In a distant part of the galaxy, night had also fallen. Armchair’s lights had gone out for the night, and Starlight passed through the long, empty halls with only the sound of the endless wind outside for company. She did not even produce hoofsteps; not wanting to be heard, she instead chose to use her telekinesis to lift herself off the ground and to drift silently through the halls.

The only light was the dim glow of the gas giant atmosphere outside, and the shimmering light of Starlight’s magic as she effortlessly pulled herself along. In a way, it was calming. In an entirely different way, though, it was ominous and frightening.

Once again, Starlight had been unable to sleep. The dreams were getting worse. It seemed that as more magic she was able to use, the more her mind began to solidify and the memories became more real. The dreams, now, were far more complicated. They never started bad. They were happy, and Starlight remembered a pair of ponies that she understood to be her parents. She remembered them smiling, talking, and even what they smelled like, along with snippets of happy memories as a filly. She even remembered having a friend, a little orange colt who at the time had been so much better at magic than she was. For some reason, though, she could not recall what his name had been.

Then they always got worse. At first they had just been visions of being pulled away, screaming, afraid, and of the drill that put metal in her head. Now they were so much clearer. The knock at the door, the ponies coming through, all dressed in black uniforms. Of Starlight being taken away, crying for her parents as they were held back. Of being held down, having her spine opened and pulled out as she screamed for her mother to save her. The dreams had become too much for her.

So she decided to do what she could do, and what she had to do. Starlight moved through the ship until she came to a locked door and lowered herself to the floor. She opened her omnitool and entered the unlocking code. The door clinked as it released, and Starlight pushed it open.

“Lyra?” she said, poking her head in. “Are you awake?”

Lyra looked up from the inside of the room, at first looking surprised and angry, as if prepared to attack. When she realized that it was just Starlight, her expression became far more neutral.

“Oh, it’s just you, Core,” she said, sitting back down and returning to what she was doing.

“I have a name. Starlight Glimmer.”

Lyra looked up. “That is such a unicorn name.”

Starlight realized that Lyra was no longer chained to the wall, and that she was surrounded by neat piles of metal parts.

“Who gave you those?”

“The krogan,” said Lyra. “They’re mostly my parts.” She leaned down and picked up a plate in her teeth, attaching it back to herself and trying to work a tool with her one remaining hoof.

“I guess he really trusts you.”

“Not really,” said Lyra. “I mean, what do you think I’m going to do? Fix myself up and try to steal your ship? I have no idea how to pilot it.” She reached up at her collar. “And clearly I’m not allowed to use magic, either.”

“Here,” said Starlight. She reached out with her magic and picked up several of the parts. She pushed them together, her magic splitting apart and separating the pieces, recombining them in a swirling mass of metal. In seconds, she had constructed a mechanical foreleg.

Lyra took it with her other foreleg and inspected it.

“Nice work,” she said, nonchalantly. She then shoved the shoulder end of the limb into her open joint and winced in pain. “Buck,” she groaned as it connected. She then flexed it, watching the internal gears and mechanisms turning as the moved the new robotic limb.

“Does it hurt?”

“I’m more metal than I am pony,” said Lyra, darkly. “Everything hurts. All the time.” She picked up a piece of metal in her mouth and attached it to the new arm, forming part of the plating that was supposed to keep her internal organs safe. “So. You’ve come here to interrogate me, too?”

Starlight sat down against the wall across from Lyra. “No. But...I do have some questions.”

“Well, I’m not going anywhere.”

“I just want to know…our homeworld. What’s it like?”

Lyra paused and looked up at Starlight. “I don’t know. It’s a planet. Like any other, I guess. Trees, oceans, mountains. Tons of cities, mostly full of unicorns. All absurdly clean for some reason.” She shrugged and winced, grabbing her newly reattached shoulder. “Nothing special.”

“The air,” said Starlight. “When winter is just ending, and spring comes, is there a breeze that blows in? One that feels so warm, and smells…I don’t know how to describe it…”

“Like new life?”

“Yes.”

Lyra nodded slowly, and then sighed. “I know what you’re talking about. I remember how Bon Bon and I used to go to the park. We’d just sit there, for hours.” She smiled. “Sometimes not even talking. Just sitting. And there would be that smell. The green of the grass, the shade of the trees.” Lyra looked down at the metal parts of her body, and though still smiling, she looked so sad.

“I remember it,” said Starlight. “Not…not always. But in my dreams.”

“From before you were a Core.”

Starlight hesitated, and then nodded. Those memories felt so good- -but acknowledging them somehow terrified her. If the memories of her childhood home were true, then it meant that the other memories were real as well, something Starlight supposed that she had always known but did not like to admit to herself.

“You can’t go romanticizing it,” said Lyra, looking up and straight into Starlight’s dark blue eyes. “I left that planet decades ago, and never looked back. You need to do the same.”

“But why?”

“Because you can never go back. You’re a Core. Do you think ponies are just going to let you walk around freely and take in the sights?” Lyra picked up another piece of herself. “The instant they see you, they’ll take you away, and put you back in a ship’s core. And they’ll never let you see the light of day again until the day you die and they replace you like a dead battery.”

“But that’s not true,” said Starlight, standing up suddenly. “I’ve been thinking, and it’s obvious. Look around you! This ship doesn’t run on a Core. It runs on a mass core, something Arachne built. It’s not alive, just metal and element zero. If I could bring that technology back to Equestria- - how to mine eezio, how to build the mass cores, then they wouldn’t need ponies like me to power ships.” Starlight smiled, exited by the idea- -but quickly disheartened by the tired expression that Lyra gave her in return.

“If you had told me that two days ago, I might have believed you,” said Lyra after a long pause. “But then I saw what you did on that planet…and now I think I finally understand.”

“I didn’t do anything you couldn’t do.”

“My own road apples! I’m a tier two unicorn. That suit that you and your weakling friends destroyed? Three hundred years ago, when that was new, ten of them could have conquered a planet. And you just tore it apart like it was a toy.”

“You held your own, though.”

“Because the suit amplifies my power! But you…those implants aren’t amplifiers. They’re just ports. You did that all on your own. That much power…”

“So what? I’m still just an ordinary pony. I don’t care if I’m powerful, or if I’m a Core- -”

“You don’t, but they do. Don’t you get it? Unicorns on Equestria can barely lift a teacup with their magic, but they claim that the fact that they can even that means that they have a divine right to rule. You have enough magical potential to challenge a goddess. Do you really think they’d let you walk free?”
“I don’t understand.

“It’s why they make Cores. It has to be. You could walk up to them with a full schematic, a plan to create an entire fleet of ships like this, and do you know what they’d do? They’d lock you right back up.” Her eyes narrowed. “That much power…you’re a monster, Starlight Glimmer. An abomination.”

“No1 That can’t be true,” said Starlight, feeling all the excitement of her plan deflating. “It can’t! It’s not fair! I’m not a monster!”

“You think life is fair?” Lyra spread her forelegs. “Look at me! I should have died on that Crystal rock, but they wouldn’t let me!”

“But I’m just a pony! I can’t help what I am!”

“Do you think that changes anything? You’re a Core. You will NEVER be considered their equal.”

Starlight sat down and put her head between her hooves. “I didn’t ask for this,” she said, on the verge of tears. “I didn’t ask to be different…why did I have to be different? If I was just the same as the others, I would still be there, with my family and friends…I would have been happy…”

“Trust me, monster, you’re happier here,” said Lyra, leaning around herself and reattaching part of her flank. “Equestria is a corrupt mess, ruled by arrogant nobility and Princesses who don’t even give a buck about us mortals. At least here, you have these aliens. They at least care.”

Starlight looked up and wiped away her tears. “You don’t have a very high opinion of Equestria, do you?”

“No,” said Lyra. “But I’m not like you. You can’t go back. I don’t want to.”

“Why not?”

“There’s nothing for me there. And nothing for you.” Lyra sighed. “I’d tell you to run. Celestia, I wish I could. But you can’t. They WILL find you. I’m sorry, Core Starlight.” She looked Starlight in the eye. “Nothing stands against the Empire.”

Starlight just stared at her for a long moment. “Is a normal life too much to ask for?”

“For your people? Yes. I wish I could change it for you, but I can’t.”

“My people…” A new line of thought occurred to Starlight. She had never tended to think of herself as part of a group, except perhaps as a pony. Now she was coming to understand that, to them, she was not even that- -but that there were others like her. Every Equestrian ship had a pony like her in the core, a pony taken as a child and put in the core of the engine where they would never again be free. Starlight wondered how many there were, and came to realize just how lucky she was- -and just how horrible ponies truly were.

“Thank you,” she said at last.

“Don’t thank me for that. I only managed to tell you things you don’t want to hear.”

“But I needed to hear it.” Starlight looked up at Lyra and charged her horn. A blue mass effect field formed around Lyra’s collar.

“Wait a minute,” said Lyra, panicking. “If you try to do anything, the feedback- -”

With barely a modicum of effort, Starlight overloaded the collar’s internal systems. It fizzled and hissed as she pulled it off of Lyra.

Lyra rubbed her neck. “Why did you do that?”

“Let’s just say I don’t like the idea of treating a pony like a prisoner.”

“But you have a good reason to do it for me. I tried to kill you.”

“And if you try again, I can vaporize you with a thought.”

“True,” said Lyra, picking up several of her pieces in her orange magic and far more rapidly assembling herself. “Not that I have anything to try anyway. It may not look it, but I’m pretty neutral on this whole thing. Every ounce of patriotism and loyalty I had died with my Bon Bon. I’m a mercenary now.”

“Then talk to Sjdath. I don’t know, maybe she’s hiring.”

For the first time, Lyra looked somewhat intrigued. “Maybe I will…”

Starlight sat with Lyra little bit longer, but found that she had nothing more to say. So, without a word, she excused herself. Lyra did not seem to mind; she was too heavily focused on fine-tuning her joints and only managed to wave with one skeletal, robotic arm as Starlight departed.

As the door closed behind her, Starlight sighed, and just stood for a moment. She was tired, and she wanted to sleep, but with the dreams and what she had just been told, she knew she would not be able to. Perhaps not for a long time.

One of the shadows stirred, and Starlight became aware of Jack, leaning in the exact spot on the wall where Zedok had been waiting earlier that day.

“I know you’re there,” said Starlight without turning her head. “I can feel your biotics.”

“Did you hear what you wanted to hear?” asked Jack.

Starlight turned toward Jack, who was almost completely obscured in the dim light save for her silver eyes and silhouette. “No. But I think I heard what I needed to. I wish I hadn’t.”

Jack stepped out of the shadows and put her hand on the back of Starlight’s head, being careful not to touch her horn. “I know how that goes.”

“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” aid Starlight. “I was just so…angry? Scared? I don’t think it was even about the horn.”

“I know. But to honest, after what people have done to me, I should know better.”

“It’s just so…I don’t even know. I didn’t even want to go back to Equestria, but why am I so sad, then.”

“Sense of justice, maybe?”

“Yeah…” Starlight looked up at Jack. “Jack? Am I a monster?”

“That’s a weird question. I don’t think I need to answer it, either. But if anyone here’s a monster, it’s me” Jack rubbed Starlight’s mane, and then started walking down the dark hallway. “Another thing,” she said, pausing and turning back. “I didn’t realize how much better I slept when I was with you. So, if you want to come back…”

Starlight smiled. “Are you going to try to touch my horn?”

“Yes, definitely. I’m going to dress you in a tiny saddle, chain you to my wall, and forcibly rub the weird growth that sticks out of your forehead.” Jack looked over her shoulder and smiled. Starlight could tell that she was being sarcastic.

“Hey! It’s not a ‘growth’!” protested Starlight, trotting to Jack’s side.

“It is totally a growth.”

“You’re a growth.”

“What are you, twelve?”

“Maybe. I have no idea how old I am.”

“That’s weird. Really weird.”

“Weird because I’m oddly mature, or weird because it would mean you’ve been using a twelve-year-old as a pillow?”

“Little bit of both.”

Starlight giggled, and the two of them fell silent as they walked through the vessel. Until something against the wall suddenly caught Starlight’s eye.

From overhead, there was a surge of static, followed by a garbled sound that rapidly resolved into a voice.

“System…perimeter,” said Armchair, his voice slow and distorted.

“Armchair,” said Jack, looking up as though that was where Armchair was instead of completely surrounding them. “You’re back online.”

Starlight was happy Armchair was safe, but she could not look away from a tiny red dot that she had found on one of the walls. She put her hoof over it, and saw that the dot appeared on her hoof. She turned to see that the laser was coming from the window…and from outside.

“Detecting…graviton…disturbance…”

“Yeah, we’re parked in the upper atmosphere of a gas giant. It has an inconsistent gravity well. Old pirate trick- -”

“Biphasic…graviton…disturbance…”

Starlight looked back at the dot, and then at the window- -and realized that there was a dark shape visible just outside. Through the endless storm of red, swirling gas, Starlight could see the hulking dark silhouette of another vessel.

There was a sudden explosion, and glass shattered, covering Starlight and Jack. On either side of them, two large metal objects had pierced Amrchair’s windows and into his internal hull, their barbed tips tethering the other ship to Armchair. Red, acrid gas leaked in from around their bases where they had broken through the windows.

Armchair’s external lights flashed on, casting strange red shadows outside and illuminating the vessel. Starlight looked up at the ship, and saw that it was pulling itself closer, drawing in on the grappling anchors. Through the fog, she saw the front of it, and the insignia painted haphazardly on the front- -and the fact that there was a humanoid figure clad in bulky white armor clinging to the front.

“Cerberus,” said Jack, her voice dripping with anger. She extended her hands and they ignited with energy. Outside, the armored figure seemed to take notice and raised his hand, pointing at the window. A blue surge came through the fog of the gas outside, and a large hole formed in the window surface as the glass was pulled apart into dust. Wind immediately tore through, and Starlight jumped forward, forming a protective bubble around herself and Jack.

“Let me out of this!” cried Jack. “We need to stop her before she gets in- -”

“No, we need to get out of here!” Starlight lifted the bubble, causing Jack to lose her balance and trip. The sphere then raced through the hall, outpacing the wind from outside, carrying them both to safety.

Starlight looked back only once, and saw that another figure was climbing through the broken ship, and that the original armored figure was chasing them, running quickly across the floor more quickly than Starlight had ever seen a humanoid run before. And, worse, thought the growing corrosive fog and the strange shadows cast by the bright exterior lights, Starlight could not shake the belief that the figure was rushing toward them on all fours, loping like some kind of perverse animal.

Increasing speed, Starlight pulled Jack and herself into a part of the ship where several hallways converged.

“Armchair!” cried Starlight, “Close pressure bulkhead L76A!”

“Acknowledged,” said Armchair, weekly. Behind Starlight, a heavy blast door began to seal, quickly closing just as a black helmet came into view through the other side. With a loud locking and just a puff of red gas, it locked itself against the intruders.

“What was that?” said Starlight, releasing her bubble and dropping to the ground. She realized that she was shaking.

“That door’s not going to hold her for long! How the hell did they find us?”

There was a sound of footsteps from one of the intersecting hallways. Zedok came barreling into the room, sliding to a stop across the floor. She was barely dressed and looked tired, but slung across her back was the shotgun her father had given her, ready to defend the ship. “What’s happening?” she demanded.

“We heard an explosion,” said Fenok behind her.

“Is Si’y with you?” asked Jack.

“He was with Sjdath- -she’s doing everything she can to stop that leak,” said Fenok. “He’ll be here in- -”

There was a sound against the heavy metal blast door, and everyone in the room turned toward it. At first it sounded something like pounding, but then it resolved into something much more organized. The door creaked, and then suddenly opened just slightly. Starlight watched in horror as a set of fingers pushed through the center, and then as two hands began to separate the door, pulling it open.

“Armchair!” cried Starlight. “Increase the pressure! Keep it closed!”

It was too late. The door was pulled about a foot apart, and a human face peered through. He did not appear to be straining, even as gave the door one more hard push. The hydraulic mechanism that kept the door closed burst with a hissing thud, and oil leaked out from it onto the floor. The man then easily pushed the door the rest of the way through, allowing his shorter armored companion to enter in a cloud of toxic gas.

She entered the room, walking slowly across the floor while her male companion mostly closed the door behind her and produced a datapad, which he began to devote his full attention to. The tension in the room seemed to build, and the Cerberus agent stopped, seeming to assess the opposition.

Then she reached up and unlocked the rear mechanism of her helmet, pulling it off and throwing it across the room. A mass of greasy curls poured out from beneath, and a wildly smiling gray, gaunt face looked out at them, her overly large blue eyes rapidly narrowing to a pair of vertical slits in response to the light.

“Jackie-boy!” she said, in a thick, French accent, raising her hands over her head.

“Bob,” said Jack, darkly.

“Wait, you know her?” said Zedok

“Know her? We’re practically sisters! Or, rather…butt buddies.”

“I never thought I’d see the day where you were working for Cerberus,” said Jack. Jack’s body was stiff and tense, and that frightened Starlight. Starlight had never seen Jack like this before.

“Oh, well, you know.” Bob started counting on her fingers. “First you quit the business, and then that traitor Lawson got offed by Leng. And Leng got punctured by little Jonny Shepard. And then little Jonny got eaten by Reapers. So I guess those stunods at Cerberus had to go WAY back in the books.”

“I’m surprised you’re even still alive.”

“After what you did to me? Don’t be.” She held up her left arm, which had a asymmetrically oversized gauntlet attached to it. “You took my arm. It grew back, of course. They always do.”

“That was thirty years ago.”

“I know. But I really liked that arm.”

“And since when are you a biotic?”

Bob lifted the oversized gauntlet. “Since Cerberus figured out how to put a mass gyro into a glove. You have no idea how hard it was to get them to omit the ring finger. ‘But you need that to suppress the radiation surges’. Blarrrrrrrgg….if radiation were a problem, I’d just wear a tinfoil hat…”

“Timing, Bob,” said the male with her. “We have to keep this…” he looked up and saw Starlight. His eyes promptly widened and he gasped deeply. “OmiGERRRSH! A PONY!”

Despite wearing armor almost as thick as Bob’s, he moved amazingly quickly, crossing the floor and dropping to his knees in front of Starlight. Zedok responded by pulling her Graal, but Fenok stopped her from pointing the wide-range weapon in Starlight’s direction.

“Pony!” said the Cerberus man. He was actually rather handsome for a human, with pale skin and long blond hair kept in a ponytail. Something was wrong with him, though, that made Starlight unduly nervous. His blue eyes just seemed so dead.

He wrapped Starlight in a hug. “Oh she’s just ADORABLE! I always wanted a pony as a boy, but my parents never got me one!”

“Please let me go,” said Starlight.

“Oh! She talks!” he looked up at Bob. “A talking unicorn! This is the best day of my life EVER! How are you not all over this?”

“You know my feelings on animals with horns, Marc. And drell. I HATE drell. They taste terrible. And can you believe that Cerberus ‘frowns upon’ cannibalism?” She made air-quotes as she said it. “I mean, come ON! The things I have to put up wi- -”

Without warning, Jack slammed her hands together in Bob’s direction. A massive biotic wave poured out of her, and Starlight suddenly felt herself being suddenly released.

The impact of the blast resulted in a tremendous explosion that shook the ship around them. Zedok was blown backward with a cry, and even Fenok had to brace himself against the force of the blast. Starlight used a shield spell, and saw that Jack did not take her eyes off her target for even a moment.

As the biotic energy dissipated, Starlight gasped. The blond human had managed to place himself between the blast and Bob- -and it was now quite apparent that he was not at all human.

He reached up to where the plastic of his face was hanging away from his whitish, metal skull. One of his robotic eyes, its blue covering removed, twisted down to look at the tatters of the artificial skin.

“Damn it, Bob!” he said, reaching up and pulling the mask away entirely. “I just got that one too! Do you have any idea how much these cost?!”

“Aww, come on, Marc Antony,” said Bob, putting her arms around his shoulders playfully. She was much shorter than he was, so she had to stand on her toes. “It’s on Cerberus’s dollar, now.”

“Your- -you’re a synth,” said Fenok, his eyes wide.

“So Cerberus built another,” said Jack, coldly.

“Cerberus? Like that plastic defective with the cripple boyfriend? Don’t insult me.” He shrugged, stepping away and picking up his datapad. “Everyone knows that everything Cerberus makes is derivative crap.”

“Passive aggressive, much?” said Bob, crossing her arms. She leaned toward Jack and whispered loudly. “He means you.”

“Can we just move this along? We’re behind schedule.”

“Yeah, yeah. Either get off my back or take your clothes off and get on it literally.”

“Disgusting organic…”

“What do you want, Bob?” said Jack.

“What do I want? Hmm…how about you, nude, on a silver platter with your intestines wrapped around your neck? Come on Jack, what do I ever want? I’m just here on business.”

“That’s not an answer. Cerberus- -and YOU- -are not welcome here.”

Bob smiled, revealing a number of sharp teeth. “You couldn’t kill me on Pragia. You can’t here, either. Of course, if you want to try, I can always pretend I’m a baterian slaver and, well, you know…”

Jack’s body started to ignite with blue energy, and she raised her hands again

“Please,” said Fenok, stepping forward, putting his hand on Jack’s chest. “There doesn’t need to be violence here. I’m sure we can talk this out.”

Bob’s eyes widened. She looked to her associate, then at Fenok, and then Jack. “Did that krogan just TURN DOWN a fight? What, a pacifist krogan? Why would you even use a krogan if he’s supposed to be a pacifist? What is this crap?”

“Your name was Bob?”

“Her name is Robette,” said Jack, slyly.

“What’s that?” said Bob, putting a hand to her ear. “Was that the sound of an anus calling out to have my BOOT SHOVED IN IT?”

“Please don’t get her started on anuses,” groaned Marc Antony.

“Bob, then,” said Fenok. “What is it you actually want? I’m sure Cerberus sent you here for a reason.”

Bob pointed at Starlight. “We came for the pone.” She considered what she had just said for a moment. “Actually, that kind of sounds dirty.”

“No,” said Jack. “You can’t have Starlight.”

“Her name is Starlight?” said Marc Antony, his voice rising.

“Focus,” said Bob. She turned back to Jack. “Come on, Jackie. I just spent, like, three days in that cloud just waiting for you to show up. And then another one laser-listening to your inane conversations. Can you cut me a break here?”

“How did you know we would be here?” said Starlight.

“Ah, the pone actually has a brain! Unlike some folks.” Bob crouched down and looked at Starlight. Her gaunt features and flattened nose were not pleasant to look at. “The answer is, because salarians are arrogant frog fools who were dumb enough to think, you know, that Cerbarus somehow WOULDN’T hack their Relay Surveillance System.” She laughed. “Cerberus controls everything! Watching on Omega, sending the mass relays wherever they want! I love this company! Well, except, you know, the anti-cannibalism. And the sexual harassment policy. And this hideous bulky armor. And having to deal with my butt-buddy here.”

“And the pressing nationalism,” added Marc Antony.

“Yeah,” said Bob. “If humans are so great, why didn’t they stop the Reapers?” She paused. “Oh wait…”

“You’re not taking Starlight!” said Zedok, drawing her shotgun and pointing it at Bob’s face. Starlight expected Bob to react negatively, but instead she just smiled.

“Asari,” she said. “Very flat asari. Almost as flat as Jack was when she was your age. Nice Graal, though.”

“Do you want to see what it does to a human head?”

Bob raised her right hand and pointed her index finger at Zedok, lifting her thumb up toward the ceiling and closing her remaining two fingers back into a fist, forming the shape of a gun. “Go ahead. Let’s see who gets the shot off first.”

“Zedok, don’t,” said Jack, firmly, her voice terrifyingly hard.

“Please,” said Fenok. “We can work this out with her- -”

“Sorry, dad. Pacifism isn’t going to work here.”

Zedok pulled the trigger- -and the Graal detonated in her arms. Starlight barely managed to shield herself as a plume of hollow spikes rained down on them all, and then looked up in horror as Zedok stepped backward, confused, her face burned and pouring violet blood. She lifted her arms- -or what was left of them- -and looked at them, as if she did not understand why they were broken and full of shrapnel.

“Oh,” she said. “Oh crap…”

Then she fell.

“Zed!” cried her father, rushing to her side, ignoring the several spikes that were imbedded in his own body. He knelt beside her, opening his omnitool and pulling a small medical kit off his belt as a pool of purple blood began to form beneath him. “Hold on, just hold on!”

“Interesting thing about the mass effect,” said Bob, blowing on her still glowing finger as if she had fired a weapon. “Turns out, it’s a terrible idea. A coordinated counterfeild and, well, kablooey.” She spread her fingers out and looked down one of the darkened hallways. “Or I spread it out a little, and I can suppress weapons function. Isn’t that right, Blasto?”

Starlight turned her head toward where Bob was looking and saw Si’y lurking in the darkness, a long rifle pointed at Bob’s head, wearing his damaged armor even with the severe hole in its side.

“This one is honored that you equate it with the honorable Blasto,” said Si’y, lowering the rifle and floating out of the shadows. “However, if this one is truly to live up to the reputation of its hero…”

Si’y drew a pistol in one of his tentacles and pointed it at Bob. There was a small explosion, and Bob’s left hand went up to her face. Her right opened toward Si’y, and a blue field of energy grasped him and slammed him into a wall with enough force to leave a dent in the metal. The blow knocked the pistol form his hand, and, surrounded in blue light, it flew across the room into Bob’s open hand.

Bob leaned forward, and then stood erect, red blood pouring from her cheek. “What the hell is THIS?” she said, looking down at the revolver. “Did you just shoot me with a goddamn ANTIQUE?” She looked around wildly. “That’s it. I came here to do a SIMPLE. JOB. Take the pone and Jack’s head. I was even going to let you all live. Now I’m going to murder all of you, and then I’m going EAT EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!”

She lunged forward at Starlight. Starlight froze, not sure what to do- -but then a surge of orange light erupted behind Bob. A piece of metal surrounded by a familiar orange glow slammed into Bob’s back, penetrating her right shoulder and pinning her to the ground.

“Goddamn it, my ARM!” cried Bob. She turned her head toward where the red fog was drifting in from the hallway where she had entered and saw Lyra standing over her, her horn glowing. “You little WHORSE!”

“Primitive scum,” said Lyra, adjusting her magic. The metal rod in Bob’s shoulder turned, and Bob cried out. “Come on!” she cried. “Don’t twist it!”

Jack took the opportunity and rushed forward, punching Bob squarely in the throat. Bob’s eyes widened, and she grabbed her neck, gasping for air.

“Did I ever tell you how much I hate your voice?”

Starlight ran across the room and helped Si’y up. As she did, she momentarily saw Zedok. She was very, very still, but Fenok was rushing to stabilize her. Starlight hoped that the fact that he was still trying meant hope was not yet lost.

Jack turned her attention to Marc Antony, who was now standing wide-eyed, looking down at Bob and at the others.

“I don’t know who you are,” said Jack. “And I don’t care. You’re Cerberus. So I’m going to kill you.”

“Well,” said Marc Antony, sounding somewhat nervous. “To be honest, I’m not much of a fighter. I don’t have a gun, biotics, or even an omnitool. I just manage the logistics.”

Jack’s hands glowed with blue light, and Starlight charged her horn. Lyra closed in from behind, her metallic hooves clicking on the floor as she approached the synth. “Do you think that’s going to save you?”

“I’m going to cut of those robot hands and put them on me,” whispered Lyra.

“You are not nearly as cute as the other one. But…” he sighed. “To be honest, this is pretty obvious. You called it, Bob.”

Bob released a gloating wheeze.

“What is the synthetic human speaking of?” asked Si’y, producing his rifle again. “It has been defeated.”

“Not really, no.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Starlight saw Bob smiled. Before she could stop her, Bob opened the palm of her right hand. The room immediately erupted with blue light. Starlight was thrown to the floor, as if something had suddenly landed on top of her. She quickly realized that nothing was touching her, though; she could feel energy surrounding her body, and saw that the same blue light was pressing her friends to the ground.

The gravity of the room had been increased. Starlight tried to struggle against the sickening, inconsistent weight, but found that she could not move even slightly. Neither, it seemed, could the others.

Marc Antony crossed the floor, each of his footsteps impacting the floor with enough force to deform the metal. The gravity field was surrounding him too, but he seemed to be ignoring it.

“Have you ever been to Dekuuna?” he asked, calmly. “Truly a beautiful world. Very flat. And elcor theater…so paced, so impactful. Truly beautiful. I cried.” He paused and looked down at Starlight. The hard metal of his face was incapable of forming anything more than a kind of skeletal grin, but she knew that he must have been smiling. “Of course, at four times earth’s gravity, well…you would feel roughly how you feel right now.”

He slowly reached down toward Starlight. She struggled to rise, but any movement was impossible. She was also rapidly growing weaker; stuck on her side, vision in one of her eyes was going black while the other was becoming red.

Then, just before Marc Antony could reach her, a large tentacle reached out from her peripheral vision and grabbed his chest, throwing him back.

An angry song filled the air, and Arachne pulled himself out of a vent, his heavy legs digging into the metal as he scuttled across the room, being careful not to step on any of his friends. The gravity was affecting him, but unlike the others, he was still able to stand.

“A rachni?!” cried Marc Antony. “You didn’t tell me they had a RACHNI!”

Arachne jumped onto the synth, forcing him to the ground. Marc Antony was barely able to grab Arachne’s front legs and hold them back, narrowly preventing himself from being impaled.

Then Starlight felt the gravity increase again.

“Bob, are you insane?!” cried Marc Antony. Bob, meanwhile, was smiling, her chest pressed against the floor and the long metal spike through her shoulder slowly forcing itself deeper into the floor by its own weight. The gravity was affecting her too- -and she was increasing it.

Starlight looked across the room at her friends, at Jack struggling to stand and Fenok desperately trying to reach his dying daughter. The world was fading quickly, and Starlight knew that there was not much time to act.

She charged her horn, a task that proved to be far more difficult than she expected inside Bob’s mass effect field. It was impossible for her to form a concerted beam of energy, but she found that she was still able to reflect her biotic energy inward.

Concentrating was difficult, but Starlight focused all her energy into lifting herself. The gravity stormed around her, reacting by becoming inconsistent, as though it were angry at her defiance. Her own magic was working against the field in an impossibly complex pattern, a combination of swirling patterns of lift and weight. She felt the conflict inside her organs, and felt her bones beginning to bend until they were on the verge of snapping.

Even through the pain, she tried to keep focus, knowing that one mistake would be lethal. There was no way she could stand, not without tearing her body apart, but she was able to point her left hoof at Bob. Focusing her mind in two places at once, Starlight opened her omnitool and fired an overcharge directly into Bob’s gauntlet.

The gravity gyro failed violently in an explosion of sparks, and Bob cried out. Starlight fell back onto the floor, now at normal gravity, and gasped for air. She had damaged her body, but not permanently, and she could feel her biotic powers returning as her mind started to lapse into unconsciousness.

Across the room, Arachne held Marc Antony as a second overload beam struck him in the side, bringing him to his knees. Sjdath approached cautiously, followed by a pair of combat drones, and immediately went to Si’y’s side. He was not moving.

Jack slowly stood, shaking from the exertion of trying to resist the gravity.

“You’ve lost,” she said.

“Not yet,” said Bob. With a cracking sound, she pulled against the pole that was binding her. Starlight watched as Bob bit into her own shoulder, her teeth gnawing at the flesh with a sickening sound. There was then a ripping sound, and Bob rolled across the floor, grabbing Starlight in the one arm she had remaining.

“Bjorn! Get us out of here!” she yelled.

There was a flash of light, and the universe shifted in a torrent of unexpected motion.

Jack watched as golden light surrounded Bob, Starlight, and Marc Antony. Then, with a thunderous implosion, they vanished.

“They’ve teleported!” cried Lyra.

The ship rumbled as Bob’s vessel disconnected from it.

“No!” shouted Jack, running toward the door.

“Don’t!” Lyra jumped at Jack’s legs, blocking the door. “That atnosphere’s toxic! There’s nothing you can do anyway!”

“Armchair! Track that ship and pursue! NOW!”

“We cannot,” said Armchair. “Our mass core is still too badly damaged for FTL travel. That, and we are using all our current power to keep shields around the rather large hole in our side.”

“Well then do SOMETHING! You can’t let her get away! Not with Starlight!”

“There’s nothing we can do!” shouted Lyra.

Jack’s fists glowed, and she was about to punch Lyra in the face- -but knew that the cybernetic horse was right.

“Goddamn it!” cried Jack, ramming her fist through the four-inch steel of the still partially open bulkhead door. “God-fuckin-damnit!”

“We have bigger problems,” snarled Sjdath. “Si’ys hurt. Badly. And so is Zedok. Arachne, help Fenok with her, I’ll take Si’y.”

“You just want me to give up on her? You want me to let CERBERUS take her, just like that?!”

“No,” said Sjdath. “We’ll get her back. Somehow. But right now, if we don’t hurry, we’re going to lose three friends instead of one.”

Jack looked around the room, watching as Arachne gently picked up Zedok while Fenok- -covered in purple- -helped, his omnitool connected to hers by a number of tubes and wires. She saw Bob’s arm, still transfixed to the floor, the glossy white of the shoulder bone exposed against the rusted metal rod. She saw Sjdath cradling Si’y almost lovingly, and saw his rifle drop out of his tentacle as he was lifted.

“Goddamn it,” whispered Jack. “Goddamn Cerberus…”

Starlight felt herself thrown to a cold metal floor. She gasped for air, and then suddenly retched. She realized that she had just been teleported, but this one had been different from hers. When she did it, she simply ceased to be in one place and moved to another. This time, she had experienced a kind of extended delay and had become aware that she had found herself in a third, intermediate place. A place with an endless yellow sky and heavy, hot, burning air.

Disoriented and confused, Starlight tried to stand- -only to have a collar fastened around her neck.

“There, now don’t you look cute,” said a voice, a voice that Starlight realized was the Cerberus soldier Bob. This brought Starlight at least partially back to her senses, and she sat up suddenly.

“What is this?” she said, grabbing at the collar with her hooves.

“A biotic suppression collar,” said Bob. She looked over her shoulder- -which at this point was pouring blood where her arm had previously been- -and saw Marc Antony rounding a corner holding a robotic limb and some supplies.

“Aw, come on,” said Marc Antony, perturbed. “You got blood all over the pony!”

Starlight looked down, and saw that she was indeed covered in blood. Much of it was red- -but there was just a little bit of purple. That purple made her want to throw up.

“Do you really think this collar can hold ME?” she said, glaring up at Bob.

“What? No, of course not. It doesn’t even suppress your abilities. You can use them if you want to.”

“Wha- -”

“Buuuut…” she smiled mischievously, a smile that was somehow absurdly cruel and grotesque. “I did install a sensor…and a teeny, tiny four kiloton explosive unit in it. So if you try to use biotics or your omni, well, kah-beewm!”

Marc Antony’s eyes widened. “You rigged the pony to explode- -Bob, could we at least have TALKED about this first?”

“Don’t get your robot anal port in a twist. It’s not like I haven’t rigged you with explosives too.”

Marc Antony looked down at himself. “Wh- -where? What did you do?”

“I put them in while you were sleeping.”

“But I don’t sleep!”

Bob shrugged. She looked back down at Starlight. “So, pone. I know you probably want to blow me up, but just remember, Marc here has three older sisters and a pair of parents who would really miss him. That, and I kind of think your head might, you know, pop off.”

“At four kilotons, I’d be vaporized.”

Bob’s eyes widened. “You’re oddly smart for a horse.”

“Pony. And I don’t appreciate you hurting my friends, or taking me against my will, or assuming that I’m an idiot because I have four legs. I demand to be taken back to my ship, right now!”

“Yeah, about that,” said Bob, taking the robotic arm from Marc Antony. “That’s not going to happen.” She inspected the arm. “This isn’t that Cerberus crap, is it?”

“Of course not.”

“Good.” Bob plugged the end of the limb onto the stump of her shoulder, and gritted her teeth in pain as the wires and tubes of the arm extended from it, burrowing into her shoulder. “Oh sweet Jack on a barbed stick,” she said, on the verge of screaming. “That hurts. Good thing I’m not wearing underwear today.”

“Digusting.” Marc Antony shook his head, and Bob lifted the arm, which now responded to her will. She flexed the three fingers, turning her new hand over and looking at it carefully. “Hey, look! I’m Saren now! All I’ve got to do is get my brain scrambled by a Reaper and get a low-cut dress for you, Marc, so you can be Benezia! Oh, the things I’ll do to you…”

“I could have you reported for sexual harassment, you know.”

“Go ahead. Just don’t drop the soap.”

“Um, excuse me,” said Starlight. “I’m still here, you know.”

“Oh, I didn’t notice,” said Bob. “Oh wait- -I JUST LOST AN ARM TRYING TO GET YOU! I BIT. OFF. MY OWN. ARM!” Marc Antony handed her a large, dirty syringe and she injected it into her neck. “That was my speedball arm, too!” She licked her lips and looked at the srynge. “Marc, this isn’t fentanyl.”

“Oops. Sorry. That’s the amphetamine and 5-flourouracil one.”

“Oh. That’s better actually. Honestly, the fentanyl does nothing at this point. But the 5-fluro makes me tingly.” She turned her attention back to Starlight. “You had better be worth it. Now walk, pone, walk!”

Bob lightly kicked Starlight in the rump, encouraging her to walk down the hallway. Starlight actually looked around for the first time, and saw that she was in a vessel with gravity plating on the floor but no real covering on the walls. Everything was stripped apart and exposed, and hardly lit at all. The atmosphere felt thin and terribly cold.

“I thought your arms grew back,” she said.

“They do,” said Bob. “But do you have any idea how long it takes to grow back an arm? Months! And then it’s never really quite the same. And don’t get me started about how weird it looks to be growing back a stubby baby arm when the other one’s normal…”

“What do you want with me?” said Starlight, masking how nervous she was with bravado.

“Not much. But I WILL be ravishing your tiny pony body.”

“Don’t you dare!” cried Marc Antony, stepping in front of her. “Don’t you dare hurt this beautiful creature!” He knelt down and put his arm around Starlight- -and she suddenly felt a prick in her neck.

“Hey!” she cried, jumping back. She almost slapped him with her magic- -but stopped herself just in time.

“It’s just a needle,” said Marc Antony, showing her the strange. “It’s an antimicrobial. Trust me, after getting that much of HER blood on you, you’re going to need it.”

“Then ask first, pervert!”

“I’m sorry, I- -”

“Don’t bother, Marc. It’s not like we’re going to keep her. And no, pone, I’m not going to do anything like that to you. It was a joke.”

“Don’t make jokes about something like that.”

“Oh, well, excuse me,” said Bob. “But, in case you haven’t noticed…” she pointed toward the Cerberus insignia on her chest. “I’m evil.”

“Bob,” said Marc, sounding exasperated. “Cerberus isn’t evil. We’re helping to protect earth’s interests. Remember?”

“No,” said Starlight. “You are definitely evil. You attacked us without warning, you hurt Zedok and Si’y, and you took me.”

“Yeah,” said Bob. “Fond memories…I kind of feel bad for the asari, though. She wasn’t bad looking for a kid. She’s going to be a lot less pretty now. If she survives.”

Starlight felt herself stiffen at the thought of Zedok lying in her own blood, dying. Starlight started to panic- -she did not know if Zedok was safe, if Fenok could help her. She knew Fenok was a good doctor, but she also knew that doctors could only do so much. Not knowing was maddening.

“I really would have liked to have offed Jack, though. Just sunk my teeth into those ridiculous tattoos…”

“You know Jack,” said Starlight, trying to change the subject to something where she could keep her cool, and maybe even get some information.

“Oh, yeah, we go way back. We both grew up on Pragia.”

“Is that where she was born?”

“Born? No, of course not. She didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“Pragia. It’s a Cerberus research center. It’s where they made her.”

“She’s a person, like me. She wasn’t ‘made’.”

“Oh, she was made. Implants, surgeries, I guess. I didn’t know then, of course. Back then we were kids. Every day, they’d pick some of us to go in and fight her, test out what they had added to her.”

“They forced her to fight?”

“No. They forced her to kill. Since the day she could walk, they made her kill. Again and again. And those were the lucky ones. The rest had their brains turned to soup to test her biotic upgrades before they put them in her.”

“She- -she never told me,” said Starlight, suddenly understanding Jack’s behavior a bit more.

“They were trying to make the perfect weapon. Fat lot of success they had. No way to control her. Then again, Cerberus couldn’t even keep Lawson under control. Makes you wonder why they hired me.”

“And you were her friend, back then?” That was what Starlight liked to imagine, that a younger Bob had been there in that hell, keeping Jack company and sticking together through their ordeal.

“You could say that. I was the only one she couldn’t kill. Not for lack of trying, though.”

“You fought her?” Starlight felt her imagined situation crumbling.

“Yeah. Lost a lot. She gutted me once, that was fun. Cerberus never bothered to do the same stuff to me, though. I wasn’t suitable. Not a biotic.”

“So you’re like her, then.”

“No.” Bob paused, and looked over to Marc Antony, who had clearly heard the story but was listening intently. “No. Jack didn’t start off the way she is. She could have gone either way. Give her parents, a home, put her in a school for biotic kids, she’d have been an ordinary person. But Cerberus doesn’t want ordinary people. They want weapons. As for me, well…I was born this way.”

“And that’s why you hate her.”

“Hate her? No. That’s backward. She hates me.”

“Because Cerberus never took anything away from you, like it did her.”

“She’s perceptive,” said Marc Antony. He paused. “We’re at the mass relay. Do you want to talk to him before we go?”

“I guess we kind of have to. Damn. I really hate having to work for that little prick. Hey pone!”

“What?”

“What’s your name again?”

“Starlight. Starlight Glimmer.”

“Well, Glimmer, take a right at the next door.”

“Or what?”

“Or run away. I don’t care. Bjorn might not like it, though.”

“Who’s Bjorn?”

Bob pointed down the long corridor into the shadows. Starlight looked and saw nothing- -until she just barely saw something move in the darkness. Something very tall and very thin that watched in silence. Starlight had no idea what it was, but she actually felt herself take several steps back, not wanting to get any nearer to it than she already was.

“Come on,” said Bob, poking Starlight’s rump with a robotic finger and directing her into an offshoot room. “Trust me, I don’t want to do this anymore than you do.”

Starlight looked back, and then begrudgingly entered the room. It was small and circular, with a round pad in the center surrounded by controls.

“Right,” said Marc Antony, approaching one of the sets of controls and wiping the grime off the screen. “Let’s see if you installed the quantum channel the correct way in this time.”

“It’s not my fault if the last one didn’t have a proper diode,” grunted Bob, crossing her arms.

Marc Antony tapped on the controls, and the pad on the floor started to glow. Specks of light drifted upward from it and resolved into translucent polygons. After several seconds, these polygons resolved into a humanoid figure and then, finally, into the shape of a human.

The human- -a male, older than Marc Antony had looked with his false face- -looked down at the trio of beings. His eyes were luminescent blue, and he took a long breath through a cigarette in the corner of his mouth.

“Yo,” said Bob. She pointed at Starlight. “One pone, hold the onions.”

The man looked down at Starlight, and his glowing eyes narrowed. He removed the cigarette from his mouth. “Why is she covered in blood? I thought I ordered you to take her unharmed!”

“It’s not my blood,” said Starlight. “It’s hers.”

The man turned toward Bob. His eyes fell onto her newly installed robotic limb. “You mean that little horse did that to YOU? Robette, I’m beginning to wonder if hiring you was the right decision.”

“And I’m beginning to wonder why you keep using that ridiculous VI cover,” retorted Bob.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, come on, ‘illusive man’. I have brain herpes and I’m still smart enough to see the seams.” She smiled. “Isn’t it a little pretentious for an asari girl like you to bother with the whole ‘hey look I REALLY AM human’ routine? Come on, we all know that the only human here is me.”

“I would hardly call you human at this point.”

“Says the asari.”

“I’m not an asari!”

Starlight stepped forward. “You’re her boss?”

The illusive man looked down at her. “Yes, I am.”

“Then you’re the one who ordered my kidnapping.”

“I really am sorry for any undue stress it caused, Ms. Starlight.”

“Shove it in your plot hole. I’d demand you return me, but I’m not an idiot. What do you want from me?”

The illusive man took a long drag on his cigarette. “Nothing.”

“What?”

“Nothing. I don’t want anything with you. You don’t matter at all to me.” He turned to Bob. “Take her to these coordinates. Wait there. I’m in contact with the ponies on the Harmony. They will arrive in exactly two hours. You both know what to do Don’t mess this up, Robette.”

“For the amount I’m getting paid, I won’t. Assuming those dollars you’re paying me in aren’t as illusive as you claim to be.”

“You know, most Cerberus operatives put their lives on the line for more than money, Robette.”

“Life? Whaddaya mean life? I ain’t got a life!” She paused. “That aside, it’s a bit hollow for those words to be coming from an alien.”

“He has earth’s best interests at heart,” said Marc Antony.

“Listen to your better half. And don’t try to score renegade points with me, Robette. I could crush you like the parasite you are.”

“With your overweight asari arse, perhaps?”

“Just do your job,” he said, pointing with his cigarette. “Deliver the pony. Unharmed. We’ll handle the rest.”

The transmission forcibly closed, and Marc Antony let out a long sigh. “Come on, Bob. Every single time. Do you have to challenge authority?”

“Yes.”

Starlight turned to Bob, shaking and wide-eyed. “You’re…you’re going to take me back to Harmony?”

“Yes. That’s what I’m told, anyway.” She looked down at Starlight and gave a toothy smile. “That’s what I gave my arm for. To get you back to your people. You should be thanking me. Except for the fact that I’m guessing you’re some kind of criminal, so, well…”

“I can’t go back! I won’t! You- -you don’t understand what they did to me! What they WILL do to me!”

“It’s not my problem.”

“It is if I- -if I blow you both up!” Starlight pointed her horn toward Bob, prepared to charge it with energy.

Bob shrugged. “Go ahead.”

“I’m warning you, I will! I- -I won’t go back! I’m not a machine, I’m a pony! A PONY!”

“And I don’t care. I don’t want to die. But I’m also in constant agony from, well, just about every disease you can get from being born in a sewer. So, either way is fine with me.”

“Please, Starlight,” said Marc Antony, nervously. “I- -I don’t want to die! Don’t listen to her!”

“Then take this collar off me, and let me leave!”

“I- -I can’t do that, and you know it.”

“Then I’ll kill us all!”

“See?” said Bob, oddly calmly. “I told you. Some kind of weapon, just like Jack. Built to kill. No wonder the pones want it back so much.”

Starlight felt her blood run cold, but she braced herself, preparing to charge her horn and detonate her collar. She paused for a moment, wondering what it would feel like. There would probably be a slight delay, and then a burst of light and sound- -and then nothing.

She looked at Bob, and then at Marc Antony, and saw just how terrified he was. For a moment, she saw a different face over his: that of a krogan, one that she never knew the name of, looking down at the slash across his body, confused as his torso started to slide away from his legs.

Then Starlight realized that she just could not bear to do it. She lowered her horn. “I…I can’t. I can’t do it.” She sighed. “I never wanted to hurt anyone. I just wanted a normal life, to be happy, the same as everyone else. Is that too much to ask?”

“In this galaxy, yes.” Bob took a deep breath. “Now, if you will excuse me, I have to change the lower part of my suit.” She walked out the door. “Hey, do we still have any of that turian left in the fridge?”

Marc Antony did not watch her go, and then turned to Starlight. He approached her and squatted, putting his hand on her head. Starlight pulled away in defiance.

“Look, I know it’s going to be hard,” he said. “I really wish your homecoming could be happy. I don’t understand what’s going on, but I know that you don’t want to go. But you have to.”

“Not if you make a choice, right here and now.”

Marc Antony sighed, and then shook his head. He walked to the door and motioned for Starlight to follow. “Come on,” he said. “There’s not much I can do for you, but at least I can get you cleaned up. If you’re going to have to do this, you can at least face it looking good.”

Starlight looked up at him angrily, and then away. He waited patiently, and after several long seconds, Starlight followed him, trying to conceal the tears that were running down her face and falling silently onto the dusty floor below.

Author's Notes:

You may be wondering who these sudden OCs are. No, they are not from Mass Effect. They are actually from one of my non-pony stories (that no human being has ever read). It's like a mini-crossover. They were originally conceived as a space adventure crew consisting of Bob, a sexually violent, drug-using, disease-ridden space cannibal; Marc Antony, her android employee, and Bjorn, her business partner. I thought I would resurrect them here. I think they make better Cerberus agents than the generic ones in Mass Effect, and I was kind of trying to give the impression that Cerberus is getting desperate and hiring real weirdos with slight genetic advantages.