Revan Vao looked up from the datapad in her lap as the proximity alarm began to sound, ‘It’s almost nightfall, who would be out here at this hour?’ making her way to the cockpit, she silenced the alarm as she glanced over at the sensor array, ‘Three younglings and an adult pony, a big one, coming from the Apples’ farm. Huh, I guess it’s time to go put on my show.’
Strolling out into the clearing, Revan settled herself onto her customary seat and stretched to loosen a muscle in her back, before turning to watch for her visitors to arrive. “‘Evening, Big Mac, younglings, what brings you out to my neck of the woods?”
“‘Evenin', Miss Revan,” the big stallion drawled as the three Cutie Mark Crusaders, outfitted in their red capes and with saddlebags and sleeping bags slung, raced forward to cluster smiling around the Jedi, “Ah hate ta impose on ya, but we have a mite of a problem, an' ah was hopin' ya would be willin’ ta give us a hoof.”
“What do you need?”
“Somethin’ came up, sudden like, an' Granny an’ Ah need ta head over ta Appleoosa for a few days, an' with Applejack an' her friends out of town, we were hopin’ that ya would be willin’ ta look after tha fillies.”
Revan stared at Big Mac for a moment, “You want me … you’d trust me to look after the little ones after what happened before?”
“Eeeyup.”
The twi’lek raised her hand and the hatch behind her cycled open, “Why don’t you girls head on in and I’ll be with you in a second,” rising from her seat, she paused to catch the red earth pony’s eye, “Thank you.”
________________________________________
Revan walked back into the BloodWraith’s tiny common room to find that the three fillies had already climbed up onto the acceleration couches and were looking around with poorly concealed disappointment at the utilitarian interior of the old blastboat.
“Yer spaceship is right … cozy,” Apple Bloom observed, clearly feeling that she should say something nice about their host’s home.
“‘Cozy’,” Revan grinned at the little pony’s words as she reached out to pat a bulkhead, “She’s cramped and ugly, is what she is, without a speck of luxury or grace to her, but my baby could carry a compliment of eight for two months, take a pounding that would vape a snub fighter and keep on going, and fly right through the heart of a fleet engagement to make a planetary landing or a hostile boarding. She’s a mean, tough and ornery lady, and we suit each other just fine.”
“Well, let’s give you the quarter-credit tour,” the Jedi continued, as she stepped into the room and pointed aft, “The bunkroom is through there, and there is a door on the far side that goes to engineering, please don’t play with that door, I have it code-locked.”
“To Port and Starboard we have the crew quarters, Port is mine, but you girls are free to use the Starboard quarters or the bunkroom, or even sleep out here on the acceleration coaches if that’s more comfortable.” Heading down the short hallway, Revan waved at the other doors as she passed them, “Over here we have the galley and stores, and on this side we have the closet we call a medical bay and one of the most important chambers aboard any ship, the refresher. That’s a bathroom to you ponies,” she grinned as the fillies giggled at her poor joke, “And finally, we have the cockpit. Again, please don’t play with anything in there without my permission.”
“Well, why don’t you younglings make yourselves comfortable while I see about getting us some chow?”
________________________________________
Later, after the prepackaged dinner had been eaten, the dishes put away, and the cups refilled, the little group relaxed in the common room, with the three fillies splitting their attention between the comics they had brought and discussing ideas for how to get their cutie marks, while Revan read through a proposed training regime for her potential students while half-listening to the Crusaders’ conversation and the music coming from the datapad on the table, ‘What exactly are they going to do with a catapult, anyway?’
“Miss Revan? Who are those ponies?”
“Huh?” the Jedi grunted eloquently, as she blinked at Sweetie Belle before her gaze dropped to the flat-pic of a motely group of armored aliens, their helmets off as they smiled, or smirked, at the holographer, that was currently displayed on the datapad, “Oh, those are my lads, Sweetie.”
“Yer lads? Ya mean like yer foals?”
“In a way, Apple Bloom,” Revan put aside her paperwork and picked up the datapad as the three fillies quickly joined her on the coach so they could get a better look at the flat-pic. “They were my platoon, the soldiers under my command, back during the Comzelar campaign,” she gave a soft smile, nothing like her usual crooked grin, as she touched the datapad’s screen, “We may not have all liked each other, but we were the Platoon, and we went through fire for one another.” The twi’lek leaned back, her gaze going distant, “I still worry about them sometimes ….”
“Who’s this one?” Scootaloo asked, snapping Revan’s attention back to the conversation as she pointed a hoof at one of the figures in the flat-pic, “She looks kinda like a dragon.”
“That’s Sergeant first class Tussh Drist, she’s a trandoshan,” the Jedi replied, tapping at the screen to enlarge the flat-pic, “She was my second-in-command and heavy weapons specialist, and you’re right, she does look like a dragon.” She reached over to ruffle the pegasus’ mane, causing Scootaloo to bat at her hand in embarrassment, “She was a lot like Rarity, actually, always proper, refined and polite, even when she was about to end you.”
“This mare’s eyes are really neat! Who is she?”
“Corporal Ina Yroc, mandalorian, communications technician, she always looked like she should’ve been in a fashion holo rather than out in the mud and the blood with the rest of us. I swear, it seemed like every other month some datapusher would try and transfer Ina over to Public Relations or Psychological Operations, but she wanted to stay in the field, so I kept her with the platoon.”
“These two look like they’re glarin’ at each other.”
“That’d be lance corporal Bres Khauc, weequay, trooper, and lance corporal Lem Soom, duro, trooper, two of the best soldiers in the platoon, and yeah, they were butting heads and trying to show each other up for as long as I knew them.”
“Kinda like how Rainbow Dash and Applejack are always competing?”
“Nothing so friendly, I’m afraid, Scoots. Bres and Lem really despised each other, but each was adamant that only they could kill the other one, and both Tussh and I had made it clear that the only way they were getting to each other was by going through us, so it worked … in a dysfunctional sort of way.”
“And the stallion with the big mustache?”
“Sergeant Jace Dekkert, human, medical corpsman, he was always singing, even though he couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, and he was damn proud of that lip ferret of his. We lost him during the battle for the Verdast-Tilik Industrial Complex.”
The three ponies shuffled their hooves as they exchanged uneasy glances, “We don’t have ta talk anymore if ya don’t want ta, Miss Revan ….”
The Jedi sighed as she gave the little earth pony a gentle squeeze, “It’s alright, AB, losing people is just a fact of life when you’re a soldier, especially if you’re in command. The trick is remembering them all, and trying to make sure that their deaths counted for something.”
“So, who else do you want to know about?” Revan asked after a few minutes, breaking the melancholy silence that had descended upon the room.
________________________________________
Apple Bloom, youngest daughter of the Apple clan and unsuccessful (so far) seeker after her special talent, patted a hoof against her stomach as she slipped out of the refresher, ‘Miss Revan sure likes her tea strong an’ sweet. She could probably give tha stuff Pinkie Pie brews a run for its bits,’ glancing around, she noticed that the door to the cockpit was open and her host’s seated figure was highlighted by the moonlight filtering through the windscreen.
Her curiosity piqued, the filly quietly walked forward, only to give a startled jump when the Jedi addressed her without turning around, “Hello, little Bloom, shouldn’t you be asleep?”
“Ah was jus’ returnin’ all that tea Ah borrowed,” Bloom replied, “Oughtn’t ya be in bed, yerself?”
“Probably,” Revan admitted with a small grin as she hooked the cockpit’s other chair with her foot and spun it around to face the earth pony. Accepting the invitation, Apple Bloom scrambled up into the chair where she gave a contented sigh as she curled up on the comfortably battered upholstery.
After gazing out at the stars in a companionable silence for a time, Apple Bloom decided to bring up something that had been bothering her, “Ya really miss yer soldiers, don’t ya, Miss Revan?”
“Yes, I do. Three years out on the front lines makes for some tight bonds.”
“Then why did ya leave 'em?”
“I’m not proud of it, but cutting-and-running seemed like the best way to keep them safe at the time,” the twi’lek gave a tired sigh, “I’ve doubted that decision several times over the years, but what’s done is done. Besides,” a grin brightened Revan’s face as she leaned over to nudge the filly with her elbow, “If I had stayed with them, I never would have met any of you ponies.”
Apple Bloom giggled quietly as she returned the Jedi’s smile, “Ah wouldn’t worry too much, they have Sergeant Tussh lookin’ after 'em, after all, jus’ like we have ya lookin’ after us, an' all of us are lookin’ after ya.”
“You ponies are looking after me, are you?” Revan smirked down at the little earth pony.
“Eeeyup.”
“Well, thank you, then,” the Jedi chuckled, as the two turned their attention back to the starry sky outside.