Rogue Sun

by Jninja15

Chapter 11: The Dragon part 1

The other day, at the Mos Equus Cantina in New Pegasus

Some jazz was playing while two ponies were playing a game of Canteese checkers with a teenage dragon sitting off to the side, observing the game passively as he drank apple cider from a wooden mug. One pony was a short pegasus mare with hot pink fur, an electric blue mane, a cutie mark of two parallel blue lightning bolts on her right cheekbone; she was wearing a brown flier’s coat, and combat boots. The other pony was a taller pegasus stallion with pale blue fur, and navy blue mane, wearing a blue flier’s jacket with yellow lightning bolts accenting the edges of the sleeves and large brown patches stitched onto the shoulders.

A unicorn stallion passed by and discretely slipped a strip of paper into the mare’s hand as she moved a blue peg on the board within the six-pointed star shape the holes made on the round plank of wood.

The dragon, with purple scales and green spines wearing a sleeveless, open leather jacket with no shirt underneath, a pair of blue jeans, and black boots, eyed the mare and the moved piece. “That’s a risky move there, Cap'n.” he said as he took a swig of his cider.

“Yeah, well, I like to live on the edge.” she responded giving the dragon a smirk.

The blue stallion looked up from the board at the smaller pony and said nothing as he moved a single red piece six times across six blue pieces in a zig-zag pattern, removing said blue pieces from play.

The dragon snorted. “He got you there good Cap'n.”

The mare sat up straight and sighed. “I’ve been thinking of takin’ some real estate a bit further from that edge as of late.”

The stallion chuckled softly, “Have you learned nothing from your time in the Wonderbolts, Firefly?”

“Mostly drills from you and Spitfire, Soarin,” she said as she moved another blue piece on the board. “I slept through the strategy classes in the academy.”

Soarin sighed in defeat as he observed the board for a couple seconds before moving one of his own pieces.

They heard someone yelling at the band to shut up. Everypony (and dragon) turned towards the interruption in the music and saw a bald, drunk unicorn stallion causing the ruckus. The drunkard claimed he had something important to say. It really wasn’t.

“A toast! For today is an auspicious day,” the drunk began.

“Suspicious?” the dragon said quietly. “What day is it? Tuesday?”

“Today was the day when Empress Twilight Sparkle killed that incompetent Princess Celestia and defeated the bunch of scumbags that called themselves ‘The Wonderbolts,’ along with her...”

Soarin gave a worried glance at Firefly as her face hardened. After five seconds of silence from her, she got up and walked towards the stallion, who was now at the bar.

“Firefly...” Soarin said.

Firefly turned around for a second. “What? I’m just getting a drink.”

“Come to think of it: What month is it?” the dragon said to nopony in particular.

Firefly made her way to the drunk idiot. As she did a unicorn mare with light orange fur and a red and yellow mane, who was followed by a yellow earth pony filly with a red mane and a bow in her hair, held up a hand to Firefly’s shoulder, pulled out four gold coins and said, “Four bits to go punch that guy in the face for me.”

The bits were poured into Firefly’s open hand as she raised an eyebrow and responded with, “Honey, I aim to misbehave.” and Firefly pocketed the cash as the two adult mares continued to go about their respective businesses.

When Firefly reached the drunkard, she took a seat next to him on the other side from where she approached, ordered a drink, and wordlessly took a sip.

“You didn’t toast either.” the unicorn said.

Firefly glanced at him at the corner of her eye. “Didn’t see a need to.” and began chugging the drink.

The stallion’s face sneered as he shifted his weight and looked over the much smaller pegasus mare. “You know, the coat you wear looks an awful lot like what them Wonderbolts wore. Are you one of them?”

She set down her glass and glanced at him again. “It was on sale.”

“Heh. Well, the Wonderbolts were a bunch of pisspots and pansies.”

Firefly banged her hands on the table, stood up from her stool, flared out her wings and faced the drunkard. “Say that to my face.”

The drunk slowly turned to face her, and stood up himself, towering over her. “I said ‘You’re a bunch of pisspots and pansies.’ What are you gonna do about it?”

Firefly flashed a grin as she relaxed her demeanor and folded her wings. “Nothing. I just wanted you to face me so he can get behind you.”

The drunk turned around and got a sucker punch to the face by Soarin, knocking him out.

Firefly tilted her head and smiled. “Drunks are so cute.”

Firefly and Soarin turned to face the rest of the room and saw everypony slowly getting up, looking to be raring up for a fight.

“How Shi Sung Chung.” Firefly expressed in Manederin as she and Soarin were trying to slowly back up into the bar counter. “Spike!”

“Hey! I didn’t fight in no war.” the dragon at their table responded. He lifted his mug of cider. “Best of luck though.” and he drank the rest of his mug.

With a loud crash, Firefly was thrown out the front window. She tumbled across the ground and pulled herself up onto her knees with miraculously few cuts on her wings and body as she pulled out an enchanted roll of paper from her pocket.

She pressed her thumb onto the wax seal, and the parchment glowed. “Vera...” she spoke into it, her voice cracking, “We could use some back-up here. A grand entrance wouldn’t go amiss.”

The stallion that Soarin punched at the beginning of the bar fight stomped through the front doors of the bar and was heading straight for Firefly. Firefly jumped to her feet and staggered backward, slipping the small scroll back into her pocket. The drunk threw a wide left hook, which Firefly easily ducked under then propelled herself forward to throw a jab at his gut, doubling him over. She then used her wings to maneuver herself away and up a few feet before propelling herself down with a left hook of her own, the punch connecting and toppling him over. She winced from the pain in her wings. She could barely reach the small shard of glass that she pulled out from the wrist of her left wing.

Soarin came out of the bar after having tossed a guy through the door, it was another pegasus. The other pegasus got to his feet; Soarin told him to stay down by punching him across the face with a right jab, kneeing him in the groin, and bringing an elbow down on his neck. He turned around and caught sight of a unicorn trying to stab him with his horn like a rhinoceros. Soarin managed to dodge from a direct hit as the unicorn tumbled over him. Soarin pressed a hand to his face as he discovered that he had a nick across his cheek, the fine cut drooling blood like a dog’s saliva. Both got up from their tumble, and the unicorn charged again, this time Soarin caught him by the neck as he skidded backward, the sharpened horn an inch away from his nose.

“It like Hoofapest all over again. Isn’t it?” Firefly called out to her former superior officer as more patrons began pouring out of the bar.

Soarin gave an incredulous look at his former subordinate as he was attempting to choke out the unicorn in front of him, managing to bring him to his knees. “You and I remember Hoofapest very differently.” and he punched the unicorn pretending to be rhinoceros's face with a right jab, knocking him out.

Firefly took out another patron by jumping up, using her wings for an extra boost, and stomped both feet into his face and sent the back of his head to the ground. Two more patrons came at her as she jumped off from her latest victim, using her wings to gain some extra distance. She growled through the pain in her wings. “Ugh. Is Spike even awake?”

In an explosion of emerald green flames, two pegasus stallions and a table flew through the door as Spike stormed out with his leathery wings flared, green fire pouring from his maws and encompassing his closed fists. A pegasus tried to run up and punch Spike in the face, but Spike was having none of that and punched him first, sending the poor stallion flying across the street with green flames trailing behind his face. The stallion was alive, of course, pegasi can survive lightning strikes walking away only with singed fur, and a dazed state. However, this punch did leave the stallion with a broken jaw.

Spike paced away from the door, the fire in his mouth extinguishing as he lined up with the two pegasi he came with and turned around, backing away from the growing mob of angry bar patrons aimed solely at them.

The Imperial holiday announcer had gotten up and pulled out a revolver and aimed it at Firefly.

“Now hey, hey! Them’s ain’t kosherized rules.” Spike argued.

“Someone ought to put you down, dogs.” he responded.

A diamond dog patron that was standing next to the un-kosherized gunslinger said, “What the hell?”

“Shut up.” the unicorn turned back to Firefly. “Any last words?”

Firefly looked up at the sky as she stood up straight, placed a hand on her hip and used the other to scratch behind her head. “You know? That’s frequently a hard question to answer. There are so many good ones to choose from.”

At that moment, the roar of an engine caught everyone’s attention as they saw a 1969 Dodge Charger model hovercraft came roaring down the street from a block away.

“Looks like our ride’s here.” Firefly said plainly, and Spike quickly took in a deep breath as he held his fists over his mouth, one in front of the other like he was using a blow dart launcher, and he blew fire through them, releasing a wall of fire that surrounded the mob in front of them, preventing the crowd from advancing. The Charger turned sharply to its left, slowing down as it was drifting. The trio ran up to the car, and without it slowing down, hopped up on top, each using their wings to boost their jump onto the roof, and crawled in through the open windows as the car sped off in the direction it faced after its drift.

Firefly was in the front passenger seat, with Soarin sitting in the seat behind her and Spike behind the driver.

“Whoo! That was fun, wasn’t it?” Spike said, enthusiastically loud, looking back to make sure that they weren’t being followed.

Firefly took a deep breath and exhaled a soft chuckle as she looked at their driver, “What took you so long, Vera? I almost got shot.”

The driver was an earth pony mare with pale rose fur, baby blue eyeshadow, and a well-conditioned light cerulean mane, she wore a thick white headband that hid her hairline and a tan denim jacket with a burgundy-red shirt underneath and tight blue jeans. She glanced at her passenger with a smile, “You said you wanted a grand entrance, Cap'n. I had to get in the right position to pull that off.”

“I said ‘a grand entrance wouldn’t go amiss’ not ‘take your sweet time planning out the perfect drift in the Charger.’” Firefly snapped back with a smirk.

Vera just rolled her eyes as she continued driving. She did a double take as she took a second glance at her captain and saw her slightly bloodied wings. “Are you OK captain? Your wings look beaten up. Lotus or I are going to have to take a look at that, make sure nothing’s going to get infected. And, if you get blood on the seats, Button Mash is going to be very mad at you.”

Firefly waved a hand dismissively, “The seats and I will be fine Vera, just keep driving.”

Vera took a look at her rear-view mirror to confirm that they weren’t being followed and slowed down as she took a left turn down a street towards the air-docks, where they parked their airship.

Vera drove her captain and crewmates into the air-docks of New Pegasus, passing by the myriad of privately owned airships docked there. Many of the ships there were old models that used hot gases trapped inside one or multiple large fabric envelopes, but their ship and a few others were relatively newer models which used a trace compression block engine, others used Gurstler engines, both engines capable of producing lift in its turbines without the need for lighter-than-air gases.

Vera drove up and into the cargo hold of their airship, a Serenity-class transport ship. If you squinted just right, the ship would look like some sort of chimera with a firefly’s glowing rear end, a horse’s head, and whatever the heck would have cylindrical wings. Many would call this ship a piece of “gos se” but Firefly affectionately named this ship “Mal.”

Vera parked next to a hot rod red 1962 Chevrolet Corvette model hover car in the cargo hold. The Corvette’s hood was up with a brown coat teenage colt working on the insides. The colt looked up from his work, revealing his moderate scarlet and light orange mane, oil-stained face, t-shirt with orange and white horizontal stripes and a propeller beanie with lime green blades. He picked up an oil rag that was laid aside on the hood and wiped off his hands and face as he approached the other car. “Did we get a new job, captain?” he asked as said captain and everyone else got out of the car.

“Yes we did, kid.” Firefly responded, holding up a slip of paper between two fingers and walking further into the parked airship.

“Awesome.” The colt quietly elated. “Oh! Hey! Hey, Vera. Aloe! How was the handling on Ghost Rider?” He asked as he jumped up and down on his approach towards the driver.

Aloe stopped and shifted her weight to one side as she placed a corresponding hand on her hip, and she smirked at the colt with a chuckle, shaking her head, “You and your names for these things.” she said to herself. “‘Ghost Rider’ handled beautifully, Button. Except that he was pullin’ a little to the left.”

Just as she finished that sentence, Spike shut his door, and a loud bang shot out followed by the whirring down of an engine as the Charger’s left rear end began to sag.

“That wasn’t me.” Spike said defensively.

Button Mash gave a frustrated sigh. “Did you go drifting, again, Vera?”

“It was only one turn.” Aloe said defensively, crossing her arms. “And the Cap'n wanted me to make a grand entrance rescuing their flanks.”

Button raised an eyebrow.

“Ok~... I did a short track while I was waiting for the Cap'n and the others to be done at the Cantina.” she conceded. “But the part about the grand entrance was true.” she held up an index finger as she pointed out her one defense.

Button Mash threw up his arms. “You know how hard that is on the tyres! We can’t afford to replace these things every time you want to go drifting!”

“As~ much as I’d love to continue this conversation,” Aloe interjected nervously, “I have to go tend to the Cap’n’s wings. They told me she was thrown through a window.” and she briskly walked away after Firefly.

“If she got blood on my seats I’m going to be very upset with her!” Button called out after Aloe.

“Noted!” Aloe responded, not turning around or slowing down.

Button stared at the dead tyre before he glanced at Spike and motioned a request for a helping hand. “Help me get the parking jacks up.” he said as he opened the driver side door, got in and moved the gear shift from ‘N’ to ‘P.’

Spike grabbed hold of the dead tyre and gently lifted it level with the rest as the parking jacks slowly moved into place.

“Damnit!” Button yelled once the jacks were fully extended, “She got blood on my seat! Thankfully, not a lot. But still! It’s going to take days to clean this out! Next time I talk to her - why I’ll-”

Spike walked up to Button sitting in the driver’s seat as he rested an arm on the roof, “You’ll what?”

Button hesitated, “I’ll - give her a stern talkin’ to - that’s what.”

Spike chuckled as he lifted his arm and walked over to the Corvette. “So, how’s the Corvette comin’ along?” he said as he was about to place a hand on the aforementioned vehicle.

Button got out of the Charger, and slammed the door before calmly, and sternly, saying, “Don’t touch Lola.”

Spike raised his hands in the air and slowly backed away from the vehicle named Lola and chuckled slightly, “You’re very fond of your vehicles ain’t chya?”

“Only the ones I’ve spent days on end simply fiddling with the mechanisms and all, just for the heck of it.” Button approached Lola and picked up a half inch crescent wrench and began tightening a bolt in the engine compartment. “Then add on the hours modifying each car to be able to carry heavy loads while being inconspicuous-like and you’ve got a hefty investment I’d like to see survive more than 2 jobs with you or Aloe at the wheel.”

“Ah come now, Turbo, that ain’t fair. Comparin’ me to Vera.”

Button pulled himself out of the engine compartment and closed the hood. He raised a hand holding up his index finger as he began to iterate the story of the both of them first drove a car on a job, “On Aloe’s first job with us, as the driver, she blew out all four tyres effortlessly. And do you know who else did that on his own job?” he pointed his finger at Spike, “You. And you two wonder why I never let you touch either of the cars unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

“Or if the cap’n orders it.” Spike mumbled.

“Or if the captain orders it.” Button amended.

Spike chuckled as he ruffled Button’s hair, knocking off his hat. “Well, I’ll leave you to it. I’ll go check on what job the Cap’n’s got for us.” and he walked away.

Button smirked as he playfully grumbled incoherently to himself and knelt down to pick up his hat. When he put his hat back on and stood up, he noticed a distortion in the reflection on Lola. It was fingerprints. And not just any fingerprints, a dragon’s fingerprints, a whole hand at that. Button scowled, let out a low groan, and got a clean rag to wipe off Spike’s grimy handprint.

Firefly, Soarin, and Aloe entered the cockpit of the ship. Aloe stood leaning against the wall just outside the doorway towards the center of the room, as Firefly stood closer to the center of the room and Soarin stood right behind the helm. Sitting at the helm was a light cerulean mare with a pale rose mane - very much an inverted color scheme from Aloe - she also wore a thick white headband and tight blue jeans, but she was wearing a long sleeve, button up, flower print blouse. The blue mare turned around in her chair, saw Firefly and Soarin, flashed a bright smile at Soarin as she got up from her seat and wrapped her arms around Soarin’s neck as they embraced each other in a passionate kiss.

The mare release Soarin from the kiss as she said, “Glad you made it back, honey.”

“As am I.” Soarin said as he engaged another kiss.

Firefly tapped her foot impatiently for a couple seconds before she coughed to get their attention. “Lotus, Soarin, if you two are done, I’d like to get back to business.” she said as she held up the slip of paper given to her earlier that day.

Lotus backed out of the kiss and looked at Soarin’s face, spotting the cut he gained from their little brawl earlier. She cupped her hands around his face, lightly brushing a thumb over the cut under his right eye. “Oh, honey~, what happened?” Lotus looked to the captain with a deadpan glare, one eyebrow raised. “Have you been getting my husband into trouble again?”

“Wha-uh! First of all, I’m insulted that you think that and secondly, I was just having a friendly drink." Firefly crossed her arms as she looked up and away offended. Then she quickly added, "Thirdly, the other guy started it.”

“Funny,” said Soarin, slowly taking his wife’s hands off his face, “How we always find ourselves at an Imperial friendly bar come Twilight Time looking to have a drink.”

Firefly smirked and shrugged. “It’s become a tradition by now.” she held up the slip of paper again. “Now, about our business.”

Lotus rolled her eyes as she plucked the paper out of Firefly’s hand, opened it, went to the console and plugged in the coordinates that were written on the paper.

Lotus hadn’t bothered to sit down as she plugged in the coordinates into the console as she was purposefully bending over in such a way that gave her husband an excellent view of her tail end; said tail sashaying ever so slowly. Unfortunately, Soarin’s line of sight could also line up with anypony who stood just in the doorway to the cockpit, or dragon in this case.

Spike had just barely entered the room when Lotus began entering the coordinates, and he gave a wolf whistle at the right moment when she was finished. Lotus gave a startled shriek as she shot her posture straight up and placed her hands over her butt as she turned around and gave Spike an annoyed glare. Her husband followed her gaze with his own death glare as he had his arms crossed and looked down at the dragon, making Spike immediately regret his decision to wolf whistle at this married mare, again.

While Spike managed to maintain composure over his body language, Soarin could see a drop of sweat beading down the side of his head and determined that his death glare had worked and so turned his attention back to his wife without so much as a backhand slap to Spike, this time.

“Idiot.” both Firefly and Aloe muttered under their breath.

“Well,” Lotus interjected, “Now that I have the coordinates set, and seeing that it will take us a good long while to get there. Can somepony take over flying the ship?” she walked up to Soarin, gave him a seductive glance, grabbed a firm hold of his jacket, “I need this stallion to tear apart my wardrobe for me.” and began to yank him down the hall.

Soarin gave an amused grimace, then a helpless shrug when he looked at his captain with a dopey smile and said, “Work, work, work.” and was carried off by his wife to their room.

Spike watched the couple as they walked past him, then looked to Aloe and nodded to her with a toothy grin.

She rolled her eyes and gagged a little. “Not even in Luna’s dreams, sulfur breath.”

Spike feigned hurt as he turned his head to the side as if he had been slapped.

Firefly paid no attention to Spike’s antics - if she noticed - and sighed as she scratched behind her ear and shook her head, softly chuckling at the married couple that walked out. She hissed when she nicked a cut that she found behind her ear.

Aloe jumped up from the wall, “Captain, you should let me take a look at that.”

“I’ll be fine~.”

“Captain...”

Firefly snorted out a sigh in frustration. “Ok. Get Button up here to pilot the ship.”

“What? Why not me?” Spike said.

Firefly raised an eyebrow, “When Button gets here, he can tell you why himself.”

Spike waved a hand. “Nevermind. He’s already told me today.”

“Good. Now that that’s out of the way-” Firefly was interrupted when Button Mash entered the room.

“Hey, I heard a scream. What happened?”

“Nothing, Button,” Aloe said. “Just Spike being a dumbass.”

“Ah...” Button nodded, “Lotus?”

Firefly and Aloe smirked as they nodded in confirmation. Spike threw his hands up then to his side as he rolled his head and gave an exasperated groan.

“Well,” Firefly began, “since you’re here, Lotus is busy with her husband, and nopony else who I trust to fly this ship is.” she glanced at both Spike and Aloe. “You’re goin’ to need to fly the ship to the destination set on navigation.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Button saluted and jumped into the pilot’s seat. He reached overhead, flicked three neighboring switches in succession, and pulled back gently on the steering wheel, causing the ship to slowly lift into the air.

When the captain and Aloe left the room to head to the infirmary, Spike kneeled next to Button in his seat as the ship turned past the sun setting on the horizon. He sighed. “What do you think?” Spike asked, “Me and Aloe - a guy like me and a mare like her?”

Button turned to face Spike, an eyebrow raised and his lips pursed as if trying to hold back a fit of laughter. After a couple seconds, he inhaled sharply as he shook his head slowly and said flatly, “No.” then faced forward.

Spike smirked as he sighed once again, then muttered under his breath, “Not the first time I’ve been told that.” He gave Button a pat on the shoulder as he walked off to his room.

Author's Note:

I apologize for it being so long since I updated this. Lots of garbage was happening in life and it was horribly distracting. I do hope to get back to updating this at least once a month.

Comments

[Marcthelightspark2004]

The stallion chuckled softly, “Have you learned nothing from your time in the Wonderbolts, Firefly?”

Firefly? As in the the G1 pony, or the ship?

[Marcthelightspark2004]

Soarin gave an incredulous look at his former subordinate as he was attempting to choke out the unicorn in front of him, managing to bring him to his knees. “You and I remember Hoofapest very differently.” and he punched the unicorn pretending to be rhinoceros's face with a right jab, knocking him out.

Avengers reference!

[Marcthelightspark2004]

Vera drove up and into the cargo hold of their airship, a Serenity-class transport ship. If you squinted just right, the ship would look like some sort of chimera with a firefly’s glowing rear end, a horse’s head, and whatever the heck would have cylindrical wings. Many would call this ship a piece of “gos se” but Firefly affectionately named this ship “Mal.”

Hahahahahahahaha. Ah. I get it.

[Marcthelightspark2004]

Button got out of the Charger, and slammed the door before calmly, and sternly, saying, “Don’t touch Lola.”

Hahahahaha! And Agents of SHIELD gag.

[Marcthelightspark2004]

“Ah come now, Turbo, that ain’t fair. Comparin’ me to Vera.”

Yet another Agents of SHIELD ref.

[Marcthelightspark2004]

And the knick name Vera, haha. Funny, is it based off a certain gun?

[Marcthelightspark2004]

Update?

[Jninja15]

9076890
Uh-Huh

[Marcthelightspark2004]

9076957
Nice.