Last time on “OK This Time Will Be The Last One I'm Serious” Quest:
>Nightmare Moon broke into the lab, taking out Pinkie in the process.
>You tried to distract her, buying the others time to save Pinkie.
>Except Pinkie flew out of the rubble and attacked her from behind.
>You got in on the action, trying to wrestle her and get at her horn.
>Knocked back by a magical explosion.
>Crawled half dazed to a table loaded with various chemicals.
>Nightmare Moon mocked you in your weakened state, forcing unpleasant memories into your mind with magic, scene after scene of murder and death.
>Twilight, still barely on her hooves, let loose a magical blast sending the evil pony flying off of you.
>You tried hitting her in the horn some more, but she simply shoved you into the others physically
>Twilight ran for Celestia, still in a computer.
>Rarity bought you time, taking on Nightmare Moon head to head with magic.
>You found some more chemicals. They had some strange label system you couldn’t figure out. so you just grabbed on at random and threw it at her face.
>Screaming and retreating, Rarity was able to follow up with her own magic.
>You wrestled with the evil pony on the ground.\
You are Rusty Shackleford, a human with no memory who has found himself lost in Equestria.
Currently, you are holding onto the pony that was once Trixie tight in your arms. After fighting with her for who knows how long, she's finally stopped struggling and has gone limp in your arms. Your arms is burning from where the chemical you threw at her is dripping from her face onto you. You're inch of your body is exhausted and sore and you very much want to go lay down now that the adrenalin is wearing off.
Rarity is not too far away, not looking much better then you, panting hard and watching you with wide eyes. Twilight is a way's off, trying to do something with the partially broken machine containing Celestia. You can't see Pinkie or Fluttershy from where you are.
You shove the limp pony off of you. She weight a ton. Seeing her from this angle, you can see how bad she got it; the whole left side of her face is burnt chemically, hairless and sizzling lightly. You look down at your arms which is in a similar state. It hurts like hell, but you only got a little on you.
"Rusty!" Rarity runs over to you, stopping just out of arm's length to you. "Are you... is she... ?"
"No," You say, breathing slowly returning to normal. "Just knocked out. I'm OK. Help me up."
The white unicorn helps you up with magic and a supporting shoulder. Together, the two of you limp over to Twilight. She runs over and hugs both of you.
"Is it over?" She says looking up at you.
"We're OK for now," You say, petting her ragged mane reassuringly. "What did you figure out here? Any luck?
"Celestia's OK. But we have another problem," Twilight gesture's to all the robots strewn about the floor broken apart during the fight. "With these things broke, I don't know how else we can get her out of here."
You looks through all the junked robots. It's a complete mess, even more confusing them when they were intact. If only you had the schematics that Pinkie was trying to...
Pinkie!
You quickly scan the lab and see a bit of Pinkie laying on a table across the way. Fluttershy is with her. It looks like she's taking care of her injured friend.
"Does anyone know where those schematics Pinkie had went?" You ask.
"I didn't see where they went." Twilight says, looking around. The whole area is a real mess. The ceiling collapsed in the area by the entrance and a lot of the equipment has been mostly destroyed.
"Celestia, do you see any more robot's we could use to get you out of here?"
"No, I'm sorry," Green text comes up of the screen. Luckily the computer half of the machine appears to be undamaged. "I don't think I'm able to see everything from where I am, though. To be perfectly honest, I don't understand how I'm doing this." You go over the machine again. The memory in your head....things seem to make a little more sense now. That console you were using had something to do with life support. You set it to do something on delay. Or were forced to, it's still not clear to you.
But this thing, it's a completely different machine. You could try to screw around with it, but you don't have much more insight about it then you did an hour ago.
"Twilight, go and see if you can clear the ruble out of here so we can get out," You order the purple pony. "We need to get out of this place. And find Applejack."
"Right!"
"Rarity, keep an eye on Trixie... Nightmare Moon. Whatever. If she stirs, bop her one."
"With pleasure." Rarity clops over to the unconscious pony while Twilight starts some heavy lifting. You go over to Fluttershy as she's tending to Pinkie.
"Oh dear," She frets over her friend. Pinkie's magic wings are gone and she's covered in lumpy bruises. As you approach Fluttershy screeches and jumps around to face you.
"Easy easy, it's me."
"Oh, Rusty." Fluttershy looks relived. "I'm sorry I... I was hiding."
"That's OK. You did the smart thing," You reassure Fluttershy and going over to Pinkie. She's out. "Did Pinkie say anything about schematics?"
"No. She... I haven’t been able to wake her up." Fluttershy says, on the verge of tears.
"It's OK, it's OK," You reassure the yellow pony some more. "She's just a little banged up. Pinkie will be fine."
"Rusty!" Rarity calls out from the other side of the lab.
"What?"
"We have a problem!"
You rush over, but end up running into Rarity by the computer.
"Rarity, what is it?"
"I... she's... just look!"
Peeking around the large machine you see the pony you've been fighting still splayed out on the ground where you left her, by all accounts seemingly dead to the world. Around her mouth, nose and ears, a black liquid and smoke are oozing out slowly.
You scoop up Rarity in your arms and take off running. Twilight is distracted, still hard at work lifting rubble with magic. She turns surprised at the sound of you running to her.
"Rusty? What is i-"
You snatch up the other pony mid sentence and head off to the others. Pony under each arm, you skirt around work tables, upturned chairs and try hard not to tangle your feet on a corpse. You dump the two ponies unceremoniously together next to the other ponies, scaring Fluttershy half to death.
"What i-"
"Shhhh!" You shush Fluttershy, giving everyone the gesture to keep quiet and keep their heads down. You peek over the table, but don't see anything in the dark room.
"What is it?" Fluttershy whispers.
"Nightmare Moon. She came out of Trixie." Rarity explains. Fluttershy makes a little pathetic whimpering sound.
"Shhh," You try to reassure the others, keeping a look out. There's no sign of movement, but the lighting is so bad a big black cloud wouldn't be easy to spot.
"What do you see?" Twilight asks.
"Nothing. It might take her a while to recover. I dunno. We need to get out of here. Twilight, do you think you can move the ru...."
"Move the what?" Twilight asks.
Behind Twilight and the others backs is the black cloud, completely silent as it rises up from the floor and slowly creeping over to the ponies.
"It's behind us!" You shout, pointing. The others all spin around as the dark miasma descends upon the group. Everyone' scrambles and shouts in terror, running into each other and knocking over tables in the process. Pinkie goes tumbling to the ground and Fluttershy trips over her. You rush to help them.
Suddenly your vision goes completely black. Breathing becomes difficult, like trying to suck in air through wet fabric. You run into something solid, but you have no idea what it is. You can feel something worming its way in your nostrils. You ears. The pits of your eyes.
Laughing.
Silence, followed by the terrible sensation of falling freely though space, tumbling end over end, going faster and faster. There's nothing to see, no sound beside your racing heart in your ears, no sensation but your churning stomach doing somersaults.
Think happy thoughts.
.....
.....
You wake up, face down in the dirt, warm sunlight shining on you. Picking yourself up, you find yourself someplace familiar. Sitting at the base of a large fountain, you're in the heart of Ponyville. Everything is quiet and there's no sign of anyone.
The area is oddly quiet, giving you bad memories from when you first arrived in Ponyville. The streets are devoid of life. An honest to goodness tumbleweed bounces by in the wind.
"Hello?"
There's no answer, save for the wind.
Deciding to look for help, you pick yourself up and try to find a familiar place in town. But as soon as you take a step, you foot sinks part way in the ground with a bone snapping CRACK. A fissure as wide as your torso etches itself in a jagged line from your foot step. You're nearly knocked over by a bout of throbbing pain in your skull.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Forcing your eyes open through the pain, you see... something oozing up from the crack in the ground. Patiently it seeps up, like green jellied blood like a broken scab in the earth.
"Ewwww!" Pinkie says beside you.
Turning your head away from the weirdness, you see Pinkie has appeared right next to you, sitting on the fountain.
"Think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts," You repeat to yourself, trying to will positive images and experiences into your head. "None of this is real."
"Actually it's kinda real," Pinkie says sitting next to you. "It's weird."
"What are you talking about?" You say, backing up away from the seeping ooze.
"I'm preeeety sure we're in your head right now. See look!" Pinkie grabs her head with you front hoofs and turns in around 180 degrees. "See?"
"Ookkkkkk," You say, perplexed by the situation. "How do we get out?"
"I dunno," Pinkie says, shrugging. "It's your head, silly."
A nearby house explodes violently, sending splinters of wood and metal outward into the street. Another attack of head pain nearly drops you again, your heart throbbing in your ears and the taste of blood on your tongue.
"AHAHAHAHAH!"
If this is your mind, then that means you have control here. Gritting your teeth, you focus all your energy on picturing Nightmare Moon before you. Preferably subdued.
Something solid coalesces in the space before you and Pinkie, giving shape to the crazy pony of your dreams. She's larger then before and her wicked smile exaggerated to an extreme that doesn't seem possible. From her head to her hooves, she's wrapped in heavy metal chains covered in padlocks bigger then your fists.
"Oh no! You caught me!" She says, giggling. "What ever will I do?"
Laughing even more, the chains melt into her like liquid into fabric. As you watch, she starts to grow in mass. Her snout elongates into a pair of wicked pincers. Her legs stretch out longer and before you know it she's towering over you.
OK, round two.
As this... thing transforms into something even worse, you focus you mind. At your side appear Luna and Celestia out of thin air. Side by side, they're as you imagine them; tall and proud, holding their ground before the monstrosity in your mind. Of course, you take some liberties with Celestia so she's not the mindless horse of your memory. As one, the two ponies join horns and, with an audible build up of power, an arch of plasma blasts forward to the terror with a thunderclap.
Ponyville falls away like the backstage of a play, revealing an an endless landscape of barren craters and starry space. The creature, now some corruption of a giant spider dripping with blood colored venom, backs away from the attack, shaking her head.
"Oh this is rich!" It barks with laughter, it's mandibles audibly clicking together as it talks. It sweeps one of it's gangling legs at the two alicorns and it tears through them, chunks of them drifting to the ground like pits of scrap paper.
As the last remnants of the two ponies drift away, you have a coughing fit. When it subside and you pull your hand away, there's blood.
"Pathetic!" The spider mocks over you. "This is my world! You can't win!"
"Hey, y-you shut up!" Pinkie says from behind you. She seems really small. Nightmare Moon only laughs harder.
Enraged, you imagine harder. You grow... or everything becomes smaller. It's hard to tell. It continues until the massive craters are smaller then ant hills, to where the stupid spider isn't even visible and the entire moon is snowball floating before you in the black. With your massive hands, you clap them together on top of it, disintegrating it like sand.
Panting hard, floating in space, you pull your hands apart and dust trickles away into nothingness.
"Missed me!" Her voice echos from all angles of the universe.
Suddenly, the planet your over grows larger and larger until it's all around you. You hurdle towards the surface like a comet. Tiny continents grow in size to meets you as you barrel to the ground at supersonic speed, unable to stop or slow down.
The ground is a mattress the ground is a mattress the ground is a mattress!
You slam into the earth with the speed and force that, if it were real, would probably have killed you. But instead the ground gives way, having you sink in deeply for a moment and then suddenly retract again, bouncing you back up into the clouds. And back down again. And up. You bound across the landscape, incrementally slowing down with each bounce until you belly flop to a stop in some field of wild flowers.
Spitting dirt and bugs out of your mouth, you try to get up, all of your limbs feeling cold and numb. In front of you, close enough to spit on, is Nightmare Moon, now a dark tall pony again, oddly out of place with the colorful flowers and butterflies.
"Heh, is that all you got?" You cough, trying to put up some bravado. You think you're going to throw up.
"Nope." She says simply and then hits you with a magical blast. You're painfully thrown onto your back, feeling like your skin is searing and bones snapping. When it stops you feel dazed and sick, completely disoriented. You try to lift a weak hand to wipe your face.
And are more then a little shocked when it's greeted by a little hoof.
"What th-" You start to say, confused by the entire situation. But are interrupted by the sound of galloping and the pain of a hoof kicking your little body like a ball.
You fly a few feet across the field and tumble in the dirt, coughing and involuntarily crying from the trauma. She's so strong. Nothing you do is good enough. Every time you fight back, she hit's twice as hard. You can hear more galloping and curl up into a little ball, wanting it to be over.
"Hey, don't be like that."
You look up. It's Twilight Sparkle. And Pinkie. And Rarity. All your friends are here with you. Someone picks you up and sets you on your hooves. Everyone smiling down at you, which makes you feel a little better. Behind you Ponyville springs up straight from the earth, bustling with life and friends. Hanging across the street is a large banner that says "HAPPY BIRTH DAY!" in big pink letter.
Thunder cracks and you turn around the other way. Nightmare Moon is galloping at full speed to you and the others. Behind her a storm follows her like a magnet, tearing up the landscape, trees flying in the wind like sticks, floods tearing through the dirt like farm plow. And behind all that... nothing.
Your friends gather around you and the seven of you embrace, holding tight. The sound of destruction thunders forward, undeterred by earth or rock or wood. As you watch from between the multicolored huddle, you see Nightmare moon disappear in the storm. Strengthening it. Becoming it. Just before it hits you and the others, you shut your eyes.
You are defended by the sound of wind screaming in your ears and wood and rock banging together. Even in the middle of the group, you are pelted with tiny bits of what must be sand that cut along your skin like glass. Your entire existence becomes this storm raging around you, destroying everything.
But your friends don't leave you.
Eventually, there's silence and a sense of calm as the storm subsides. You open your eyes as your friends let go. You're OK and so are they. Ponyville is still standing, untouched, bustling along happy as can be with ponies going on their lives. But beyond the little village....nothing. And endless, pure oblivion of absolutely nothing. The sky is gone now as well. Above and below, Ponyville is an island against the black.
Something unseen hits the ground, tilting everything like a boat on the ocean. Someone catches you, keeping you from tumbling.
"You are nothing! Do you hear me? NOTHING!" The very blackness seems to be screaming at you, making you cower against it.
"My friend's give me meaning!" You shout back defiantly to the blackness, your little voice sounding pathetically puny. "And purpose! And I do the same for them! We are m-"
"SHUT UP!" The unearthly voice cuts you off, the source seeming to echo from every direction at once.
The blackness above... seems to grow darker, giving itself shape and dimension, making itself tangible. Black on more black, you get only the vaguest impression of razor tooth jaws bigger then anything gaping wide, ready to devour and you the rest. The jaws descend on the little island of your mind...
And is greeted in turn by a rainbow of colors, blasting right into it straight on. The two forces struggle against each other momentarily, tectonic powers embracing against each other in a way and with such power you can't even begin to comprehend it. But the rainbow of light gains the advantage, driving back the darkness.
"AAARRRRRRRGGGHHH!"
The endless void fight harder, more desperate, pushing everything it has against its foe. And shatters apart!
"AAAARRGGGH!"
You're holding Rarity by the throat, half choking her and holding her struggling against a large console. In your other hand is a long jagged piece of metal torn out from something. An alarm is blaring and the ground is shaking. Red security lights are flashing and tainting everything in a dirty macabre light.
"Rusty! Stop!"
Shocked by the sudden transition, you quickly drop Rarity and the shiv, both of which fall to the ground. The little unicorn coughs loudly, hoof to her throat and looking up at you in terror.
"Rarity I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" You plead. "I'm me again! Are you o-"
"AHHHHHH!"
The sound of Applejack shouting cuts you off. And the blow to the back of your head sends you to the ground. You fall onto grated metal, you're poor head awash and disoriented even further.
"Stop! Stop!" Rarity shouts. "I think he's OK again!"
"How can you tell?!" Twilight shouts from somewhere else.
"He let me go!"
"Rusty..." Applejack says. You can her the clop of her hooves on metal, slowly approaching you. "Are you... you?"
"My head hurts." You say, flipping over onto your back.
"It is him!" Pinkie shouts and lands on top of you, driving the wind out of your lungs. You can see the others are around you now as well. "Rusty! What happened?!"
"I fought her... in my head. I think I won."
"Really?" Twilight says, coming over. "How did you manage that?"
"Well, all of you were there with me and-"
"Yeah this is fascinating and all, but we have a bigger issue right now!" Applejack cuts you off and pointing.
You look up to find you're in a completely new room. Lined everywhere are large whirring consoles and static filled displays. Set into the far wall is a massive screen taking up it's whole space. On it is a landscape of tree's and distant mountains. Far far in the distance is the purple glimpse of the Canterlot magic shield. As you watch, the tree's are becoming small and small are the source of the display rises higher into the sky away from them.
"OK uhhh," You scramble up to your feet, every joint in your body protesting angrily. You get in front of a console and find that it smashed apart, little exposed wires sparking and little screens shattered apart. "Someone tell me what happened. I don't remember anything."
"Nightmare Moon got in you at the lab," Twilight explains, watching the screen as the ground steadily gets further away. "You just... ignored us and walked into the COM area. We followed after you with Trixie, not sure what to do. We found Applejack locked in a room and then found you in here, pressing away at buttons. When all the alarms started, we tried to stop you but..."
"It didn't go well," Rarity says, still a little hoarse.
"Sorry," You apologize.
"It's OK. I'm just happy you got a hold of yourself b-"
The entire room shakes again, followed by a whole new set of alarms.
"The heck is that?" You say. A new, mini screen pops on the large on, showing an exterior scene of what is apparently the ship you are on. Clinging to the side of the bare metal is a familiar rainbow maned pony, fighting against the turbulence.
"OK OK, think, think" You say to yourself, trying to figure this out. You're on some really complicated flying city hurting into the sky, one of your friends is clinging for dear life on the side and all the controls are either destroyed or completely mind boggling to you. "Did anyone see any instructions or anything for this thing?"
"We were more focused on you at the time," Pinkie quips.
"Yeah, sorry again. I'm just trying to figure out how to open an exterior door for her. Maybe if w-"
"Look!" Fluttershy says, pointing at the screen.
As if on que, an aperture slides open in the smooth facing outer wall. Dash, fighting the wind and acceleration, is visibly trying to crawl her way to it. But for whatever reason, she doen't seem to be able to reach the ledge.
"That crazy pony is going to get herself killed!" Applejack says, frustrated.
"Oh, Celestia? Nice to see you're OK too. You uh... lost weight."
"Funny. Please, just don't drop me."
"Promise." You store the Princess in your suit for safe keeping. "OK uhhhh... computer? Can you clarify what all these charts are?"
Nothing happens this time. As you wait for a response, you see Dash surrounded in a purple aura and pulled into the opening, which closes soon after her. The screen cuts out, followed by text saying in big bold letters.
>ALL EXTERIOR OPENINGS SEALED.
>REACHING TERMINAL VELOCITY NOW.
>WARNING: COLLISION COURSE.
"What's this mean?" Pinkie says, poking the big screen.
"Trouble," Applejack says. "Rusty..."
"Working on it. OK uh... slow down?"
Nothing happens. The ground is very far away now and the blue sky is starting to get really inky.
"Change course? Decrease velocity? Land? STOP?"
More big text appear on the big screen.
>COURSE SET.
>NAVIGATION LOCKED.
>PLEASE ENTER PASSWORD OVERRIDE.
"Oh great," You say as the last of the blueness of the sky vanishes. "Password, password."
"Rusty, that thing was in your head, right?" Applejack asks. "Maybe it left something behind?"
"hat's a good idea!" You say and concentrate. You try to shut out the noise and the hectic scene around you, focusing on you mind and what's inside. On that evil pony and what she did to your head.
But there's nothing! That terrible part of your mind that you always tried to avoid with out knowing, that place that was always laughing out you. It's gone! and it certainly didn't leave a password.
You start patting through the bodies of the bridge crew, hoping to find something helpful.
"Did you guys see me type in or say anything while I saw in here?"
"You were typing something here," Fluttershy says, pointing at a console. It's a mess and mostly destroyed. "And then you started breaking it apart..."
"Great."
"What the heck is going on here?!" Dash and the others have returned. She's looking around horrified. "What... why is everyone dead?!"
"Long story," You say, returning your attention to the computer. "What about escape pods?"
>ESCAPE PODS LAUNCHING NOW.
"Stop! Stop launch!"
>LAUNCH CANCELED
>ESCAPE PODS REMAINING: 000000001
>IMPACT IN 10:00 APROX.
"OK, my bad," You say, everyone giving you meaningful looks. "How about DIRECTIONS to the escape pods?"
A red line of light appears on the floor.
"And maybe the captain's quarters and navigation?"
Another two lines appear, one purple, the other blue.
You give Celestia back to Twilight.
"How big are these escape pods anyway?"
A hologram appears midair over some of the consoles, sputtering in and out of life. A long series of facts and figures play out, including dimensions, thrust power, tensile strength, etc. But the thing that jumps up at you is it's capacity.
>DESIGNED FOR SINGLE OCCUPANT.
>IMPACT IN 9:00 APROX.
"OK, you guys get to the escape pod."
"Rusty..." Twilight says slowly, her voice tense.
"Just go! I'll... I'll figure something out up here!"
"No!" Applejack objects, slamming her hoof down. "We didn't go through all this just to let you do something like this! We either do this together or not at all!"
"Yeah!" Pinkie cheers in agreement.
"OK fine!" You don't know what to do with these ponies. "Applejack and Rarity, you take Trixie and Celestia to the escape pod. Twilight and Fluttershy, go to the Captain's quarters. Pinkie and Dash, go to navigation. See if you can find something. Anything. But if you can't, go to the escape pod."
"What are you going to do, Rusty?"
Before you answer her, you turn to ask the computer a question.
"How many times can I try the password before I get locked out?"
>INCORRECT PASSWORD WILL RESULT IN LOCKOUT.
>ADMIN WILL BE REQUIRED FOR REST.
>IMPACT IN 7:00 APROX.
"OK, I'll go to navigation then. Everyone hurry! GO!"
Everyone takes off, doing their respective tasks. You follow along with Dash and Pinkie, barely able to keep up with the speed freak and the hyper pony. Luckily, navigation wasn't far. The door looks like it had been blasted apart in some explosion. There's chunks of broken jagged metal everywhere, but there's plenty of machines blipping away everywhere.
Dominating the center of the room is a huge holographic display. There's a huge representation of a planet, a moon and another, much smaller blip being tacked hearing to the moon. All along the walls are charts and consoles. There's also a little countdown, this one just over four minutes.
"Quickly! Search everyone that looks important!"
The two ponies get to work faster then you, ruffling through the clothes of the dead. Dash is taking this all in stride.
"Computer, who would have the password for the override?"
A screen materializes in the air directly in front of your face like magic, displaying a long series of green text.
>OVERRIDE COMMAND HAS BEEN DIVERTED TO INDIVIDUAL WHO ACCESSED MASTER CONTROL APROX 15:00 AGO.
The screen flicks to video, showing the room you were just in. You're there, trying something into the console. Soon after, you begging to tear apart the electronics with your bear hands. Rarity jumps out at you from somewhere and the scene cuts out.
"Zoom in and show me what I typed in."
The scene plays out again, this time the camera zooming closer to your face.
"Pan down. Show me what he's typing."
The screen goes down, to your hands. But you can't see what it's begin typed from this angle.
"Change angle?"
Nothing happens. The room shudders, nearly sending you tumbling into Dash.
>WARNING WARNING ENTERING SATELLITE GRAVITY WELL.
>PLEASE ADJUST COURSE.
"INITIATE OVERRIDE!" You shout desperately to the computer. Another screen appears before you.
>INPUT PASSWORD.
"FRIENDSHIP!"
The screen goes blank momentarily, then comes back bright red with black Xs, the word LOCKOUT in big bold letters everywhere.
"DAMN IT!"
"Rusty!" You hear Twilight calling, echoing down the hall over the alarm. "We have to get out of here!"
Frustrated, you shove open the door and get out.
"Ru-!" Rarity shouts, but is cut off by you closing the door on them.
"LAUNCH!"
The screen appears before you again.
>CAN NOT SUPPORT WEIGHT CAPACITY.
You tear open the door again. The entire structure is shaking and you can barely stay on your feet. When you get back in the pod, Rarity hits you in the chest. Hard.
"Don't you do that!" She shouts, tears in her eyes. "Don't you dare!"
"Listen to me!" You say, trying to shake some sense into her. "Twilight, Rarity, use you magic to make us lighter! Do it now!"
The two conscious unicorns take your lead and do as you say. Twilight, who barely looks like she would be upright if it wasn't for the cramped conditions, is clearly struggling, as is Rarity. You certainly don't feel lighter.
The magic isn't working. It's too much to ask of the already over extended unicorns. You kick open the door yet again and get out, but this time everyone follows with you.
"Some of us are going to have to stay behind..." Applejack says somberly, coming to the same conclusion as you.
"But who?" Fluttershy asks.
"Twilight, I think yo-" You start to say, but she immediately starts shaking her head, crying.
"No! No! I couldn't! I can't leave all of you here!"
"I won't go." Pinkie says.
"Neither will I." All of the ponies show solidarity, none willing to be the ones to leave the others behind.
"But... you all have families." You say, watching them all huddle together.
"We're family. " Rarity says, weeping. "I could never live with myself."
"I... but..." You're struggling with what to say.
You yell in anger and frustration. It's your fault that everyone is here and going to die like this. If it wasn't for you, your friends wouldn't have followed you blindly into this death trap.
But you can at least try to salavage something.
You shove the ponies aside, knocking them all down in suprise. Quickly, you grab Twilight, making sure she has Celestia in her saddlebag and thow her violently into the escape pod.
"Rusty, what are you doing?!"
You ignore her and do the same with Trixie, throwing her at Twilight before she can recover. The pony scramble up from inside the pod, buy you've already locked the door.
"I'm sorry!" You shout, trying to mouth clearly for the pony to see through the glass. She's banging against the door. "LAUNCH!"
The pod clears from the vessel with no further issue. As you watch, the little metal disappears as it hurtles away. And then your view is taken up by the sight of barren gray of the moon rushing closer to meet you.
You turn to find the others staring at you, expecting them to be angry. But they're huddling together again, crying and comforting one another. You fall to your knees next to them.
"I'm sorry."
No one replies. Drowning in guilt and despair, you kneel there, waiting for the end. You're surprised when you feel one of the ponies hugging you. Then another. And the others. Eye's closed, tired, silently sobbing, you and ponies embrace, waiting for the end not far off.