Lahopa II
Chapter 14
“It was unfortunate that a good deal of our time was spent wondering whether my two friends - Applejack and Rainbow Dash - would make it or not. I still feel like what happened to them was unjust and unfair, and I will never forgive the Empire for it.”
-Twilight Sparkle, On Extra-Galactic Voyages, p. 443
The Maximum Thrust glided through the atmosphere like a falcon, weaving around clouds and maneuvering at the whim of her skilled master. Junas was looking down at the ground, scanning his destination for a landing zone.
The door to the cockpit opened, and Twilight, her mane messy and her eyes still heavy from a long sleep during the hyperspace transit, climbed into the copilot's seat and yawned. “Oh Celestia, that was a good sleep.”
He turned his head at that. “Celestia?”
“Hmm?” Twilight hadn’t been paying attention to him. “Oh, well Celestia is sort of our god. She, along with her sister Luna, rules over Equestria, but she’s also very powerful, and there’s sort of an old pony tradition where we say her name when making requests or observing something exceptionally good, because she might be listening.”
“Sounds a bit creepy actually, but I suppose considering how nice of a mare she is, I wouldn’t mind her listening to me from afar and helping me out of a jam every now and again.”
Twilight wasn’t quite sure how to take the sentiment of “creepy”, but the rest made up for it, and she was still a little too sleep-addled to take anything very seriously. She instead turned her attention to the slowly ascending ground, which she realized meant the ship was descending, and saw that they were heading toward a rather large city. “What city is that?”
Before Junas could answer, pounding on the deckplates was heard and suddenly a disheveled Rarity, her mane still a frizzy mess, burst into the cockpit. “Did I hear someone in here say, ‘city’?!”
Junas and Twilight were both shocked into momentary silence, and the human answered, “Er, yes, a city. Jaharabim, to be specific.”
The name meant nothing to Rarity, but she put on her prettiest puppy-dog eyes and looked right at Junas. “Do you think it would be too much to ask to look for a salon? My coiffure is simply horrid, and the lack of proper styling equipment is making it worse by the day.”
He cleared his throat. “Well, I’m not sure if we can-“
“WHAT?!”
“Take it easy, Rarity! I was just about to say we’re not stopping here very long. Just long enough to do a quick systems check and refuel. Besides, I don’t know if it’s a good idea to split up with the Empire chasing after us.”
“I dunno, Junas.” This time Twilight was the one who voiced an objection. “We’ve been running for days. Shouldn’t we, I dunno, stretch our legs a bit? It’s not exactly easy being cooped up in this ship, and I know we all need a break.”
He opened his mouth to object, but then sighed. “I suppose we can afford a small break. Jaharabim is a big city, and I guess we can spend a little bit of time doing something fun. Only thing is, I don’t have much money, so the best we can probably do is window-shop.” He shuddered at the thought.
“Why that sounds simply divine!” exclaimed Rarity. “I know I wouldn’t be able to find anything that would fit a pony, but I can still use their styles for inspiration. Do you have a quill and parchment I could borrow perchance?”
“Uh, no. But I do have a datapad and a stylus.”
“A who with a what, now?”
He rolled his eyes, turned on the autopilot, and produced the datapad that he had used to get into the base computer on Qat Chrystac, from which he retrieved a small pointed rod. “Go into the programs and use the one with the . . .” He could see Rarity had gotten lost at the word “programs”. “Look, follow my hand.”
Junas hit a couple of symbols on the device with his stylus, which opened up a blank page. “Use this to write on.” Rarity was unsure, but she grabbed the stylus with her magic and began doodling on the blank page. Her eyes lit up. “Oh darling! This is simply fabulous!”
“And if you want, you can add layers to the drawing so that you can switch colors.”
She looked at him with surprise, then let out a squeal and began randomly clicking buttons and using various tools in the toolbox area, experimenting like mad to test the program to its very limits. He noticed how much fun she was having and gave her a half-grin.
“When you’re done, hit this button.” He pointed to a small icon which looked like a disc with a triangular raised area on one side. “That will save your work.”
Her eyes got big and she looked at him with a very grateful expression. “Thank you so much!”
And with that she trotted off down the corridor, humming happily as she did. Once she was out of the cockpit, Twilight and Junas looked at each other and laughed. “Rarity does love to design.”
Junas nodded. “I noticed. Anyway, we’re not just here to window-shop. I think we can find a med-center for Applejack and Rainbow Dash which can give them a full Bacta immersion. Thing is, the Empire shot them, so they know that we need a medical facility and they’re going to be checking every hospital in the galaxy for ponies. I think we can get by with cloaks. There are a lot of equinoid species, like the Thakwaash and Bothans. Hell, someone might even mistake you for a Chironian, if they don’t notice that you lack arms and come in other colors besides reddish brown. But we still need to be extra careful. The Empire is thorough, and doesn’t respect doctor-patient privileges.”
Twilight understood fully what he was talking about. “Do you have any cloaks?”
“No, and I doubt they have cloaks designed for ponies. But I can probably buy a bolt of fabric, and then Rarity can make some for you.”
Twilight nodded. “Sounds like a good idea.” As the ship started gliding in for final approach, she looked out the canopy, inadvertently catching a glimpse at her messy mane. “Whoa! I, uh, I think I need to go take shower.”
He watched her trot out the cockpit toward the fresher and its shower unit, then turned back around to monitor the controls as the ship banked in a lazy arc toward the landing zone.
-----
Hydraulics compressed and the boarding ramp lowered as the Maximum Thrust touched down on the duracrete landing pad, jets of gas spewing from decompression vents all over the underside. Inside the ship, Junas was flipping switches and closing down the systems. He had told the ponies to hide near the reactor for the time being in order that the residual heat would mask their signatures, so he didn’t have to worry about a passing probe droid picking up on the fact that seven ponies and a dragon were hiding out on his ship (though Spike, being cold-blooded, could afford to roam the ship without being picked up by thermal imagers).
As soon as he had completed the post-landing checklist, he headed out of the cockpit so he could look in town for some fabric for Rarity. It wouldn’t be quite so easy, unfortunately.
Before he had made it out of the cockpit access tube, he was stopped by Rarity, who had a slight gleam in her eyes. He tried to get past her, but she stuck a hoof out and stopped him. “Do you mind, Rarity? I need to go get that fabric.”
“Yes, well, I was wondering what kind of fabric you had intended to purchase?”
He blinked. “Um, I dunno. Whatever is cheap, I guess.”
She gasped. “You mean you expect me to sew brand new cloaks from just any old rag you happen to stumble upon?”
“That’s pretty much it, sweetheart.”
“I, uh, don’t suppose you could get a few ribbons, or maybe a secondary color?”
He sighed. “Rarity, this needs to be functional, not formal.”
“Right.” She looked a bit disappointed as he walked by.
“Well, I suppose if they have any scraps of another color I can see if they’ll throw it in for free.”
“OH WOULD YOU?! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!” The white unicorn leaped up and embraced him, and try as he might he couldn’t release her forelegs from his waist.
“Doncha think you oughta get a room, first?”
They both turned and saw Rainbow Dash looking at them, leaning against the padded walls of the corridor with what could only be described as a demented gleam in her eye. “I don’t mind ‘n all, I just thought you two would have the decency to spare Fluttershy. You know how sensitive that pony can be.”
Rarity whipped around and glared at her blue friend. “Rainbow Dash!”
“That’s the name, don’t wear it out.”
Junas would have loved to watch the admittedly humorous exchange, but he decided it would be better to head into the city and get the supplies so that they could continue their mission here.
-----
After returning to the ship with a couple of bolts of fabric and needle and thread, then watching as Rarity again performed wonders with cloth, they all headed out into the city. They all marveled at the architecture: though it was simple, it still had fancy artwork and carefully carved ornamentations, with vaulted arches and a few gilded parapets. Twilight was pleasantly surprised at how much it reminded her of Canterlot. “It’s so beautiful here!”
“Yes, I quite agree!” Rarity, too, was admiring the scene, as were the rest of the ponies.
“It shore does beat out that ship we been travelin’ ‘round in.”
“Yeah, and I bet there’re fliers like me who would wanna race!” gushed Rainbow Dash.
“Oh, I dunno, girls. I think we might want to keep our heads down.”
“Oh c’mon, Fluttershy!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie. “We gotta see if they’ve got any party shops around here!”
“Uh, girls?”
They all stopped and looked at Junas. “I know you’re excited about being in a city, but we still need to remember that the Empire is after us. Lahopa has managed to resist Imperial takeover, but that doesn’t mean they won’t have spies.”
They all looked disappointed, but remained quiet. “Now, the first thing we need to do is locate a suitable medical facility for Applejack and Rainbow Dash.”
“Yeah,” said Spike. “I don’t think we need to wait around for something serious like a gunshot wound.”
They all nodded, then started walking after Junas. Pretty soon however they all started giggling and talking amongst themselves. Junas took notice.
“I will never understand women.”
“I hear ya, bro,” Spike agreed.
Walking through the city, all of them except Junas stared and marveled at the sheer variety of alien life. Twilight’s mind was ablaze; she desperately wished that she had a quill and some parchment to make notations about the creatures she was seeing. To her left she saw an alien which closely resembled a starfish, while to her right a human was arguing with a hammer-headed creature. She wanted to stop and ask each and every one of them about their home world, their species, their technology. However, she knew that her purpose here was more important than a mere search for knowledge.
As she was walking next to Applejack, she could see her wince in pain at the infection that was no doubt working its way through her system, threatening to give her blood poisoning or gangrene. The fear of losing her best friend to some disease was worsened by the unknown diseases and ailments that no doubt roamed this galaxy. At least they had the medical technology to combat such illnesses. She was still marveling at hearing about the wonder drug known as Bacta.
This substance would be a welcome sight in Equestria, if not the world. If she understood the short entry in the dictionary contained on the ship, Bacta was some sort of gel that soaked into the body and not only removed infections but healed the body in record time. She had managed to find a medical book with basic treatment options listed, and Bacta was said to be able to heal even terminal internal injuries in mere hours.
She hoped they would be able to find a medical facility with a Bacta tank. She wasn’t sure how common they were, but since Lahopa II was supposed to be a mining planet, where accidents happen daily, she was sure they had one somewhere, and if they did, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were in luck.
At least they were blending in fairly well. In such a species-diverse place as this, nobody looked twice at them, or even ignored them completely, their business taking precedence.
And Twilight was especially grateful that they hadn’t seen a single white-armored human, which meant they could concentrate on the task at hand: find a medical facility to treat Rainbow Dash and Applejack.
-----
They walked for several blocks before finding a kiosk which displayed a holographic map of the city, with various buildings already highlighted. After a few seconds of searching, Junas pointed to a small symbol which was not familiar to Twilight.
“That’s the only medical center in the city.”
“So they don’t have any others? Not even a clinic?”
“No need for one; emergency medical airspeeders can get to someone in less than a minute, then get back to the hospital in about the same amount of time.”
She nodded in understanding. “So how far is it from here?”
Junas did some quick mental calculation. “About an hour’s walk. I would suggest renting a speeder, but I don’t have enough in my credit account for something like that.”
“Then how were you planning on getting the hospital to treat AJ and Rainbow?”
He shrugged. “Ever heard of ‘dine and dodge’?”
She face-hoofed.
-----
As they all neared the hospital, Twilight got the feeling that something was wrong. It wasn’t something she could put her hoof on, however. She just had one of those feelings.
When they rounded the corner and saw the medical center, they all ducked behind the nearest building. Her fears were confirmed.
Standing outside the hospital entrance was a pair of Stormtroopers at attention.
She looked up at Junas with an annoyed expression. “I thought you said this planet repelled the Empire!”
He got a fierce look on his face. “I guess the local governor made a deal with Vader.”
“It makes no sense, though. Why would they deliberately expose themselves if they knew we were going to a hospital?”
“Probably to make us panic or get desperate, then we either make a mistake and get ourselves captured or we turn ourselves in so we don’t have to run anymore.”
She scowled, then turned around and started walking.
“Hey, where are you going?”
She turned back and looked up at him. “Well it’s not like we can get my friends healed here. We need to go back to the ship, get off this planet and find a place where we can get some medical attention for Rainbow and A.J.”
He looked reluctant, but then realized that she was right. He and Twilight walked over to where the others were standing.
“Well?” asked Applejack anxiously.
Twilight hung her head. “I’m afraid it’s no use, girls. The hospital is guarded by Stormtroopers, and it’s the only one in the city. We’re going to have to go back to the ship and fly to another city.”
Rainbow Dash and Applejack looked at each other worriedly for a moment, then all of them walked out of the alleyway and into the main street. Twilight reflected that their luck seemed to be running out. They had run out of Bacta patches a day ago, and Applejack was looking a bit pallid. Rainbow Dash was doing fine, at least on the outside. Twilight however had developed a non-intrusive scanning spell, and she could see that Dash was putting on a brave face despite growing pain in her side. Twilight looked at Fluttershy next, her sad face betraying thoughts which were returning to the droid which had proved a traitor. Rarity for her part was still marveling at the beautiful architecture, commenting every so often about its ornate decorations, yet Twilight knew that she was worried about their companions. Pinkie Pie-
Wait. Where was that party pony?
Twilight stopped in her tracks and glanced around. There was no sign of the incessant chatterbox anywhere. She looked at her companions frantically. “Have you guys seen Pinkie Pie?”
They all looked at each other, shocked that they just now noticed that Pinkie Pie was missing. “I didn’t even notice she was gone!” said Junas.
“Well we’ve gotta find her!” shouted Spike.
“Yes,” agreed Rarity, “there’s no telling what kind of trouble the poor dear could get herself into!”
The trouble was, Jaharabim was a big city, and Twilight knew finding a little pony would be a difficult task. Still, they had to find her before they took off.
Junas was a bit perturbed. “Considering how that pony loves to sing, I would think we would have noticed her absence.”
They ignored him. “Fan out,” said Twilight. “We’ve got to find her before she gets herself in trouble!”
-----
Finding anypony in Ponyville could prove to be a problem. Finding a single pony in a city like this one was proving to be impossible. Twilight wished they could simply ask if a pink pony was hopping around nearby, but she knew that any one of the citizens of the city could be an Imperial spy. Furthermore, it would most likely be just as slow asking everyone in the city as it would be to simply look clandestinely, and Twilight wasn’t about to risk the Empire discovering where they were and sending in a strike force to find them. So she and the others decided to split up and then meet back at the ship at sunset.
Their methods for searching for Pinkie Pie were as varied as their names.
Rainbow Dash decided that since she couldn’t fly, the next best method for finding her would be to simply go to the top of a high building and look down at the city. “There’s gotta be a building tall enough to get a good look at this place.” She sneaked around like a ninja, spy music playing in her head, and tried to wind her way through the crowd. She kept an eye out for anyone that could be a spy (and after the R2-D8 incident there was no convincing her that not everyone in the city was one), and headed toward the tallest building in the city. She looked up at the structure: it was approximately a hundred meters tall, shaped vaguely like a hexagonal tree trunk, and was covered in wooden trim with gilded details. She carefully sneaked around to the back where the air conditioning and power supply interfaced with the building and looked around. She needed to find some way to scale this building. Putting her hoof to her chin, she looked over the side of the building. There were no ladders or other escape systems, but there was some sort of door or hatch next to the equipment on the back of the building. It was angled down and might be hard to ascend into, but it looked like it merely slid back into the wall, providing easy access to the interior. A big grin popped up on her face and she trotted over toward it and tried to figure out a way to get into the door. The pain in her side kept her from trying the obvious, so she stuck out all four hooves and slowly spider-walked up the alcove leading toward the hatch, gritting her teeth as her wounds complained loudly at the new torture she was inflicting on them. Balancing precariously on her back hooves, she stuck out her right hoof and gently slid the door into its alcove. Her immediate obstacle overcome, she determinedly shimmied up into the hatch, minding her wound, and then closed the door behind her.
Taking the opportunity to rest her hooves a second, she looked up the shaft. It appeared endless. She was, however, committed, and began climbing up the shaft, wedging her hooves in small grooves set into the walls. After ascending nearly twenty meters, she noted with curiosity that there were bits of paper, food and debris in the grooves, as though . . .
As though people tossed garbage down this chute!
She frantically tried to shimmy back down the shaft, then her eyes shifted upward as she heard a hundred tiny mechanical doors open up above her.
“Oh horsefeathers.”
-----
The garbage droid under the refuse hatch didn’t know why one of the objects that landed in its collection hopper began kicking and banging around, but it didn’t have the intelligence necessary to ask the question in the first place. All it knew to do was drive away toward the city dump to unload its smelly cargo.
-----
Fluttershy wanted to fly up and look around to look for her friend, but she knew it would draw too much attention toward herself. Besides that, she hated making a spectacle of herself, so she gently trotted along the street, peering into any windows or open doors, looking for any shade of pink she could find.
Suddenly she saw something in the crowd that caught her attention. A pink blur, about the size of a pony!
“Wait! Pinkie!” She tried to get through the crowd as quickly as possible, ducking past Wookies and Zabraks, and trying to get as close to the phantasm as she could. All the time she was doing this, she found herself constantly apologizing. “Oh! I’m sorry! Don’t mind m- Excuse me, sir, I was just- I beg your pardon!”
Finally she shoved past the last alien in her way, and fleetingly saw a pink shape move into a building. Fluttershy could have sworn she heard Pinkie’s trademark “la, la-la, la-la,la-la” over the din of the crowd. She trotted toward the door, being careful to avoid galloping lest her cloak fly up and reveal her shape and color. She finally approached the door and found that it was closed. She stepped up toward it, but it wouldn’t open like the automatic doors on the Maximum Thrust. Confused, she looked around for someone who might be able to open the door for her. Her eye fell upon a small electronic panel next to the door. “Ah! That must be the door switch!”
She pressed the biggest button with her hoof, and the door opened to reveal a small clothing shop. It also revealed a yellow and blue-spotted alien with spindly legs and arms, a fat, round body, and eyestalks which sat above a long, thin stalk pointing straight out from the body. The lips on the stalk moved. “How can I help ya, hun?”
Fluttershy was a bit taken aback by the appearance of the strange alien, but she smiled nervously. “Um, yes, I was looking for a friend, and I think she walked in here a moment ago.”
The alien smiled, or at least Fluttershy thought she was smiling. “No problem, hun, she’s just back here.”
The yellow pony smiled wide, glad that her search was relatively short. Her smile however melted into a frown when the alien brought back a mousy alien wearing a hot pink tunic and magenta cap. “This your friend, honey?”
Fluttershy shook her head sadly. “No. Thank you for your time.”
The bright yellow pegasus walked glumly out the entrance to the shop.
-----
To Applejack, the bazaar seemed like the most logical place to find Pinkie Pie. “After all,” she’d said, “that pony sure does love apples.” The fact that apples probably didn’t exist in this universe was irrelevant; she knew that a market was bound to have good food and maybe even carnival rides, and that pink party pony was not going to pass up something like that.
With a bit of direction from Junas, she managed to find her way to the city bazaar. When she saw it however, she gasped.
This weren’t no farmer’s market. This was an entire section of the city devoted to trade and profit, and it rivaled Ponyville in sheer size. But Applejack wasn’t about to let that deter her. She was stubborn, and she was going to use her tenacity to her advantage to find her friend.
The orange earth-pony weaved through the crowds, past all the metal and wood carts filled with everything from broken droids to fresh produce, and looked desperately for Pinkie Pie. The smell of all the fresh vegetables and fruits however was incredibly distracting. She wanted to keep looking for her friend, but being a farmer she couldn’t help but be drawn to one of the fruit carts. The sight of all the fresh fruits before her made her stomach growl. She hadn’t had anything approaching a good meal, or rather what she defined as a good meal, since she’d come crashing into this universe.
As she looked over the produce, the alien behind the cart noticed her interest. “Ah, a creature with excellent taste in fruit! Have you ever had Ithorian starfruit before?”
She shook her head.
“Well then, let me give you a taste of our fine wares and give your taste buds a real thrill!”
He took a sharp knife, hit a tiny stud, and the humming silver cutlery sliced effortlessly through the fruit. After cutting several slices he handed them to Applejack, who took a bite.
Her mouth exploded with flavor. She’d raised some mighty fine produce in her time, but even her best apples had nothing on this fruit. She tried to suppress her hunger, but her base desires won out, and she scarffed down the slices of fruit like her last meal. As she licked her lips, she noticed the vendor leaning in, apparently anxious to reel her in. “Well? What do you think?”
“Ah think that fruit’s tastier’n an apple pie!”
“Oh, uh, well . . .” He clearly had no idea what she was talking about, but wasn’t about to lose a customer over cultural disparities. “I’m glad to hear of it! That fruit was a prize-winning breed of my own design! Won three culinary awards in excellence in genetic engineering!”
Genetic engineerin', thought Applejack. That must be fancy-talk fer a kind o’ fertilizer. Being a farmer, Applejack couldn’t help but satiate her curiosity surrounding the oddly shaped fruit. “So how do ya use, er, genetic engineering?”
The alien looked a bit uneasy. Applejack figured that most farmers wouldn’t want to share family secrets, so she decided to reassure him. “Ah wouldn’t worry none. Ah’m a farm pony. Been one since Ah was a little filly. Ah swear, yer secret’s safe with me.”
The alien relaxed a bit. “Well, since we’re of the same breed, I suppose it couldn’t hurt to share a little of my technique with you.”
He went behind the curtain at the back of his stand and produced a small machine with several buttons and lights, all surrounding a large screen. He flipped a switch, and the display lit up with fancy graphics and text that Applejack couldn’t read. “This is the GenTech AG-220 agricultural engineering station. Have you ever seen one before?”
She shook her head. “No, but what does that thing have ta do with farmin’?”
“Well, I just told you that I genetically engineered these fruits to be that flavorful. Starfruit of any kind is usually sour, but I was able to bypass the gene that causes the plant to generate high levels of acid in the juice-“
“Now hold on a cotton pickin’ minute! You sayin’ that that fruit was just popped out o’ some kinda machine?!” The idea that a farmer of any kind would take such an easy way out to get the perfect fruit was unfathomable to Applejack. She’d been brought up to believe that hard work and determination, not to mention blood, sweat and tears, was what produced good produce, and she couldn’t believe a fellow farmer would stoop to such a low as engineering fruit.
“Of course not! It takes work to break down a gene sequence-”
“Just hold on there, buddy! That there’s cheatin’!”
Now the vendor was starting to get incensed. “Young lady, I am this close to kicking you out of my stand and calling security! If I were you, I would turn around and leave while I’m still in a charitable mood.”
As much as Applejack wanted to wring the neck of this fake farmer, she knew she had bigger fish to fry. She snorted, then turned and left the stand, but not before turning back and saying, “Jes’ be glad Ah’m in a charitable mood, mister.” And under her breath she muttered, “Er else Ah’d have bucked you and yer cart all the way ta Equestria.”
-----
Rarity for her part was searching as hard as she could.
And her definition of hard involved trying to tear her eyes from all the beautiful clothing that she saw. Her eyes were glued to the odd-yet-flattering clothing that adorned many of the women of the city. It may be a mining planet, but landing at one of the larger metropolitan districts has its advantages.
She looked left, right and center, taking everything in. She was quite impressed that even the aliens whom she considered ugly were rendered less so by their choices in clothing. Oh, how she wanted to watch them all day. But she had a mission.
Wait a minute! There’s no reason I can’t do both!
After mentally patting herself on the back for her ingenuity, Rarity started watching the fashionable aliens, taking everything in. She knew how distinctive Pinkie Pie’s hot pink coat and mane were; she’d stick out like a sore thumb.
She was just glad that she’d had time to do her mane and tail before leaving the ship. Despite that human trying to rush her. Stallions . . . they’re the same in any universe.
But why let all that hard work go to waste? Surely the Empire couldn’t be everywhere, and she didn’t think it could hurt to let her hood down at least. For a little while.
Not one minute after she exposed her shimmering purple coiffure, she started getting looks. Not sure if the aliens were surprised at her appearance or just shocked that an . . . animal could look so good, she smiled nervously. “Um, hello.”
The aliens continued staring at her, then a thin human female with short cropped black hair and a delicate facial tattoo approached her. “My dear . . . “
Rarity was getting more uncomfortable; she liked attention, but not when she wasn’t sure if this was the good kind. “Yes?”
“I simply love your hair! Could you tell me if that is your species’ natural color, or did you dye it such an exquisite shade of purple?”
Her fears subsided, Rarity composed herself. “Why, it’s my natural color, darling! I’ve had it since I was a filly!”
The human seemed in awe, as did the other aliens, even the hairless ones. She gestured as though she wanted to touch it, and Rarity couldn’t help but oblige, sticking her head out toward her new admirer. The human woman ran her fingers through Rarity’s mane. “Why, it’s simply breath-taking!”
Rarity withdrew her head. “Thank you, darling! I make do with what I have on the ship, but it’s amazing what you can do with a few natural ingredients.”
The phrase “natural ingredients” caught the human by surprise. “You mean you didn’t use some kind of treatment?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Could you share your recipe, please? I simply must let my stylist know!”
Rarity was struggling to keep the fillyish squeal from escaping her lips. Oh yes, she thought to herself. This is definitely the good kind of attention!
-----
The sun had almost finished setting by the time Twilight and her friends had returned to the ship. Her own efforts at finding Pinkie Pie bore no fruit, but she had hoped that the others had had better luck.
Alas, their searching had produced no Pinkie Pie. Junas’ attempts to covertly search the city had failed. Rainbow Dash had spent all afternoon swimming through garbage and then trying to convince the garbage collectors that she wasn’t trying to steal something. Fluttershy had tried as many shops as she could. Applejack had gone through the entire bazaar. Rarity had tried every beauty shop in the city, though she evaded any attempts to get her to explain why Pinkie Pie would visit a beauty shop when she was barely able to sit still long enough to get her hair done for the royal wedding. Twilight was a bit discouraged, but remembered her teacher’s advice: You must remain strong. Any sense of doubt or fear will bleed into your friends and cause them to feel similarly. “We’ve got to keep searching for her! There’s no telling where she ended up, and every minute that goes by is another minute that Luna is under the control of the Empire!”
Rainbow Dash shook the last of the garbage out of her mane. “Well I’m not gonna rest until we find her!”
“Me neither,” said Applejack. “That pony may be annoyin’, but she’s still our friend.”
“I appreciate that,” Junas said, “but the sun has set. We might as well -”
“Hold it!”
They turned and looked at Fluttershy. She was concentrating. “Do you guys hear that?”
They all strained, swiveling their ears until they were pointed in the direction Fluttershy’s own ears were pointing, and suddenly Twilight’s eyes lit up. “Only one pony I know laughs like that!”
Junas was struggling, but coming up empty. “Um, what are you talking about?”
As they galloped away, leaving Junas behind with the ship, Twilight hollered back, “I think we know where Pinkie Pie is!”
-----
They followed the laughter to a large building with fancy holograms. Amongst the holograms was one which looked like balloons and party streamers. Aha, thought Twilight. She must have thought this was a party store. Or maybe just the galaxy’s biggest party. The six ponies all walked into the building, then it immediately hit them: this was a casino, with huge chandeliers hanging in midair, large mauve columns supporting the ceiling, and a plethora of aliens roaming about, depositing money into machines and playing games. There were a few establishments like this in Equestria, but most of them were not very successful. Most pony’s minds usually wouldn’t allow for such wasteful spending unless it was bred out of them. They might gamble a bit, but they seldom went broke doing it, which meant that most gambling houses in Equestria were small affairs with few repeat patrons. But here there seemed to be no end to the number of aliens willing to take hard-earned money and throw it all away on the hopes of getting back at least what they spent. Twilight admitted to herself that she occasionally gambled, but she knew she’d never bet everything she owned.
Applejack looked positively disgusted. “I cain’t believe pon-, er, people would be this willin’ ta throw away their money like this!”
“Aw, c’mon A.J., it’s all in good fun!” Rainbow Dash’s eyes lit up at the sight of a table with colorful holographic characters dancing about, showcasing some kind of card game with electronic cards.
“Yes, I agree,” said Rarity. “This place looks simply divine!” Her own eyes were drawn to the aliens in fancy clothes from the Core worlds, all of them travelers and all of them wearing elaborate outfits.
“Girls, we need to focus.” Twilight gestured around the room. “Pinkie Pie could be anywhere in here!”
They all nodded, then heard a high-pitched laughter coming from a table in the far corner of the casino. The five ponies raced toward the noise, and then came to a stop in front of a table.
There was Pinkie Pie, sitting on a stool in front of an astonished crowd of onlookers with a huge pile of gold coins in various denominations stacked to one side. The pink pony was laughing at the droid in front of her, who was obviously getting a bit irritated.
“Please miss, you must control yourself. You are causing a scene.”
The scene in question was Pinkie Pie barely able to contain her laughter at the fact that the droid had an electronic face.
“But it looks so funny when you’re mad!” And with that she doubled over, falling off the chair in a fit of giggles that only the Element of Laughter could conjure up.
“Miss, I’m afraid if you do not pull yourself together at once I will be forced to-”
“Wait!” Twilight held up a hoof.
Pinkie turned her head, wearing a broad grin and two streams of laughter tears. “Twilight! Rarity! Dashie! Fluttershy! What are you guys doing here?”
Ignoring Pinkie for the moment, Twilight continued to address the droid. “Please sir, she meant no offense.”
The droid’s electronic display generated a dismayed expression. “Be that as it may, your friend seems unable to control her-”
“Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!! He’s doing it again!”
The droid and the unicorn both looked at Pinkie with exasperated expressions. Twilight turned back to the machine. “I apologize for her behavior. It won’t happen again.”
“I’m afraid that’s not all. You see, security believes she is counting cards.”
“What?!” exclaimed every pony.
The droid put on a smug expression. “We’ve been monitoring her, and it seems that she has above average luck. Far above average. The odds are completely out of her favor, yet she continues to keep getting the Idiot’s Array, which is the highest hand in sabacc. A rather fitting name considering her behavior, but the point remains that she must be cheating in order to get that result so many times. The odds of that happening are astronomical. Finally, she was somehow able to place a bet when she ostensibly had no money to begin with, which indicates that she might have been stealing from our patrons.”
Rainbow Dash was incensed. She galloped past Twilight and got within two inches of the machine’s display. “Listen you droid! Pinkie Pie is my friend, and I won’t let you accuse her of cheating without any proof!”
The machine hesitated. It knew it had no real, hard evidence Pinkie was cheating or stealing. And so did Rainbow Dash.
“However,” she said with a demented gleam in her eye, “I could just take my friend and forget this whole thing ever happened.”
The droid looked at her with a suspicious look. “What’s the catch?”
“You let us leave with all her winnings.”
The droid was getting nervous, as people were looking at him as though they knew the cyan pegasus was right. He finally emitted a noise that sounded like a sigh. “Fine. Keep your winnings. But do not return to this establishment ever again. My manager has a holorecording of that pink pony, and he will not hesitate to show her what we think of cheaters in our casino.”
“Don’t worry. We wouldn’t want to set hoof in here ever again.” She whirled around, then Twilight and Rarity levitated the pile of coins and they all trotted out the door, each of them wearing a smug grin at the thought of something finally going their way.
-----
Junas was pacing in the main hold, with Celestia watching and wearing a concerned expression on her face and Spike sitting on the bench, concerned for his friends. “Junas, I really think you need to calm yourself. You’ll do no good to Twilight and her friends if you’re agitated,” said Celestia.
He didn’t look at her as he responded. “But we saw Stormtroopers outside the hospital. Lahopa is supposed to be independent of the Empire, which means that the governor has made a deal with them. That in turn means that we stand a good chance of getting caught and enslaved. Or worse.”
The white alicorn made not a sound for a few seconds. “Well then, if that’s the case, it would be better for us to be away from the ship. It is a large object, and it would be easier to hide if we were not within it.”
He stopped pacing and looked up at her. “You think so?”
“Yes. Also, if we meet Twilight and her friends, it would put your mind at ease.” She looked over at the purple dragon sitting on the couch. “As would it put yours to rest, Spike.”
The little reptile looked hopeful. “You mean we can go meet them?”
She nodded. The baby dragon hopped up off the lounge and ran toward the corridor. “C’mon, you guys!”
Junas gestured toward the corridor. “After you.”
The alicorn nodded in thanks at the gesture of chivalry, and they walked together toward the hallway.
-----
Twilight and the others were trotting in the general direction of the landing pad where the Maximum Thrust was parked, excited that they had found their friend and were again going to be on their way. They trotted across the well-lit landing pad, the cool night air causing their breath to fog. Twilight had just caught sight of Junas, Celestia and Spike when she heard a filtered shout across the starport. “Blast them!”
Red laser energy flew from the barrels of the Stormtrooper’s guns as they tried to box in the ponies. Celestia flew up and sent several shots of magic flying their way, but she saw something that made her heart skip a beat. The Imperials were setting up a large gun. She had no idea what it was capable of, but Junas did. “E-WEB repeater!” he shouted.
The big black gun was assembled in seconds. Junas barely had time to shout, “GET DOWN!” before the air was filled with laser energy. Twilight projected a giant shield wall, but the Imperials laid into it, sending thousands of bolts of laser energy hurling at her. Each shot was absorbed by her shield, but cracks were quickly forming in it. Celestia added her own shield to the mix, but the Imperial gun was too much. “Go!” yelled Twilight. “I’ll hold them off!”
“No, Twilight!” exclaimed Applejack. “They’ll kill you!”
“No time! Get going! Celestia and I can hold them off long enough to escape, but not for long!”
Taking the message, the Rebels ran into an alley and Celestia and Twilight followed them, only lowering their shields at the last second before disappearing into the darkness.
-----
They didn’t move for an hour.
Junas had led them all into an alley where they could cover up with packing crates and keep the Imperials from seeing them. After Junas was sure that the Stormtroopers had stopped looking, he sneaked out of the alley and back to a spot where he could get a look at the landing pad, just in time to see an Imperial Heavy Lifter hauling his ship away with a tractor beam. “Sithspit!” he muttered under his breath.
He headed back into the alley and back into the hole where the ponies were hiding. “Ship’s gone.”
The all gasped. “What’re we gonna do?” Applejack asked worriedly.
The scout took a deep breath. “Survive. There are plenty of tunnels and sewer systems where we can get around the city in, and I know there are some smugglers who make their runs through this system.”
Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Smugglers?”
“People who move illegal cargo from one place to another,” replied Twilight with a twinge of disgust.
“It’s not a perfect option,” said Junas, “but for now it’ll have to work.”
Twilight hated the idea of flying in the same ship as a criminal, but for now she had no choice. With the Rebels working to overthrow the Empire, they and the criminal underworld were reluctantly on the same side. It didn’t mean she had to like it.
-----
Luna’s cage was hauled by a pair of Stormtroopers through a pair of double doors into what appeared to be some sort of grand suite, with blood red carpet, glow lamps along the wall, and an enormous window overlooking a city. She tried to see beyond it, but the edges of the city disappeared past the horizon. She couldn’t imagine how these savages had managed to build up such a city at all, considering how they treated her and her sister.
The cage glided to a stop in the middle of the room, suspended on repulsor coils, and the Stormtroopers withdrew through the door.
The room was eerily silent and empty for an eternity.
Luna had begun pacing by the time the door to the chamber opened. She turned and looked disdainfully at the figure who walked into the room: a tall, gaunt man wearing long purple robes and what Luna guessed was some sort of turban or headdress. The man calmly strode through the doors, wearing an expression of arrogance, but Luna saw that he carried himself as though he were more than simply in charge. If she was reading his body language correctly from her centuries of honing the art, he was a person of very high power, possibly some sort of vizier or general.
The man circled the energy cage like a vulture, his grayish skin and cold eyes evaluating its contents. Finally, he took a seat in one of the many plush chairs around the office and spoke.
“I am Sate Pestage, Grand Vizier to the Emperor. I am here to evaluate you and your potential.”
Luna raised an eyebrow. “Potential?”
“Yes. You see, you and the others from your galaxy are of interest to the Emperor.”
“How so?”
He got up and began slowly pacing again, as though he were unsure how to properly word his response. “You and your species have interesting abilities, yet you are apparently neither Jedi nor Sith, as you clearly originate from outside our galaxy. The Emperor believes you would prove useful in his plan to cleanse the galaxy from the threat that is the Rebel Alliance.”
Luna struggled to understand what he was talking about. Jedi? Rebel Alliance? Her confusion was apparently visible on her face, for Sate Pestage began speaking again. “You are obviously confused, and I’m not surprised. I’m sure you’re quite aware that we believe you, being an alien, would not be able to comprehend what I’m talking about.”
Her anger boiled over at his subtle implications. “You fool! I am Princess Luna, Guardian of the Night and the second most powerful ruler on the entire planet Equi!”
“And yet, here you are. Clearly you’re not the most powerful alien in this galaxy, and certainly no match for the superiority of the Galactic Empire. You are but an animal. You may be able to speak, but you are inferior to humankind nonetheless.”
She continued to fume, but realized that her anger was getting her nowhere. This was pointless; she needed to get this conversation moving, if only to escape this monster’s cruelty. “Will you at least tell me what has become of my sister?”
“Oh yes.” His voice softened to a silky tone, as though this were an intimate conversation between two lovers. “I’m afraid the torture units were not as merciful to your sister as yours were to you. She was pushed further than she could handle, more likely due to inferior alien physiology than anything else.”
“Nay! ‘Tis a lie!”
“Oh, I’m afraid it is very true, my dear. I have a hologram if you wish to see.”
Without waiting for her to respond, he went into his cloak and produced a small circular device with a mirrored surface. He pressed a button and immediately a small, blue-hued image appeared above it. It was clearly Celestia, but her body was still. Her eyes were staring and empty, and her tongue hanged out of her mouth limply. There were several bruises and bloody burns all over her body, with several areas that had flesh brutally torn to expose muscle and organs. Luna stared at the image with a mixture of shock and horror.
“You . . . thou art a monster!” A single tear rolled down her cheek.
“Perhaps. But I am still in control here, my dear. You will learn your place in the Emperor’s scheme. Even if we have to take you to the brink of death, even if we must kill you and then bring you back from the grave, you will learn how insignificant and pathetic you are. Take this as a lesson in humility, creature.” He held the electronic image closer to the bars of her cage for a moment, then left it on the floor in front of her. She stared at it with an empty expression.
Satisfied that he had broken the alicorn, Sate Pestage walked calmly toward the door to the chamber. Before he got to the threshold, he paused and turned his head back toward Luna, who had not yet broken her shocked gaze. “You should really thank me, creature. I have just shown you that you are the stronger of the two, and soon you shall bear witness to the benefits of serving his majesty Emperor Palpatine.”
And with that, he exited the room.
Luna stared at the image until she heard the door close behind her. She knew these humans had very advanced technology, and probably had imaging equipment in this room. After all, they obviously had means to create such an accurate, if horrifying image of her sister.
This image Luna had known to be a lie from the moment she saw it. What gave the image away was that Celestia’s mane and tail, though stilled, were luminescent and transparent. She knew that her and her sister’s manes were sky blue and pink without magic flowing through them. Furthermore, she and her sister shared an intimate bond that transcended flesh. If she had been killed by the Empire, especially under the kind of physical duress that was inflicted upon them during their torture sessions, she would have felt it strongly. And yet, she felt nothing. Her magic was strong as ever, and she was still able to sense things outside her energy cage, but she had sensed no death. Clearly her sister was alive, but she decided it would be best to allow these people to think they could manipulate her, so they would be lured into a false sense of security and give her a greater chance of success should she eventually attempt to escape.
With this idea cemented in her head, Luna was mindful to keep up her façade. She kept her face blank, her eyes emotionless except for the tears which she willed into existence. She almost wanted to laugh at these human’s foolishness in thinking they could manipulate her that easily.
But she didn’t. She kept up appearances, never moving for several hours. She used this time to prepare for her inevitable meeting with this “Emperor Palpatine” that Pestage had spoken of. Luna knew that this person had to be at least as evil as Pestage, since Pestage was his advisor and spoke of Palpatine with the tone of someone who was good friends with the Emperor. With that in mind, she set about mentally exercising her willpower. This conversation with the Emperor’s vizier was merely a sample of the kind of treatment she expected she would receive from Palpatine.
Luna carefully sneaked in a deep sigh.
She knew what kind of treatment she would receive, but she knew she could handle it.
She had to.
The fate of her entire world depended upon it.
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Grr . . . for some reason it's displaying my author's note but not the chapter . . .
EDIT: Well looks like the bug is fixed. Enjoy! :D
EDIT#2: Looks like I was mistaken. Anyone wanting to see the next chapter will have to go here: http://fav.me/d5nsv1q
EDIT #3: Looks like I was a complete idiot; the reason it wasn't showing up was I missed when I hit "Publish".
Looking forward to the next chapter of this awesome fanfic.
1905940 Thank you!
The next chapter might be a while, though. I'm going through a major re-write following some critiquing of my work. I was told several things were wrong, story-telling wise. Things like it's got way too much telling versus showing, redundant phrases, and other problems. They also said my descriptions were dull.
I didn't take this as a knock against my work, but rather a sign that I need to improve. And they were right, especially on the dull descriptions part. I re-read my older chapters and it's pretty clear what I need to do to improve them. I've been reading a lot of writing guides, and I can now see a lot of problems with the way I wrote the previous chapters.
But don't worry. I've got a lot of Chapter 15 already written, so when I'm done rewriting the other chapters and polishing it it won't be long before I get that chapter uploaded.
2005472 Lol, Star Wars engineering is fun, ain't it?
I have no problem with criticism. It helps me keep my writing good.
I'm an engineering student and I'm continuously amazed how bad engineering is treated by sci-fi writers. I'm unfortunately stuck with what I have to work with; all of my descriptions are things that actually happened to ships at one point, or are otherwise in keeping with how ships are said to work in this universe.
In Star Wars, ships have three subsystems in the engine: the reactor, the power generator, and the ion drive. The reactor uses hypermatter, which produces tremendous amounts of energy (some are capable of producing millions of terajoules). The reactor does overheat however, and if it gets too hot it will lose the containment on the hypermatter and the reactor will self-immolate. This by the way is why ships often explode and vaporize all matter in the vicinity; the reactor overheats so quickly once it loses containment that it flies right past melt down and just vaporizes the ship. Anyway, this energy is converted to power by the generator for the ship's electrical system. The reactor can also channel this hypermatter into the ion drive, which vaporizes liquid metal fuel in order to have a heavy reaction mass. The metal also has a charge, allowing the ion drive to blow it out the exhaust at very high speed. This can be a big problem if you're in an atmosphere and close to the ground (and in fact Han Solo igniting the ion drive so close to the ground in ANH violated several safety regulations), which is why they usually use repulsorlift drives to get to around 30,000 ft before throttling up. They are always glowing though, because the elements that give off heat to vaporize the fuel are always active and are part of the cooling system. Water is a possibility for coolant in more primitive vessels, but the substance used by the modern galaxy is called Tibanna gas, which is an organic compound that is extremely conductive of heat. It can be cycled rapidly through the engine and reactor to cool them very quickly, though if there's a pressure loss the reactor can get dangerously hot, and like I said, will explode violently. It's an even bigger problem in hyperspace, because the hypermatter in the reactor is attracted to the surrounding hyperspace. The shields help somewhat, but the reactor walls and the magnetic containment vessel are what keep the ship in one piece, so the coolant is especially important in transit.
Fusion reactors don't produce gamma radiation, but you're thinking of terrestrial fusion generators. The ones in Star Wars channel hypermatter, which is the "stuff" that hyperspace contains and is extremely energetic (it powers the hyperdrive that allows FTL speeds). I think it's fused with some kind of normal matter in order to release energy. The ones that exploded in the hangar are used for "jump-starting" a starship and are kept hot for emergencies in civilian docks. Grenades are not generally tossed around in a hangar, though. But the release of hypermatter into an atmosphere can produce a burst of gamma radiation for the instant the hypermatter is outside the containment vessel. It will dissipate, because it takes special technology to draw hypermatter from hyperspace, but the small amount that is withdrawn can be deadly if it comes into contact with normal matter.
Believe me, Junas was *very* upset with Rarity, but he kept a cool head long enough to get back to the maintenance area and get some lube back in the tools. She didn't actually clean them out, though. She just was surprised by how much grease was in the tools, and she wasn't about to get her precious white coat dirty again by scrubbing them down.
Thanks for the compliment, though! It's much appreciated.
I'm currently in the middle of a re-write to get it up to EQD's standards, so further chapters are on hold for now.
I finally found this story again...wasn't log in since I had last read it, so I couldn't favorite'd it. Not making that mistake again!
Story-wise, this is getting good! However, I am getting a strong feeling no casino will be safe with Pinkie Pie around. Those poor, poor unaware souls...! And, it seems the Dark Side is making a fool out of themselves without knowing it.
C&C:
“I think we know were Pinkie Pie is!”
> Replace ‘were’ with ‘where’.
1774693 - You made an error with the name of the planet the Mane Six and co. went too. The name is Lohopa II, not Lahopa:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lohopa_II
if they don’t notice that you lack arms
1. Your.
Pinkie's so lucky that she's gonna be banned from every casino in the universe.
I
how Luna is just playing along with them. 
movieboozer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/pelican-i-see-what-you-did-there.jpg