Breakfast time had rolled around again, and Roseluck yawned as she meandered slowly through the halls of the RENS Rainbow Dash. Having grown up in a nebula colony, she was used to the sometimes bizarre mechanics of sleeping in space, but it still made her feel strange. Somewhere, deep in her pony DNA, her body remembered Equestira Prime and Celestia’s golden sphere rising and setting on endless horizons each day.

The ship’s galley was adjacent to its dining room, a low-ceilinged, somewhat greasy room that smelled like decades of smelly cooking from back when the Rainbow Dash had been a freighter. Still, it was in its own way charming, even if the menu was somewhat monotonous.

She stepped through the gap that led into the room, and looked at the central table that filled most of the tiny space. Roseluck blinked, seeing that just about everypony was there- -including the captain.

“Oi, Captain?” she said, walking in. “You know you have your own dining room, right?”

“Yeah,” said Scootaloo, poking a rubbery rehydrated muffin with her hoof. “It smells like old cider and isn’t even big enough to fit me. I’d rather have my own bathroom.”

“I hear that,” said Roseluck, sitting down. “So, so many towel slaps…”

“It was just that ONE time!” protested Carrot Top, her mouth full of yellows that had formerly been some kind of greens. She grimaced. “Eew…this turian stuff tastes really bad. It also makes me really, really sick…and yet I’m still eating it…”

“Yeah,” said Roseluck, sticking her tongue out. She turned to the small window to the narrow galley. “So, chef?” she said. “What’s the special?”

There was a sound of crashing and things breaking, and then a pair of golden eyes looked over the edge of the counter. They went back down, and then the door opened as Muffins hauled an immense pot out of the kitchen, dragging it along the floor.

“Is that…soup?” said Roseluck, her eyes widening and her mouth instantly salivating.

“Yup,” said Muffins. She brought the pot over and ladled a heaping portion into Roseluck’s bowl.

“Wow, Muffins, I thought everything you made had- -”

“Fresh muffin soup!”

Roseluck looked down at the lumpy material in her bowl and saw the tiny muffins floating in the liquid. She immediately felt less hungry. “Oh,” she said. “Thank…you.”

“You could always have what I’m having,” said Carrot Top, pointing to her salad. “It’s…mostly edible.”

Almost as soon as she said it, a small root jumped over the edge of her bowl and began to scamper awkwardly across the table. Every pony stared at it as it made its escape, a bifurcated carrot pulling itself away from its imminent doom.

“That’s normal,” said Carrot. “They do that. I think it’s how they find a place to lay their eggs- -I mean seeds. Hold on.” She lifted her left hoof, and the alien omnitool sprung forth around it. A narrow beam of orange light shot across the table, striking the fleeing alien carrot and causing it to burst into flames. “Oops,” said Carrot. “I was trying for the fork.”

Fluttershy looked up from her muffin soup, and, spying the now struggling vegetable, rapidly scooped it up, crunching it between her unusually sharp teeth, greedily destroying it as it struggled to escape. The other ponies watched, disgusted, and Fluttershy seemed to notice. She smiled, the tuber’s violet, blood-like sap dripping down her chin. “I like it better when they struggle,” she explained. “But it’s just a plant. So this is okay.”

“Don’t Tartarans usually eat meat?” asked Roseluck. “Like, only meat?”

“Not from animals, no. That would just be wrong.”

“You know, you kind of weird me out,” said Carrot, another one of the ambulatory roots skewered on her omnitool fork. “I’ve always wondered, though. You’re, like, some big shot in Equestria. Famous naturalist, model, friends with the Fleet Commander and the Fourth Goddess. What did you do to get sent out here?”

“Well,” Fluttershy blushed. “I um….well…”

“What?” asked Roseluck.

“I don’t know if it’s appropriate to say with her here.”

They all looked to Scootaloo, and Scootaloo sighed. “I’m been briefed on your situation, Fluttershy. I know what you did…even if it is gross. You can tell them.”

“Oh. Okay.” Fluttershy sighed. “It’s kind of embarrassing but I…kind of…may have…bedded a member of the Apple clan.”

The entire group cried out in in surprise.

“You didn’t!” cried Roseluck. “One of the premier families in the Agriculture Ministry? As in, THE Apple clan?”

“The one that makes the apples for my apple muffins?”

“Those are apples?” said Scootaloo, lifting the top of her muffin and staring into it. “I thought they were nuts.”

“Please tell me it wasn’t the core family,” said Carrot. Fluttershy just nodded. Carrot’s eyes widened. “It wasn’t Applebloom, was it?”

“No,” snapped Scootaloo. “Applebloom isn’t into that kind of thing.”

“Wait,” said Carrot. “You know APPLEBLOOM too? How well connected are you, Captain?”

“It wasn’t Applebloom,” said Applejack. “And I’m not going to name any names. But I can tell you, I don’t have any regrets.”

“You know, if someone like me had done that, Clanlord Applejack herself would have shoved me into the sun,” said Carrot.

“It doesn’t matter much to me,” said Fluttershy, shrugging. “I really like this job. I mean, I DID get to meat real, live aliens!”

“Yeah,” said Roseluck. “I’d say this mission is pretty sweet.” She looked around, and then leaned in, whispering. “I just wish the food were a little less…muffiny. I’d eat Bengie’s kibble at this point…”

“You had better not,” growled Bengie, walking into the dining room. “Touch my food and I’ll tear off your…oh. Wait. You’re an earth pony. You have no secondary pony appenages that I can remove.”

“Har har,” said Roseluck.

Bengie looked around the room, something that was not terribly easy for her. Even as a biped diamond dog, she was barely much taller than a pony. “Hey, chief,” she said. “Is it a good idea to have all the ponies in one room right now? I mean, we’re supposed to be following that ship, aren’t we?”

“We are,” said Scootaloo. “They haven’t moved in days, though. Just sitting there. Are you sure these aren’t nuts?”

“So, what? We’re just holding position?”

“For now, yes.”

“And they can’t see us? I mean, I saw the scans of their ship. The thing is covered in windows. Like, a ridiculous number of windows.”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Roseluck. “Our ship is forty seven meters on its longest dimension, and we’re sitting at a distance one hundred kilometers. They could look out the windows all day and never see anything more than a speck.”

“Weird,” said Bengie. She picked up a bowl and walked over to the kibble dispenser.

“Muffin?” said Muffins, holding up a plate with a fresh muffin on it.

Bengie stared at it, and then at Muffins. “The last time you tried to feed me one of those things, it had chocolate chips in it.”

“But chocolate chips are so good!”

“Not for a dog! I almost died!”

“Oh. Oops.”

“Yeah, ‘oops’. Kill the diamond dog, it’s an ‘oops’. See you far you get without someone to keep this wreck moving. And pulling YOUR head out of the auxiliary plasma manifold!”

“It just smells so good!”

“You’ve got that right, at least.” Bengie put her bowl under the kibble dispenser and turned the handle. The tiny, reflective bits fell into her bowl. Instead of sitting, she leaned against the back wall and began to pluck the pieces out, crunching them one at a time.”

“It isn’t very marelike to use your hands,” said Roseluck, sarcastically. The sarcasm, of course, was lost on Bengie.

“I’m not a mare,” she snapped.

“Not this gain,” said Scootaloo, dropping her forehead against the table.

“And I’ll go over it again until you get it through your pony heads! I’m not a ‘mare’. I am a female diamond dog. Which means I’m- -”

“A bitch,” said Fluttershy.

“Yes! See! She gets it!”

“You certainly are,” said Carrot, suppressing laughter.

“I am,” said Bengie, not aware of the joke. “And if you keep calling you a mare, I will keelhaul all of you!”

“Nopony’s getting keelhauled,” sighed Scootaloo.

“I got keelhauled last week,” said Muffins.

“That was an accident! Nopony’s doing it on purpose! I’m the captain, I’m the only one who gets to keelhaul ponies!”

“Finally growing a pair, Captain?” said Bengie.

“A pair of WHAT?!”

The ponies all looked at each other awkwardly.

“Well,” said Fluttershy. “When a girl pony loves a boy pony a whole lot…”

“Please no,” said Scootaloo. She covered her face. “Please don’t explain this to me again…”

The other ponies fell silent for a moment, though, and Scootaloo thought they were finally starting to treat her like an adult instead of a child. She pulled back her hoofs, though, and realized that they were instead focused on the gap that lead to the dining room. Scootaloo turned her head, and saw a blue face looking into the room.

“Oh. I didn’t know anypony would be in here,” said Trixie. “I’ll come back later.”

“No, wait,” said Scootaloo. “You can come eat with us. It’s okay.”

“Really?” said Trixie.

“Yeah, sure.”

Trixie smiled somewhat nervously and entered the silent room, taking a seat next to Fluttershy.

“This is weird,” said Bengie. “I’ve eaten in the engine room, but never had a meal with the actual engine.”

“Yeah,” said Trixie, pulling down her hat to cover the ports in her forehead. “I’ve never had a meal with ponies either…” she cleared her throat. “What I mean is, the Great and Powerful Trixie has been so busy that she has not been able to share her company with the crew of her ship!”

“‘Your’ ship?” said Roseluck.

“Well, I’ve certainly spent more time on it than you have,” said Trixie, darkly. She looked around the room . “Hey, where’s Lyra?”

“Down in the hanger with that…thing,” said Carrot. “You know, doing the whole dark and brooding thing. You know…”

“What?”

“It’s actually kind of weird. I’ve never seen her eat before.”

“I’ve almost never seen her,” said Roseluck. “We’ve been on this ship for, what, six months? Seven? I’ve only seen her once or twice.”

“It must be hard for you two, being the only two unicorns on the ship,” said Fluttershy.

Scootaloo cringed hard at the statement. Even she knew that Cores were not real unicorns; equating the two was a huge insult. Even Trixie, though not the one insulted, seemed to recognize that fact as well.

“We’re probably better off,” said Scootaloo, trying to change the subject. “Lyra’s a bit…abrasive.”

“Yeah,” said Roseluck. “One of those career military types. I don’t even know what branch she’s from. But, you know her kind. Finish one mission, start the next one, over and over again.”

“Not like you,” said Carrot.

“Nope,” said Roseluck. “Just one mission for me. You already know what I’m going to do. Back to the Rose nebula. Get a house, a florist shop. Find myself a sexy stallion and pump out his adorable foals until the day my estrus stops. This whole space thing is fun, but not THAT fun.”

“Never took you for the housemare type,” said Carrot. “Me, I’m trying for a job in one of the agrotowers around Risa.”

“Wait, what?” said Roseluck, confused. “You’re a navy contractor already. Wouldn’t that be a huge cut?”

“A cut in what, pay? I don’t care about that. But, come on. Agro Research Center Six in the same system- -”

“And endless parties on the planet?” suggested Fluttershy.

“You know it. What about you, Flutterbutter?”

“Call me that again, and I will murder you,” said Fluttershy, smiling cheerfully. “I’m fine with this. Of course, my lifespan is much, much, MUCH longer than all yours. So I’ve got time.”

“Not me,” said Bengie. “This job, frankly, sucks hard. I mean, I graduated top of my class from SocketTurner Polytechnic! I should be leading a whole team on a Ship of the Line!”

“I just want to get back to my daughters,” said Muffins.

“Wait,” said Carrot. “You have daughters?”

Muffins smiled and nodded. “Yes. One of them is about your age.”

“How- -how old are you?!”

“Well, if you average her and the Captain’s age together…”

“Shut it,” said Scootaloo.

“We all know what SHE wants,” said Roseluck. “Captain at age twelve? How about Admiral by the time you can legally drink cider? At that rate, you’ll take the Fleet by the time Rainbow retires- -or before. Probably why she put you out here.”

“Buck you!”

The others laughed.

“You know what I want to do?” said Trixie, causing their laughter to fade quickly. She looked down at her muffin soup and smiled. “I’ve always had a dream since I was a little filly…”

The room fell into awkward silence, but Scootaloo could not help herself. “What?” she asked.

“I…I always wanted to be a showpony,” said Trixie. “I know, it sounds ridiculous. But…I used to dress up and pretend I was a magician. You know, standing on a stage. Spotlights, cheering, an audience clapping and roaring as I did amazing feats of magic.” She sighed and rubbed her hoof across the ports on her head that were barely concealed under her hat and where her hair had been cut mostly away to make her more readily compatible with the ship’s systems. “I would be so pretty…”

“You still can,” said Scootaloo.

Trixie’s eyes narrowed. “No,” she said, angrily. “No I can’t.” Her expression softened, and she looked away, forcing a smile. “No…the Great and Powerful Trixie is too important for the operations of this ship, even if she has been given…not terribly much to work with. The most powerful Core in all of Equestria will remain at her post for her remaining duration…until…they decommission me.”

The room fell into a long, awkward silence. Not one of them could look at Trixie, and she clutched her cape around her so tightly that the shape of her spinal implants began to show through it.

“This was a bad idea,” she said, standing up. “Thank you for the soup but…I have to go.”

Before anypony could stop her, Trixie rushed out of the room. Scootaloo briefly caught a glimpse of her eyes, seeing that she was crying.

The remaining ponies looked at each other.

“You really shouldn’t let her out of the core,” said Roseluck, at last. “I mean…Captain, I know that you’re trying to be nice, but it’s weird.”

“How is it ‘weird’ to let a member of my crew walk around the ship like the rest of us?”

“But she isn’t a part of your crew,” said Bengie. “She’s a piece of equipment. Core’s aren’t even real ponies!”

“But she seemed so sad…”

“Of course she seemed sad,” said Muffins. “We just sat here, talking about our futures like that. What kind of ponies are we?”

Scootaloo knew what she meant. She knew what happened to Cores. The drain of powering an entire ship every second of their lives took its toll on their bodies. Trixie was still comparatively young, but it was unlikely she would live to see thirty. She would either flatline in the tank, or lose power to the point where she was no longer worth keeping and had to be replaced.

“Do you ever think that maybe it’s wrong?” asked Scootaloo.

“Right and wrong doesn’t matter,” said Bengie. “Cores are what make space travel possible. You take them away, we have nothing.”

“Then we shouldn’t have space travel.”

“Yeah. Sure. Tell that to Lyra. Ask her about what the Crystal Empire did to her. Then call up your sister and tell her to mothball the fleet so that the engines can live normal lives because clearly we don’t need a defense system anymore.”

“You don’t need to be so harsh about it,” said Fluttershy.

“Yes I do. Come on. You know you’re all thinking it. You’re personifying the ship, Captain.”

“She’s…” started Roseluck. “Arrg…I don’t even know. She looks like a pony. She sounds like a pony, but…she’s a Core. I even consider her a friend but...she can’t…I don’t even know. It makes me so uncomfortable.”

“It’s my decision to make,” snapped Scootaloo. She pushed away her half eaten muffin. “If none of you can pony up and deal with her or my orders, then what are you even doing on my ship?!”

Scootaloo stormed off- -or stormed as well as a tiny filly even could. She left the room and rushed down the hall toward the engine room until she turned a corner and saw Trixie slowly walking back to her home.

“Trixie!” called Scootaloo.

“Captain,” said Trixie. “I’m on my way back right now. You can commence scanning once I get myself back in.”

“Wait a second,” said Scootaloo, somewhat out of breath. “Can I walk with you?”

“Um…sure. It’s your ship.”

They fell into step with each other. Scootaloo hardly even needed to rush to keep up with her; although Trixie was taller, having spent most of her life in a glass tube had left her muscles atrophied and slow.

“That other ship,” said Trixie, at last. “It has a Core on it, doesn’t it?”

“You can tell?”

“I can feel her,” said Trixie. “Even now. I don’t really know how to explain it. I think Cores can just sense other Cores, or something.”

“Yes,” said Scootaloo. “There is another Core over there.”

“And you’re trying to take her back.”

“Yes. That is our goal right now. To bring her back to Equestria.”

“I see,” said Trixie. “Another one, like me, and you want to take her back.”

“It’s not like that,” said Scootaloo, realizing that the conversation was backing her into a metaphorical corner. “She’s really important to Equestria. She belongs with us.”

“Like I’m important, you mean? The ship won’t run without me, after all, will it?”

“No, it won’t.”

Trixie sighed. “Look, Captain. You have no idea how grateful I am. And I’m not usually the type to show gratitude. I really am. Nopony has ever given me the chance to see the world like this. But you also have no idea what it’s like in there. How you stop being yourself, how much it hurts.”

“Cores aren’t supposed to feel pain.”

“Only because nopony ever asked one if they did or not. Trust me. It does. But I get that it’s what I’m for. It’s the only reason I exist.” She paused. “Scootaloo. Can I call you that?”

“Yes. Of course.”

“You might be the only pony who has ever tried to be my friend. So I’m going to be honest with you. Leave her. Just let her go. Don’t take her back to this.”

“Trixie…you know I can’t do that.”

“I know. I just thought I would at least try to ask.” She smiled. “Now, if you will excuse her, the Great and Powerful Trixie needs to go back to work.”

She left Scootaloo behind, walking back to the engine room alone. Scootaloo sighed, but she could not bring herself to do anything but watch her go.