• Published 21st Apr 2014
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Sparkle's No. 1 Assistant - Wanderer D

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Loyalty Mission 5: Derpy's Quest Pt. 2

Sparkle's No. 1 Assistant

Loyalty Mission 5: Derpy's Quest Pt. 2

By Wanderer D

Dinky didn't dare speak. She had been thrown into a small cage with weird devices attached to it. The strange creatures that had taken her were discussing something among themselves, ignoring her completely other than to give her greedy looks.

They were tall… as tall as Mr. Wrex and wearing armor that looked a bit like the one Twilight Sparkle wore. They walked in two legs, but they didn't all seem to be the same species.

Some were soft-looking with little eyes, while others looked like they had bones on the outside. They all spoke completely different languages that she could tell, but for some reason, they could understand each other.

She sniffled, cuddling into a corner of her cage. She had been distracted… after school she had headed up towards the Everfree to get some flowers for her mom. She hadn't even ventured that close to the forest itself, but it had been enough for one of the creatures to appear out of nowhere and… do something to her.

When she had woken up, she had been inside the cage already, and inside some sort of transport. It was boxy like a train car, but she could see outside the window and they were travelling up, really fast, past the mountains and clouds and even the sky… she had been seeing stars soon after before they had floated into a bigger ship.

The creatures had all seemed very happy about catching her, but had thankfully left her alone other than to place a bowl of water in front of her and use the thing Twilight had conjured up earlier in class.

While that relative familiarity gave her some comfort, these creatures did not. They didn't speak anything she could understand, and the fact that they had ignored her pleas and thrown her into a cage made her a lot less inclined to talk to them.

They were dirty, mean, and smelled funny. Not to mention that even if she didn't understand their language, she could tell by the way they acted that they were rough around the edges, as her mom would say.

Remembering her mom gave her a pang of fear. Would she see her soon? Would she ever see her again? It had been hours now, and although Twilight Sparkle and her mom worked together, it would be hard for them to find her. She had no clue where she was, to begin with.

The creatures continued their conversation for a while longer before apparently being called away if their grumbling was any indication.

Silence fell in the room where she was held and she studied her surroundings. It was a large room, with a lot of space and big, metallic boxes… some sort of warehouse? She pressed to the edge of her cage, wishing she knew magic by then. Even levitating something might've been useful… her eyes widened when she heard more voices.

But they weren't coming from the creatures from earlier... where… her eyes drifted to one of the containers as it slowly opened up and three different creatures emerged, carefully looking around, with guns at the ready.

They looked similar to the ones that had captured her—but cleaner—and were whispering furiously to each other, although she couldn't understand then, she could tell an undertone of teasing going around.

One of them, with darker skin, looked at her and its eyes went wide. It grinned and said something excitedly to the others, who turned to look at her with mild curiosity… until the shortest one of the trio, with a longer red and yellow mane stared at her in growing horror.

Dinky backed away as the creature rushed to the cage and knelt in front of it, and then, she—her voice was female—spoke in perfect Equestrian.

"Oh no, how did they capture you?"

"How could this happen?" Derpy asked nervously, drawing on a piece of paper.

"That's what we're going to find out after we kick some ass," Twilight replied.

"Where do you think it went?" Rainbow Dash asked, already wearing her metallic blue, N7 armor.

"We'll probably have to examine the area for clues," Octavia pointed out, doing some final check-ups on Viola. "Our omni-tools should be able to pick something up."

"Foalnapping is not cool," Vinyl muttered angrily. "I'm going reverb the bones out of their bodies!"

The door opened and Rarity walked into the library, already prepped in her armor with her two guns at her sides. She had fashioned a sturdy belt as well where her knives fit snugly. "I'm afraid Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo can't help much," she said, taking a seat next to Derpy at the table. "They joined Apple Bloom for a school project and went straight to Sweet Apple Acres."

"Well, there aren't that many metal vehicles out there. All we need to do is see where it came from and follow them there."

"It might be more difficult than you think, Sparkle," Wrex spoke up, studying the drawing Derpy had made. "That is not something you find in Equestria. That's a shuttle from a larger ship." He gave them all a level look. "A spaceship to be precise. Standard Alliance model."

Twilight slowly lowered her shotgun. "What?"

"It's an Alliance-style shuttle. Widely used."

"And it shouldn't have been able to land here," a new voice said.

Princess Luna suddenly found herself looking down several gun barrels and carefully gulped. "'Tis unnecessary for you to—"

"Oh," Wrex grunted, resting his shotgun on the desk again. "It's just Moon-butt."

Luna's eyes narrowed. "While that is not totally inaccurate, we have requested of you to refrain from that moniker as it makes it sound like our… butt… is fat."

"What do you mean it shouldn't have been able to land?" Twilight, lowering her gun as the others did the same. "And don't worry about your butt, Tavi and I have agreed on multiple occasions that it is glorious."

"Quite," Octavia nodded.

Luna cleared her throat. "It should be impossible for spaceships to reach Equestria," she explained. "Equestria is… separate. While our friend Wrex managed—have you been discussing my butt?"

"Please, girls," Rarity spoke up. "Focus. There's a filly in possible danger. This is hardly the time to discuss these matters."

"And discuss them we will," Luna said, leveling a look at the cellist before turning her attention back to Twilight. "Back to the subject at hoof, as I was saying, Equestria's time/space location is disjointed from the universe at large. We believe that something akin to a galactic event of great importance similar to what brought Wrex to us was strong enough to temporarily join us with his universe again."

"Does that mean that Dinky is…"

"Nay," Luna said, stepping forth to put a comforting hoof on Derpy's shoulder. "She is still within our reach. For now that both Celestia and I are working together, the barriers between our world and the universe can be managed."

"Uh, I hate to be that pony but, that still leaves the problem of finding a way to go into friggin' space to find a small ship," Vinyl said, raising a hoof.

"Twilight Sparkle," Luna spoke up. "On my authority, Algol is re-established with your current team."

"Yess..." Twilight whispered, a grin growing on her face. "It seems we'll be visiting your place sooner rather than later, Wrex."

"Ehehehe…" the krogan chuckled ominously. "I've been waiting for this." He pushed up. "Well, better head there now. The quicker we get this show running, the easier it will be to find your daughter."

Earlier…

"You know," Vetra said, "I thought we had agreed to not do this again."

The Turian female was leaning against the side of the container they were hiding in, arms crossed and giving the other two crew-members a level look. "Do you remember what happened last time? I do."

"I do too," Liam answered his sheepish grin struggling to stay sheepish instead of the smirk he really was feeling like showing. "But we had fun, right, Ryder? Don't tell me you didn't get a kick out of our overlord-wannabe friend."

"Sure was fun, but it doesn't mean I wanted a repeat of floating in space in a metal box for several hours in the off-chance some pirate crew would pick us up."

"It worked though," Liam replied, crossing his arms and allowing his smug smile to flourish into full power.

"Yes, and it is the surprising frequency of these dumb plans working that worries me. It either speaks highly of you and badly of all outlaws or the universe is planning some crazy-ass payback for this."

"Come on, Ryder," Vetra chuckled. "I saw the look you gave the crate before we all jumped in and were dropped in the middle of an outlaw-infested system. You were looking forward to it."

"I was not. Well, okay. I might have acted impulsively and grabbed you both when I jumped in here rather than head to that vid conference with Tann…"

Vetra gave her a level look.

"...and sure, I didn't necessarily have to order Kellos to 'drop us into the void'..."

"But?" Liam prompted.

"...but I'd rather float in the vacuum of space with you two and be picked up by exiles than deal with politicians right now. Especially after what we went through."

[I can confirm this is correct: The Pathfinder suffered the signs of a mild panic attack when she was informed of Director Tann's summons.]

"Thank you, SAM. They so needed to know that."

[It's my pleasure to help, Pathfinder.]

"I was being sarcastic, SAM."

[So was I.]

The trio chuckled.

"Anyway, SAM, are we clear?"

[Scanning. We appear to be clear, Pathfinder. I detect another life form in the hold, but it appears too small to be any of the pirates.]

"Hostile?"

[Unknown. Initial scan does not match any known species in the Andromeda Galaxy.]

"Well, that's comforting." Liam unlocked the seal. "If they're not here, we should get out and set up for when we get to their lair. We'll need to activate our beacon soon so that the Tempest can get to us in time."

"Aww, just when we were starting to get comfortable."

"You take me to the best places and prime locations when we go out, Ryder." Vetra said, pulling out her gun and nodding at the others.

Liam slowly pushed the door open and peeked outside. "Hey, no turret this time."

"Thank goodness for small miracles."

"Ha. Ha. Ryder." Liam emerged fully, raising his automatic rifle as he assessed the area.

"What? I honestly expect this to devolve into something completely insane in the next few minutes," she replied.

"Well, at least I'll be here to give you a hug if we're suddenly spaced," Vetra chirped.

"Seriously. You two make it sounds as if every time I think of something, shit's gonna hit the fan," Liam mumbled. He turned around and his eyes went wide. "Ryder. Vetra. You won't believe what these guys caught."

"Seriously Liam if it's…"

Liam and Vetra both looked at Ryder.

"Are you okay?" Vetra asked.

"You look pale, Ryder," Liam pointed out.

But she ignored both when she saw what the pirates had captured. She felt ice in her stomach. This couldn't be.

Slowly, she approached the little unicorn filly.

[This creature appears to be very similar to what Earth myths used to call a unicorn…] SAM's voice came through.

"SAM, shut up for a bit." Ryder knelt in front of the cage. She had thought…

The little filly looked at her in horror. She probably was scared out of her mind. "Oh no, how did they capture you?" she asked gently.

The filly looked at her in confusion, then slight, growing hope. "Y-you understand me?"

Ryder nodded. It brought back some... difficult times. "Yeah… what's your name?"

"D-dinky. Dinky Hooves. What's yours?"

Liam tapped his omnitool. "SAM, my translator doesn't seem to be functioning. I can't understand what they're saying."

"Neither can I," Vetra added, sounding slightly annoyed.

[That would be because there is no translation being transmitted,] SAM explained. [The Pathfinder is speaking the creature's native language.]

"Since when does Ryder speak horse?" Liam asked.

He stepped back when Vetra knelt down next to Ryder, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Ryder? Hey…" She hesitated. "What's wrong? How can you speak to this creature?"

Sunset patted Vetra's hand, giving Dinky a smile. "Sorry guys, it's… hard to explain. Give me a second, alright?"

She turned back to Dinky, making a fist and putting it forth so that the filly could bump it with her hoof. She ignored Liam's small squeal. "People call me Pathfinder but… you can call me Sunset."

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