Fox felt the controls fight back as he brought his Arwing into a nose dive. The oncoming soldiers dodged left and right, letting the ship sail between them. They regrouped behind it and began charging from the rear. They figured, with some luck, they’d strike a weak spot.
A pegasus coated in thick golden armor chased down the Arwing with astonishing speed. Fox pulled into a tight turn and circled the Great Fox. From the cockpit window he could see more guardsmen joining the fight. Seeking to throw off his pursuers, Fox yanked back on the flight controls, bringing the Arwing’s nose into the sky. As he ascended he was surprised to hear the comms interface being to beep. He quickly opened the chat channel to see Peppy face onscreen.
“Fo–” His voice was choppy, most likely due to the damaged equipment on the ship. “What’s y–r situ–ion? I’m –ring a lot of commotion.”
“Peppy!” he yelled whilst pulling the ship into a large summersault. “I’ve stirred up the locals a bit, but so far there doesn’t appear to be any of Andross’ tech here. I think they’re attacking out of fear,” he said as he dodged an incoming spear.
“In that case Fox, t– not to use lethal f–. We can’t afford a wa– with these –uys.”
“Easier said then done!” he yelled. One of the pegasi bravely clambered onto his wing, throwing off the Arwing’s weight. He was joined by others who also clutched onto the wings, and then again by even more soldiers. The Star Fox team was in possession of some of the best aircraft money could buy, and here they were, bringing it down with sheer weight alone. “They’re weighing my wings down! He said pulled back on the controls, at the moment, he needed to prevent a dive bomb straight into the ground, which wasn’t going to be easy with his tagalongs.
“Fox, do a barrel roll!” Peppy shouted over the intercom.
“Right!” Fox repeatedly tapped his controls hard to the side, forcing the Arwing into a tight twist. The pegasi released their grip, allowing Fox to pick up his lost speed. Bolts from the crossbows pinged uselessly off the tough hull, but Fox was careful nonetheless. Suddenly, his ship stopped moving all together. Gritting his canines, Fox jammed the throttle as far as it would go, but to no avail. He looked down to see the regal commander using telekinesis to manipulate his ship. Seeing no other option, Fox activated the ship’s thrusters, causing the entire vessel to being to lurch forward. The canine could feel his teeth rattle in his skull as he fought against the telekinetic current. Alarms began to sound off left and right. At this rate, the Arwing was going to be torn to shreds.
In a last ditch effort to save the aircraft, Fox deployed the ship’s emergency flares. Multiple flashes of light ignited in a dazzling display, but even after this bombardment of blinding lights, Fox’s Arwing was still locked in place. He could feel the aircraft slowly descend against his will. For a brief moment, Fox considered firing off a few rounds from the Arwing’s cannons, but rather than attack, he set off the ship’s boosters once again. Little by little it began to move forward. The commander was fighting back with the fury of a black hole, but even Fox could tell the strain was immense. Then, without warning, the adviser began to also tug away at the ship. Fox barred his teeth once again as the G-Diffuser engine within the ship began to overheat. Sparks began flying to and fro within the cockpit. Then, having reached its limit, a section of the Arwing’s left wing caught fire and soon after, tore off of the ship with a small explosion. Fox suddenly felt the aircraft plummet to the ground. Wanted to avoid becoming one with the soil, Fox pulled furiously on the ejection lever.
It wouldn’t budge.
Taking both paws off of the controls, Fox continued tugging at the lever with all his might, but it refused to give. The equines must have released their grip, because Fox was plummeting straight to the ground.
Despite having lost a wing, Fox knew he still had a measure of control over the ship. He redirected the power from the left side of the craft to the hovering rockets underneath the Arwing’s base, but it wasn’t enough. With the ground quickly approaching, he made the last minute decision to redirect power from all available sources and divert them to the underside boosters.
With the remaining percentage of power focused on slowing Fox’s fall, he was completely vulnerable to attack. One of the golden-clad pegasi curled a spear around his hoof and let loose a war cry. With a shocking amount of strength, he hurtled the spear through the air. It stuck violently into the ship’s remaining wing, damaging it severely. The vulpine winced as the power within the vessel started fading rapidly. He was helpless as the ship continued its plummet into the dusty ground. Finally, with an earth shattering impact, Fox’s Arwing collided with the forest floor, sending broken pieces of the ship into the air, while McCloud himself went down with the cockpit. He was helpless as his furry head smacked into the console, sending him spiraling into the darkest recesses of the vulpine’s own mind…
Gather round and you will hear
A tale of derring-do and fear
A tale of one who was never cowed
The story of our brave Fox McCloud.
From Corneria they journeyed long
To fight injustice and right the wrong.
Falco strong and Peppy wise
Slippy fixed their warp field drives.
Fox was brave and smart and shrewd
Planning raids with weapons crude.
The lizards tried
But couldn’t run,
Fox always caught
The evil scum.
Then came a call for a mission dark
To conquer Venom would be no lark.
In Arwings they challenged Andross’ might
And sent him spinning into endless night!
And now our heroes are coming home!
The first thing to come back to the canine was his sense of smell. The air was damp and cool but Fox could sense the age of the room as well. Dust littered most if not all of the surfaces and upon just barely lifting his eyelids open, Fox could faintly see a ray of sunlight peaking through a small window protected by thick iron bars. Little streams of water meandered down the stone walls, walls which he was chained to.
Fox sighed and tugged lightly at the chains. Sure enough they were secured tightly into the wall, too tightly to break free using brute force. He quickly checked his body to see what items in particular had been taken off of him. The rifle was gone but his still had his wrist communicator which was securely locked on his wrist, although, because of how his paws were chained, it could not be reached. His optical scanner headset had been removed as well, leaving him with little more than the clothes on his back.
Although the guards had bound his paws, his boots and feet remained free. He dragged them across the stony floor in contemplation. Was he to be executed or tried? Perhaps they would experiment on him to get a closer look at his freakish alien DNA. Fox found himself rolling his eyes. He got himself into this mess, he could get himself out.
Carefully slipping out of his boots Fox used his upper body strength to raise his feet up to the locks on his paws. He gritted his teeth at the pain in his shoulder, but nonetheless he stuck one of his claws in the lock and began twisting it around, hoping for some kind of reaction. Suddenly, he heard a satisfying pop as the wrist brace unlocked itself, allowing his left arm to swing free. This made repeating the process on his right brace a cinch, and within seconds, he was free to roam around the room.
Fox slipped his boots back on and toggled the sender on his wrist communicator. To his surprise, the Great Fox was still within range. He wasn’t in the position for extended conversation, so he selected the record function. A message to his team should do just fine.
“Guys,” he began in a hushed tone, “I’ve been captured by the locals here; I’m being held in some kind of prison. Listen, no matter what, I want you to stay in the Great Fox. I made a stupid mistake and they might label you as hostile. I’m going to try to get in contact with their commander and try to convince him that we’re not enemies, although, I’m not sure busting out of jail is really going to help my cause.” He shook his head. “Regardless I want you guys to do what you can to start repairs on our ship. With any luck, we’ll get out of here in one piece. Fox out.”
Fox stopped the message and passed it on to the Great Fox’s receiver. It was up to him to get a hold of leader of the equines. He could stay in the cell and simply hope he was brought to their leader, but there was also the chance that they would just outright execute him. And after the fiasco that had recently ensued, saying “I meant you no harm” would make him look like little more than a helpless prisoner begging for his life.
The alternative would be to seek out the commander himself, but this too presented its own unique set of issues. Escaping from a holding cell was a poor way to show none-hostility. There existed a very real possibility that they would just kill him on sight, rather than give him a moment to explain himself at all.
Fox decided on the lesser of two evils and sat down against the wall of the room, waiting for the guards to come in. He looked at his freed wrists, and considered putting the locks back on for show, but once he glanced back up at the rusty chains, he scoffed under his breath.
“To hell with that,” he muttered.
Seconds melted into minutes, and minutes into hours as Fox sat alone in the cold cell. The boredom was mind numbing above other things, but Fox continuously told himself that it was better than causing more of a racket than he already had. He began whistling a tune to himself. It was an oceanic tune that had been taught to him by a friend of his father. He was a respected fisherman on Zoness before Andross’ initial invasion in the Lylat Wars and provided the means to craft delicate cuisines for vacationers on the planet, but took up a wildlife protection project on both Zoness and Aquas after the planets received heavy pollution following the war. Fox couldn’t help but imagine where this friend was now. It had been years since he had seen him and anyone who traveled the Lylat system long enough knew that unpredictability was an unfortunate fact of life. He could only hope he was doing alright.
With no amount of graciousness, the door to the cell swung open. Two guards stepped into the room to find Fox sitting on the wall under his shackles. They seemed more irritated then surprised but walked over to him anyway.
“Can you understand us?” said the larger of the two guards. He maintained a serious expression while his partner seemed more contemplative and curious.
“Yes,” Fox answered.
“Then you are to come with us,” he said, turning back to the door. He motioned with his head to his partner who quickly urged Fox onto his feet with his spear. “Make no attempts to escape, or there will be consequences.”
“I understand.”
Fox followed the brutish stallion out of the cell and down a dark and moldy corridor. They ascended a set of stone stairs and passed through another wooden door. What was on the other side was a stark contrast to the prison area. The hallways and floors were covered with beautiful tapestries, banners, and carpets. Huge stain glass windows depicted various events, most likely the history of the equines. Fox must have been staring too long, because the guard behind him shoved him with the side of his spear.
“Keep moving.”
Fox continued down the large hall until they stopped before a large set of double doors. The architecture of the building reminded him of the underwater buildings of Aquas; old, ancient even, but breathtakingly beautiful. The large guard pressed his hoof against the massive door and opened it, revealing a grand throne room on the other side. More stain glass windows adorned the walls, and the threading in the carpet was composed of what Fox could have only guessed was pure silk. At the far end of the room, he could see two seated figures, one of which the vulpine had apparently misinterpreted as their commander. It was obvious that the status held by this figure was of much greater importance.
When Fox finally stood before the two hybrid equines, the guards departed from his side.
“Ahh, you must be our visiter,” spoke the dark blue hybrid. “I am Princess Luna, and this is my older sister Princess Celestia. You are the alien who attacked our ponies, correct?” She eyed him.
Fox bowed out of respect and then leaned back up. “Princesses, my apologies for the events that unfolded recently. I’m aware that I haven’t made a good case for myself, but I assure you that we don’t mean harm to you and your ponies.”
“Yet you attack my sister?”
“Luna please.”
Luna was silent.
“It wasn’t my intention to attack you, but I needed to draw your attention away from my mothership.”
“Mothership?” Celestia asked.
“The large thing in the crater.” Both princesses looked at each other and mouthed an “oh”.
Celestia turned back to him. “What is your name traveler?” she asked with a curious face.
“Fox McCloud,” he responded.
“A fox named Fox?” Celestia chuckled. “How is it that you stand on two legs, Fox? The foxes of this world are all animals who live in the forest. All of which walk on four legs, and certainly do not clothe themselves.”
Fox looked puzzled but answered anyway. “I– was born this way. I can tell you that most individuals from my homeworld are bipedal.”
Celestia thought for a moment and decided to change her direction of questioning. “And what is your purpose here in Equestria, Fox?”
Fox hesitated. “I’m–I’m not sure if I can really divulge the details of my mission.”
Luna spoke up. “You say you are of a friendly nature, yes? Would this not be a way to prove it to us?”
The vulpine put his paw behind his head and scratched; a habit of his when he was either nervous or deep thought.
“I suppose you’re right,” he nodded. “We’ve been in pursuit of the remnants of a notorious criminal’s army. After he was supposedly killed in a confrontation with my team, scouting parties have been sent out to search for any stragglers. We figured that due to the odd nature of this planet’s sun that he might have begun some type of experiment here.”
The princesses turned to one another with a quizzical look. “I can assure you that I’m the only one in control of the sun here.” Celestia smiled.
Fox raised an eyebrow. “Pardon?”
“Indeed, I raise the sun in the morning and my dear sister raises the moon at night.”
Fox took a moment to let things sink in. At this point, he was just praying they were delusional.
“You mean to tell me that you’re the one in control of the sun?” Fox stated, not aware of the fact that his jaw hung slightly open.
“Yes, why does this concern you, young one?”
Fox ran his claws through the fur on his head. “Princess, are you aware that nearly a hundred of our kind have been killed by your sun?”
Celestia went wide eyed. Her mouth opened but no words came out. She turned to her sister, who bore much of the same look.
“Is–is what you tell me the truth, Fox McCloud?” Celestia asked, the look of a troubled pony never leaving her face.
“Yes, it is the same reason we were nearly killed on approach. In fact, we’re the first to make it through in a very long time,” he answered.
“B–but, I do not understand. How could I be–” The look of terror on her face grew larger by the minute.
“Princess, I’m sure it wasn’t your intention to harm these people. You were just, going about your daily life. How could you have known?” Fox tried to reconcile the trauma he might have caused, but he was aware that this sympathy might be good for his team. If he could get them to feel sorry for them, then he could possibly establish friendly relations quicker. It was worth the shot.
Luna, who had still been in shock herself, turned to Fox. “You are certain you are the only ones to reach here?” she asked.
“I’m quite certain, why?”
“As Guardian of the Night I have noticed several meteors fall from the sky within the last lunar cycle. Not unlike the one you came down in. However these meteors fell far enough away that we thought nothing of it. Yours is the closest we’ve ever seen. Do you think they were your comrades perhaps?”
Fox clenched his fists and gritted his sharp teeth. “No, but I have a pretty good idea of what they were…”