The Imperial Ace

by Navanastra

Chapter 6: Out of this World Conversation

Chapter 6: Out of this world conversation.

Edited by: Chrome Masquerade

Riggs sat back town in front of his campfire while cleaning up his personal Vibroblade with nice wet cloth.

After the… humorous first words that the -now confirmed- native, he quietly questioned their actual Intelligence overall or if they were just naturally timid, which would explain the downright terrified expression she held toward him.

Then again, it might very well be possible that he was the very first offworld visitor -and basically can alien from outer space- this planet had ever received, so such drastic reactions toward him would be predictable.

Heck, in some instances they even started worshiping the first ever visitors like gods, if some records he once read regarding that subject were accurate in their accounts.

If these little quadrupeds started to shower him with gold and any other useless material that he honestly don’t need right then, he might as well ask them for material that he actually needed in order to fix up his ship a little bit, especially that fried hyperdrive that was verily forcing him to stay stuck on this rock until he can fix it.

If he could fix it, that is. It would all depend on the materials that this planet provided or if he can forge and eventually manufacture them himself, if not… well he might be royally screwed, here.

But, one step at time.

First Riggs needed to convince the yellow native ease up on him and eventually give him all the information he needed regarding this place, but since she had made her need to go and take a leak very obvious just a few minutes ago, he had to wait first for her to do that while BB-5 kept an eye on her.

Not that it was really needed, since he knew that running away for her would be like leaving a prison with everything she needs to survive and stepping into a vast desert. Not to mention her injuries and her obvious lack of flight at the moment.

Again, there really wasn’t anything major for kilometers around here, otherwise his scanner would have picked up the likes of settlements, towns or whatnot.

Riggs massaged his temples with a hand after he sat his already cleaned blade back onto the ground beside him.

“Well, at least I will be safe here from the Imperial loyalists. An isolated backwater would be the last place for them to look if they do ever pass by there. That is, IF they can even find this planet in the first place. Who knows how far into the Unknown Regions that hyperjump has thrown me?” Riggs thought to himself with a mental sigh before he heard some commotion coming from his right.

Turning his gaze to it, he was pleased to see that BB-5 had returned with the native intact, although still shaken, if the wobbly walk sequence was anything to judge by.

“Beep boop boop beep boop beep.” BB-5 chimed as the little droid stopped right next to him, alternating his gaze back and forth a few time as well.

Riggs nodded before looking over at the native. “Hey, you there.” Riggs casually called out, which caught the creature’s attention from whatever thoughts she seemed to be occupied with before. “You can come over here and sit down In front of the fire. Don’t worry, I won’t do anything to you. Unless you give me a damn good reason too.” Riggs quickly added.

The yellow quadruped in question first looked somewhat unsure, before she gave off a visible sigh as she slowly made her way toward him and the droid on the opposite end of the campfire.

She carefully sat herself down on her haunches and simply kept still, her gaze firmly locked onto the ground with her tail closely tucked in on her right side. An image that, strangely enough, made Riggs think about felines, in comparison.

Riggs leaned forwards a bit as he started the conversation, or in his case interrogation with this Native. “So, you can talk and understand me then yes?” He calmly ask which again caught the attention of the yellow fur bundle as she casually nods her head.

Riggs scratched his chin as he went on. “Well, good then. May I ask what your name is? If your species or culture even uses that kind of identification, that is.” He questioned further, to which the female awkwardly fidgeted in place a bit before looking off to the side.

“My… my name is… Spitfire.” She quietly answered.

Riggs was feeling pleased that -slowly- some progress was being made here, though he still personally dreaded the inevitable meeting he would have with other natives of this world, more specifically their kings or rulers that they most likely had. He would either have to play diplomat with them or just blow their heads off and be done with it, especially with his dislikes of monarchies in general.

Why? Well just personal and general opinions really. Maybe because his home world was run by a monarchy as well, even though it was more of a constitutional monarchy then a legit one.

Shaking his head to get his thoughts back on track, Riggs faced the -now newly identified- Spitfire in front of him. He just barely caught her staring at him when he was momentarily zoned out before quickly averting her gaze again in a bit of a panic.

Riggs silently chuckled at that as he simply decided to continue on. “So, what are you exactly, anyway? What is your species called and on what planet are we on?” The question which, again, caused the penned mare to shift a bit.

“Well, I… I am a pony. A Pegasus pony to be precise. A female, or more specifically a mare as it is called. And… well… the world you are on… is called Equus, or, at least, that is what ponykind likes to call it.” Spitfire answered a bit louder this time, which in turn made Riggs think a bit on all the Information that the named pony had laid out for him.

“By the way she answered and worded it, it would suggest that there are more than just these ‘ponies’ inhabiting this world. A world home to more than just one sapient species, if I interpreted it correctly. Not uncommon, really, especially in today’s modern age of basically almost every species being spread out across the galaxy.” Riggs thought to himself while scratching his chin a bit.

“What… what are you, if I may ask?” Spitfire suddenly asked, which diverted Riggs’ train of thought momentarily.

He gazed back up to look at her and was slightly surprised to see that she was actually looking up to him, an obvious sign that she was slowly easing up on him, which made Riggs smile a bit.

“Human. I am a human, and for an added bonus, my name is Riggs, Riggs Dantion to be correct.” He casually answered her which made her nod in response.

“So… is it true, then? Are you really some kind of... alien from outer space, and were you also the one who practically saved me from that Dragon by… well, slaying it, and finding and bandaging me up as well?” She asked as one big question, which made Riggs almost chuckle at her newly discovered curiosity, despite her previous fears.

“Timid and curious at the same time. An almost fitting combination.” Riggs thought before leaning himself back to answer her questions.

“Well, judging by the fact that I am indeed from outer space and probably the very first outsider to ever step onto this world, then yes. Yes, I guess I might very well be an alien to you.” Riggs answered before continuing on.

“And for everything else, yes. I did kill that dragon and yes, I did accidentally find you nearby afterwards and patch you up. Even had to use my last supply of Bacta fluid on you in order for those horrible twisted remainders of your wings to heal.” Riggs finished with finality as he grabbed a water canteen on his left before taking a small sip from it.

This short version of an explanation seemed to please the Pegasus a little bit, until the mention of her wings hastily brought her back to them, which eventually lead to the topic of the previously mentioned medicine he just mentioned.

“Wait… you injected me with… something called Bacta fluid? What… what is it?” She asked with a nervous tone and look, which Riggs honestly couldn’t fault her for.

“It’s nothing for you to be concerned with. It’s basically just a serum that encourages faster cell regeneration and tissue build up. I.E., you heal much faster than normal.” Riggs simply explained, which did the trick of calming the mare down somewhat.

A silence swiftly took over after that with nothing but the sounds of the gentle wind and the crackling of the campfire around them. Riggs took this moment of peace to pick up his helmet again from one of the boxes next to him and place it back into its typical position. A few clicks and hisses signaled that his armor was sealed up once more as his helmet's HUD immediately came back to life in front of him, giving him all the data and information he needed, ranging from the status of his armor (like power, shields and the condition of its small inbuilt exoskeleton) to data about the his surroundings. (Such as composition of the air, movements detected by his short range trackers and scanner and so on.) It even displayed the overall condition of his ship, since his helmet was linked with the ship's main computer.

Quite astonishing how much tech is -and can be- cramped into a single piece of standard looking commando armor; tech you will only receive when Imperial high command thinks that you are important enough to have it. Most soldiers, officers and even commandos can only dream of having so many toys crammed into their systems, mostly because the average soldier and even lower officer dies long before they can even reach such a rank.

Such is life in a galaxy that has been ravaged by two major wars successively; First the clone wars and then the galactic civil war between imperial loyalists, defectors (which he was part of), rebels and whatever else.

Anarchy is the rule of the day out there, and if the Empire falls… well it would just get even worse from there.

“T-thank you…” The mare suddenly said, which roused Riggs out of his data reviewing.

Turning off his HUD by pressing a small bottom on the side of his helmet, he switched his gaze back onto the mare in front of him.

She looked a lot more confident, but not fully so, as her gaze was still fixed onto one of her forelegs with her ears laid back like that.

“You mean the part with the dragon?” Riggs casually asked, which caused the mare to finch a bit back from his now mechanical sounding voice before nodding after she recovered quickly.

“Not just that, but for also having taken to the trouble of patching me up and, well, generally not doing anything else to me.” Spitfire added. The last part making Riggs chuckle a bit under his helmet.

“What you think that I would dissect you or anything? I am not a biologist, and I have absolutely no interest in cutting a creature open unless it’s something that pissed me off or it’s something that I have caught and planned to eat it for diner or something.” Riggs explained with a small grin as he watched the mare's eyes go wide at that statement as she froze up.

“For the sake of easing your troubles now, I don’t plan on eating something that is sapient, let alone something that can talk as well, and for further information I am an Omnivore so I can live on fruits as vegetables as well, if I have to.” He quickly added with a lazy wave of his arm.

That thought thankfully did the trick as the mare once again began to visibly relax at the news.

“Well, that’s a relief. We Pegasi like a bit of fish now and then too, so that shouldn’t be a problem,” She said

There was another silence after that, during which Riggs took the opportunity to grab his heavily modified DLT-19 heavy blaster rifle to inspect it for any oddities before carefully disassembling it for deeper inspections.

The hyperjump malfunction had messed up his hyperdrive. ‘Can’t hurt to check everything afterward to see if anything else was broken or amiss’, he figured.

“The last thing I want is for half of my gear and weaponry to be damaged or even downright broken while i’m stuck on an uncharted world. If I can’t get or make spare parts for the Hyperdrive then I at least could try to send a beacon out there for someone to receive and eventually come pick me up. Though, then again, that means that ANYTHING could detect the beacon, which could lead to some... undesirable results. Might have to make the frequency more specific then, I suppose, but then that also creates the problem of limiting the options of who can or can’t detect the signal in the first place. Damned if you do…Ehh, one step at the time. For starters I’ll just familiarize myself with this place first, before I even consider such options.” Riggs mentally noted as he carefully removed both the scope and barrel of his rifle.

The mare across the way watched him intently as Riggs continued his inspection, unaware of the fact that his BB-5 scanners were suddenly peeking up movement not too far from where there were. His HUD suddenly lit up as his own helmet picked them up as well.

“More company, it seems.” He casually stated as he began to turn his head to the direction his trackers were pointing.

Spitfire, on the other hand, (hoof) was confused at his sudden statement when all of a sudden a distant howl echo throughout the night which caused the fur on the back of her neck stand up.

“Those…those can’t possibly be…” Spitfire tried to mutter before she was interrupted by Riggs hastily pulling his DL-44 heavy blaster pistol out of its holster on his right side and aiming it in the direction the howl was coming from.

“What? What are you-”Spitfire tried to ask, but quickly got interrupted as Riggs pulled the trigger on his weapon which letting a shot out right into a large bush of the other side of the clearing, illuminating the space around them for a split second with a bright crimson flash (along with its signature -fairly loud- sound effect), a red lance of pure energy shooting forward and hitting the bush it was aiming at, which immediately burst into an inferno. Followed up by loud wails and cries of pain before quickly ceasing.

Spitfire jumped in complete shock at the quick and completely unexpected action before falling back down onto her flank with a loud and audible thud, her (still somewhat sore) wings trying to extend from their bindings. Spitfire groaned as she got herself up while rubbing her (now very sore) flank before looking up at Riggs with wide and fearful eyes.

“What… w-w-what was…?” She again stuttered before being ignored and interrupted by the one in question.

“Well, whatever was in that bush now is now gone… permanently.” He announced casually as he re-holstered his weapon before facing the still shocked mare in front of him. The targets on his tracker quickly disappeared from its effective scanning range.

The mare across from him continued to stare him before she seemed to eventually found her power to speak again, which was exactly what she did, though, to Riggs’ pleasant surprise, with a scowl on her face.

“What the feather-plucking hay WAS THAT!?” She demanded, again surprising the Imperial commando somewhat.

Riggs simply sat there, ignoring and not answering her on purpose just to see what would happen. He got his answer rather quickly when the mare’s scowl slowly deepened as she stood back up on all four.

“Well? TELL ME! Don’t just just sit there! ANSWER ME!” She repeated with a heated tone, which again intrigued the imperial commando somewhat as he watched her slowly move toward from around the campfire.

She was soon directly in front of him, face to face, if you will, as she even jabbed a foreleg onto Riggs’ chest and using it as balance to hoist herself up on her hind legs until she was practically touching her muzzle with his rebreather.

“TELL ME, WHAT ELSE ARE YOU GOING TO SHOOT, BURN AND TURN INTO AN UNRECOGNIZABLE MESS? I HAVE BEEN LOST, SCARED AND ALMOST EATEN AND BURNT ALIVE IN THESE LAST TWO DAYS, SAVED AND RESCUED BY SOME STRANGE ALIEN WHO SEEMS TO LOVE DESTROYING ANYTHING HE SEES FIT, AND I AM SWIFTLY GETTING SICK AND TIRED OF ALL OF IT!!!” The mare shouted in such furious heated anger as some tears started to form at the corner on her eyes.

“Huh…who knew that she is capable of creating such a broiling fire inside her? Not so timid now is she?” Riggs thought to himself, not really being fazed by the mare’s sudden source of courage and anger as she went on.

“WELL…SAY SOMETHING, YOU PSYCHOPATHIC ALIEN, YOU! ARE YOU GOING TO BLOW ME UP NEXT!? JUST TELL ME!!” She continued to shout as her small tears quickly became a torrent of anger and frustration. Small traces of smoke actually began to rise from her hair, such was her frustration with the whole situation.

“I… I just want to… go home.” She sighed out before she slid down Riggs form and broke down in silent tears right in front of him.

Riggs was somewhat dumbfounded. Never in his life had he ever seen such a reaction from practically ANYTHING. It was either anger or fear that others usually gave him. At this point he was slowly regretting his decision of not having learned advanced psychology together with Istan back in the Imperial academy, but choosing advanced mechanical science instead.

“Well, crap.” Was all Riggs was able to think as he was momentarily forced to just sit there and watch the mare bawl her frustration out.

“Boop Beep Beep boop boop beep.” BB-5 chimed while poking his left arm with one of his mechanical ones located in the sides of its head.

Riggs simply sighed, preparing himself to do something that he had never ever done before in his life, at least not that he could remember that is.

But also knew that it was very much the right thing to do, moral wise.

Without saying a word or making a sound Riggs found himself re-adjusting his position so that he could be kneeling down in front of the distressed mare before gently placing a hand on top of her head and gently stroking it.

“The stupid academy never prepared for this.” He thought to himself as he continued.

She continued to cry, hiccupping and sniffing in between her sobs, while Riggs gently stroked her mane in an attempt to calm her down. Which eventually worked, thankfully. Too much so, as Riggs soon found himself stroking the sleeping form of Spitfire in front of him. Most likely caused by a combination of her emotional fatigue and Riggs’ gentle stroking.

Removing his helmet once more with an audible hiss, Riggs began to observe the sleeping and inured form of this little quadrupedal creature with mild thought.

“Again, maybe not as timid as I originally thought. She does have an inner fire burning inside of her, I can tell, so far. Let’s just wait and see what else she has going inside her. Since I am technically the first ever extraterrestrial visitor this planet has ever had. I am certain that she is going to stick around me much more often in the future.” Riggs thought to himself while stroking his chin before quietly getting back up.

“Sleep might actually not be a bad idea. Going to need my strength for the upcoming days, (if her own reactions and performance are anything to go by) with these Natives. Wouldn’t be surprising if I started making ponies cry left and right wherever I go. If that ever happened I might as well try to take over this backwater world all by myself just for kicks. And to make them all shut up.” He continued his thoughts as he randomly picked up a thick piece of cloth out from one of his open storage containers before gently laying it onto the slightly snoring mare.

“Would you mind continuing to keep an eye on her for the night, BB-5? It would be a waste if she would suddenly wake up, run away and get herself killed afterwards.” He casually asked the aforementioned droid, which nodded with his half-sphere head.

“I am going to sleep inside the Defender, if anyone needs me.” Riggs quietly mutters to no one in particular as he made his way over to his fighter to finally clock in for the night.

………………………………………………………………………………………

(Cloudsdale Hospital)

“No, no please, Miss Fleetfoot. Please stay in your bed. the Pegasus Guard is already in the works of trying to find and bring back Spitfire from wherever the storm a few nights back has send her. Please stay in bed so that your broken wing and fractured foreleg can heal.” A nurse mare pleaded towards the light blue coated mare as she attempted for the third time this day to sneak her way out of her bed and room.

Fleetfoot’s gaze was determined as she tried to push her way past the two nurses blocking her path. She grunted as her left foreleg bumped into one of the nurses while trying to force herself past them once more.

“I don’t care about my bucking wing or foreleg. Spitfire is out there somewhere, probably worse off than me, and Soarin (as far as I can recall) got nearly literally catapulted away from us during that storm. I can’t just sit here on my merry flank and hope for the best, I have to go out and help them find her. She is my closest fillyhood friend CELESTIA DAMNIT!!” Fleetfoot argued as she desperately tried to push her way past the now equally frustrated nurses in front of her.

“Fleetfoot, would you PLEASE calm down and cooperate? We are just trying to look after your health here. You’re useless to your team dead.” A stern stallion’s voice replied from the back, being none other than the head doctor of Cloudsdale General Hospital.

“My own health is insignificant to the life of those ponies, so just let me through, you pickle heads.” Fleetfoot shouted back as she slowly started to get angry at the continued attempt of the hospital staff to keep her in.

“MISS FLEETFOOT THAT IS ENOUGH!!!” A new and commanding voice suddenly shouted, causing all of the ponies within the room to cringe and cover their ears at the sheer volume of it.

Everypony gasped in shock after their sense of hearing recovered enough as they all immediately began to bow down in respect to the pony that was standing right behind the stern doctor by the entrance.

Fleetfoot’s eyes went wide in surprise before she took a respective bow in front of her ruler as she gently strolled into the hospital room.

It is none other than Princess Celestia herself.

“Oh crap… I just used her name as a swear while she was just right behind that door. Oh, I am going to be in so much trouble for this, I just know it.” Fleetfoot thought to herself in panic as she heard the distinct clip clopping of metal hoof-shoes slowly approaching her.

She gulped when she felt a metal-gilded hoof resting on her shoulder, expecting a good scolding or even worse.

“Rise, my little ponies.” Celestia gently commanded as everypony (except for Fleetfoot, as Celestia’s hoof was still on her shoulder) did so.

“Your concerns for Captain Spitfire are noble and show much loyalty, Miss Fleetfoot, but please. Please listen to both the doctor’s and nurse's’ advice to stay here in order for your injuries to heal properly. Both my day guard and my sister’s night guard are already hard on the case of finding her as we speak. It would be a shame allowing you to join the search in your current state and possibly get yourself in an even worse condition because of it.” Princess Celestia lectured in a very calm and understanding tone as she removed her hoof from the blue mare’s shoulder, which allowed to get up to look up at her.

“But… but I…” She tried to argue, but got quickly silenced by the princess as she looked down at her like a mother.

“No buts, miss Fleetfoot. You are in no condition to be going anywhere and you know that, especially with that broken wing of yours. Please, just understand that these fine ponies here are just trying to look after you, and please trust in the guards to come through with their jobs.” Princess Celestia calmly stated.

“Please just be patient, it would be bad if you, yourself would get lost as well, or even worse.” Celestia added which made Fleetfoot look down with a sad expression.

“I… ok. I… I will stop my attempts of getting out of bed, it’s… it’s just… Spitfire is my oldest and best friend since… well, since as far back as I can remember. I… I just hate the idea of possibly losing her when I had the chance to do something.” Fleetfoot announced as a few tears started to formed at the corners of her eyes.

Fleetfoot felt a hoof lifting her head as was greeted with nothing but a kind, motherly smile.

“I understand your distress, but again, please be patient and heal up. I don’t want you to get even more hurt than you already are, miss Fleetfoot.” Celestia cooed softly.

Fleetfoot simply nodded, which was rewarded with another kind smile before Celestia turned herself around and took her leave with the doctor close behind her.

One of the nurses stepped up afterward to lead the blue Pegasus mare back into her bed. Fleetfoot made no protests as she allowed herself to be herded back into her bed.

“Just call us if you need anything, miss Fleetfoot. Alright?”

“Oh Spitfire, where in Equestria’s name are you?” Fleetfoot thought to herself as she allowed her head fall down onto the pillow behind her.

For a moment Fleetfoot raised her head again “Are you sure there’s noth-” but she was interrupted by one of the nurses tapping a spot on her, making her feel really sleepy.

“Since when could you do that? And why didn’t you do that before?” the other nurse asked, slightly annoyed.

“I used to do shiatsu before I applied here. And i was hoping it wouldn’t be necessary.” The first nurse said. before both ponies quickly left the room, leaving Fleetfoot the only occupant within it.

Her last thoughts were the only company she had at that moment. Thoughts of worry for her old foalhood friend and personal captain.

“Oh, Spitfire. Wherever you are, please... be... safe...” she thought, before falling into a deep sleep.

Comments

[Bronycommander]

Don' worry Fleetfoot, your friend is safe. I like your you made it that they were friends since foalhood instead that they're first got to know each other in the wonderbolts.

[Just Sandy]

i hope he conquers their world

[thewookie1]

I'd imagine that Celestia will scramble the remaining Wonderbolts to find their lost comrades. And help look when she can.

[Navanastra]

7853897 Yeah I bloody hate Anthro as well. What is the point in making a pony fic when the ponies are human.

[Forward-Unto-Fiction]

7853920 I think it just marks a lazy author, It can be hard to write about something that inherently not human.

[Navanastra]

7883868 You sir are strange.

[Bronzer]

7853920
For clop with humans, of course!

[halospartan]

https://www.fimfiction.net/user/Navanastra you should continue this story.

With pleading Halospartan

[Edguy0009]

7999808
HEARSAY!!!!

[Bronzer]

I am an Omnivore so I can live on fruits as vegetables as well, if I have to

No, you can't. For maybe four or five years of gradual decline in your body and rapid sickness and other physical and mental ills, yes. Then you die. Omnivore doesn't mean we can eat either plants or animals, it means we eat both.

“Well, that’s a relief. We Pegasi like a bit of fish now and then too, so that shouldn’t be a problem

Irrelevant. Sacrificing one's own dietary needs for someone else's mere comfort is insanity.

[bob1234567]

9817671
Thank you someone who understands how the human body works. No one can stop eating meat without mass amounts of fish,mushrooms,and dairy products or supplements. In a survival situation fuck being picky eat what you can when you can and store anything that will last like smoked meat or canned food. Eat what you want just make sure your getting what you need.

[NAH223445566]

7853920
Eso mero.