The creature was made of light, entirely formed of a bright blue light, and thus undoubtedly holographic in nature. It was about as tall as an older filly, around four feet or so. It was hard to tell seeing what the hologram presented the group of equines, its form twisting and squirming in its many-limbed form. It appeared like a breed of jellyfish, its 'head' similar in shape to a baby stroller, only translucence and gelatinous, made of a large, tilted fleshy bowl, adorned by a series of rubbery ribs and tubes. Below hung a large cluster of tentacles and tendrils, all in motion in one way or another. Four were larger, and ended in large flaps that looked much like the scoop of a spoon, the others around them were smaller and thinner, but there were easily twenty of them. From where Fluttershy was standing, or more accurately, hiding, she could just about see that behind the creature were a series of rippling and pulsating membranous fins that fluttered like those of a cuttlefish. However at second glance the pegasus could start to see that within the 'cradle' of the head sat something, something that appeared to be a separate, smaller creature. Upon a closer, squintier inspection Fluttershy could see the creature within the cradle was actually a part of the jellyfish itself, joined to the inside of the space by what would have been the hip. The half-creature had two arms and a head attached to a torso, however it was tiny, seemingly frail and possibly deformed. Its arms looked like bare chicken wings, only thinner and with a single, ugly finger at their ends. The torso was sickly and thin with wrinkly flesh and a viewable ribcage and it's head was bulbous and appeared too heavy for its tiny neck to hold up. The head reminded her of that of a Fed in a sense, only its side were fanned out, it had a third eye upon the forehead and its face was noseless and mouthless. Everypony present looked at the holographic creature with either a look of surprise or disgust at its sickly appearance.

"Who or, eeer...what are you?" Rainbow Dash was the first to awkwardly speak up.

"I am Torsion-Kype, I am an exchangment and security Divergence. I was filed into service eleven hundred and thirteen years, four months, eleven days, one hour, twenty six minutes and thirty nine seconds ago. I have been charged with maintaining the security of this Sky Platform and ensure its continued functionality." The creature spoke with the same voice as the crystal wall, along with its fastness and calmness.

"You're a computer." Twilight said with a frown.

"I am a Divergence. A sentient program built from digital variable waves given density and depth. I was harvested in a data pool and designated for my currently designed purposed." The hologram replied.

"You said that the aliens that built this place died?" Rarity asked.

"Yes." The hologram chirped.

"Did they look like you?" Luna added.

"Yes."

"What happened to them?" Celestia asked somberly.

"Specify." The alien blurted.

"Sorry?" Celestia said with the cock of her head and twitch of the ears.

"From what point of time do you refer? Do you wish to know where they came from? Where they went after leaving this planet? What happened to those that remained here?"

"Uh, let's just start with why they came here?" Celestia said raising her hands.

"After suffering numerous planetary assaults from a biomatter and mineral harvesting race known as Denti my creators, known as Vrelith, had to find alternate methods of retaliation as weaponized counterstrikes proved vastly ineffective. The Bio-splice church offered a solution by investigating and developing an artificial species of our own design to act as foot soldiers and military crews. As my creators people were few and far between, and whose weaponry was potent but lacked in quantity, few alternatives were evident."

"That's despicable! Creating living things just to be used up as soldiers! It's absolutely barbaric!" Rarity said with a huff.

"Irrelevant. My creators needed to survive, and as I stated, few alternatives could be presented, and none proved more promising than massed bio-cloning." The Divergence replied calmly.

"You said these aliens you were fighting harvested biological material. So your plan was to just feed them more of it?" Twilight pressed with a scowl.

"In fact, troop cloning was a mere front, my creators actual imperative was to lure the Denti into foreign space to instead become preoccupied by another interstellar society. While the alien swarm was feeding off the worlds of other empires, my creators could reclaim and rebuild what territory they had lost." The digital creature replied unconflicted.

"That's just cold! So some space-freaks decide to chase your tail and you chicken out by leading them into somepony else? Wow, your creators sure sound like real heroes." Rainbow Dash said as she fluttered around the blunted, table-high pyramid that presented the hologram.

"Again, irrelevant." The Divergence replied coldly.

"Ahm sure as sugar it were mighty relevant to whoever you backstabbed." Applejack shot front behind her large, crossed arms.

"Also irrelevant. These events occurred before my creation, and I had no part to play in their plans."

"Look, we're sorry, just continue, please." Celestia assured.

"The efforts to create our own, originally designed species met unexpected delays, however it was within acceptable time parameters to harvest living subject to clone and produce en mass. Stations, like this one, were positioned in orbit over a planet of interest and activated a distress signal. Once a suitable applicant for cloning efforts responded the station would direct their ship to dock at one of our vessel cells. These cells were actually refitted to have all resupply and repair removed in favour of a stasis field emitter. The ship and the crew within would be frozen, stasis-resistant drones sent in to contain and remove the subjects to be studied within the stations confines. This station prides itself on boasting the most advanced research facilities of all the Domain."

"Right, so on top of letting other planets and populations take the hits that were meant for you, you kidnapped some of them and used them for freaky alien cloning experiments. AJ, shoot this guy, please." Dash chimed.

"Ahm thinkin' it." Applejack growled, running her thumb over the grip of her firearm.

"Wait! Wait. So this station, it used to be in space. How did it get down here?" Celestia asked intensely.

"My creators, foolishly in my opinion, became obsessed with a single species in particular for cloning efforts, abandoning all other research effort in favour of this singular motive. This lead to them running out of time, and resorting to abandon the station and all their work in order to flee the incoming Denti threat." The Divergence replied.

"But...if the Denti were headed here, then where are they? Wouldn't they have destroyed the whole world or something, judging by how quickly your guys were running away from them?" Cadance inquired with a little sass in her tone.

"Through a matter of chance, the society that my creators had originally planned to redirect the alien swarm into had received this stations distress signal on a larger scale than first thought. Several battle clusters arrived in system to intercept the Denti swarm, and were surprisingly successful in eliminating the alien threat."

"Huh, smells awful lot like irony to me." Applejack huffed.

"However, by the time the foreign ships entered the system, this station had already fallen from orbit, as information containment protocols dictate. However after this station had been set to self destruct by falling into the surface of this world, a...complication occurred." The hologram admitted, tendrils flicking in conflict at the last couple of words.

"Before surface collision, an energy signature of unknown origin cushioned the stations fall and prevented complete disintegration, preserving most of the structure. Afterwards, despite security measures, a single member of your kind entered the facility and made exchanges with me. She had hoped to have saved whoever was aboard the station, fearing its descent was due to some accident. She inquired if there were still living subject aboard and I confirmed this inquiry. She was, much like yourselves, objectful of the idea of destroying the on-board subjects and demanded their release. Due to security access measures, I denied her this, and she responded with intent to use force to access the vessel and containment cells. I deactivated certain cells with intent to leave the subjects trapped within to eventually stave and suffocate, to firmly grasp her attention, and informed her I would deactivate the last, and most highly prioritized, cell if she attempted to free any of the subjects in any of the cells including the ones I had released from stasis. I also informed her any action to free subjects would result in the initiation of reactor inversion, an event that would most likely annihilate a fifth of this planets surface. She conditioned this proposal further by promising to leave the cells alone, but only if her base genetic signature be added into security access files. This term was agreed upon, the individual left, and this facility has remind abandoned since that day." Torsion said, coming to a finality of a finish.

Celestia's eyes shifted, looking at the crystalline floor, her mind trying to wrap itself around something. Twilight, Cadance and Luna all had the same look, all of them trying to contemplate what they'd just heard, either dumbfounded or disgusted by what they'd just heard. Fluttershy let the words sink in herself, and thought back to who this pony could have been, to have stopped an entire space station from crashing into Equestria, then to just stroll in to check for survivors, and to scare a computer program with the possibility of being able to release the alien subjects held within their stasis fields. Who could have been that powerful, that kind, that long ago. Fluttershy then thought on the last part, on how the ponies genetics had been entered into this stations files, so she could access it. Just like how Celestia had accessed it.

"Rosetta." Fluttershy whispered, although loud enough for Celestia to hear.

"Mother." Celestia said with a smile, eyes heavy with memory.

"Mother rarely ever visits the material realm, and whenever she does it's not done lightly." Luna said to her sister, implying to press on with the questioning.

"What are the priority subjects on this station?" Celestia asked without hesitation.

"That information is above your agreed upon security level's access." Torsion replied simply.

"Then were are the priority subjects being held?" Celestia pressed on.

"Vessel cell number seven."

"Can you lead us there?" Celestia asked, apparently hoping the artificial intelligence's complexity was not great enough to avoid exploitation.

"I do believe that would not be best for the facility's interest for you to know that."

Well, at least she tried. Fluttershy thought, now very much out of hiding, feeling more comfortable out in the open.

"Fine, what is the nearest cell to us?" Celestia asked, growing impatient.

"Both cells eight and one are closest to you." The Divergence replied.

"Good! Can...can you take us to cell eight, please?" Celestia asked kindly, a tense few seconds passing.

"Of course." Torsion replied, almost happily.

A blue glow, much like the holographic alien's, came from beneath the ponies. Fluttershy looked down to see a bright blue line leading from between her hooves and out down deeper to the facilities center before taking a sharp left behind some geometric structures.

"Please follow the holo-locator. Mind your step."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The glowing path of blue light had lead the group of ponies to stare up at a huge wall at the edge of the immense hall they'd started off in. Built into the angular, alien crystal surface was a single door that a wide bridge had lead the ponies to. As soon as Celestia came within ten feet of the door, walking up to it expecting to have to unlock it somehow like the ordeal she had gone through earlier, the crystal surface glided apart into segments and into the wall around it. The ponies stepped through and into another large space equally as large as the one they had just stepped out of. Ahead, it extended a ways, but not all that far seeing as all could still see the other side of the hall and the small frame of the doorway into the next cell. The room, however, was outrageously long, stretching off to the ponies left further than they could see, the titanic walls and ceiling spanning into the murky darkness. The hall also extended up and down a very impressive distance, and to the ponies right was an irregular wall that looked to have a number of platforms and observation windows built into it. However the true spectacle within made everypony's jaws drop like meteors.

A ship. An alien spaceship sat suspended to their left within the colossal, cavernous space beyond the walkways they trod upon. It was angular in design, but not in the same way as the environment around the ponies. It lacked the cold, sharpness of the Vrelthian architecture, and instead of being dark, cold colours, was instead a dusty grey colour. In design, it appeared to be almost composed of several smaller sections, some blocky, other cylindrical, but all molded together and protected by the angular armour plating covering its flanks. It was gigantic in every sense, easily over a kilometer in length and appropriately tall and wide to form a sturdy, solid craft with a blunt nose. But as large as it was, it seemed to fit within the gigantic hall several sizes too small, sitting in the air held in place by four huge crystal pillars and a vast number of mechanical pincers clasped to its hull. Even though it seemed lessened by its containment space, Fluttershy remembered how impressed by the size of the Equestrian airships she'd seen in military parades and flying from place to place above her home, and seeing this magnificent creation before her dimmed the experience of gawking at the comparatively tiny dirigibles. Fluttershy frowned slightly as she'd just noticed some irregularities in the design that didn't seem to fit with the ships overall 'bricky' aesthetic. A pair of dull, golden wings adorned each side of the crafts nose, wile the head of what looked like a screeching eagle loomed other the top edge of it. A few other golden eagle gargoyles and decorative segments could be seen, giving the ship a slight warmth to it.

"Wow. What is that?" Rainbow Dash asked noone, only to be answered.

"Imperial fleet heavy cruiser, Mithodian pattern, pattern registration 27 - I - 555/R/556 - MIT. Threat level: Mild. Deployment capacity: Mild. Offensive resistance level: Mild. Speed capacity: Mild." Torsion announced.

Fluttershy gasped as she spotted a portion above them, to the right, directly ahead of the crafts nose. The alien structure had a gaping wound in its surface, like the craft had fired something form its nose and into the facility, decimating three layers of observation windows and leaving a platform hanging off the wall in a twisted mess. Fluttershy looked back at the craft and noticed the nose had a barrel built into it, like the whole upper front half was just own large gun. She spotted a number of smaller turrets stations about the ships broadside, much like an airship, and saw that opposite to them, stitched through the walls of the cell were massive explosive damage. Twilight, and perhaps some of the others, seemed to notice this as well.

"That ship did this?" Twilight said gesturing to the Ursa Minor size hole in the room.

"Yes. Please hold still." The Divergence said abruptly.

The ponies all stopped, befuddled as to what to expect, looking and shrugging at one another. In front of them, from each side of the wide walkway, swung up a large, thin frame, the two connecting above the middle of the platform below to form something akin to a netless soccer goal. This frame zipped towards them with frightening speed, enough to make the ponies at the front of the group flinch as it passed over their heads, a light blue glow washing over them as it passed. A fizzling, crackling sound could be heard, making everypony looked about in confusion as to what had just happened.

"What the buckin' butterfly?!" Applejack exclaimed as she looked down at the firearm in her hand.

The entire weapon had turned pitch black, so black it didn't seem to even catch light to reveal texture or edges. A bright light burst from within the weapon that slowly peeled its way through the firearm's body, atomizing it by the second until its dissolved frame crumbled to dust in AJ's hands.

"Weapons are not permitted within this section of the facility." The computer informed.

"Yah'll gimme that back, yah hear! Weren't yours tah take!" Applejack barked at the air around her, hands clenched and arms tense, her building temper making Fluttershy take a step back and awkwardly fiddle with her hair.

"I repeat, weapons are not permitted within this section of the facility, no exceptions. Thank you for your cooperation."

"Coop'rashion my rump! Is the whole damn sky jus' filled with snide, belittlin' alien freak?" AJ growled as the group pressed on.

"You know what, Applejack, let's find out. Torsion, does Celestia have access to the inside of that ship?" Twilight called out, aggravated.

Several seconds passed, half of which Twilight spent giving AJ a quizzical look on why Torsion hadn't answered her sooner.

"Yes, she does. Though, I would greatly advise against it." The Divergence warned.

"And why is that?" Celestia asked.

"I see it best to withhold that information for a later time."

"You do that. Princess, I know we haven't got long, but this could be important." Twilight pleaded.

The Princess of the Sun frowned slightly as she thought, and in a way, Fluttershy hoped she'd say that they couldn't afford to head inside the ship. Some might call her cowardly, but the last thing she needed now was more disappointment from more creepy, mean alien, and she sure didn't want to stumble about inside the dark, dusty insides of an ancient alien ship.

"You're right, Twilight, and we can spare a little while. Torsion, we're heading inside the craft." Celestia ordered.

"Of course. Though I'd still advise against it." The alien computer droned.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The door to the ship made a sharp, hydraulic hiss followed by a long, low whine as the toothed door rose into its ceiling feed. Before the ponies was complete blackness accompanied by a strange silence that seemed to hold an eerie noise all of its own. The ponies couldn't help but feel this place was still occupied somehow.

"Torsion, where are the crew of this ship?" Celestia inquired, a sliver of fear in her voice as she faced a dark she wasn't quite familiar with.

"Inside." The intelligence replied.

"Are they, uh...friendly?"

"They will not harm you, I assure you. But I would still advise you return to the relay fields you came from."

Celestia drew a deep breath in and grabbed her sisters hand for comfort, looking to her with a weak smile, Luna doing her best to return one, before looking back into the dark.

"You're not afraid of the dark, are you, Luna?" Celestia asked genuinely, seeking comfort from her night-dwelling sister.

"No, am I not, sister. But this...this is different." Luna replied with a heavy tone.

Celestia took to a stride and swiftly wandered into the ship.

It was dusty, in fact there was dust everywhere, almost like the snow outside in the relay fields and up on the surface. The air smelled musky and was heavy to breath, like she was in the attic of a long abandoned house. With a mental twinge, her horn illuminated, unwittingly causing her sister to flinch away. She could have sworn she'd just heard Luna hiss in exposure to the light, but her mind was preoccupied with her surroundings. The corridor ahead was quite spacey, but something about this place, perhaps the dust, made Celestia feel terribly enclosed, trapped by the very air around her. Celestia turned sharply to look behind her after having heard something behind her, like the rush of wind. Everypony else was behind the alicorns who took the lead with horns lit up, some looked tense, other terrified. Pinkie however seemed perfectly at ease as was inspecting her surrounding with a youthful enthusiasm.

See, Miss Pie knows there's nothing to worry about. Torsion couldn't lie to us. This is going to be fine. We're all going to be just fine.

Celestia turned forward and found the route ahead was growing closer to a split junction, and they'd have to start choosing random directions to go in, and with that came remembering the way back. They couldn't afford to get lost in this place considering its size. She looked back again to see the entrance still open, but now a far ways back behind them, so much so that the light coming through was too dim to help them see, meaning their horns were the only things creating any light.

"Torsion, does this vessel have power? Can you put the lights on?" Celestia asked shakily.

"Power core is fully functional, however my infiltration of the ships systems has seemed to throw up several systematic fail-safes. There are no lights I can access in your section of the ship, however there are some located further inside. Please leave the ship now, I advise you do not travel any further." Torsion stressed, his tone inclining slightly.

"P-p-p-princess, maybe we sh-should listen to what he's saying." Fluttershy said, gripped by fear.

"Come on, Fluttershy, do I need to remind you of what my grandma told me? Perhaps in sooooooong~?" Pinkie said slyly.

"No! No, I remember!" Blurted Fluttershy.

"Besides, the ghosties in here aren't gonna hurt us. They just wanna go home." Pinkie said in her usual happy tone, but this time it had a slightly somber undertone.

Everypony froze as they reached the junction and turned to face Pinkie Pie.

"Uh, say Pinkie, yah wanna run that by us again?" Applejack asked slowly and clearly as she could.

Whatever Pinkie said next faded into the recesses of Celestia's attention as she heard something that made her fur crawl. It was a droning, disembodied moan that came swimming from behind her, down the right corridor. Her bones seemed to freeze over and her muscles tensed as fear gripped her every joint and strangled her gut. Celestia had always been something of an example when it came to keeping composure, able to bravely stand before even the fiercest, most ferocious opposition while still keeping her calm. However feeling trapped in the webs of dust in the belly of this ancient alien craft gave her a feeling she hadn't felt since a thousand years ago, that fateful night. She turned around, terrified yet utterly compelled by the noise behind her, slowly swiveling around to face the deep dark ahead. The noise, however, changed in pitch, then again, and carried with it a second, fast paced tone like the chug of a train. More so, it wasn't coming from the corridor, but beyond from deeper in the ship.

"-and then they all woke up in thi-" She would have continued, but Pinkie was suddenly cut off.

"Do you hear that?" Celestia said, transfixed on the darkness before her.

"Auntie Celestia, are you okay?" Cadance asked, her voice unsteady.

"Music." Celestia breathed.

"What?" Several ponies said at once.

"I hear music. This way!" Celestia said with a sudden burst of enthusiasm, darting off and leaving the others calling and chasing after her.

She turned a corner, then another, desperately following the sound that grew louder and clearer with every step she took. She had to see them, had to know that there was something more to the universe than cold calculations, than planetary statistics, than the grey, lifeless drone of fine tuned productivity. She had to know if there was even the slightest possibility of someone out in the stars being even slightly like ponykind in even just a single sense. And a love of music was sense enough for her. The federation treated music like a fossil record, it was found and unearthed from their digital archives and displayed for the public to enjoy, but had not been created or publicly sung in hundreds of years. The notion was so alien it was sickening, the dismissal of music as being an enjoyable past-time, but nothing that could be measured as essential or useful. No, Celestia needed this, all ponykind needed this. They needed someone to sing with them. To sing them into the future, not collared and drag them forward like dogs. The music was fast paced, stringy, almost identical to the country themes Applejack herself enjoyed at one of her family hoedowns. It was energetic, electric, and she heard voices singing along. They were muffled and far away, but they were there, just around the next corner. She turned to see a large set of decorated doors, gold and engraved with images she was in too much of a rush to study properly. Celestia, Eyes tearing up, mouth open in a desperate smile, wings outstretched to graze the grey, metallic walls, threw her arms out and shot her hands against the doors, bursting them open before her.

It took a while for her to soak it all in.

It was some form of hall, most likely used for dining, but having a sort of cathedral theme to it with large, stained glass windows and tall, looming pillars flanking the expansive central area filled with rows of large, stone benches. Light, most likely artificial, poured in through the stained glass, casting vibrant colours across the large hall. Each window bore the image of a great moment in a story of sorts, the design simple, but finely crafted and complimentary to those envisioned upon them. Not one, or two, or three, but several alien species could be seen pictured within the massive glass canvas', alien warriors wielding firearms, swords and banners, fighting hoards of terrors or battling mighty lords of darkness in single combat, each and every presented an epic moment, the princess assumed, from history. Some of the aliens had brightly colours coats, long prehensile tails and two sets of horns, others looked a little like Feds, only with deeper, earthy tones to their flesh, rounder skulls and stockier builds. Some appeared to have shield-like faces who's mouths curved in strange ways and who's bodies bore two pairs of arms, and others appeared to be tall, lanky avian creatures with four eyes. The entire place was a room filled with stories, and was no doubt a place these people painted in ink upon the glass would gather to exchange their tales and fill their bellies. But everything was covered in dust, a thick blanket that seemed inches deep, and strange, grey masses of material sat within the dust. Celestia took a step forward and looked around, resting her eyes on the nearest mound of grey matter.

A skull. An alien skull sat sideways, rested upon the remains of two alien arms covered by a rotten and dusty jacket. The jacket lead to a pair of pants that hung over the seat below, one skeletal leg sitting in the material while the other had fallen out, behind a gathering of tail bones could be seen. Another skeleton could be seen sat besides the first Celestia had seen, and another besides that, and another beyond. There were dozens, no, hundreds of corpses, some in better shape than others, but all so old that what tissue remained clinging to the empty husks was as good as brittle stone and dust. Celestia let a staggered breath blurt from her throat as she washed her eyes over the sight, and began to truly drink in the detail of what she was seeing, and the story it told.

"T-T-Torsion...What...What happened here? Why are all these alien dead?" She said through a half choked voice as the other ponies hurried through the doorway behind her.

"As I mentioned earlier, to ensure station security from the intruder you are descendant from I had to respond with a threat to starve and suffocate living subjects by removing them from stasis. However, due to miscalculation on my part, I was not aware of the damage this station had received. Once your ancestor had retreated, I tried to reengage the stasis field surrounding the craft, and found it unresponsive to re-ignition. I had no choice but to contain the cells lacking a stasis field, trapping the inhabitants inside. After four months enclosed within their ship, itself enclosed within this cell, the occupants began to die of starvation, a few living long enough to begin suffocating before they each took their own lives." Torsion said as though reading the menu to a brunch bar.

Celestia's knees gave out and she slumped to the dusty floor, the very breath stolen from her. She couldn't hear the music any more. Just the deathly quiet that emulated the sight before her. She sputtered and gasped in despair as she looked around at the army of corpses. She rested eyes on a trio of skeletons for a moment. They had a large amount of what she assumed was alcohol bottles collected around them, the three joined together in the last embrace they must have ever shared. Elsewhere, one had its skull resting in the lap of a fellow, who's hand was rested on the side of their head. Off to the side, two corpses, these ones in slightly better condition, were laid out huddled together, holding each other as they lay on the surface of the stone table. Celestia half dragged, half scrambled her way over to peer behind what looked like a large altar that could have been mistaken for a office desk. Sat up against the inside of it was another corpse, this one holding a long, black device in their skeletal hands, a device that didn't look too different to a Federal firearm. The device lead up to the face of the corpse, of which was absent, the whole front of the entire skull having been blasted clean off from, to be assumed, the discharge of the weapon. Celestia, weeping messily, crawled closer to find the body clasping something else in its right hand, a small piece of plastic. Gently pulling it free, Celestia shakily brushed the dust off, her heart splitting in two as two feminine alien faces peered back at her from within. The were both of the same species, looking slightly like Feds, only their skin was a dark tan colour, and had the patterns upon it to make them both look as if made from carved and burnished wood. There eyes were a strange, controlled explosion of colour, centered by an irregular pupil that looked almost like a star of pitch black. The larger alien, looking about the same age as Rarity, had purple eyes and purple hair that seemed abnormally thick, like slices of rubber, that traveled down the middle of her skull much like the mane of a pony. The other alien was no older than Rarity's little sister, probably younger, and had bright blue eyes and hair. The two looked at the camera with a typical camera-ready smile, the little girl waving. Celestia noticed in the corner of the white frame of the plastic was a round, raised surface with a green arrow pointing upwards on it. Gliding her thumb over it, she hesitated a moment, then pressed down.

"Hi, Daddy! I love you!" The little alien girl said as the picture came to life as a well defined video tape, the small alien frantically waving as the larger female hugged her.

"I love you, baby, come home soon!" The adult said in a raspy, but ultimately female voice.

Celestia dropped the picture and clasped her face in her hands as she was practically screaming into her own palms, tears flooding the space between her face and hands.

I love you too, girls.

Celestia nearly jumped out of her skin as the voice washed through her head. For a moment she was convinced it was just her imagination, that her emotion was just getting the better of her.

Where are we?

Another voice, not as mellow as the last, but also male, seemed to be spoken from within Celestia very mind.

Has the skipper found us a way out yet?

This one was feminine, but had a certain gruffness to it. It was followed by another two voices, both speaking at once, then three, then ten, soon it felt like a hundred voices were all crying out from within Celestia's head.

Running low on rations.

Can't see anything behind us.

So damn cold.

Lost the sensor core last night.

Can't get any message out.

They must be looking for us, right?

Port battery is spent.

This is our last round for that cannon, son.

Emperor, please here our prayers.

He's all fucked up! He just smiled and shot himself!

I can't take it in this fucking place anymore!

Let us out! Let us out!

We're dying in here.

We ain't got piss to drink!

Can't breath.

I just wanna go home.

You remember what home looked like? Tell me about it.

Don't make me do this, sir!

Hello...is anyone there?

Celestia felt a pair of hands shaking at her, and at first could only scream as she was all but convinced the confused, scared and angry souls of this terrible place had come to claim her, to blame her for making them suffer for days on end, slowly wasting away into dust.

"Sister, please! Get up! Tia, it's me!"

This time it had been Luna's turn to play the big sister and was knelt besides her sister trying desperately to shake her out of whatever trauma had frozen her to the floor, shaking like a fish out of water. Celestia slowly began to return to her senses, the voices growing further and further away until only her friends and sister was left, all looking over at her with deep, almost terror-stricken concern. All Besides Pinkie, who was holding a yellow, dusty box in her hands.

"Oh, Luna." Celestia said weakly.

"It's alright, Tai, it's okay. What happened? What's going on in this place?" Luna said, and although still looking worse for wear, was remaining solid in her composition.

"These people are dead. They died starving, alone, cold, in the dark, gasping for breath. Their families are dead. Their families died not even knowing where these people were, what was happening to them." Celestia said through gasps and stutters as she rose to a sitting position.

"Princess Celestia." Pinkie perked up, her tone, though full of energy, was flatter than usual as she handed Celestia the yellow box that was about the size of a military radio.

Celestia took the bulky device to find what looked like a tape held within, viewable through the clear plastic on the top of the machine. Celestia rotated the box to find a small keyboard on its furthest edge, each key imprinted with a single symbol that she did not recognize. Based on the first few being different coloured shapes and the ones after being strange alien runes, Celestia pressed a finger down on the first rune, the machine buzzing for a second before activating.

"Audio log for Captain Mephit, date is thirty fourth of Nobleson, the year 30,999 of our Lord. It's been a week since we all started to wake up. We've lost a few soldiers, all of them having some sorta....uh, 'reaction' to whatever was keeping us sedated. They each fell into a coma instead of waking up, the medical deck kept them stable for a couple days, but we lost Private Giraphidean this morning. The priests on-board gave a ceremony in his name at breakfast. Everyone paid respects, and over all crew morale seems steady. Not surprising, Boloroph Gate Keepers breed solid regiments of steady-headed troops, and they've come in real handy trying to figure out just what the hell has happened to this ship. Captain Mephit, signing off."

As soon as the elderly voice with an accent similar to Applejack's cut out, Celestia immediately hit the next rune.

"Captain Mephit, date, twelfth of Songnight, the year is 30,999 by Imperial calendar. It's...uuuuh, it's been a tough week. Really it's been tougher every day since my last log. We're outta food, and what we've tried to grow isn't taking too great to the soil we've tried fabricating. Guys up in engineering say they might just have a plan to at least get us loose of the grappling locks we're stuck too. We might drop...hell, for who knows how long, but maybe the fall with cause a hull breach and at least get us off the ship. Sounds better than staying stuck here, and sure as hell a shit-load better than firing every acelerator shell we have into a structure we knew nothing about. That's every cannon and turret dry now, just missiles left now, and firing one of those off in here could cause a whole lot more harm than good...Father Rig passed away last night. Boys say he must have died in his sleep. No matter what the boys told the crazy old bastard he wouldn't have none of it. Not one bite to eat. Said better men than him needed it...I hope you're right, Father, I really do. Captain Mephit, signing off."

The gruff male voice cut out and another rune was hit.

"Captain Mephit...I, uh...I'm not sure what day it is. You know...might be new years eve. Maybe it's tomorrow. I dunno. What the shit, Happy new year everybody!...We're fucked...We are completely fucked. Core's still ticking, but engines are burnt out, weapons are dry and the comms relay is decayed to shit. So, looks like we're stuck here. I still tell the guys and girls they're still looking for us. Not a word of a lie too, they sure as hell are looking for us. Whether they find us is an entirely different matter...They ain't gonna find us. Got one last shred of data before the scanners blew sky-high. We're locked in a vibro-dermic poly-alloy prison as thick as a fortress on all sides, and buried under several hundred feet of soil and rock on some planet nobody's even fuckin' heard of before. That was it. That was the old girl herself telling it to me straight. 'You're gonna die inside me'...Yeah, well thank you too you bitch...Got enough water for a few more weeks, some food. I'm thinking maybe I'll just hand Lieutenant Brandon the key card for the booze locker. If the crew are gonna die in this Throne-forsaken rust-heap...I'm thinkin' they can at least die singing."

The next Rune was hit.

"...Mephit...Air is pretty thin...What crew are left now are either getting comfy in each other's arms or scratching at each other's throats to suck out the air from their lungs. Now I'm thinkin'...maybe it's the air...but I'm thinkin' one of those nukes we have in the spinal silos is looking like it needs to stretch its legs a while. Turn the ship to dust and slag in the blink of an eye. Crew won't know what hit 'em. Best way for 'em really...ain't no more blood spilled over this hell, no more good soldiers gotta cough their last bloodied breath. But then I'm thinking of what those scanner results showed me. Six other ships, just like ours, trapped in this alien shit prison. Data had the ships hidden good, wouldn't of seen 'em if not for Hawkes...I miss Hawkes...she was a kind girl. So, no nukes. Maybe someone out there is doing better than we are. Maybe it's just us who are outta air, and food, and water. Maybe I failed this ship...and her crew. Maybe I never deserved to be Captain. You know what they'll do to an officer who fails his men like this back in reality? They'd likely shoot me on the spot as soon as I'd shown my face. And I'd deserve it...Well...since there's no one else around to do it for me...Mephit...signing off."

Celestia hesitated for a second before deciding to hit the next rune. But the button didn't lock into a lowered position as the others had, but just bounced back up towards her again. She tried again, and again, only for the rune to be empty of any voice. The rune after, and the last one all proved empty as well. Celestia felt her anger, her frustration at the ending to this story, the desperate story of these poor people, would be so utterly final. Lacking any compromise, any happy, silver lining. It sat upon her heart like hot tar, burning away at her from the inside. Her anger turned inward and collapsed on itself, dissolving into an utter sense of helplessness as she lit the recorder slip away from her grip to clatter to the floor next to her.

"These guys used to be so loud."

Celestia looked up at the chirpy voices owner, who was staring up at one of the stained glass windows with a relatively bland expression.

"They had so many parties. Every day, they'd have big parties after beating the bad guys. Now...now they just lie there." Pinkie turned, wandering back towards the group, who were a mix of emotions ranging from disgusted, humbled to engulfed in despair.

"They just lie down. They used to shout and run around and laugh all the time and now they just lie there. They all look so sad. That guy, on the tape, he was just sat in his chair, staring out the window. And he was so...so sad." Tears streamed down Pinkie's face, her face buckling into an agonized visage of pure sorrow. As she drew closer, Celestia shakily stood up and straightened herself before facing the pink mare who looked up at her through tear-flooded eyes.

"Why are they all so quiet?" She just managed to wheeze out before Celestia pulled her close into a desperate embrace. The two just standing there, softly crying for a while as the Princess gently stroked the small pony's curly mane.

"I'm so sorry, Pinkie." Twilight said, her own eyes teared up to the limit as she put her hands gently on her friends shoulders.

"Maybe...Maybe if we find the...the one's the jellyfish wanted to keep alive. If we find them then we can take them all home. And they'd see their families again. And then they won't be sad anymore." Pinkie half-blubbered as she nestled into Celestia's shoulder.

"I promise, Miss Pie, I promise I'll try. I'll try my best." Celestia said, and although was still sniffling every so often, spoke with a solid sense of conviction.

The ponies gathered around to share hugs, wipe tears and collect themselves before pulling their senses together, ready to leave.

"Alright, everypony. Let's get out of here." Celestia said.

Nopony stalled. Every last one in the group headed back out the way they'd come with great haste. Nopony looked back. The crew of the ship continued to stare out through hollow sockets, longing for the home they'd never see.