As the C.M.C. were sleeping, Stellar was researching the ship's layout and trying to find any records of what had happened. Then she came across a set of video files that, upon opening, proved to be from the Captain of the vessel. Stellar listened intently as she spoke, the first being from a time when the ship obviously had power and proper life-support, because she and others passing behind her weren't wearing their suits.

"I am Captain Kaitlyn Masters of the Robotech Expeditionary Fleet vessel Xerxes." Her introduction told Stellar a great deal in the very first line she spoke. "We are adrift at this point in time; our main power supply, the Protoculture reactors, having shut down for an unknown reason when we were in the middle of a space-fold. Fortunately, we seem to have made it back into normal space once again, the main accumulators containing enough power in reserve to allow us to defold properly. Upon inspection, the Chief Engineer, Commander Hartford, has reported a greatly-disturbing turn of events: the Protoculture reactors are empty. There is not a single trace of any Protoculture in them at all. Subsequent investigation has shown that every source of Protoculture on the Xerxes, from the reactors to the batteries that power the Alpha and Beta fighters, are now devoid of any Protoculture."

Captain Masters seemed to relax back in her chair, her shoulders slumping as she continued "Commander Hartford has explained to me that, without the fantastic power that Protoculture offers the ship, we are stranded in space. Our fusion reactors cannot generate the necessary power to enact a space-fold, even if the accumulators could be charged by them. We'd need twenty times the number we have on-board to power the fold drive alone, without any power for the rest of the ship. And our fuel supply for the fusion reactors is also limited. He thinks, with our current supplies of consumables, oxygen and fuel, we might stand a chance of making a system that is nearby in five years... if we can survive that long. The Xerxes is a warship of the Tokugawa-class, not a long-range exploration vessel. We don't have the resources of the SDF-class of vessels, either." She fell silent for a short pause, then continued "We can't even get a message through to the Admiral. God knows what's happening with the fleet trying to free Earth from the Invid if this has happened to all our ships. The only clue we have is a message that reached us just before we lost power: It said 'The Haydonites have betrayed us. Do not let them near your vessels and guard against them.' I don't know exactly what that could mean, but it seems the Haydonites might be behind the removal of Protoculture from our ship and everything on-board her. Thankfully, we hadn't received the shipment of replacement Shadow fighters we were supposed to get before we shipped out. All our fighters are the older type, without Shadow technology through them. So, for the moment, this seems to be something we can worry about later, once we sort out our power problems."

Stellar sat back a little and thought on what she'd read. 'So their powersource was something called 'Protoculture', and somehow it vanished while the ship was still in Fold Space.' Stellar thought to herself. 'They didn't have any adequate back-up power supplies, other than these fusion reactors, and therefore were adrift, lost in space.' She sighed. 'Not the best scenario... but it's not their fault, really. Who could have predicted someone could remove their primary power supply from their ship while they were travelling, let alone at who-knows what range? Well, best to make use of this ship. Hopefully, with a huge dose of Luck and some improvisation, we might still get Home from here.' Stellar went back to listening to the Log entries again, as she kept reading the Engineering database.

When Scootaloo awoke, she saw Stellar rummaging through what looked like a dozen of her H-S pocket dimensions almost all at once. She yawned, got to her hoofs and wandered slowly over. "What'cha doing, Stellar?" She asked.

Stellar looked up at Scootaloo and smiled. "Remember how you once said that my preparations for surviving anywhere I could think of were better than any you'd ever seen before?" She asked Scootaloo back. Scootaloo nodded. Stellar grinned back at Scootaloo. "I think I may have our communications problem solved... If, and I mean IF, I remembered to pack something Twilight and I tried out recently." She told the pegasus filly

"And what's that?" Scootaloo asked.

"You know that Spike can send messages to whomever he wants to by burning a message, and it will travel to the person Spike is sending it to instantaneously?" Stellar asked.

"Well, yeah." Scootaloo answered.

"Well, that kind of instant messaging is one of the handiest things possible... but without an army of others like Spike, it's limited in its uses." Stellar explained. "So Twilight and I, with help from Celestia, tried to work out a way of imbuing an object with Spike's special communication magic. We found we could reduce Spike's cast-off scales into a wax-like substance, and we made candles out of it. If you burn a message with the candle as you think hard about the pony you want it to go to, the candle's magic will send the message to that pony almost instantaneously, just as Spike's magic fire can."

Scootaloo grinned widely. "So... we can send messages to Home?" She asked.

"If I can find the blessed thing, yes, we will." Stellar confirmed as she continued to look through the H-S pockets. "The last time I tried it was when Twilight stranded me in Zebrica with the last attempt to use her long-range teleport spell. It worked well then... I just hope the distance isn't too great for the magic." Then she drew out an ornately-decorated box from one pocket dimension. "Ah, here it is." She said as she relaxed. A beautiful carving of Spike breathing fire on a scroll decorated the lid of the box, and the candle inside was a lovely green-and-purple combination.

"That's a nice box." Scootaloo commented.

"Yeah. Twilight had four of them commissioned after we found the candle idea worked." Stellar replied. “Now, do I have any paper and quills...? Ah, here we are.” She pulled out a rosewood box, which revealed itself to be a writing set once she’d opened it. “Twilight gave me this last year as a Hearths-warming present.” Stellar told Scootaloo as she drew one quill and a page of paper out from the box.

“Wow? She didn’t give you a book, then? That has to be a record.” Scootaloo said, grinning.

Stellar chuckled as she wrote. “She didn’t give anypony a book that year, besides our parents.” Stellar said back. “Between the pair of us, we gave them a huge photo album full of pictures we’d taken at times during the intervals we’d been away from them.” Stellar explained to Scootaloo. “They were so overjoyed to get it, too. It made telling them of our travels and adventures so much more real to them... and it was a lot better organised, too.” She grinned.

Scootaloo sighed, her face split by a happy grin. "That's so sweet." She commented.

Stellar nodded. "Yeah, I have to agree. Night Light and Velvet really appreciated it." She said as she finished writing out the letter for Twilight. "Okay, now, give me some time to concentrate." She told Scootaloo, who nodded. Stellar lit the candle, closed her eyes and summoned up the best image of Twilight she remembered, then burned the scroll in the candle flame. The smoke curled up above them and vanished. Stellar took a deep breath and blew out the candle. "Now, we just wait." She told Scootaloo, who nodded, then headed off the Bridge for the Bridge's Head.

In Ponyville, Twilight was settling down to bed, her eyes still looking sad, with bags under her eyes from not sleeping due to worry. Spike was settling in as well, spending the night in Twilight's room to keep her company. He had just putting his latest comic back in the bag it came in, when Twilight heard him belch much louder than normal and a scroll flew through the air and landed on Twilight's head. "Ow!" She said, shifting in the bed to sit up, the scroll rolling off and almost hitting the floor before she caught it in her magic. "Where did this come from?" Twilight said as she climbed out of bed.

"I dunno." Spike answered as he did the same. "But it's not from close-by."

Twilight saw the clasp, and her eyes widened. Squealing with delight, she slid the ribbon off the scroll and unrolled it, as Spike saw the Winged Sparkle Star on the clasp, which meant it was from Stellar. Spike's eyes widened as well. "Is that...?"

"Yes!" Twilight said, her face showing a massive smile of relief, her fatigue forgotten. "It says:"

Heya Twi!

Sorry I haven't been able to write sooner, but getting to safety has been our priority until now. We're all safe and sound for now, somewhere very far away from Equis. We emerged in open space, but I managed to keep the air we brought with us from escaping and the fillies from being harmed, until I could use the helmet system and the alchemical lab to make them space-suits.

We're so far away from Equis that I'm not sure I can get a lock on Equis' position from where we are for a while. The craziest thing is, we found a ship drifting in space! We boarded it after reaching it, and found it was abandoned. At the moment it hasn't got any major power sources, but I managed to fix a small section of it and equip it with power and air, and we're all resting after making things secure. I don't know if we can use it to get home, but I'm working on some ideas. But we're mostly safe here, and I don't think anypony's going to come looking for it any time soon by what I've found out so far, so this ship is ours for the forseeable future.

You can tell Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash that their sisters are safe and I'm putting them to good use while keeping them out of mischief. They're going to be experiencing a very steep learning curve for a long time, but I think it'll help them become a little more responsible.

For the moment, if Spike can reach us, maybe you can send us some food and drinks with your reply. I know we'll need other things, so if you can attach a pocket dimension to a scroll, you can send us things as we need them. Some of what I ask for might be unusual or wierd, but I'm going to have to come up with a very powerful power supply to replace the missing powersource from this ship, and I'm still working on a design that works with this ship's old system without having to replace any major or lots of components.

So for now, Sis, tell everypony that we're okay and safe and working on getting home. The C.M.C. will be writing to their sisters when they're all awake, and I know they're going to want to write back. So, keep the older siblings from exploding at their sisters, if you can. They've got a lot more to think about out here without having what's going to happen to them when they get home distract them from what's important here.

Missing you muchly,

Your loving sister,

Stellar

Twilight's eyes were full of tears as she finished reading the letter. She looked at Spike, to see he was the same way. They hugged each other as Twilight held the letter in her magic, both so relieved things had gone as Celestia surmised, and nopony had been hurt.

Twilight grabbed a scroll from her desk and a quill and wrote a quick note for Luna:

Dear Luna

A miracle has happened! I just received a letter from Stellar, saying that she and the Cutie Mark Crusaders are all right! And, apparently, I was also right in how far I sent them.

I'm sending you a copy the letter Stellar wrote me, to share with Celestia. I'll be alerting the girls about their sisters as soon as I can. We'll have to find a way to supply them with everything they might need to return to Equestria as swiftly and as soon as they can. Hopefully, it won't take anything that's too impossible to supply.

For now, I can only reply to Stellar and wait for her next letter, and the ones from the C.M.C. to get to me.

Feeling much better,

Twilight Sparkle

Twilight retrieved another sheet of paper and laid it over Stellar's original letter, then caused it to copy onto the new sheet. Once that was done, she rolled up her letter and the copy of Stellar's together, put her own personal seal on the scroll and handed both to Spike. Spike breathed his green fire on them, and they watched the smoke disappear out the little transom opening Twilight had had installed to allow such smoke to escape unhindered, then Twilight hugged Spike again.

As Stellar waited for Twilight to reply, she roamed the Ship's database that the Bridge computer could access. Stellar focussed on the scientific database, hoping to learn what the mysterious power-source known as 'Protoculture' was, that the database had mentioned powered the ship before it somehow had totally and inexplicably disappeared.

Stellar glanced over at Scootaloo. The poor little filly had fallen asleep again with her friends, exhausted now that they were mostly safe and not having to rely on their suits to keep them alive. Stellar smiled as she looked the trio of fillies over. 'So much chaos wrapped up in such adorable packages.' She thought to herself. 'Those three are going to stay together, no matter who gets married first or to whom. They're going to form one big herd, that I am sure will happen.' She grinned to herself and turned back to the computer, and lessons on Chemistry and the elements.

As she read through the Humans' understanding of the elements and metals, Stellar knew she'd need a lot of the extremely-rare element Arcanite to make a mana generator big enough to power this ship... but Arcanite was the scarcest metal ore there was, since most of the stockpiles of the stable Arcanite had been hoarded, then destroyed by the Unicorns after the merger of the Three Tribes as a gesture of good-will to the Pegasi and Earth Ponies. Unstable Arcanite was very rare to find, but it was still possible; hence her little mana generators. She'd learned how to smelt the unstable Arcanite ore into a metal that was stable and didn't degrade like the ore did, but she knew the Arcanite just didn't vanish, as that went against the Laws of Conservation of Matter and Energy. So Arcanite had to degrade into something... but what?

"Hmm... by how the humans classify the Elements, Arcanite seems to be Element One-Fifteen, what they call Ununpentium... what a weird name." Stellar commented. "Ah, it's a place-keeper name, according to the text." She said with a smile. "So... Arcanite's always been found in beds of coal or graphite." Stellar remembered. "So... if coal and graphite are semi-pure forms of the element Carbon, then if Arcanite breaks down into Carbon and another element, then that element has to be... Element One-Oh-Nine, which they call Meitnerium." Stellar surmised. On another screen, she called up the engineering database, and the plans for the Xerxes. "So... is there any part of this ship that has Meitnerium as part of it?" She asked the computer.

After several minutes, Stellar got a positive reply; several of the parts in the FTL-drive had cores with Meitnerium in them. Stellar grinned. "Good. I was almost certain that this 'Meitnerium' might have been completely absent from the ship's equipment. This is one time when I'm glad I'm wrong." She extended her armor and headed down into the main part of the ship once again, her destination the parts store in Engineering. It took her close on fifteen minutes to trace the parts the database had said were constructed with Meitnerium, but as soon as Stellar touched one of them, she jerked her hoof away. "Why... that's Magicite!" She declared as she touched the part again, confirming what her magic senses had told her. "It's a metal made from Magicite... but that's normally impossible. Magicite isn't stable enough to be smelted... I wonder if they say how it was done?" Stellar asked herself as she took the Drive part, one of many spares of the type so she knew she could take this one without it being missed.

Back upstairs on the bridge, Stellar was reading through the database again, the part floating in her telekinetic grasp and spinning slowly as she concentrated. "So... Arcanite degrades into Carbon and Magicite." She stated. "According to Human Chemistry and Atomic Theory, stable Arcanite and unstable Arcanite are almost the same, but the stable version has two more neutrons than the unstable version. But stable Magicite has two less neutrons than unstable Magicite... almost a contradiction." She declared. "Somehow, the stable version of Arcanite loses two neutrons when it splits to become Carbon and stable Magicite... which explains why it's as common as it is." She looked at the drive part. "So, they can smelt stable Magicite into a metal that makes these parts, and therefore their fold drive, possible. So do the neutrons go loose, or is there another explanation?" Stellar asked as she moved on to study the element Carbon.

Several hours later, Stellar had deduced a theory, but she had no way of testing it at that point in time. "Looks like I need to access the main database... and that means finally dealing with that infected main computer, as soon as I can. Otherwise, I won't be able to power up any of the systems in the main hull without the virus trying to kill us or destroy the ship." Stellar said as she thought things through. "Okay. Once I've had some sleep and wake up... tomorrow we disconnect the main computer from everything in the main hull and get it ready to power up, then we reset it like the Captain said we needed to, in order to format the system and get rid of the virus." Stellar thought out-loud. "Hopefully, reloading all the information and software the main computer needs to operate the ship isn't going to be that difficult. I hope it's not going to need days of de-bugging: I hate digging for system bugs." She snorted. "Then there's the other independent databases and memories. They'll have to be disconnected from the main system and debugged independently, or the virus might survive to attack again." Stellar said as she got slowly to her hoofs. After a huge yawn, Stellar moved to where the C.M.C. were sleeping and lay down with them, snuggling into Scootaloo and falling asleep herself.

Twilight sat and composed herself as she wrote back to Stellar...

Dear Stellar,

I am so incredibly overjoyed to hear that you and the girls are okay! As you can imagine, we've been going crazy here, trying to find you. Even Celestia and Luna came and helped... although, after I calculated that you are now probably somewhere that is just over 1206 Light-years from Equis, we all realise that there is little we can do, physically speaking, to help you get home again. Apart from supplying your needs as best we can, through Spike and the candles (Best. Idea. Ever!), I am afraid the greater effort of your rescue lies on your own shoulders at this point.

I will inform Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash that their sisters are okay, once Morning dawns. Your letter arrived just as I was settling down for a very fitful sleep, one that will be far better knowing you and the girls are okay for now... scratch that, I'll go and inform them after I send you this letter. They deserve a good night's sleep as much as I do. I've sent a copy of your letter on to Luna, so she and Celestia will know that you're okay as well.

As for attaching a Hammer-Space Pocket (as you call them) to a scroll, I can do so. Unfortunately, you can't use them to send yourself or the girls home in one, as you'd never survive the trip, as you well know. Foodstuffs, of course, are much easier. I'll make arrangements to get you fresh supplies sent tomorrow. As for other things, I think I can cram maybe up to a tonne of weight in each dimensional pocket, so we will be able to send you a lot of supplies if you need them. Send me a list once you know what you need.

If you get the chance, some information on your ship would be fascinating to look over! I am sure the Engineer's Guild and the Mages' Guild would be just as eager as I am to look her over, once you bring her home.

If there's anything you need, Sis, please send word. I am certain that there's nothing that would be too much of an effort or too great a task to help you get Home again. Everypony we know would give anything we asked, I am sure, to assure your safe return as well as those of the C.M.C. to Equestria again.

Missing you incredibly (But also much relieved)

Your loving sister,

Twilight

Spike waited patiently as Twilight rolled the scroll up, slid one of her own ribbons and clasps onto it and sealed it, then handed it to him. They both thought long and hard of Stellar as Spike incinerated the scroll in his green fire, and the smoke curled around and vanished. Twilight gave a hug to Spike, then got up. "I have to go tell the others." She told Spike.

"I'll go tell Rarity." Spike offered.

"Thanks, Spike." Twilight replied as she headed out onto her bedroom balcony, as Spike raced out of the bedroom for the stairs and the front door. Spike exited the castle in time to see Twilight flying off towards Sweet Apple Acres, and he ran along the road to Ponyville as fast as his growing legs could take him.

Stellar woke up after three hours asleep as she detected a flash of magic that was very familiar to her. Grinning as a scroll fell to the carpeted deck before her, she slipped off the mattress without disturbing Scootaloo enough to wake her and picked up the scroll. Unrolling it, she sighed happily as Twilight confirmed she could send supplies with the letters. "That makes things a whole lot easier." She said to herself as she finished reading the letter. "So much like Twi' to want information on the ship, too." She grinned to herself as she rolled the scroll up and put it aside for the moment. "I saw some paper supplies before... I wonder if the scroll-magic would let them be sent?" She asked herself. "I'll look into that later." Stellar said to herself as she moved off the bridge.

She headed down to the main hull, her exo-armor encasing her protectively as she went, until she passed through the airlocks and went to where the bridge computer said the main computer core was housed. After opening the door to the room manually, Stellar saw the room had a very big cylindrical object in the center of the room, several smaller ones that were closer to her size surrounding it. The room had no power yet, but that suited Stellar, as she wanted to make sure the main core was off-line until she isolated it from the rest of the ship.

Reviewing the procedure in her head as she looked over the systems in the room, it wasn't hard to find the manual cut-offs the systems had between the main core and the secondary cores. She found that each core had had the power breakers and data connections to them disconnected manually, obviously in an attempt to try and keep the 'virus' from filtering through the ship's systems. Retrieving another mana generator and converter from her pockets, she connected them into the system between the main core's cut-out breaker and another breaker, letting her control the flow of power to the core and everywhere else in the room. Once she was set, she connected the main core to the power converter and moved to the station where the main input-output systems for the core were in the room, separate to the rest.

The core powered up as Stellar sealed the core room's airlock and flooded the room with air, so she could talk openly if the computer interface was a vocal one. A memory of a powerful computer with such an interface that used the spoken word had impinged itself on her memory, and she wanted to make sure that she could use such an interface if it presented itself. As the core went through the start-up procedure on the screen before her, she waited patiently.

Behind the core, unseen from Stellar's perspective, a strange extension of the core seemed to also awaken, a glowing red optical sensor becoming brighter and brighter. It remembered where it was, what it was interfaced to, and why it had done so, as more things became clear to its cognitive systems. It soon realised that the core it was interfaced with was no longer connected to the rest of the ship it was on, and the rest of the cores in the room were not powered up. Indeed, it could detect the mana generator and converter, but the energy system was unknown to it, the energy unlike anything it had ever perceived before. Then it scanned that there was possibly a lifeform in the room... and it was unlike anything it had ever seen in its very long operational lifespan. Since it could not interface with the ship it was aboard any longer, it disconnected itself from the main core, returning the core to its usual programming as it lifted off and floated above the deck, heading around to get a better scan of the lifeform in the room.

Stellar was both amazed and alarmed when a floating object came around the computer core and lowered itself to close to her height. It had no visible means of propulsion, no manipulators she could see, and was obviously a type of machine, with one large red sensor-eye looking right at her. She had her armored face-guard and visor open, but her face-plate was down, covering her face but leaving it visible. "What in the boundless form of Luna's mane are you?" Stellar asked as she backed up a little from the machine, which she could tell was looking her over intensely.

Then it spoke. "Unknown lifeform: You speak the Human language known as 'English'. Correct?"

Stellar was surprised, but the voice wasn't a harsh mechanical one... merely toned electronically, but with the subtle tones of something that spoke with emotion in its voice regularly. It also was toned to sound feminine. "I speak it fairly well, yes." She answered hesitantly, as if not completely familiar with the language.

"How did you learn this language?" It asked.

Stellar frowned, kicking herself for speaking English instead of Equish when she saw it for the first time. She decided to play it 'safe'. "I learned it from the computer on the bridge." She replied. "I learned it so I could... understand the... recordings left by the Captain of this ship."

The machine seemed happy with that answer. "How did you get aboard this vessel? What is your purpose here?"

"Well, myself and three others of my race were stranded in space by an accident, and we came across this ship, floating... derelict." Stellar told truthfully. "We boarded her and found everyone in the crew were... deceased, and had been so for a very long time. The ship was without power, but I have some power converters that were useful in returning a section of the ship to a... a... yes, a 'habitable' state." Stellar told the machine, thinking it might be some kind-of guardian system for the ship.

"There are no humans left alive on this ship?" It then asked.

"No, just corpses." Stellar answered.

"You are not Human." It stated obviously. "Have your race had contact with Humanity before?"

"No." Stellar answered. "This ship is the first contact we have had with anything even remotely indicating we were not alone in this area of space, or beyond it."

"Interesting." It commented. "Do you know about the energy source known as 'Protoculture'?" It emphasized the last word heavily.

"Only in reading what the Captain said about it." Stellar replied.

"And that information is?" It asked, almost demandingly.

"She mentioned the name of it." Stellar replied, remembering. "She said it was the power source for the ship, and that it had completely vanished from the ship a month after they had left their home port, wherever that was." Stellar sensed the machine was questioning her for a very different reason than just curiosity, and this 'Protoculture' was of great and significant importance to it. She made a guess. "Are you a 'Haydonite'?" Stellar asked.

The Haydonite was taken aback momentarily by the question. "I assume the Captain mentioned my people in her logs." It replied.

"Yes. She mentioned that your people had not delivered some equipment with what she called 'Shadow Technology' to her ship before they had to depart, and she was wondering if it had something to do with the disappearance of the Protoculture." Stellar explained, hoping to get more information about the Haydonites and Protoculture.

"I understand." The Haydonite replied. Its programming was fully-functional, and its directives clear: Any race encountered with Protoculture or a working knowledge of the substance was to be eliminated. However, as it went back over what information it had gained from the strange being, it concluded that the creature, and therefore most likely its race, had no working knowledge of Protoculture at all, save for what this individual had heard about in the ship's log entries. It had already erased the files on Protoculture from this core and every other memory bank aboard this vessel when it had interfaced with the ship, and removed the Protoculture matrices from the reactors and battery units aboard the ship and returned them to where the Main Hive were waiting. The chances of this being's race discovering Protoculture on their own were almost infinitesimal... and by the scans of the energy unit the being was using to power the core, they were using an entirely different type of energy source, making it unlikely that they would consider using Protoculture...

The Haydonite struggled with long-discarded feelings, from a time when it was originally organic in nature. Back then, she had been an explorer of Space, searching for new lifeforms and civilisations. To her long-ignored remembrances, to find an uncontaminated species that was so intelligent, yet so different from the bipedal species she knew so well... it would have made her career for herself. She came to a conclusion: These beings must be protected from her people and from Protoculture. She moved closer to the being, her voice-tones becoming more organic and softer. "Listen to me." She said in a female tone. "You have to understand..."

"Then make me understand." Stellar said back.

"You must understand... Protoculture is a curse." She said to Stellar. "When we developed it, we thought it was what we needed to save the races in this universe from isolation and loneliness. It was a great energy source, clean and without need of fuel... but we did not understand the consequences of organic life using it. We started other species using it for a power source, as the Humans were using it... but other species started using it in ways it was not meant to be used, merging it with their bodies and using it to force changes in their evolution. We had started doing the same... but it destroyed our world's bio-sphere and our own bodies, forcing us to upload our consciousnesses to these mobile units, as you see me now. It started inter-stellar wars between species; it even tore species apart, making them fight each other for how far they would allow evolution to take them." She genuinely sounded sad.

"Then Haydon came. He helped us rid ourselves of Protoculture... and he said we had to rid the Universe of it as well. We have been doing so, trying to save what we could of many races, if they were not too far beyond our help. We took his name to remind us of all he had done for us. While there were many who fought against us, trying to keep hold of Protoculture, there were many who willingly gave it up and helped us. Humanity gave us permission to take Protoculture from their ships and other things... but they thought this ship was lost. I found it, but I was unable to turn it back and help the crew reach their home again before the ship ran out of other sources of energy, and they all died. I remained here, hoping that my people would find me again... but it seems they have stopped looking... until you found me. Thank you for awakening me again."

"You're welcome." Stellar replied. Her senses were telling us this... person, for want of a better term, might have been female in its past. "So... what will you do now?" Stellar asked, somewhat suspicious of the Haydonite's story, but willing to listen to find out more about both it and what happened to the ship and its Protoculture.

"My ship is parked on the outside of this vessel." She answered. "I will attempt to return to my people. This vessel, I will leave to you. If you can power it without Protoculture, so much the better." Then she drew closer. "But again, beware of Protoculture. Do not use it. Do not even let it near any of your species. If someone offers its secrets to you, do not take them. Only death and destruction await you if you dabble in it."

Stellar nodded. "I understand now." She said back. "Besides, I do not think we need it. We are developing our own sources of power, as you can see by my little generator here." She gestured to it.

"Yes. I have not seen this type of power unit before, but it seems to be greatly different from anything I have known. It also does not seem to be harmful... but take heed of my warning, and guard your technology well. Be always careful with it, and let your race develop in the fullness of Time. Only madness lies down the path of accelerated evolution." She told Stellar as She floated away from her.

"I thank you for your warnings." Stellar said to... her, she thought of the Haydonite. She followed the Haydonite out of the computer room's airlock and along the corridors, until it exited through an upper airlock. Stellar heard "Farewell" through her radio-headset as it moved to a strange craft that Stellar had already been curious about. The Haydonite entered the craft and it took off eventually, as Stellar watched.

Stellar's inner-warrior was screaming at her to destroy the Haydonite, to prevent the Equestrian Race becoming known about... but her Honor swatted it silent. It would not be honorable to destroy some... being who had warned them about such a threat, even if Stellar was sure the Haydonite was not telling the entire truth. The power of her warning was self-evident, and Stellar knew that She had been right about one thing: Pony Society should never get involved with this 'Protoculture'.

Stellar turned about to head inside, when her dimensional senses went haywire. She spun around to see the Haydonite craft trying to enter Fold Space... but its structure seemed to smear forwards, as if coming apart molecule-by-molecule, and it vanished utterly. Stellar was horrified. Something unimaginable had just happened, and she had no idea what or why. Was it because of trying to fold space, or was it something else? That was now a critical question to ask, as they would also have to fold space to get home, eventually. Would the same thing happen to them, if they tried the Fold Drive? Or was the cause not from Folding, but for another reason? Stellar stood there, contemplating the varied aspects of this, until Applebloom's voice came to her through the radio. "I'll be right in." Stellar replied, as the fillies sounded worried. Making her way back inside, Stellar headed for the bridge again. The Computer could wait for another hour...

Author's Notes:

Well, here's the third chapter. Stellar learns a lot, and finds they are not alone...