1Bit

"Uh, well it hurts definitely." Amber chuckled weakly, but it just elicited another groan from her as the pain in her muzzle seemed to flame up again. She tried to hold it with a hoof, looking back at Solar and Lightning. "But, t-thanks you two. I wouldn't have made it trying to crawl all the way back here. Feels like Celestia is frowning upon me at this moment in time...so much bad luck."

"See? This is what I'm talking about!" Comet exclaimed, throwing his hooves up in exasperation. "I literally said nothing, and you just go off on me like that! Sweet Celestia, it's like you want to fight or something..." The pegasus sighed, turning around on Quiet and looking up towards the mountain, deep in thought. After a brief pause, he turned back to her. "So you were a slave? Raiders or prison? I don't recognise you, so I doubt it's one of the ones I cleared out."

"Well, I have no idea who you are, but it seems kinda contradictory to talk about co-existing right before threatening to kill me. Perhaps you should think a bit before opening your pretty little mouth, alright?" Comet smirked, turning his attention to Quiet with calm eyes. He sighed, looking over the mare with calm eyes. "I've said before I'm not here to cause a fight. Sure, turns out a certain somepony wanted to butt heads, but whatever."

Everything was pretty much a blur at that stage to Amber. She could make out the drowned shouting from who she thought was Lightning, but the sudden movements and speed at which she was travelling, increased her dazed state tenfold. Her lips opened and closed in soundless sentences, muttering small inaudible phrases as a weak hoof held her muzzle. She could still feel the pain, but it had been dumbed down slightly as the minutes went by. "Sweet Celestia...back in this s-situation again. Needing to be rescued..."

Amber tried to get up with the help of her marefriend, but her hooves slipped out from underneath her and she fell flat to the floor again with a groan. Drips of blood splashed on the cool metal and it only aggravated Amber more. "S-Solar, I don't think I c-can move too easily..." She admitted, looking up at Solar with a terrified expression. "That smash really took it out of me."

"I-I think my muzzles broken..." Amber whimpered, trying to regain her composure. She had no chance of getting up, her head dizzy and in pain from the collision with the heavy, metal door. She tried to take deep breaths which only came out as shaky as she tried to fight back tears from the pain. "Sweet Celestia..." "W-was that your friggin' mom's doing?"

"Don't worry Solar, we'll save the ship. Save the ponies. And things'll turn out okay--" Before Amber could continue she was interrupted by the door directly in front of her slamming shut directly in her face. A worringly loud crack could be heard as her muzzle hit the door directly, as she had little chance to break as it suddenly appeared in front of her mid-gallop. She fell to the floor, clutching her muzzle in pain and groaning quietly to herself.

"Oh sweet Celestia...!" Amber barely had time to register that her marefriend had gone, scrambling about before giving chase down the hallway after her. Her hooves loudly clammered against the metal plates, and her panting echoed against the steel walls, but she pressed onwards, chasing after Solar. "So..is there...a...plan?" She tried to say through gasping breaths. It seemed coming off a drug addiction did little to help fitness.

"No. No way am I letting you go alone and you know it. I'm sticking with you through thick and thin, Solar." Amber gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, with a half-smile forming on her lips. "And you know there ain't no way that you're going to dissuade me either. We'll do our best to fix this mess, for better, or for worse."

"No, no! Wait!" Amber squeaked, grabbing Solar's head with her hooves to focus all of the mare's attention on her. "We can't tell your mother!" She whispered. "You know as well as me, she'll just try to stop us, play down your plan and just drag us down to that shuttle. We tell her, and we won't get anything done." It was a sad truth, but it was still a truth.

Amber paused, unsure of what to reply with. The girl seemed so innocent, so ready to accept even the faintest hint of hope; the pegasus was afraid to promise her anything with the fear of letting her down. "L-look, I don't want to make any promises. We barely know anything about technology as it is. But I guess we're too stubborn to just accept these things." Amber put on a brave face, weakly smirking at Selene and keeping her marefriend close. "We'll see what we can do, alright? But please don't get your hopes up. I doubt we can do much for the ship..."

"Solar...I don't think that's going to help. I know you want to fix things, but I doubt we have time or the knowledge to fix anything at this point." Amber sighed, slowly placing a wing over her marefriend. Amber looked at Selene and felt that pang of guilt build up inside of her again. Was she really going to leave such an innocent creature like this to die while she survived? She couldn't surely. "Well if you want help Solar, I'm up for trying as well." She added, turning back to her marefriend. "Maybe we can make a difference...something, anything..." "Um, s-sorry Selene...my brain is scattered right now. This whole situation is just so horrible." Amber sighed, giving the creature a sideways glance but a warm smile to go with it. "I'm Amber by the way, since you asked. Amber Hearthstone. But no, we aren't stuck here it seems. However, me and Solar here aren't so happy to just leave. We're going to try and see what we can do to get the ship back on course with some power."

Amber noticed her marefriend shuffling around to the side of her, which sparked her curiosity, and leading to her following Solar's movements. She spied the pegasus activating Scarlett's suit thing, and a number of thoughts began rushing through her mind. "Uh, Solar? Sweetie?" Amber spoke up from behind her. "What are you doing?"

"Scarlett, you can't just leave her like this. Please, she'll be heartbroken!" Amber could feel herself choking up again, breaking away from Solar to try and reason with Scarlett. "No suit, no gift, is going to replace a mother's love! As much as I would love her sweaty suit, this isn't how this works! Come with us..."

"W-well, what I really want...is you. That's all I want." Amber sighed, weakly leaning on her marefriend for some kind of support as her strength failed her. "There's so much wrong with the universe, so I want to keep the one thing that's right with it as close to me as possible. And that's you Solar. I love you so much and you mean so much to me. W-We'll go on the shuttle..."

"I didn't mean to s-scare you...just the thought of all these ponies dying- I can't bear it. I can't bear it one bit." Amber whimpered, looking to her marefriend with tear-filled eyes and a look of...nothingness. Pure emptiness. As if her soul had been ripped from her. "I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Grow old with you. And if that means getting on the shuttle...I'll do it." She gave Solar a weak grin, followed by a calm and gentle kiss on the lips

Amber just froze there for what felt like hours. Her eyes shut tight and her tears meandering down her cheeks in waves. Sudden thoughts seemed to rush to her, memories of her and Solar together, laughing, smiling, kissing...a happy, amazing relationship. She lifted her head weakly and could see her marefriend trying to hold back tears as well. Through sniffles, Amber tried to smile, weakly booping Solar's nose. But the gesture just made it worse, and she broke down crying again. "I-I don't want to die....I don't want to..." She whimpered. "I don't want t-to lose you either..."

Amber could barely speak, her breath taken away at Solar's statement. She slowly, weakly approached her marefriend, before suddenly, and finally, breaking down into tears. She rested her head on Solar's shoulder as she sobbed her heart out into Solar's fur. The whole situation was just too much for her and she felt weak at the knees, her wings drooping at her sides. "I-I...I love you so, so much."

"S-Solar...I-I..." Amber began to tear up as well, looking at Solar's face and just seeing...fright. She was truly scared. "Y-you would put down your own l-life, just to stay with m-me? It couldn't sink in. Wouldn't sink in. This mare loved her so much that she would die for her. To be with her. Amber's heart raced and she lost her breath momentarily. "I-I..."

"Look at that crowd Solar! Those ponies...they never signed up for any of this! They've led good lives, have good jobs, have families! They should be given the chance to survive!" Amber exclaimed, practically yelling at her marefriend with a desperate and sad expression. "And then look at me! I'm useless with technology and I have a drug addiction for pony's sake! I deserve to die!"

Amber weakly looked out on the crowd, she could see so many ponies with horror and fear in their eyes. Some were crying, others just stood in shock. She didn't even know how to process it all. It was like the base attack all over again. "I'm not going on that shuttle"

"W-what?!" Amber jumped back in surprise, falling out of the grip of Solar and losing her balance so much that she fell on her haunches. It was almost too much to take in. "Scarlett, there's 70 ponies on this ship! 70! No way we can cut it down to just 14!" She screamed, her heart racing as she felt herself becoming more anxious and terrified.

8/10

Comet just stood there, watching the grenade roll towards his hooves, until it clinked against his left foreleg. He shook his head, kicking it away. "I don't know how stupid you think I am, but I know even you're not crazy enough to blow me up with a grenade when you have guns trained on you and no reason to do it." Comet smirked. "I'm not some dumbass raider, y'know."

"I don't have any problem working together, as long as this mare will just back off a bit." Comet snarled, deactivating the battle saddle and letting the guns holster backwards. He took a deep breath, and stood back. "Look, I get you've had a tough life. You think just because I'm a pegasus, I had it easy? Or I don't know what it's like down here? For the past four years, all I've done is kill raiders to try and protect villagers who can't protect themselves. I get that everything is bucked down here. But it's bad up in the skies as well. You ever tried to survive a fall from the clouds with your wings clipped? It's not easy." "Pfft, you wish." Comet just smirked at the mare now. "Maybe you should pay some attention to your little leader there and just put the gun down now. You're barely worth the ammo as it is." He shook his head and turned around momentarily. He put the saddlebags down on the ground and bent down to check he still had everything in check. If they were going up the mountain he needed everything there.