called themselves the syndicate decided to rein chaos upon the land. However, the Pegasus know that at this moment, the syndicate is trying to kill off his friends, and, if he were to save all of them, Moshi needs to talk to the leader of the syndicate, right there and then.

Moshi ran. He ran, far away from the chaos of the BBTS vs. BBTS battle, far away from his needy friends, whilst surrounding the syndicate troopers around him with a teleporting spell that sends them plummeting onto a nearby planet. His flapped his wings as he jettisoned himself toward the ship’s central bridge. At the precise moment when his hooves made contact with the control station’s metallic door, Moshi focused his thoughts, as an eerie green glow began dispersing outward from his hoof all the way to the door. The warm glow of the alicorn magic inside of Moshi began harmonizing the green Pegasus and the gate, allowing him to slip into the control room, little by little. But before the green colt could fully immerse himself into the gate, his ears picked up a rather familiar pitter-patter of footsteps, as a slender purple and green baby dragon popped up behind the colt. Moshi knew this dragon well; his name is Spike, a name that was personally given to him by none other than Moshi himself, when he rescued the little tike from the clutches of a firey doom, and adopted him as his own son. However, this devious little dragon had since betrayed his father, and became the very first BBTS member to have joined the Syndicate. Now, just as Moshi could not literally tear himself away from his own magic, the little dragon appeared before him again, fully capable of disrupting the green Pegasus’ concentration, leaving him permanently stuck inside the thick metallic doorway he was so keen oh phasing through.

“Well hello there Spike!” Moshi replied with a tone of bittersweet. “It’s been too long; how have you been lately?”

“The tiny dragon blushed a shade of pink, looking even guilty as the BBTS clan mates that joined forces with the syndicate. “Moshi.” The little dragon stuttered. “I’m not here to hurt you. I, I know this is weird, what with us joining forces to stop you and all, but I think it is time to come clean. There is a reason that all of us are doing what we do; we-

Before the dragon could explain his most unfortunate disposition, a puple Pegasus managed to break away from the battlefield, and charged himself at the traitorous dragon. The baby dragon tumbled to the floor, only to see a strange purple Pegasus staring at him from above.

“SECOND DIVISION, BRANCH DELTA SQUAD PRIVATE JENKINS, REPORTING FOR DUTY, SIR!” The purple Pegasus voiced his ranks, as he picked up the tiny dragon, and placed him into a choke hold.

“I WILL NOT LET YOU HARM MY SUPERIOR OFFICER IN COMMAND WHILE HE IS VULNERABLE TO ATTACK! SIR!”

“Unhand me!” The dragon demanded. “I wasn’t going to hurt my father a second time!”

“WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, SIR!” The purple Pegasus yelled at the top of his lungs, “I NO LONGER BELIEVE YOU AFTER WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO US, SIR!”

“I’m not going to ask you again, knave!” Any hints of patience are lost to the dragon as he squirmed inside of the purple mare’s hooves. “At any moment, I could claim all the wealth in the galaxy to be mine, and believe me, you do not want to see me when I get greedy-

The metallic door to the control room suddenly opened by itself, and Moshi, losing his focus, bounced back away from the sliding doors. The purple duo halted their bickering and followed their beloved leader as he trotted into the luxurious control room. The entire control room was carefully arranged with fancy furniture imported from across the galaxy; mahogany tables positioned itself neatly in front of the daring green Pegasus, with a lonely, war-tested bear inside of an oriental plated armor sitting snugly inside of his soft, purple-and-gold trimmed western sofa, sitting right opposites of the trio of intruders.

“Ah, good day, Monsieur Moshi. It’s good to finally meet you in person.”

“NOW JUST HOLD ON A DOG-GONE MINUTE!” The purple private lost his temper the moment he made eye contact with the bear inside of the control room. “STATE YOUR NAME AND OCCUPATION IN FRONT OF OUR GREAT AND POWERFUL LEADER AS DICTATED BY THE TRADITION OF OUR PACT OF WAR, YOU FILTHY DOG YOU!”

The lone bear answered the call of the soldier without hesitation: “My name is Polar Bear, despite my prolonged lineages branching back to my half-Ursa-Major ancestors.” The bear withheld his urges to partake in his usual mid-noon tea, and placed his massive paws firmly on his legs. “Although I believe you have figured out my occupations at this moment in time, I shall inform you nonetheless. I’m the prime directive, the overseer of this organization that I’d like to call “The Syndicate”, and I, of course, had issued the attack on all mercenaries in the galaxy, and, of course, am responsible for turning your men… against you.”

“I KNEW IT!” The headstrong purple private bellowed. “THIS YELLOW-LIVERED, NO GOOD CUR IS THE CAUSE OF ALL OF OUR WOES! PERMISSION TO ENGAGE THE ENEMY, SIR!”

“That won’t be necessary right now.” The green Pegasus calmed his spunky compatriot, and shifted his attention back onto the bear in the room. “Pardon my French, good sir, but what on earth drove you to do this?” The unnaturally calm Pegasus began to become just the slightest bit agitated as he voiced the opinion that he had kept inside of him for two entire years.

“There are people being hurt outside because you’ve branded any vigilantes a criminal; people with bad intentions are running loose on the street because you closed off all the jail cells; my brothers and sisters are fighting amongst each other because you’ve made them see us as enemies! Please, I want to know; what reason do you have for cause all of this, this madness?”

As if preparing his answers his entire life, the weathered bear wasted no time to respond:

“Back in my military days, I served the galactic council as the second lieutenant in the field of secret intelligence. I realized that you used to be in the army as well, Sergeant Major Moshi; we probably never met in person, seeing as how you rode on a fighter pilot whilst I am enticing a drunk, corrupt politician on the far side of the galaxy. But that isn’t what I needed to tell you. Back in my “real” army days, the boys and I have tracked down something that is moving toward us with little or no regard for Oldton’s laws of gravitation. Our first thought on the matter was that this was merely a space ship traveling into our tiny little milky way from some unknown void, but, as time passed, and the squad got better listening equipment, we’ve determined this, this thing, to be organic, and massive. That bloody thing was measured to be in the size range of planets combined, and it is heading toward us at an alarming speed.”

The owl man appeared from behind the silvery blinds, carrying 6 cups of piping hot tea. He walked toward the mahogany dining table, and began gently setting each fancy cup on the table top. The bear gently lifted his right paw and twitched his ring finger toward the owl butler before he brought the tea cups to the Pegasi duo. The owl man quickly retracted his wing hand, placing the steamy honeyed aroma drinks, and retreated back behind the blind carrying the two cups of tea laced with concentrated poison. With the situation defused, and his guests much more relaxed, the bear took up his tea cup, and took a gentle sip.

“As I was saying, this massive, organic being was headed right for our galaxy, so the government sent out a squad of men, including myself, to investigate the matter. We’ve managed to get close to the colossal beast and took up a sample of it into our space craft. We’ve quickly realized that this beast feeds on our feelings of unity and bonds of comradery, as the sample made us crazy, and fought amongst one another. Unfortunately, due to my staggering size, the rest of my team didn’t fare well against me, and… perished. With only me at the helm, I’ve made the tough choice of falling back with this valuable information about the beast, and the council made an even tougher choice with what I’ve found out: that thing is coming to devour our feelings of unity, and since no army can get close to that thing without losing their unity and attacking each other, we have to make sure it loses interested in us, and that means-

“By bringing about total chaos before it comes.” Moshi took the words right out of the bear’s mouth.

“So now you see, don’t you? Your teammates made the decision to abandon you, not out of spite, but rather, they’ve left you in order to save as much people as they can, before the end comes. Your changeling queen, your jet pilot, your adorable gray rocketeer, your magician as well as your own son… they all left you, because they wanted to spare everyone from a fate most foul; they’ve made the ultimate sacrifice to abandon the colt they respect the most in order to save the galaxy.”

With his story told, the war bear rose up from his seat, and roared at the Green Pegasus with a voice most commanding:

“And now, I ask you, as an army man to another: Without us, everything that we’ve some to know and love will perish! The creature that feeds on unity is near, and, as a member of the secret intelligence unit, I can absolve the crimes brought forth by you and all your little friends! Join me! Moshi of BBTS! Together, we shall save the entire Galaxy!”

The green Pegasus stood silent for a good long while, his face frozen in thought. After what seemed to be an eternity, he finally broke the lasting silence in the room.

“Jenkins.” Moshi directed at the purple Pegasus by his side. “I think you can do this better than I ever could. Go on, Tell Mr. Polar bear what we think of this plan of his.”

The seasoned war bear and the dragon wished to interject before sensing a severe change in the purple Pegasus’ facial expressions. The normally stern-looking private became red in the face, as she gritted her teeth, letting more than several veins popping out of his forehead. The whole room began to shake as the purple Pegasus strained herself, as if trying to unleash something inside of her that had been bottled up ever since she was a filly. Her grunts of rage became brasher and louder, as it finally reached a boiling point. With gusto, the Pegasus yelled, louder than ever before, shaking the entire cruise ship with a magnificent and nearly earth-shattering voice.

“WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, SIR! ME AND MOSHI NOW UNDERSTAND THE POSITION WHICH YOU ARE COMING FROM, BUT NO ARMY MEN SHOULD EVER DEAL WITH A PROBLEM BY RUNNING AWAY WITH HIS TAIL BETWEEN THEIR LEGS! IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT THIS MONSTER CAN DO TO US, AND IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT THE CONCIL DECIDES, AND IT DEFINITELY DOES NOT MATTER IF THAT THING CAN TAKE AWAY EVEN OUR FIGHITNG SPIRIT! AS LONG AS WE HAVE ONE MAN STANDING, AS LONG AS WE HAVE OUR FISTS AFIXED ON OUR WRIST, A TRUE ARMY MAN NEVER BACKS DOWN, AND NEVER SURRENDERS! IF THE HIGHER UPS TELLS AN ARMY MAN TO POINT HIS WEAPONS AWAY FROM THE ENEMY AND INTO THE FACE OF THE PEOPLE WE’RE TRYING TO PROTECT, THEN FORGET THE ARMY! WE’RE NOT SOLDIERS ANYMORE, LIEUTENANT POLAR, SIR! WE ARE THE BRONIES, FROM BEYOND THE STARS, WE BELIEVE THAT MEANS NEVER JUSTIFY THE ENDS! AND WE’D RATHER DIE FIGHITNG THIS BEAST, RATHER THAN TURNING LOSING OUR UNITY BEFORE THE BEAST EVER GOT CLOSE TO US! SORRY TO DISAPPOINT YOU, SIR! BUT YOUR GENEROUS OFFER…

"IS DENIED!!!!!!"

Out in the decks, every pony, BBTS and otherwise, stopped their fighting as private Jenkin’s words echoed throughout the entire war ship. The bear was stunned. He let go of the handle piece of the tea cup he was once holding in his paws, now broken into pieces due to the purple Pegasus’ incredible audible voice.

“That was an amazing speech, private.”

“THANK YOU FOR THE COMPLIMENT, SIR!” The Pegasus resumed. “I’VE LEARNED TO USE MY DIAPHRAM TO PROJECT MY VOICE IN MY THEATRICS CLASS BACK IN MY DAYS SPENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CANTERLOT!!!!... community college.”

“Well, Mr. Polar.” Moshi grinned with satisfaction. “Have we given you a clear enough answer yet?”

“That you have, Moshi, that you have.” The bear replied without pause. “So are you saying that you wish to fight this monster, knowing that it will rob you of your friendship?”

The confident green Pegasus nodded his head in agreement. “The BBTS will do anything in order to save not only the galaxy, but the entire universe from a threat such as this, this you can be sure of!”

“And what of Mr. Spike, and the rest of your teammate?” The bear shifted his attention toward the baby dragon, who had stayed silent the entire time. “He only acted according to my instructions; will you forgive his actions?”

“I cannot forgive someone when I wasn’t even mad at him in the first place.” Tears began streaming down the Pegasus as well as the baby dragon as they embraced in the first hug in well over two years. “Welcome back to the family, little guy.”

“I think I finally saw the errors of my ways.” The polar bear stated with an apologetic tone. “When I was just a cub, my family was taken away from me by bandits. I was thrown into the worst kind of orphanage where I endure through species discrimination, bullying as well as punishments from the headmasters for performing my chores just the tiniest bit out of place. I went through hell before the army finally found me, and took me into their ranks. From that day on, I’ve vowed to work with the army in order to protect the meek and the old, so that no child will be left without their family. When the army ordered for me to induce chaos into the world, I gladly and blindly obeyed my superiors under the assumption that the army would protect the people, at a huge cost to everyone. But as time went on, as I sent more and more innocent people into the same hell I endured as a kid, I’ve begun to rethink my choices, and began to have doubts about following my orders. I was blinded by following orders, I’ve forgotten the reason I’ve become a soldier in the first place.”

With his massive forearms, the veteran bear slammed his paws on his treasured mahogany table, sending off a vibration that shook the entire floor.

“I’m going to never hear the end of this from the galactic council, but scoff all that! Let’s Join forces, Moshi of the BBTS! I will NOT attain victory at any cost, not this time, because….”

“We’re going to save everyone!”

(To Be Continued)

DEAR CLAN LEADER MOSHI:

THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME THE HONOR OF SENDING YOU THE FINAL LETTER OF THE SERIES! I AM BEYOND HONORED! AND I WANT TO THANK YOU, THE GOOD FOLKS SITTING BEHIND THAT FORTH WALL, FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT OF OUR ADVENTURES, WHICH WILL MOSTLY LIKELY END, ON THE NEXT CHAPTER! AND NOW THAT THE TWO STRONGEST FORCES IN THE GALAXY HAVE FINALLY REACHED AN UNDERSTANDING, AND ARE USING THEIR COMBINED MIGHT AGAINST THEIR COMMON FOE, WILL THEY BE ABLE TO DEFEAT THIS MONSTROUS CRETURE WITHOUT LOOSING THEIR SENSE OF FRIENDSHIP? YOU CAN FINALLY FIND OUT HOW THIS SERIES… OF EVENTS, END, ON THE NEXT AND FINAL EPISODE OF THE….

BRONIES.

BEYOND.

THE.

STARS!!!!!!!!

WITH ALL DUE RESPECT,

Second Division, Branch Delta Squad Private Jenkins

BBTS Adventure the Finale: Beyond the Stars (Part 2)

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BBTS Adventure, the Grand Finale:

Beyond the Stars (Part 2)

Two enormous spacecraft, intertwined together by the sheer force of the battle that took place only moments ago, are cruising together, hand in hand, toward a common destination. The Syndicate and the BBTS, once bitter enemies, now march together with a single, common goal. Somewhere, in the depth of the universe, an enormous creature that feeds on unity awaits its next meal, and the twin mass battleship/cruiser, with its crews united against a single cause, serves as a rib eye-steak to monster. Thanks to prior misunderstood efforts of the Syndicate, the galaxy is in disarray and lacks unity, which spared the entire system from the hungry maws of the beast, although it had never been hungrier. Driven by its base desires, the beast advanced toward the all-you-can-eat buffet without any forethought what-so-ever, completely unaware of the trap that had been set for it.

“All preparations are complete,” the oriental grizzly bear that serves the leader of the syndicate announced to the green, magical Pegasus, Moshi Moshi, that is the leader of the BBTS. “We have gathered every piece of explosives from both our ships, and packed them neatly into one, enormous bomb.”

“Hey, not to be a Betty Downer, here, but are you sure we have enough firepower to blow that dreaded creature to kingdom come?” Steven Flex, the commander of the BBTS cruiser curiously inquired the grizzled bear. “I mean, we did hurl most of our explosives at each other, but even if we didn’t use it up, surely a creature of that magnitude won’t be completely eviscerated by our toys, however dangerous they may be.”

“Your words have a hint of truth to them.” The grizzled bear replied. “We have not a modicum of information about the exact size and density of the enemy we’re about to face off against; for all we’ve know, this much explosives won’t even do a dent to the creature. “Having said that, the grizzled leader looked toward his subordinates, who, despite being completely pre-occupied with the preparation works, looked completely terrified.

“But we have to try, or there will be no future for any of us anymore.”

The bear signaled for the crew on the hangar of the two flagships to vacate the premises. His minions scattered toward the upper decks, as an enormous cargo frigate, filled to the brim with explosives, is hauled onto the hangar bay.

“The loathsome beast feasts on our sense of unity and comradery, which would render anyone getting to close to it to become distraught, and forcibly disobey the orders given to them; therefore, we must attack it from a safe distance, with a frigate filled with the last of our weapons. We shall launch the cargo frigate toward the general location of the beast, and remotely control the frigate to ram into the horrible thing, and explode with our remote trigger. Hopefully, this will do enough damage to kill the beast, or at the very least, buy us enough time to think of another strategy against it.”

“Well, let’s hope to Celestia that our little package makes it to the proper recipient then.” The green Pegasus replied, as he watched the loaded cargo frigate launched out of the mangled flagship structure, and into the deep dark unknown… which seemed to be creeping toward the two flagships at an alarming pace!

“By the fires of Tartarus!” Moshi replied, as he realizes that the darkness in the distance is actually the shadow of a colossal creature that is advancing toward their location. “We’re getting to close to that accursed thing! We must fall back before succumbing to its influences!”

“I could not agree with you more!” The grizzly bear shouted, as he gave orders for the ship to propel itself away from the panic-inducing menace.

“Sir!” One of the cadets sitting at the ship’s control panel cried out. “Something is wrong! Something is going terribly, terribly wrong! The flagship… it’s being remotely controlled to fly toward the beast!”

The two commanders stood with their mouth agape at this sudden development.

“The ship, our flagship, is somehow being hacked into by the unmanned cargo frigate that we just sent out! Our control panel is being hacked into! We can’t do anything!”

“No….” The grizzled bear muttered. “An unmanned suicide bomber ship is incapable of hacking into the main servo. But that would mean….”

“There’s someone inside of the cargo frigate.” Moshi deducted. “And that someone has all of our weapons, and wanted to leave us as a distraction for the beast, so that they alone shall escape from this slaughter fest unscathed.”

The grizzly bear’s once somber face is wrought with rage. “To think that we, the greatest clan in the galaxy, and a special task force sent by the galactic council, are at the mercy of one greedy cur is enough to make my grizzly blood even more boiled!”

“There’s nothing that we can do.” The calm Pegasus remained collected. “We have no controls over our ships, and we have no weapons left on board. The only thing we can do right now….”

“Is to wait for a miracle.”

Crates of weapons and explosives rattled against one another as the explosive cargo frigate roared through the darkness of space. The owl-faced butler, Kant, once the loyal servant of the Syndicate, planted himself firmly on the seat of the Cargo frigate, the seat of power, diverting the frigate away from the black monstrosity, and sending Moshi and his friends to their doom. From the very moment he was initiated into the force, the crafty owl had always plotted to undermine his peers, and to steal away into the night, with valuables in tow. When the syndicate decided to face-off against the beast, Kant knew that he must flee the scene before he is caught up in the battle of the millennia.

“That idiotic teddy bear!” The owl swaggered. “He made his last mistake when he assigned me to set up the remote-control system!” Unbeknownst to his co-workers, for all the years that he had worked with the syndicate, the crafty butler had been covertly altering the control schemes of the Syndicate’s flagship to his own design; the syndicate flagship, whilst seemed normal from the outset, shall obey only Kant in a time of crisis. The remote-control system for the cargo frigate served as the last piece of puzzle that he needed to wrest control of the entire flagship from the grizzly bear, and plunge his former co-workers into the maws of death.

“With all of the weapons stored aboard this ship, I can easily make a very pretty penny in the black market, and retire into a mountain-side mansion! And now that I have manipulated the flagship to ram straight into that horrible monster, none shall be alive to spoil my fun! I’m in the clear now!”

The wily owl’s premature celebration was cut short when the sound of slow, dragging footsteps rang out from deep inside the cargo bay of the frigate. The owl initially dismissed it as the rattling of the crates, but the slow, dragging footsteps only became louder, as a meek figure inched toward the cockpit of the cargo frigate.

“Well that just can’t be.” The owl muttered to himself. “Everyone else thought that this ship is going to blow up! No one is crazy enough to have actually hopped aboard this ship… could they?” Through the rear-view LCD screens, the concerned owl peered into the back of the cockpit. Through the crystal clear mirror, Kant spotted a familiar face in this very unlikely scenario. A tiny grey, hornless alicorn stood weakly against the doorway, her meek body barely able to support her head, yet she looked at the owl man with the sternest of gaze. Kant has seen this alicorn before, back when he and his colleagues were laying waste to the BBTS’s space station.

Behind Kant stood Zailiner, the co-leader of the BBTS.

“I knew you were up to no good, so I followed you here.” The alicorn commanded with a firm gaze. “Give back control of the flagship, or things might get messy for one of us here.”

“Well, I cannot say I have seen this coming.” The owl man calmly retorted. “I mean, who would have ever thought that the once-mighty Zailiner, now a sickly, magic-less wing pony, would be the only thing that stands between me and my dues!” the owl man retorted. “But no matter; you’ve given away your horn to save your pitiful co-leader! You’re now weak, weak and powerless, and you cannot stop anyone, especially not a fully-trained government martial artist like me!”

The crafty owl placed the cargo frigate on autopilot, and rose from his seat to greet the unexpected interloper.

“I suppose your right.” The owl jested. “Things will get messy for one of us.”

Zailiner knew that Kant is correct. Having given away her horn, the magical tool for her immortality, the alicorn is no longer immortal, and no longer the spiffy, young mare that she used to be. She could feel the agents of time acting on her already-feeble body even as the sly owl advanced towards her; with each passing second, she could feel herself slipping away into the deep sleep. But deep down, the once-alicorn knew, it is yet her time; she needs to defeat the foe in front of her, else her friends would not live to see another day.

“I can’t fight like I used to anymore.” The once-alicorn dragged her dying body toward the fugitive. “I can’t jump, I can’t kick, and I don’t think I can fly that well any longer.”

“And your magic is almost all gone as well.” The owl pulled out a length of rope from within the ship’s glove compartment. “You truly are a pitiable pony, who once had it all, and lost it all; but don’t worry; you won’t lose your life just yet. A hornless alicorn is still an alicorn, and they still have some value in the black market we’re headed.”

“I don’t think so.” The gray alicorn meekly held up her hooves toward the despicable turncoat. The owl man tried to smack the alicorn’s hooves aside, but found his movements to be getting a bit stiff.

“I… what?” The owl seemed confused at his disposition, before seeing tiny specks of light flowing out of his body, and drained into the hooves of her feeble opponent. His found it difficult to lift his arms, and his feet felt like lead. “No! What have you done to me, you silly little pony!?”

“Everything in the world has magic.” The gray alicorn was calm as can be. “And it is by that magic that life is able to thrive.” With her hoof pointed straight toward the miserable owl man, Zailiner began drawing every last big of magic form his opponent. Being slowly drained of his magic, the owl man felt his limbs becoming stiff and cold; without the magic inside of him, he began to turn to stone.

“No, no! You miserable wench!” The owl made one last desperate curse as he slowly turns to stone, unable to change his fate. “You can’t draw magic out form people! It’s forbidden magic! You’ll… you’ll kill me!”

Zailiner lowered her head. “Kant. That ship that you are trying to crash into the beast… contained everyone that I have ever cared about. Even now, when everything is going wrong, those people are still trying to fix what you have wrought, and to undo the future that is the demise of our race. Kant. You have done too many wrongdoings, too many terrible deeds to be excused. If I cannot take you down now, everyone on that ship will die; had I have my powers, I would have tried my best to keep you alive, to bring you into justice myself. But now that I have nothing….”

“You’ll have to take my condolences to the afterlife with you.”

The owl man tried his best to scream, but his voice had long left him. The warm flesh that he once had left him; he is now but an empty shell of stone, frozen in the center of the cockpit for the times to come.

With the surge of new-found power, Zailiner had barely enough energy to carry herself over to the control panel. She limply lifted her hooves over the control panel, and, with the last of her waning strength, released the hold on the flagships.

“Captain Polar, Sir! We’ve got control back on our ships again!” The eager cadet’s booming voice alerted the two captains, as they scrambled to action. With rapid taps, the enormous flagship structure roared to life, and began turning away from the dreadful beast!

“Alright! We’re turning around!” The Grizzly bear rejoiced. “But who was hacking us I the first place? And just who got us un-hacked?”

Just before Moshi could wonder about this precarious situation further, the radio on the control panel jumped to life, and a voice, garbled beyond recognition, began speaking through the radio.

“moShi….”

Moshi leapt toward the control panel, and pinned the “Speak” button down as hard as he could.

“Who is this!? Are you the one who hacked our controls?!”

“ThERe iS no tIMe left. You’re tOo cloSe tO it… you hAve to detoNate the cArgo shIp… to buUy you some TIme….”

A puzzled expression surfaced on Moshi’s face.

“Who are you? Are you the one who hacked into us? Why did you do this!”

The voice on the radio didn’t respond to the question.

Moshi screamed. “…are you on board the cargo freighter? I can’t just… outright kill you like this!”

The voice on the radio trembled as it spoke.

“BY tHe tIMe i gEt baCk to tHe shIp, the mONster woULd hAVe kILled aLl Of Us.”

“….”

“I’vE kILled a mAn. HE, iNN thE cockpit, I dID it. He WAs in my wAy, so I MUrDERed him. I uSEd forbiDden mAGic to kILl him. I aM a kILLer and I dESErve notHIng less thAn to pERIsh in this cOFFin that I MaDe.”

“No… no one deserves to die like this.” Sweat began forming on the forehead of the green Pegasus as he tried his best to keep his composure. “We’ll think of some way to get you back here, somehow!”

“… THANk yOu. I coULd haVe actiVATed the detONation mecHaniSm frOm insIDe the sHIp; I juSt waNTed to tALk to You… to ALl of yOu, oNe fINAl tiMe.”

“Just who the heck are you!” Moshi demanded. “Why would you put our lives before yours?! What have we done that you go through such lengths to save us?”

Nearly a decade ago, there was a rambunctious little princess. She was royalty, but she wanted nothing that his family offered her. So she set out, with nothing but the furs on her back, into the wide, open world to seek thrill and adventure. On her journey, she met a feeble pink colt, who didn’t have the courage, or strength to face the bullies that he had in life. The princess was equally as meek, but she took a liking to the colt, and together, they braved the dangerous world. And then came along the age of change. Alien species visited the princess’ world, and gave ponies wings that would allow them to soar beyond the blue, blue sky. The princess and the colt traveled across the galaxy, taking on the greatest of adventures, never before seen by the adventurers that came before them. In one of their most exciting adventures, the two ponies received a large sum of pixels, and a dragon egg as a reward. The princess was about the use the money to hit the town, when the feeble pink colt interjected, and suggested that they put the money toward a more permanent home base. Despite her objections, the princess agreed to the colt’s plan, and bought a huge space station in a quiet corner of the galaxy, and hatched the dragon egg into a tiny little squire, to help them keep track of requests for adventures. As the list piled up, the duo decided to make their empty little space station into a clan, and recruited more teammates to their cause, and gave birth to the most unlikely clan in the entire system. The princess loved each and every one of her clan-mates; she was happier in the clan than she would have ever been, had she lived as a royalty. The entire clan was her most valued treasure, and she would gladly do anything to save her friends… even with her life. Sure, her pink colt friend is now green, and has wings, but she still liked him nonetheless. Now, the princess has killed. She felt the endless sadness and regret that all killers face, her words unable to justify the means to this end. She felt sad. She wanted it to stop. She lived too long. She could no longer talk to herself anymore. It’s time to stop. The princess is weak now. She knew, for the longest of time, that she is dying. Her limbs are becoming weak. Her age is catching up to her. The coffin that she sat in will become her final resting place.

The princess is getting sleepy. It’s her bedtime, after all.

The princess is filled with happiness of life, sorrow for her family and regret for what she had just done. She is a mess of emotions, and yet… she felt content.

“mOSshi…”

“I wIlL REmeMber yOu.”

For but a brief moment, the darkness of space lit up. The flagship was enveloped in a blanket of light. Moshi is utterly blinded by the impact before him. He shielded his eyes from the intense rays, until the shockwave of the blast rocked the entire flagship, and sent the green Pegasus on his flanks. Getting back on his hooves, the Pegasus raced toward the observation deck, and peered out into deep space. For a brief moment, the green mare thought he was dreaming; the black void that is the beast began to crack! Rays of brilliant light began pouring out of the pitch-black creature as the cracks expanded in all directions. There is no doubt; the explosion cracked the beast’s seemingly impenetrable exoskeleton.

The grizzly bear’s gaze affixed itself firmly on the expanding cracks on the beast. “I don’t know who it was that stole themselves away on our suicide ship, and I don’t know why they decided to plunge us to our death, and yet save us at the last possible moment. Whoever they are, they have accomplished what we had set out to do.”

The team’s victory is short lived, however, when the bear notices that the brilliant cracks on the beast’s shell is no longer expanding, but rather, it’s slowly closing in on itself.

“Captain!” a cadet shouted. “The beast is repairing itself!”

“Curses!” The bear roared. “That shrinking crack isn’t big enough for our ship to fit through!”

“If that crack closes in on itself, we would have lost our only opportunity to kill that terrible thing!” Moshi cried out as he galloped toward the hangar bay. I’ll take my ship! I need to finish this thing once and for all!”

With a cushy squeak of the leather, the green Pegasus leapt into the tiny little fighter plane he and Zailiner bought when they first began exploring the vast space. Moshi momentarily passed to look at the empty co-pilot seat, before starting the ship’s engine, and sped off toward the beast. With the flagship already in such close proximity of the beast, Moshi had plenty of time to dive into the crack before it closes… or rather, he would have had plenty of time, had the beast not spawned something foul.

A massive crap-like creature, nearly the size of one of the flagships, spewed forth from the shrinking crack. It wiggled across the crack, and broke free from the pitch-black beast it once resided. Moshi’s tiny ship was not of any interest to the enormous leviathan, but the mangled tin flagships caught its interest. Having narrowly regained its freedom, the enormous carp set a collision course with the vulnerable and weaponless flagship, and swam towards it faster than flagship could escape. Before Moshi can turn his ship around, even more gigantic fish popped out form inside the black beast’s shell. Over half a dozen of these enormous creatures emerged from the crack before the crack had become too small for them to fit through.

“No… we used up all the weapons that we had on our last attack!” Moshi muttered to himself. “Our flagship is defenseless against these freaks! This is a shame, but I need to turn around and save-“

The green Pegasus’ thought process was interrupted when he spots a streak of lighting shooting out from the flagship, striking fish closest to it. Before he could have blinked, a bolt of fire shot out from the mangled spacecraft, striking another fish right in the eye. Bolts of magical fire and thunder shot out from the starship, striking the enormous fishes over and over again. The group of space-carp was thrown into a panic and squirms as they darted in all directions.

The Pegasus was confused. “I thought we used up all of our weapons… but how could we fight back against those monstrosities… unless….”

Far off in the distance, on the upper deck of the mangled flagship, two tiny figures stood staunchly against the solar wind, firing endless streams of thunder and oxygenated fireballs into the ranks of the school of fish-monsters. Shinx, the tiny blue energized kitten, spewed bolts of thunder at oncoming leviathans, whilst Igeloi the fire mage fired off a flurry of fiery shots that kept the creatures at bay. With their combined efforts, the flagship was able to pull away from the school of colossal fish.

“Alright! I knew I could count on your guys!” Moshi breathed a breath of relief, as he resumed his sprint towards the shrinking crack. The scouting ship barely grazed against the pitch-black walls, before being enveloped by the blinding light. Soon after, the crack closed itself, sealing the green Pegasus inside of its inner world.

It took Moshi a brief moment to adjust to the intense light; he is now inside the interior of the mega beast. The bright-white inside poses as a stark contrast to the pitch-black exterior; with the hole sealed, the Pegasus could no longer find any extinguishing blemishes on the inside; the bright-white seemed to go on ad infinitum. However, the interior of the hollow shell of the beast is anything but barren; flocks of colossal fish monsters, in all different shapes and sizes, swam through the chamber like fish in the endless ocean. Cichlids, Angelfish, Guppies, Goldfish… these enormous schools fish, swimming freely in a sea of light, forms a strange and surprisingly beautiful scene. Moshi became temporarily entranced by the strange and surprising scene, he failed to sense the enormous tetras bumping into his tiny spacecraft. The poor fighter plane could not take the destructive impact of the fish; it spun out of control, and flew towards the supposed center of the hollow shell world. Try as he might, Moshi could no longer control his trusty spacecraft; the fighter plane is taking a nose dive into the core of this world. Moshi could barely see the whitish core of the world as he sped toward it: the core is nearly indistinguishably white from the rest of the chamber, with the exception of the white fluid surrounding the sphere, rotating about on the surface. With no time to think, the feeble ship crashed right into the sphere, and lodged itself inside the semi-solid white fluid. The sudden stop caused Moshi to be fung into the interior of the sphere; with a green streak, the green colt smacked himself onto what seemed to be a white floor.

It took him a while to adjust to the sudden face-plant, but the green Pegasus managed to peel himself from what used to be a flawlessly white floor, now stained with green furs and feathers. Moshi scanned his surroundings; the only thing he could see amidst the white was a white, swivel egg chair, lined with a red, leathery interior paddings. Inside the egg-chair sat an ordinary-looking gray unicorn. His cutie-mark was that of a magic wand, his manes a twilight purple, and his light ember eyes reflected all.

“Ah. Yes Moshi. I’ve been waiting for you. You’ve really had me waiting, you know. It’s been a long time coming, hasn’t it?”

The green Pegasus is visibly confused. After venturing all the way into his worst adversary, the last thing he expected was to be pleasantly greeted by the colt of his age.

The unicorn interrupted Moshi before he could speak further. “I’m bored. Let’s play a game!”

A mixed feeling of shock and disgust filled Moshi to the brim, but he held back his urges, and spoke with a trembled voice.

“Who… just who exactly are you?”

The unicorn spoke without missing a beat. “I’m Midnight Cloud!” He said with a cheery voice. “I’ve been living here forever, and you’re the first visitor in, like… EVER!”

Moshi remained silent, sensing that the unicorn had more to speak.

“Living here is quite boring, you know. The world is very peaceful, so peaceful in fact, I have nothing good to keep me entertained. So, I made these friends of mine, to have some fun! You see, my friends have a special ability: they can suck the living sense of friendship from other folks just like you, and, with a flip of a hat, they’d fight each other! I’m so impressed with them, I led some of them out for walks from time to time, and caused all sorts of fun under the solar stars! People fought each other like mad, and best of all, these helpful syndicate fellas just came out of nowhere, and caused all sorts of havocs for me. Now the universe is in shambles, and I love every bit of it!”

Moshi was just about had it. “No… the syndicate tried to stop you, to make sure the atrocities that you’ve made won’t hurt anyone else. You alone are responsible for this mess, and you alone-“

“Yep! It’s all thanks to me!” The unicorn cheered proudly. “But you know what, now that you’re here, I got a little proposition for ya!”

The unicorn’s horn glowed white, and a white-birch chess table appeared in from of Moshi. The chess pieces are not arranged in a normal fashion; the black chess pieces closes to Moshi was missing its queen, and the white chess pieces possessed only one white king, and an army of pawns, filling the far edge of the board.

“I take the white pieces!” The unicorn smiled as he leapt out of his egg-chair, and stood in front of his favored pieces. “I’m the white king, pure as snow! And you can be the other one. My friends, against your friends! Let’s duke it out! But make sure I win, ok? I don’t like losing, and you won’t like me when I lose!”

The cheerful nature of the unicorn belies his intentions. Moshi could no longer endure the unicorn’s games. “No. I refuse to play with your little games any longer. I will end this. Right here, right now, with the only way that I know how.”

The pegasus’ words piqued the unicorn’s interest. “Ohhhhhhh! This is interesting! Please, pray tell, how would a mighty colt such as yourself bring an end to this? Are ya going to stab every one of my fishies in the eye perhaps?”

“I’ll do one better.”

The alicorn horn embedded in the pegasus’ heart began to glow as Moshi levitated into the air. Streams of magic leaked out form his body, and flew out into the hollow sphere.

“I’m an alicorn now. “ Moshi replied. “With my magic, I can change the diet of all your monsters, and make sure that they never hurt anyone every again!”

The unicorn does not seemed to be fazed by the Pegasus’ actions. He looked on with a smug look on his face as Moshi struggled to work his magic. Moshi could understand why Midnight Cloud could be so content; even with the power of an alicorn inside of him, the feeble colt still does not have enough power to magically transform diets of thousands of leviathan fish at once. In fact, he doesn’t have the magic to tickle even one of the mighty beasts. Moshi’s magic wafted past the beasts, without so much as changing the colors of their scales. But the most concerting thing occurred to him as Moshi realizes that the limited reserve of magic in him is running out; his joints are getting stiff, and his body is beginning to turn to stone.

“Everything has a little bit of magic in this world.” The unicorn stated nonchalantly. “It’s the magic in ya that makes ya move, and when all that magic runs out… poof, you’re not going to be you anymore. Tis a shame, really, it is; I was so hoping to engage in a round of chess with ya, but ya just have to choose the easy way out. Well, I don’t run your life, I suppose. So I’ll just stay here… call me if you need a snack or something!”

Moshi could feel it. The bottom of his limbs are becoming stone-like, inching upward toward his upper torso. But he could not stop the magic; no, he cannot, for the lives of his teammates are at stake.

“You know what? I think I’m bored again. I’m bored of this place, I’m bored of my fishie friends, and I’m bored of you. You had so much potential, but you chose the least fun way to play. So, as your punishment, when you die, I’m going to let my fishies go. Yep, they’re free to go wherever he pleases! Just imagine the fun they will have, tearing this tiny, pathetic galaxy to shreds! I think that’ll be at least more remotely fun than whatever you’re trying to do!”

Moshi wanted to speak, but his voice had left him. His body had become encased in stone, and, as the last of his magic wanes from his body, the stone statue of a colt slammed to the ground with a “thud”. No more magic flew out of him.

Moshi is no more.

“Hmph. How boring.” The unicorn’s horn flashed a brilliant white, and, just as he wanted, the pitch-black walls entrapping the monstrous schools of fish began to disintegrate. Holes began forming on the once-impenetrable walls, as the monstrous fish began swimming out from every orifice they could find.

“And now comes the best part of the game… the end.”

The unicorn walked over to the chess table, and swiftly knocked over the black king.

“Hey. Moshi. Wake up.”

The green Pegasus lifted his head up from the table. It’s his birthday. He was in the party room in the B.B.T.S. home base. The room is decorated with all kinds of party favors, a result of all his clan mates, who wanted to wish him happiness on the day of his birth. The cake was already half-eaten, the party poppers all used up, and all of his friends have retired to their rooms for the evening, save for one. He looked up. Zailiner, the gray alicorn, stood beside the weary commander, looking after him in his nap.

“Oh. Hey Zail. Boy, that was some party we’ve had, huh?”

“Yes. Yes it is.”

“… I cannot believe you are still up Zail. You might want to get some sleep; we got work early in the morning, don’t you know that?”

The gray alicorn shook her head.

“The magic in the horn is running out.”

Moshi was visibly confused. “Oh come now Zail! I’m an earth pony! You know I don’t possess any magic!”

“Moshi. Tell me, what is the most important that you and I both want in this world?”

Moshi answered without missing a beat. “Well, duh! The clan is my most important treasure of them all! Everyone that I love is here! I would do everything I can to protect them from harm!”

The alicorn was brought to tears. “Then I think you know what to do.”

“Zail… no… please stop. Let’s just both go to bed, alright?”

The gray alicorn simply stood in the empty room.

“I don’t think the Moshi I know would sleep at a time like this. I think you and I both know that.”

“But… I can’t do it. There’s no way I have enough magic to save everyone; and I think you know that too. The party is fun, but it’s over; there is no point to any of us to continue on, not anymore.”

“But you are not alone.”

“You have your family with you.”

“They are still alive.”

“And they cannot do this without you.”

“Hey. Do you remember the story? The one about the spoiled princess, and the weak little pink pony?”

“Yes. I remember.”

“The pink pony thought he was the weaker of two, but he still tried his very best to help out all that he could. The princess remembered that, but as time went on, she realized that the pink pony was improving. Even though he still complained about the missions once in a while, by the time the princess took another look at him, the pink pony was no longer helpless. With every mission he went on, with every friend he has made, the pony grew, prospered. He may still think that he is weak at times, but the princess knew, deep down, the pony grew strong, because of his friends.”

“Zail… please… stop….”

“One day, the pink pony donned a coat of green, and grew wings on his back. And so, the pink pony, now a green Pegasus, flew, up, into the sky, and, in his arrogance, he had thought to protect the lives of his friends all by himself. He flapped his wings too hard, and lost the strength to fly. And so, he fell.”

“No, please. I’m happy here.”

“The green Pegasus fell, and fell, and he thought he was going to perish on this day. But unbeknownst to him, his friends saw his fall, and huddled underneath him, in order to catch him.”

“No… please… I’m done. I don’t want to fight anymore….”

“The Pegasus’ friends saved him from the fall. He may not know this, but the Pegasus’ friends have been with him, even when he least expects them.”

“….”

The space station began to tremble as it fell out of orbit, and into the scorching star. The gravity exerted too great of a pull, as the party room began to fall apart. The confectionaries flew out of the gaping hole that was once the exterior of the ship, and fizzled in the red, hot star.

“My alicorn horn is running out of power. In the event of your death, I have programmed my horn to exert the last of my energy to revive you. After that, my horn would have lost all function, and fizzle away into nothingness. This is… our goodbye.”

“I don’t want this. I want to be with you. I want to….”

Zailiner embraced Moshi in one, final hug. Tears streamed down her face as the room began to disintegrate.

“I’ll miss you.” Moshi began to tear up as well.

“Go kick his flank for me.”

With a heavy gasp, the green Pegasus bolted up from the floor, his body is flesh once more. Moshi’s heart now felt a lot lighter, the presence of the alicorn horn that was once inside of him is now gone for good. On the other side of the sphere, the unicorn was visibly impressed at this turn of events.

“Well well well… this was certainly unexpected!” He leapt onto his swivel egg-chair, and gleefully spun it around.

“I’ve gotta tell ya; I’m pretty smart for my age, but I never expected this trick! That was pretty rad!” With the egg chair still spinning, the unicorn leapt out onto the ground, knocking it over in a childish fashion. “So, ya got anymore tricks up that sleeps of yours?”

The freshly-revived Pegasus remained unfazed.

“It isn’t over yet. I still intend to change the fish’s diet, even if I just lost all of my magic.”

The unicorn’s brow dug deep into his face as he lost interest in what the Pegasus was about to do. “Well that’s BORING!” The unicorn objected. “I was looking forward to an epic battle! I want to see you fight! Not pacify!” A ball of light materialized on the unicorn’s horn as he directed his magic toward the vulnerable Pegasus.

“No no no no no NO! This won’t do at all! If you won’t play by my rules, I’ll just have to make you behave!”

A jolt of lightning suddenly struck the unsuspecting colt. Moshi looked stunned; he wasn’t the one being struck with lighting, but the unicorn was blasted to his knees by the blast.

The unicorn lifted himself up from the ground, and looked visibly shocked. “Who… who’s there?! You coward! Show yourself!”

The roar of massive engines filled the entire chamber as a massive object crashed into the outer fluid layer of the core. A massive, mangled flagship peaked its head into the chamber, as a small army of crew members leapt from the front deck of the ship, and lands themselves into the chamber. They were Moshi’s BBTS clan mates, as well as all of the syndicate members that joined their cause. Although they are all without weapons, the members raised their fists up high ,ready to fight for the fate of the galaxy with their head held up high.

“Interlopers!” The unicorn screamed. “How did you get in here?!”

Moshi grinned smugly. “It was you who removed the outer layer of your ‘impenetrable fortress’ to let your fishes out into space, remember?”

“Well… that means nothing!” The unicorn pouted. “You’ll be fish food to my beautiful fishes! Attack, my pretties!”

Not a single soul responded to his command. Having abandoned his fishes to the whims of space, the unicorn’s precious schools have scattered across the universe. In that one moment, the spoiled unicorn truly felt alone, for the first time in a long time. The white pawns on the chess board is all but gone, and the white king was the lone piece left on the board, against the army of black pieces.

“Well… no matter! I am super-powerful! I can take on all of you dweebs with my pinkie! You’re all going down!”

The unicorn floated up into the air, and a huge ball of pure white energy appeared above him, and white balls of explosive light spewed out, and flew toward the crowd of clan members. The group of ponies and non-poines scattered as they ran toward Midnight Cloud.

“Rush him!” The blue cat yelled at the top of his tiny lungs. “Let’s pile drive this fool!”

The unicorn began chanting a spell, and a living white vine shot out from underneath a crowd of members. The wine began sweeping the floor, knocking droves of members up into the air. It’s rampage was stopped by the masked pony that had tentacles writhing form his back, Artist-1-million. The colt’s massive tentacles gripped the vine tight, it’s coils wound tight against the thick vine, until the vine is snapped into several pieces. As the living vine tried to piece itself together, a group of changeling drones, commanded by the mighty changeling Conrad, flew down form the ship, and, with their sharp fangs, gnawed the vine to pieces. Having lost its summoned minion, the unicorn conjured up yet another spell, as the fluid walls began to become less viscous, and poured down into the room. The entire room began to flood with a white fluid, and the troops that are unable to fly up into the sky began to lose their balance, and fall into the torrential water.

However, just as some of the troops where beginning to lose themselves to the current, a duo of pegasii swooped down into the raging waters, and fished them onto dry land. Taylen and Atrixy flew at a breakneck pace, flinging the helpless land-lubbers back onto their flagship. However, the amount of drowning troops were staggering, and just when the duo were frantically saving the multitude of drowning men, the troops that were submerged in water began to float up into the air all by themselves. Gravity on the entire ship was, for a brief moment, reversed, when a certain anti-gravity snail passed through the area. The land-bound troops were able to retreat to the safety of their flagship before the snail moved away from the battlefield, and the crew fell down into deck with a thud.

However, the white fluid still rages down below the flagship, and no flying units were able to get close to the naughty unicorn, due to the massive orb hovering over his head, spitting orbs of explosive energy at them. The orb was short-lived, however, when a sound wave matching its frequency of vibration struck the orb. Having his experience as a radio and TV broadcaster, as well as being an excellent student in his physics class, Steven Flex, the TV anchor, was able to find the correct frequency of sound of completely disintegrate the orb. As the sound waves bombarded the explosive orb, the orb trembled, becoming more and more unstable, until it blew up right in the unicorn’s face, knocking him into the rushing current. The unicorn’s recovery was quick, however, as he rose up from the rushing waters, and collecting every drop of the white fluid with him, and with his magic, made the white fluid turn hard and rigid. The once-fluid began to solidify and took shape, forming a gigantic robot, with the unicorn at the helm. The robot swung its arms wildly as it charged at the flagship, with the intent of crushing the flagship into pieces. It’s advances where halted, however, when a 9-ft metallic knight leapt from the fray, and, with one swift jab of his massive javelin, struck the robot right in its kneecaps. The robot roared in agony as it fell, knee first onto the floor, writhing in agony.

“You sir, have not one care about your creations!” A black earth pony named Inky spoke aloud. “If you really want me to show you how to command your creations, please allow me to be your guide!”

Whipping out a paintbrush, Inky swiftly scribbled a painting of a yellow bee on the deck of the flagship. The drawing glowed a golden hue, as an enormous bee popped out from the deck. It flew into the air, and, as it pointed its abdomen at the crippled giant, the explosive stinger on its stomach launched out with a blinding speed, and struck the robot right between the eyes. The robot winced for a moment, before having its head completely eviscerated, its explosion flinging the spoiled unicorn right onto the ground.

The pampered unicorn, now scraped and bruised far beyond his liking, is now in tears.

“You’re all jerks!” He shouted to the crowd. “I didn’t even know you freaks, and you just came in here, and beat me up like a ragdoll! You ought to be ashamed of yourselves!”

The wounded unicorn was beyond furious. He began limping toward the army of men, with his horn ablaze.

“I’m going to beat you all up, and then you’ll all be sorry!”

The crew did not move. Standing in front of the battered unicorn stood a green Pegasus.

“You! You’re the biggest meaning of them all!” The unicorn shouted as he focused all of his magic onto his right hoof.

“I’m going to beat you up! I’m going to beat you all up!”

The green Pegasus did not move. As the unicorn lunged at the Pegasus, with his hoof raised up high, a white mare descended down between the two. The white, slender mare had black, sleek curly hair, and a stylish sniper rifle with a sleek slope. Her name is Rose Thorn; she is Moshi’s right hand mare, who would replace the co-leader in the event of her demise. With a flick of the butt of her rifle, she knocked the completely flustered unicorn onto his flanks.

Moshi was content. Even though his most beloved parent was gone, he can rest easy, knowing that his friends are still alive. He is not alone; his treasure, rather, both he and Zailiner’s treasure are still alive and well. This is what Zail would have wanted him to have. Despite all that had happened, Moshi will be ok from now on.

“It’s over.” Moshi muttered. “There’s no need for anyone to fight anymore.”

The flustered unicorn is fuming. “It’s still not over! My precious fishes aren’t going to let you off! Your galaxy is still done!”

Moshi didn’t mutter a single word. He lifted his hoof up, into the air.

The unicorn jested in rage. “Ha! What are you trying to do? Conjure up some magic again? You want to REALLY turn to stone this time?”

Light began to converge onto his raised hoof. Only this time, the magic was not flowing from his heart; his alicorn horn is gone. Tiny specks of light streamed out from the multitude of his friends, and converged onto his hoof. Moshi’s hoof glowed bright, as massive amounts of magic are gathered in a single, relatively tiny spot. There was more magic in his hoof than an alicorn could ever manage to muster. The chamber trembled at the ultimate power being collected inside of him; for this singular, brief moment, Moshi had become more powerful being in the galaxy.

Everything has a tiny bit of magic in them. If abused, the magic could be completely stripped, and it would be gone for good. But when left in the right hands, magic could have an endless source of power that could give rise to a miracle….

A miracle that we were all waiting for.

The green Pegasus struggled to turn off the digital alarm ringing beside his bed. His eyes winced as the raw solar beams shone through his radiation-protection window. He is on board BBTS/Syndicate union ship, a reconstituted space station, formed from two flagships with different origins, that shelters hundreds of mercenaries and bounty hunters, most of them ponies and pony related. As the captain of this fine space station, as well as the leader of the BBTS mercenary corp, it is his job to tend to the mountains of paper works to be signed, and massive amounts of on-board complaints to be addressed. However, the green Pegasus can rest easy for today, knowing that his own adopted baby dragon Spike, along with all of the other elite members of the syndicate, shall tend to those paper works with their flawless forged Moshi signatures, and his newly-appointed co-captain Rose Thorn shall tend to the complaints... in her own, snipey, shooty, and cool kind of way. Indeed, his loving team mates have spared no expense to allow their own dear leader to have today off, for today is their Clan Leader Moshi's Very birthday; the first birthday that he’s going to have, after he just saved the world.

BBTS Fanfic Epilogue: A New Day

The amusement park in Argon-9 is filled with colorful ponies and other creatures coming from their own different part of life. The kid-friendly theme park entertained no children, no teens nor noisy infants today; the B.B.T.S. and Syndicate Conglomerate had rented out the entire park in honor of their leader’s special day. Despite saving the entire universe from a threat most foul, things seemed to have not changed drastically since the last time they held a birthday party in this very place. The world may be saved, but life seemed to go on. Rather, perhaps this normality is a prize that was worth fighting for. Party balloons filled the sky as Moshi’s loyal companions sang of their leader’s deeds, all the while consuming copious amounts of overly-sweet snacks. Shinx, the bluish fluff cat grumbled as he was forced to pay for refills on his salads, while Steven Flex interviewed the clan members, as both the reporter and the owner of the Galactic News, the #1 most popular news network in the galaxy. On the other end of the park, members of the B.B.T.S. faced off against the (now seven) dreaded leaders of the syndicate, who boasts as the masters of the bumper carts. Back near the poolside, a black and spoiled unicorn, now a proud member of the BBTS subdivision, managed the task of dishing out prizes for his bottle stand; for each stack of bottle that a pony knocks down, they get a neat little plastic bag, containing a tiny fish, the size of a hoof, that devours discord and chaos, and promote peace and harmony across the land. All the mercenaries in this brony-friendly clan were having a grand time celebrating their beloved captain’s birthday, blissfully unaware of the dangers creeping up toward the Ferris wheel.

“GREETINGS! IT HAD CERTAINLY BEEN A LONG TIME, HASN’T IT?!”

Moshi shifted his gaze toward the top of the Ferris wheel. A lone hooded humanoid figure stood atop the highest of the Ferris wheels. His voice aged, as he issued his commands in a more imposing tone.

“For those of you who has had no idea about who I am, as I could see that there are some fresh new faces since our encounter last time, MY NAME IS OBELISK! THE DESTORYER OF WORLDS! AFTER MY BITTER DEFEAT AT THIS VERY PARK LAST TIME, I HAVE RETURNED TO THIS pathetically nostalgic PLANET IN ORDER TO, ONCE AGAIN, REVIVE THE FALLEN PRINCE OF THE MAD, THE CHIMERA KING HIMSELF! THIS WORLD SHALL TREMBLE IN FEAR… for a second time, AS I SUMMON THE LORD OF THE NEATHER BACK INTO THE LIVING-“

The hooded man paused as he spotted a slender white sniper pony standing beside him. “ Pardon the intrusion, good sir, but I’m afraid that I have to ask you to leave. The B.B.T.S. and Syndicate Conglomerate had rented out the amusement park for the day in honor of our great leader’s day of birth. I’m terribly sorry about this inconvenience; here is a voucher that would allow you free entry into the park at a different date-”

Obelisk gleefully accepted the certificate, happy that he could return to the amusement park as a different date. His tone changed quickly however, as he resumed his rant.

“Even though you have experienced the pain of the prince of chaos before, I just have to say that YOU HAVE NO IDEA THE PAIN AND CHAOS THAT IS ABOUT TO BE INFLICTED UPON YOU AND YOUR KIND FOR A SECOND TIME!” He raised a special incense into the air, and surrounded himself with a fine mist.

“RATHER THAN WASTING EVERYONE’S TIME ON MY SILLY RITUALS as I could see that everyone is eager to enjoy the rest of their day without my prudent interruptions, I SHALL EXPEDITE THE PROCESS! COME FORTH! THE PRINCE OF CHAOS!”

“Well, this is interesting.” Rose thorn commented, as she loaded her sniper rifle with the holy bullets of order. “I suppose I’ll try the new shooting range for a bit.”

The rest of the clan members rose to action. Ponies, Pegasus, unicorns, syndicates, dragons, humans, humanoids, lizards, bees, artists, cats… every able hand rose to action, to face off against the prince of chaos, some for a second time. Moshi flew out in front of the army of his loyal friends, charging toward the beast head first. He was not afraid, because he knew, deep down….

They’re going to make a miracle.

~End~

Dear Clan Leader Moshi:

Holy muffle balls. It is done. It’s complete. It’s over. I have never believed that I could have finish this, what with my pharmacy program just starting, and work is beginning to pile up. But here we are today, with things nicely wrapped up. Thanks for your support people; I owe each and every one of you for your support. Well, this is it. I can rest easy knowing that one of my biggest project is done and over with, and I can now focus more on my school work. Thank you all for your patience with me, and have a very, very BBTS night!

Sincerely,

Spike BBTS

The Bronies Beyond The Star Adventure Series

by Supleted

B.B.T.S. Adventure #1: Zailiner Edition

B.B.T.S. Adventure #2: Inky's Past

B.B.T.S. Adventure #3: Shopping With Conrad

B.B.T.S. Adventure #4: The Last Party

B.B.T.S. Adventure #6: Departure

B.B.T.S. Adventure #7: Beyond The Stars (Part 1)

BBTS Adventure the Finale: Beyond the Stars (Part 2)