It took a day or two, but the Croaker ship was finally on approach to the planet. Looking at the screen at such a beautiful world filled Fluttershy with a sense of wonder; she had forgotten how long it has been since she has been within the atmosphere of a planet and it has been a while since she has had anything other than recycled air. It was covered in lush vegetation that were all forests, it also had plenty of rivers and oceans. Fluttershy couldn’t wait to spread her wings and get a lungful of fresh air on such a beautiful world, though her heart was a bit sad that some of the structures reminded her of her home back in Equestria.
“This is the recently stolen Croaker ship The Rampancy to Aldebaran defense forces. Do not shoot, we are carrying civilian passengers. I’m putting one of your people on the horn or letting them access to visual communications to confirm. Kim this is your home planet, you better get us that landing clearance and fast.” Katt passed off the communications to the blonde cat that was now know as an Aldebaran. Aldebarans were strangely reminiscent of ponies in so many ways or at least that’s what Fluttershy thought, they were colorful and quite beautiful in appearance with their long manes that would sometimes reach even beyond their fluffy tails. “How’s the patch job on the headset doing Fluttershy?”
“I can understand you at least.” Fluttershy received a tilted head in response.
“Can you at least understand what I’m saying?” Katt asked as she couldn’t understand what Fluttershy was saying, she however knew Fluttershy could understand her at least by the nod she received. “I’m sorry; I’m just not as good as Slip is with this experimental technology stuff Fluttershy.”
“It’s okay.” Fluttershy said reaching up to pat Katt on the shoulder softly earning a mildly sad smile from her.
“I understand you well enough to know what you mean through your emotions at least.” Katt sighed and turned back to piloting the ship.
“Captain Katt Monroe, ‘Of the Nine Hells’, our High Artificer wishes to speak with you now.” Upon hearing the blonde Aldebaran cat named Kim; Katt turned back to the console and started a conversation with the leader of their people.
Fluttershy could see an old Aldebaran cat that had white fur and slightly grey hair, a crown and purple robes. The High Artificer was still pretty despite her apparent old age and it showed. Her regal form reminded Fluttershy of Celestia back home, wise with age and really had a look that said she cared for everyone around her in a grandmotherly way.
“Thank you, we really needed to unload all these weary people or else I might have a small riot on my hand that even Fluttershy can’t handle.” It was only in that moment of Katt speaking that Fluttershy was brought back to what was going on, Katt hit the ship wide communications. “Everybody listen up; get your stuff together and be ready. We’re going to land on the planet of Aldebaran as they have so graciously offered everyone onboard asylum provided you follow a few simple rules. What you do from there isn’t my problem, but take care of yourselves you hear me? Fluttershy would be upset if you got yourselves needlessly hurt after she convinced me to come to your rescue. I didn’t have to rescue any of you and I could have just as easily escaped by myself or with her, so be sure to thank our mutual friendly four legged friend for having such a big heart.”
“Yes, she is particularly sweet and I’m glad she wanted us to escape dearly.” Kim the Aldebaran looked to Fluttershy who was minding her own business near them and was blushing a bit at the attention. “Still it is hard to believe the toads would be able to create such a monstrosity as Komplex. It explains why they have been so quiet for a long time in the Aniverse at least.”
“Well that guy isn’t that ridiculously complicated. Thanks to seeing him I made my copycat ruse which I would like to call Perplex and got everyone off the Mother-ship without a fuss. Of course it won’t work more than a few more times before some Croaker or even Komplex itself gets wise to what I did.” Katt noted the confused looks coming from both Kim and Fluttershy. She rubbed at her short white hair a bit with one hand and smiled cheekily.
“How is Komplex not complicated, he seems to be causing a lot more problems than just the toads to going to war!” Kim let out in a frustrated tone; she had even been there when they attacked Warren and it definitely ruined her vacation. She even told Katt and Fluttershy as much as they traveled through space.
“Well from what most of you people who live here in the Aniverse Systems tell me, the Croakers or Toads as you call them are known for three major things. They are lazy, highly incompetent and they have a penchant for shoddily made stuff. That is why all this is happening.” Katt could see the looks of surprise on not only Kim’s face, but Fluttershy, the green rabbit sitting at the scanners and the squirrel who was busy tinkering around with a nearby consoles a bit. They were all now staring at her in wonderment. “What? Am I the only one who could figure it out? Well let me put it this way. What would happen if they made a product that worked all too well and does exactly what it is supposed to, only in an extremely over the top manner. It all culminates in their one successful not so shoddily made product such as a one in a million chance known as Komplex.”
“Wait, are you telling me that the reason why the toads attacked my home planet to turn it into a swampy cesspool and are going to war is just because they made something that actually works!” The rabbit looked livid and why wouldn’t he be given the monster that was known as Komplex wrecked his home.
“Oh Komplex definitely works from what I’ve gathered with my little data mining operation, it was created to fix a lot of things wrong with the Croakers. It wasn’t programmed to lead a war and you should consider yourselves lucky that it wasn’t or else people would be fighting for their very lives right now.” Deciding to really give the people of the Aniverse Systems the really bad news Katt went on. “Komplex turned the Croakers entire planet into a factory seven layers deep, started a war and is building stuff like the fighters that are centered on protecting Croaker lives. Komplex is actively trying to better the Croakers by fixing all their problems in a rather unique manner and it scarily enough actually does care about the Croakers under its mind control, even if it is doing so in the most deranged looking way possible. All that and Komplex isn’t doing anything that it wasn’t already meant to be doing. It’s a pretty chilling fact that Komplex isn’t doing all this because it’s an actively malicious piece of artificial intelligence despite sounding like it should be from what I saw. If it was actively malicious it would have killed off the Croakers ages ago and would have been trying to take over the Aniverse System completely by itself instead.”
There was a silence after Katt finished stating the very haunting thought of what the Croakers managed to accomplish. A machine to fix their problems and it was going about it in such an esoteric way. It started by destroying their home planet to maximize their weapons production rate, then started off the war by stealing other nearby planets for Croaker to live on such as Warren. In general Komplex made the Croaker race a very credible and dire threat as a way to fix all of their problems and it was succeeding.
“This is all so horrible…” Fluttershy could already feel the tears brimming in her eyes; she couldn’t imagine something like this happening to ponies. It was a largely self inflicted tragedy, the Lylat Systems problems weren’t nearly as bad sounding despite all the violence currently going on there. It was rather easy to ignore the troubles in Lylat as she really didn’t see too much of the action, here she had actually been in the middle of it and wanted to help the Croakers and the rest of the Aniverse System dwellers find peace again.
“Hey don’t be sad Fluttershy, you can’t solve all the universes problems and you can’t be everywhere at once you know. All you really need to do is focus on getting home; it might seem cold to say this but this is the Aniverse Systems problem and I’m sure there’s someone out there that can handle it. Of course putting people like Frix and Frax in higher stations when I had the chance will seriously blunt the Croaker war effort immensely given how incompetent they are.” Knowing she was receiving sad looks from everyone other than the pony already in tears, Katt pulled Fluttershy into a hug and started play with her mane.“If it makes you any feel better the Lylat System might eventually come in to help out the Aniverse System once I get back there.”
“Well… there is someone that will not stand for his home planet being captured; his name is Bucky and he is our home planets greatest warrior and he won’t rest until Komplex and all the chaos it is causing is completely dealt with!” The green rabbit was directing this more towards Fluttershy than Katt who by his accounts was completely right; Fluttershy was a long way from home and was from a mostly pacifistic sounding race. This was not her war to fight and he wouldn’t feel right getting such an innocent creature involved in their problems keeping her from finding her home when her friends and family were all waiting for her to return. “Katt is right Fluttershy, let us handle the problem. You’re not obligated to fight our battles for us; you’ve already done enough by giving us hope that there are more heroes like you out there somewhere who are willing to help.”
“I’m not a hero though…” Despite her attempt at modesty Fluttershy had forgotten that they couldn’t understand what she was saying, but at least her headshake got through to Katt.
“Fluttershy, I would have left these people to whatever fate that would have befallen them if it meant keeping you safe or even saving my own skin. Instead you convinced me to save them all and you’re the one that nearly got shot in the back of the head because of it and you had already nearly lost your ability to ever fly again in the process of escaping capture; I hope you’re always going to do good things like this wherever you go and that you eventually find your way home.” This was one thing Katt wasn’t going to let go as Fluttershy didn’t think she was brave or heroic and it was clearly seen in the way she acted. Fluttershy just answered by nuzzling into Katt’s neck so the pink furred cat would start rubbing her back. After a minute or so, Katt turned back to communications while still holding Fluttershy close to her. “This is The Rampancy we’re coming in for a landing, all civilians prepare for immediate offloading, take all the supplies you want or need we’ve got plenty for everyone. The only thing we’re low on is food; the Aldebarans are definitely willing to share. Just leave enough to survive on for a month; I’m heading back to my home system to clue them in on what’s happening here.”
Ten minutes later Fluttershy stepped out onto a beautiful quiet world of Aldebaran, she was the first to step off the ramp and be greeted by the curious friendly pony like felines who were very colorful in appearance. She could feel the magic in the air and it was fresh and welcoming after being stuck in space bound vehicles and being so useless when it came to advanced technology that was mostly far beyond her comprehension.
After a massive amount of cargo was offloaded except for some food and the last of the people had gotten off the ship, the ramp closed and it launched into the air without warning to hover for a bit. Fluttershy turned back to ship wondering what was going on and what Katt was doing, she flapped her wings and managed to get into the air despite the still throbbing pain in her right wing. She flew up to a window and looked inside to see Katt working the controls.
“Katt what are you doing!” It was said as loudly as Fluttershy could get her voice.
“Sorry Fluttershy, but you’ll be safe here and I believe I’ve fulfilled my contract. You can take care of yourself from here on; you’re a big girl even if you do cry. I’m heading back straight into danger and for the Lylat System, might even start working on a Catspaw Mark Two when I get there.” It was hard for Katt to meet Fluttershy’s eyes, but she did and she had one last thing to say before she blasted off into the atmosphere in the large green ship all alone by herself. “I left you two presents when I was hugging you, one on your headset and the other in your saddlebags.”
Fluttershy was knocked from the air by the shockwave of the ship jumping straight up into the atmosphere and the pony held up a hoof sadly pleading for Katt to come back and stay with her. Even as she fell from the sky she knew she was being rather selfish in wanting Katt to stay with her, she hit a cloud and sat there staring at the bright skies of Aldebaran with tears in her eyes still reaching out for her friend with a hoof.
Wiping away the last of her tears from her eyes, she pulled off her headset and looking around for something unusual on the metallic white structure and quickly found a silver rectangular device with a button on it. Pulling the device off she pressed the button and it immediately emitted a holographic display of the Lylat and Aniverse systems in their entirety and overlaid them on a galactic map, she placed the headset back on and stared at the display. Below her hooves the clouds started raining.
“If you’re finding this now, that means I’ve ditched you on Aldebaran Fluttershy and you have just placed the headset back on. This recording will only play once so listen carefully, this is a map of the systems you’ve been to already. You might never find your way home as it’s a big universe out there and your home is a very small part of it, this map might help you find your way back to your home or any friends you might meet along the way in case you get lost out there. Press the button to turn this display on and off, this uses the battery from my laser pistol so it’ll last you for quite a long while. If you haven’t looked in your saddlebags yet you might want to now. I’ll give you a minute to think about what you find.” Reaching into her saddlebags Fluttershy found a photograph of a confidently smiling Katt showing her full body from her white shoulder length hair to her pink furred toes. She was wearing her vest, top and pants while giving Fluttershy a peace sign. “Aside from my destroyed holdout pistols battery, this is all that was left of the Catspaw aside from all the scrap metal, cherish it and keep hold of it for me will you? In case we never meet again, good luck out there cuddle toy!”
Turning off the thoughtful device, the pony leapt from the cloud and fluttered her way slowly to the ground while staring at the picture in her hoof. Her heart was broken, but Fluttershy understood she couldn’t form too strong an attachment or she might never want to go back to her home planet of Equus. Celestia forbid that she ever forgot her best friends in the universe that were missing her and probably held gatherings outside her cottage, this only broke her heart further. The squirrel and green rabbit walked up to her and wrapped her in a comforting hug as she slowly put away the picture on top of the one from Fox and his motley crew.
Eventually she was led to having a meal after watching the sunset, she hadn’t even paid attention to the food that was given to her but it was safe for her to eat as it was all fresh vegetables. The High Artificer herself welcomed those who were rescued and Fluttershy with open arms. While everyone else was happy it was quickly muted whenever one looked towards the four legged creature that sat alone and apart from them.
A few days later the High Artificer noticed Fluttershy was still in a deeply depressed state. The explanation from those that knew why she was like this stated that Fluttershy wanted her friend to stick by her side, in a way Katt did stay by Fluttershy by giving her a picture. Even with the thoughtful presents that were given, Katt had still fractured Fluttershy’s poor little heart by leaving so abruptly like that.
“I hope she will be fine after a while. What I wish to speak to you about is that she has some powerful form of magic in her. What should we do about it?” Kim asked the High Artificer almost within hearing range of pony that just sat there staring off into space.
“Do? Nothing, we will leave her be as long as the magic she has in her proves to be of no danger to our sisterhood. She is greatly saddened by the loss of a close friend… maybe meeting with Princess Felicia could cheer her up perhaps?” The High Artificer smiled slightly. It’s not like things could go horribly wrong with such an innocent and wondrous intelligent four legged creature that came from an entirely different magical world.
“Are you sure that is wise?” Kim asked raking a hand through her long blonde locks, while frowning at the poor creature that sat on her butt under a tree.
“Felicia needs more worldly experience as she’s way too headstrong. Meeting an outsider might actually help her calm down some and expend some of that extra energy that she has. She’s not yet anywhere close to being an artificer though, needs to practice a lot more what with her master off gallivanting about the Aniverse with that rabbit.” After a moment of keeping her hands folded in front of her in her lap while thinking of whether or not to allow Felicia to interact with the pony. She watched on as Fluttershy expertly communed with all of the nature around her even in such a state of dishevelment as she was currently in. The High Artificer decided a course of action. “Felicia could invite our guest to have some tea. From what I understand her headset allows her to understand what we say; only that it was recently damaged and that we can’t understand her because of it. We could use our magic to bridge the gap and get her to explain the kind of magic that shines within her brilliantly, maybe we can get her to enjoy a nice bath before sharing tea perhaps so we can sooth her pain. She obviously does not know of our secrets and yet there is so much magic in one so quiet, I find myself curious.”
“High Artificer, You know what they say about too much curiosity and what it will do to one of our people.” The blond cat sounded a bit worried about what her High Artificer was implying.
“We will not probe too far or do too much if she is unwilling, she is a guest who is beloved by those she sought to rescue and we will not harm the poor dears hurting heart any farther than it already is.” The High Artificer would live up to her words of not hurting Fluttershy, but she wouldn’t live up to not being the cause of a massive problem. “Get some maidens to work on a bath tomorrow morning and care for her in any imaginable way you can think of, I want her cared for as if she were one with our sisterhood. I think it will do her some good. As for now, if you will excuse this old lady, I must go seek my granddaughter.”