Wincing, I felt the two impacts as they lanced across our stern, tearing our engine to shreds. Pinkie gasped as well, whipping fast and blocking four more with her right forehoof in a sweep as she spun. She completed the turn, looking back at the broken remains of the flagship in front of us, nervousness flashing through her eyes. "It didn't work!" she shouted.

My double-check of the flagship's engine showed it was indeed still online, and Nirru pushed all power to the remaining two Aegis Barrier Emitters. She was still going to try to make the jump, even with her ship half blown to hell?! Twilight gestured to her viewscreen, showing the only remaining siege ship heading up fast behind us. Damn it. Instinct told me they were probably going for a ramming attack now that we didn't have engines.

"We need to use the Elements of Harmony! If we hit them with it, we should still have plenty of time to go after Nirru!" she shouted.

I frowned at that, warning, "But if they can pick up on the Element's energy signatures like Kyliona did..." I didn't feel comfortable with it, even leaving the husk of a ship floating here with those energy signatures on it.

"We don't have a choice! We can't leave that thing behind us, and we don't have our main gun anymore!" she shot back. I hesitated, but my gut told me that she was probably right. Kyliona had detected the energy signatures in a pony in order to get the full reading. I had no proof at all that the signature would linger from a flash exposure.

I looked back once more before I nodded. "All right. Everypony detach! Use the Elements on the siege ship, then you're with me, Rainbow. We're going after Nirru directly," I ordered. All six nodded, starting to detach as I decoupled myself from the deck. One good part about having magnetic hooves, anyway.

While they unhooked their harnesses, I booked towards the front of the command center, sliding in next to the release hatch, and started getting the escape pod ready. The familiar bursts of light started to glow behind me, flooding the entire cabin with rainbow ambiance.

Priming the energy release that launched the pod, I glanced back at them, watching all six radiating out their own colors as they lifted into the air. The Elements of Harmony. According to the stories, it was the spirit of Equus itself reaching out to ponies that embodied its natural virtues. Generosity, Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Loyalty, and Magic, working together to attempt to instill hope when all was lost. I think this was definitely a situation that called for that.

For a moment, I was lost myself. I looked back inside and realized that, honestly, I was just a spectator. I was seven months old. Ultimately, I'd adopted Equus and the pony's plights as my own, because that's what I was. A pony. But they were the ones fighting for their world. They were the ones that had lived in it for their entire lives. It was them that were the embodiments of those virtues, and despite bringing my own skills and abilities to play, they were actual heroines. Stuff of legend. Ponies would pass on their names until the end of time.

Of course, when talking about legendary things, normally I reserved a certain level of skepticism. In this case, however, getting hit by the Elements of Harmony I knew to be very much not a pleasant thing. In a 'sugar-coated apocalypse' sort of way. The energy spiraled around them in a corkscrew, then shot out in shattering prismatic energy. Admittedly, a part of me flinched before it turned away from me entirely and smashed through the wall of the command center.

The siege ship didn't even have time to turn to avoid it. Further, the 'beam' of prismatic energy hit open space and exponentially expanded. By the time it hit the ship, it was big enough to encompass the entire thing. It didn't stop, crashing over them like a massive wave before actually doubling back. My eyes widened as I saw it hit and smash through eight or nine times, making sharp loops before all the coils crushed down upon themselves and compacted before exploding in a prismatic blast.

I blinked once, and then twice as my eyes cleared. The siege ship drifted towards us still, but their engines were off. Apart from that, it didn't look like anything had happened. "Uh, Keela...?" I asked, looking towards the equally confused looking Keldarian on my right viewscreen.

"Uh, life signs are still functioning on board. Weapon systems are on but no longer active. Same with engines. What did it do...?" she asked, focusing her magic towards it. I'd noticed all of the support ships halted as well, leaving our side the only moving thing on the battlefield. Shining frowned, drifting nearby our viewscreens as he looked around the field.

"Did it... Did it work?" Twilight asked, landing gently on her hooves and running towards me.

I switched Keela up to the projection display, just in time for her to patch us magically into the enemy ship. Neither she nor I were prepared for what we saw. The command center was three major banks of electronic panels and viewscreens, with the central life support column between them, sort of forming a three leaf clover shape of sorts. All three Grosh were plainly visible, a twisted form of a sort of anthropomorphic rabbit mixed with metal cybernetics. Only...

They were huddling together near the central column. A quick glance showed life support still functioning, and I raised an eyebrow until the one pointed. The speech was almost so fast that the translator on Keela's station didn't pick up on it. "Feline magic! Please!" it shouted out, all three of them bounding for the orb of magic that undoubtedly showed up inside their command station. Wait, were they...?

All three piled on top of each other, looking up into the orb. They were sobbing hysterically. I didn't even know Grosh could cry. "Oh great Gods of the Green Pastures! Please, we're sorry! We're so, so sorry. What... What have we done?!" the one in the middle screamed out. Uh... what?

"Is... Is your translator working, Keela?" I asked uncertainly. She slowly nodded, looking just about as floored, but the other Grosh piped up first.

"Please! Kind ponies and felines! You have liberated us from seventeen millenia of hatred! Please, we must do something to fix all of this!" he screamed out, almost hysterical as he started shaking there. Oh. Oh hell. The Elements gave them a conscience?! That was a crueler fate than just murdering the hell out of them.

Shaking my head rapidly, I finally just muttered, "You deal with them, Keela. Try talking, for once. Never thought I'd say that..." Turning back to the escape pod, I realized that still left us with one psychotic bitch to deal with, who had already slipped through a non-stable portal to Equus. "Rainbow, with me. Everypony else, Evac. Shining, stick with Keela and help defend her if this is some elaborate, absurd trap," I continued, nodding to him as he returned it in his viewing screen.

Applejack stepped up before anypony else could react, however. "No. Ah'm comin', too. Shift some o' those gun thingies over onto tha escape pod. Dashie has enough umph ta pull it like ah sled, easy!" she declared. I frowned, then looked to Rainbow a split second later, who nodded in return. Tch.

"Fine, just hurry!" I ordered. Thankfully, at the speed that the flagship had limped through the tear into Equus, we were sure to catch up fairly fast. I'm not sure entirely what compelled me to fire Tia's charge directly against the side of the flagship. It would have been far more tactical to target the Aegis Barrier emitters on the front directly, but I wasn't regretting it. The shot was absurdly larger than I could have ever imagined, and we scored an almost direct hit against the side of the flagship. Most of its engine now lay on this side of space, and it barely fired off the FTL jump to activate the tear.

Pulling four of the guns and two ammo pods up into the escape pod, I nodded to Rainbow, who had already slipped onto the outside of the hull. AJ and I closed the door to the pod, then ejected the entire thing, just as I saw the other four elements wink out of existence. They were safe.

Smiling, I gave a nod again to Dash as she latched onto the energy tethers and locked them into her harness. "Going!" she declared before blasting forward as fast as she could go. I saw the massive jets fire off on her wings, then go prismatic a moment later as we suddenly lurched and were rocketing across space at absurd speeds.

Applejack slipped, sliding sideways before I caught her, both of us getting pushed back against the back wall from the pure acceleration. We were through the tear before I even had a chance to look up again, and the eerie distortions of the Slipstream tunnel greeted me outside of the windows.

Looking to my left with my eyes, I saw Keela's viewscreen go slightly static, and she nodded to me, smiling again. "Tear is closed on this end. We should be secure for the moment. The Grosh have ejected all of their weapon energy cells and have powered down all non-vital areas of the ship, claiming they wish to cooperate fully. Orders, Mender?" she asked curiously, looking down at her own display as she took in the data.

"Is Tym back inside of the ship?" I asked, feeling inside of myself for a moment. They were following me. I felt Malice getting pulled along with us, which meant all of the pony mechs had probably gone inert on that side, nothing remaining to direct the synced movement.

"Right here," he answered for her, walking up and ducking down inside the viewing screen with a curt nod. Apart from a light sheen of sweat, I didn't see any further evidence that he'd just been in pitched battle. My display showed his 'kill' count up to a hundred and sixteen support vessels, which scarily meant he took out more than the Celestia had while geared up in a makeshift mining rig by himself.

I nodded in return, then ordered, "That means it's safe to power down the relay system. Conserve the power in it, and take all of the energy cells they ejected. That'll stop them from readily reactivating their weapons."

"You want DReg's forces pulling back for now? All we can do is watch now anyway…" Shining asked, flicking online on my left viewscreen and giving me a curious look.

Keela nodded towards him instead, hitting a few more keys. "Yes, you'll have to once the relay is powered down. But Mender's right. It'll conserve on our power, at least until we can acquire all of the Grosh energy cells. Plus, I think you're more needed on Equus' side to intercept my sister, now," she reasoned.

He considered it for a moment before agreeing with, "Done. Log out, everypony. We're going back to Equus and continuing the campaign there. I'll see you there, Mender." He gave me a smirk, and I returned it before his screen flicked away. Keela adjusted more of her consoles, and I watched the lights all flick red on the pony mechs, almost all at once. After they were all red, the relay itself powered down, and Keela looked back up to me, expression going a little grim.

"She has only basic weaponry left that can't do bombardment, and a crippled ship. You shouldn't have a problem stopping her at this point, but be careful. She's still got her magic that she can engage you with on a personal level. I... I don't think you're going to be able to capture her. It's too dangerous to try to, Mender..." she warned, swallowing uneasily. I knew that much already, but it was a bit surprising hearing it from her.

I nodded slowly before asking, "Are you sure you're okay with this?" It was her sister, after all. Even if she was a complete sociopathic monster hell-bent on committing genocide, family was family.

The Keldarian gave a sigh in return. Tym nodded slowly, looking towards her as she hesitated, but Litta slipped up out of seemingly nowhere a second later, wrapping both of her arms over Keela's shoulders. "I'm sorry, Keela. You knew it would come to this when you heard her message, though. We've talked about it," she reminded softly, giving her friend's left cheek a soft nuzzle.

Keela's shoulders sagged a little, and she nodded slowly after. "I... know. Make it fast, Mender. Please? I know you have every right to get revenge on her, but... for me, make it fast and painless?" she requested, ears lowering. Applejack looked hesitantly to me, but I nodded slowly after a moment's consideration. I'd not really thought about drawing out her death, actually. I was angry with her, but to be honest, I'd rather just make sure she was out of the picture as fast as possible. Drawing out her end might have been fitting for her, but it was also illogical, giving her more opportunities to act herself. I guess I more associated myself with the 'assassin' mindset than anything. It's what my magic was geared towards.

"She won't feel a thing," I assured, nodding towards my friend. She slowly returned my gesture, then closed the comm feed a moment later, shifting to radio silence once more. Would she really forgive me for this? She understood what was at stake, but...

Applejack gave a little smirk, sidetracking me for a moment as my eyes snapped to the movement of her lips. Wait... "Ah don't mean ta distract, but are ya at least comfortable?" she asked, sounding coy instead. I'm pretty sure that's exactly what she intended to do, and it worked.

My cheeks felt hot as I realized I'd not paid even the slightest bit of attention to my physical body after switching over to communicating with the other dimension. Applejack had still been 'caught' by me, although now I was more 'holding' her instead as she remained tucked against my chest, both of us resting against the back wall. Rainbow smirked at the two of us and gave a wink, causing a light pink tint to go over her fillyfriend's cheeks as well.

Flailing lightly, I quickly let go of the mare, feeling like my cheeks were practically burning. "S-Sorry! I got distracted dealing with-" I started to excuse.

She giggled, sounding more than a little amused, but interrupted with, "Ah know, Mender. Relax. Yer display thingy says forty seconds ta arrival, though..." Oh!

Looking forward again, I saw Dash dodge another cluster of debris as we closed in on the large flagship. The end of the tunnel was closing fast, however, and I estimated that we'd have just exited before catching up with the thing. Eh, it was safer that way anyway. Engaging in a firefight in the middle of a Slipstream transfer was usually reserved for the desperate or suicidal. Or both. Our ability to drop out of FTL at any point came at a price. If a shot disrupted enough of the Slipstream tunnel, it could 'collapse' instead, dropping all of the ships out into subspace rather than real space. There was generally no returning from there after the link was lost on both ends, and all unlucky ships were doomed to drift in absolute void between points of existence until the end of time itself, essentially. Of course, starvation and loss of life support usually struck first, I reasoned. Not that we could 'prove' that.

Examining her flagship, I saw that she'd shifted her Aegis Barriers backwards now, covering her rear and single remaining engine. Heh, she probably didn't trust us to not shoot at her in transfer. "Her barriers are up in the back now instead. When she exits, we're going to accelerate and try to get around to the front of the flagship instead. When we do, unload everything you can right into the highlighted part of the command center, Applejack. With luck, we'll just blow away the entire command center with her still in it," I ordered, getting a nod back from the orange mare as she slipped up into the center of the pod again and activated her harness.

All four cannons synced with her a moment later, starting to move while tracking where she willed them. "Batteries, activated. Ammunition is kinda low, but we should have enough ta wipe her out..." Applejack announced, engaging her systems with the command phrase.

I stood next to her, Prudentia slipping out of subspace at my side, with the image of Purdue flickering in next to me as I walked. "Um, I'm ready with shielding, big brother. Just focus on the strategic highlights," she assured, giving me a soft smile even under the glowing eyes. The book started to radiate a gentle blue ambiance as well, the deep reserve of almost impossibly large energy swelling up. Similar to Twilight, when I 'felt' the book, it was like looking into an impossibly deep abyss. I didn't know how she managed it, to be honest, knowing that ocean of raw energy was inside of her. Of course, she wasn't the only one holding something monstrous within.

My eyes lit up just as we snapped out of the other end of the rip, the flagship falling into real space right next to us. The transition was smooth, Rainbow swerving to dodge the last bit of debris as the huge thing cleared the jagged end and snapped the burnt up strut of what used to be the side engine off. My scanners swept the surface as we shot up to it, moving suddenly far faster than it could muster.

Turrets slid out everywhere, and my eyes widened. Mentally, I started highlighting them all as I shot a warning to Dash with, "Turrets, Rainbow! Incoming fire!" She winced, watching a blast skip off one of our barriers, the plane of force showing ripples and distortions along its surface before fading back into invisibility. She tucked into a tight roll, sending us further from the ship as we spun to avoid three more shots, arching around to the side. My eyes and electronic suites worked in tandem to highlight the turrets, check their energy output, predict when they were firing, then give the shot angle before they did, the lines displaying in dangerous red in the pegasus' vision overlay. They'd get brighter as they were about to fire, and she started dodging them before they even did, weaving through shots with expert precision as we rocketed along the side of the ship now.

To my mild surprise, Nirru didn't shift the Aegis Barrier Emitters up further to match our pace, instead leaving them back by the engines to protect what was left of them. Was she seriously thinking that she was still going to get away? A nagging sensation drifted into me, but I had to focus on highlighting threats for Dash as we shot along.

We swerved around the main bridge, starting to make our descent towards the command area around the side in a big swoop, spinning and darting to avoid the incoming blasts of what looked like plasma cartridges. It was a bit strange given the Grosh used largely flash laser and physical shells in order to avoid any extra heat emission that might set off their rather sensitive life support systems. That meant this ship was constructed with a mixture of Grosh and Keldarian tech. The Slipstream FTL didn't seem so odd anymore. Wait...

Rainbow was panting hard now, her wings still burning at full strength. The energy fluctuated in them, and I frowned. She was getting tired. That risked the Ether Furnace reaction in her body going out of control again, I realized. I looked back to the fully shielded engines still. No, that would be crazy. But... Nirru was crazy. If that was the case, we didn't have time for a bombardment.

Suddenly, Dash hesitated and I frowned, looking back at her. She was looking off to her left instead, however. "Uh, is... is the moon supposed to be, uh... so big?" she asked hesitantly, sounding a little concerned. Eh? I checked my gravity readings, then noticed we were indeed being drawn to the left at a small fraction of Equus gravity. Oh hell.

Almost afraid to, I forced myself to look where she was looking. Sure enough, almost forty percent of my vision in that direction was now filled up with rapidly approaching gray moon surface. It was moving quite a bit faster than its usual rotation, and I did a rough speed calculation based off perspective, realizing it would go through our exact location in space in less than two minutes. Well, damn... The dark purple glow coming off the surface, visible easiest at the outline of the giant celestial body, indicated it was more than a little intentional. Luna was swinging the moon at the flagship like a massive, planetary mace. Wow...

"Change of plans. Rainbow, slow down and keep us close instead. Applejack, target all forward battery turrets and eliminate incoming attacks. We're a lot shorter on time, I think," I ordered suddenly. Both mares perked at that, Applejack giving me a frown towards my back that I 'felt' through our link regardless.

"No bombardment?" she asked cautiously a moment later.

Shaking my head, I reported, "No. It could take us almost a minute to get through her armor. I suddenly realized why she's guarding her engines. One strategy open to her still is to just Slipstream the entire flagship into the planet..." I wasn't sure without more detailed readings, but she might be able to pull that off before the moon splattered the ship into a glorified lunar monument to her troubles.

I heard an audible swallow from Rainbow as she swerved in, then asked, "That... That's bad, right?" Oh, redefineable for the term. My eyes highlighted all the forward facing turrets within our angle of the command center, and I nodded, moving towards the front of the escape pod.

"Applejack, target those turrets. Annihilate them," I ordered, readying the release of the pod's front panel. Rainbow drifted backwards, having slowed to a stop as whisks of her sweat escaped from the one way vents in her 'spacesuit'. Our shields shifted to full frontal protection, hundreds of shots bouncing off us to the sides as the farm mare took aim.

Her blitz of glowing apples took several seconds, three dozen that I counted whipping into the hull at high velocity. The apples alone might have been enough to put large holes into it, but the series of explosions literally scoured the surface of the hull near the command center, sending millions of shards of superheated metal off into space around Equus. Probably the first artificial satellites the planet had ever seen, if I broadened my definition a little.

After Applejack was done firing, I popped the front of the escape pod, my tentacles already out to the sides and whipping me forward like a slingshot right at the command center, my thoughts searching through my subspace database for another useful item. “If she were to fire off the FTL, it would get up to just around one point three times the speed of light in relative motion as it passed into the location of the planet. But if she disabled the barrier that caused her to pass into subspace, she'd literally hit the planet with the flagship. It looks to be at least four and a half million metric tons. I don't want to stop to do the calculation, but all life on the planet would be eliminated at the very least, if there's much of the planet left, physically. At that speed, it would probably be a very fine dust, to be honest,” I warned, causing the orange mare to pale a little.

She was crazy to even consider this. Normal drives had limiters fundamentally built into them to not only prevent the subspace phasing drive from being disabled, but to physically disable the Slipstream drive if it was. This was a custom flagship, though, so I couldn't make that assumption. That sort of attack was... It didn't have a lot of applicable use. Space wasn't exactly 'empty', but actually contained very thin traces of gas in most spots, especially where you saw a lot of activity like planets and solar systems. A ship, or anything really, traveling at hundreds of times the speed of light without having phased into subspace would hit those gaseous molecules as if they were literally bullets shredding the moving object to bits probably before it made it more than a light year or so. But... her ship didn't need to make it a light year, if she only intended to turn it into a glorified superluminal 'bullet' at this distance. I kinda doubted Equus had early warning subspace disruption systems in place. I made a mental note to suggest that to Tia, assuming we were all alive within the hour.

"That's bad. Really bad. Let's go!" Applejack agreed, kicking off the back wall and shooting herself after me. Rainbow followed with a gentle burst of her wing's energy, at least looking better than she was half a minute ago.

Mentally sighing, I inquired, "I imagine asking you two to teleport out would be out of the question?"

Applejack smirked, but Rainbow answered for both of them with, "Of course! I think you're starting ta get us a little. We're not abandoning you at this point!" She grinned after, and I really did sigh finally.

The orange mare snorted, smashing into the metal of the hull next to me, denting it inwards as her legs glowed a fiery orange color. I watched the kinetic energy from her impact distort back up her legs, rippling around over her back as it flooded through the magnification coils, and she huffed, her own energy pushing in and kicking it back down her legs in a distorted rush. I hopped for a moment, and Rainbow flapped once to slow her descent for a split second as she came in behind us. My hooves detached from the hull just as Applejack's magic washed into it, along with the huge impact vibration, and I felt her energy 'flex' itself as the metal surface tore itself apart under us. She shredded the plating downwards almost a meter, disintegrating through the ablative layer in an instant as it became nothing more than a fine sand drifting off into space, blown away from the point where the mare stood.

Dash landed next to me at the same instant I touched down from my hop. Scary! Applejack gave a nod, and I looked back down to note the glowing energy protecting the inner bulkhead. Aegis, personally created by Nirru. Her close range comm hailed me, and I patched her through as I finished finding the object I had been looking for.

"It's too late! You'll never get through the barrier before-" she started to gloat.

"-before ya smash yer ship thingy inta tha planet with tha FTL thingy, we know. Shut yer pie hole, if all yer gonna do is listen ta yerself talk," Applejack cut her off, her giving a surprised look over the video feed, even as I withdrew Ventosus Lacuna.

The Keldarian frowned as she saw it, her mouth starting to open, undoubtedly to point out that it wouldn't listen to me, when I drew the blade directly into the hull. It seared with energy, momentarily folding time and space around it as it 'melted' through the void and sliced the magic that was supporting it. That was the issue with Aegis Barriers, apart from the other drawbacks. Sure, they were energy expensive to maintain, dangerous to practice and use, and didn't let anything through, including air, but a fundamental flaw in their design meant that if you got someone crazy enough to use an unbound one in an attack... The Aegis Barrier folded along the unbound blade, and just became another extension of it as it sliced through her bulkhead like butter. I made a sharp 'V' shaped cut, then kicked downwards, snapping the sparking metal down into the room below. Sparks showered around it as I realized I had incidentally sliced through a ceiling light, but it hardly mattered, the three of us diving through the rapidly sealing hole. Ah, nanite regenerative bulkheads.

Nirru surprisingly wasn't smiling, hitting a button on her console before standing up, then just leaning back against the wall, her arms crossed. "Didn't expect to see you three face to face when I woke up today, but a lot of unexpected things happened, it would seem. And here we are, at the end of everything, face to face again..." she muttered, a rare moment of clarity in her eyes by the looks of it.

My localized quantum network had already cracked into her operating system, and I saw the disconnected Slipstream system in countdown to full charge already. It was physically removed now from the network, and I sighed. "It seems that way, yeah. Last resort ramming, hmm?" I replied, looking around the command area. There weren't any further networks that I could make use of, the system already having disconnected from the engines of the ship. Weapons were offline, looking to be battle damage rather than intentional sabotage. Life support had failed, but there was enough auxiliary left over to live until it didn't matter anymore, and it wouldn't have stopped the ship anyway.

"Yup. No other choice really. No weapons left, no backup, and a mostly crippled ship. I'll admit, damn can you rats fight when backed into a corner. You've impressed me, and at least earned my respect," she admitted, then pushed off the wall, her hands igniting in flames. My barriers slid over myself like armor, me focusing on dumping energy into them as I shifted into a sitting position. I drew Ventosus Lacuna again, this time holding it level in front of me as Applejack and Rainbow Dash followed my cue, lowering into combat positions. She snorted at that, then warned, "At this range, even if my traitorous sword won't listen to me, I can still suppress its abilities. It won't activate for you anymore."

To be honest, I wasn't trained as a fighter. My entire repertoire of moves and techniques were all geared towards avoiding or ending a fight before it really began. At best, neutralization. At worst, assassination. In this case, I sure as hell wasn't going to try to take her alive. Normally, I also prepared barriers to attack with in the form of orbs. However, that was only a habit, and I was in no way, shape, or form limited to using them as such.

Reaching full charge, my 'armor' activated, not actually being armor at all. The foreleg barriers expanded like two huge pistons towards Nirru. Her eyes widened in the briefest fraction of an instant before the huge blocks of force crushed both of her shoulders into the wall behind her. My hoof barriers activated next, attached to the two points in her shoulders now and momentarily becoming a really huge slingshot, with the end point on the handle of the sword. She was in the middle of starting to scream in raw agony from the pain from her shoulders, when I let go of her sword and it rubber-banded right at her. The point went a little off course, missing her nose and instead going through her left eye. It stabbed a good seven or eight centimeters into the metal bulkhead behind her, and she went limp and hung there.

Both mares jumped to either side of me almost half a second too late, Dash letting out a surprised yelp. I shook my head to the corpse after, then spoke up with, "Disabled or not, it's still a sword. Good luck, wherever you end up..."

Applejack gave her a grim stare, then swallowed as she looked back at me instead. "Guess ya really did have it covered. Wow..." she muttered, looking to the cyan pegasus past me. Dash had turned around quickly, fanning her face and looking a little more pale as she swallowed uneasily, but didn't say anything.

Sighing, I explained, "Something threatens everypony I know and love, and the planet I care for with everything I am, and I will stop it. No matter what I have to do..." The orange mare nodded slowly to that, then stood again and walked over to Rainbow instead. I looked up at the slowly healing ceiling, then flicked my tentacles out in an instant, smashing it open again. Her barrier was gone now, having dropped a few seconds after we breached the hull, undoubtedly at her whim to conserve her strength. I looked back to Nirru one last time, her body now burning as her own magic went out of control on her arms. The flames flickered, starting to die as the air was vented out of the cabin, and for a moment, I pitied her. If I could go back in time, would it be possible to find the point where it had all gone wrong? That question would take a far wiser pony than myself, and I dismissed it, quickly running out of time.

"How long until tha moon hits?" Applejack asked, stuck to the floor of the command center by her own magic as she held Rainbow, the pegasus suddenly weightless. The gravity systems for the room failed, and I kicked off the floor and headed back into space following the ceiling and bits of hull.

The scans in my eyes picked up the new distance from the ship, then ran the velocity calculations as I drifted upwards. "Looks to be... forty to forty-two seconds. The FTL jump fires off in thirty one. Gravity isn't going to be strong enough by then to intercept it. We need to do something about the ship still..." I reported, starting to rotate to grapple back down to the hull.

Dash caught me instead first, jetting us back downwards as I relaxed. "Blow tha engine?" Applejack suggested, looking over at the two of us as the cyan mare set us back down against the hull next to her.

Swallowing, I warned, "It's got a charge already. It'll explode..."

"Ain't that tha... oh. We'd get caught in it, too..." she realized, halfway through asking as her ears lowered. I nodded, and Rainbow frowned to my left, looking between us both.

"If... If that's what it takes to save all of Equus, do we really have a choice?" she asked a second later. I stood, then chuckled and shook my head.

"You two do," I reminded, gesturing to their gemstones before looking back at the engine. There was an alternative, but...

Applejack scowled at that, but I was busy running other calculations as I switched to looking at the front of the ship instead. My own gem sat heavy on my chest, and the temptation was there. Mine took over twice as long as theirs did and generated six times the energy output in order to teleport me, due to complications thanks to my excessive amount of folded subspace around me.

"There's got to be another way!" Dash exclaimed, looking towards the front of the ship with me.

Nodding, I started into a run before adding, "There is. I open my own Slipstream effect in front of the ship as it's about to launch, and use my wake to turn the jump into the sun instead. Launch the ship out into the raw Ether to be burned up." Faster than destroying the engine, no damage to Luna's moon, and more chance of actual success. The explosion still had a chance of just propelling a good chunk of the ship down to the planet instead. Nowhere near as destructive, but it would still leave a rather big hole.

"Wait, you can do that...?" Dash asked, running along with me almost immediately. Applejack hesitated, then frowned and took off after us.

Nodding as I ran, I explained, "Yeah, it's a tunnel that it opens. Like the 'wake' of an object moving through the air, but in spatial movement instead. That's how Slipstream tunnels wo-"

She cut me off with, "Like a bird moving through the air, leading a flock!" I blinked slowly once, then nodded to her, sliding to a stop as she suddenly ground to a halt, widening her eyes. Eh?! "Like... Like that sensation transferring dimensions?" she continued, looking back towards the front of the vessel.

It felt like she was getting a plan, but I questioned the validity of whether it was actually being applicable. She took off running again a moment later, far faster this time. Applejack sprinted after her, and I had to activate my leg boosters to keep up. She quickly explained, "Activate it on top of me like you did before! I'm way better at maneuvering than you are." What?!

"Rainbow, we won't have time to get off the ship! It'll be going too fast and-" I started to protest.

"Horseapples! Just trust me, Mender! You have to trust me for this!" she shouted. But...

Applejack bound forward, leaping a warped chunk of metal and landing back in my vision as we sprinted. "Listen ta her! Element o' loyalty, remember? Ya have ta trust us, Mender," she called out. Tch. If they died pointlessly for this, I was haunting the hell out of their ghosts.

"Fine, activating Slipstream Icarus drive!" I shouted back, relenting as the energy flared up off my back. My surprise spiked when Rainbow left the hull, wings flaring with energy again as she gritted her teeth. Wait, no, we had to stay connected to the ship to...

Her wings expanded out to almost three times what was needed, but she slowed down instead, then looked back at me. I heard her voice in my mind rather than out loud, her breathing already labored against her chest. Jump. Trust her, huh? Applejack took two more full strides before bounding upwards, arching through the air while reaching towards Dash. Swallowing, I pushed back the thousand nagging thoughts and leapt.

For a brief second, Rainbow flicked her wings sideways and slowed. That was all it took, and I landed on her back in a fraction of an instant. Applejack went under her instead, and she snatched the mare up with all four legs before her wings flared out again. I draped my forelegs over her shoulders and held on as I tucked myself as close to her body as I could for ease of energy flow.

We were gone in an instant. I timed it, then called out, "Seven seconds until the ship jumps! We need to jump before it!" Rainbow's eyes narrowed, the front of the ship looming in front of us and approaching fast.

Determination flooded off her, and her form straightened out, profile going trim and sleek as she picked up even more speed. Five seconds and we crossed over the nose of the ship. Three seconds until jump, and we tucked into a spin off the nose of the vessel, her mentally screaming out, "Hit it!"

The Wings of Icarus opened up behind me, folding along Rainbow's as she spread them fully. I synced them with her blast of raw magic, and reality folded away in front of us. There was no hesitation, and she was through the distortion in the flick of an eye. She turned hard, whipping us in the direction of the sun, everything distorting and twisting as I projected the movement vector into her eye display. She followed it perfectly, ignoring the warped viewpoints all around us, and we were past the moon entirely a second later. We sped up, and the moon became a spec in the next instant. The ship lurched up, and was suddenly right behind us, burning along the tunnel we were paving for it. I glanced back at it, and felt Rainbow tense as the very tip started to brush against her tail. She screamed, and her wings flared out even more as we shot forward, the sun looming in front of us.

My speedometer hit just over 20c, way outside of relative space now. At this speed, we'd hit the sun in less than twenty seconds. Damn. Her plan worked and redirected the ship but... My hoof hit her chest gem, and nothing happened. I hit it twice more, then growled, but shook my head. "The emergency teleport gems aren't working!" I warned in a mental growl. The magic must not function at superluminous speeds. That's just... great.

"I'm gonna turn out of the way!" she called out mentally. Uh, w-what?! But if she turned, it would follow us!

"Dash, you're paving a path for-" I started to warn. She cut me off with a low growl an instant later.

"No, just trust me!" she reminded, pushing faster and faster. Ah! The sun expanded in front of us, impossibly large now as the tunnel started to wobble and shake. The ship behind us twisted and shook as it ground along after us. Rainbow's Ether Furnace was the only thing holding our FTL tunnel open at this point, which meant she was 'naturally' moving at twenty times the speed of light, under her own power, technically. If we lived, I'd have to mention that to her and really stroke her ego. She deserved it after this one, though!

The tunnel was starting to come apart under the intensity of the Ether flowing against us. And then Rainbow turned... My eyes widened drastically as she twisted sideways, and then we spun. Her wings folded over us, blurring and distorting, and with a scream of what sounded like pure rage, she smashed straight into the side of the tunnel we were just making!

Everything tumbled forward as the wall distorted and warped around her hooves. Her wings folded, remarkably like the Wings of Icarus, and the ship shot up in an instant. Everything ground to a halt as my breath caught. Her hoof touched the nose of the ship and she pushed off, kicking sideways as we flipped backwards. Thousands and thousands of tons of metal passed barely a centimeter in front of my muzzle, and my eyes widened as I watched the engine of the ship disappearing into the sun a heartbeat later as she came out of her tight back flip. We shot sideways out of the tunnel... in a totally new tunnel instead.

Her wings warped through space itself as she manually made a new Slipstream tunnel after punching sideways out of our last one. But... But how?! She didn't seem to care as space seemed to fall away from us, flames and energy lashing out behind as we were driven forward down her new tunnel, it rapidly collapsing inwards behind us. The huge ship hadn't made it to the sun hole. The raw Ether output had torn it apart before it could reach, and it had exploded... inside the Slipstream tunnel while ours was still connected to it!

She went faster and faster, teeth gritting as her wings became massive pillars of energy cascading out behind us. I looked away from the wall of flames giving chase, instead reaching down and grabbing on to Applejack who was still hanging on to the cyan mare's stomach for dear life. All three of us yelped as the tunnel fell away less than ten seconds later and dumped us out into space, a huge blast of flame exiting behind us as Dash burst to the side instead.

My eyes widened as I watched the burning, gaping maw of a dimensional tear slowly close. Wait, that was a dimensional shift... Sitting up on her, a shot of ice rushed through my blood as I saw Keela's ship looming next to us. Oh... Oh hell. We were in the other dimension and our only link just went up in flames... Keela gave me a surprised stare as she patched through to my comm, obviously already realizing the same thing.

My hooves made light clanking noises against the steel floors of the long corridor. My eyes closed, I simply listened to my hoofsteps on the metal and the gentle hum of the air units along the walls. The metallic clang would echo out with each press, the entire hallway feeling empty. Add the light chill to the air that electronics kept best at, and it was a rather clinical sensation. The atmosphere was more geared for our equipment to survive than us. That wasn't very 'pony', I didn't think. Of course, I wasn't very 'pony' either.

My eyes opened, scans sweeping ahead from them in spiraling, mechanical precision. The door slid open in front of me with enough time for me to not have to interrupt my walking speed, and I stepped out into a massive room. Hundreds of holographic displays lined the walls as it expanded forwards into a partial cone shape, shrinking slightly in width as it neared the nose of our vessel. Keela's right ear slowly rotated to point in my direction, and I saw a slight smile play at the corner of her lips on this side.

"Welcome to the bridge, Captain," she greeted, turning to look at me with a full smile. Her face showed off her youth, not having aged a single day since we'd met. The mechanical rotation I saw in her pupil for a moment revealed the reason why before my full sensor readings of her body even needed to remind me.

"Psh, you know it's Mender to you," I reminded, hopping up and standing on the raised command platform next to the rail she leaned against. She gave a gentle giggle, but a more amused scoff sounded further ahead of me.

Dash rotated around in her seat, wry smile on her expression before chastising with, "Flirting while on duty! What a terrible example you set for the crew!" Her voice was lighthearted, and I knew better than to take that seriously.

With a snort, Applejack shook her head, then chuckled in the seat next to hers. Both were elevated from the main floor and literally right in front of me, normally positioning them back to back as they worked. They liked it that way, of course, and they got their way being our main gunner and pilot. "Ya only know ta say that 'cause he's had ta tell us tha same tease so often..." she chirped a second later, winking back over her right shoulder at her lover.

The cyan mare huffed at that, glaring back at her long time friend, and I chuckled watching the two of them. It warmed me up from the perpetual chilled air, it seemed. Keela gave me a softer, knowing smile, then nodded to me as she relaxed again. She knew most of all. This had been a long journey indeed.

"What's the status of the fifth colony?" I asked her, more gently as I glanced back towards the Keldarian. Her smile flicked back to a brighter one, and she nodded to me before replying.

"Significantly better than the second, if that's what you're worried about. Our new habitat technology is taking well, and we've managed to colonize four bubbles now, with minimal changes to the outside planet, as you requested. Four hundred Keldarians and growing..." she revealed. I exhaled, then nodded. They got their second chance, given all of the genetic data I'd saved. Rescuing survivors and providing raw genetic data let them spread and grow yet again. Yeah, survivors. Heh.

The Keldarians got their second chance at the cost of the last chance for the Grosh. My eyes felt heavy as I looked back up at the scanners, then asked, "How are our friends?"

Her smile twisted up lightly at the corner of her mouth. She knew what it was like to hate, too. It was an ugly sensation, but this was an ugly place and we needed it to survive. It made her love a bit more raw and feral, but that was okay, too. "Terrified and in pure defense, just the way you like them. Are we set, then...?" she asked, a bit of excitement building in her eyes. Our real friends had changed everything. Three Grosh turned traitor, and that was all it had taken. They'd given us everything out of pure penance for the atrocity that was their race. We suddenly knew everything about them and their technology. I'd capitalized on that for everything it was worth, of course. Blending our technology together, ours had advanced a thousand years or more. Maybe this is what they'd been afraid of the entire time?

Fear. Deep down, they were small little rabbits in a very large universe. A big and scary universe that had treated them like crap in their formative years. I guess if your environment is filled with hatred and death, in order to survive, you transcend. Now, karma turned out to be a harsh mistress, and we were her bloody sword. I nodded to the Keldarian finally.

"Yes, we're in position. RES Celestia and Luna, you're on flanking duties as usual. RES Cadance, stay back with fire support and communications. We'll take up point in the RES Twilight. Is munitions ready, Tym?" I asked, glancing to my right viewport. He nodded to me, surrounded by monitors and status displays, most of them with various targeting lock systems. His demeanor shifted serious for a moment as he looked over the master display, then he smirked and it faded just as fast.

"Locked on and ready to rip them apart. Communications go first, of course, then engine weak points. No escapes or survivors..." he assured, nodding in my direction again. We'd done this... a lot. We sent a message to each system one week ahead of time. A warning, listing their crimes as a race and our intent to attack. The first three times we did this, they reinforced. The first time their effort was minimal and they laughed it off. We took them apart. There was no call for help, no sound of battle, and no wounded survivors limping home. Their colony went dark, fading into the black abyss of space like so many stars. We destroy communication first, cripple their ships, and then systematically destroy weak spots and defenses. Hit and run tactics out of subspace maneuvers we'd only dreamed of prior. We were 'ghosts' that they didn't even detect until they were already amidst the destruction. Azure's Ghosts is what they called the fleet. Our fleet. Personally, I thought it was the paint job, but it was rather poignant.

We were four capital ships strong, beyond bleeding edge technology. Hundreds of support ships backed us up, traveling along our 'wake' and taking advantage of our ability to ghost in and out of subspace. It left only a fraction of a second attack window open for both us and them. The difference is that we had our alpha strikes ready and targets locked, and they didn't even know we were there. Then they died.

The only thing we ever left behind was our original message and the utterly hollow husks of their civilizations, with everything burnt to a charred dust as it drifted through space. No messages out. No survivors. They just faded away and we were gone by the time they investigated.

Their second and third warnings, they sent the whole fleet. With our tactics, overwhelming maneuverability and firepower superiority, and an immense knowledge of their own tactics, we won. They didn't get any outward communication of us even arriving apart from sudden radio silence. They only repeated this once, however.

Now, we were the boogeyman. Our messages arriving was a sign for full scale evacuation. We picked strategic targets, removing power bases and separating their escape paths one by one. It was a long war, and we'd fought it for a very long time. This was our two hundred and sixteenth year since becoming trapped in this dimension. That meant it was another eighty-four years at least before Equus lined back up with us. We had the technology to make the jump right now if we could. I even had their coordinates. So if we were stuck here, we might as well make a difference in the meantime.

"Forces?" I asked, staring at the screen of our scans in front of me.

Litta shook her head from the second row down. "One siege fleet and one defensive fleet. They're not even going to have time to scream..." she revealed.

Shaking my head, I ordered, "No chance at all. No mercy. Communications with overwhelming firepower, then weak points. Cripple then destroy them outright. No escapes..." She sighed at that, but nodded, repeating my words to the other ships. I wasn't going to ever take a chance. These creatures were going to systematically be wiped out or 'converted', one way or another.

Applejack sighed, and I saw it coming. Again. "Mender, we've been doin' this fer ah long time. Are ya sure ya really want ta-" she started to ask.

I let my nostrils flare for a moment, that chill coming over me again before nodding. "Yup. They had their chance to surrender or run. Now they face justice and get erased," I cut off, staring at her intently. Justice, revenge, war crimes... Whatever you wanted to call it at this point. She looked away, and I knew she'd given up. She lacked the conviction of trying to be my moral compass these days. Even if my own actions damned me in the long run, someone had to do this. The universe wasn't going to give out any freebies at this point, and if someone didn't step up and do something unsavory, we'd all be wiped out by these monsters. When it came down to hospital ships or residential areas, I made sure to do the shooting myself, of course.

Tym smirked again. He'd been with me the whole time. He agreed with every word I'd said, of course, and had seen exactly what these creatures were with his own eyes. "If we're done with the traditional pussy-footing around morality up there, we have some monsters to destroy before the day's out. We ready, Mender?" he asked, shifting his full attention to only me finally.

"Of course. Fangs out, and move in for the kill," I ordered, gesturing my hoof downwards towards the lock-on displays in the main screen. We shuddered all at once as the ship lurched forward. The orange mare sighed and turned away fully, her blue lover giving her an assuring smile. They'd talk to me later tonight, of course, when the four of us were alone. I... They were my lovers, too, of course. They were all I had left apart from Keela, and it had been... a very long time.

For a brief moment, the shimmering yellow mare smiled in my memories, hazy now as all I'd felt of her were pictures over the hundreds of years. Lavender danced amidst, and I smiled, fighting back that spike of pain inside. It had been so very long since I'd seen them. The machines in my blood made me immortal, just like Applejack and Rainbow. They regenerated my biological structure, refreshing my DNA and cells with each cycle. That meant the others would be immortal, too. At least I knew that Twilight and Fluttershy would be waiting when I got back. If we got back.

At this point, I'd promised myself to get the two of them home. The three of us included Keela now, and she'd made her own promises. She sought to follow me wherever I go, and got a blood transfer from me to facilitate just that. Then they all promised to follow me, including Tym. Although I suspected he didn't age anyway, with or without nanite assistance.

We'd fought relentlessly for this. The monsters had been beat back mercilessly again and again. We'd severed them, cut them off, starved them, and utterly defeated them for two hundred years. Now they had six systems left. They had started with over three thousand. By the time we saw Equus again, they would be gone.

I went cold again as our engines hummed, and we flickered out of existence once more...

We were making a difference. We had found Keldarian survivors and aided them. With the DNA I had, they had started to pick up the pieces of their race. Of course, there was a price. Getting the DNA from me brought my energy with it, and permanently changed them. It corroded the blockages and energy buildup in their magic system. It healed their DNA, and slowly brought them peace. They were returning, day by day, back to the people they used to be before. Happy again, and peaceful. Gentle. Males were treated with respect and equality again, despite being more numerous. That was a price the council had been unwilling to pay, seeing my energy as corrupting and evil, ironically.

Our victories carried through and bolstered hope and morale, of course. But it was the technology to survive and thrive that helped them grow. We had multiple colonies now, thousands strong, and they were well on their way to a stable DNA base without needing my input. Almost. They easily would be by the time Equus matched up with us again. And the differences we were making for life here was what kept them going. Applejack and Rainbow saw we were helping, and thus, they allowed me to keep going, too. Allowed it, but definitely didn't like it one bit.

"Yer losin' yerself, Mender. Ya need ta stop this. They're almost gone now, and ya know them other aliens could finish 'em off," Applejack murmured gently, resting next to me in bed with her nose against mine.

Slowly, I sighed, then shook my head towards her. "You know you'd never leave a job to somepony else, unfinished. It's too risky. We have to make sure that no other race has to deal with these monsters..." I reminded. Her eyes softened a little, and she nuzzled me again. For a moment, we just listened to the sounds of teeth being brushed, and an idle, quiet conversation from the bathroom between the other two. Probably talking about our victory today...

"If... that's really why ya do it, then okay. We can see this through ta tha end... but is it really why yer doin' this?" she asked, almost a whisper as her eyes met mine again. I swallowed, then sighed, but all she did was lean in and give me a softer kiss. I returned it, feeling that ice in my chest lessen just a little, and she smiled, breaking away again.

"Ah know. Ya miss 'em. Ah do, too. Just... don't lose yerself before we can see 'em again..." she continued gently. She'd lost far more than I. I'd see Fluttershy and Twilight again. But by the time we got back, her sister, brother, and grandma... They were already gone. Guaranteed. We might get to see their foals if they had any, but...

Softly, I massaged her chest, and she smiled at my touch. The mattress got weighed down slightly, and a cyan mare flopped onto us an instant later, grinning. "Getting started without me, huh?!" she asked, shooting me a wink as I felt my face flush. Two hundred years and she could still make me turn red. Ugh.

"Heh, talkin', Dashie. But Ah think ya knew that..." Applejack shot back, earning a giggle from the other mare. I smiled 'up' at her, then turned and looked in time to see Keela exit the bathroom, entirely nude. It was a rather welcome sight, and she winked to me before sliding in behind me, shorter muzzle nuzzling into the back of my neck. No matter what we faced, we stuck together, and that... That was the important part.

"No. This just... I can't do this. This isn't right. Not yet. Not just for him anymore..."