//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Biker Princess from Equestria // by WesFox134 //------------------------------// I blinked my eyes open after sleeping for a while. I looked over at the cave’s opening and saw the twin suns rising. So it wasn’t a dream then, I thought. I looked around wondering if Celestia was awake yet. As I put my clothes on, I noticed the bed Celestia had was gone and her bike still was in the same spot as it was from last night. I walked out of the cave and sat down against the edge of the cliff, just taking in the sights. Yet, I still felt uneasy, questions still going around my mind and I was seriously questioning my choice to go with this woman. Didn’t she have any idea about what could happen? I could be killed on some alien world and no one back on Earth would even know! My family and friends wouldn’t even see me again and they would be worried sick about me if I didn’t show back up home. And what was with those bounty hunters chasing us earlier? Is Celestia wanted for something or some kind of criminal? How can I trust someone who doesn’t even tell me a thing about herself or where she came from or why she chose me at all? I walked to the cliff and sat down; eating a bar I had brought with me from home. It wasn’t that much of a breakfast but it would do. I heard some footsteps from behind me and saw a white hand go over my shoulder. I looked up and saw Celestia’s flowing mane brush against the back of my head as I looked her in the eyes. She then spoke, “Good morning Wes, sleep well?”. I said nothing as Celestia looked at me. She then spoke, “Well, it looks like we should be off to another adven--” I interrupted her, “No.” Celestia looked at me with an eyebrow raised as she asked, “No? Why are you so hesitant? You were so ecstatic about going with me earlier.” I said, “Yeah, well, I don’t know how it is where you come from, but being chased by bounty hunters really isn’t fun.” Celestia tried to calm me down by saying, “Don’t worry, Wes. As long as you’re with me you’ll be fine.” I looked at her and said sarcastically, “No offense, lady. But until I have something to back that up, I’m just going to assume that you’re seriously underestimating the situation.” Celestia looked at me with worry, her equine ears folding down against her head. She paced around and after a few moments she sat down next to me. The two of us looking onwards towards the alien jungle and the sea beyond it. Celestia finally spoke, “I suppose I’m doing this just for a way to get away from it all. I came to a realization sometime ago. You see, it was some time ago that my niece was about to marry, but someone impersonated her and was about to take away her husband. I couldn't stand by and let that witch do that to her!” I listened in carefully, paying attention to what she was saying as she spoke again, “I tried to stop that evil vile succubus, unfortunately she overpowered me. Thankfully my niece and her future husband to be were able to defeat the imposter and her minions. Their love was able to help in that victory, blasting her and her minions back. It was in that moment, I finally realized something. I never truly loved anyone before.” I just stared at her and said, “Not at all, you never loved anyone?” She looked down at me and shook her head as she said, “No, my, er, career sort of prevents me from having that many opportunities for romance and I fear I might be too, well old.” I just look at her and say, “Old? Celestia you’re not that old, and well, I don’t know, perhaps someday you might find love.” I was only saying that to make her feel better, and her story did somewhat answer my concerns. She also could take care of herself due to that light show she did to defend us yesterday but I still was somewhat hesitant to completely trust her. There still was something she wasn't telling me. We both just spent some time there watching the twin suns slowly rise higher as the cries of strange alien wildlife soon filled the air. I looked at Celestia and still wondered what she could be hiding from me, what could be so important that she has to hide from her, well the best word I came up with at that time was, “guest”. As she walked back to her bike, I got up and walked behind her as I picked up my backpack and put it in the “Saddlebag of Holding” (Good God, why did I name it that? It sounds like something from a Monsters and Mazes game). As Celestia got upon her bike, I got on behind her. Sitting down and holding on to her tightly after I put on my helmet. As the bike began to rev and power up with the shield appearing around us and we soon rocketed towards the sky away from this world, but for some reason we were headed towards the blue and red twin suns of the system. We got closer and closer to the twin suns of this solar system, we soon got close enough that we saw the prominences coming off of them quite easily. Thankfully the magical shield around the hoverbike decreased the glare of the suns so that we could look at them without our eyes getting blinded. We stopped right in front of the two suns, I watched as Celestia stretched out her hands against the glow of the twin suns. However as she did so, I saw something below her fur and her wings, almost like lines of energy colored the same as the color of the twin suns flowing underneath it, like some kind of technological vein or some kind of circuit. I also noticed her horn was glowing her yellow golden color as bits of the light went through it. Looking at this made me only wonder even more questions, what exactly was Celestia? Was she some sort of cyborg, and why was she doing this in front of the sun? And what was she collecting this energy for? I looked closer as she flared her wings outward to collect more of the solar energy, seemingly to increase the area to bask in the glow of the twin suns. She then stopped, put her arms down and folded her angelic wings back into place on her back. She revved her bike as we went into another rainbow wormhole. We soon ended up at a small planet near a orange sun, an old dusty planet and landed at a small spaceport town. Celestia parked her hoverbike near a few other vehicles in front of what appeared to be some kind of pub or old western saloon with a few technological stuff added to it. I took off my helmet as I looked around at a few of the creatures and aliens milling around the small town. I soon got off of her bike as Celestia did the same, as I looked around I wondered why we stopped here of all places as Celestia said, “Well, I think this is a nice place to get some breakfast, don’t you think Wes?”. I looked over to her and said, “Umm, sure why not?” as I hoped that there wouldn't be any crazy bounty hunters around this time. I really have to stop invoking Murphy's Law so much. I followed Celestia into the saloon. We walked up to the bar but all of the aliens inside were staring at us and eyeing us as we got to the bar. I looked over at the aliens, I noticed in particular a small group of aliens consisting of a humanoid with large hands, a small armadillo kind of alien, and a woman with a scorpion stinger coming out of her and she had an eye patch on her right eye. I also turned to look at a few other creatures, some being small lizards, others looking rather human as they all appeared to stare at us. I followed her to the bar as I sat down on the stool next to Celestia. However many of the aliens that were looking at us got up and started to surround us. One of the aliens says, “So looks like we've got our bounty right here, didn't have to wait long.” I looked on as the aliens got closer. Celestia and I were backed against a wall when Celestia suddenly said, “Oh Wes, it seems you have captured me! I have been beaten by your mighty tracking skills, please don’t take me to your hovercycle and turn me in!” I just looked at her confused as she hit me in the side with her elbow and spoke, “Play along.” without moving her mouth much, as if she was saying it through her teeth. I just did what I thought was the best thing, improvise. I said to the aliens, “Uh, yeah, she’s my bounty, and uh, none of you are getting her!”. One of the aliens, a three-eyed bug said, “Yeah, what makes you think we’ll let ya?” through some sort of collar on his neck. With the alien “speaking” using clicks and the collar responded in a robotic voice. I nervously looked at them and said, “Well that’s because I have grand combat training from, er, the Boy Scouts, and they have techniques that can let me protect myself from harm.”. I looked at the aliens who were backing off as Celestia said, “Yes! It was those techniques that allowed him to capture me!”. I looked on and said, “Yeah, now I’m, er, taking her back to my hoverbike and none of you follow me or you’ll be next on my list!” as I awkwardly walked past them with Celestia in hand. However one of the aliens, a big burly bear looking thing, stood in front of the doorway as it said, “Really? Show me one of yer “techniques” if you want to get away with that lady.” I stopped and chuckled as I thought, “Oh crap, what am I going to do, I can’t do anything.” I heard a small voice what sounded like Celestia’s that said, “Just do your best Hong Jin impersonation with those awesome kung-fu moves and I’ll take care of the rest.” I thought spoke, “Wait you saw the Hong Jin movies?” Celestia’s voice said, “Talk later, action now.”. I then went and did some kind of kung-fu move with my hands and feet. As I did so, I appeared to glow a slight golden as my hair started to stand on end. I did a few more moves as the aliens stood back as I yelled and did a few more. As an opening appeared, the lightshow stopped and we both went outside of the saloon like place, thankfully none of the aliens were following us. I did notice Celestia grinning a bit as she whispered to me, “How did you like that little light show I made?” I quickly said, “Let’s continue this conversation somewhere else Celestia.”. We quickly got on the hoverbike and sped away, heading towards the sun, where after a few moments of Celestia doing a repeat of what she did back at the two twin suns, we sped off to another star system. Thankfully to find a place somewhere far away from the bounty hunters. I said to Celestia, “I certainly hope you won’t be making a habit out of this, I mean we almost bit it there.” Celestia just smirked at me from behind her helmet and said, “But we didn’t, did we?”. As I tried to rebuttal her we ended up exiting the rainbow wormhole around another planet. This time, an earthlike world with many advanced cities that looked like lighted wheels with spokes connecting to other cities. We flew down to one of the cities, there were tall skyscrapers all around with landing platforms for hover-cars and hover-taxis, there were also holographic adverts everywhere with neon signs. We landed on one of the landing pads and after Celestia gave the attendant robot another golden coin, we walked together to a hotel. As Celestia and I walked, we say the large menagerie of various aliens and people mingling down the streets, some buying from what appeared to be stands with various things being sold. I looked at the various things being sold as Celestia mentioned, “If only I brought those Elvis records I got from Earth. I could listen to them and perhaps sell one or two.”. I looked at her and said, “And you have Elvis Records too? Where did you get em?” Celestia said, “Well, Elvis never died he just went home.” I just looked at her, she did have a slight smirk on her face so I thought she was joking. We soon reached our hotel and Celestia ordered a room. As I sat down waiting, I noticed some kind of Holographic “Poster” on the wall. I took a closer look at it and gasped, it had a badly drawn picture of Celestia, with a scar beneath her eye and her horn cracked in one or two places and her hair tied back. I also noticed some kind of reward written underneath it, as well as the chargers being placed on her. It read like a strange list of crimes, Illegally landing on planets without authorization, giving false coinage, bar brawls, and insulting the Duke of Kra’tktickla. I looked at the poster for some time before heading up to the room Celestia and I rented out. I just lay on the bed and let my eyes droop down to let it take me to a nice rest after this stressful day. Yet, I wondered what to do, as sleep took me.