“And oh, it started out off simple enough, that’s for sure… It’s just that when we got onboard the ship things started to take a turn for the very weird…”

“So, why are we the ones going in and not some other starfarers? I mean, sorta a bit out of the way right? Shouldn’t we be more concerned with Dark Matter, or finding a new world?” Stripped asked as the Cerberus Voyager pulled up alongside the massive cargo ship. A loud hiss was audible as the airlock connected. “I mean yes, what happened to this ship is sad and all, but we’ve got bigger worries.”

“And there may come a time,” Jabari pointed out as he grabbed an energy rifle. “That we may be in need of an assist ourselves. Like it or not, we’re pretty much all alone out here so any allies we can get ahold of? Well, I certainly wouldn’t be complaining if I was you.”

The threesome jumped down into the airlock and then another hiss as it opened into the cargo ship itself. Landing on the floor below with a soft humming sound as their boots magnetically locked onto the plating, the energy rifles hummed and glowed with a soft green light.

Before them was a metal prison masquerading as a ship; steely surfaces spanning as far as the eye could see that branched off into numerous corridors. Each step the three took echoed clearly, the only other sound being the occasional drop from a water pipe that hung out at the far edge of the hall that was accompanied by the dim light of dangling wires that let off a few sparks.

“This whole place gives me the creeps really,” Jabari remarked training his rifle down a hallway. His ears twitched. He swore he could have heard… something. Something almost heavenly; the song of a thousand angels that beckoned with promises of the most beautiful of desires any mortal could ever dream of.

“Any of you hear that?” Jabari asked fingering the trigger.

“Hear what?” Flashfire asked inspecting a panel. Seemed like it had been ripped apart, almost in a panic.

“...Swore I heard something, not sure what. Maybe you’ll think I’m crazy, but it almost sounded like… I don’t know, singing?” the zorse replied.

“It’s probably just your imagination Jar,” Stripped returned. “The ship settling or something like that.”

A deafening silence fell over the three as they continued on. The lights of their weapons and gear provided minimal illumination as the hallway stretched on and on, seeming to never end and only grow. A few extra corridors would come into view, their own paths stretching into an abyss of darkness with promises desired only by ravenous predators that could stomach the worst of decay and grime.

“Do any of you smell something?” Flashfire asked sniffing the air and gripping his rifle ever-so tighter.

“Yeah, I smell it…” Jabari answered wrinkling his nose in disgust. The hair on the back of his neck was standing up, something inside him telling him to just… run. Run and never look back. He knew what it was, old instincts kicking in. Pushing them aside, he answered with a: “Smells like… well, like something rotting.”

Breaking into a sprint, the two ran down a hallway with Stripped calling after them. Shouting warnings, or not to leave him. They couldn’t tell really. Finally, they pulled to a halt. But not because of Stripped’s yells, but because of what they saw before them.

Strung up by the wires of the ship’s electrical system were the remains of a dragon. Its scales had been torn off violently and scattered around like rose petals beneath it with some of them having been so crudely ripped off that they contained muscle. A single arm bone stuck out and have a massive bite mark on it.

Strung up next to the dragon was a another creature, canid-like, which had a massive gaping hole where its torso should be; the end of the corridor visible from the hollowed-out mess that should have been its body emitting an odor so foul, Flashfire covered the gore-stained floor beneath them with the breakfast he’d had that morning

“Lightweight.” Jabari remarked though truth be told he looked like he wasn’t too far behind.

“Are you insane? Are you not disturbed by this!?” Flashfire hissed out.

“I am, but I can keep my composure unlike you.” the zorse remarked before he lost it at the sight of a scrawl on the wall. In an eerie green tone were words.

They read: “Please stop killing us!”

Then, something pounding against metal. Flashfire reacted fast and with a whir and a hum drew his rifle and pressed down on the trigger in a frantic motion firing off several shots.

“Celestia!” Stripped said as he just barely tried to dodge the shots. “You trying to get us all killed?” he asked, his breathing heavy before he spotted the scene in front of him. “...What the fuck…?”

“Very good question, really…” Flashfire whispered his breathing returning to normal as he traced his finger in the green blood on the wall. “That’s what I’ve been wondering. What happened here? Aside from the obvious, I mean?”

Stripped knelt down in front of the scene and sighed. “...Ripped apart. Claw marks. One of these two is a Syrian, so I’d normally say it was a lover’s spat gone bad but look at the message on the wall,” he said. “Syrians have green blood. So it couldn’t have been the dragon. They have crimson blood, darker than ours. And the obvious question, why would our furry friend here write a message in his own blood?”

“To throw everyone off his trail?” Jabari asked. “Or her, or whatever…”

“It’s that or another victim we haven’t found wanted to beg for mercy without giving away their position,” Stripped replied.

“...Yeah, thanks for that image,” Jabari deadpanned. “Like I wanted to lose any more of my lunch than I already have. So, what are we looking at here? Classic murder by serial killer, or a sudden fit of space madness?”

“Well, either one would cause a ship such as this to send out a distress call,” Stripped returned. “Or it could be Dark Matter. No, disregard that theory. What would an empire want with a simple cargo ship?”

“Could be carrying something they consider illicit,” Jabari theorized. “Like supplies to an enslaved planet’s population. Any number of things, really…”

Nerby, Flashfire was trying the comms. “Flashfire to the Shining Armor. Things have… well, they’ve gone sour. Crew’s dead.”

“I wouldn’t bother,” Stripped said tapping the wall of the ship with his finger. “The material these panels are made out of? Makes it impossible to get any communications through. For better or for worse, we’re all alone out here.”

“Alright then…” Flashfire sighed.

“So, do we abort?” Jabari asked.

“No,” Flashfire replied his eyes hardening. “No, we have a job to do here. We find out who -or what- did this, and then we stop them.”

“I love it when you’ve got your priorities straight sir,” Jabari smiled cocking his rifle. “Right behind with you on that matter,” he said softly his green eyes hardening.

The three traversed down one of the ship’s many foreboding corridors. Their decision wasn’t random, however. An ear-piercingly loud screech pierced through the air, causing the three to wince in agony as their ears rang for several agonizing seconds. The sound bounced off the metallic surface of the ship’s interior with each of those seconds that went by until everything became deafeningly silent.

“What the hell?” Flashfire said, whipping around in almost an instant. “Ce navire continue de devenir plus effrayant à l'heure actuelle…” he muttered under his breath.

“Comme si ce n'était pas déjà effrayant?” Jabari inquired much to Flashfire’s surprise. He didn’t even know the zorse could speak Prench. Then again, given the lad was a genius he shouldn’t have been that surprised…

“Bon point,” Flashfire admitted. “Okay everyone, keep your eyes open. No surprises, got it?”

Jabari nodded with one of his hands going for his pistols strapped to his pants legs.

The three entered the corridor, their eyes nearly unblinking as their weapons lights illuminated the world ahead of them. What was once a narrow hallway however widened into a shower room that looked as though it had never been touched. Several stalls were each lined up against each other, the curtains all shut. Up ahead, with curtains of their own, were a few baths that were filled to the brim with water.

Flashfire turned to Jabari and Stripped. “You two investigate the stalls,” he said. “I’ll go up ahead and look at the bathtubs.”

“And exactly why are you going to look at them?” Jabari asked.

“Because I want to.” With a huff, Flashfire walked, his hands firmly gripping his weapon and his eyes peeled on each and every one of the stalls as he cautiously walked by them.

“Oh Flashfire…”

It was as he approached the first bathtub that Flashfire’s attention was broken. A soft voice filled the air and beckoned to him. It came from the farthest bathtub on the left; angelic in nature and yet vaguely familiar.

“Oh Flashfire. Come.”

Furrowing his brow, Flashfire raised his weapon and walked over, his steely gaze focused on the tub. The closer he got, the clearer the voice became; never changing the three words it spoke the second time. Their almost seductive tone and demeanor were the same.

‘I wish this accursed thing would shut its trap.’

“I heard that.”

Flashfire stopped; a faint blush on his face. ‘Oops.’ He nervously chuckled before continuing. As he reached the tub, he gazed around. On instinct, he went for the Kyutama hanging around his neck. Better safe than sorry.

Nothing.

The tub was empty; full like the others, but nevertheless devoid of any sort of life. A bar of unused soap adorned a small holder on the side of a wall with a bottle of shampoo next to it.

“Oh Flashfire… you came to me.”

The voice filled the air once more, this time close. Too close. Flashfire’s eyes narrowed, he knew that voice. But it couldn’t be… could it?

Then, he saw her. Just below him. Her face was unmistakable. Her beauty was unbridled in this galaxy. Her smile was angelic in nature. Her eyes were hypnotic.

Flurry Heart.

“Alright then…” Flashfire murmured to himself. “Okay, really odd. I know she’s back up on the Shining Armor. So what in the flying feather is she…?”

The shimmering image of Flurry Heart rose out of the tub and stood before him, a warm smile on her face. “Flashfire, you look confused. Something the matter?” Flurry asked getting up out of the tub and Flashfire on instinct averted his eyes. He knew she was there, and a part of him definitely desired to look at her but his own nature forbad it. No, they weren’t married yet. Plus, something about this whole scenario was off. He knew it. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, his instincts telling him to run.

“You look nervous. But hey, at least there’s a friendly face…” Flurry whispered tilting his face up to meet hers. Flashfire was redder than normal by now. “...Right?” she asked rubbing his shoulders before wrapping her arms around his neck, her bare breasts pressed to his chest.

“Uh listen, there’s something I… I have to do…” Flashfire stammered out. Her form was almost ethereal in nature. Spectral, more like.

“And it’s not me?” she whimpered, a tear running down her red cheek.

“There’s something aboard this ship,” Flashfire whispered noticing for the first time how unnaturally cold Flurry felt. “I… I have to find out what it is and stop it.”

“Oh, I’m aware.” Flurry Heart’s frown changed into a grin; a malicious evil radiating from her body. Her eyes slowly rolled into the back of her head, the retinas snapping in twine. “I’m very aware.”

Before Flashfire could react, Flurry Heart wrapped her arms around him and pulled him backwards; a loud splash filling the room. Flashfire’s world became blue, and he began coughing and choking. All he could see before him was the pupiless, grinning face of his marefriend; the one he considered his true love.

“Do not be afraid of my embrace, my love,” Flurry Heart said, her words as soft and clear as they were just moments before. “Soon, we will be together forever, just as we were back onboard the ship.”

“Yeah, I doubt that,” another voice stated. Also familiar. Then, the sound of a laser rifle discharging several times, and ‘Flurry’ screaming out in pain. Then, Flashfire felt her grip finally loosen and gasping for air he reemerged spotting Stripped holding a smoking laser rifle his golden optics narrowed.

“...What… what the…?” Flashfire gasped out.

“Hell if I know, but I heard a voice I knew didn’t belong here. And then I rushed over here and saw… whatever the hell that was.” Stripped stated. “Man, you really know how to pick ‘em don’t you?”

Flashfire didn’t look amused. Soon, the group re-convened and Flashfire explained what had just happened and his thoughts. “Female specter picking everyone off one by one, luring in the unlucky with her voice and looks? Total ripoff of a siren's tactics. And I would know, given I dated one.” the unicorn commented with a visible note of fury in his voice. He really didn’t like his marefriend being used as a weapon against him.

“...We still need to talk about that one…” Stripped remarked before his smile returned. There were some more… scientific aspects of that particular relationship he was curious on. “Like for one, how did you and her have-”

“Is this really the time for that?” Flashfire replied with a slight blush. “Besides, think we’ve got bigger worries than my ex-girlfriend. Like say a certain-”

“A certain spook? I don't have to accept that it exists, because quite frankly I don't believe in ghosts, but I'll give it the satisfaction it exists in a physical sense,” Stripped said before continuing. “I May not believe it exists in any sort of spiritual manner, but there you have it. A specter exists. You exist. I'll give you that much,” he shouted down the corridor and half expected something to answer back. Nothing did. “I just happen to believe there's more scientific rational then immediately jumping to ‘Ghost!’ that's all.”

“...Like dude, seriously you gotta accept there's going to be weird shit,” Jabari returned to Stripped. "We fly around in giant ships shaped like various animals, or in one case a friggin' scale all the while fighting a universe spanning empire possibly helmed by an eldritch abomination! We have no room to talk about strange I should think. Now look, I may be of the scientific persuasion, but if it looks like a duck and talks like a duck and walks like a duck... Then it's probably a duck. That's probably a ghost right there.”

“I’m not so sure it is a ghost. Like I said, still on the fence about this,” Stripped commented. “Flashfire, did you see it actually appear out of thin air like a ghost?”

“It was… it was in the water,” Flashfire said. “Then it was standing before me. It was naked, but it was just like her. I could feel her. But at the same time she wasn’t…”

“All there in a physical sense?” Jabari questioned and Flashfire nodded. “Okay, I’m going to sound very unscientific here, but I’m going to go with ghost.”

“A ghost that turns into a naked Flurry Heart?” Stripped rolled his eyes and scoffed. “No, I’m still not buying it. Whatever it is though, bet you an astro-bit that’s our culprit.”

“Not even taking that bet,” Flashfire stated. “What I want to know is how it got here. I doubt it was here on the ship to begin with. More likely it climbed aboard somehow.”

“So, an intro-galactic hitchhiking… whatever? Why not?” Stripped shrugged. “I’ve seen enough crazy by now to accept that theory.”

“Right. You go check the cargo hold, Jabari? You come with me, I want to see the captains’ logs.”

“Why just me?” Stripped asked. “Why do I have to be the buck who goes off alone?”

“I’m banking on the theory that whatever this is, it changes into whoever you love most. And as you can’t exactly er… get it up so to speak I’m pretty sure you’re unaffected by that.”

“And what if it decides to turn into my Galaxy Garrison school crush? What then?” Stripped narrowed his optics “I swear on my nonexistent dick: I die to some sort of stupid space ghost, I’m coming back to haunt your stupid Prench arse.”

“Relax, you said it yourself, it’s not a ghost. So that means we can kill it. If it bleeds, we can kill it,” Flashfire said.

“I’ll go with him, just in case,” Jabari stated. “I’m curious to see what exactly we’re dealing with here. I don’t like leaving you alone, but I hate leaving Stripped alone as well. Besides, can’t fool you twice right?”

“Perhaps,” Flashfire agreed. “But if you hear any singing, -any form of it at all- just run like Hell.”

“Wait, so just like that?” Earth Spirit asked Jabari taking a sip of her wine. “You just left him?”

“Yup,” Jabari smiled. “We left him like he was chopped liver. Mind you, I was pretty damn certain he could handle himself. Make no bones about it, Flashfire was pissed and I don’t think he’d let himself be used again. Stripped on the other hand, I was more concerned about. He was an unknown variable in the equation.”

“...You basically just wanted to be near that ghost and see who you loved most, right?” Skywind asked the blue griffon raising an eyebrow as she crossed her arms. Jabari was strangely silent. That is, until he came up with a response that was as well thought out as his plan with Stripped was.

“Absolutely… Not. As I said, I was concerned about the unknown variable. Look, I trust Stripped, but I didn’t trust that thing not to pull a fast one and show him something like him being a normal pony. I was there to bail him out if things went sour. ...As they tend to do around us really. Anyways, this is what Flashfire told me what happened when he went to the Bridge…”

“I want you to know, Jabari, that with this plan of yours: it’s more likely that we’ll all end up dead.”

Flashfire marched forward, stifling a maddened laugh. His two fellow brothers-in-arms behind him were glaring plasma daggers at each other over something he couldn’t care less about. “I don’t, for a second, understand. Do you really want to potentially sacrifice one of us to some sort of transforming space ghost because Stripped doesn’t think it’s real?”

“Oh, I know it’s not real. Or at least not a ghost,” Stripped said smugly crossing his arms. “If it bleeds, we can kill it. You did say that didn’t you?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah… that I did,” Flashfire admitted rubbing his temples. “Sorry, it’s just this entire ordeal is starting to get to me…” he muttered before marching off a corridor with a shout of: “Remember what I said, okay? If you hear singing, run like Grogar himself is after you.”

“Absolutely,” Stripped said with a smug little smile. “Also, I need to know who I love the most so when this mission was done, I’m able to reaffirm myself as the best member of this crew and let off some steam inside their—”

“...More information than we needed thank you very much…” Jabari muttered with a small blush.

Arriving onboard the bridge, Flashfire winced when he saw the state of the crew. Shoving a dead body aside with a muttered apology, he pulled out the Sun/Moon Kyutama and used the solar end as an extra light source. Setting it down next to a computer bank, he set to work before chuckling.

“...Right, the concentration of Celestia and Luna’s power, and you’re using it as a simple desk lamp. Real classy there Flashfire…” he muttered.

“Ship’s log entry one. Our destination: JG1739 of the Eriedrone Quadrant. Eighty-seven thousand miles away. Arrival in mere seconds, but I've opted to wait since I've spent most of this trip in my personal chambers wondering if my parents were right when they said I'd amount to the errand boy for idiots. I've been tasked with leading my usual band of complete isotope eating cockwaffles with retrieving an unhatched egg of a Primal Siren. Apparently, the royal family of SD7204 wants it for their soon-to-be crowned son; the prince of that blasted place. I’ve heard of these sirens; they’re malicious in nature, but can be tamed to be… questionable associates to whoever owns them.

“According to the family, their son wants one as both a guardian and a lover. I nearly puked when I heard that given their son is as desirable of a lover as my own mother. I digress, however: the family gave us the rundown of what we should do to keep this thing from hatching and turning us all into my personal desired state: dead. Keep it in a below-zero room and whatever we do, don’t go near it. That’s it. If my guess is correct, I’ll be the only one to understand this while every other room temperature IQ crewmember sits around trying to clean their rifles with their faces.”

Flashfire rolled his eye and played the second log.

“Ship’s log entry two. We got the egg. We lost Jeffrey to a giant fly trap that ate him. I won’t miss him. He had sex with my wife behind my back and hit my child. Maybe I should let that fly trap eat my wife as well.”

Flashfire shuddered for a bit and then hit play for the third log.

“Ship’s log three. I’ve spent the past week making sure that the rest of the crew understood how to make sure we don’t die. To do this, I’ve played the instructions on an endless loop over the ship’s announcement system. In order to do this, I’ve removed any and all emergency alert systems for every important system. This includes the engine cooling system, the water system, and the indoor plumbing. We’ve already had the plumbing fail sixty-seven times because Richardson thinks that eating burritos for each meal is a good idea while having severe stomach trouble. I’ve taken it upon myself to lock him in the freezer so he’ll die. Sadly, the freezer broke and now he’s stuck eating the frozen burritos. Nobody will go into the freezer now, so we’re stuck eating prepared meals that we brought from our wives. Or in my case, my kid, who cooks like my wife, only he understands that I like my sandwiches cut in triangles and not squares.”

Flashfire sighed and rubbed his temples once more. “Okay, that’s nice and all, but when do we get to anything use—oh, there’s two left. Here we go…”

“Ship’s log four. Okay, this is bad. For starters, when the freezer failed, the temperature in the egg’s room also broke. I guess I should’ve figured this out, but I don’t get paid to keep watch on ship maintenance. I just make sure that those idiots are all inline to make sure they don’t die on the ground. Richardson was the maintenance guy… oh, wait. Shit. He’s been in the freezer. I think that’s why he’s been screaming about the egg this entire time. I thought he just wanted to eat some eggs. I shouldn’t have been throwing eggs at the door as a joke. Welp, I guess I should go let him out.”

Flashfire hit play on the final log.

“Ship’s log five. Welp, I got to the egg’s room and it hatched. I saw a trail of dead crewmembers on the way there. I’m now staring at the thing. It looks like my mother. Given that this thing is said to take on the thing I find the most beautiful, that sorta makes sense. Yes, I have a wife, and she’s beautiful, but who doesn’t love their mother more than anything else in the universe?”

Flashfire admitted that made sense as he paused the log. If he actually knew his mother, he probably would have seen her instead of Flurry.

“Oh god… AAAAHHHH! AGGGGGGHHHHHHH! AAAGHHHHHH!” the log’s owner screamed before all went silent. Flashfire sat there for a few moments in silence before his eyes narrowed. They needed to get off this ship. Now.

“Stripped… Stripped?” he said into the comms before silently swearing. “...Right, forgot about that issue.”

With that, he picked up the pace and ran…

Meanwhile, Stripped and Jabari had made it to the cargo hold with weapons trained on anything that moved. Mind you, all they’d shot so far was a couple of rats but given what they were dealing with caution was of the essence.

“So, what do you think we’ll see?” Stripped had to ask. “Beautiful sexy buxom alien space babe, or a mess of machine parts ready to be built into the most genius device ever known to ponykind? We should call this thing Erised. Backwards for Desire. Fits, doesn’t it?”

“...Nicknaming the fetish monster already, are we?” Jabari muttered. “Let’s get serious here, how do you think this thing… appears?”

“Water’s been present in the major spots so far. The corridors, the shower room. I’d say it uses water like a gateway. I’d need to see this in action to confirm my theory,” Stripped replied as he climbed down a ladder into the storage compartments. He fought back a shudder. This was a maze of massive crates and containers, and it would be all too easy to get ripped limb from limb by this beastie he mused as he heard water dripping somewhere in the background.

“...World’s most deadly game, this…” Jabari swallowed nervously. “You know, my family tree believe it or not contained quite a few big game hunters. Celestia wasn’t exactly a… fan.” he rambled in his nervousness.

“I should think not,” Stripped said as he shone a light down an empty container before sighing in relief. Nothing there. “I’m certainly not a fan of hunting animals for sport. Necessity maybe, but not sport.”

“Never realized you were a fan of wildlife conservation…” Jabari commented chuckling as the mood around them lightened briefly. He chuckled even louder as he imagined a nude Stripped holding up protest signs.

“...Something so funny?” Stripped inquired.

“Nah, never mind me. Just laughing at… something...” Jabari trailed off as the two shone their lights on a massive egg that had been cracked open from the inside, oozing out some sort of slime from within.

“...Well, we know where this thing came from now…” Stripped muttered before a loud screech was heard. “Wits about you now!”

Jabari nodded and split off from Stripped’s path, taking the right side of the egg while Stripped took the left side. It was here that he could see the chaotic sight that the creature had left behind. Several destroyed containers, computers, and other various bits and pieces lay strewn across the ground.

“...Lady Luna above…” Stripped muttered. “You certainly didn’t take your time did you Erised?”

‘Of course not.’

A disembodied voice echoed through Stripped’s mind. It was his own, but… lower. Softer. Livelier even.

Stripped blinked and scanned the world in front of him. For as far as the mortal eye could see, there was nothing but shells of the colossal egg next to him and destroyed pieces of technology that, to him, were alien.

“Uh… hello?”

Silence filled the air for a few seconds until the voice returned. ‘I’m beneath you.’

Stripped craned his neck down, but was met with what he’d seen before: destroy pieces of technology. It wasn’t until he saw his necklace slowly rise up that he connected two and two together.

Where the yellow gem once lied was a golden iris; blinking like the softest of souls brings about happiness to those that come into contact with it. It stared deep into Stripped’s metallic soul, having become an unblinking vigil to him.

‘Hello, Stripped.’

Stripped was far from stupid, he knew exactly what his greatest desire probably was. And that eye… he knew who it belonged to. Luna only knew he saw it in his dreams for the past month.

“You’re… me, aren’t you? Well, not me me, but the me I’d like to be…” Stripped asked.

‘Such a clever little one, aren’t you?’

“I’d like to think so, yes. I was built to be a genius.” Stripped replied eloquently.

The iris blinked once more, this time staying shut and trickling out of the necklace; first slowly and progressively getting quicker until Stripped was surrounded in a golden, yet somewhat murky, substance.

“...You know there are so many perverse sexual jokes I could make right about now, right?” Stripped remarked.

The liquid converged into a small circle in front of Stripped, slowly rising up into the sandy-gold body of Stripped; a faint smile on his face. ‘What if that's what I wanted you to think; to feel that way?’

“Then I’d say you’re nuts, but then again I sorta already figured that out with the stunt you pulled with my best friend,” Stripped replied. “I’m egotistical, yes, but not egotistical enough to feel aroused looking at… well, myself. Flashfire’s great great… so many greats grandmother Trixie maybe, but not me. But in any case, what do you get out of this? Sexual pleasure -Luna’s withers forbidding- as you toy with your victims and make them go out with a bang if you will as you viciously murder them?” he commented crossing his arms as the nude form of his doppelganger walked around him like some sort of animal circling its prey. Which was a rather fitting metaphor, one supposed. “Just trying to figure you out here, that’s all.”

The creature turned its head to follow Stripped, which rotated repeatedly as he circled it. ‘What exactly is it that you wish to figure out?’

“As I said, what you get out of all this.”

‘The thrill of the hunt.’

“Of course…” Stripped muttered. “But why change into your victims’ greatest desire or whoever they care for most before killing them?”

‘You’re a curiosity, aren’t you? You’re not like the rest… You’re not a normal pony. No, you’re… well, I hesitate to even call you a living being in the traditional sense,’ the other Stripped remarked. It caressed Stripped’s metallic cheek, sending a frigid sensation through his body. ‘Curious, most curious.’

“I could say the same about you if you weren’t a mass murdering psychopath.” Stripped remarked.

‘But aren’t you a part of that psychopathy? Are you not a trained killer by nature? Having fought?’

“Only in self-defense, only to help others who couldn’t help themselves. I’m not like you, who kills only for killing’s sake,” Stripped returned with more than a hint of disgust. “You’re a rather poor copy of me when all is said and done.”

‘But I’m also what you really want. To be truly… alive,’ the doppelganger replied. ‘Is that not correct?’

“Yes… yes, I admit that’s true. This is what I want. Not to be wires and circuits, with just a few donated organs so I can conjure something up. I want to be… well, thinking, breathing… bleeding.”

The doppelganger placed a hand on Stripped’s shoulder and stood in front of him. It caressed a hand over his body; the metal slowly being replaced by his desired body. ‘If you come with me, I can make all of your dreams come true,’ it cooed. ‘Everything you desire can be yours if you just come with me. All that you’ve ever loved will be yours; all that you desire you can have to your heart's content.’’

Stripped reached out to touch his doppelganger’s cheek and enveloped him in a kiss as the thing wrapped itself around him. Stripped felt a sharp pain in his chest, and realized a little too late something was trying to rip him open. And it probably would have succeeded as well, had Jabari not shown up in the nick of time astral blasters in hand firing upon the creature. In the blink of an eye, it vanished but as to where… that was a mystery.

Stripped stood, shuddering as the gaping wound in his chest slowly started to repair itself.

“What… what the hell did you do that for?” Stripped shouted. “...I… I was…”

“Getting yourself killed?” Jabari asked, before slapping Stripped right across the cheek.

“You stupid bastard!” Stripped slapped Jabari back the zorse looking unfazed. “You son of a bitch I was going to be alive again! I was going to be free of this accursed fucking metal prison!”

Jabari was having none of this nonsense and once again he drew back his hand this time with even greater force.

“You hit me again!” Stripped said, stunned with the slap actually ripping open his skin and exposing metal, circuitry, and wires. “Not even my own father hit me!”

“...Well, I’m not your father am I?” Jabari deadpanned before his voice softened as Stripped began to break down sobbing. “...Look, I know that thing threw you for a loop… It probably would have done the same to me if I was in your position, but right now we need your genius if we’re going to survive long enough to get off this ship. You’re alive. You’ve always been alive. Robot or not, you are Stripped Gear, and that’s all that matters to any of us. Do you really think we care about who or what you are? No, it’s not the circumstances of one’s birth that matters. It’s what you do with your life afterward. And if you want to sit around feeling sorry for yourself, well then… fine by me…”

“Yes… Yes, you’re right,” Stripped murmured the wound healing itself. “But we’re not going to just get off this ship and run with our tails between our legs. No, we’re going to kill this son of a bitch before it harms anyone else. Make no mistake, it’s learning and it’ll learn there’s a way off this ship. Escape pods, or the Voyager. We cannot let this thing make it to civilization. We need to kill it.” he stated firmly as he picked his rifle up off the ground. Oddly, the floor in front of them was dry he noted. And yet somehow, the creature had appeared…

“Dear Boreas…” Skywind whispered. A shattering of glass. The wine hit the floor, splattering the crimson substance all over her, Wind Spirit and Jabari. “...Is… Is that really how Stripped feels about himself?”

“Yes, and I swear if you let that get around… then you will not like the results…” Jabari warned a dangerous edge in his voice.

“Okay, so no water in the area,” Wind Spirit murmured, the earthy brown pegasus rubbing a hand on her chin in thought. “So how did…”

“I’m getting there… Have a bit of patience okay?”

“Hmm, yes, that bears a thought…” Stripped mused as a theory began to form in his mind before he turned back to Jabari. “You ever heard of optography?” he asked and the zorse nodded.

“Old superstition. The last thing someone sees can be captured in their eye, right?” Jabari remembered not entirely sure what Stripped was getting at.

“Yes, certainly an alluring if not rather frankly quite a morbid method to solve crimes and gather information. I’m thinking we could put that method to use here, see exactly what the crewmembers saw before they died. Now, the science is barely refined and I’m being generous here as you should know, but I believe we can do it. Honestly, I’d really want a good look at this creature’s true form, just so I know exactly what it was that tried to kill me.”

“Nice to know,” Flashfire commented as he walked up, looking exceedingly disturbed by this thought.

Jabari read his expression, he knew what the red unicorn was thinking. He had to be beating himself up inside, thinking about what-ifs or maybes. He immediately cut that line of thought off.

“Not your fault,” Jabari told the stallion. “Hardly. You did what you thought was intelligent. You could hardly know that this thing could affect the mechanical as well as the biological.”

“...Yeah, yeah, I suppose…” Flashfire mused.

“So, what’d you find out from the captains’ logs?” Stripped asked.

“Aside from the fact that the entire crew and their benefactors lacked precognitive thought?” Flashfire asked. “Well, I know that this creature really hates cold. Like, really hates it.”

“Nice to know,” Stripped smirked. “So, how can we make this entire ship a very unhappy place for Erised? The answer, environmental controls. I’ve got a readout of the ship’s schematics, and they aren’t far from here.”

“Perfect,” Flashfire smirked although he swore there was something… off about one of Stripped’s optics. Might have been his imagination, he didn’t know. “Though we still don’t know how this thing travels from place to place.”

“I’ve been working on a revised theory actually,” Stripped answered. “Reflection. Not just water, anything that’s like a mirror. In the cargo hold, it was entirely dry. Not a drop of water to be found. And how could there be? It was far too hot really. Almost like a tropical planet. My theory is the creature somehow made if more liveable, which is why we’re sweating like pigs. Maybe it fools around with the humidity in the air somehow. I don’t know. But I do know if it’s not water, it has to be a reflection.”

“Any reflection?” Flashfire asked, surprised.

“Each and any,” Stripped replied. “Hell, could be with us right now, inside one of our eyes and we’d never know it! Listen, I’ll go up to the environmental controls, get this place cold while you two get the Hell out of here. It’s going to get very unpleasant around here very fast.”

“No,” Jabari said as he put a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “I’m not leaving you.”

“Neither am I. We see our missions through to the end,” Flashfire stated. “We started this together, and we end this together.”

“Well, lucky for you, you don’t hate the cold right?” Stripped deadpanned and Flashfire actually laughed at that.

It wasn’t for several seconds of laughter that reality struck Flashfire like a freight train. He stopped and took a small step back. “Wait… you’re serious, aren’t you?”

“Oh, quite. We cannot afford to let this thing reach any civilized planet. Besides, I’m not flesh and blood like you. This won’t really be much of a bother to me. Besides, who better to be live bait than the one the creature liked the most?”

“I hate you,” Flashfire replied flatly.

“I love you too dear. Now, let’s get to work shall we?” Stripped chirped out.

Eventually the group reached the environmental controls, Stripped’s finger plugging itself into the systems. Lights turned on, and Stripped’s optics flashed with lines of code. “Okay, I’m in. Now, as soon as this place starts to get colder, we should see a reaction.”

Flashfire gripped his rifle tightly. “You say that like you know it’s here in the room with us.”

“Of course it is,” Stripped said pointing to his own left optic. “Been with me since I left the storage room.”

“And it could’ve come out at any moment, right?” Flashfire asked. “How lovely. How do I know that you aren’t that abomination right now?”

Stripped gave him a glare.

“...Okay, I know you’re you now.” Flashfire muttered.

“Oh, and just when I thought I’d have to say your Galaxy Garrison nickname is-”

“Ah, it’s you. Definitely you. I thought we said never to speak of that one ever again.” Flashfire muttered. Little by little, the room began to grow colder and soon one could see their breath. Stripped began to squirm out in pain as something… something began to ooze out of his optic. It was thick like paint but clear as water. It poured onto the ground with increasing intensity.

And it kept pouring.

Through Stripped’s agonized screams, the liquid—which had begun to fill up a fifth of the room at this point—converged at the center of the room, slowly forming into a gelatinous, flesh-colored monstrosity. A large, empty maw protruded from the center of its body, surrounded by half a dozen bony arms. Spider-like in build, the creature had this large upper mass that resembled a torso complete with two extra arm-like appendages sprouting out from it. Flashfire nearly retched in disgust when he realized what exactly had nearly seduced him.

The creature screeched out in both rage and pain and tried to clamber off but Flashfire even as the cold threatened to take him as well let out a roar and fired several black iron chains at it.

“Oh no, you son of a bitch; you monstre putain de balless. You aren’t getting away. We’re going to ride out this chill, and you… you’re going to die. Droit à l'enfer avec vous!” Flashfire shouted.

“You used me,” Stripped shouted a massive crab’s claw erupting from his back. “You turned yourself into what I hated most about myself, that I’ll never be normal and you used that against me! So freeze!”

The creature’s screams turned nearly ear-piercing by this point. Jabari’s ears were bleeding by now, and Flashfire's weren't far behind. The creature thrashed around trying to break itself free before finally it fell limp and thudded to the floor with a loud clatter. Finally, the cold relented and the heat returned.

“...Let’s never… never do that again okay?” Flashfire asked.

“Agreed,” Stripped nodded. “You didn’t have to do that you know, neither of you. I could handle myself.”

“But I wanted to. We wanted to. You’re our friend. And if we can’t rely on friendship, what can we rely on?” Flashfire asked.

“...I see. Now, let’s go home, shall we?” Stripped asked and Flashfire nodded.

“Yeah, let’s,” he said as the threesome started back. “Just one question though… What if… what if there are more of those things like that out there?”

Nobody provided a solid answer for that, and that perhaps was the most unnerving aspect of it all really…

“So, in the end, we reported this incident to both Stardust and the real Flurry, kept them apprised of the possibility of any more of these… abominations being out there. The creature’s planet of origin, well we all made a decree to never go there for any reason.”

“...How do you know you really killed the creature?” Wind Spirit asked her hand shaking. “How do you know it didn’t show you what you wanted most, it… dead at your hooves?”

With a sigh, Jabari got up off his chair and looked out towards the stars. “...Honestly, I can never be actually sure at times. I just have to hope it’s really gone. But in the end… well, what do you think of Stripped now?”

“...I… I take back whatever I had to say about him. He’s… he’s not useless,” Wind said with Sky nodding along. “Fact is, he’s possibly the best member of this crew I’d ever think of.”

“Don’t let him hear that. The last thing we want is him to actually get an even bigger ego than he already has…” Jabari remarked and a shared chuckle came from the threesome. “Seriously though, do not say what I told you to Stripped. Celestia knows I feel terrible enough telling you two this already as it is, even if it was just to prove a point.”

“...Yeah, well I think you proved it well enough,” Sky murmured. “To think, he saved you both with just his mind…”

“And that’s the part we all like about him, isn’t it?” Jabari smiled. “Now listen, don’t you two have maintenance duty with Crazy Diamond? Celestia knows the donkey’s been complaining about the vents not circulating for the past week and a half.”

Sky and Wind both shared a look and a nervous chuckle with Sky rubbing the back of her head with a hand, the blue griffon blushing bright red.

“...Yeah, suppose we should get on that…” she admitted before quirking an eyebrow. “Just one thing though. You never met the creature, at least personally. Do you have any idea what it would have changed into if you did?” she inquired before a nasty glare was sent her way by Jabari.

“No, and I’d rather have not. Now off with you two!” he barked and the two scampered off before Jabari smiled to himself. Yeah, he sorta already knew what he probably would have seen, thinking of a gold-furred stallion much like himself.

“...I’ll find you. Dad.” Jabari thought as a rocket’s boosters roared in his head.

Author's Notes:

Okay... Now this was one of the most... unique if not fun chapters to write. Bit of a breath chapter after the last one in some aspects, in others not. Huge thank you to Vertigo, really. Without him, could not have created the horrific atmosphere that this chapter provided. Seriously, he took a basic idea of a creature that leaps around through reflections and as Flashfire put it: 'bit of a siren rip-off" and turned it into something truly horrifying.

Obviously, the inspirations for this chapter were the classic Lost Galaxy episode "The Rescue Mission" and the DW episode "The Black Spot". Also took a bit of inspiration from "Beyond the Aquila Rift" from Love, Death, and Robots. Anyone who's seen that episode should guess exactly what.

Anyways, as ever, comments and thoughts along with critique are welcomed.