Fluttershy cringed at the thought of what they'd all just experienced. It was several steps better than the helpless weeping she'd originally began with, but even after over an hour since the traumatic investigation into the metallic tomb of the alien ship the pegasus felt like a part of it still clung to her. Perhaps it was the patches of dust that just simply refused to brush out of her sweater. Perhaps it was because it had been the first time she'd seen Princess Celestia in such a state. But at that moment her mind focused on the item Applejack was fiddling with.

"Oh, Applejack, I really think we should all just go back and return that thing! It's not right to take something like that from such an awful place! And it could be dangerous!" Fluttershy squeak in worry, her clenched hands pressing into the sides of her cheeks.

"Ah'm sorry, Fluttershy, but Ah can't kick up a whole fuss just'a take the hour's walk back to that place and throw this back in that dusty ol' rack. It's not lahk Ah took it from any of 'em. And even then, not lahk anypony was gonna use it besides me. Plus, dangerous is what ahm countin' on after we git outta this city-sized refrigerator." AJ replied, and although was not conflicted by Fluttershy's accusations, she did seem to show a level of understanding to where the yellow pegasus was coming from.

"Oh, fine," Huffed Fluttershy, "But please promise not to use it unless you have to." She pleaded.

"Alright, Fluttershy, Ah promise." Applejack reassured with a warm, honest smile.

Although Fluttershy admittedly felt a lot better, she felt very uneasy around the item the orange mare had enthusiastically picked up on the way out of the gigantic spaceship's interior. In one of the small side-doors that split off from the main corridor to the outside, AJ had found what appeared to be a weapons locker hidden away in the dark. With a swift, strong kick to the door that split the mechanical lock in half like it was made of cake icing, she pulled open the doors to find a small selection of weapons, all black, in three different variants that could be seen. AJ spotted the longest variant and carefully removed it from the age-old cobwebs and dust to find a familiar item. A shotgun. Applejack couldn't believe her luck and had enthusiastically shown everypony her find. It was longer than her Leverload, even without it's stock it would have been longer than the Equestrian firearm. It was not a lever-action reload weapon either, it had a thick grip build under the barrel that AJ had found slid back and then pumped forward to chamber a round. The rounds also were quite different, being wider, heavier, and from what AJ had said carried around eight large pellets as projectiles rather than the smaller variant the Equestrian's used that carried twelve. With luminous green iron sights, sitting comfy in a firing position and feeling like it was made of a substance stronger than chromed steel, AJ had been most pleased with what the ghost ship had granted her.

As much as Applejack loved her convenient discovery, Fluttershy did not. She'd never liked firearms of any kind, or weapons, or wars or killing as a whole. She'd never so much as grazed a finger over a gun before, and had no immediate plans to, in fact she was part of a protesting movement to reduce the number of firearms produced and used within Equestria. She'd been a part of several peaceful, pre-organised protests held in both Ponyville and Canterlot, and truly believed with all her heart that the less weapons Equestria had, the safer it would be. But that was not the only thing putting the pink-maned mare off the dark item strapped to Applejacks back, as something else was drawing her worries to the weapon. It looked, for a lack of a better term, 'meaner' than Equestrian weapons, it even looked 'meaner' than most Federation weapons. It lacked the cold precision of design the Feds designed their firearms to be, and instead of being blocky and angular, was bulky and weighty-looking. It was built with several holes running down the sides of its barrel cover, most likely to make the large weapon lighter to carry, and appeared to be built from several sections securely arranged and locked together rather than the Federation weapons of a more singular form. But beyond that, whenever Fluttershy risked a peep over at the thing, she could have sworn it bore a trace of innate energy to it, like some kind of unnatural life was forged into the machines very metal. And after a couple of seconds, she swore it was as if the thing was looking back at her.

"Alright, here it is." Twilight said suddenly, causing Fluttershy to jump a little.

The pegasus looked up to see a familiar sight, a gigantic wall much like the one they'd encountered on the way into the vessel cell, and before the group, across a short, wide walkways sat a large door. The group advanced, hooves clopping to the seemingly polymer floor with an almost 'horror movie' carefulness.

"Occupants, one among your group has possession over an unauthorized weapon. Please have her return to the observation rail for disarmament." The artificial alien said with a shred of authority to his voice that echoed through the very walls around the ponies.

"Ah could, or Ah could see what happens when you try an' take it from me." The orange farmhand said with an overt calmness, yet Fluttershy felt like she had a certain simmer beneath her tone.

"If you do not cooperate, I will be forced to activate the station's defense network in response to the threat your comrade presents." The computer replied.

"And what if we head through this door here? Would you activate the defenses then?" Twilight asked.

"I suppose I would, but that would be considering you had any chance of breaching the next cell. I would heavily advise you return now to the access hatch you entered from and return to the surface." The Divergence urged.

"You sound worried, if there's no way we can...get through this door then why so skittish?" Luna said, sounding a little more aggravated than normal, like somepony who had a bad headache.

"I assure you, you all lack the capacity to breach that door in any time that I can measure. But, I suppose it never pays to be...careful." Torsion seemed almost infected by Luna's temper, tension gripping his tone.

Twilight, seemingly driven by Torsion's attitude, stomped forward to the door with a solid sense of determination. Fluttershy wanted to call out to her, to tell her to stop, that it was too dangerous, but they had all come so far. Too far to be stopped by some door locked by an alien computer for a doorpony.

"Princess Celestia." Twilight said as she reached the door.

Celestia nodded, turning to her sister who she still had an arm around, Luna nodding tiredly with a weak smile before Celestia released her, leaving Luna to stand on her own to, slightly unsteady hooves. The princess quickly strode over next to Twilight and placed a hand on the door, the moment her fingers touched the smooth surface a neon blue series of partial circles surrounding the area of interest. The circles spun around each other for a short time before they seemed to gravitate into one another before locking in place, revealing several lines that made sharp turns into their own smaller circles not a foot away from the core glyph. Celestia hesitated a moment, eyes darting to each option available, each with its own small, simple glyph hovering above the circle. One line, along with it's circle and glyph, were an angry red, while the others a cool blue, and it seemed Celestia based her choice on entirely gut instinct alone. The princess slid her hand slong the line and into the circle, causing the door to 'hoot' in response.

Though the door stayed shut solid, the side of the walkway became possessed with activity as the stone seemed to silently shatter apart in an area no larger than Celestia herself, only for the pieces to rearrange and reassemble themselves into a sort of raised, slightly slopped table, like some sort of console. The ponies huddled together closer slightly, looking at he two princesses as they carefully stepped towards the newborn device as it finished pulling itself together. Twilight reached it first, touching it's surface, but to no avail as the slab sat still and silently before her. Celestia repeated what action she saw as best and brought her hand up to touch the consoles surface.

"I wouldn't." The alien voice called out from the air itself, turning all heads upwards as if they'd been called by a god from the skies.

"What will happen?" Celestia asked.

"I will activate the appropriate security systems."

"Which are?"

"I have a large number of alien lifeforms, the one's that refer to themselves as the Federation, waiting outside the same entrance you walked through yourselves. They have been demanding entry for over an hour now, and have made attempts to breach the door they have encountered, all without fruition. I have been happy to allow you to visit this stations facilities...undisturbed, but I am afraid I can not allow you to open this door. Please, exit this facility and return to the surface." The Divergence informed, as if rehearsed.

"You mean walk out that exit into the hands of the Feds?" Twilight asked with a humorous snort.

"Sounds like a lose - lose situation there, Twi'." Applejack said, having walked up behind the two princesses along with the rest of the group.

"I'm afraid so, darling. But I'd much rather give those pasty brutes a run for their money than just walk into handcuffs." Rarity added.

"Well, uhm, I can't run very fast, b-but I can't imagine what's through that door could be any scarier than those aliens." Fluttershy herself peeped.

"And I ain't going through another day of sleeping on the ground before at least trying to tear those freaks a new one! Anything that can't get through their thick squid-skulls that pegasi belong in the clouds needs to pack their suitcase." Dash said with bravado thick in her voice.

Twilight looked at her friends with a warm smile that helped them all feel a little better inside. She then turned to Celestia who herself gave a slight smile before turning to the console, tapping its face with her hand. Like the door, a number of glyphs appeared, though they were arranged in a horizontal fashion, in clusters of lines that scrolled off the side on different directions. Twilight tapped at her chin for a moment, carefully studying the rows of geometric shapes and patterns, trying to discern some sort of code or pattern that might be hidden within. Before Twilight had even spoken a word a certain pink mass bounced up between her and Celestia.

"Hey, look at that one!" Pinkie yelled gleefully, punching a glyph with her finger only for the console to burp in response, "Wow-wee! Someone's had one too many sodas." Pinkie said with a chuckle.

"Pinkie! This isn't a game! You could break something!" Twilight scolded, yet failing to entirely gain the attention of the peculiar earth pony.

"Twilight, please~. Of course it's a game! Look, there! Squiggles, squiggles, dot, dash, Batmare symbol!" Pinkie said, continuing to prod at the console.

"What're you talkin' 'bout, Pinkie?" AJ asked, hands on hips.

"It's easy! The shapes coming this way only match up to these ones up here just before these ones disappear. You hit the shapes while they're both still on the screen and you win! There'd better be prizes." Pinkie said studying the slab with childish intensity.

Twilight was about to roll her eyes and object before the monolithic figure beside her gently placed a hand on her shoulder to interrupt.

"Twilight, I think this might be one of those times to remember a certain friendship report you once sent me." Celestia said, smiling with her eyes and lips both.

Twilight looked up at her fellow princess with deep concern before closing her eyes and taking a long sigh.

"Okay, Pinkie, I trust you. What do you need Celestia to do?"

Pinkie skipped on the spot for a moment, beaming, before yelling out symbols and shapes, pointing to each one for Celestia to touch, each responding with a crystalline 'ping' and dragging the two symbols together and off to the side of the screen as if to form a combination for a locking mechanism. Again and again Pinkie darted her hand out to highlight a glyph, Celestia responding with supernatural quickness, shape after symbol being struck with increasing quickness as the scrolling code became more and more narrow.

"Twisty! Zig-zag! Zig-zag! Crab-claw! Spanner! Tennis racket! Tennis racket! Wheel! Tadpole with it's freaky little feet growing out of it!" Pinkie squeaked and barked frantically.

As soon as the final glyph was struck the console gave a painful screeching sound, causing all present to flinch away and cover their ears. The tablet broke apart as silently as before before folding inwards to become one with the walkways beneath it once more, however as it did the door next to the ponies groaned and slid apart.

"Stop! Nuh-nuh-nuh-nnnnnnn-! That isssssss a restricted area! Security countermeasures have been activated! Please leave the facility or be detained!" Torsion seemed to have had a screw knocked loose somewhere as his speech had become incoherent and his tone terribly desperate.

"Quick, everypony, through the door!" Dash was the first to shout as she darted for the entrance to the next cell.

Though some faster than others, the group made it through as quickly as they could, Fluttershy and Luna being the last two to cross through into the next hall a split second before the door they'd just hurried through slammed shut again, as if forced together in a hurry. The princesses made a quick check to ensure everypony was unharmed, and besides Fluttershy suffering from a slightly sire ankle, everyone seemed to still be okay. The group wasted no time in gathering once more to head forward into a somewhat familiar, but ultimately more frightening sight.

"Well, this one is...different?" Rarity said, her voice gripped by the cold of fear as she and the group looked up towards a titanic sight.

The vessel was twice the size of the last. It was bulkier, having a much larger nose and appearing to almost be made of a great number of different blocks and boxes, only crafted from a thick, seemingly ceramic metal. Its 'spine' arched upwards nearer the stern, forming what Fluttershy assumed was the bridge and observation decks, leading to a series of large towers that swooped back down to the engines behind the craft. Overall, the ship looked somewhat like a colossal, metal shark, only bearing a thinner 'neck' and ultimately blocky in design, as if constructed from large play-briks. What was truly worrying were the large tubes the nose was adorned with, each as wide as fighter plane, and each presumably a form of bow-mounted weapon, like a cannon array or torpedo tubes. Along these giant weapons were equally gigantic turrets fitted atop the ships spine and atop its flanks. Its sides also had a small array of holes built into them, reminding Fluttershy of the broadside cannons she'd seen ancient equestrian ships had in history books and pirate stories. The machine was impressive as it was terrifying, especially in such a grim atmosphere as it was being held in.

"Alright everypony, we need to get inside that ship. Rainbow, can you fly around the sides of that thing and find us a door we could use to get ourselves inside?" Twilight asked her friend.

"Sure thing, Twi'. But, this thing looks like it's at least two kilometers long, this could take a while, even for me." Dash admitted as she fluttered into the air.

"Hey, girls, look!" Pinkie squeaked as she pointed to further along the walkway they stood upon.

Before them was some form of disfigurement in the architecture, as if damage had been caused. The group made a quick but steady advance and came to find themselves before a strangely disturbing sight. The walkway appeared to have been partially blasted apart, not in any way that seemed to threaten its stability, but in a way that was certainly noticeable. There were two distinct types of damage that Fluttershy could see, the first being long, deep grooves that looked as if a powerful beam of energy had seared its way clean through the material before it, and then scattered about these wounds in the crystal were messy blast marks, as if something had been shot into the architecture before exploding inside it. What was more worrying was that a dark, brown smear was spattered across the surface among and around the damaged area. Considering how long ago this terrible event must have taken place, along with the nature of the damage, Fluttershy clutched onto Applejack's gigantic bicep for comfort as the reality of the scene sunk in. This was a firefight, looking hauntingly similar to some of the sights Fluttershy had seen at the now evicted Dodge Junction. Something had tried escaping or entering this place, possibly a thousand years ago, and had been caught and presumably killed. This meant the stains on the floor were most certainly age old blood. Applejack gave an affectionate nuzzle into Fluttershy's mane before turning back to the path ahead and shouldering her new-found weapon.

"Sumthin' wanted outta this place. Look." AJ said, twitching the barrel of her weapon upwards towards the path of damage that lead up ahead, up to and passed the looming nose of the spacecraft that lie suspended to their left.

The ponies continued on, though now with hearts pounding in chests as the darkness ahead seemed ever less and less inviting. After reaching the middle of the ships nose besides them, Fluttershy spotted the stitching of firearms damage stopped just a dozen feet ahead of the group. All advanced regardless to find the path of devastation leading off top the right, into the large wall besides them that held the vast variety of windows and decks. However the path did not lead into a solid wall, but a breach in the structure, a large hole easily large enough for both Celestia and Luna to walk through together. The breach was obviously created by some sort of explosion, one that had molten the edges of the large hole into a dribbling mess, but also one that had come from the inside of the structure.

"I won't tell you all to follow me in there." Celestia said with words that seemed to lack breath behind them.

"You don't have to." Luna said as she strode up besides her sister, appearing to have reached into some pocket of hidden inner strength.

Celestia gave her sister a loving smile before turning to head through the gaping hole in the massive crystal structure. Fluttershy noted how the foul, bitter smell in the air intensified as they passed through the breach, it beginning to feel like somepony was literally holding a dead squid under the yellow mares snout. In response she squinted her eyes in discomfort as she covered her nose with her sleeve, most of the group following her example. Applejack was the only one who seemed to withstand the stench, her shotgun raised, sweeping from left to right as her sight swept across the large room that lay before her. As the ponies walked on they found themselves in a tall room that stretched and weaved on for at least a couple hundred feet, most of the area filled with crystal cylinders stacked on their sides atop one another, varying in size and colour from dark purple ones the size of barrels to light pink the size of a rolled up magazine.

Onwards they crept, the air still as pungent as when they'd entered, but after a while the trail came to a stop after its sixth or seventh sweep. The room merged into another, only this one wasn't quite as large as the rest, and was about the size of a high school gymnasium hall. The wall they walked out of, along with each one to their sides, seemed perfectly smooth besides a handful of blocky consoles that sat inactive against and within the walls. But the farthest wall was a strange sight indeed, composed of what looked like a large number of irregularly shaped crystal boulders, stacked up in neat formation, buried halfway into the wall behind them. Fluttershy took a closer look as the group spread out, carefully wandering closer to the large crystals as the group behind her frantically searched for a a way out of the room they'd just entered that wasn't the path they'd just walked. Fluttershy at first was convinced these large structures were just some form of battery or harvested mineral the aliens must have kept, but a small glimmer of what looked like gold that came from within one of the rocks caught her attention, and seemed to call her forward. Closer she stepped, her arms held hugged around herself as she sheepishly peered up and at the crystal before her, then taking another step to peer at what might lay inside.

"Aaaaah!" Fluttershy screamed, stumbling backwards and almost falling over her own lengthy tail.

"Fluttershy! What is it?!" Dash said as she hurried over to help her friend.

"S-s-s-something ins-s-s-side!" Fluttershy said, shaking like a leaf as she pointed a heavily vibrating finger towards the crystal she'd just looked upon.

The group cautiously stepped closer to the crystal, bracing themselves as they drew nearer, before peering up into the formation with deep intensity.

"My creator!" Rarity blurted in a raspy voice.

Everypony must have just seen what Fluttershy had seen, something that had shot panic straight into her heart like a javelin. A face, or at least what she could assume was a face, lay rested within the crystal, eyes and mouth closed as if sleeping. It was hard to make out the thing within in any true detail as the crystal distorted the features of the being within. What Fluttershy had managed to make out before being hit by a fear-meteor were the creature inside had pale skin, though not sickly like that of a Fed, had two eyes, two nostrils under a triangular nose and a mouth much like a ponies, though one painted much closer to the things skull rather than at the end of a muzzle.

"My goodness! Is...Is it alive?" Twilight asked nopony in particular.

"He is. They all are. If released they-they-they will kill anything that moves." Torsion said in a remarkably unstable sounding voice, its pitch and tone twitching and burping sporadically.

"Heh, nice tah know Ah can tell when even a machine is lyin' through his speakers." Applejack chuckled.

"Celestia?" Luna said, looking to her sister with concern and confusion.

Celestia looked to her sister, then Applejack, then to the array of crystal blocks, then back at Applejack, obviously and greatly conflicted by the very few options that presented themselves to her. She thought a moment, eyes flitting about, before looking to Applejack again.

"Only one way outta here, Princess. An' Ah don't think we're gettin' out without some help." AJ said before looking up at the crystals.

Celestia frowned to herself, gave a quick sigh and strode quickly over to the nearest, largest console, grazing her hand over the surface to be greeted by an array of blue lines, circles and glyphs. She spent a couple of minutes quickly meeting each option, each glyph with her fingers, each time leading to some dead end or function that she couldn't operate or understand.

"Miss Pie, I could use my star player for some help." Celestia said smiling, keeping her eyes fixed on the computer.

Pinkie zipped over to the princess with speeds that would skin any normal pony alive. Once the less than five and a half foot Pinkie was stood skipping next to the over seven foot Celestia, she scanned her eyes over the screen, eyes lighting up not a couple of seconds later.

"Oh, I'm sure you already got this one, Princess. Tap this circle here, that's 'us' you see, and then over to this one down here, see how it points to the rock-ponies over there." Pinkie chuckled.

Celestia glided her fingers over to the glyph, the shape exploding apart and illuminating a set of meshed together hexagons that replaced the previous screen. Each shape held its own alien glyph within its confines, each as much gibberish than the next. Fluttershy, having recomposed herself, could barely tell the difference between the different symbols, each just a cluster of line, circles and dots that seemed to hold no informative material of any kind.

"Hmmm~. Ah! So thiiiis one here must be to bring up a bunch of numbers and junk, we don't want that. This one looks cool, I wonder what it does?!" Pinkie said with ecstatic energy in her voice, her finger furiously punching away at the symbol that coldly denied her.

Celestia moved her hand gently forward, Pinkie sheepishly smiling as she pulled her hyperactive appendage away. Celestia gave her a smile before planting her touch upon the shape, the screen honking before going completely black. A second passed, everypony's blood running ice cold before a sphere of holographic light, formed into a loose grid pattern engulfed the Princesses head. Celestia's eyes went wide for a moment as her vision must have been flooded by the blue shape, along with a number of circles, hexagons and glyphs that floated around before her very sight as she looked around in a mild panic.

"Oh cooooool~! Neat heads-up display, Princess! Take a look at one of our pals and see what happens." Pinkie said with an excited grin.

Fluttershy saw the Princess turn and look at the nearest crystal, only for the hologram to bring a purple, rotating triangle around the object of interest. Celestia must have been seeing something the others were not as her hand unsteadily rose up in-front of her, as if to grab at something. The alicorn gulped, eyes fluttering as she stood there still for a moment.

"What are we doing, Twilight? What am I doing?" Celestia said desperately.

"We're saving Equestria, Princess, together." Twilight said, putting a hand on Celestia lowered arm.

Almost as if possessed, Celestia reach forward slightly and pressed at something unseen. A soft murmur could be heard coming from the room itself before a sudden bleat called out. The nearest crystal at ground level hissed as it softly hovered out of its confines as a number of strange, mechanical pincers swung out from the surface of the wall behind the construct, grasping the edges of the large crystal. From above swung another appendage, this one was different, however, holding no holding tool on its end. Instead it looked as though it had a multi-lensed camera for a head, only one that looked much smoother than those used by Equestrian cameraponies, almost gelatinous in nature. When the camera-machine had reached the center of the crystal, facing towards it, the machine emitted a bright red flash of light much like the flesh on a camera. At first nothing happened, but then the surface of the crystal seemed to change, growing smoother and flatter, as if it were a lump of ice being melted. Yet nothing dripped or dribbled off of the rock, like its very material was being disintegrated and removed from reality. Fluttershy back up, placing herself at the rear of the group and cowering behind Applejack as she knew what was coming.

More aliens!

Inside, the figure became easier and easier to make out until the creature was almost entirely visible, the strange alien substance removing itself from around its torso, face and knees. The material melted from around the rear of its ankles, elbows and around some device held upon its back, leaving the alien within seemed to strangely float out and away from the half-molten crystal. Fluttershy, or at least a tiny molecule of her, was intrigued by the way the evidently large alien floated above the air, and after seeing no wings the creature bore and considering the thing looked half dead, the pegasus concluded the creature must have been pulled free by some form of alien mechanism that couldn't be seen. The whole group gasped and yelped as the alien was suddenly dropped to the floor, its mass so vast it sounded like a sky-chariot had just plummeted to the ground. The creature lay there a moment, unmoving, not even breathing from what Fluttershy could see, causing her to fear the being was, in fact, very much dead.

The metal suit the alien wore ground across the floor, the thick metal groaning across the plastic-like material beneath it as the alien stirred before attempting to rise. Clumsily the alien rose up, slumping to the side lazily, but catching itself in a kneeling position, its head lowered as it braced itself. The thing then rose to full height, the sight causing Fluttershy to turn away and fully conceal herself behind her friend, who had dropped her weapon out of pure shock. For a couple of seconds Fluttershy heard nothing, helping her feel a little more at ease in knowledge the creature was not tearing her friends limb from limb. She opened her eyes and risked a peek back, her eyes fixing upon the truly terrifying sight before her.

It must have been eight feet tall, easily, trumping even the gigantic frame of Celestia by a few inches. Yet its height only magified its overall size several times over, as it's frame was of an immensely wide build, its huge shoulders flanking a broad chest. Thick limbs fell below its body, massive legs like temple pillars bracing it against the floor. Fluttershy thought for a moment it might well not have been quite as big as it appeared, as the alien seemed to be almost completely encased in some form of armoured suit, one that appeared far to heavy for any pony to be able to wear without being flattened by its weight, let alone move within it. The armour was a bright, pure white with red trimming its large shoulder pauldrons. Half of its large backpack was also a blood red, painted next to the other snow white half. However what was truly strange was how beautifully ornate the suit was, most of its segments adorned with a gleaming golden sigil or decoration of some kind. Yet this observation brought further panic as she spotted one such decorative was what looked like a skull. A number of ropes were tied across its body, a handful of vials filled with a red fluid dangling off them as well as a couple of other locations upon its armour. Overall the thing was an armoured goliath, appearing somewhat like an overcharged version of the royal knights from the time before Nightmare Moon. Yet its armour was evidently very technological in nature, and must have been crafted with a great deal of care and expertise.

The monstrous being took a step forward, a thunderclap sounding as its immensely heavy bootstep hit the solid floor. Another followed, then another as it marched slowly forwards, its stride enormous compared to that of a pony. Fluttershy was surprised she was not more terrified than she was at that moment as she peered up at the approaching creatures bare head, resting eyes upon its features. Its flesh, as previously seen, was quite pale, but not the translucent flesh of the Feds, but making the creature appear to be almost crafted from a fine marble. It's eyes were a bright, metallic golden that seemed to have a certain liquid-metal quality about them, below each eye a scatter of soft freckles sat upon the creatures smooth cheeks, much like Applejack's own. It had no muzzle, looking unlike anything Equestria had ever seen, its nose a short, small triangle protruding from beneath the middle of the eyes, its mouth below the nose. To say it was likable to some form of monkey or ape would have been a truly insulting term that would fail to truly describe the aliens visage, as it held certain hominid qualities, it appeared far more 'evolved' in a sense, as if the winds of time itself had crafted the things genetics through patience and care. A set of small, rounded ears flanked its skull, brilliantly blond hair cascading down around them, as well as down the back of its head and over the forehead. The hair looked incredibly thick, bearing several tones of blonde that bordered on being golden, the locks messily combed over to one side to expose one side of its head had been shaven down to a thick stubble. What caught Fluttershy's attention the most however, was its incredibly calm, almost soft expression.

The group had, as Fluttershy only just realsied, actually take a few steps backwards as the alien advanced on them, until Celestia stopped and raised her arms to signal the group to hold still. Celestia made a small, unsteady advance as the creature approached another step closer, shuffling slightly closer while keeping her eyes fixed on the alien's own.

"My name is Princess Celestia. I-" Celstia began.

"Who woke me?"

The alien voice was just above a bass tone, the words seeming top actually vibrate within Fluttershy's own chest. Though quite loud, its voice was far from a bark or growl, more just a regular ponies speech only deeper and granted more volume. Fluttershy's gut wound into a knot as the alien cut the Princess off mid-sentence, something no pony would ever dare do without expecting a firm but fair verbal retaliation from the alicorn. A retaliation Fluttershy knew was not coming this time around.

"I did!" Fluttershy cringed as Pinkie's hyperactive voice rang through the air.

"Pinkie, please! I'm sorry s...s-siiiir~? Um, we're sorry we disturbed you, to be honest none of us are really sure what we expected when coming down here. The hologram thing said...something was being held in this room, so we thought we'd try our luck to see what we could find." Twilight assured as she took a step carefully closer.

"Your awakening is my fault, I brought everypony down here, so it is I who should appologize. But please, try to understand we are currently in quite a terrible situation, and we have searched for years for some means...any way to save our country." Celestia began again, stepping forward again, hands held out in a disarmed gesture.

"Celestia, you said your name was? Princess?" The giant alien spoke, his firm tone seeming to try and find some kind of appropriate footing.

"Yes." Celestia said back.

"I'm sure the reasons for your coming to this place will be revealed in good time, however my primary concerns at this time are those of what this place is, why I am here, and the whereabouts of my brethren. These answers I wish to seek out immediately, but not before I grant you my thanks. It would seem the kindness of fate saw it best to deliver you to engineer my release from a prison I was never aware I had been placed in." The aliens tone was still loud and deep, but had softened into something Fluttershy felt she could possibly have an actual conversation with somehow.

Fluttershy felt a slight warmth in her heart as the creature before them appeared to be honest and genuine in its statement, meaning that perhaps there was little reason to actually be afraid of this being. As much as it was obviously some kind of soldier, it was exposing itself in a very understandable way verbally, something Fluttershy thought no alien would have ever been capable of. This pulled on a string of guilt within the mare, making her regret her assumptions on what this creature could have been when she first laid eyes on it.

"Oh...Oh, well, thank you. We were...unsure what we would find, and when finding you all we were very unsure how you'd react to your release. I'm relieved you're taking this all so well." Celestia said, sounding easily as surprised as everypony else was feeling.

"All of us?" The alien inquired, his features pulling inward in apparent confusion.

"Well...you were wondering were your compatriots were?" Celestia said in a slightly shaky tone, not knowing how the alien would react to what was behind it.

The armoured creature swung about with heavy anticipation as to the whereabouts of it's brothers, taking a step around to look behind itself comfortably. Fluttershy's first thought was on the term it used, 'brothers', and then paired that with the dozens of crystal prison cells there were. Could anypony really have that many actual brothers? Was it even possible? The second was hoping that this being wouldn't decide to have a severe change of heart after seeing the state his fellows were currently stuck in. Celestia was the first to try and find the latter out for herself.

"Excuse me, sir."

The creature turned, unsteadily and slowly. Fluttershy felt her expression grow heartbroken as she gazed up at the aliens expression, which was one she'd seen on ponies on several occasions. It was an expression of bone-shocking grief, an exposure to a sudden, icy revelation that must have rattled his very core. His eyes seemed to not be able to focus on anything, simply floating in their sockets helplessly. His face seemed drained of the energy it once held, and whatever Celestia had to say next, Fluttershy feared would glide right through its head like a ghost.

"We need your help."