"Er. Yes..." The tall alien cleared his throat, turned, and began walking towards the back of the facility. "Follow me. I'll explain on the way, if you want." Raven snickered, following. She whispered to Blackened, "Reputation. Just gotta drop her name. That works like seventy percent of the time. They're either scared, grateful or real good friends."
"Righty then." He followed the alien alongside Raven. "It's like everyone's heard of her," he whispered to her.
The alien began, "We here in this society devote our lives to mass exploration. Not just of this universe, but every universe. We were on the verge of mastering our wormhole technology when attackers of unknown origin flooded in from the sky. They'd have destroyed everything we worked for, but this Maya Heartstrings pony happened along with that husband of hers and drove them away. Thanks to her, our work was kept safe, and we now have access to more universes than anyone in the multiverse. If she or her family needs a favor, most of us are more than willing."
"I'd figured they'd be a good driving force," he responded. "Barely anything can get in their way; strongest couple I know."
Raven nodded. "We need some kinda rescue ship, got a friend in a space station over Equestria." "I see. Do either of you actually know how to man a space craft?" "Nope. Blacky?"
"Hmm... sounds complicated." He barely knew anything about space in general, so a spacecraft was about as new to him as Yak patois.
The alien creature nodded. "Then you'll need a craft with an AI, so you don't attempt to pilot it and die."
"Probably." He came to a sliding, metal door, which opened on its own as he approached. On the other side was a massive, white sphere below a portal just large enough for it to fit through. "Your craft. This cost us seven billion Credits to build, so be careful. I'll send for suits to be delivered your way before you take off. Normally there would be some sort of training, but this seems urgent, so just don't explode." "Hooooly buck..." Raven went wide-eyed as she looked at the craft. "Blacky. That thing. It's cool."
The fates are cruel, as anypony can tell you. So often, life and death are decided by simple chance. A flip of an unseen coin. ******************************************************************************* Cannonball had never faced a foe like this. Massive. Powerful. And faster than should have been possible. The wraith dragon shrugged off every blow the bat landed, every swipe of its claws coming closer and closer until... -flip- Nova caught Cannonball as he struck the side of the ship, saving him from a deadly fall to the ice below. The old bat's wings were broken, as were several ribs, but he was alive. She set him gently on the deck and rushed back to the battle. She didn't see the windigo coming. It seemed to appear from nowhere, having slipped under the ship from the other side to attack her from below. As the monster's fangs closed on her, she knew that she'd fought her last battle. But she wasn't to go down without a fight. "Do not go gently into that good night." She thrust her sword into the roof of the windigo's mouth, causing it to roar with pain and release her. More were coming, and they were bringing wraiths with them. Pushing through the pain, Nova led them far away from the ship. As five windigos and a swarm of wraiths descended, Nova pulled out a small, round object. Several in the party would have recognized it as a fusion grenade, similar to the one that Winter had tried to kill Az with. Laughing even as her foes tore into her, she pressed the button. -flip- "Rage, rage, against the dying of the light." Gaston finished the verse for her as the grenade detonated, vaporizing Nova and the swarm around her. It had been one of his brother's favorite poems. She'd given them a chance to escape. Abandoning the useless teleporter, he raced to the wheel and steered the ship towards the opening in the swarm. He was so focused on steering the ship, he didn't hear the wraith land behind him. -flip- Rose had already watched Galahad die. In the last few minutes, she'd seen both of her dogs die. Now Nova was dead. When she saw the wraith creeping up on Gaston, she was determined not to see another friend fall. She leapt on the monster's back, stabbing over and over with her dagger. She kept stabbing even as the wraith, ignoring her, opened its hideously deformed jaws and clamped down on the griffon's back. The wraith shook Gaston, snapping his spine, and tossed him overboard. Then it reached for the annoying little vampire and tossed her to the deck. -flip- Flair was running out of energy. He'd been blasting the monster with everything he had, and he'd barely made a dent in their numbers. Finally, he withdrew for a moment to rest, and spotted a wraith trampling an unconscious Rose mercilessly. A quick fireball took care of it, and he ran to help the little vampire. Lifting her with his magic, he carried her to Rain for healing. It was about that time that the dragon attacked. The ball of energy that flew from its jaws was deceptively small, and it was aimed at the unicorn healer. Flair's eyes grew wide as he realized what was happening. "Rain!" He screamed, diving in front of her and throwing up an energy shield, "MOVE!" -flip- Rain moved. She dove back just as the blast struck her little brother. The shield should have held. But Flair was tired. Rain watched as her brother was torn to pieces. It was the last thing she saw before the blast hit her, burning her face and cracking her her horn. -flip- Rain's face was blackened and charred, her horn was cracked and almost useless, and her eyes were scorched. She was almost certainly blind, but she was still casting magic at the spot Flair had been, desperately trying to save a pony that no longer existed. Olga grabbed the screaming unicorn and hauled her below deck. There was nothing to do for her now but to get her out of the way. She then ran back up and took the wheel, steering for the opening. -flip- They almost made it. Even as the ship sailed into the open sky, the dragon caught up with them. Nightshade sighed. They wouldn't be able to outrun it. It already had its claws on the ship, trying to drag them back down. She turned to Dawn, who was still firing on the swarm. "Get below deck. Activate the teleport. It should work now." "But the..." "I'll deal with it. Just hit the button. Don't wait for me." Nightshade transformed into her Draconequus form and dove over the side, growing in size to match the wraith dragon. Grappling with the monster, she dragged it away from the ship and into the swarm. -flip- Dawn rushed below, but when she reached the button, she hesitated. Something was calling her. Something impossible to resist. As if in a trance, she walked back up and looked over the rail to the ground below. "He rises." Massive, mile-long cracks appeared on the ice below as the ground swelled and rose. Something was forcing its way up from below. Something impossibly huge, impossibly old, and impossibly powerful.
He whistled. "I like it! This might be a cool ride.~" Eyes glued to the craft, he began to walk towards it.
In the midst of the chaos, Navaja took a hard blow to the temple from an earth wraith, knocking him out cold on the deck. It tried to deliver a finishing blow in the form of a neck snap, but Azrael leapt and clotheslined the beast before it could kill his new friend. Getting back to his hooves, Az stood protectively right over the assassin, growing more and more angry as hell broke loose around him, watching his comrades fall. "Damn it... WE NEED TO GET THE *squee!* OUT OF HERE! And where in Tartarus is Nightshade?!" He'd missed the part where she flew over the edge. For all he knew at this point, she was among the dead. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Near the bottom of the round craft, a fairly well-hidden door slid itself open as Blackened drew closer.
His expression formed a grin as the door opened. "This thing's so good already.~" Moving in, he looked around and admired the size, before finding a seat.
Once inside, it looked like a typical starship bridge, monitors in place of any windows. https://bw-1651cf0d2f737d7adeab84d3...naws.com/products/product_87135/Full87135.jpg The craft was clearly designed to be operated by more than one individual, or with at least some AI assistance. It was good they would have that. Raven walked in and whistled. "Wow... Think we can fit a lotta buddies in here."
"Yeah..." Raven took a seat in what was most likely the captain's chair. "Hope it's not one of those talking ones, like in the movies."
Olga pushed the engines as hard as they would go, but there was no way they could cover enough distance to escape in time. "Below deck! Use teleport!"
