Chrysalis paused the music and groaned, standing up and stretching. She could feel her muscles relax after a few seconds, not that she could, when someone was knocking on her door. She walked over to press the pad releasing the lock, allowing the doors to slide open.

She narrowed her eyes. "Central. It seems you organized a party in my quarters and didn't tell me it was happening."

"We need to talk, Commander…" Central took a deep breath. "Some information about the Ghost has emerged and we need to discuss it."

There was a strange tone to his voice, but Chrysalis ignored it for now, looking into his eyes. He seemed worried—more than usual—but also wary. Of her.

"I'm not going to like what I'm about to hear, am I?"

"No, Commander, you will not."

Of course. Why would things be more simple. She quickly took stock. Tygan, Dr. Luna, and Shen at the back, with Laeti—Luna in front of them, stance wide. Expecting trouble. Her demeanor was otherwise calm, and she had good reason… she probably could rip the room out if she wanted to. Chrysalis wasn't very sure of the power level of the Equestrian Princess, nor how or if it was even affected by the dimensional change.

Shen, Luna and Tygan however were a bit easier to read. They were fidgety and unwilling to look her in the eye. The counselor was the calmer of the three, but she was tense.

In front of the Princess were Central and Annette, both tense. She felt a light brush in her mind and she glared at the mutated psi-op. "None of that. Come on in, you're all making the engineers nervous."

She stepped aside letting them through. Possibilities ran through her mind, but Central and Annette's attitude, along with the others' fear was telling… they expected her to attack them. But why would she? Unless whatever they had discovered was related to her? But what did the Ghost have to do with anything?

Either way, she had to decide immediately how to take this, and where.

It was unlikely all of them had suddenly decided to betray her. It was also unlikely they would all have been possessed or controlled… especially Princess Luna or Annette. Which only left very few options, the most likely was that they expected her to betray them, or attack them irrationally.

But why would she? No matter how damaging the information might be, she didn't see herself attacking them for it unless…

"I see."

The others stopped as she locked the room. She walked forth, unstrapping her holster, and passing it over to Central. "Annette, I'll take the seat furthest from the door, you sit to my left, anything else I might use would be in that direction. Princess Luna, I trust you are capable of defending yourself and others, I want you on my right. Central, you sit right across from me. Tygan, Shen, Luna, you three sit wherever you want, but it must be behind Annette or the princess."

"Commander, I—"

"Save it, John," Chrysalis said, glancing at him with a rueful smile on her face. "It's fairly obvious you're afraid I'm some sort of sleeper agent." Chrysalis paused, a horrible thought crossing her mind, but after a calculation, she decided that it was not, in fact her birthday and she had not actually done something too embarrassing.

Still composed, she made her way to the seat she had selected and sat down, flanked by the others. "So what is this all about?"

Central and Tygan glanced at each other, and Chrysalis almost braced herself for a wait, but, Princess Luna seemed to have a lot less issues bringing up the problem.

"It has come to the attention of Central and the others that you have a tendency to listen to a specific song that has been known to be transmitted by the Ghost."

Chrysalis felt a chill run down her back. "What?"

Shen nodded. "When Princess Luna and I visited Apple Bloom, she said she had heard a recording of the Ghost that Julian had done while hacking into the ADVENT Network," she said, looking down at the table. "This usually would just be a piece of potentially useful information limited to the investigation of the Ghost… except that it's a very familiar song."

Chrysalis nodded. "And what song is that, and what does it have to do with you all being here?"

Central sighed. "Runaway Train."

'Runaway Train? But that's—' Chrysalis felt a chill run down her spine and she almost stood up, except that the sudden movement caused both the Princess and Annette to tense up and look ready to tackle her.

Instead, she fought the turmoil of emotions that came from that revelation. That song echoed in her dreams, and during her waking moments, along with the memories… "That's…"

She didn't know what to say. She didn't want to remember.

"Commander," Central spoke up, making her jump. She wondered briefly how long she had spaced out for.

"Yeah… I don't want to talk about it—"

"It is important, Chrysalis," Dr. Luna spoke up, "your crew needs to know you're not being manipulated."

Chrysalis crossed her arms, digging her nails into her biceps. "No. I don't want to remember this."

"Remember what, Commander?" Annette asked. "We'll follow you to hell and back, as long as it's you calling the shots. But we need to know it's really you."

"They… they made me see." Chrysalis whispered after a long, contemplative silence. "When I was their prisoner, running simulations through my brain… They showed me what happened when Sunset died."

Loose cables and equipment hung precariously over the heads of all six soldiers. The emergency light inside the cabin flickered among the buzz of destroyed electrical equipment. The back hatch was torn, letting a little light through, and outside all that could be heard was air and the distant hum of very large engines, or the crackling of flames from their landing.

The screen where they usually got their briefings from Central from, was split almost in half, with the upper right corner still flickering with static. Tubes of all sorts were loose and littered both the cracked floor and ceiling. But the ship had survived.

It was eerily quiet, until Sunset shifted, opening her eyes with a groan and looking around. With what little light she had, she could only see the silhouettes of most of the others, but not their actual state. She spoke up, voice cutting through the silence with a rasping quality to it. "Report. Is everyone alive and in one piece?"

"I think I lost my hat," Irvine said after a moment. "But I have my rifle and I seem to be more or less okay."

"At least you didn't throw up," Bok replied.

"I did."

"Great," Lionel muttered, shifting in place. "At least that explains the smell."

"Just… don't tell me where it landed. I don't want to know," Elaine grumbled.

"It seems we're all in one piece, Colonel," Zhang said.

"Apparently," Sunset said, managing to disentangle herself from her seatbelt. She stood, followed by the others, on the uneven, broken remains of the cabin. "Spitfire?"

When there was no immediate response, she grimaced and moved forth, past the others. "Spits? You still with us?"

A cough was her answer, she reached the entrance to the cockpit, but stopped, unable to move past the debris. The doorframe was twisted out of shape, and a huge part of the front of the plane was crunched up and pushed into that space. Pieces of glass and cables prevented further movement, and it would have taken herculean strength to pry the twisted, sizzling, metal away from the doors.

"D-don't call me 'Spits'," Spitfire's voice was weak, coming from in there. Sunset could barely see her face, between pieces of plastic and cables. "Ladies don't spit."

"I'm not going there, Captain," Sunset said, looking around and grimacing. There was no other way to get in there. Maybe if they took apart the wall where the now-broken screen was…

"I'm not going anywhere, Sunset," Spitfire said. "Most of the cockpit collapsed. I'm pinned in… can't even feel half my body." She coughed. "I guess this is it."

"Hey, you're still with us," Sunset replied. "Come on—"

"You know this is it. I know it too," Spitfire interrupted. "I don't know if I'll see all of you soon… but… I have one last present for all of you."

The moment Spitfire said that, a loud hum shook the plane.

"Hit the deck!" Irvine shouted, crouching low. The rest of Stardust followed suit, pressing themselves against what seemed to be secure.

"Spitfire?!"

"Haha, happy fourth, nerds. Don't say I never got you anything nice."

A loud, sizzling burst of fire-red energy shot from somewhere on top of the Skyranger, almost blinding them for a moment, and it was followed by an explosion ahead that shook the whole Temple Ship.

"Holy shit!" Bok shouted, while Zhang positioned himself so his body was between the explosion and Sunset. When things died down, the team carefully stood up.

"Spitfire?" Sunset called.

But there was only silence.

Author's Notes:

Chapter posted early today... Happy New Year!