Pipbucks are stupidly useful, auto-mapping and and rout planing meant that I would not get lost in this maze of a stable, and it gave me the names of areas I have been to. It was a nice trade off for how sore my left leg was getting for having it on, I had not felt it before, but I also had not don any actual work from the time I first woke up. The thing was like a big peace of armor on my leg, probably able to keep any pony from braking my leg, but it was a bit heavy. sooner I could replace it with one of the pipbucks every pony else had, the better.

The walk to the elevator took me around the atrium, passing by a few other doors to different wings of residential. I did pass one pony on my way, but she was reading something as she walked, a bad habit that smart unicorns tended to have. other then that, I was alone with my thoughts, though with having to navigate the stable I was unable to get past the thought of when I sould turn next.

The two maintenance ponies from Labs B were at the elevator when I arrived, their names Easy Fix and Stress Test, of which I only remembered because they actually had name tags on them. Easy Fix walked up to me "Hay Slowtrot! the girls told us you would be coming down here, Miss Healing Herbs must be easier to read then a billboard." When he got close, he poked me with his elbow. "so how about that Candy, cute gal, a bit crazy but who don't like a little spice."

I raised my eyebrow at Easy Fix, it was true that she was cute, but it felt a bit forced, and crazy was not I call a good spice. "True, but I think it's best that..." well the moonshine just hit me, "that I keep things as friends."

Easy Fix shook his head. "you got to live a little more, If I was twenty years younger, and not have yet met my wife, I'd show that girl a good time." He helped me stabilize myself, of which I was thankful for. "now you better not puke on me, Sweet Grass told me that she was not going to wash nothing until she had a full wash."

"Naw, I only do that when I mix my rum with my beers." I blurted out.

"Kid, I got to show you how to make a real drink, you can't just throw to things together." He helped hall me to the elevator.

As Easy Fix helped me into the elevator, not that I needed much help, I was only a little dizzy, just had to wait for the room to stop moving. The floor of the elevator felt like a nice sanctuary for me, alowing me to look up at Stress Test, who was looking down at me.

"How much of the moonshine did they give you?" Stress Test said as he closed the door.

"A soda bottle of it. it's strong stuff, burns real good."

Stress Test huffed, "Just keep it away from any open flames, your breath might still be flammable."

Easy Fix started laughing. "words of wisdom, words of wisdom. So Slowtrot, did you pick up the B lab bottles, because were making a stop a labs A first if you did."

"Ironbuck, pull out a... a B Lab Soda." The bottle lifted out of my pack, and scraped along the mettle floor before rolling away when I blinked.

Picking up the soda, Stress Test put it back in my bag, "Well look at this," I felt him pull out something else, "this sould help you feel better." I heard a twist of a cap, and a bottle being pushed into my mouth. The taste was off, having a bit of a lime flavor to it, but with onions, peas, and a bit of spinach, an overall terrible drink that I drank down greedily. "A Lab Soda, taste awful, but the best hangover cure we have here, and also helps making a pony less drunk."

I really didn't care what he had to say at this point, the after taste was bad enough that I got back on my hooves. "why do you make this stuff! I'm afraid to ask what C lab Soda dose."

"gives you night vision" Stress Test responded.

I face hoofed, but do to still feeling off balanced, I found myself back on the floor. Easy Fix just laughed befor helping me back onto my hooves. "good thing your saddlebags are meant to take a hit, or it would have been a mess in there."

Drinking a second A lab soda I had before getting out of the elevator, the stuff still tasted horrible, but helped get my head clear. Labs A was a far lot different then Labs B, it being home to a few small apple orchards, as well as a bunch other rooms growing food. Further in was a laboratory, were they were doing things with said food, if I were smarter I would know what was going on. The smell of the lab itself was makings me hungry, reminding me of a marketplace back home, though with the addition of a burnt small. Even the tech's here looked a lot different, forgoing the lab barding for something that looked more like the cloths farm ponies would use.

Easy Fix, and Stress Test chatted to me about Labs A during our walk, telling me about the different things that were being grown down here, and that soon they will be shipping out portable machines for rescaling wast into food chips. Stress Test didn't like the idea of it, but did agree that it would help a stable survive. Personally I started to think about the green burgers I had the other day, and how Pear Tart told me he used something from a organic matter recycling unit. I would need to as him some questions next time I saw him.

Stopping at a different area of Labs A, the smell of food was not as strong here, and I could hear the sound of machines at work humming through an open door.

"and hear we are at manufacturing," Easy Fix spoke up, pointing down the hall, "if you brake anything, they wont just make a new thing, but a better thing to replace it."

"But do to that Stable-Tec makes everything to last, most of the workers in manufacturing are helping out in other departments." Stress Test added.

Passing by a few rooms, I could see boxes of stuff, most of it was standard Stable-Tec supply, and a lot of raw materials were stacked all over. One room had different versions of stable barding hung up on display, the one I had on was there, as well as another stable barding that would have cover most of a pony's body, which seemed strange to me. A different room, had boxes of pipbucks, pipbuck parts, and pipbuck tools.

The three of us had eventually stopped, Easy Fix pressing the button to opening the door to a workshop, and waving at me to go in. The workshop itself reminded me of the pipbuck Lab, though with far less terminals, and more heavy duty machinery. Inside the workshop there were two ponies: a unicorn stallion and a earthpony mare, both were working in their own area. The unicorn was tinkering with something small, the magic horns were useful with that kind of stuff. The earthpony was working on something bigger, using her strength to push peaces into place.

"Oy! We got your soda here." Stress Test spoke up after he closed the door behind us, "But Candy Pop got in trouble trying to get this stuff to you, so you will need to leet this quiet"

The two ponies stopped their work and walked over, giving the two maintenance ponies a hoof bump.

"Finally, I know the stuff cant be good for me, but it's been hard staying awake." The unicorn spoke up with a tiered enthusiastic. He had a short cream main, and dark gray coat.

"If were going to be done on time, we cant be falling asleep." The earthpony both sounded and looked ready to keel over. her Dark brown mane, and a Light brown coat was stained with grease.

"Well lucky day, thanks to Slowtrot here, we got ten bottles for each of you." He pointed with his hoof to the mare, "Slowtrot, this is Copper Wire," and then to the Stallion, "and Short Fuse" the two also gave me a hoof bump.

Getting a better look at the workshop, it was simply chaotic order, most things seem to have their place, but everything else were all over the place. I could not make heads or tales of the room, other then this was a place for very busy ponies.

Finding a few empty baskets, I placed them near my pipbuck for the bottles to go in. "Ironbuck, place all the sodas I have into the baskets next to me." My saddle bag opened up, and one by one the bottles came out, and lined up on the table. There were twenty one bottles of B lab sodas, and two C lab sodas now in the baskets. I took back the extra bottles leaving them with just the twenty. "so why was she banning this stuff, other then the glow part?"

Stress Test was cleared his throat before speaking up. "The stuff might be mildly addicting, and the glow has a lot of ponies worried about it being safe to even drink. In small amounts it is perfectly safe, but all the same, thees two are the only ones we give the stuff to."

Copper Wire had pushed the bottles under a desk before walking back up to us, "luckily the soda that's made here is a good counter to Labs B soda, tastes terrible, but pumps so much of the good stuff in you, that your body forces itself better. No cure for an addiction, but I heard that Lifebeat is working on that."

"Oh before you go," Short Fuse spoke up, "can we have the two C lab sodas you have, the stuff is good for working on light sensitive projects, will trade you a hat for it."

I was a bit skeptical, but could not think of needing night vision any time soon, so I traded them for the hat. The hat Short Fuse gave me looked a bit like the kind old frontier ponies would have on, also it felt like stable barding, but held it shape even though being entirely flexible. "what the hay is this made out of?" I flopped the dark blue hat onto my head, it actually felt nice and snug.

Short Fuse cracked a smile, "we had a bad batch of material for security barding over a month ago, the canvas was good quality, but would not work for what we needed it for, so we had some fun with it. As it turns out, it was grate for making hats with it, excellent for whenever we get to leave the stable for our time off." I put the hat into my saddlebag, it felt like a real good trade, as hat's did tend to last longer then a soda or two.

"the stuff was also grate for other things, like welding aprons, and covers for my hooves when walking around hot metal. When the stupid war is over, were going to get a patent on the fabric, and get rich." Copper Wire spoke before taking a sip of the B lab soda.

"Just remember you two, keep it to a bottle a day, I doubt that the techs can may any more any time soon, nut mostly I rather not see you get sick because of us." Stress Test voice had a more serous tone to it.

The Copper Wire waved her hoof dismissively, "oh don't worry, we just need to get our little projects done, and then we will get some sleep."

Easy Fix opened the door for us to leave, seeing that the two ponies in the workshop had gone back to work, Stress Test smiled and shook his head before walking out.

"so you think they will be fine, I mean we just gave them something addicting?" I asked the two maintenance ponies, hoping I was not prying.

Stress Test huffed again. "It's potentially mildly addicting, but the moonshine you had earlier is far more addicting then the stuff we gave them, it's the glowing part that has me worried."

We continued down the hall to the elevator, the smell of fresh grown food making my mouth water a little.

Once in Labs B, the two maintenance ponies went their own way, saying something about checking on the pipes and such, so I was on my own until I got to the pipbuck lab. With my rout planed out on my pipbucks map, it was not going to be a long walk, so I felt like taking my time to look at some of the open rooms along the way.

Things didn't look any different from the last time I looked around, but now I had more time to look, and with far fewer ponies around. most rooms were empty, and dark, which made me feel uneasy as I passed by them. The rooms that had ponies inside, it was filled with the sound of them tapping away at terminals, and it looked just as boring as it sounded.

"Cat's and curiosity mister Slowtrot, cat's and curiosity" a mares voice spoke softly from behind me, nearly making me jump.

Turning around I saw the black mare standing there, her eyes and lab coat seemingly popped out in contrast to her black main and coat. "oh it's you! I didn't get to thank you for earlier, miss.."

"thy names Phobetor," she said with a regal tone to it. now that I got a better look at her, she was actually cute looking, a bit shadowy, but that had its own charm to it.

"ah.. well thanks Phobearto, I'm actually heading to the pipbuck lab, got some cool research stuff going on, unless your busy?" I gave my best smile, I didn't feel too smart, but I might have the charm at least get on her good side.

Her face scrunched a bit at my question, but quickly relaxed. "I was actually heading down there myself. The work their doing with that pipbuck, it has peeked my interest."

Well that worked well for me, though this did ruin my short quiet time on my way to the pipbuck lab, but sharing that time with a cute mare felt like a good trade. "Oh... they only got it to work properly, and the levitation thing as well." I spoke up as we started to walk together. "but the testing on it sould start soon, well I think it is, not realy all that impressive."

Phobetor giggled a little. "true, but I'm still interested non the less. At the very least it may prove entertaining."

I had to remind myself that this was a stable full of smart ponies, and well also orphans, but down here it was just smart ponies, with interest that just fly over my head. "well I hope it is, I personally can't make heads or tails of all the computer stuff."

"I wouldn't worry about understanding anything," she looked into my eyes, it felt like she was looking through me, "some knowledge is not meant to be understood, just accepted."

The soft hiss of a door opening drew my attention, and in front of me was Emerald Fields, "oh, your here Slowtrot, I was about to go get you, this will save us some time." She motioned with her hoof for me to enter the lab, looking back at Phobetor, but she was again gone. "is there something wrong Slowtrot," Emerald asked with a hint of concern in her voice.

"no, nothings wrong," I turned back to the pipbuck lab, walking passed Emerald, "Just that some of you lab ponies can be a bit... weird. not to offend."

Emerald Fields smiled and rolled her eyes as she closed the door. "oh don't get me started, we got at least three mad scientist down in labs C."

Inside the pipbuck lab things were much more busy then they were the last two times I was here. There were more ponies inside, all tapping away on the terminals. Could Bank seamed to be the one in charge of them all, as they would hoof over what I guess were chips before going back to the terminals. June was still at her over sized terminal, tapping away on her keyboard.

"So it's not just the four of us this time?" I asked

"nope, June got the Overmare to free up some of our techs from labs C. With them helping, we can modify the pipbuck with nearly no chance of an error happening, and get right to testing the pipbuck out." Emerald trotted to her desk, it still had gutted pipbucks all over. "now come here, I need to prep your pipbuck."

Stepping up to the desk, I watched her pushed the pipbuck parts to the side, and pulled out in front of me a pipbuck that looked a little different from the normal 3000. The thing looked a little bigger then a regular pipbuck, but seemed less bulky at the same time. The screen didn't pop out as far as it dose on a normal pipbuck, and the sides were much smoother, more like curved plates of metal.

"beautiful isn't she, it's the pipbuck 3200, but we call it the S.R.P. MK 2. Even if were not makings new models for public distribution anymore, ponies will be throwing their bits at stable-tec just to get their hoof on one." she opened a small panel on the S.R.P. and plugged a cable into and looked back up to me. "Now I just need to synchronize your pipbuck to this one here, so can you put your right hoof up in the air?" I did as she asked, and with one swift motion, the S.R.P. was snapped onto my right hoof, and then she once again opened the panel on my pipbuck, and plugged the other end of the cable to it. "this is going to feel a little weird, but it's perfectly safe" she pressed a button on the S.R.P. turning it on.

The E.F.S. became fuzzy as all the displays in my vision activated, "what do you mean by synchronize, and what dose S.R.P. mean?" I was staring to feel dizzy as another set of displays appeared in my vision, turning them all into an unreadable mess.

"search and rescue pipbuck, that's what the S.R.P. stands for. As for the synchronizing, the O.S. on the 2600 is a mess, it's only because the V.I. being in it, that pipbuck has not gone haywire. By synchronizing it to the 3200, were updating the O.S. which sould make cleaning out the rest of the defective security programs, and putting in the programs we need much safer, and faster."

I barely understood what she had just said, but the fuzziness was starting to go away. "ok, but what's an O.S.?"

Emerald sighed, "Operating System, it's the backbone of the pipbuck's software, without it the pipbuck can't even work. It's like how we breath without needing to think about breathing."

I was starting to understand a little, but it still mostly flew over my head. "so without it, the pipbuck doesn't even work, but the one in the 2600 is broken, so your going to replace it with a new O.S." she nodded her head in agreement. The fuzziness was now gone, and there was now only one E.F.S. in my vision. "I think it's done, do I take it off now?"

She shook her head, "it's going to take a little longer, and we will need the two pipbucks to stay on until we finish modifying the 2600." Emerald then pointed at June. "but it sould be ready to be plugged in. let's go over there and set you up." she stepped away from her desk, and walked over to June, I followed her awkwardly, with the two pipbucks on, and the cable between them around the back of my neck.

The ashtray on June's desk was filled with cigaret buds, and she had another cigaret lit up in her muzzle. "Plug him in Emerald, we just need to correct a few more lines of code before were ready." her hooves taping away at the keyboard still, not loosing her focus. Emerald Fields gave me a shrug before plugging the thing in, with her magic.

Cloud Bank trotted over, holding a small basket on a wing, it rattled with the sound of loos chips with each step. "It's so good having a team again, I may be smarter then that hole lot, but I can only work so fast on my own." a grunt came from one of the techs, and Cloud Bank ignored it. "Most of the chips are all cleaned up, and that includes all the ones we need to get the pipbuck set up for testing." Emerald used her magic to take all the chips and plug them into Junes Terminal, the thing looked like it could take ten more.

"I have a question, why do you need this pipbuck, I don't think you ever told me?" I felt this was the best time to ask, they were about to mess with the thing again, and after I was careful to not mess with the settings, or plug it into anything.

Cloud Bank was the first to respond. "Oh we did forget to mention that didn't we... Well after we made the the batch of 2600's, the M.A.S. took them to their labs, and just messed with the everything, though the only thing that came from their tinkering was working stealthbucks, the rest blew up in their face. But that 2600 have some insane ability for holding spells, and if we can tweak the thing just right, we might be able to use it for teleportation!"

Emerald Fields then cut in, "The plan we have is to connect all the stables together using teleportation. The problem is that installing a teleportation chamber is costly, time consuming, and prone to catastrophic failure when even pushed over it's limits a little. Also if some pony is even a little out of the safe zone, then zap, half of them is in one stable, and the other in the one they started in. As it turns out, a sing pony spell is both power efficient, and far safer with a set destination. If we can make it work, we can turn it into a pipbuck attachment and and destination nodes, far cheaper to make, and easier to repair."

Now I'm not a very smart pony, but I understood that clearly. The first thing to come to mind was what if a stable was failing, with teleportation they could just move to another stable and wait for it to get repaired. That or if leaving a stable is impossible, they could simply leave through a different stable.

June turned her seat around to look at us, "Everything is in order, so get conformable Slowtrot, this is going to take some time to download into the pipbuck" she took a long deep inhale of her cigaret, and then exhaled the wight smoke, covering her face in the cloud. "you can say were just a hop skip and a jump away from the next big advancement in science. It's the shit I live for." well I was already sold, June being a bad ass scientist that will save lives with science, that was like the rich chocolate that covered a cake, it made something good into something awesome.

Emerald had put down a cushion next to the main terminal, for me to lay down on, it being comfy enough that I could sleep on it if I wanted to. All the techs were at their terminals, long cables all tangling together, connecting to Junes terminal, their eyes looking at her, nervously waiting for it to start.

In a dark corner of the lab, I could see two golden eyes looking at me, and gleaming white teeth formed a smile. Phobetor stepped out of the shadows, mouthing words to me, but she was too far away for me to hear what she was saying, but the hair along my spine stood up, something I didn't know what felt wrong.

I tired to turn my head an ask June to hold off for a minute, but found that I couldn't move, nor could anyone else. Time had stopped for me, S.A.T.S. had activated on it's own, and I could not turn it off.

the green message flashed into my vision, I could only feel relieved that it was not going to kill me, but time was still not moving, making me worry that something lase was about to go wrong.

grate, was it going to show me another O.I.A. message, or memory... wait, what the hell is a O.I.A.?

"it's the Office of Inter-Ministry Affairs, not something a simpleton like you would now anything about." Phobetor spoke as she stepped around the frozen ponies. "Now give me the secret your pipbuck holds, the secret that Luna let get away from her." she now stood face to face with me, her golden eyes looking past my own, like I was nothing to her, just another hurdle to walk around. "secrets that may have even been keeped away from Luna herself."

The salty water of the ocean caressed my cheek, the moonless night bathed everything in darkness, and the rocking of the boat felt like I was in my mothers hooves. On the water before me was a grand warship, it's lights making it seem to glow in the darkness, I could feel myself sigh as my eyes stared at the ship.

"Captain Roseland" A light gray unicorn mare with a cyan mane stood at my side. "everything is in order, we just need your approval for the operation to start." her salute was firm and with propose, but my eyes returned to the ship, on not my eye, her eyes had returned to looking the ship.

"At ease Lieutenant." the right hoof of the body I was in reached out at the ship, and moved it in a way as though trying to caress is. "we have one last thing to do."

The voice, the feeling of the body, and how the pipbuck 2600 felt on her leg, I was back in Thorn Roseland. I tried to rack my brain around what was going on, but because of the lack of any control I had over what the body was doing, any clear thought I had were forced from me every time she move or talked.

"He's a wonderful thing to behold, so strong, so capable, and loyal to it's core." Thorns hoof still pining the air at the warship. "Why dose that old fool get to be your lover when it sould be me." A crack of a smile formed on Thorns lips, as she retracted her hoof her head slowly turned to the Lieutenant. "The operation cannot begin until after I meet with with Admiral Life Jacket." The lieutenant remained stoic and, but Thorns eyes focused on a slight twitch in the lieutenants left eye. "now send me over to the Levitation lieutenant, can't keep the others waiting."

The lieutenants horn began to glow, and then everything slipped way, it felt like I was falling, like Thorn was falling. It all ended almost as soon as it began, and before me was a Unicorn Stallion, light blue coat, and pail green mane, saluting Thorn.

"Welcome aboard The flagship EQNC Levitation," the stallion spoke softly.

Thorns eyes scanned all around her, giving me a better look at the ship. Everything about this ship was huge, I could only see a little bit of it from where Thorn was, but the row of massive cannons was all I needed to know about it's destructive the ship can be. Thorn ran her hoof gently along the metal floor, shivering a little when she did. "are you happy to see me again, I'm happy to see you." her voice sounded genital, and a bit sweet. Turning her gaze back up to the stallion, her voice became a firm whisper, "Lieutenant, stand guard here, and wait for my return." The stallion gave another salute, not showing any sign of speaking more then he already had.

Using her stealthbucks, Thorn quickly walked down the deck of the ship, and slipped inside an open door, her hooves making little to no sound on each step. inside the Leviathan it was was quiet, with only a few ponies out and about working, giving the ship an felling of calm, and anticipation. Most of the navy ponies that were up were sitting around: playing cards, and reading books were a common pastime from what I could see.

Thorn eventually stopped at a door, next to it was a metal place with the name 'Admiral Life Jacket' in bold print. I could feel Thorns right hoof raise up to the door, and right before she knocked, her stealthbuck finally giving out. Straitening out her uniform as she waited, a green marker on the E.F.S. showed that some pony was moving around on the other side. It was a couple of seconds before the door opened, Admiral Life Jacket was an older orange unicorn stallion, his beard was a good hoof long, and along with his mane, all white as snow. "Thorn! One day you have to tell me how you can sneak onto my ship so easily" he gave me a smile, and let me in, let her in.

"if I told you how, then I wouldn't be so special to you, wouldn't I?" Thorn fluttered her eyes at the old stallion as he closed his door.

"I don't like the idea of torching my own subordinates, but you realy do push the line with me." the old pony, from what I could guess was Admiral Life Jacket, walked over to a liquor cabinet, and poured himself, and Thorn a glass of brown liquid. "you need to stick to normal channels Thorn, I can't protect you if your found were your not meant to be."

"but I do love the wipes and paddles." sitting on the bed, she took the glass in hoof, and had a sip. it must have been Wild Pegasus, but a well ages label, the vapor alone tasted spectacular. "but don't worry about me, I do have my own connections, it's been over a year since I was your executive officer."

Life Jacket sighed as he sat next to Thorn. "why are you here Thorn, you have your own ship to take care of." his tone was stern, not looking at her when she looked at him. The closeness had me feeling worries, and only worried me more when she put her head on his shoulder.

"Can't I just come and see you, it's been too long already."

Life Jacket gently pushed her off him, "Dammit Thorn, my wife already thinks somethings up, if she found out about you, it kill her." he downed his glass before walking bad to the liquor cabinet, "lets stop this, you can easily find a nice stallion, so go do that."

"you know she doesn't care for you," Thorn put her glass on the nightstand, and got off the bed. "not like I do, when was the last time she even said she loves you." Life Jacket flinched at her words, almost spilling some of the whiskey as he poured himself another glass.

"But I still love her." he put the glass down, "just go Thorn, the thing between us, it's over."

Thorn had walked right up on the Admiral left, he was looking at nothing but his drink, his eyes downcast. "I'm sorry." I could feel Thorn put a hoof around him in a hug, he didn't move, other then to put the bottle of whiskey down. "if things were different." the hoof moved up to his neck. "then I would never had needed to fuck you." his eyes suddenly locked with hers, almost like he was looking passed her, and at me.

Time stopped, and Life Jacket became highlighted in a green glow, stating a 99% chance to hit. Then it was just his head that was highlighted, and an option to execute appeared next to strike. Time then began to return to normal speed, with my eyes unable to look away as Thorns left hoof came up, and together with her right hoof, twisted Life Jacket's head nearly backwards. By the time he hit the floor, time had returned to normal, Life Jacket was dead in but a split second.

Thorn was calm, no worse, she was happy, I could feel her mouth contort to a wide grin, then she started to sing, her voice filled with a pleasant malice.

"This night is going to be perfect." she dragged Life Jacket's body back into bed, tucking him in as though he was just sleeping. "The kind of night of which I dreamed since I was small." taking the two glasses filled with whiskey, she dumped the Wiled Pegasus down the drain, and cleaned the glasses before putting them away. "Everypony will gather round." she then walked up to the trophy's in the room. "Say that I'm heroic with my honors." Grabbing a sword used by zebras officers, Thorn warped it up and attached it to her belt. "What they don't know is that I have fooled them all."

Thorn put the bottle of whiskey back into it's place, and look around the room, all signs that any other pony was here, was now gone.

I could care less about the rank.

I won't partake in any parade.

Oaths, well I will be lying when I say.

That I swear to defend Equestria,

from enemies, foreign and domestic.

The truth is I don't care for it at all.

No I do not love Equestria,

In my heart there is no room.

All I want is this ship to be all mine.

The gaze she had in a nearby looking glass sealed my disgust, her eyes felt vicious, and a wiled smile that seemed filled with glee.

Turning on her second stealthbuck, Thorn stepped out of Life Jacket's room, quietly closing the door behind her. The ship was once more back to it's still quietness, with the few navy ponies that were about, how they were ignorant to what had just happened. It filled me with rage i had never known, wanting tell the navy ponies that she was here, that they needed to stop her. Thorn got outside unopposed, each step on the deck felt like she was doing a victory dance. I wanted to scream, to throw up, to do anything but be in her body, yet I was trapped.

The stealthbuck deactivated as Thorn got in sight of her second unicorn lieutenant, who was waiting for her in the same spot she had arrived. As she trotted up to him, his horn began to glow, and Thorn looking back at the ship, slowly waving her hoof at it, as though caressing the ship. "sorry my love, we must part for now, but soon we will be together, forever." Once more, and the same sensation of falling came.

The other end of the teleportation never came, bringing me to a stillness that freed my mind to finally think properly, but only to realize an oppressing darkness that surrounded me. It had a coldness that passed thru my fur, and my attempt hold myself didn't help keep me warm...

"oh shit, I cam move... I can talk!" tapping by back hooves I found something solid for me to stand on, which was strange as I was floating before. I checked a myself quickly to confirm that I was no longer a mare, with everything in the right spot. "right, so were in tartarus am I?"

"not a bad guess, for a simpleton"

Phobetor voice spoke inside my head as a gigantic golden orb appeared before me, like a sun that gave no light in this darkness.

I slowly backed away from from the orb, unsure that it would do any good. "What's going on, what are you!"

"Oh I think you can guess, you ponies do fear my kind so dearly."

The golden orb back away, as the darkness took form, revealing a harsh landscape around me. I stood on top of a spire made of solid stone, and all around were other spires, each one had a flat top, and a cage. Looking back to the spire I was on, the darkness had formed into a black dragon with golden eyes, it formed from a cage under it, the inside of the cage was consumed with a black fog, with two golden eyes staring back at me from the darkness.

"honestly, I'm feeling a bit too freaked out to make any guesses." I quivered as I spoke.

Footnote:

75% to next level