Chapter 4: Insure Return of Organism
Repeated sparks fired from the nozzle of Derpy's welding torch while she repaired some of the broken cells from the load sharing unit. Each flash bathed the dingy and dim room with a blinding aura of light. Coming in rapid bursts, the pulses of light stiffly bounced off the pegasus' heavy welding helmet. Applejack kept her head turned partially away, squinting her eyes and keeping them blocked from the dangerous rays with a raised hoof.
After one last spark, Derpy finished up. Pushing the torch aside, she glumly told Applejack, "Okay. Try it."
Applejack turned a knob and activated the equipment. The machine lit up and its many parts moved about, but in short order they started to grind together. The interlinking units coughed and wheezed in a sore manner as they struggled to shift positions. It would have been obvious to even a laypony that the equipment was not the least bit healthy.
Sighing, Applejack shut it off. "Darn. Thought for sure that was it," she quietly complained.
"I didn't see anything!" Derpy squawked, and she threw her head about, searching for activity.
Reaching over, Applejack pushed up Derpy's welding helmet. Then she restarted the machine to demonstrate its malfunction with another round of chugging, abrasive noises.
"Oh," Derpy moaned. Disappointed, she looked down at the work she had been doing. The enthusiasm to continue was hardly present. They weren't home, they weren't even serenely floating through space, and they had been at these repairs for hours. All the while the dark specter of Rarity's condition haunted the back of their minds. A vivid image of the alien creature attached to her, choking the life out of her. "I feel like we've been in this place for a month," Derpy said and grabbed the welding torch once more, firing it up. She aimed it at the next cell.
Applejack grabbed the torch from Derpy, flipped her helmet down for her, and handed it back before turning away to shield her eyes. "We shouldn't have landed here in the first place. This place give me the creeps," she concurred. There were several blasts from Derpy's torch and the lifeless silence started to take over again. Trying to inject some positivity into the dull and hopeless air, Applejack said "I reckon the sooner we patch things up and get out of here, the sooner we can go home."
Most of the lights were down in the infirmary except for those Twilight kept on by her workstation. She had a microscope set up with prepared samples scraped from the alien creature, and several monitors buzzed with information she had compiled in her ceaseless study of it. Going back and forth between the microscope and the workstation, she silently and single-mindedly continued her research, unperturbed by Rarity's still unconscious form laying only a few meters away.
"Hi!" Pinkie Pie yelped.
"Gah!" Twilight stumbled in shock from the sudden shattering of the room's soft stillness. She nearly stabbed her eyes out on the eyepieces of the microscope.
Taking in the images and charts on the monitors, Pinkie Pie voiced in awe, "That's amazing, Twilight! ... What is it?"
Collecting herself, Twilight curtly replied, "Why, yes it is. Um... I don't know yet." She hit a switch and all the monitors blinked off simultaneously. Facing the intruder with a dissatisfied look, she stretched herself once before she asked, "Did you want something, Pinkie?"
"Yeah!" the pink pony said eagerly. "I wanted to have a little talk!" She happily moved in and sat down across from Twilight.
Dismissive, Twilight floated a clipboard of notes and a pen over to herself and continued her work. With the bare minimum amount of attention, she asked her guest, "What did you want to talk about?"
"How's Rarity?" Pinkie Pie questioned.
"She's holding, no changes," Twilight answered, without even a glance away from her notes.
"And her new boyfriend?" Pinkie Pie continued.
Twilight didn't give a response. She just scribbled away at her notes.
"Hm?" Pinkie Pie uttered to try and encourage a reply.
"Well, as I said, I was still... collating actually..." Twilight idly responded. Her writing slowed down and she looked up from time to time as she divulged monotonously, "But I have confirmed that he's got an outer layer of protein polysaccharides. He has a funny habit of shedding his cells and replacing them with polarized silicon, which gives him a prolonged resistance to adverse environmental conditions." She gave a dry smile, hoping that the boring details would drive off her unwanted visitor. "Is that enough for-"
"What does this thingy do?" Pinkie Pie asked while she rolled as many knobs as she could on the microscope and peered down one of the eyepieces.
Twilight dropped her pen and clipboard loudly. "Please don't do that. Thank you," she said as she gently pushed the overly impulsive pony away from her delicate equipment.
"Sorry," Pinkie Pie sweetly apologized and went back to sitting with a vacant stare.
Slowly, Twilight picked up her clipboard and pen again. She jotted one note down, looked back at Pinkie Pie, then wrote something else... she was trying hard to forget the bothersome presence before her. But every time she tried to concentrate she couldn't shake off the pony's ignorant but contented stare and had to check on her again.
Suddenly, Pinkie Pie asked again, "... and her new boyfriend?"
The annoyed unicorn heaved a mighty sigh and set her notes down once more. "He has an interesting combination of elements that make him a tough little son-of-a-hitch," she summarized.
"Wow..." Pinkie Pie mumbled, seemingly captivated. However, she quickly fell into confusion a raised an innocent eyebrow. "I wonder how he got inside the ship?" she forgetfully mused.
Immediately Twilight got defensive and glanced about the room. "Wha-? I was obeying a direct order, remember?" she deflected.
"You were?" Pinkie Pie asked curiously.
Twilight rambled unconvincingly, unable to make eye contact as she did so, "Oh yes, I forgot, when Rainbow Dash and Rarity are off ship, you're in charge."
"You did? I am?" was the honest, perplexed reply.
"Are you insinuating that I forgot about the quarantine law?" Twilight unthinkingly shot back. She was beginning to sweat and she panted between sentences. "Well, that I didn't forget."
"You didn't?"
With a hostile stare, Twilight was at last able to look at Pinkie Pie directly in the eyes. "Look, what would you have done with Rarity? Hm?" she said bitingly. "You know her only chance of survival was to get her in here."
"It was?" Pinkie Pie asked.
Unable to maintain her hard glare, Twilight broke away and started pacing nervously while prattling on. She was still accusing in tone when she declared, "Maybe I should have left her outside. Maybe I've... jeopardized the rest of us. But it was a risk I was willing to take."
"Wow, Twilight," Pinkie Pie said with surprise. "That sounds like a pretty big risk to take for a magic officer," she admitted with a tangible amount of respect in her voice.
Sounding insulted, Twilight stressed with contention, "I do take my responsibilities as seriously as you, you know. You do your job, and let me do mine. Hm?"
"Oh. Okay!" Pinkie Pie merrily accepted. She got up and skipped out of the infirmary, humming a jaunty tune.
Twilight watched as the intruder left and then wiped the sweat from her brow. She gave out a breath of relief and started nervously cleaning up the microscope and her workstation. The tense encounter had left her feeling stiff though, and she had to stop to stretch again to keep from freezing up. She arced her back and spread out her pairs of limbs before she took a long drink from a glass of milky white liquid she had kept prepared on the side.
On B deck was the airlock connecting to the Nomastromo's emergency shuttle, the Narsurcingle. It was an incredibly small and tightly designed vessel with twin microfusion thrusters. They weren't nearly as capable of reaching the speeds the Nomastromo itself could go, making timely long-range interstellar travel with the shuttle unreasonable. But they did have enough kick to get the tiny ship out of the way of immediate dangers or to push it towards the nearest space-traffic lane with the hope that its SOS would be picked up by a passing ship.
Rainbow Dash, however, used the shuttle as a means of temporary escape. Without telling anypony where she was going, she ducked inside and shut the airlock door to seclude herself away from the problems of captaincy. She spent hours relaxing in the pilot's seat and jamming to some hardcore heavy metal music that she piped through the shuttle's speakers.
But it was only a three deck ship, so she couldn't stay hidden forever. All the music in space wasn't enough to drown out the droning beep of the comm signal when somepony finally wanted to contact her. Try as she did, she couldn't ignore its repetitive ringing.
Wearily, she tuned down the volume of her music and turned on the comm from her end. "You got the Dash," she tiredly affirmed.
Twilight's voice buzzed through, "I think you should have a look at Rarity."
"Why?" Rainbow Dash asked, hopeful to find a reason not to get up.
"Something's happened," Twilight cryptically answered.
"She didn't up and die, did she?" the captain moaned.
"No. Something much more interesting," Twilight said.
"MORE interesting?" Rainbow Dash replied, curious. She sat for a moment and thought through the enigmatic comments. Finally, with a sigh, she shut off the music completely and opened a new comm channel to the Nomastromo's bridge. "Pinkie, meet me in the infirmary right away," she commanded.
"More interesting, huh?" Rainbow Dash sardonically said to Twilight while she pointed a hoof through the observation window. "Where is it?"
Rarity still laid unconscious on the cot in the darkened infirmary, but the alien which had attached itself to her face was nowhere to be seen. Somehow, when nopony was looking, it had disconnected itself from her and vanished.
"I don't know..." Twilight replied, "but we ought to try and find it."
"Alright, yeah, let's check it," Rainbow Dash steadily agreed, and she opened the infirmary door.
The two ponies, accompanied by Pinkie Pie, carefully and alertly stepped into the doorway. They scanned the poorly lit room with their eyes, searching for any sign of movement. There weren't any indications of where the creature could have gone, so they eased inside the room and sealed the door behind themselves.
Rainbow Dash waved Twilight off to search the right side of the room while she herself briefly checked on Rarity and then went left. Pinkie Pie crept in behind the captain, looking under and around Rarity's cot. The unicorn was still unconscious, but she was breathing weakly under her own power. Her face was covered in red marks and dried slime, left behind from the alien's extended residency. That, coupled with her still worn and frayed mane, gave her the appearance of having survived a particularly nasty collision with a jellyfish vendor.
Not seeing anything herself, Pinkie Pie leaned over and whispered lightly into Rarity's ear, "Hey. Rarity? Have you seen your boyfriend around anywhere?" Predictably, there was no response from the comatose pony. Pinkie Pie rapped on the first officer's head a few times in a vain attempt to get her attention. Finally giving up, the pink pony shrugged her shoulders and started to move on before she suddenly remembered something and shot back to Rarity's side. "Hey... have you seen the ice cream anywhere?" she whispered.
Annoyed with the display of idiocy, Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and intentionally kicked over a tray of medical tools, breaking the fragile silence with a rolling clatter. The startling noise made Pinkie Pie jump with a shriek but she quickly realized what happened and took the action in jest, giggling at the prank.
"Can we please be serious?" Twilight begged in a hushed tone. She collected two small prods which had lighted ends, meant for dissection, and passed one to Rainbow Dash so that they could check the thin cracks between equipment more safely. While she was raiding the dissection tools, she also grabbed a tray with high walls which could be used to trap the creature.
"How come I don't get a light stick?" Pinkie Pie wailed.
"Be quiet, Pinkie," Rainbow Dash chided in a whisper. "Just keep an eye on Rarity."
Disappointed but nonetheless faithful, Pinkie Pie gave a salute and a low, "Okie-dokie-lokie." She stood by the unconscious pony with one eye shut and the other turned to her charge. Intently she focused her gaze, unwavering, and brought her eye a hair's breadth from Rarity. She stared with so much focus that she didn't notice the loose, dangling tail as it began to slither down from the overhead above her. The tail lightly tickled her hair, and the curious sensation caused her to look up.
In a flash, the vile alien fell out of the overhead and caught onto Pinkie Pie's face.
"Oh, hi!" the pink pony cordially greeted. "I found him!" she gleefully told the others.
"Geez! Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed and swooped over to her. She swatted the creature off Pinkie Pie's face and protectively wedged herself between the two, guarding her officer with her life.
Twilight came running over with the tray, but when she saw the alien laying belly up on the floor she only set the tray down besides it. "I didn't see it. Was it in the overhead?" she asked and leaned over the limp critter to inspect it.
Confused, Rainbow Dash mumbled in agitation, "What? It was up there somewhere..." She snapped to her senses suddenly and shouted, "Cover the thing, will you?"
"Wait, wait..." Twilight admonished, still visually studying the alien. With the tenacity and aggression with which it had clung to Rarity, there was no way it wouldn't have coupled with Pinkie Pie unless it physically couldn't anymore. It hadn't even made an effort to get away. She was fairly certain it was harmless, or perhaps even dead. Now that it laid belly-up in front of her, with all its exposed biology showing, she took a moment to stand in awe of it. "By Celestia..." she murmured to herself. It would have been a shame if Rainbow Dash's blow had in fact killed it.
Slowly and deliberately, she brought her lighted prod around and tenderly poked the creature once. It wriggled in place for a moment and tightened its legs with a jerk.
Rainbow Dash instinctively moved to flip the tray over it, however, Twilight calmly but bitterly held up her hoof to block the pegasus. "No. That's just a reflex action..." she said.
"Hehe, he's ticklish!" Pinkie Pie snickered.
Twilight frowned, but was determined to make the best of this loss. "Well, we've got to have a look at this," she told the others and magically plopped the alien into the tray on its back. She carried it over to the dissection table and shined a powerful lamp on it. From a nearby collection of tools she replaced her lighted prod with a thicker and sturdier Futuristic brand Precision Instrument, a complicated looking and exactingly engineered metal stick designed for poking dead things.
The creature was unresponsive to any of her further jabs. Its tail laid curled and lifeless below it, and it held its legs up stiffly like a circle of stone columns around its bare and moist bottom. There was a jagged, mouth-like orifice in which the makings of a long tube organ could be seen. Various sacs and pores seemed present around the mouth, capable of emitting some kind of viscous and adhesive slime. However, just like the top side of the alien, there didn't seem to be any sensory organs, so how it detected its surroundings remained a mystery. Twilight deduced that the secure design was probably part of its incredible survivability, having as few exposed vulnerable areas as possible. Incidentally, that also gave the creature more safe surface area to fold around its target's face and let its organic glue get to work.
The Precision Instrument did not prove entirely effective for her examination. When she looked for an additional tool, she found that Pinkie and Rainbow Dash had crowded around her, stealing looks over her shoulder.
"Excuse me," Twilight said to Pinkie Pie, and pulled a pair of tweezers past the pony. She used them to pull out and examine the fleshy tube that was part of the alien's mouth. It was deceptively long and had a surprising amount of musculature, presumably to let it be flexible and maneuverable, if not quite as prehensile as the parasite's tail. Glands inside the mouth also coated the tube with a different kind of goo; a lubricant to assist in penetration of the target's oral pathway.
The sheer perfection of the alien's design was astounding. That made it all the more heartbreaking for Twilight to admit, "Seems dead enough..."
"Ew," Pinkie Pie whined with an extruded tongue. "I don't want to keep any dead bugs on board the ship."
Twilight couldn't believe the show of disrespect for the potential this creature offered them. "Pinkie, for Celestia's sake, this is the first time that we've encountered a species like this. It HAS to go back," she stressed. "There's all sorts of tests that have to be made... just think of all the things we could learn!"
"Twilight, are you kidding?" Pinkie Pie shot back. "What's to know? Has a tail, bleeds acid, great kisser; if the way Rarity was snogging with it means anything..."
Exasperated, Twilight appealed to her captain, "Rainbow Dash, it has to go back."
"Well... I'd soon as not..." Rainbow Dash sorely replied with a forlorn sigh. She took a hard look a the little monster that had caused such problems. Grotesque and horrifying, encountering this creature was the worse thing to ever have happened on one of these shipping runs. The decision to follow orders and land on this planetoid was a major mistake.
But nothing could be done about all that now. "... But you're the Magic Officer, it's your decision, Twilight," she resigned, and immediately turned to leave the room in a rush. As long as she never had to see that thing again, she was fine with it.
"Rainbow!" Pinkie Pie called after the captain and chased her.
Rainbow Dash stomped away from the infirmary, heading straight back towards the shuttle to get some peace. Pinkie Pie tailed her every step of the way and pestered her. The unrelenting pony followed her all the way down to B deck. "How can I change my mind? The decision's been made," Rainbow Dash said and nonchalantly blew her off. After all this, the tired captain only wanted for this long day to end.
"I'm not-! I'm not trying to change your mind, Rainbow Dash, I just want you to listen- Will you listen to me?" Pinkie Pie persistently implored.
Completely ignoring her, Rainbow Dash stormed forward and passed into the hallway just before the shuttle airlock. In a huff, Pinkie Pie slammed the button on a nearby control panel which sealed the hallway doors. The thick hatch closed down in front of Rainbow Dash and she threw her head up in a loud groan.
"Just tell me how you can let her keep that slimy dead thing on board," Pinkie Pie demanded.
"Look, I just run the ship!" Rainbow Dash shouted in a burst of anger and turned to face her pursuer. "Anything that has to do with the Magic Division, Twilight has the final word!"
"Why?" the inexorable pony retorted.
"Why? Because, Pinkie, that's what the company WANTS to happen!" Rainbow Dash fumed.
"Why?"
Although she still ground her teeth with anger, the pegasus was able to reel in some of her aggression and managed to stop yelling. "Because standard procedure aboard these ships is to do whatever the hock the company tells you to do," she expressed, partially out of her own frustrations with the demeaning and disenfranchising corporate power structure that had always existed above her.
"Wh-"
Rainbow Dash stuffed her hoof in Pinkie Pie's mouth and stared her down with a furrowed brow. Sheepishly, Pinkie Pie smiled from behind the concealing hoof.
When Rainbow Dash finally let go, the concerned pony instead asked, "Did you ever ship out with Twilight before?"
Bouncing a free hoof in front of herself, Rainbow Dash indifferently spurted out the details she remembered. "I went out... five times with another magic officer. Mixie, or Traxie, or something like that. She was a real hoofhead," the captain recalled. She droned on, detached, not seeing how the specifics were relevant or how they would have changed anything. "They replaced her... two days before we left Palominus. With Twilight. I guess because of all the complaints I filed. Certainly took them long enough..."
"I just think Twilight's been acting funny," Pinkie Pie said with suspicion.
The captain pushed her face into the pink pony's and strenuously asserted, "Yeah, well, EVERYPONY'S been acting funny."
Pinkie Pie didn't have a response. The day's events had taken their toll on even her chipper mood and she surrendered with a glum and downtrodden look.
With that, Rainbow Dash reached past the sullen pony and struck the door switch to unseal the hallway. With another sigh, she tried her best to sound sympathetic and asked, "What's happening with the repairs? How's it going?"
"Oh, I talked to Applejack a little bit ago," Pinkie Pie replied. "She said, 'Pinkie, go on and git the heck outta here.'"
"The repairs, Pinkie," Rainbow Dash irritably reminded her.
"Mostly done, I think," the unsure pony mentioned.
Somewhat relieved at the news, yet somewhat frustrated at not having been immediately informed, Rainbow Dash rhetorically complained, "Why didn't you tell me so?"
"Well, because there's still some things left to do," Pinkie Pie lightly protested.
"Oh, like what?" the annoyed pegasus asked with sarcasm.
Thinking, Pinkie Pie answered, "Well... we're blind on B and C decks. The reserve power system's blown. The ice cream's still missing..."
Rainbow Dash scoffed at the list of non-essentials and threw out a dismissive hoof. "Oh, that's a bunch of donkey dropping, we can take off without that," she declared and turned around to head to the shuttle.
"Well, yeah, we can," Pinkie Pie said reluctantly. But she expressed defiance, "But do you really want to tell everypony that there'll be no dessert?"
"Look, I just want to get the heck out of here, alright?" Rainbow Dash moaned while she walked off, without once even looking back.
Things seemed to be going well. When the engines fired up, there were no immediate warning signs of faulty repairs. With the pre-takeoff checklist completed and all stations having reported no serious anomalies, Rainbow Dash gave the order. The Nomastromo's engines boomed, shaking the vessel as their thrust lifted the heavy ship off the surface. There were countless quakes and bumps as smaller thrusters fired sporadically in order to balance the ship during it vertical ascent. As it gained height, the ship's landing legs retracted back into its frame.
On board, everypony save the still disabled Rarity was at their respective station. They all diligently watched their monitors and instruments, undisturbed by the mighty rolling and rocking of the ship. If any serious alarms went off they needed to be ready to make an emergency landing.
Down in the engineering level, Derpy was the first to spot a potential problem. "Dust in the intakes again," she indicated while she pointed to a flashing light on her board. "Number two is overheating."
"Spit on it for two minutes, would you? For Celestia's sake," Applejack grumbled. It was only a minor problem which posed only slight potential danger during the stressful takeoff itself. They would be clear once they broke atmosphere. She didn't want to land back on that rock just to deal with that.
"Okay!" Derpy confirmed. She noisily started charging saliva in the back of her throat with all the sounds of draining basin.
Pinkie Pie's concerned voice rang over the comm, "We're hot. We're getting hotter."
Ptooie!
"Oh, no, there we go. Back to normal!" she reported, upbeat.
The ship stayed stable enough to continue its climb. Fluttershy once again called out the altitude of the vessel as it worked its way up. Everypony waited for the right mark.
"One kilometer on ascension," the navigator declared.
"Alright. Engage artificial gravity," Rainbow Dash ordered. Fluttershy complied and toggled the ship's gravity controls. The captain gave a nod over to the magic officer.
Twilight alerted the crew, "I'm altering the vector... now."
The Nomastromo tilted backwards and the engines multiplied their force, firing out the rear of the ship. Like a rocket, the vessel shot forward through the air and sliced through the planetoid's atmosphere. The turbulence on board increased in tandem with the acceleration at first but, as they cleared the atmosphere, the violent, shipwide tremors began to subside.
The tense ponies exchanged glances with each other and small smiles started to form on their faces. Even Fluttershy's countdown until they reached orbit had trailed off into a series of faint, happy giggles. The ship slowly came to a smooth ride, with the only sounds being the hum of their equipment. No rattling from the buckling hull, no ceaseless stormy winds... just the drone of their computers and the muffled roar of the engines.
Applejack cheered through the comm, "Walk in the park! We fix something, we stay fixed, right Derpy?"
"Right?" Derpy was heard asking, followed by a loud, metallic crash.
With bright laughs and big smiles, the bridge ponies unstrapped themselves from their seats and celebrated. It was nice to have a positive turn of events for a change. Now all they needed to do was hook the Nomastromo back up to the ore refinery and they could set off immediately for home. Then this cursed planetoid would become the forgotten memory it deserved to be.
Rainbow Dash, Derpy, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack sat around a small table in the side of the common area. The ship was on course for Equestria, with refinery in tow, but the enthusiasm from the successful takeoff didn't last as long as everypony had hoped. The lingering ghost of Rarity's condition couldn't be banished so easily, and it cast a depression over all the crew.
Applejack picked at a tub of food she had in front herself. After the long hours of repairs, even the garbage offered by this ship was acceptable. She glanced around at her crewmates while chewing a fresh bite: Rainbow Dash sat with forelegs folded as she stared at the wall, Derpy's eyes wandered erratically but there wasn't a hint of joy in her attitude, and Pinkie Pie looked down at a book of ice cream flavors that she sadly flipped through. It was a sour silence, worse than the unsavory food in front of her.
"What I think we should do is just freeze her," she said to lift the stillness. "I mean, she's got a disease, why don't we stop it where it is?"
Rainbow Dash snorted.
"We can always get her to a doctor when we get back home. Right, Derpy?" Applejack reasoned.
"Right?" Derpy asked in confusion. She turned to look but there was nothing except for the white, flat wall of the common room.
Pinkie Pie picked her head up and commented, "Derpy, whenever she says ANYTHING you say, 'right.'"
"... Right?" Derpy repeated, and checked again. It was still just the wall. She turned back to Pinkie Pie in hopeless befuddlement.
Slightly bemused by the antics, Pinkie Pie's eyes started to shine and the corners of her mouth picked up. "Applejack, your staff just follows you around and says ,'right.' She's like a regular parrot," she mockingly accused.
Applejack chuckled. "Yeah, shape up, sugarcube!" she told Derpy, "You're not some kind of parrot, right?"
"Right?" Derpy almost started to turn rightwards again, but froze. A certain cleverness flashed in her crossed eyes and she suddenly and unexpectedly cranked left. It was just Pinkie Pie sitting there, though. "Oh..." Derpy moaned, having hoped for a better discovery. "Hi, Pinkie."
The whole table jumped from Rainbow Dash's kick. "Oh, come on, knock it off!" she furiously yelled and stood up. "We're all going to have to go into quarantine when we get back, and that's it!"
"It's not so bad," Pinkie Pie commented. "I hear they give you all the pudding you want."
Rainbow Dash stamped the floor and then walked over to the main table, fuming and venting her anger in heavy breaths. Her livid haze almost kept her from noticing Fluttershy timidly standing at the entrance to the room with a clipboard in her mouth. It was clear that she was waiting for a chance to enter the conversation, but also that she knew she was going to be adding to their troubles.
"Um... excuse me... but, uh... I finished those calculations, um, Captain Rainbow Dash... the ones that you asked me to do..." Fluttershy explained as delicately as she could.
"Thrill me, will you please?" Rainbow Dash spat out with dry sarcasm.
Fluttershy dropped her clipboard on the table and trepidatiously ran a hoof down her crunched numbers. "Oh, okay... well... based on the time spent off course getting to the planetoid-"
"Just give me the short version. How far to Equestria?" the captain insisted.
The shy pegasus lowered her head and looked away, fearful of the bad news she had to deliver. "Ten months..." she weakly said.
There were groans across the room. Rainbow Dash stamped the ground again and boiled with frustrated anger. "Son of a..." she murmured to herself through her gritted teeth.
A loud comm beep startled the crew, particularly Derpy, who had sat right next to the comm panel. She leapt over the small table in surprise and crashed facefirst into the seat on the other side.
There was a moment of hesitation where nopony seemed to want to answer Twilight's comm call. No possible news could be good news. Finally, Pinkie Pie reached up and switched on the comm.
"Rainbow Dash, I think you should come and see Rarity," Twilight tersely delivered.
"Has her condition changed?" the captain asked.
"It's simpler if you just come and see her," was the response.
"Why do I always have to go and see? Why can you never just tell me?" Rainbow Dash wearily complained.
"Just... just get over here," Twilight said and shut off the comm from her end.
With a tired nod, the blue pegasus made her way out of the room and towards the infirmary. The other ponies began to file out after her. Applejack grabbed her tub of food to take along. "Come on, Derpy," she commanded.
The ditzy pegasus struggled to dislodge her head from the seat, finally getting it free with a loud pop. "Right!" she victoriously called, and followed after Applejack.
As they all approached the infirmary, there was a sudden rush of excitement and raised voices. Through the observation window they saw Rarity, and she was sitting up, completely conscious! She was clothed in her fancy, royal purple bathrobe and her mane had already been partially washed and wrapped up in a towel. Floating a compact in front of herself, she busily applied makeup to fix all that had been destroyed by the sweaty expedition in the pressure suit and cover up the marks left behind by the alien. By the way she had to stretch her neck every time she turned her head, everypony could tell she was incredibly sore from her extended nap.
The ponies shuffled into the room. All seven of them made the tiny infirmary a cluttered space, especially because most of them crowded around Rarity while they avidly tried to chat with her. Only Rainbow Dash hung back, quietly observing Rarity with a serious and skeptical gaze.
"How are you doing?" Fluttershy jubilantly asked the awakened unicorn.
Setting her tub of food aside, Applejack grabbed a cup of water and held it out towards Rarity. "Yeah, how are ya?"
Rarity closed her compact and put it down before she magically accepted the drink. With a cough, she strained her voice to reply, "Terrific. Next silly question." She leaned back and wolfed down the whole cup's worth in one go.
Most of the ponies shared a laugh at her joke while Twilight presented her with a fresh cup of water. Rarity gladly accepted it as well and quickly set to work on it.
"You remember anything about the planetoid?" Rainbow Dash interrupted.
The unicorn stopped her drinking instantly. Steadily, Rarity lowered the cup and swallowed what water she still had in her mouth. She hadn't even thought about what happened since waking up; she had been too preoccupied fixing the nightmare of her appearance. Now that she tried to reach back into her memory, she only felt a startling absence. Various disordered events flashed in her mind but they seemed disconnected and unreal. She stared motionlessly into her half-finished cup of water. At last, with raised eyebrows, she shook her head and shrugged before she went back to drinking.
"What's the last thing you do remember?" Rainbow Dash followed up.
Rarity gasped as she finished the drink and set the cup aside. "I remember... some... horrible dream about..." she said, stumbling about her words. She struggled to recall the details until it all came to her in a rush. "About being commissioned to design a dress for the Princess for an annual gala, but she insisted on this positively gaudy combination of a searing yellow with and a dull brown. I felt like I was choking to death, gagging at such a sight!" she recalled with horror.
Anxiously, she tried to block out the vision by changing the subject. "Anyway... where are we?" she asked curiously. The holes in her mind wouldn't let her connect past to present.
Now convinced enough, Rainbow Dash smiled and told her with a laugh, "We're right here."
"We're on our way home!" Pinkie Pie added with delight.
"Yeah, back to the ol' pony popsicle beds," Applejack laughed before she dug her face back into her food.
The worn and recovering unicorn smiled back, feeling safe in the company of her crewmates. But she lightheartedly protested, "Oh no, I simply must finish fixing my hair first. And this makeup needs to be evened out... I have to recurl my eyelashes, my hooves could use some refinement, I need to brush my tail, and would it be too much to ask that I get a bite to eat before we go back? I'm famished!"
Applejack found agreement on that last point at least, and swallowed her current mouthful before she burped. "I need a li'l something more to eat myself!"
"Yeah, yeah," Rainbow Dash agreed with pleasure. She invitingly swept a hoof in front of herself and said, "One more meal before bedtime. I'm buying!"
The finest the space-freighter had to offer was laid out for a feast. It wasn't much, but with the worst of their expedition over even this banal, low-grade spread seemed like a victory meal to the gathered ponies. They piled their plates, poured their drinks, and start to indulge in their last dinner before they were set to go into hypersleep for the return journey. The mood was jovial, with shared laughs and even a little bit of singing from Pinkie Pie.
Rarity had cleaned herself up but hadn't changed back into her uniform. Instead she wore plain and simple white clothing, appropriate for their due hypersleep. It was a concession to time. Her spirit had lifted, and she smiled and joked with the rest of the crew as she spooned a large amount of mediocre spaghetti onto her plate.
"The first thing that I'm going to do when we get back, after a trip to a spa, is get some decent food," she said in jest while she pour some seasoning onto her lifeless meal.
Sitting next to her, Applejack chuckled, "I can dig it, sugarcube!" She grabbed a large mouthful of her own food and between chews she squeezed out a garbled, "I reckon I've eaten worse food than this, but then I've tasted better, you know what I'm saying?"
With a slight giggle, Fluttershy giddily noted, "Well, you certainly pound down the stuff like there's no tomorrow."
"Uh-huh," Rarity agreed as she sampled her own food. Applejack's coarse manners always threw her off, but all the same there was a certain relieving charm to it; an ordinariness that felt natural after her recent experiences. This time, the engineer's unrefined behaviors were grin-worthy.
Applejack gave a smirk to Fluttershy and said cleverly, "Listen, I'd rather be eating something else but, uh... right now, I'm thinking food."
Fluttershy instantly flushed and looked away in confused embarrassment.
After she realized what she just said, Applejack paused and rubbed the side of her head. "Woah. How did I never catch on to THAT line before? Uh... sorry 'bout that," she apologized.
Swiftly, Rarity brought the conversation back in line and joked, "You really shouldn't be so eager to eat the food until you know what it's made of, heh." She finished her current bite and held a hoof up to catch a mild cough.
"Ha! No, girl! I don't want to talk about what it's made of!" Applejack enthusiastically responded. "I'm trying to eat this!"
Rarity picked up another forkful and began to put it into her mouth, but she slowed and stopped, trembling slightly. She dropped her fork back onto her plate and raised her hoof again to guard a much stronger, hoarser cough. There was sort of a gagging sound as well.
"What's the matter, sugarcube?" Applejack lightly asked while she slapped Rarity on the back. "The food ain't THAT bad!"
But Rarity's condition seemed to worsen. Her hacking and coughing grew louder and more intense, and her hoof moved from blocking her mouth to rubbing her throat. Her eyes bulged out in strain and her pupils shrank.
"Rarity?" Applejack asked with growing concern. She had even dropped her jesting smile.
All around the table, everypony stopped what they were doing and stared. Only Rainbow Dash kept about her business and dismissed the show, saying, "Oh, she's just being a drama queen. Let her be."
Suddenly, Rarity's hacking ramped up in intensity and became incredibly violent. Her whole body convulsed and she stood up, loudly kicking out her chair from under herself. The raspy gagging sound she produced made it seem like she was trying to speak but couldn't get a word out. At least until she abruptly howled with a horrifyingly painful wheezing noise. The hideous screech was accompanied by a massive, involuntary twitch that caused her to rear up.
"This is serious!" Twilight shouted as she kicked her own chair out and ran over to the spasmodic unicorn.
In response, Rainbow Dash and Applejack both got up as well and tried to get a hold of Rarity. But her thrashing about overpowered their initial efforts and she collapsed on top of the table. Glasses smashed and spilled to the side, followed by even more as the unicorn's legs kicked about uncontrollably. The other two ponies were quickly on top of her again. They rolled her onto her back and tried to get a hold of her flailing limbs.
The remaining ponies rushed up to assist. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Derpy all grabbed her hind legs so that the others could focus solely on her forelegs and upper body. Twilight magically crammed a spoon sideways into Rarity's mouth to keep her from biting off her own tongue in her spasms, and then tried to rapidly assess the problem.
Rarity seemed to lose all connection to the world around her. Her eyes closed shut and her shaking grew more powerful. She almost kicked Applejack and Rainbow Dash off several times while her chest bounced up and down on the table. She seemed desperate to scream but couldn't make any sound other than a burdened, raspy wheezing. Eventually the strained and horrific vocalizations she was making had her heaving sorely, and she unwillingly spat the spoon out of her mouth. Twilight grabbed another utensil for her to chew on, but before it could be put into place Rarity's chest violently thrust into the air, arching her back. The unexpected twitch and accompanied kicks knocked some of the ponies off and they froze at the hideous sound of a sudden snapping and cracking. A small burst of blood shot up from her chest, easily staining her pure white shirt and coat. The event seemed to end her fit though, and she fell back onto the table with a heavy crash before becoming motionless and silent.
Fluttershy shrieked but covered her mouth quickly. The others stared in disbelief for a moment, letting go of whatever limb they were holding. Twilight suspiciously edged in to inspect the bleeding unicorn.
Just before she could lift Rarity's shirt, the spasms renewed, impossibly more powerful than before. Perhaps worse, this time Rarity was able to scream. Her agonized gasps were loud and wet, drowned in the blood she was vomiting up. Her wailing masked the continuous cracking and tearing noise that came from her chest.
Everypony jumped back onto her and attempted to steady her wild limbs.
The screeches and gurgles coming from Rarity became more labored and rhythmic. They accelerated as her whole body seemed to wriggle and writhe back and forth, and the thumping of her chest became extremely prominent as it loudly pounded on the table below her. At last, there was one final thrust of her chest while she spewed a dreadful, dying gasp.
A shrill noise rang out, but it wasn't from Rarity. Her body went limp and her chest burst open in a shower of blood and tissue. The cry came from a small lizard-like creature that emerged out of her, nestled in her exposed organs and ribs.
The shocking scene sent everypony backwards in a leap of surprise and fright. Fluttershy in particular caught a large spray of guts and viscera across her face, and she fell backwards while screaming and crying. Applejack had a moment of panicked reaction and grabbed a knife off the table, but Twilight held her back and loudly advised, "Don't touch it!"
The little, draconic creature slithered into an upright position. The coating of Rarity's blood hid the color of its purple scales and green frills. Jagged spines ran down its back and along its tail, which came to a sharp and pointed end. Although only an infant, it already had a full set of visible, razor-sharp teeth. It opened its tiny, emerald eyes for the first time and gazed about at the crew, relaying a short hiss.
Pinkie Pie's eyes widened, completely shocked at this turn of events. Then, with a sudden, gleeful smile she scooted over to Rarity's corpse and bounced repeatedly with unbridled joy. "OH MY GOSH RARITY CONGRATULATIONS!" she yelled with a wave of bliss. "He's so adorable! What are you going to name him? Why didn't you tell us you were expecting? Who's the-" she stopped her frolicking when she hit upon a startling realization. "... AHHHHHH WE NEED TO HAVE A BABY SHOWER!" Her elated bounding started again, more enthusiastic than before. "I wish you had told me! I would have had everything ready and there would have been cake and presents and I can't wait to tell everypony at home about- ... uh... Rarity?"
The color of the unicorn's cadaver had greatly faded from the rapid blood loss. Her tongue hung out of the side of her mouth and it was almost as if crosses could be seen over her eyes. She was silent, and she was very, very dead.
The pink pony took a few uncomfortable steps backwards and then carefully moved over to Twilight's side. Putting her hoof to the side of her mouth, she asked in a whisper, "Hey... uh... is the baby supposed to come out of her chest like that? I mean, my mom always told me how painful it was and now I guess I can see-"
There was an aggressive hiss and the tiny monster sprang from Rarity's gaping wound. It charged across the table, knocking over any still standing glasses that stood in its way, and it jumped down to the floor. It ran towards the door and disappeared out of the room before anypony couldn't fully realize what had even happened.
An awful silence fell over the whole room, interrupted by Fluttershy's low crying as she stayed sprawled on the floor. Nopony was sure what to even think or feel at this unimaginable and gruesome catastrophe that had struck so suddenly. Rarity's corpse gently kicked and twitched a few last times in post mortem reflex.
"I hope nopony's mad..." Pinkie Pie chimed in, "but I haven't found the ice cream yet. There won't be any dessert."