Beyond the Stars

by Onomonopia

Great Fox

"Had to be magic. That's the only way."

Slipstream slowly felt her senses begin to return to her, well before her sense of what was going on did. Her body hurt, but not in a that was a bad idea kind of hurt. For her it was more of a "I almost didn't survive that and it was thanks to dumb luck that I did" kind of feeling. She slowly moved her head to the side to feel pain lance through her neck, getting a small groan out of her.

"Hang on a moment, she seems to be coming to."

She didn't recognize the voices that she heard, but she assumed that's because her ears were making everything sound distorted. Slipstream knew why she was like this. The wormhole, the fight in space and getting blown up by the black craft. What she didn't know was where she was or how she survived. Slipstream cracked open on of her eyes to see herself face to face with the beak of a blue bird that was standing over her.

"GAH!" she yelped before upeercutting with all of her might, snapping the birds head to the side and sending him tumbling to the side. Slipstream shot to her hooves, despite the pain it caused her, and glanced around the room while preparing herself for the fight of her life.

"Whoa there, you're not in danger," an elder looking hare said to her, extending his hands in an effort to and calm her down. Slipstream narrowed her eyes at the hare before she glanced around the room. She was in a medical bay and was now standing on one of the beds. The bay looked different than the standard procedure ones. Slipstream then gave the hare another look, slowly beginning to recognized him.

"Wait a moment...Peppy Hare?" she asked, figuring it was a long shot. "The legendary fighter pilot turned mercenary?"

"Yep. The one and only," Peppy said with pride as he pushed up the glasses on his face. "You've heard of me before?"

"Of course I have! You're a legend in the Cornerian army," Slipstream said with amazement as she lowered herself off of the bed, saluting the hare. "Pilot Slipstream, sir. It's an honor to meet you."

"At ease, kid. There's no need for any of that on board this ship," Peppy said with a laugh before he looked over at the blue falcon who was getting back up to his feet. "I see that you've already introduced yourself to Falco, but perhaps the two of you can try once more with less physical contact."

"She punched me in the beak. Nobody gets to punch me in the beak," Falco growled while rubbing the side of his face with his feathered hand.

"Drop it Falco, she reacted in a way I think any of us would have if we found ourselves in her situation," Peppy said to Falco, who didn't lose the anger in his eyes but did back off slightly. "Sorry, he hates it when his pride gets wounded. Nice uppercut by the way. You're from the Cornerian army, huh? Strange..."

"What's strange about that, sir?" Slipstream asked while making sure to keep an eye on Falco. Now that she wasn't prepared to fight for her life, she took a moment to take in the two beings she was in the room with. Peppy Hare was a legend and he looked like one. He was an elderly hare, but still held himself in a professional manner. Falco was a little more unnerving. He wore a red flight suit that covered ninety percent of his body, except for his hands and head. Twin blasters hung from each of his legs, while Slipstream could see from the way he held himself that he was a cocky guy.

"What are you looking at?" Falco asked Slipstream with a look.

"Apparently not much if one punch is all it took to bring you down," Slipstream shot back with a smirk.

"Heh, think you're tough stuff because you caught me off guard? How bout we head down to the training room and see just how tough you really are?" Falco asked as he began to stretch his fingers, but before Slipstream could say anything Peppy moved between the two of them.

"Alright you guys, cut this out now," he said in a bit of an annoyed tone. "Falco, it's a miracle that Slipstream here is alive, so try to be nice. I know that might be hard for you, but for the mean time she's stuck with us."

"Um, what do mean by that, sir?" Slipstream asked, not liking the tone in the elder pilot's voice. "Actually, where am I? What sector of space am I in and where is my ship? I need to get back to the Cornerian army as soon as I can or they're going to worry."

"Woo boy, she has no idea, does she?" Falco asked before a look from Peppy shut him up. Peppy the moved Slipstream back to her bed and got her to sit down, before he removed his glasses and began to clean them.

"We found you floating in space in an uncharted part of the cosmos," Peppy told her before wiping off his glasses with a wipe. "No ship, except the few remains of one that might of been yours."

"Wait...I was just floating in space?"

"Yep and with none of the usual signs of freezing, suffocation or the other dozens of things that happen when somebody is in space without a suit," Peppy informed her. "Nothing except for a layer of violet light that covered your entire body. When we scooped you up the light vanished, but we have no idea what it could of been. For all we know it was magic."

'Violet magic...Princess Twilight,' Slipstream realized with a thin smile, realizing what the princess must have done for her. Then her eyes widened as the realization that her ship was gone sunk in. "So you found me floating by myself, right? Darn it all, that means they got away!"

Falco and Peppy shared a look. "What do you mean they got away?"

"Before you found me, my cruiser was attacked by a group of unknown ships. Bird like designs with strange crystals on them," Slipstream told the two, never seeing how their faces darkened at her words. "We managed to fend off most of them, but then one showed up that changed the course of the battle. A black craft with red markings on the side."

"Go on," Falco said in a serious tone.

"They tried to escape into a wormhole and I went after them, trying to cut off their escape," Slipstream said as the memories came flashing back. "But the black craft shot me out of the sky. I tumbled into the wormhole and came out in front of what I assume was their entire fleet. They have a massive main ship that's three times the size of any cruiser, as well as dozens of smaller battleships."

"But there was something else. A massive, cube looking object that held within it a power the likes of which I've never felt before," Slipstream said with uncertainty, but the looks of Falco and Peppy's face made her begin to sweat. "I...only got to see it for a moment, before I was shot down. Then I woke up here. That's...all I've got."

"She's seen the weapon. Hell, she's seen their entire freaking fleet," Falco said to Peppy with disbelief on his face, sighing as he rested his head against the wall. "Things just got a whole lot more complicated."

"What do you mean?"

"I knew that they were growing in power, but to think that they already had a ship of that size," Peppy added onto Falco's words, neither of them seeming to remember the pony that was in the room. "But if the weapon is already operational..."

"It can't be or else they wouldn't be hiding it," Falco cut him off with a shake of his head. "This is the fifth Cornerian craft that they've gone after. They hadn't gone after the colonies, nor any planet with living beings on it. Only the Cornerian bases and ships. They have a target."

"Wait, the ones that attacked me have been attacking other Cornerian ships and bases?" Slipstream asked, getting the attention of the two again. Falco and Peppy shared a look and a silent conversation went on between the two, before Falco held up his hands and sighed.

"Fine. We take her to Fox. See what he thinks of this whole mess," Falco agreed, getting Peppy to chuckle before he looked at Slipstream.

"What's going on?" Slipstream asked in a nervous tone, the stress of the situation finally starting to get to her.

"You've come across something that we've been hunting for three months now and you are our first lead to finding it," Peppy told her before Falco opened the door to the med bay, motioning for Slipstream to follow him. "He'll take you to our captain. Don't worry, he's a great guy and-"

"Fox McCloud? Yeah, I've heard of him. Everyone has heard of him and the StarFox team," Slipstream said with a small laugh. "Andross, the Aparoids and the Anglar Empire...who hasn't heard of those exploits?"

"Well, then that makes this a lot easier," Peppy said before he followed Falco to the door, with Slipstream tentatively following after him. "Come on, kid. Time to meet the legend."

S |>

As the doors opened to the bridge Slipstream found herself looking over her flight suit, making sure there weren't any spills or stains on it. She normally didn't fuss so much over her outfit except for military meetings, but this was a different situation. While the Cornerian forces did consider StarFox a mercenary group, they had saved the Lylat system plenty of different times. They were a big deal. And she was going to meet their leader.

Falco and Peppy stepped out onto the bridge first, with her tentatively following after them. She was too nervous to look at the captain's seat right away, so she glanced off to the side. Near one of the control panels stood a small frog in a yellow jumpsuit, who seemed to be hard at work trying to get the thing working again and having issues doing it.

'Slippy,' Slipstream thought to herself before she glanced at the other side of the bridge to see a large, goldish robot at work near the navigation controls. 'Rob.'

She then dared a glance at the captain's chair, only to find that the captain wasn't alone at the helm of his ship. Standing to the right of the chair was a being that looked similar to a fox, but had an aura about her that made Slipstream slightly nervous. Her fur was blue with white along the face, while her eyes were a piercing blue. She wore a skin tight blue body suit, with a white jacket over her torso along with white grieves on her boots that went up to her knees. Attached to her back was a rod of some sort, with a strange looking gem in the top of it.

'Krystal. The last Cerinian,' Slipstream thought to herself, only for her eyes to go wide when Krystal nodded with a smile.

Then there was the legend himself. The captain's chair turned around to face her and instantly Slipstream was able to recognize him. The light brown fur, the white jacket over the green body suit and the metal grieves designed to keep the blood flow to the legs at minimum when in a dogfight. There was no doubt in Slipstream's mind that the being that sat before her was the legendary Fox McCloud. For a brief moment all Slipstream could do was stare in awe, before Fox smiled and crossed his arms.

"So, you're finally awake," he said with a small laugh, one that snapped Slipstream out of her awe. "Got to admit, you caused quite the commotion when we brought you on board. Heck, if it wasn't for Krystal we never would have found you at all."

"I-is that so? Then thank you, Krystal," Slipstream said with a nod to Krystal, who nodded in reply.

"Honestly we were surprised to find a crashed ship so far out in the middle of nowhere space like this," Fox continued on, but Slipstream slowly became aware that he was studying her. "Unless you didn't crash and got shot down, like Rob said you did by looking at the remains of your ship."

"You're correct, sir," Slipstream said as she regained her composure. "I was shot down, by the forces that attacked my cruiser on our way to Corneria." After she said this, Fox flashed Peppy a look.

"Yep, that's right. She was shot down by the same guys that we've been hunting these past three months," Peppy confirmed for Fox, who let out a sigh as he slid down his chair slightly. Krystal placed a hand on his shoulder and Fox sat back up while placing his hands together.

"Anything else?"

"She also says that she saw their fleet as well, including the weapon," Peppy finished, getting Fox's eyes to widen with shock. Slippy and Rob walked over to the rest of the group and stood around Slipstream, who was suddenly aware of how many eyes were on her.

"Are you certain of what you saw?" Fox asked her in a dead serious tone, one that made Slipstream's throat dry up. "You didn't think you saw it or mistook a group of mercenaries as a possible fleet?"

"She saw those who we are hunting," Krystal cut in before Slipstream could answer, turning all eyes to Krystal. "Her memories of the ships and craft that attacked her match the information that was given to us by General Pepper. And yes Fox, her memory of the weapon is a perfect match to what we've been told. Including the sense of fear that Pepper felt when he first saw it."

"Um, how do you know that?" Slipstream asked, but Fox took control of the conversation once more.

"Slipstream, right? You're one of Equestria's first space pilots?" Fox asked her, waiting until she nodded before he continued. "Alright, so you're a bit out of the loop. If you haven't heard, there's a new evil threatening not just the Lylat system, but all of the systems in the galaxy."

"Of course there is," Slipstream replied dryly, getting Fox to smirk.

"I feel the same way. Only difference is this isn't an army of monkey's trying to take over the planets or an army of bugs just trying to assimilate everything. These guys have a single target. Anything related to Corneria and their forces is their target. They're smart, they're fast and they're almost impossible to track. In fact, no Cornerian force has survived contact with them...until now."

"Wait, so my cruiser was the first to survive an encounter with these new enemies?" Slipstream asked, only for Fox's face to become clouded.

"No, I meant that you are the first Cornerian pilot to survive an encounter with them. We don't know the fate of your cruiser," Fox told her, getting Slipstream's face to fall. "Right now we're way out of range to communicate with Corneria or our allies. We're in uncharted space and have to be ready for an attack at any time."

"Updraft..." Slipstream whispered to herself, before her fear was taken over with her rage and she stood up straight with a glare in her eyes. "Alright, I'm in. I'll do whatever I can to help you guys out a stop to this threat!"

The entire StarFox team gave her a look after she said this, but Slipstream didn't back down at all. After a moment passed, Fox let out a sigh and leaned back in his chair and placed his hands together. "Are you sure you know what you're getting into? The reason we take missions like these is because the Cornerian forces realize that it could be a suicide mission. Only our raw skill and teamwork has gotten us through some of these missions."

"Fox McCloud, sir, may I speak freely?" Slipstream asked.

"Go right ahead. Everybody else on this ship seems to," Fox said with a look at Falco.

"I signed up for the Cornerian forces not because I wanted to make my way up the ranks or anything like that. Is signed up because when I read about the worlds beyond my own and all of the tragedy that has faced the stars, I wanted to do something to put an end to that evil. I am out her to fly, to fight and to stop those who want to harm others. That is my duty," Slipstream said with conviction.

"And right now I am far from my squad and my friends. But I am also with the greatest team of miracle workers in all of space. If there are forces attacking other Cornerian forces, my family, then I want to be with the team that I know can bring them down once and for all. I am not asking to help you guys. I am demanding it."

"Heh, not bad," Falco muttered under his breath while Fox pondered over her words.

"You've got conviction, I'll give you that," Fox said with a nod. "But I don't know that you can keep up with us in an actual battle. You say you're a pilot, right? Well then how about before I agree to letting you temporarily join with my team, you show me just how good you are? Because if I don't find your flying skills up to our level, then I can't have you watching our backs against a foe like this."

"I am perfectly fine with that, sir," Slipstream said with a nod.

"And even if I find your skills satisfactory, I'm going to need each member of my team to sign off on the idea as well. you won't just be out there watching my back, but all of ours. If they're not okay with you, then I can't be either," Fox continued on.

"I am also perfectly fine with that. But I promise that I won't let any of you down," Slipstream said to the entire group. Peppy nodded with a smile on his face, while Falco just shrugged. Slippy gave Slipstream a smile and thumbs up, while Krystal simply nodded.

"I hope you don't. Falco, show Slipstream around a bit before we take her to the simulation chamber," Fox instructed Falco, who groaned as he rolled his eyes.

"Why do I have to babysit her? Can't you get Slippy or Peppy to do it?" Falco asked.

"Slippy needs to prepare the simulator and I want Peppy up here with me and Krystal as we go over this new information," Fox instructed with a smirk. "Besides, you're both fliers, right? Birds of a feather and all that. I'm sure you'll get along just fine."

Falco cast a glance at Slipstream, who extended her wings and flapped them a few times. Falco rolled his eyes once more before motioning for Slipstream to follow her, which she did so along with Slippy. Fox waited until all of them were out of the room before he glanced up at Krystal, who was still looking at the door where the group had left.

"Well?" he asked her.

"Her story, along with her motivations, all check out," Krystal informed Fox, who let out a small sigh of relief before he turned his chair back around and faced the forward screen. He pressed a few buttons on the controller on the arm of his chair and brought up what few images they had of the forces they were hunting, which the StarFox teamed had called the "Ghosts". "She truly wishes to stop these forces and bring honor to both Equestria and the Cornerian army."

"Well it's nice to finally pick someone up whose completely honest with us," Fox muttered before he stopped on a blurry image of a black craft that was firing upon a Cornerian supply depot.

"That's the one," Krystal confirmed for Fox, reading his thoughts. "That's who shot her down. The same pilot who knocked your foolish rear out of the sky."

"If she went up against him then it's a miracle that she's still alive," Fox said with an impressed tone.

"It's a miracle that you're still alive, you idiot," Krystal replied, getting Fox to smirk as he shook his head.

"I went in a little cocky. It won't happen again."

"Good, because Falco's tired of cleaning up after all your messes," Krystal informed Fox, who looked up at her. "Well, he was thinking it."

"Ugh, I get no respect. How come it's only to Cornerian pilot that calls me sir and shows me some respect?" Fox asked Krystal, who let out a laugh as she rested her arms on Fox's shoulders.

"She just hasn't been here long enough. Trust me, after a few weeks she'll be mocking you like the rest of us."

Comments

[Norwegian boy]

It's Star Fox not StarFox, two words not one. Also, you wrote Fox's name wrong: "Slipstream, right? You're one of Equestria's first space pilots?" Fix asked her,

[badninja]

I think Slipstream and Falco will be more then good friends. I hope they will be ready for the coming battles.