Starcrash

by Blarghalt


Chapter Two: Assault on Fort Flap

In the hours after the initial chaos, a camouflaged wide tent was erected to cover the area of the crashed spaceship. Outside, floodlights pushed away the darkness as scientist ponies pored over every inch of the crash site with a wide variety of instruments. In the innermost part of the giant makeshift lab was a dry room of plastic sealing in the spaceship itself.

General Watcher observed through a clear sheet on the other side as ponies in Hazmat suits explored the vessel. One of the scientists, another pegasus, walked up to him holding a clipboard.

"What have we found so far?" the general asked.

The scientist pony pushed up her glasses. "So far, we can confirm it's not of this world. Some of the compounds that make up the ship are impossible to create with our current knowledge."

"Any sign of the Intruder?"

"No, sir. It appears to have eluded us. We still don't know if that was indeed the Rainbow Dash of the Wonderbolts assisting it. If it is, we suspect xeno mind control."

"We'll find them. And the armament on this craft?"

The pony's glasses slid back down her snout. "Armaments, sir?"

He beheld the ship before him with contempt. "This is definitely some kind of vanguard craft. Even if we're only dealing with a single-crew vessel, a scout ship would still be armed."

"Sir, we haven't found any weapons."

He stomped his hoof and turned to her with fire in his eyes. "Then you ain't looking hard enough!"

The pegasus recoiled at his outburst, and the general turned away with a grimace.

"Well, what have you found in the meantime?"

"A lot of personal devices, sir, clearly magical in nature. Along with technology we've never seen, but that's to be expected for what we're dealing with."

"Anything else?"

"Tracing the path of the crash, we found some components that apparently fell off during its descent. We believe we've recovered most of them, and are storing them here as we speak."

"Right. Remember how this thing shot right over Las Pegasus? Have you taken care of that as ordered?"

"Yessir. We spun a story about how it was a special part of the fireworks. Nopony's really questioning it."

"Good. I want updates every hour, on the hour."

"I'll be sure to contact the crown with this discovery."

"No!" the general yelled. "No. The princesses, either of 'em, can't know about this."

"Sir?"

"Plausible deniability. The princesses will not know about this until we can present them a working, reverse-engineered copy of this infernal ship. And preferably a specimen of our stellar guest. Until then, I am the highest authority here. Dismissed."

The pegasus scientist saluted and backed out of the tent flap, leaving the general to his martial thoughts.


"Whooooooooo..."

Rainbow Dash's eyes raised open to the noise of Far Out's voice. She slowly drifted out of her grogginess to find the unicorn making noises at the Visitor, the alien sitting upright on the sofa, its helmet sitting on one of the armrests. Part of her head was wrapped in bandages, though she couldn't tell if that was her doing or the space cadet unicorn's.

The Visitor said something in response, apparently a single word. Far Out then repeated it, dragging it out far longer than necessary.

"Hyuuuuuuuu?

She repeated the word again, breaking it into two clear parts.

Far Out pointed a hoof at her as he attempted to enunciate the second part, as horribly as the first.

"Oooooooooooon?

The Visitor, once again, repeated the word with a tone Rainbow Dash knew had to be frustration.

"Muuuuuuuum?

It held up one finger, signaling Far Out this was his last attempt. She said it much louder, and much more clearly, making sure to do it slower as well.

"Hryuu-Mrun?"

The Visitor brought both hands together and gave the unicorn a short golf clap. Close enough.

"Yeah!" he shouted, giving himself a high-hoof. At that time he noticed Rainbow Dash had woken up, and he walked over to her.

"Hey, man, good timing! Our starchild friend here was just teaching me what her people are called. Hryu-Mruns! Cool, huh?"

Dash looked over the unicorn's shoulder to see the alien shaking her head. Whatever word he thought he'd learned, he was still way off course.

"I mean, I'm sure she could just beam the word into my mind, but where's the challenge in that?"

"Shouldn't you have asked for, I don't know, her name?"

He dismissed Dash's suggestion with a wave. "Oh, no, I don't think she has an individual name, man. Her people have moved beyond that, dig?"

"Well, we have to call her something. I can't exactly say 'hey, alien!' every time I need her attention."

Far Out furrowed his brow in the deepest thought he'd probably ever had. "Hmmm. Considering her origin, how about Galaxychild?"

"Uh, no. How about...?"

She trailed off, thinking of an appropriate name. Maybe it was time to offload her old nickname onto someone else. It just needed an appropriate tweak. "How about...Starcrash?"

The unicorn repeated Dash's suggestion, testing it. "Yeah. Yeah! Starcrash, man! Couldn't think of a better name myself!"

"Exactly," Dash muttered.

The unicorn turned to the Visitor with a starry-eyed open mouth. "What do you think, Starcrash?"

They both caught "Starcrash" thumbing through her spellbook before Far Out's question interrupted her, causing her to whip her head up towards them. She blankly blinked.

"Starcrash?" Dash repeated, pointing to her.

Another confused gawk passed before the alien extended a thumb towards herself. She repeated her new nickname in a confused tone, barely comprehensible through her thick accent and general ignorance about their language.

Far Out chuckled. "I think she likes it, man."

Dash glanced up at the hatch they'd jumped into hours before. "Shouldn't we get going?"

"Most definitely," he said concurred, walking over to the short ladder under the hatch and climbing up before straining against the metal door on the ceiling. After a few heavy groans of effort, he tried to instead lift the hatch with magic. Still no luck. While complaining that he hadn't recharged on his crystals and that's why he was weak, Starcrash saw what he was trying to do and levitated her spellbook above her right hand. Both were consumed by the familiar blue glow, and the same aura captured the heavy metal hatch, slowly lifting it open with a rusty creak.

Far Out peeked outside, looking in all directions before motioning them to follow. "Coast's all clear. Follow me, Starcrash!"

Rainbow Dash went up the ladder as well. As she put one hoof on the ladder, she saw Starcrash putting her helmet back on. As soon as it sealed itself back into place, Starcrash pointed to Far Out, then brought the same finger closely to her head and traced circles. Dash snirked.

Far Out held the hatch open as the other two carefully climbed out of the underground tomb. It was still night. They could hear activity far behind them, no doubt General Watcher's new base. When they were all outside, Dash brought up a hoof above her eyes, scanning the woods for whatever would get them to safety.

"What are we looking for?"

"One of the others. We'll be to be careful, though. Lots of G-Ponies roaming this woods now."

Both ponies heard leaves crunch behind them, and turned to see Starcrash slowly tip-toeing her way back to the crash site, spellbook at the ready.

Dash flew in front of her, pushing Starcraft back with both hooves. "Woah woah woah! You can't go back! No way you can take all those ponies by yourself!"

Starcrash gently pushed Dash out of her way and continued walking, ignoring her pleas. With words failing, Dash performed her ultimate technique: grabbing Starcrash by one leg and digging her other three into the ground. This slowed Starcrash a bit, forcing her to stop and look down at the pony.

"Besides!" Rainbow Dash continued "your ship is a total wreck! What are you going to do, magic the pieces back on?"

Still walking, Starcrash casually flicked her wrist. A haze of energy surrounded Dash for a second and lightly throwing her backward. Dash recovered, and with a scrunched snout she flew behind the stubborn alien.

"That's it! If I can't stop you, I'm at least keeping an eye on you!"

Far Out watched them leave, pointing out in a random direction. "Hey, do what you gotta, man! I'll go look for our ticket outta here!"

They both heard him take off into the forest, calling out ridiculous code phrases to the trees.

With Far Out gone, they continued on for some time in silence, Dash sometimes voicing another plea for them to turn around, and Starcrash ignoring her completely. When they had gotten close enough to hear ponies talking, Starcrash nimbly ran for a nearby oak and hid behind it, her body completely upright and stiff. Dash did the same, choosing a maple tree as her shield.

Starcrash leaned over slightly, catching sight of the large tent erected around the crash site before ducking back behind the concealment of the large tree. She looked over to Dash, the pony's eyes meeting her visor as she took to fingers, pointed them to her visor, then to Dash. With Dash's notice secured, she did a walking gesture with two fingers, pounding her fist, motioning a tornado with her finger before turning it upside down and then slapping it with a palm, circled two thumbs around each other, before finally drawing an invisible X in the air with a circle around it.

Dash tilted her head. "...What?"

Despite the helmet, Starcrash brought to fingers up to her head and pinched where the bridge of her nose would be. She shook her head, murmuring something to herself before she lifted the spellbook up, cracked her knuckles, and leaped out from behind the tree, screaming a battle cry as she charged the encampment.

Dash could only scream out a "Wait!" as Starcrash began her attack.

The first soldier in her way could only sound out a confused "huh?" before Starcrash swatted him to the side like a bowling pin. A unicorn soldier nearby was more prepared, throwing a beam of energy at the alien, but also failed to stop her when she jumped, spun around, and threw a bolt to meet the blast head-on, overpowering the unicorn's magic and hitting him right in the face, sending him old cold with circles in his eyes.

She landed backward, rolled, jumped up and turned in midair, landing frontwards and resuming her run.

Dash admired the alien's athleticism, but had no time to praise it as more ponies closed in on Starcrash, weapons and horns at the ready. Instead of fighting them, Dash instead chose to speed forth and keep on the trail of her companion, swatting away spears and swords as they swung at them.

They were no obvious entrance to the tent; Starcrash instead made her own, throwing her magic forward and cutting a hole to fit her and Rainbow Dash both. An alarm sounded somewhere in the base, but both ignored it as Starcrash continued to dart through each layer of the fabric, sending surprised guards and terrified scientists scattering.

After one last blast of magic, they came upon the second innermost part of the tent; an olive green area surrounded the clear plastic that encased the innermost crash site. Bright floodlights filled the center of the base with a white light, the craft inside just barely invisible through the searing glow.

Starcrash leaned into to see her downed spaceship as she'd left it; dented and covered in scorch marks. The only thing different now was the door, clumsily welded back onto the craft's entrance and tables lining the quarantined area, artifacts and machinery laid out in neat, categorized rows. Starcrash pushed her visor against the thin sheet of plastic that separated them from the inner sanctum to get a better look before snarling in anger and stepped back to throw one last bolt.

She put more than enough energy into the blast, hurling it through the tough plastic. The missile kept going, tearing through each layer of the tent until it hit a tree outside, stripping it of its bark like a lightning bolt.

Dash followed Starcrash through the last hole, wondering why nopony was trying to stop them now; even the alarm had stopped. The alien ran over to the tables, grasping them as she scanned each artifact for reasons unknown. After going to several tables, she began to make counting motions in the air, before finally nodding once.

With a relieved huff, Starcrash walked to the center of the room and sat down. She crossed her legs, holding out both hands as the spellbook slowly drifted into place in front of her chest.

"What are you-"

Dash didn't need to continue when she saw the parts on all the tables begin to glow blue, and lift into the air. Both of Starcrash's hands went alight with her aura, and she began to slowly bring them together, clasping her palms. The pieces lazily floated towards the ruined craft, and Dash's mouth nearly hit the ground when she saw the first parts simply phase into the hull when they came in contact.

One pegasus guard appeared in the hole Starcrash had made earlier and brandished his sword.

"Freeze!"

She swiftly extended one hand towards the guard and blasted him, then returned to her task.

Part after part kept phasing into the ship, until only one remained: a beachball-sized fuel injector. It floated towards the ship like the rest, only to become stuck halfway through. Starcrash strained at the part with her magic, but it refused to budge.

Dash understood. Rearing down, she launched herself at the phasing object, striking it headfirst. The object was instantly pushed inside, disappearing inside the craft with a dusty ring of light.

She swore she saw tiny baby birds flying around her in a circle, but was aware enough to feel herself being picked and set back on her hooves. Shaking herself out of a daze, she saw Starcrash clumsily climbing up the thin ladder that led to the open door. Dash flew up behind her, ready to kick it in like last time. Instead of struggling with the door like Dash had, Starcrash simply slid to the side. Dash brought a hoof to her head, kicking herself for not thinking of that.

As the door slid open, so did the interior of the craft. From left to right, it revealed a spaceship full of soldier unicorns at the ready, horns glowing. Behind them was the general, standing straight.

"Fire."

Every unicorn lowered their head. They all blasted at once, sending nearly a dozen bolts straight at Starcrash's chest.

She reflexively threw up a thin barrier with no time to summon something stronger. It gave way almost immediately, shattering like glass as the merged streams of magic pushed on through to their target, hitting her right in the chest. Her chest plate cracked under the combined assault, throwing her backward off the spaceship head-over-heels. She hit the ground on her back, moaning. Her spellbook followed, impacting with a small plume of dust.

"Starcrash!" Dash cried out to her fallen companion, but was suddenly tackled by several guard pegasi. They wrestled her to the ground, pinning her wings as she strained against their weight. She heard something heavy land right in front of her and pulled her head up to see the muscular general looking down on her.

"What'd you do to her?!" Dash demanded.

The general brought his shadowed glare upon the downed alien, then back to Dash. "Laid a trap for her. I knew she'd have to come back here eventually. Her mostly fixing the ship for us was a surprise, but a welcome one."

She strained again at the guards pinning her down, in vain. "What are you going to to do?"

"Protect Equestria. From threats foreign and domestic. Very foreign," he said, looking over to the unconscious Starcrash to make his point, "and very domestic," pointing at Rainbow Dash.

He turned and walked away, flanked by two of the soldiers. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get the dissection team in here."

His stride was interrupted when the alarm started again, making him stop and grit. "For Celestia's s—we have the intruder! They can turn that thing off!"

An earth pony rushed into the room, skidding into a jerky salute. "Sir!"

"Our little ploy worked. Tell 'em to kill that blasted alarm!"

"It's not that, sir! We're under attack! By someone else!"

"What."

Fire erupted through the tent wall, a line of flame aimed right at the general. He ducked just in time for the blaze to sizzle right above the top of his hat. He rolled to the side, snatching the spear from one of his guards and throwing it at the new hole. It punctured through the fabric wall just to the left.

"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOWCH!"

The general grinned, muttering 'heh' before a unicorn soldier ran into the room from one of the gapes in the wall with a spear poking out his flank and then retreating through the other; screaming all the while.

Watcher didn't have time to contemplate his aim as his intended target; a young, hunchbacked dragon wearing a black ninja costume appeared in the ragged entrance to the crash site with smoke trailing from his maw.

The general tucked his cap further down his head. "Well then."

Instead of attacking the ponies, the dragon craned its long neck upwards and blew a stream of fire into the roof of the tent. Immediately it began to spread, and bits of the top of the base started to pull itself apart as the fire raged. When a hole in the top was big enough, a black blur zoomed in from the sky, hitting one of the ponies holding Dash down before another blur smacked the other guard in the face, sending him rolling backwards.

Before Dash could process what was happening, she felt herself being lifted into the air by both her front legs. She looked up to see a pegasus pony and a grey bat pony holding her aloft, eyes set on the horizon, dressed in the same manner as the dragon.

"Hey!" she called to her rescuers, "We can't leave yet! We have to get Starcrash!"

They didn't seem to hear her, concentrating on her flying. "Let! Me! Go!" she protested, wrenching herself free from the grasp of the two strangers and taking to flight on her own power. The bat pony and pegasus did not try to grab her, allowing her to fly back down and retrieve Starcrash. Dash made it halfway before the dragon zoomed past her, Starcrash under one arm and Far Out under the other, hindquarters facing outward. Like the other three, the wore a full-body disguise, though his was made of tin foil.

The unicorn saw Rainbow Dash and waved. "Hey, man! Told ya I'd get help!"


Starcrash stirred, feeling a sense of vertigo as her eyes opened. Instead of a hard surface to wake up on, she instead felt most of her body sag under gravity, with only something wrapped around her waist keeping her from falling. She looked up, seeing the head of a dragon, then back down to where she'd been knocked out. Her book was still in the now-ablaze tent, and she panicked.

Using every bit of her power, she reached out both her hands to seize the book from afar. The spellbook in turned lifted slightly with its telltale aura, and Starcrash's heart soared when the tome took off toward its master.

Only to be stomped hard to the ground by General Watcher's hoof. Her heart sank.

He held it in place, scowling at her. "I'll keep this."

She was too far away now. The aura around her hands faded and her connection with the book broke. It stopped moving, and she cursed to the night before falling slack with defeat.