Chapter 21 Battle for the First Map
Everypony on the ship gathered around a large console that sat in the middle of the main hold. Applejack was pressing down on some of the console’s controls and an image of the cave entrance appeared in a three dimensional hologram. The image showed a group of mercenaries standing guard near the entrance.
“This is what we’re going to be dealing with here,” Twilight said to the crew. “We’ve counted about twenty-four ponies and griffons here as well as four mounted gun turrets near the entrance.”
“You think they’ve spotted us?” Canderous asked.
“We don’t believe so but we’re going to assume they have and are just waiting for us to make our move,” Twilight replied.
“So, what’s the plan then?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Around the post, two long hills were on each side. There is a couple of watchponies on the edges but if we take them out without the rest noticing, we can charge from both sides and-”
“Give them a surprise party?” Pinkie finished with a smile.
Twilight’s eyes were half-lidded. “No, we take them out,” she said.
Pinkie let out a gasp. “But Twilight, we can’t just go in and kill anypony,” she pleaded. “What if they’re good and attacking them would make us the bad guys and-”
“Pinkie, some of their equipment is Imperial,” Twilight said. “In fact, those turrets have Imperial symbols on them. So either Moonlight is aware of our search for the star maps or they may have been here longer than we thought.”
“What are we waiting for?” Applejack asked. “If Moonlight is aware of our mission, we need to get to finding those faster before he starts sending in real trouble.”
“Alright, pack every weapon you can get your hooves on and we’ll start the battle plan,” Twilight said. “Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, and T3 I need you three to stay with the ship in case things go bad.”
“You got it, boss lady,” Rainbow Dash said.
“Okie dokie lokie,” Pinkie replied.
“Does that mean we can come along too?” Scootaloo asked. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom stood behind her with excited expressions on them.
“Yeah, can I help too?” Spike asked.
Everypony looked at the four before looking back to one another as they all nodded and agreed on one thing.
“No.” They all said in unison.
The three fillies and the baby dragon’s smiles turned into frowns as they lowered their heads and ears down.
“Alright, everypony, let’s get to work,” Twilight said.
Standing guard at a certain distance from his fellow mercenaries, a lone scout looked through his macrobinoculars as he searched for any threat. As he was looking, he saw something shine out in the distance. When he increased the binocular’s viewing range, his eyes widened with horror as he was looking down the barrel of a sniper rifle. Before he could do or say anything, the wielder of the weapon fired and the shot landed on the scout’s chest.
HK kept his optics on the target to verify that it was eliminated. When the target didn’t move after it had been fired on, he turned on his internal comms.
“Verification: Target has been eliminated, master.”
As soon as HK said that, the other scout on the other side was also shot down without any of the mercenaries knowing about it.
“Good job, Applejack just took out her target,” Twilight said over the comm. “Everypony, take your positions.”
HK stood up from the ground. Coming out of cover, Garret, Trixie, and Canderous stood up along him and quickly ran over to the edge of the hill and watched carefully. On the other side, Twilight looked over the edge with Applejack, Zaalbar, Fluttershy and Rarity behind her.
Twilight looked to Applejack, who had two grenades in her hoof. Applejack then tossed Twilight one and both looked over the edge together. Using her magic to pull out a small device, Twilight started flashing a small green light. On the other edge, a small blue light could seen as it flashed on and off in a repeated pattern. Twilight nodded to Applejack and they both tossed their grenades. At the sametime, Canderous and Garret tossed two similar grenades as well at the mounted turrets.
When the grenades landed next to the turrets, they released an electrical charge that damaged the turrets and the mercenary that was on it. The mercenaries were caught off guard by the attack but quickly fired at the incoming intruders.
Applejack, Canderous, HK, Fluttershy and Zaalbar started opening fire at the mercenaries down below over the edges while the others charged in with their lightsabers. Garret ignited his violet lightsaber, Twilight ignited her blue double-blade saber, Rarity activated her cyan blade and finally Trixie simultaneously activated two of her lightsabers, revealing them to be bright yellow blades.
The mercenaries quickly gathered their wits and started firing at the charging knights, returning fire at the shooters from over the edges. But their attempted counter attack was fruitless as the knights deflected their attacks with their lightsabers. And they couldn’t hit their targets over the edges as they were being berated by constant fire from Canderous’ gatling gun. HK was locking on to his target before opening on it and moving to the next target with ease. Both griffon and pegasi that attempted to get up to the air were being blasted down by Applejack and Zaalbar while Fluttershy was only firing a few shots before hiding back into cover.
The knights of the group jumped into the dwindling numbers of the mercenaries and started slashing and cutting through each of them. A mercenary concentrated his repeating rifle at Garret as he was deflecting and dodging every shot fired. He used his magic to push the mercenary and a couple of his comrades against a barrel of fuel. When the mercenaries tried to get back up, HK aimed at the barrels with his rifle and fired a shot at the barrel, which caused it to explode.
Numerous mercenaries charged at Trixie with vibroblades and blasters in their hooves and talons while she used her lightsabers to deflect and slash through them with ease and swiftness. Rarity used her magic to lift some of them in the air and flung them against others that were trying to sneak up behind Twilight. The ones that Rarity threw hit some of the mercenaries and made Twilight aware of them. Twilight swung her lightsaber at the remaining ones and cut them down.
The battle was finished when a lone griffon was about to take another shot at Twilight. Just as he aimed his gun at her and was about to pull the trigger, he was caught in the head by blaster fire - a neat hole sizzling right beneath his left eye. Over the edge, the gun that landed the shot on the griffon still smoldered with heat as smoke came out of the muzzle of the gun and HK held it in his metallic hooves. The gunslingers skid down across the hills at the defeated mercenary camp and regrouped with the knights down below them.
“Hee haw, we showed them what for,” Applejack cheered.
“It seemed a little too easy for me,” Canderous said. “I don’t like that.”
“Oh, quit your whining and enjoy it,” Trixie said. “As the Great and Powerful Trixie, has won us the day.”
“I have to agree with Canderous on this,” Twilight pondered out-loud. “This did seem too easy. Better if Applejack, Garret and I head inside while the rest of you keep a look out for anymore of them.”
“Right behind you, sugarcube,” Applejack said.
The three headed inside of the cave while the others took cover behind vehicles, crates or other kinds of cover as they watched out for anything suspicious. Unknown to them, they were being watched by a small probe droid that hovered slightly high above the cave entrance.
The three trotted along the path of the cave as both Twilight and Garret had their horns lit up with magic as Twilight took the lead and Garret covered their rear. For a while, the cave was long and wide with stalagmites hung high over them. As they ventured further through, the cave grew smaller, eventually leading to a chamber at the end of the trail that held the Star Map they had sought for so long.
“There it is!” Twilight said as she ran towards the ancient device and Applejack and Garret followed suit. She stopped in front of it and observed the long, slender object. “I believe that this is the map. Now we just need to know how it works.”
“Maybe there’s a switch on it or something,” Applejack suggested.
“Or maybe it needs magic to activate,” Garret said. He lit up his horn with magic and used it to cover the object with an aura.
It absorbed the aura around it and started to come to life. It was opening up with three spires sliding out of the center and in the center was a round orb. The orb then lifted out of place and started lighting up with a map of the entire galaxy.
“Amazing, how did you know it would work?” Twilight asked.
“I don’t know, it was just a feeling I had,” Garret replied. “You think this map alone can take us to the Chaos Forge?”
“Let me see.” Twilight observed the map and all of the known systems it was displaying. She saw that there were different routes it was showing but most were incomplete. “No, we can’t. It shows some routes but it seems like only part of a whole piece. Which means, we need to find the other three maps if we are to find the Chaos Forge and the Elements of Harmony.”
“Great, so three more planets to go then, huh?” Applejack said. “I was really hoping we didn’t have to go to Coltiban.”
“Well, no point in arguing about it,” Twilight said. “If we need to stop Moonlight and find the elements, we have to go there eventually.”
“This may sound crazy but might as well go there after we’re done here,” Applejack said. “Better to get the hard stuff out of the way, than to put it off till later.”
“Alright, then we’re in agree-”
“Wait,” Garret interrupted after he noticed something was wrong. “I hear something beeping.”
Twilight and Applejack furrowed their brows as they were confused until they started hearing something beep as well.
“I hear it too,” Twilight said. “What is that?”
Applejack looked up and gulped as her eyes widened with horror. “Ah think Ah know,” she said, pointing her hoof up.
Garret and Twilight looked up and shared the same expression as Applejack when they saw what was on the cave’s ceiling. The beeping sound was coming from several bombs that were attached to the rocky surface, dozens of red lights flickering on and off.
“RUN!” Twilight yelled.
As soon as the word left her mouth, the bombs started going off and the stalagmites fell down towards them. The three galloped as the top part of the cave fell all around them. A boulder fell in front of Applejack and she quickly jumped on top of it and hopped off just before another boulder rammed down on it. Garret dodged to left and to the right as rocks were falling all around him and Twilight teleported just before a boulder could land on her. Just before the cave finally collapsed, the three were able to make it outside with dust and debris flying out of the cave right after them.
Garret coughed some of the dust out of his mouth and stood back up. He saw Applejack on the ground and helped her up as Twilight was able to get back on all four hooves. Twilight shook her head and saw the others were still in cover behind the vehicles.
“Everypony, we need to get back to the ship. I think it’s a-”
“We already know,” Canderous interrupted before looking the opposite direction from Twilight.
Twilight looked past the crew and the cover they made to see a large group of mercenaries getting off their vehicles and surrounding the passage out of the cave. At the bulk of it all, stood a pony that was very familiar as he looked through his goggles at the group.
“Wait, is that Calo Ford!?” Twilight shockingly asked as she took cover next to Canderous. “How did he survive the fall of Hoovris?”
“He’s a bounty hunter, sweetie,” Canderous replied. “Once he has his sight on a prey, there’s no hope of losing him unless you’re willing to put up a fight.”
“Well, surely we can convince him not to cause us anymore trouble,” Rarity said. “Why, I bet we can-”
“I have to give you all credit, I had to go through a lot to find all of you but I should thank the Imperial intelligence, they were kind enough to provide all the intel and tech I needed to hunt you down,” Calo Ford said. “You got lucky on Hoovris, but the Luna Empire won’t be getting in my way and I intent to settle the score between us. What I’m going to do is kill every one of you here except for you, Twilight Sparkle. I’ll be payed double if you live, so I suggest you accept while you can, surrender and I’ll spare you.”
Twilight looked around to her friends and sensed the tension and fear that they were emitting. She then looked over to Calo. “I’ll surrender, but only if you leave my friends alone.”
“Twilight, no you can’t!” Applejack said. “You’re too important to be captured by Moonlight. If Moonlight turns you to the dark side, he’ll use your abilities against the Republic.”
“I will never turn to the dark side,” Twilight said. “I would rather die than to be a servant of the dark side.”
“Then you can’t surrender yourself,” Garret said. “Master Lyra has told me what Moonlight is capable of and has turned many Solar Knights into Nightmare Warriors. He would make sure that you live long enough to be one of his servants.”
“Sorry, doll, the offer is that only you stay alive,” Calo explained. “I have a reputation to uphold.” He then stood up on his hind legs and pulled out two blasters from his holsters. “So what’s it going to be?”
The mercenaries pulled out their weapons and aimed them at the gang. Applejack reached around her belt and pressed on a device that had a blinking light on it.
“Then no deal,” Twilight said. “You want me alive? Then you gonna have to aim carefully.” She then ignited her lightsaber.
Calo frowned. “Your choice, let’s go boys, show tim-”
Calo was interrupted by the loud roar of ion engines as he and the rest of the mercenaries turned to see the Phoenix hovering over them. The ship’s two sets of dual turbolasers glistened in the sunlight, their barrels pointing straight at the blockading group.
“Sorry to disappoint, but my friends and I aren’t going anywhere with you,” Rainbow Dash said over the ship’s microphone. “So I suggest you leave before I turn you into space dust.”
“I see you still have the Phoenix. I’m more surprised that thing hasn’t fallen apart yet,” Calo said.
“Hey!”
“But ask yourself this: How did I get here as well?” Calo asked as he pressed a few buttons on his wristband. Coming out of the sky, a massive ship started firing at the Phoenix with its cannons.
The high-density beams hit the Phoenix a few times on the hull and rattled the ship. Rainbow Dash shook in place and tried to get the ship to move. The Phoenix quickly swerved to the right and flew straight while Calo’s ship pursued it.
Calo pointed his gun at the gang. “Take them down,” he said before firing his blasters.
Going as fast as the engines would allow and then some more, Rainbow Dash kept the ship as close to the ground as possible while it was being fired upon by Calo’s ship. The ship would get hit by the streaming line of fire and the shields would almost keep the damage to a minimum.
*BOW!*
Almost.
“T3, we got a fire in the security room!” Rainbow Dash said. “Try to take care of it.”
T3 let out a series of beeps as he headed to take care of the fire.
“Pinkie, can you hoof the guns?”
“Yupie do!” Pinkie replied.
“I need you to gun it and keep them off our backs!”
“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie said and bounced over to the turret.
Rainbow Dash then pressed on the ship’s internal comm. “Hey kid, are you four okay?”
“Um, more or less,” Scootaloo replied. Apple Bloom was patting Sweetie Belle on the back as her face was turning green. She then felt the full force of her lunch coming out. Spike waddled over to her with a bag and she quickly grabbed it and unleashed her lunch into it.
“That’s good to hear,” Rainbow Dash said. She looked in front of her to see a large sections of canyons and an idea came to her mind. “Alright, everypony, hang on!”
Blaster fire filled the air as both sides attacked each other. Twilight and the other knights kept on deflecting the laser back at Calo and his mercenaries while the others fired their blasters. Seeing how the blasters were worthless against the knights, Calo held out his arm and pointed it at Trixie. He then fired a rocket from a device on his wrist and it headed straight towards her.
Sensing the incoming rocket, Trixie timed it and jumped over the incoming rocket and landed back on the ground with a smug look.
“Ha! Is that all you got for Trixie?” she asked in a mocking tone. But her smug smile disappeared when Calo showed one of his own. Sensing something was wrong, she looked behind her to see that the rocket made a one-eighty and was heading towards her again. She let out a shriek just before it was about to hit her until Rarity jumped in front of her.
Rarity used her magic on it while she held the rocket a hoof away from them. The small missile quickly ran out of fuel and it ceased to apply any force against Rarity’s magic. She then flung it right back at the mercenaries and the rocket exploded; taking out a few of them in a ball of plasma.
Twilight pointed her hoof out towards the mercenaries. “Their numbers are down. Knights, charge!” she said and charged towards the mercenaries. The other followed suit and charged in with Twilight taking the lead.
The mercenaries kept on firing on the charging knights hoping to either kill or slow them down for their retreat, but their blaster fire was still being deflected by their blades. The knights quickly got close to them and used their blades to slash their opponents weapons and, if necessary, their opponents themselves.
Garret cut down a griffon that tried to slash at him with a blade and his focus was now on Calo. He charged towards Calo while he deflected blaster fire from him. Just as he was about to hit him with his blade, Calo reached for a device on his forehoof and jets of fire poured out of a pack on his back. Garret cut through the air where the short mercenary once was and looked up to see Calo flying upward into the air. Joining him was another griffon and pegasi members of his mercenary band as they flew skyward with him.
Calo smugged. “Unicorns have magic while Earthponies have technology,” he commented. “Let’s see which’s better.”
“Um, Dashie? I know that some of things I do are in fact insane and can be... well, ridiculous from time to time,” Pinkie began to say. “Heck I even modified T3 in ways nopony has ever thought of before. But in times like this, I still have to say, that even for me, THIS IS CRAZY!” she yelled as she watched the Phoenix evade and maneuvered through the large canyon with spires and bridge-like rocks were in their way.
“The chances of surviving this are a billion-million to one!” Pinkie added.
“Never tell me the odds!” Rainbow Dash retorted.
The Phoenix flew through the canyon while Calo’s ship followed from slightly above and continued to unleash a barrage of laser, followed by firing two unguided rockets at the Phoenix. The computers on the Phoenix alerted Rainbow Dash to the incoming rockets and she steered the ship to the side to avoid the missiles with them passing her and hitting the sides of the canyon.
Pinkie turned the ship's turrets at Calo’s ship while she had a menacing smile on her. “Eat lasers, you meanies!” she yelled and fired the turret at them.
Calo’s ship avoided what laser fire it could, but because of the limited space the canyon provided and it’s limited maneuverability, it took a considerably large part of the turret’s blast. However, the ship had strong shields, which did their job well at protecting the hull from Pinkie’s barrage of turret fire.
Pinkie gulped. “I think the ship’s weapons aren’t strong enough,” she commented.
“Of course they’re not,” Rainbow Dash retorted. “This ship was made more for speed than fighting.”
“Well, it would be good if they were both!” Pinkie said.
“Just hang on, the canyon is big enough for us to move through.”
Rainbow Dash pulled one of the ship’s levelers and the ship was going faster than it’s normal speed. Pinkie looked around the canyon through the turret’s windows as her thoughts were on Dash’s comment about it.
“Yeah, it really is surprisingly big,” Pinkie said. “What could have made all this?”
On cue as two of the ships trailed the down the canyon’s various paths, the walls and the ground started to shake up as something was forcing it’s way through the earth. All of a sudden, dirt erupted out of the ground and sides to show giant worms with multiple sharp teeth all around their round mouths.
Rainbow Dash smacked herself in the face. “You had to say something!” she commented.
“It was not my idea to go into a strangely large canyon!” Pinkie retorted.
T3 came into the bridge and when he saw something outside of the ship’s windows, he let out a terrified sound as he extended an limb from his chest and pointed at it.
“What is it?” Rainbow Dash asked before looking out the window to see a giant worm about to snap at them. She panicked and steered the ship away from it before it had a chance to get them.
While in the dormitory where the three fillies and Spike were, they were being tossed around in the room with all the fighting and flying that was going on. Sweetie Belle was nauseous because of all that was going on and the situation they were in wasn’t making it any easier.
“I think I’m going to barf again,” Sweetie Belle said as she covered her mouth with her hooves.
“Keep it together,” Scootaloo said. “Rainbow Dash can get us out of th-”
Before Scootaloo could finish, the ship shifted again and all of them went flying towards the wall. Apple Bloom slammed against the wall with Spike and he fell into an open canister and it closed on him, with Apple Bloom landing on the side. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo also slammed against the wall and fell to the ground with Sweetie Belle on top of Scootaloo. Scootaloo felt dizzy for a moment before looking up to see Sweetie Belle turning green again.
“Hey, somepony get me out of here!” Spike yelled from inside the canister.
“Don’t worry, I’ll-” Scootaloo back at Sweetie Belle as she was gagging. Sweetie Belle covered her mouth as something was about to force its way out of her. “Sweetie, no! Let me get a bag and-”
“BLARGH!”
“AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!”
“Get us the heck out of here!” Pinkie pleaded as she was frying the turret all around them trying to keep Calo’s ship and the giant worms off of them. “We’re going to die here!”
“If we go up in the sky, we’re just as dead with that ship behind us!” Rainbow Dash retorted. She looked up ahead to see a large rock bridge and had a smug smile when an idea popped into her head. “Pinkie, when I tell you to, shoot the end parts of the bridge up ahead.”
“But-”
“Just get ready!”
Rainbow Dash was heading towards the bridge while she was still evading the enemy’s cannons and the worms that were all around them. When she was bout to take the ship under the bridge, she turned on the comms.
“Now!” she yelled.
Pinkie pointed the turret at the bridge and fired at it. The turret fire hit both ends of the bridge, making it collapse. Rainbow Dash took the Phoenix under the falling debris of rocks and at the last few seconds was able to avoid it and pass through to the other side with only a few of the smaller rocks hitting the top of the ship and harmlessly bouncing off.
Calo’s ship however had to slow because of the larger falling rocks getting in its way and couldn’t move through. The moment it stopped, one of the giant worms broke through the wall of the canyon and clamped its jaws around one the ship’s wings. The ship tried to pull away from the worm’s jaw only for the wing to be torn off of it, sending the vessel spiraling out of control. The ship spun for a moment before crashing down onto the ground and exploding from the inside and outside while other worms started to surround it.
Pinkie let out a victorious cheer. “Woo hoo, we did it!” she said. “That was totally cool! I mean, there was the ship chasing us and the worms all around us, but then you did your Han Solo thing and-”
“Yeah, yeah, we better get back to the rest of gang,” Rainbow Dash said and pressed on the comm controls. “Hey, Scoot, are you guys okay?”
“Um, this is Apple Bloom. Scootaloo is busy taking a shower for the moment.”
“What? Why is she taking a shower at a time like this?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“You really don’t want to know,” Apple Bloom replied with a slight groan.
“Um, okay. Well, we’re out of danger for now, so we’re heading back to help the others,” Rainbow Dash said. “But knowing them, they probably wiped the floor with those guys. I mean, come on, we have Solar Knights. What could they have that we don’t?”
Back with the others, they were running from cover to cover as they avoided the blaster fire from the mercenaries on the ground and from the air. Applejack was firing both of her blasters while she was keeping Fluttershy close to her. Fluttershy was trying her best to fire her blaster and help with the others, but she would quickly duck behind cover with so much blaster fire going around. Canderous was firing his repeater in different directions and trying to keep both ground and air forces off of him. HK fired his sniper rifle at one of the enemies in the sky and Zaalbar was watching his back as he was firing his blaster bow at the ones on the ground. Twilight and the other knights formed a circle as they were deflecting back blaster fire from all sides.
Rarity turned to Twilight as she was deflecting the blaster fires. “It seems we’re in a bit of a mess here,” she stated. “I hope Rainbow Dash has gotten out of her troubles.”
“I’m sure she has,” Twilight said before deflecting a blaster fire. “We just need to hold out until she gets back. Then we can make a break for it and move on.”
Calo looked at the battle that was going on below him as he was evaluating his next move. He reached around the back of his belt and attached a grenade to his wrist band. He pointed it at the knights and used his wrist band to propel his grenade towards them.
Sensing something was wrong, Twilight looked up to see it the grenade heading straight towards them.
“Look out!” she shouted and quickly jumped out of the way.
The other knights did the same and jumped just as the grenade hit the ground and exploded on contact. The explosive force caused the knights to be forced back and tumble along the ground.
While it was happening, two ponies were carrying a large cannon in their hooves before they mounted it and a griffon grabbed hold of the weapon’s handles. The griffon pointed it towards Canderous and fired the cannon at him. Canderous notice the laser heading towards him and tried to move out of the, but the explosion from it forced him off his feet and onto the ground a large burn mark on his chestplate and his repeater lying a few feet away from him. Canderous tried to get back up and was about to grab it until a hoof stepped over it and he looked up to see two blasters pointed at him. Canderous let out a growl while the two mercenaries let out snickers.
Just as they were about to pull their triggers, two lasers hit both of the mercenaries heads and Canderous looked over to see that HK used his sniper on them.
Canderous let out an agitated groan. “What took you so long?” he asked.
“Response: It takes time and patience to get good shots with this elegant weapon, meatbag,” HK replied. “But don’t fret, I prefer you alive so I can have fun watching you in misery.”
“That’s comforting,” Canderous commented.
Before HK could do anything else, he was shot a few times in the torso and fell to ground as the lights in his optics flickered off and on. Canderous looked to where the shots came from and quickly rolled around the ground to avoid blaster fire coming from Calo’s blasters. After the blaster bolts stopped coming, Canderous looked up ahead to see the cannon pointing straight at him. The griffon operating the cannon smiled as he was about pulled the trigger until he heard a roar near him.
The griffon looked up to see Zaalbar and tried to grab the blaster in his holster until he was grabbed around the neck and was held up in the air by the large minotaur. The griffon tried to struggle its way out of Zaalbar’s grip, but it was for naught. With but a flick , Zaalbar snapped the griffons neck and threw him out of the way as he grabbed hold of the cannon. Zaalbar used the cannon to fire on the remaining mercenaries that had been surrounding Applejack and Fluttershy.
Zaalbar then heard something coming his way and looked to see a rocket heading towards him. With another roar, he jumped out of the way and the rocket hit the cannon, resulting in a large explosion.
Garret got on his hooves and shook off the dizziness as he looked up to see Calo coming down over the unconscious Twilight. He quickly looked around for his lightsaber and saw that it was close to him. Grabbing it, he ignited the blade and made a charge towards Calo.
Calo noticed this and prepared himself for the knight’s attack. Garret made a swift strike at Calo’s head but the bounty hunter ducked and punched him across the face. Garret recovered from the counter and made another swing at him. Calo avoided each strike that was made towards him. When Garret lunged at him, Calo moved to his side to avoid the lunge attack and grabbed hold of Garret’s forehoof. Calo struck him once more in the face and twisted his forehoof causing Garret to lose his grip on the saber. Garret winced in pain and Calo kicked him in the stomach, forcing Garret towards the ground on his back.
Just as Garret was about jump back up, Calo pulled his blaster out of his holster and pointed it at the knight.
“You’re brave kid, I’ll give you that,” Calo said. “But you’re not stallion enough to be a warrior.”
Calo pulled the trigger and a laser came out of the blaster. Garret’s irises shrunk as time slowed down for him. He felt his heart going fast as the adrenaline from all of the fear overcame his mind. Just as the laser was about to hit him right between the eyes and end his life, a cyan colored lightsaber reflected the blaster away and Rarity was standing right between him and Calo.
“I will not let you hurt my friend!” Rarity yelled. She held up her lightsaber over her head and kept her focus solely on Calo. “He may not be a warrior by heart, but he’s twice the stallion you’ll ever be.”
“Then let’s see what he can do about this,” Calo said before he turned on his wrist band and a stream of fire roared out of it.
Rarity’s irise shrunk and held her hoof over her face as she prepared for the worse. The flames engulfed around her and she could feel the intense heat all around her, but didn’t felt like it was on her. She looked up to see Garret standing in front of her and using his magic to hold off the fire.
“I can’t keep this up!” Garret said through gritted teeth. “You have to move!”
“I won’t abandon you!” Rarity cried.
Calo kept up his attack as the scanners in his goggles showed that they were still alive. “Impressive, I see how magic can be handy,” he said. “But let’s see how long you can hold before the flames turn you to ash.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it!”
Calo turned around to see Twilight back on her hooves and galloping towards him. He was about to swiftly turn the flames towards her until a lavender aura of magic engulfed his device and it slipped out of his forehoof. Twilight used her magic to bring her double-bladed lightsaber towards her and jumped high into the air. Calo pointed his blaster at her and fired a couple of times before she swung her lightsaber and cut it in half. Before could do anything else, Twilight spun around one more time at high speed and sliced Calo’s head clean off.
The head rolled around the ground for a moment until it stopped, a shocked expression still plastered on his lifeless face, as if carved out of stone. The body stood still for a second before falling backwards onto the ground. Everypony stopped their fighting and looked at the remains of the infamous bounty hunter’s head on the ground. The mercenaries remained silent for a moment before one of them spoke up.
“Hey, we can still do this! If we capture that mare, we can claim the reward for our-”
Before the mercenary could finish, the earth trembled around them as something seemed to be coming their way. Fluttershy felt something was off and for reasons she couldn’t quite understand herself, she believed it was coming from the collapsed cave.
“Everypony, run from the cave! Something is coming this way!” she shouted before she began running away from the cave while dragging Applejack with her.
Following Fluttershy’s advice, the group quickly began running away from the cave too, as the rocks from the collapsed entrance started to loosen themselves. All of a sudden, something large forced its way out of the collapsed caves and let out a thunderous, reptilian roar. It was a huge lizard-like creature with pale green scales and yellow piercing eyes with two horns coming out of its head.
“IT’S A KRAYT DRAGON!”
“GALLOP FOR YOUR LIVES!”
The mercenaries ran for their lives as they were either getting in to their remaining speeders or flying away into the sky.
The Dragon crawled its way out of the cave and looked around its surroundings. It looked around to see the fleeing mercenaries and started to chase after them. It then took special notice of Twilight, Rarity and Garret as they were galloping away from it. It let out a low roar as it was now chasing them. Its hunt had begun.
Applejack saw what was happening and fired a few pot-shots at it. The blaster fire however, was ineffective as the lasers did nothing to it but only angered it.
“What the hay!” Applejack cursed.
“Its scales are too thick, blasters won’t work on it!” Fluttershy pointed out.
The dragon unhinged its jaws and was about to snap at the three.
“NNOOOOO!” Applejack cried.
Then out of nowhere, large beams hit the side of the dragon before it could do anything and it let out a pain-filled roar. The others looked up to the sky to see the Phoenix was coming straight towards them.
“Yee haw!” Rainbow Dash cheered.
The dragon turned its attention towards the incoming ship and let out a threatening roar.
“Looks like he wants more,” Pinkie said. “Should we give it to him?”
“With pleasure,” Rainbow Dash replied and fired the ship’s weapons.
The Phoenix fired a few more shots at the dragon’s side before it let out one more roaring cry and fell to its side, dead. Everypony on the ground let out cheers of victory as they saw the ship coming down for a landing. The ramps to the ship opened and trotting out with a smug smile was Rainbow Dash while Pinkie bounced along with her.
“Told ya I’m the best flyer in the galaxy,” Rainbow Dash said. “You can all cheer for me now, nopony stopping you.”
“Ah guess since ya saved our hides from that dragon, ya deserve it,” Applejack said. “Just don’t let it get to your head.”
“Hey, it’s me we’re talking about, ponies are talking about me all the time so I’m pretty much used to it,” Rainbow Dash said.
Applejack rolled her eyes and walked into the ship with the others following behind her.
“So, did we get the map?” Rainbow Dash asked.
Twilight looked into her saddlebag and held out the datapad in her hoof. “We’ve got the map right here,” she said. “Once we have the other three maps, we can go put them together and they’ll show us where the Chaos Forge is and, hopefully, the Elements of Harmony.”
“What are we waiting for then?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Tell me where to go next and we’ll be there lickty split.”
“Hey, where’s HK?” Pinkie asked.
“Don’t worry, I got it,” Canderous said as he dragged the droid’s body across the ground. “It took a few hits but I think we can still get him back on its hooves.”
Pinkie let out a gasp and ran over to HK and began patting his head. “Don’t worry, HK, I’ll get you fixed up,” she said with firmness. “I’ll make you better than ever. In fact, now that I think about, we can add that bubble-gum-making machine to you. Oooohh, that’ll be so much fun!”
Canderous rolled his eyes and kept on dragging the droid’s body into the ship. Just as the crew was getting back together on the ship, Applejack was glad to see that Spike and the fillies were relatively okay. However she did raise a brow as she looked at Scootaloo, who was still wet and had a towel wrapped around her.
“Um, why do ya look like ya just came out of the shower?” Applejack asked.
“I’d rather not say,” Scootaloo said, angrily. “Let’s just say that somepony shouldn’t have eaten so much peanut butter.” She then glared over to the apologetic looking Sweetie Belle.
“I said I was sorry,” Sweetie Belle said.
“You and I are not on good terms right now, Sweetie,” Scootaloo stated.
“Alright, Rainbow Dash, as soon as everypony is on the ship, we need you to take us to Coltiban for the next map,” Twilight instructed.
“Huh, where they train all their unicorns to be Nightmare Warriors?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Count me in, it’ll be fine to mess with them on their own doorsteps.”
“We’re not going to attack them, we’re going to infiltrate our way in,” Twilight said. “You don’t happen to know how we’ll get through the planet’s defenses do you?”
“More than likely, this girl has been pretty much everywhere in the galaxy,” Rainbow Dash said. “This is a seasoned smuggler’s ship, so if somepony ever took her there before, we could use whatever codes they used and use them to get us in smoothly.”
“Then see what you can find.”
“Aye, aye, egghead,” Rainbow Dash said with a salute and flew back into the ship.
Twilight let out a groan. “I hate it when she calls me that,” she said before heading into the ship.
When the entire crew was aboard, the Phoenix propelled itself off from the ground and flew towards the open sky. The ship had left the planet and into the void of space with the two sun’s light shining off the metal. The engines started to light up with blue energy and it jumped into hyperspace, leading the gang towards their next destination.
End of Chapter