//------------------------------// // Chapter 13: The torch is being brought home // Story: The Imperial Ace // by Navanastra //------------------------------// Chapter 13: The torch is being brought home Edited by: The Great Khan Riggs looked at the collection of ponies with mild curiosity. For one, he had never thought that a species of sentient quadrupeds could be THIS colorful. But then again, the galaxy was full of some really strange shit, even actual magic and supernatural forces all of kinds. But besides that, one thing was certain. The pink one that he was holding in his hands was going to be a nuisance to him. “Uhm… Mister Alien… thing, sir?” One of the ponies asked, which in turn broke Riggs out of his thoughts. Riggs looked over at the group and noticed that it was the orange one who spoke. “If you can really understand me, then could you please put our friend down? Her head is gettin' a lot darker in pink than it usually is.” The orange pony pointed out. Riggs looked back down at the pony in question and noted the truth behind her words. Her already unnatural pink-colored face was slowly beginning to become even pinker. A common physical reaction for most creatures if you hold them upside down. “Ooohhh… I'm not sure about you, but my head feels… very… very… biiig...” She mumbled. This was all Riggs needed to know as he carefully placed her back down. Upright, of course. The party in front of Riggs looked relieved afterwards. Especially when the pink horse quickly jumped back up on all fours as if nothing happened. Again still sporting that big smile for some reason. “Oh, that reminds me, do you like parties?” The pink pony asked curiously, much to Riggs' intrigue. He looked down at the pink thing with a raised eyebrow. “Why do you ask?” Riggs casually replied. The pink one continued to smile. “Well, because I want to give you a proper welcome introduction to the town so that everypony down there can learn that you're not one of those nasty aliens that just wants to conquer us and take all of the mares and fillies for scientific probing. Mostly the former though not the latter.” She casually replied. “Pinkie, that's enough.” The purple one exclaimed before a purple aura enveloped her pink form. An aura which was mimicked by the purple pony’s horn on top of her forehead. Riggs wasn’t particularly new to this. For one, he was already quite versed with the existence of the Force. He even came across some wannabe Jedis in his travels, along with some Imperial Inquisitors hunting them. But not just that; the very concept of magic itself was again something he had some experience with too. Like the Night Sisters of Dathomir, and other groups and cultists that practice those unknown and supernatural abilities. Again, nothing new but still incredibly strange and head scratching. Especially when the ponies in front of him started to argue with the pink one, seemingly forgetting the fact that an actual alien was standing in front of them. Riggs simple decided to keep quiet for now while the ponies argued. It was also then that BB-5 suddenly reappear too. With a large stack of sticks and branches held within his little pincers. Riggs looked at him. “So that’s where he went...” He thought to himself as the little droid rolled by. “Independent little bugger.” Riggs continued to muse around as BB-5 quickly dropped off his load. This action though quickly garnered the attention of one of the ponies who was not part of the ongoing argument. A pony who looked incredibly shy and intimidated in Riggs eyes, like a child acting cautious around strangers. She looked at BB-5 with great interest, whatever fear, shyness or intimidation she may have felt just a few moments ago was now completely gone and overshadowed by her childlike wonder. She even went so far as to leave the group and slowly making her way to the droid. “…and that is why, Pinkie, foreign negotiations should never… wait… where is Fluttershy?" Purple suddenly perked up as she looked around at her companions for answers. They all started to look around before the white one quickly pointed at their missing companion. “Dear Celestia, not Fluttershy too!” The purple one complained. Her comments were of course completely ignored yet again her yellow friend simple stood their. Watching BB-5 do his thing by building a miniature Teepee. That is, until he suddenly turned himself around, which caused her to freeze. “Beep, boob, boob beep, quack chirp.” The little droid chanted which in turn caused the yellow to shrink back somewhat. Again, everyone was still. The rainbow one and orange one were even ready to jump into action if there low-crouched position was anything to go by. Riggs on the other hand just stood there casually, crossing his arms and waiting patiently for something to happen, or not. The yellow one eventually looked over at Riggs, much to his surprise. A questionable look plastered on her face. He immediately knew what she wanted. “He said that he is too busy at the moment to scan you and all of your companions over there. So you better leave him to his work then and ask him questions later.” Riggs casually answered. The yellow pony ears immediately dropped before she quickly excused herself with a silent. “Oh… uhm, then I'm sorry for… disturbing you…” retreating back to her colleagues, much to the purple one's relief. “Well… uhm… anyway, sorry about that but… these two mean you no harm, I can promise you that… We ponies are a very peaceful and tolerant society… well, as long as those around us are. So you don’t have to worry about any trouble or mischief coming from us while you stay here… at least here in Ponyville." She explained before quickly and awkwardly added “Oh, and welcome to Equestria, of course.” Riggs just nodded. “We shall see." Riggs began before raising a finger. "I just have one rule though,” Riggs announced before pointing towards his ship, “no one is allowed to touch my ship or get close to it without my permission. Do that and I shall be just as passive and tolerant as you proclaim your people to be. I will only be here as long as it takes to fix my ship, or until someone else from space detects my distress beacon and gives me a lift off this planet. In more layman's terms, I will be complacent around my ship for most of my time here.” Riggs stated before going back to crossing his arms. This caused the purple one to perk up though, as if remembering something important before a big smile crept onto her face. A type of smile he immediately remembered, thanks to a previous encounter he had with other primitive natives on other planets. Though with a lot less hyperdrive issues then he has now. “No.” Riggs subtly answered, causing the purple one's smile to immediately drop. She looked up at him with confusion. “No? What no?” She questioned with a tilt of her head. Riggs repeated. “No, as in, I am not going to spend the rest of the night answering all kinds of trivial questions that will just end up being useless to you in the end because you won't be having to capitalize on these answers or information at all. Let alone understand a good chunk of it. So no thanks.” Riggs explained while keeping his arms crossed. The purple one's eyes went wide, before her ears dropped, with her lips slowly quivering. She obviously looked unconvinced and ready to protest. “But, but…” She tried to stammer before Riggs quickly interrupted her. “No buts. Actually, here is a little test.” Riggs offered before leaning forward a bit. “Do you know what a hyperdrive is?” Riggs asked, moving his arms behind his back. The purple one slowly shook her head. “No, but I am aware of the concept of something called wormholes thanks to some sci-fi books and comics. But in them it never got scientifically explained in detail as to how those…” She tried to explain again before Riggs interrupted her, again, much to purple's annoyance. “And here we have a problem. I can easily tell you what a hyperdrive is; that it allows ships where I come from faster than light travel across the vastness of space, yes. But then you would most likely ask me HOW a hyperdrive works, what makes it tick and so on. Which answer is most likely filled with words and names you cannot possibly understand anyway, so why even bother? Explaining technology that is light years away from yours when looking at the steam-powered engines I saw when first making my way here. It just won't be a good time.” Riggs added. The purple one was stunned. Her mouth hanging and her eyes plate wide. She stuttered at first, still trying to come up with a comeback for this when one of her friends stopped her. It was the orange one who yawned first. “Ya' know Twilight, in a way, this alien fella' over here is kinda right. Plus it's gettin' late and I have to wake up early in the mornin' to help Big Mac transport some apples to another town. So can we maybe postpone this meet-n-greet for another time?” She stated with another yawn at the end. The white one was the next to step up. “I'm with Applejack here. I too have a lot of orders to fill for tomorrow, darling. It would be very generous of you Twilight if we could postpone this as Applejack suggested. As interested as I am with the existence of aliens myself, I do have to be honest by saying that I cannot shook my work for it. Plus...”She yawned “I need my beauty sleep too.” She added, much to the dismay of the now named Twilight. Though she wasn’t the last. “Actually now that Rarity and AJ actually mentioned work. I just remember that I have to join up with the weather team early in the morning as well for a quick briefing for the upcoming rainstorm that is scheduled for tomorrow. So yeah, also have to join AJ’s and Rarity's boat on this one… for once.” The rainbow colored one added, rubbing the back of her neck as she did so. “But I still want to see this thing fly up close and personal, of course.” She quickly added. The one named Fluttershy was next. “Actually, I also have a lot of things to do to be honest…feeding a lot of animals and what not. Not to mention helping out Zecroa with gathering up some herbs as I promised her this morning. So…uhm yeah…sorry for the inconvenience Twilight. I hope you won’t be too disappointed with me, or the rest of us” She quietly added, pawning the ground underneath her with a hoof and looking off to the side apologetically. Pinkie who doesn’t look as tired as everybody else also budded in just for the heck of it. “Oh are we now going to play the “We are all kinda agreeing to our new Alien neighbor” kind game? Well…speaking of Alien I obviously have some preparations to make for an “out of this world” party for our new “out of this world” neighbor over here. And hopefully soon to be friends as well. So yeah, totally dissing you and joining the anti-twi brigade on this one. Just because everypony else is doing it as well.” She added, her smile just as big as her overall innocence and ignorance. Twilight looked at her friends with a sense of betrayal and slight annoyance, which quickly gave way to a residing sigh. It was pretty clear to her that she was out of support for this one, especially when she quickly realized just how drowsy she felt too. “I guess this can wait until morning I guess.” Twilight mumbled to herself before groaning. She again sighed. “Fine, I will admit that you all are kind of right. It is getting late. Let’s just quickly head back home and reschedule this for a more favorable moment. I bet Spike is still up and about, waiting for me back at the library.” Twilight stated before moving past the group and down towards the town. The rest of the group swiftly followed but not without giving Riggs and his ship a few more interested and suspicious glances on their way back. Leaving Riggs to his own devices, finally. Seeing that BB-5 had everything under control on his own, Riggs decided to just quickly grab his rifle and go hunting out in the woods. He just hoped that he wouldn't accidentally shoot and cook something that was actually sentient. That would be a bit of an awkward situation to explain to the natives. “BB-5, keep an eye on the camp while I'm off. Just use your grappling hook or taser on anything that comes close to my ship and everything should be fine. Just make sure not to harm them… too much.” Riggs announced before strolling off towards the close by forest with his heavy blaster rifle resting on his shoulder. BB-5 just beeped and chirped in response before going back to doing his own job; his miniature teepee finally taking shape… into an actual miniature teepee. With a small little entrance and everything. He was clearly getting a bit carried away with his "job." ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. (First person) It was already late at night when Storm, my cousin and I finally made it across the Equestrian border. We would have easily reached the border town a lot quicker if it weren't for the fact that both Cloud and Storm apparently have never heard of the concept of synchronized flying. Their wing strokes were all over the place, resulting in the most unbalanced flight I have ever seen in my life, all brushed aside with the excuse of keeping my supposedly "heavy" frame up in the air or something. The scowl I gave the two after Cloud said that immediately shut them up for the rest of the trip. But overall, it was quite a slow and far from pleasant trip if I do say so myself. If not also demeaning as well. I sighed with relief as my hooves finally touched solid ground. “Thank Celestia this is over, I didn’t know how much longer I could have held out with that constant swinging and swaying! Oh dear heaven my stomach...” I moaned while rubbing it a little bit. I could see my cousin rolling her eyes as she stepped past me with a scoff. “Well, excuuuuse me, princess, for having to carry you all the way over here in the first place. Sure, our flying might have been a little bit wonky, but at least we made it here. Certainly better than having to trudge through the forest yourself for Celestia knows how long.” She added. I frowned. “Well you could have learned HOW to synchronize your flying with somepony else, IF you haven’t spent most of your time drooling on your desk or doodling in your notebooks during flight school! And furthermore, I could also ask Riggs back there to give me a lift inside his fancy ship instead of having to let you two fillies carry me in the air like a wet sack of potatoes. I'm sure that a ship that high-tech and with that size should be easily capable of holding two individuals at once without problems." I rebuked. Cloud just rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I know. I heard that Stockhorse Syndrome is really nice this time of the year. So don’t even bother trying to rub it into everypony's faces like that. We all know.” She responded, waving her left hoof in a circle gesture as she did so. It was my turn to roll my eyes. “Well ha ha, there cuz. Also as a little side note, Stockhorse Syndrome applies to somepony who has been kidnapped and kept by their captors for a really long time, which by the way, doesn’t really apply to me, simply because I was never kidnapped or kept in the first place. I stayed there because one: I was obviously injured, and two: because I really had no idea where I was or where the heck to go. Plus, as you said. Running around with two broken wings in the middle of nowhere is pretty much suicidal. So I basically did the only reasonable decision that was available at the time. By staying close to the outer space alien who also saved and nursed me from my injuries. So, the least I could do as give him some company.” I explained. Not surprising that Cloud still looked unconvinced despite my reasoning. I was about to say more on the matter when a gentle tap on my shoulders pulled me out of my desires. I blinked before looking at the source. It was none other than Storm looking somewhat questionably at me… for some reason. “Uhm… are you… are you maybe expecting somepony here at the border town, Spitfire?” She stupidly asked out of nowhere, which in turn caused me to raise an eyebrow at her. “No, why and how would somepony be even aware that I am here in the first place? I mean we JUST arrived after all.” I asked back. She again just gave me a look before pointing her hoof at a random direction. Well, actually it was roughly at the direction of the town, but she obviously didn’t check first when she pointed. Either way, it was my turn to give her a strange look as she replied. “Well, it's because there is a considerable group of ponies galloping from the town over to us. All carrying saddle-bags and wearing fedoras.” Storm casually answered. I looked past her to see what she was actually talking about, only for me to get a feeling of dread and foreboding the moment I did. I knew exactly what these hordes of ponies were, which only made me scared at the onslaught that was about to happen. Actually, scratch that, I was legitimately scared. Especially with all of those very distinct cameras around their necks. “Buck.” I muttered with wide eyes. I quickly grabbed onto Cloud and shook her. “Quick, take us back into the air and get out of here!” I frantically panicked, which in turn just made my cousin even more confused than she was from me shaking her so much. “Wha-what the-ha-hay are you ta-talking about?” My cousin stuttered in between being shook. I just continued to shake her for no logical reason, because panic. “Life destroyers, stalkers, living breathing vampires of gossips! The bloody motherbucking Paparazzi is here! I don’t know how these psychic monsters found me, or even know of my presence here, but they know somehow, somewhere, and we need to get the bucking hay out of here before they can even start snapping pictures. Quickly…” I announced before grabbing Storm and holding onto her as well. “Fly you two, fly! We're camping out in the woods tonight where none of those reporters can find us. I will get a very good word for you back in your regiment if you do this for me. Now FLY!” I hastily commanded, basically screaming into their ears as if my life depended on it. Which it kinda did… well… mostly revolving around my image. The panic that I was radiating thankfully must have transferred into these two mares as well, as the two immediately started to flap their wings and carry us back up into the sky. It's actually very lucky to know that none of those reporters and gossip builders are actually Pegasi. Lucky me, I know, but recently I really had some life-saving stupid luck on me… in accompany to some really crappy luck as well. I just know that something is going to happen to me later on that would pretty much pay for the luck that I am having right about now. But alas, its future Spitfire’s problem as I just wanted to get as far away from these snitches as possible. “You know… you bucking owe me for this, you hear me?” I heard cloud grunt as she flew higher and higher. I just nod. “You will get whatever you bucking want as long as you fly away from here.” I hastily responded. Even from up here, I could clearly hear the shouts and call-outs that were being aimed towards me, accompanied by some flashes that at this altitude, are thankfully kinda pointless. I did that before, just to get a nice crotch-shot from one of the recruits just so I could troll them a bit with it. Even had one of the BEST cameras on the market and the pic still ended up to be rather un-sharp from that distance. So yeah, a good thing to know otherwise I might be panicking… again. “Ok, where to go?” Storm asked in between grunts as well. I pointed my free hoof at a general direction. "There, here, anywhere, just bloody away from here and out of those reporters praying eyes. Also, make sure to fly ABOVE the clouds to lose them easier. After that, just land again somewhere in the woods off in the distance so we can finally rest. Cloud over here actually joined the Filly Scouts when she was young, you know.” I explained which in turn caused Cloud to glare at me. “Yeah, yeah, buck you too cuz'. Taking advantage of the fact that I used to wear pretty little skirts and sleep in huts while camping out in the woods. What a nice way of getting your own flank out of trouble.” She retorted. I just rolled my eyes. “Just fly already… please.” I sighed. And with that we were off again. Off into the dark and surprisingly cloudy night and far away from my… well number three enemies in this world. Which honestly kinda sucks, because I was looking forward to having a proper meal and bed to crawl into. But alas, the Equestrian Psychic Newspaper and Magazine Brigade once again had to ruin everything. Tenacity is a real bitch it seems.