Star Crossed Ponies

by MillenniumFalsehood


Finding the Rebels

Chapter 19

"It was lucky of us that we happened upon the Rebels when we did. Our ship was almost out of supplies, our crew tired of trekking through the stars to find them. However, the galaxy is full of surprises, and the ones we encountered as we searched for the Rebel base were almost enough to end our journey right then and there.”

-Twilight Sparkle, On Extra-Galactic Voyages, p. 626



Clouds parted as the shuttle shot through the atmosphere, its repulsors keeping it on a controlled reentry and the shields gently parting the air before it. Junas delicately maneuvered the ship toward one of the small dots on the horizon which floated on the enormous ocean: an island. His scanner told him that the island had no technology, so it must be uninhabited and therefore an excellent place to start searching for the Rebels.

He had to be very careful. The Imperials had a construction yard on this planet which built Acclamator-class Star Destroyers, and they were sure to threaten a ship which got too close, or even destroy them outright if the gunners were bored.

But there was nothing preventing a search of their vessel. In that case, he had a backup plan. Hundreds of people vacationed to Bestine in order to fish. Why wouldn’t they use an older ship to get here which was small and more “rustic”? He didn’t have a pole, but he figured that at least some fishermen forgot their gear every once in a while.

If the Imperials didn’t try to follow him back, then he could just bug out and try another world where the Rebels were strong.

A clopping noise behind him alerted him to the presence of Applejack.

He turned and looked at her. “Shouldn’t you be recovering in bed?”

“Us earth-ponies’re tougher’n nails, Junas. Ah’m feelin’ much better and wanted to get a look outside is all. ‘Sides, I couldn’t take another minute o’ Fluttershy ‘n Rarity fussin’ over me”

He chuckled a bit at her strange accent and strong constitution. “Well, I’m glad you’re feeling better.”

“Thank you kindly, Junas,” she said with a tip of her Stetson.

It was a moment before the orange work horse broke the silence. “Junas, Ah was wonderin’. Why didja leave Spike? Didn’t ya even want to go back for ‘im?”

The man sighed as he thought back to that moment. “I would have, if I felt like it would have been worth the risk. But there were at least thirty or forty bounty hunters on our tail, and if you saw how easily Boba Fett overtook us in close quarters, then you can imagine how easily that many bounty hunters could have either captured or killed you and the rest of your friends.”

She put her hoof on his hand. “Well Ah’m glad you care, sugar cube.”

He smiled at her, grateful that someone understood why he did what he did. “Most people outside the military don’t understand why a person would sacrifice someone to save the group.”

“Ah didn’t say Ah was happy about’cha leavin’ Spike, Junas.”

He cocked an eyebrow.

“But Ah am glad ta have ya as a loyal friend.”

The man nodded at her with a grim smile. “Thanks.”

The two rode together in the cockpit as friends, keeping each other’s hearts warm as Junas guided the small spacecraft toward the island and gently touched her down on a small clearing in front of a forest of palm trees and tall grass.

-----

Steam vented from louvers next to the engines as the main boarding ramp lowered to the ground in front of the ship. Twilight was the first to trot down the ramp, followed by Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Then Pinkie Pie came bouncing down with a goofy grin on her face, who was followed by Rarity, Celestia and Junas.

Rainbow Dash noticed that there was still one pony who hadn’t come out of the hull. She flew up the ramp and hovered in the cabin, looking for the straggler. “Come on, Fluttershy! You need to get out of this ship and stretch your hooves! It’s awesome out there!”

Nobody answered. Dash let out an exasperated sigh, then flew over to the refresher and threw the door open. “Let’s go, Fluttershy!”

The yellow pegasus shrank back toward the shower stall. “Um, that’s okay, Rainbow Dash. I’ll be fine in here where it’s nice and dry . . . and safe.”

“Now come on, Fluttershy,” she said with a bit more compassion in her voice. “We need to be with our friends. Besides . . .”

She leaned in with a sly smile. “There’s sure to be cute critters out there for you to talk to.”

Fluttershy considered what Dash said, then stood up with a slight grin. “Well it has been a while since I petted a cute little bunny rabbit.”

“That’s the spirit!” said Rainbow Dash with exuberance. Fluttershy gently propelled herself into the air, then the two of them glided out of the ship and into the fresh air and sunshine.

While this had been going on, Twilight examined the beach, looking for signs of potential threats or danger. But so far the only thing she saw was a few seashells and some strange-looking crabs with air bladders on their backs which would float up from the ocean, stare at her with black, beady eyes, then sink down into the sea again.

It was slightly unsettling, but she was quite glad that the greatest danger she had on this planet was falling asleep on the beach and getting a bad sunburn.

She looked around. If it weren’t for the starship parked on the beach, she could have mistaken this place for one of the many vacation spots in Equestria. The sight pleased her, and she smiled.

“Come on, Twilight!” shouted Pinkie Pie as she waved the purple unicorn toward the beach. “Let’s go play in the water!” Twilight looked at the other ponies: Applejack was swimming in the tide and Rainbow Dash was using a spare hull plate as a sunbathing reflector; Rarity was planting a makeshift umbrella in the beach, while Fluttershy was lying in the sand and talking to crabs and birds which had flocked to her from nowhere. “Come on!” repeated Pinkie. “It’ll be fun-a-riffic!”

Despite the lateness of the day, Twilight decided that she could afford a bit of levity. Her smile widened and she shot toward Pinkie Pie, tackling her and rolling in the sand. The pink pony threw herself completely into having fun with her friend, and the both of them laughed until it hurt.

Junas in the mean time had finished locking down the ship so that curious critters wouldn’t try to build a nest in the power converters and was walking down the ramp with Celestia.

They both watched as the ponies played in the water or sunbathed on the beach. “It’s amazing that these girls were enslaved by the Empire, shot at, chased around the galaxy, and still know when to relax and have fun,” said Junas with admiration as he reached the base of the ramp.

“They are representative of the kind of ponies that we all should be,” said Celestia. “They do get into arguments, fight, and cause each other sadness, but they also know how to forgive and forget, and how to heal the wounds they cause. They try to be good ponies, and that is their greatest strength in this evil universe.”

“I hope you don’t think it’s completely evil, Celestia.”

The alicorn looked at him flatly. “And I hope you didn’t take offense at my choice in words. This universe is full of evil, that is true. But I have seen good in it.”

She looked him right in the eye. “Junas, I want you to know how much I appreciate the fact that you took in these six ponies, a baby dragon and a princess. You didn’t have to, but you did anyway, risking your life and your ship to get us home. If you represent the Rebel Alliance and what it fights for, then I would be proud to call your Alliance an ally of Equestria.”

She wrapped her great white wings around him. “I am eternally grateful for your kindness, generosity, and loyalty. It will be remembered even after I am long dead and Equestria is but a memory in the hearts of ponykind.”

He returned her embrace, then gazed into her eyes. “I’m just a soldier, ma’am. All I know is to take care of people who need it and defend the ones who want it. But I am glad you appreciate my help.”

She looked at him with a kindly smile, which he returned. “Well,” he said, “it’s pretty late. We’ll wait till morning to search for the Alliance.”

Celestia nodded her approval, then joined Junas in walking toward the beach to watch over the ponies.

-----

The evening passed with the ponies genuinely enjoying themselves. They finally arrived at a world where no Imperial Stormtrooper would try to blast them, nor would a bounty hunter attempt to capture them, and they wanted to savor every moment of it.

But even the best of days must eventually come to an end, and soon it was nightfall. Rarity helped Twilight gather leaves to fashion some beds while the rest of them played a game in the Starhound’s lounge. Junas wanted to sleep on the ship, but Rainbow Dash made it plain that they were all tired of being cooped up in a tin can and wanted to enjoy the great outdoors.

As the two unicorns were walking back with a pile of leaves to transmute into beds, Rainbow Dash glided past and knocked her hooves into Rarity’s head, causing her to lose her concentration and drop the load. As the leaves fluttered to the ground, Twilight looked up to see the blue pegasus give Rarity a nasty look. The ivory unicorn didn’t even glance at her rainbow-maned friend as she started picking up the leaves.

“She still blames me, doesn’t she?”

“No, uh . . .” Twilight fumbled for words, trying to come up with an excuse for her friend’s behavior.

“That’s alright, Twilight,” sighed Rarity. “She’s perfectly within her rights to be angry at me. I should have realized that trying such a complex spell, especially when I’m not nearly as gifted as you are, would end up causing me trouble.”

She finished stacking the leaves, then levitated them.

“If you need me, I’ll be by the light, working on the beds.”

The white unicorn walked slowly toward an exterior lamp on the side of the ship to begin making beds for the group, the heartache she felt weighing heavily on her shoulders. It pained Twilight to see her friend so sad, especially since she appeared to be beyond consolation.

“That’s it,” she said.

Turning around, Twilight marched over to where Rainbow was sitting on the beach. All the other ponies were off doing other things, so it was just the pegasus and the unicorn. As Twilight approached Rainbow, the blue pegasus looked up toward her. “When’s Rarity going to be done with the beds? Or is she gonna mess those up, too?”

Twilight put down her load of leaves as she lectured her friend. “Rainbow Dash, that’s not fair. Rarity had no idea—”

“No idea how to cast that spell,” finished Dash, “and you knew it, Twilight!”

“Yes, I knew it,” said Twilight firmly. “It’s my fault, as much as it is hers. But there’s no reason for us to fight! We’re all friends here, Rainbow. We’ve fought villains and won, and you’ve stood by Rarity up till now.”

“Yeah, I did,” Rainbow said with a sigh. “You’re right, I guess. It’s just that this place is has been out to get us from day one, and as much as Rarity means to me, she still caused all of this.”

“I know. But just promise me that you’ll be a little more understanding. Rarity feels just as bad as you do about this, and she’s been beating herself up over it.”

Rainbow opened her mouth to speak, but instead sighed exasperatedly.

Twilight looked at her friend sympathetically. “I know you’re upset, Rainbow Dash. But right now we need to put our frustrations aside and work together to defeat the Empire. We’re almost at the Rebel base, and once we get there we’ll have a fighting chance to rescue Princess Luna and Spike.”

The pegasus nodded. “Okay, Twilight. I’ll try to apologize to her tomorrow. Right now I need to sleep on it.”

Realizing that this was as much as she could hope to get out of Dash for the moment, Twilight simply said, “Okay, Rainbow. Just please try to apologize tomorrow.”

The pegasus nodded again, then waved off Twilight as she laid back down in the sand.

Twilight went back to the side of the ship with her load of leaves to help Rarity make beds. She knew it had been a bit too easy to convince Rainbow, so she had little doubt she was hoping Twilight would forget the promise she made. I’ll make sure she apologizes to Rarity tomorrow, thought Twilight as she sat down next to Rarity and started transmuting the greenery.

-----

No . . . Rainbow, please!

I’ve had enough, Rarity! You’re gonna pay for what you’ve done to us!

But Rainbow . . . Twilight, you’ve got to get her to—

No, Rarity. I’m sorry, but this is how it needs to be.

Please! Don’t leave me here! Wait! Don’t go!

-----

Rarity woke from the nightmare to discover that the sound she thought was the engines of the shuttle was actually Rainbow Dash and Applejack snoring in stereo.

Shaking her head to clear it, she laid down and tried to go back to sleep. The adrenaline was still coursing through her veins however, and she found that it was impossible to fall asleep.

Sighing, she stood up and began to walk in the moonlight.

She didn’t know how long she had been walking before she decided to turn back, but she knew that it hadn’t done her nerves any good. She was still thinking about the fight with Rainbow Dash and how the pegasus had blamed her. Rarity realized that she had been blaming herself the entire time for her mistake, despite early convictions not to let it bother her. She’d repressed it beneath the urgency of the situation, which had been easy so long as aliens were chasing after her, but when Dash flew up and pointed her hoof in Rarity’s face, the unicorn knew that it was true. The fault lay with her.

But if she wished to have any hope of getting a good night’s sleep, she needed something to calm her nerves.

The sound of a wave crashing over the beach gave her an idea. It couldn’t hurt to have a little midnight swim.

Casting a glance toward the ship parked not far from where she was and the ponies sleeping peacefully a few yards further – Rainbow and Applejack’s tandem cacophony notwithstanding – she walked toward the water and cast herself into the calming liquid.

The light of the moon created an ethereal, otherworldly atmosphere as she laid in the water, allowing the coolness of the ocean to sooth her soul and wash away the horrid thoughts she had been having. I knew this was a good idea.

For a long while she drifted, not caring where the current took her.

Then she looked up and realized that she was in the middle of the ocean, with no sign of the island or her friends.

-----

“Skknnnnnxxx!

“Skknnnnnxxx!

“Skknn – Huh! Wha?”

It wasn’t the first time in her life that Applejack had woken herself up snoring. But it was the first time she had accidentally inhaled sand in the process.

Hacking and snorting to get the offensive substance out of her nostrils, she decided to get up and make breakfast for her companions.

After she had gone into the forest and retrieved some eggs from a native bird, she headed into the galley onboard the ship and, while avoiding making too much racket to keep from waking Celestia and Junas, she began cooking a modest meal for the group.

It wasn’t until she was walking down the ramp to wake everypony up for breakfast that she noticed that one of the beds was empty.

Frowning, she looked left and right, trying to see if Rarity had just gone out for a stroll, but didn’t see her. Knowing better than to ask Rainbow Dash to help find her, Applejack trotted anxiously over to Fluttershy’s bed and roused her.

“Huh?” said the yellow pegasus sleepily, “Oh, it’s you Applejack.”

“Fluttershy, I need ya to help me find Rarity.”

“She’s not in her bed?” asked Fluttershy as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

Applejack gave her a blank stare. “Yeah, she’s in her bed. Ah just like goin’ on random searches for mah friends in order to get mah mornin’ exercise.”

“Oh, okay,” said Fluttershy as she flopped back on the bed.

“Ah was bein’ sarcastic, Fluttershy!” shouted Applejack. “Come on! She might be in trouble!”

Blushing, Fluttershy hopped up and flew into the air, and the two of them ran and flew down the beach, searching for their friend.

-----

After making a circuit around the island, they found no trace of Rarity on the beach.

Applejack started waking up the rest of the ponies while Fluttershy flew into the ship to awaken Junas and Celestia, and then they all fanned out to search for Rarity, with Applejack, Twilight and Pinkie Pie on the ground and Junas, Celestia, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy covering the air.

-----

“Rarity!”

Applejack’s voice was getting hoarse from calling for her friend, but she had to be somewhere on the island. She didn’t want to think about the possibility that the poor girl had been swept into the ocean.

She jumped over tree roots and dodged rocks as she made her way through the forest. She didn’t know much about geography or geometry, so she trusted that the direction Twilight gave her was the one which would have the greatest chance of finding her friend.

But she had a feeling that in this jungle they might never find her.

-----

“Okay, I think I’m definitely not cut out for exploring.”

Twilight carefully lowered herself to the ground off a small rock outcropping, then immediately tripped and fell into a mud puddle.

“Ugh! Gross!” She got up and shook her coat free of the offending liquid. “Yes, I do think this is definitely not my strong suit,” she said with annoyance.

Ducking under a branch, she walked past several large plants, all the while shouting Rarity’s name. Then without warning she felt the ground give way beneath her and she slid down an embankment, straight into the face of a giant spider. The black and yellow creature immediately emitted an angry hiss.

“Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!”

Twilight backed away as quick as she could, then tripped and rolled right into a small pond. Before she could get her bearings however, a large crustacean raised up out of the water and held a pair of snapping pincers above her head.

“Yaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!”

The unicorn galloped as fast as she could to get away from the unsettling creature, and ended up running straight into a tree.

As she sat there, sap dripping on her from the crack in the trunk she created, she said to herself, “Yes, Twilight. I definitely think this is not the career for you . . .”

-----

In another part of the jungle, Pinkie Pie was swinging through the air on a vine. She’d started reading Daring Do after Dash got her interested in it, and while she could barely sit down long enough to read more than a chapter at a time, she still thought the books were as awesome as Dashie said they were.

Which is why at this time, she had chosen to don the explorer’s cap and shirt that she’d read about in the book.

“Aaaaaaaa-ei-ya-ei-yaaaaaaa-ei-ya-ei-yaaaaaaa!” she hollered as she swung through the trees.

“Oh man! This is so much fun! I gotta show my friends how to do this! Weeeeeeee!”

Despite her fun, she did manage to look at the ground a few times, but never spotted Rarity. So she kept swinging, laughing gaily as she did.

-----

The feeling of water splashing on her face awakened Rarity. She wondered for a moment if the events of the previous night had really been a dream, but then she felt a rubbery texture under her head.

She got up and looked around. “Yep,” she said. “Still lost in the ocean.”

Then she looked down and saw one of the most remarkable creatures she’d ever seen.

It was long and thin, with mottled white skin and two pairs of cobalt blue eyes. All along the sides of the beast were thin flaps that undulated to propel it through the water, with a couple of steering fins underneath and a dorsal fin on top. The nose was long and pointed, and its head was topped by a blowhole which sprayed water vapor every so often.

Rarity’s first reaction was fear, and she wanted to bolt, but being as how there was no place to bolt to, she sat down and then began admiring the beast’s coloring.

“You really are quite a beautiful creature, aren’t you, darling?”

It chirped in response.

“You know, if you were from my world, I would love to work with you, maybe even create a whole new line of underwater fashions!”

It seemed to like what it was hearing as it made a slight leap into the air, causing Rarity to scream and grasp hold of the dorsal fin for dear life.

“Well, I hope you don’t do too many more of those leaps before we reach our destination.”

She paused.

“And just what is our destination, anyway?”

The creature chirped again, and Rarity looked where it was heading. Off in the distance was a small island, maybe even the one her friends were on.

“Oh my goodness! You’re taking me to that island!”

Chirp.

She smiled at the creature. “You’re quite the knight in shining armor, aren’t you?”

It opened its mouth, perhaps trying to imitate her smile, then sped on toward the small bit of land in a desert of water.

-----

The sea creature couldn’t get very close to the island without risking being beached, so it dropped Rarity off in the water, allowing her to swim the rest of the way. Before she did, she swam over to the beast’s head and planted a large kiss next to its eyes.

“Thank you so much for what you did,” she said with a smile. “I will be forever grateful.”

As the creature swam away into the ocean, Rarity turned and made her way toward the sandy embankment. She knew that the chances of finding some civilization were slim, but she also knew that if the ponies were searching for her in the ship that they would likely search the nearest islands, and that creature couldn’t have swam very far in the amount of time she had been riding on it.

The thought energized her, and she paddled toward the small isle, knowing that her friends would be coming for her.

-----

After they had spent all morning searching the tiny island and finding nothing, they met back at the ship and decided to try a new approach. Pinkie Pie’s new attire had prompted a curious glance from Rainbow Dash, but she said nothing, attributing it to Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie. Twilight then noticed a set of hoofprints that were quite old, and when they followed them they discovered that they led straight into the ocean. Once they discovered the true direction Rarity had taken, they all piled into the shuttle and flew off to search for her.

Junas deftly piloted the ship in a spiral pattern that Twilight calculated as being the most efficient search pattern for locating Rarity, and they all crowded into the ship’s cockpit and kept their eyes glued to the surface, hoping for some sign of the unicorn. They knew that she would be easy to spot with her white coat, which gave them hope that they would locate her.

“I hope we find her soon,” said Pinkie Pie. “She’s not going to like being all wet and sticky!”

“It’s more than that, Pinkie,” Twilight replied. “If we don’t find her soon, she could drown in the ocean from exhaustion.”

They all gasped, and then Rainbow Dash surprised them all by galloping out of the cockpit. “What did I say?” asked Twilight.

Applejack left the seat she had been sitting in and trotted after her. “Ah’ll go talk to her, sugar cube. Y’all jes keep on watching fer Rarity.”

-----

Alone in the darkness of the dimly lit passenger compartment, Rainbow Dash sobbed into her hooves. Not loudly; she had a reputation to maintain. But she did allow tears to fall from her face.

She knew this was all her fault. After treating Rarity so badly, she probably ran off to get away from her. And why not? Dash had driven friends away before, like the time she pushed Fluttershy so hard that she ran away from tornado drills in tears.

Some Element of Loyalty I am . . .

As she sat in the chair and wallowed in self-pity, she felt a hoof on her withers.

“Anythin’ you wanna talk about, suger cube?”

Dash looked up at her friend, and suddenly remembered that she had tears in her eyes. Quickly wiping them away, she pulled her shoulder away from Applejack and walked over to the corner. “Nothing,” she said curtly. “I’m fine.”

“Ya sure don’t look ‘fine’ ta me, Dash.”

For a moment Rainbow Dash said nothing, then turned and snapped at Applejack. “Okay, Applejack, I’m not fine! I haven’t felt this lousy in all my life! I let my big mouth hurt one of my friends, and now thanks to me, she’s lost somewhere!”

Her voice broke.

“And it’s all my fault.”

Applejack walked toward her, a sympathetic expression on her face “No, it ain’t. Rarity is tougher than ya think, Dash. She might be hurt by what ya said, but that don’t mean she’d get so upset that she’d run away.”

“But I treated her so horribly! And now she’s probably out there somewhere, lost, confused and alone, and because of me she might even drown in the ocean!”

“Listen to yourself, sugar cube! Ya think Rarity would want you to be beatin’ yourself up like this over nothin’?”

For a while, Dash said nothing, then she hung her head. “No, she wouldn’t.”

“Then ya got to quit doin’ it and get yer head on straight.”

She turned Dash’s head so she was looking right in her eyes. “She is your friend, Rainbow. I’m sure she understands that your big mouth sometimes speaks b’fore yer brain engages.”

Dash looked at Applejack after a moment and saw the wry smile on her face, then chuckled a bit. “Yeah, you’re right. If my mouth were enough to drive that pony away, she’d have left a long time ago.”

Applejack shared a laugh with her, then embraced her and squeezed gently. “We love you Dash, and we know Rarity does, too. So stop being a Negative Nancy and come and help us look for her.”

The orange work pony started to trot into the cockpit, then she noticed that Rainbow wasn’t following her. “Dash? You comin’?”

“I think I’ll stay back here. It’s pretty crowded in there.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Before Applejack trotted away, Dash quickly said, “But I wouldn’t mind some company back here. Y’know, to keep things from getting too boring.”

Smiling in understanding, Applejack turned back around and walked over to Rainbow Dash, then sat down on the deck with her friend.

And while they chatted, Rainbow Dash trying to take her mind off the guilt and Applejack trying to make her friend feel better, Celestia stood in the doorway and smiled.

“Friendship truly is a wonderful thing,” she said to herself.

-----

The salty smell of the ocean refreshed Rarity as she roamed the beach, looking for any sign of civilization. So far however, she hadn’t even seen so much as a candy wrapper as she walked along the beach.

Then she saw a glint on the horizon.

She ran over toward it, and saw that it was indeed a small bit of metal, with a surface so polished that she could see herself in it. Her eyes were immediately drawn to her mane.

She screamed. “My mane! Oh dear, just look at it! Look at it!”

Nobody was around to glance in her direction, but she didn’t care. All she cared about was the fact that her hair was a mess.

“Oh, this will take ages to scrub out! I forgot how damaging sea water can be to one’s coiffure. I do hope I can find somepony in this dreadful world with a bottle of conditioner, maybe even a decent . . .”

Her voice trailed to nothingness as she noticed a churning sound in the water behind her. Slowly turning around, she looked toward it to see a pair of enormous black eyestalks jutting up from the ocean surface, followed by a large air bladder and a giant crab shell. Connected to the shell were four pairs of legs, and in front of the monstrous crustacean were two large pincers that looked like they could take her head off easily.

It raised a claw at her. “No! Back! Back, I say! Get away from me, you monstrosity!”

She tried to run, but her way was blocked by the crab’s claws. She tried hopping over them, but the two-meter appendages were simply too large to clear.

Screaming, she attempted to run under the crab’s body and escape, and in doing so almost got cut in half by the razor sharp edges of its legs.

Frustrated, she telekinetically grabbed the first object she saw: a large, sharp piece of rock. Hurling it with all her might, she watched as the stone flew through the air and impacted the crab’s armor. It shrugged off the injury without so much as a flinch.

In desperation Rarity tossed more objects at it, all the while dodging the claws and legs of the monster.

Then she tripped.

Rolling to a stop in the sand, she looked up, and her irises contracted as she saw the horrible claw of the creature come crashing down. She closed her eyes, bracing for the inevitable.

The inevitable never came.

She heard a blaster shot ring out, and suddenly the creature’s claw came crashing down in the sand next to her.

As she struggled to see what had blasted the crab, it turned and started snapping its one remaining claw at the attacker, stubbornly refusing to give up its meal. But as it stood waving its enormous appendages, over a dozen more bolts screamed through the air and slammed into it. Rarity scooted out from underneath it just in time to avoid be squashed flat by the enormous hulk.

Panting, she closed her eyes and laid in the sand, grateful that the attack had been stopped. Then she heard the sounds of footfalls in the sand.

Weeks of running from two-legged aliens made her freeze in terror, but then she heard two friendly voices.

“See Jak? I told you it was one of ‘em!”

“Okay, so I owe you twenty credits. Next time though, try to simply hurt the sink crab rather than killing it so it doesn’t squash the person you’re trying to rescue.”

She opened one of her eyes, and saw two humans standing there. The shorter of the two offered her a hand, which she gladly accepted.

“Thank you for rescuing me,” she said to the blonde-haired human, bowing courteously.

He cocked an eyebrow and assumed a very Rainbow Dash-like pose. “Aw, it was nothing. Just my unerring accuracy and awesome skills with a blaster.”

“Take it easy, Trenner.” Said the heavier of the two. “She don’t want to hear yer braggin’.”

“Why not? All the ladies love a man who brags a little.”

The other man with the brown hair chuckled a bit. “Always the ladies man. Anyway, I’d be proud to rescue one of the most famous Rebels in the galaxy.”

Rarity frowned a bit. “You know who I am?”

“Well,” he said scratching his head, “I don’t have a name to go with the pretty face, but that face and the faces of the other seven equinoids are on every wanted poster in the galaxy at this point. You’ve built up quite a reputation in the Alliance as a bunch of real hell-raisers.”

“Aw, c’mon Jak! She don’t want to hear ‘bout her reputation.” He extended a hand. “Come on, gorgeous. I’ll take you to our little outpost.”

-----

Clouds parted ways as the Starhound sped through the atmosphere. Junas, his eagle eyes never leaving the water, kept the ship on the spiral course Twilight had plotted, while the others took turns watching out the small windows on either side of the cockpit.

As they searched, a thought nagged at the back of Twilight’s mind. After a while, she could stand it no more and looked over to Princess Celestia. “Princess, do you think we could talk?”

“Of course, my student.”

“Could we maybe talk in the cargo bay?”

The great sun goddess bowed once, then followed her student into the small storage bay on the side of the ship. Celestia sat down in the middle of the room as her student closed the door behind them. When the lock was set, Twilight turned and sat in front of her teacher.

“Princess, I really need some help. I’ve been working on a spell to take us home, and there’s a problem.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Could you be more specific?”

The unicorn began to pace. “I’ve been trying to modify the time element associated with the spell, so we can return to a point before the vortex sucked us into this universe, but by my calculations we won’t have enough power between us to activate such a spell. Apparently time travel of that magnitude has never been attempted before, and I doubt even your own magical potential could accomplish not only a travel length of a month, but transport Luna, my friends and Spike.”

Celestia put a hoof to her mouth. “Could you give me the spell so I may see what you have accomplished already?”

Twilight nodded, then as Celestia bent down, the unicorn touched horns with her teacher. After a brief moment of contact, Celestia raised her head again and mentally examined the spell. “I see what you mean, Twilight. My magic is powerful, to be sure, but I doubt even Luna, myself and you could generated enough power to transport us such a distance in time.”

She put her foreleg around Twilight’s shoulder. “But I will endeavor to find a solution to this conundrum.”

As Twilight was smiling up at her teacher in thanks, a crackle was heard on the ship’s intercom. “Guys, we’ve found an island.”

-----

After traveling down a rather long corridor which led deep into the earth, Rarity was taken to a room which seemed to sparkle with jewels. As the doors closed behind her, she realized that what she was looking at was some sort of control room, though she had no idea what half the equipment was responsible for.

“Hey guys,” shouted Trenner. “Look what I found on the beach!”

Some of the men at the consoles turned, and a few of those gasped, which prompted the rest of the room to look in Rarity’s direction.

“She’s one of the equinoids that the Empire is after!”

The ivory unicorn bowed her head. “How do you do?”

“Young lady,” said a rather important looking man, “I am honored to make your acquaintance. I am Captain Sardis of the Rebel Alliance. I trust you’ve already met my two scouts, Jak and Trenner.”

“Yes,” said Rarity, “I was in quite a bit of trouble when these two assisted me. I am very grateful that fate saw fit to send these two my way.”

“It was hardly fate,” said Sardis. “Sink crabs of that size pose a threat to the island’s defenses and communications arrays. They were sent out to either drive it off, or kill it and shove the carcass into the ocean so the empire doesn’t get wind of our activities.”

He looked up from Rarity at the two scouts. “You guys did remember to shove it into the water, right?”

Jak looked up at the ceiling while Trenner rubbed the back of his head.

“You two do realize that if a random Imperial patrol boat happens to see a crab with blaster holes in it, they might—”

“Sir!”

Sardis held up a finger. “Hold that thought, gentlemen.”

Turning toward the consoles behind him, he walked toward one which had a large round screen on it, and Rarity followed him. Several glowing circles and lines that she couldn’t make heads or tails of dominated the screen, and a small red dot appeared to be coming in pretty quickly.

“There’s a small ship with no markings approaching the base. I identify several passengers, though their species are not clear.”

“Give me an ID on the ship type.”

The technician brought up an image on a viewscreen off to the side. As the techs and Captain Sardis stared at the screen, Rarity gasped. There on the screen was the very shuttle that brought her to Bestine.

To her right, before she could tell Sardis that she recognized the shuttle, she heard something that chilled her to the bone.

“Bringing blaster cannons to bear.”

Above her, blunted by the earth, she heard mechanical devices activating, and she knew exactly what they had to be.

“Wait!” They turned and looked at her.

“That’s my ship!” she continued. “They must be trying to find me!”

“Are you sure?” asked the captain.

“Yes. That’s the same ship that brought me here.”

Sardis squinted at her. “It could very well be an Imperial trick. They’ve been known to capture our ships then return them with a cargo bay full of baradium, exploding and killing everyone in the base.”

“I know it’s them,” said Rarity with finality. “If you don’t believe me, send a couple of fliers out to investigate!”

“It’s not a bad plan, boss!” chimed in Trenner.

Sardis didn’t make a sound for several tense seconds. “Very well. Send out a flight of Headhunters to investigate. But if they see anything that resembles Imperial trickery or if the shuttle acts suspiciously, I authorize them to destroy that ship before it lands.”

-----

Twilight looked at the island they were approaching, hoping that they had found the place where Rarity had washed up. She also hoped that what they would discover, if anything, wouldn’t be a drowned body.

As the ship flew toward the small bit of land, they saw two objects come up out of the water next to the island, a jet of ocean spray blasting up after them. Junas watched as the two objects got close enough to identify. “Looks like a welcoming party.”

“A party?!” shouted Pinkie Pie as she jumped in place. “Where?!”

They all ignored the hare-brained pony as the two fighters pulled up in front of them. Knowing better than to keep going, Junas killed the engines and coasted to a stop.

For a moment, all was silent as the three ships sat in the air and waited for the other to make a move. Then suddenly the fighter on the right began flashing lights on the leading edges of its wing roots.

Junas looked over the console. “Oh, where’s the headlight switch?”

“Headlights?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Yeah. Number one rule in wartime is don’t use the radio if you can help it.”

Before he found it, the fighter started flashing his lights again.

“Hold you horses,” Junas said as the flashes continued, then he looked at the ponies. “No offense.”

“Don’t you worry ‘bout that, pardner,” said Applejack. “Jes do whatever it is you plan on doin’.”

He nodded, then went back to searching, hoping he could find the switch before the fighters carried out their threat to destroy them.

-----

Frenzy Two sat in his cockpit, watching the shuttle intensely. He was nervous. Their first attempt to get them to answer failed, and he had already given them a second warning. That left the third and final warning, and if that shuttle turned out to be full of some sort of explosives, they might just blow themselves up if they had to fire on it. At this close of a range, there would be no chance for survival, even if they did punch out. But he needed to be close enough that they couldn’t escape, and they had to make sure that if this shuttle was a threat, that it wouldn’t be a danger to the base.

Over the secure channel, he heard Frenzy Leader. “They still haven’t answered. Give ‘em one more signal, and this time warn them if they don’t answer, we’ll open fire.”

Frenzy Two nodded, then started flicking the headlight controls.

Attention . . . unidentified . . . shuttle. This . . . is . . . your . . . final . . . warning. State . . . your . . . business . . . or . . . we . . . will . . . be . . . forced . . . to . . .

Before he could finish the last message, the ship in front of them began flashing a message of its own:

This . . . is . . . Junas . . . Turner . . .of . . . the . . . Rebel . . . Alliance. Please . . . escort . . . us . . . to . . . your . . . base.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Frenzy Two began hurriedly flashing his headlights again.

Roger . . . shuttle. Follow . . . us . . . to . . . the . . . base. We . . . will . . . escort . . . you . . . to . . . the . . . command . . . center.

-----

On the shuttle, Junas read the last bit of the message while wearing a small grin. “Well, it seems like they’re going to let us land.”

“Maybe they know what happened to Rarity!” piped Pinkie Pie.

“Yeah!” said Twilight. “With their sensor technology, surely they’ve seen something!”

“Maybe, girls,” replied Junas as he followed the starfighters. He wasn’t at all confident that their scanners could pick up a pony in the ocean, especially if she was below the horizon, but there was no reason to bring their hopes down.

However, he didn’t have much time to worry about the ponies’ feelings on the matter as he guided the ship through the air, following the Z-95 Headhunters toward the surface of the ocean. The ponies watched as the ship headed straight toward the water.

“Uh, Junas?” asked Rainbow Dash. “You do know that we’re flying toward the water, right?”

Before they knew it, they were plunging into the sea and heading toward the Rebel base, the repulsor drive creating a current as it propelled them deeper and deeper into the abyss.