Author's Notes:

I decided to try something new for chapters with multiple or two parts. I'll release them both on the same day, just at separate times. Hopefully it will work out.

Another thing is I hope people can help me with the Irish accent I gave this stallion, not to mention it's a specific dialect as well. (Connemara is an Irish Pony). If any native Irish or people who can mimic Irish accents see if it is right, I'd really appreciate that.

Other than that. I hope you enjoy the new chapter!

It was dark, no sounds echoed through this vast expanse of gloomy nothingness. The deathly quiet had been like this for some time, Crystal felt like she was unable to breach the dreadful silence. She could not feel her hooves, or even have the strength to move them. All she could do was sit here and wait. Was she dead? She remembered something horrifying had taken place, yet she didn’t recall exactly what it was. It felt like her whole body was weighted down by some force that kept her pinned to the ground.

“Hello?” A voice echoed in the distance, she strained her ears to discern where the source of the noise was, but couldn’t figure out where it was resonating from. A cold feeling rested against her back, along with freezing air that wrapped around her body as she tried to figure out what that chilly sensation was.The weight she felt began to slowly lift as the cold feeling that covered her body slowly faded, a warmth replacing it. She squirmed against the cold sensation against her back, still trying to discern what it was. She carefully opened her eyes, a blinding light greeted her vision.

It took her a moment until Crystal Rune’s eyes adjusted to the light, widening a little as she tried to raise her head. She gasped silently as she felt a pain jolt through the entirety of her body, breathing in and out as she tried to ignore the stinging sensations. Her eyes quickly adapted to the overwhelming light, opening and closing them until the light fixture became clearer. Raising her head, she scanned the room. There was a glass window to her left, seeing unfamiliar ponies standing in the opposite side of the shaded room.

Turning her gaze to the walls, they gleamed with the artificial light of the room, a metal composing of their structure. Wherever she was, this place did not have a friendly vibe to it. “You’re finally awake.” She looked over to her right, seeing a stallion unicorn seated in a chair next to her. He looked to be relieved, although she could tell there was still some worry in his gaze. “Really thaugh’ you were a goner for sure.”

She could tell he had an Connemaran accent, hearing his words jumble together a little. Looking over the stallion’s body, his build was neither a strong looking stallion or a skinny one. From his dark blue scrubs, she knew he was a nurse or some medical staff member. Seeing the other half of his exposed body, the color of his coat was a moderate cyan, yet his long, messy, golden brown mane kind of threw off that helpful feeling. ‘Is… this pony even certified in his job?’

His brilliant red eyes shimmered as he gazed over her body. He seemed to notice her worried gaze, quickly flicking his attention down to the floor. “Don’ worry. You’re in good hooves now.”

Crystal rubbed her temple, groaning a little as the constant pain throbbed. “Where… am I? And how did I get here?” Her voice, as she noticed, was a little ragged.

“Well, you’re in dah-” He stopped talking for a moment, gulping as he cleared his throat. “You're in the medical ward of this facility. Don’t worry, though, you’re safe now.” The stallion said, turning his focus to the infusion pump at the mare’s right. Moving over to it, he brought his hooves up and began twisting or hitting switches as he continued. “It was surprising to find that you were still alive. We’d thought for sure that you’d never wake up from your coma.”

“I was… in a coma?” It was startling to say the least. What happened to her that made her black out in the first place?

“Yeah. For about a solid week. I don’t know what happened on the ship you were on, but I can imagine it wasn’t any good.”

‘Ship… what ship?’ As Crystal thought about this vessel she was on, something clicked in her mind as the gears began to turn. Her eyes widened. The world began to change, and it only got worse.

She suddenly heard a blaring noise, opening her eyes slowly before they jolted open. Rune quickly shot up, standing on all fours as she looked around. The piercing alarm carried on, a voice over the intercom repeating, “Attention, attention. All personnel must make their way to the nearest chamber. There is an unidentified creature on board the Nostromo. I repeat, unidentified creature is on board the Nostromo. Move to the closest chamber and stay there until the security forces can contain this creature.”

That message continued to go on, as she thought of what it might have been. She heard a pony’s scream, followed by another sound; a loud and high pitched roar that drowned out the shriek of terror coming from the pony. Crystal turned around and looked through a small crevice, the alarm’s red light brightening her pale blue eyes. Two shadows stood in front of the light, her eyes widened as she saw a pony being lifted up in the air by the claws of a towering creature. It was only moments later did the stallion let out one final scream before the tail of this creature came down and sliced him in half, his intestines hung from the two split halves as his organs splattered to the floor, blood trickling over the pile of guts.

Crystal gagged, wide-eyed, covering her mouth with her hooves as the stench of blood and guts overflowed her nose. She just watched a pony get ripped in half like it was nothing. The creature dropped the separated halves of the stallion, moving its eyeless gaze in her direction, a crest-like crown at the end of the creature's head. Rune ducked down, hearing the creature let out a hiss. She flinched as she heard its footsteps echo closer and closer, feeling the metal floor vibrate under her body.

A growl resonated from above, Crystal remaining completely still as it scanned the small area behind the metal crates. It hissed again, pulling away from the crevice and turning around, its footsteps slowly echoing as it walked in a different direction. Rune hesitantly moved back up, watching the creature move towards a door at the center of the cargo bay’s wall before disappearing. She suppressed a horrified gasp as she realized that she and the crewmembers were now stuck on a freighter ship with the nightmare that had terrorized Ponyville. A voice broke through the noise until the daydream around her began to break apart.

She screamed, thrashing about in her hospital bed as her eyes darted around, looking for a vent or door and hoping that the Xenomorph wouldn’t be barging through those entryways. The stallion who attended to her had dropped to the floor, covering his ears in shock of the sudden shriek of panic.

“Ih’s okay!” He yelled, getting up and moving over to the hysterical mare.

Crystal stopped screaming, catching her breath as she gripped her chest with her right hoof. The memories were almost too much for her to even handle. She felt a pressure grip her shoulders, looking to her sides and seeing the stallion stand in front of her.

“Jush calm down, alrigh? Dere’s nothing ta worry abouh anymore. You’re in a safe place on the main facility of Neighland-Yupony. Everything will be-”

A split second after hearing that name, Crystal screamed again before she shot a beam of magic, the orb exploding in a ice blue light as the stallion was sent hurtling towards the wall. She looked down to see the stunned pony, groaning as he rubbed his head. Quickly, she got up and made her way to the door. She felt a force push her back as soon as she opened it, yelping as she hit the wall behind the bed she laid on.

Recovering from the impact, she pushed against the force, seeing a magic aura around her body. Crystal kept fighting the force of the spell, watching shadows approach the door before seeing a pony in a doctor’s outfit approaching her with a syringe. She screamed again, grunting and shrieking as the pony got closer. She heard an exchange with the stallion on the ground, but suddenly felt dizzy as the doctor injected her with the drug. Everything went limp as her wails turned into quiet whimpers. Her eyes felt heavy, and they slowly closed until she felt the forced slumber finally take her, the darkness encompassing her once more.