Filly Fluttershy: Uprising

by Phazon

The Space Pirate Ship

Chapter 8: The Space Pirate Ship

Fluttershy galloped toward the portal that was to take her to her next mission. She slowed down as she approached and eventually came to a stop just short of the double doors. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves as much as she could, and quietly exhaled. “Let’s go,” she muttered to herself. The portal opened before her, and she flew out into a mostly clear sky. The sun was setting over the world, giving the sky a vivid orange color. “With Nightmare Moon’s commanders out of the way, we’re getting to the battle of battles, aren’t we?” she said. She spotted a Wave Angler and three Monoeyes flying by and aimed her hoof at them. Fitted to her front hooves was a pair of braces each with three long, slender talons extending from them, the Hedgehog Claws. She aimed at the monsters and fired a barrage of talons from her claws, taking out all four enemies. However, once she defeated them, she noticed that she was actually ascending in her flight. “Wait, this isn’t the way to the Underworld. Where are we going?”

Celestia didn’t respond to her at first. A few seconds passed in silence while Fluttershy waited for an answer. “I’m a little embarrassed to say,” Celestia finally said.

“What is it?”

“How much do you know about the Three Sacred Treasures?”

“The Three Sacred Treasures?” Fluttershy said. “Those are the weapons you used when you first fought Nightmare Moon. The Mirror Shield, Bow of Light, and Alicorn Wings, right?”

“Yes,” Celestia said. “After I defeated her, I hid them in case of an emergency, to prevent them from being stolen.”

“That’s a good idea,” Fluttershy said. “So where did you hide them?”

“I’m getting to that, actually,” Celestia said. “See, there’s also this space pirate ship…”

“Wait, what?”

“You know, a pirate ship,” Celestia said. “In space. Its crew travels the Galactic Sea, robbing the heavens of constellations.”

“Well that’s horrible,” Fluttershy said, “but what does that have to do with…” It was at that moment that Fluttershy put the pieces together, and a look of dread formed on her face. “No… you didn’t.”

“… I did.”

“So the pirates stole the treasures along with the stars?”

“I’m afraid it gets even worse from there,” Celestia said. “The Underworld Army has gotten wind of it. They’re attacking the ship even as we speak.”

Although her body was ascending in flight, Fluttershy’s head and forelegs slumped down. “Great,” she muttered.

“Which brings us to today’s mission,” Celestia said. “Raid the pirate ship and retrieve the Three Sacred Treasures.” The aura around Fluttershy’s wings intensified, and she accelerated in her ascent.

“Isn’t there some other weapon we could get to fight Nightmare Moon?”

“Hmm…” Celestia though quietly to herself, trying to recall any other artifacts, power sources, or allies that might be powerful enough. “Well, rumors have been circulating lately about a powerful wish-granting item,” she said. “How do you feel about traveling to an active volcano and slaying an immortal phoenix?”

“I think I’d rather fly into space and attack a pirate ship,” Fluttershy murmured.

“Good call.” After a few more seconds, Fluttershy flew up beyond the planet’s atmosphere. Celestia maintained Fluttershy’s speed and continued to guide her through space, toward their destination.

Off in the distance, Fluttershy spotted a number of Remoblams, large mechanical eyeballs with two orange spherical antennae. Surrounding each Remoblam were three Remoblamings, similar to the Remoblams except they each had a single blue spherical antenna. Fluttershy focused her fire on the Remoblams once she was within shooting range of them. After taking enough damage, each Remoblam self-destructed, as did the Remoblamings that surrounded them.

“The Three Sacred Treasures must be pretty old now,” Fluttershy said. “Are you sure they still work?”

“They’ve grown more brittle with age,” Celestia said, “but they’ll likely last a few more battles.”

“That’s… not very reassuring.”

“Not to worry,” Celestia said. “I'm sure the Three Sacred Treasures will carry you through your fight with Nightmare Moon. With any luck, you may not even need them.”

“If you say so,” Fluttershy said. “I just have one more question.”

“What is it?”

Fluttershy looked around at the distant stars and clusters of space debris as she flew through space. “How am I breathing if there’s no atmosphere in space?” she asked. “Or even talking for that matter?”

“Bear in mind that your wings need to push off of the air around them for you to fly,” Celestia said.

“So we’re just going to hoofwave this as magic.”

“And to think how worried you were about breathing underwater in the last chapter,” Celestia said.

Before long, the environment around Fluttershy began to change. The stars were no appeared as distant objects in the sky, and she was actually getting closer to all the constellations now. From up close, she could see threads of purple light connecting each of the stars together, forming the patterns that so many stargazing ponies saw in the night sky. As she flew, she saw a very liquid, very watery substance underneath her that extended as far in every direction as she could see. Part of her noted that Celestia had been surprisingly literal when she called this the Galactic Sea, but that thought was mostly ignored as she stared in awe at the environment around her. “Wow, what a sight,” she said.

“We’ve arrived at the Galactic Sea,” Celestia said. She guided Fluttershy across the sea and in between the threads that connected the constellations. Both of them looked around the sea, though Fluttershy had to stop to attack a Belunka and the four Gyrazors that it spit out. “The pirate ship should be around here somewhere.”

“Where?”

Meanwhile, far off to Fluttershy’s right, something appeared deep within the ocean. The object rapidly moved toward an unaware Fluttershy as it made its way to the ocean’s surface. It had almost reached the ocean’s surface when Celestia saw the object. She took control of the power of flight and pulled Fluttershy back just as the object emerged from the seas.

“Eep!” Fluttershy’s flinched as the object, a massive blue nautical vessel, launched itself out of the ocean and toward her. Her wings fought against the power of flight to reflexively snap shut at her sides, but Celestia firmly maintained control and kept her in flight. After hanging in the air for a few moments, the vessel landed in sea again and sped off. Four Syrens flew in pursuit of the vessel. “Was that the ship?”

“Yes, and it’s moving very fast,” Celestia said. “Stay on it!”

The power of flight picked up again and Fluttershy accelerated in pursuit of the ship. The ship had just about disappeared beyond the horizon formed by the Galactic Sea, but Fluttershy was now gaining on it. She quickly caught up to the three Syrens and shot them down, along with four Gyrazors and six Monoeyes that were also pursuing the ship. Several more enemies, mostly Monoeyes and Syrens, appeared along the way, though most of them were too busy chasing after the space pirates to notice her, making it easy for her to shoot them down as well.

Before long, Fluttershy was able to spot the ship off in the distance. Underworld troops were surrounding the ship, though a group of Commylooses broke off from the rest of them and leaped out of the sea to attack Fluttershy. Fluttershy fired at the Commylooses with her claws, occasionally having to shoot down a missile that one of them launched at her. “I think I see the ship!” she said.

“It’s under attack by Underworld forces,” Celestia said. “That means the treasures are still on board.”

Fluttershy flew closer to the pirate vessel. As she approached it, she could see a multitude of lasers being fired at the Underworld soldiers from its port and starboard sides. “Maybe if we help defend the ship, they’ll just give us the Three Sacred Treasures.”

“I don’t think they’ll be so accommodating,” Celestia said. “Plus, just think how lonely the sky would be without constellations. Don’t hold back!” She guided Fluttershy portside of the ship, maneuvering her through the ship’s laser cannon fire. Fluttershy slashed at five Komaytos with her claws before flying ahead of the ship. Two Gyrazors pelted her with a barrage of needlelike shots, but she managed to swerve away from them and take them out.

Meanwhile, the pirate vessel dipped briefly before launching out of the ocean. Fluttershy got one look at the ship when it lunged at her. “Eep!” She flinched again as the ship loomed directly over her, but Celestia pulled her away from it and brought her next to its starboard side.

“I’m looking for an entrance,” Celestia said. “Hold on.” She maneuvered Fluttershy around the ship’s stern and back to its portside. They both scanned the side of the vessel. Fluttershy dodged the barrage from its cannons as she flew around the ship and ahead of it. A group of Shrips noticed her and flew toward her, spinning their bladed heads as they went. Fluttershy fired at them one by one while Celestia guided her back around the ship’s starboard, over its deck, and near its portside. “Found one! Get ready to go in!” Channeling her magic into the power of flight, Celestia sent Fluttershy flying toward the back of the ship’s hull and crashing straight into its interior.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy crashed through the ceiling of one of the rooms in the ship and hit the ground with a hard thud. Smoke rose from her wings and hoofs for a second as she lay on the ground. After a while, she picked herself up and managed to stand up on her hooves again, the talons on her Hedgehog Claws having retracted to let her stand on her front hooves. “Not that I’m complaining or anything,” she groaned, “but could you please be a little gentler next time?” Her head ached after smashing her way into the ship, and she lifted a hoof to her temple.

“Sorry about that…” Celestia said. “Are you alright?” After a while, Fluttershy shook herself off and found the door leading out of the room. As she moved to the next room, a loud, masculine voice could be heard blaring throughout the halls of the ship. The voice was being broadcast through the ship’s intercom, and was boisterously and rather obnoxiously trying to rally the ship’s crew to fight back against its attackers.

Fluttershy made her way her way to the next room, which appeared spacious enough to be a meeting area. Two stout, bipedal creatures, one wearing yellow armor while the other wore blue, were already in the room, and Fluttershy’s entrance caught their attention. “So those are the space pirates?” she asked, backing away as some of them approached her.

“I must admit, I wasn’t expecting them to look so cartoonish,” Celestia mused. “The space pirates in Metroid Prime are far more intimidating.” One of the pirates wearing yellow armor curled into a ball and rolled itself at Fluttershy. It tossed her into the air on impact and kicked her across the room. “Then again, they appear to be tougher than some of the Underworld forces. Be careful.”

Another pirate, this one wearing blue armor and with a rifle attached to its arm, fired at Fluttershy in a scattershot pattern. Fluttershy rolled away from the Pirate Sniper’s fire and got back on her hooves. She aimed her right claw at the yellow-armored Space Pirate, who was now running toward her, and jumped back while firing a charge shot at it. The charge shot, consisting of several long needles, pierced through the pirate’s armor and body, killing it instantly. Fluttershy turned back to the Pirate Sniper, who was now lying prone on the ground with its gun pointed at her. She sidestepped when it fired a beam at her, galloped toward it and quickly killed it with another charge shot.

Fluttershy left the room and made her way through the next hallway. She turned left at a corner, but found another pirate waiting for her at the end. The pirate, wearing green armor and a grenade launcher on its arm, took aim at her. Fluttershy stepped back nervously, eventually running back when the Pirate Commando fired a grenade at her. She was well outside the grenade’s blast radius when it exploded, and once the explosion subsided, she galloped toward the pirate. Her legs felt remarkable light and nimble, and she was surprised to reach the pirate so quickly before slashing through it with her right claw.

“Wow, I’ve never run this fast before,” Fluttershy said.

“Different weapon types can make you move faster or slower,” Celestia said. “Claws, for example, allow for the quickest movement of any weapon type. They’re primarily designed for those who favor fast attacks and movement.”

Fluttershy looked down at the brown pair of claws she had as she galloped along. “Well now that you mention it, I am feeling a bit more energetic too.”

“Right now, you’re wearing the Hedgehog Claws,” Celestia said. “Even among claws, they feature quicker movement, firing rate, and charge time. Apparently, they were inspired by hedgehogs.”

“But hedgehogs aren’t normally very fast creatures,” Fluttershy said. “If that’s true, then maybe these claws should have been blue instead.”

The next room Fluttershy entered was dark. There was no lighting inside, though the captain could still be heard shouting over the intercom, and the room was illuminated only by the glow inside a large glass tank in the center of the room. “This is the generator room,” Celestia said. She closely examined the tank and the glow inside it. “This is where energy from the Galactic Sea is converted to propulsive power. As long as the ship remains in the Galactic Sea, it can run indefinitely.”

“Should we try to shut it down?” Fluttershy asked.

“No, that’s not what we came here to do,” Celestia said. “Just be careful while you’re in here. One false move in here and the explosion will be enormous.”

“Sounds painful…”

Three pirates were also in the room, presumably either to guard the generator room or maintain it. Two of them, a Sniper and a Commando, aimed at Fluttershy when she walked into the room, but she was standing close to the tank and neither one fired at her. Fluttershy fired a charge shot, taking out both of them, but didn’t notice the third one before it charged at her and punched her to the ground. The pirate then curled up into a ball and tried to run her down, but she managed to roll out of the way. As soon as she stood back up, Fluttershy looked at the Space Pirate. This one’s armor was yellow, and just like the last one she saw with yellow armor, this one was unarmed and favored close combat. Fluttershy took out the Space Pirate with a charge shot and finally left the generator room.

Fluttershy made her way through the next hallway and entered another dimly lit room in the ship. Up above, walkways had been installed that spanned the second and third levels of the room. Dozens of giant, ornate glass orbs were scattered and piled around. The glass orbs gave off a yellow light, providing the only illumination for the entire room.

“Oh, I see,” Celestia said.

“See what?” Fluttershy asked. Off to one end of the room, a Pirate Commando and an Underworld Snowman were fighting each other. The Snowman was on the verge of attacking when the Commando launched a grenade at it. The grenade flew over the Snowman’s blast of frigid air, destroying the Snowman in its explosion while the Commando was frozen solid.

“This must be a storage vault for the stolen constellations,” Celestia said. “They’ve all been compressed for easy transport.”

“And what about the Three Sacred Treasures?”

“Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be here,” Celestia said. “I wonder if the pirate captain has them.”

“But those are our weapons against Nightmare Moon!” Fluttershy said. “If the captain’s wearing them…”

“You’re right, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “This makes our current situation increasingly dire.”

After shattering the frozen Commando, Fluttershy noticed a jump pad on the ground. She stepped onto the jump pad, which catapulted her onto the second-level walkway, and continued along. At the end of the walkway, she noticed another door at the bottom of the room. This door had several constellations stockpiled around it, blocking it off from the rest of the bottom level, but she was able to jump down and walk through it. The next room was very small, with only a shaft of blue light inside, and when Fluttershy walked into it, she found herself standing in another Zodiac Chamber.

“Hmm, of all the places to find a Zodiac Chamber…” Celestia mused. At the end of the chamber, Fluttershy found the Cancer Claws, a pair of weapons modeled after crab claws and designed to fit like gloves. Once Celestia took them for her, Fluttershy returned to the storage vault. The pirate captain continued to blare over the intercom as Fluttershy found another jump pad to bring her back to the second-level, and then a third one to bring her to the third level.

Fluttershy reached the door at the end of the third-level walkway, only to find herself looking out over the Galactic Sea when the door opened. She stepped out onto a pathway that extended outside the ship’s starboard side. Fluttershy gazed in awe at the scenery around her as she walked along the platform, making her way to another door leading back into the ship. Beneath her, the vessel cut through the oceans as it sailed through the Galactic Sea. Thousands of tiny stars twinkled in the distance. Adding the image of the fantastical ship she was on, Fluttershy imagined this view on a postcard before walking back into the ship.

Stepping back inside, Fluttershy entered another corridor within the pirate ship. There was a door directly in front of her, and the rest of the corridor continued to her right. On the other side of the first door, she found a warm, comfortable pool of water in the center of the room. She smiled and breathed in deeply, taking in the warm, moist air within the room. However, a Pirate Commando was already lounging in the pool of warm water, and her smile disappeared when she noticed the pirate.

“It looks like you found the ship’s hot spring,” Celestia said. “Unfortunately, someone else made it here before you.”

“In that case, I should probably go.”

“Are you sure? There’s probably room for one more in there.”

“No,” Fluttershy said, turning the leave the room. “I wouldn’t want to impose.” She walked back into the hallway and continued to search the ship. “That was really more a hot tub, wasn’t it? You can’t really have a natural spring inside a ship.”

“That’s a valid point, but the game refers to all of them as hot springs,” Celestia said. “But back to the matter at hoof. I’ve set up a pair of grind rails for you outside the ship.”

Fluttershy reached a door at the end of the hallway. The door led outside, and there were two parallel rails of light beginning just outside the doorway. She hopped onto the rails, allowing their magic to carry her across them. “Where do they lead to?”

“I’m very limited in where and how I can place grind rails, but they should lead to the ship’s control room,” Celestia said. “I think that’s where we’ll find the Three Sacred Treasures and the pirate captain.”

The rails carried Fluttershy around the ship’s bow and over its decks. Fluttershy continued along the rails, shooting at several Miks as they stopped attacking the ship to pursue her. Surprisingly, she didn’t see any laser fire from the ship’s side cannons as the rails brought her around the stern. Not many Underworld monsters were outside the ship either. Most of them had likely been killed during the attack, but she expected a few of them to be in the ship now, attacking from the inside.

The grind rails finally reached a door leading back into the ship, and Fluttershy jumped off of them and into the control room. Two Pirate Commandos were fending off a Tortolunk. Both pirates fired missiles at it, but the Tortolunk flipped over and started spinning on its shell. The missiles exploded on impact, but did very little to the Tortolunk as it spun into the Commandos, throwing them across the room in different directions. Fluttershy took the opportunity to finish off both pirates with a few shots. She then turned back to the Tortolunk, which had fallen over on its side, and ran toward it. She slashed it with one claw, then the other, then spun around to kick it with her hind legs, and finished it off with a slash from each claw.

Fluttershy continued onto the next room, where two Pirate Snipers were fighting a Clubberskull. The Clubberskull’s seal had already been broken, and despite the fire from the two Snipers, the Underworld juggernaut was making its way toward them. Fluttershy lifted a foreleg at it and fired a barrage of talons from her claw. Neither pirate was going to survive, nor did she expect them to, but she did expect the Clubberskull to start attacking her once it was done with them. It spun its arms into the Snipers, crushing one of them against the wall while fatally slamming the other one across the room. The Clubberskull then turned around to face Fluttershy, who was still firing at it. It showed no sign of fatigue as it charged toward her, each step pounding against the floor. Fluttershy’s heart pounded as she backed away from it, eventually backing up against a wall.

The Clubberskull was within a few feet of Fluttershy before it finally stopped in its tracks. The monster collapsed to the ground, finally succumbing to the damage it had taken. Fluttershy remained huddled against the wall, breathing heavily as the Clubberskull’s remains vanished and the room was clear. She took a moment to compose herself, and after a while, she felt calmer and ready to continue. The pirate captain yelled over the intercom again as Fluttershy started toward the end of the room. Past the next door, there was a small platform in the ground, big enough for her to stand on.

“This elevator will take you to the pirate captain,” Celestia said. Once Fluttershy stepped onto the platform, it rose out of the ground and toward a hole in the ceiling.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy stepped off of the elevator and onto the deck of the pirate ship. The pirate captain, a large minotaur with a silver nose ring, was shouting once more over the intercom to his crew. “Come on, pirates!” he shouted. “Iron Will shaped you up to be marauders of the Galactic Sea, not so you could be marauded!” He noticed Fluttershy step onto the deck and focused his rant on her. “And you! How dare you raid Iron Will’s ship and attack his pirates! If you don’t turn flank, I’ll make you walk the space plank!”

Fluttershy took a step back and started to look around nervously. Apart from the minotaur, the only other thing she saw on the deck was a large rectangular case. The Three Sacred Treasures were most likely inside it, but the case was being kept right beside the minotaur, meaning that Fluttershy would have to get past him first. “Oh no, not the space plank,” she murmured.

Suddenly, the entire ship started to shake. Fluttershy and the pirate captain stumbled for a moment and started looking around, both uncertain of what was causing the ship to shake. Four red tentacles emerged from around the ship’s sides and towered over the deck. One tentacle reached onto the deck and grabbed the pirate captain, lifting him off of the ship. The tentacle tossed him into the air and into the waiting mouth of a giant cephalopod. After swallowing the pirate captain whole, the cephalopod peered over the ship’s deck at Fluttershy.

“What the—” Fluttershy said. “What’s an Octorok doing in a Kid Icarus game?”

“That’s a space kraken, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “The Galactic Sea is home to all sorts of creatures.”

The kraken lowered its head behind the side of the ship, but kept its tentacles in place to attack Fluttershy. “So it’s not affiliated at all with the Underworld Army?” Fluttershy asked.

“No, but you still need to do something about those tentacles,” Celestia said. Fluttershy sidestepped when one tentacle lunged at her. Another tentacle slammed onto the deck, and Fluttershy ran to avoid it. “Although, when prepared correctly, octopus is actually quite delicious.”

“Wait, you’re a pony,” Fluttershy said. “Since when do you eat seafood?”

“Just kidding.”

Fluttershy groaned and did a facehoof. Another tentacle slammed onto the ship’s deck. Fluttershy avoided it and looked around. The other three tentacles were still poised to attack her while the fourth one lifted itself back up, but Fluttershy noticed one other thing still nearby. The rectangular case still stood at one end of the deck, untouched after the minotaur was eaten by the space kraken. “The Three Sacred Treasures are in that box, right?” she asked. “Couldn’t we just take it and leave?”

“Well, that would make sense, but I think the readers are expecting some form of boss fight, and…” Celestia paused for a moment. “On second thought, you’re right. Take the box and I’ll extract you.”

Fluttershy galloped toward the case, leaping over a tentacle that swung over the deck to grab her. A yellow beam of light shone down on the case, lifting it just off the ground. Within the next few seconds, Fluttershy reached the case containing the Three Sacred Treasures and Celestia extracted both of them, leaving the kraken alone with the space pirate vessel.

Comments

[Slippy]

Okay, so when I made that comment about how the Hewdraw could've been the CMC, but you said that you already had plans for Apple Bloom? I finally got it... Apple Bloom is the little girl from Chapter 18, isn't she?

But aside, great chapter. Can't wait for more!

[Phazon]

1929915 Well, I could have made it any earth pony filly (like Twist), but when you've got the little girl, the dog, and Magnus in there, it seems somewhat appropriate to get the Apple family in there. Though I can't help but wonder when that would have come to mind in the midst of the dozen video game references, a bunch of Fridge Logic (including one bit of fridge logic that led to the omission of this chapter's boss fight), an early mention of the Wish Seed (which serves a minor storytelling purpose, by the way), and the introduction of the Scoota-count.

There are however a number of casting decisions for the later chapters that I intend to keep secret, and as such, I won't be entertaining any speculation on who plays those roles. Other than that, next chapter's going to be a while. I first want to work on the next chapter of another story I'm working on. Not only that, but due to the nature of the next chapter, it's going to be longer than any of the others.

[Ulti Shadow Lord]

1933781Yes, the Apple Family does sound like a good idea. The black lines over your comment are useless! Mwahahahaha! Oh, and in the chapter when you're Dark Shy, have the reborn Chrysalis be Cadence. It would make sense! Yeah! Random exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!