Star Wars, Episode Pony: Friendship is Magic

by Kendallonian

Chapter 6

Everfree II was a barren, unforgiving place; even more so than the deserts around Mos Poni. It’s atmosphere glowed an incandescent red when it caught the light from the nearby binary stars, and the surface, when it was visible under the perpetual roiling clouds at least, was spiderwebbed with glowing orange cracks that continually oozed lava onto the planet’s blackened surface.

Twilight decided she had never felt less welcome anywhere else in the galaxy.

“Soo… where’s this old temple supposed to be?” Rainbow asked as she steered the ship closer.

Twilight looked to Fluttershy.

“Well?”

Fluttershy fidgeted with her forehooves.

“I, um… I dunno. I read that book a long time ago… and I’m not sure if it was that specific. Can’t you just… find it from orbit?”

“Normally, maybe.” Rainbow said. “But the atmosphere is so thick I can’t see anything from up here!”

“We might just have to get beneath the cloud layer.” Twilight pondered aloud. “It’ll take longer, but we should be able to find the temple before any more Sith troops can track us here.”

Applejack eyed the planet’s roiling atmosphere warily.

“I’m not sure we should try it.” she said. “Them clouds don’t look too safe.”

Rainbow dash let out a raspberry. “Clouds? You gotta do better than that to scare me.” Then she pushed the ship into a dive

“It might be dangerous…” Twilight said, “But we have to go down to the surface sometime, right?”

Applejack didn’t have a rebuttal, so Rainbow Dash continued their descent, pushing into the center of a crimson-painted cloud, the inside of which was almost entirely opaque. Dash quickly flipped a switch to turn on the forward lights, which revealed little other than a seemingly endless maroon fog.

“Oh dear…” came Rarity’s voice.

“Mmmm…. Looks like red velvet!” Pinkie said as she smacked her lips.

After that, the cockpit became eerily silent as Rainbow concentrated on the abyss before her. After a few uneventful moments, everypony was shocked awake by Rainbow’s voice.

“Oh yeah. This is cake.”

In the next moment, a flash of lightning coursed across the window, lighting the entirety of the cloud’s interior with blood-red light.

Pinkie gasped, seemingly taking in more air than any pair of pony lungs could contain. “What have you done, Dashie?!”.

“What? What did I-” Rainbow began to say before feeling a pink hoof deliver a glancing blow across her head.

“You JINXED IT!” Pinkie shouted. “What have I told you about saying things like that?”

Rainbow scowled. “Pinkie, how many times have I told you-”

Rainbow was interrupted by a dark shape emerging suddenly from the fog. First came a huge jaw that was filled with needle-like teeth. Above those were two beady eyes surrounded by ridges of spiked scales. Then, extending out behind the head was a long, snake-like body sporting seemingly hundreds of pairs of insect-like wings that undulated in waves across its length.

Everypony screamed in unison, and Rainbow pushed her controls forward, sending the ship into a dive. In an instant, they dropped out of the cloud and into the planet’s much clearer troposphere; the downside was that as soon as they could see the barren, gray ground, they were approaching one of it’s peaks at an alarming rate.

Twilight heard a resounding grind of metal as the nightmare creature caught up with them, biting into their hull like it was a block of cheese.

“Get OFF!” Rainbow shouted. As she did, she kicked the accelerator, sending jets of flame into the creature’s jaws. A wail of pain and an increase in velocity a moment later signaled that the thing had let go, allowing Rainbow to maneuver freely again. As she pulled up, however, the ship continued to approach the ground at a rate that made Twilight all too uncomfortable.

“We’re not gonna make it!” Rainbow shouted. “I’m pulling out the landing gear! Brace for impact!”

The gray, glassy surface beneath them began to slow it’s ascent as Rainbow pulled into a glide that was roughly parallel to the planet’s gravity. Just as Twilight was beginning to think that they might pull out of their dive after all, the ship lurched beneath them as it glazed off of a stray boulder. After that Rainbow dash could only do her best to keep the ship upright as it skipped across a barren valley like a rock across a glossy black pond. After the third skip, the ship skidded across the rocky surface, finally coming to a rest up against a wall of rough shale.

In the cockpit, everypony had grabbed onto the nearest stable object; for Twilight, that meant the back of the pilot’s seat. For Pinkie, that meant Twilight’s barrel, and for Spike, that meant Pinkie’s mane. Applejack was in the copilot’s seat, holding to the edge of the control board. Fluttershy was hiding underneath Applejack, and Rarity was hanging onto the back of Applejack’s chair. Only Rainbow Dash had her eyes open, and she was still gripping the controls before her with iron hooves, breathing heavily and staring through the cockpit window at the sheer rock wall that had finally stopped them.

Twilight opened a single eye, still gritting her teeth. The lack of movement through the cockpit window encouraged her to open the other.

“Are we dead yet?” Came Fluttershy’s timid voice from below.

“Don’ think so.” Applejack answered, giving a peek of her own.

“Oh, phew!” Rarity said. “Another happy landing.”

Rainbow Dash gripped the controls tighter until Twilight thought they might snap off. When her voice came, it was low and deadly.

“What… did that STINKING WORM do to my ship!?” she said, raising her voice into a shout halfway through the sentence. Before anypony could process the sentence, she had activated the boarding ramp and flown out of the cockpit at the speed of sound. After a moment Twilight followed, who was in turn followed by everyone else.

Outside the ship, Twilight found Rainbow analysing the damage, which was extensive judging from her expression. She zipped around the exterior of her vessel, her face growing more and more distressed with every movement. Eventually, she settled down next to Twilight, her eyes staring at the gravel beneath their hooves.

“I… I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash.” Twilight said as she sat down next to the pegasus; “Do you think we’d be able to fix it?”

Rainbow gave a Sniffle and shook her head. After that, Twilight wasn’t sure what else she could say.

After a few moments of silence, Twilight began to hear a low, rumbling sound in the distance. At first Twilight guessed that it might have been some huge creature from the planet come to eat them, but the noise was far too steady to be footfalls; it sounded more like an avalanche; except that it wasn’t coming from the cliff above them, but the valley behind.

Twilight squinted here eyes, taking a hard look into the valley; it was mostly barren, but interspersed with large boulders and dead trees. Worming it’s way between these landmarks was a large, almost anvil-shaped vehicle that was easily twice the size of Rainbow’s ship. It traveled on two separate sets of heavy-duty treads, which made the heavy gravel-crunching sounds Twilight had been hearing.

“Um. Rainbow…” Twilight said. She didn’t need to say any more to get her to turn around and look. Her gaze was soon followed by that of four other ponies as they emerged from the boarding ramp one by one.

The large metallic structure continued to approach at it’s own ponderous pace until it was roughly fifty meters from the small group of ponies, at which point the treads ground to a halt and a ramp extended out of the front, allowing a cluster of short, bipedal figures to emerge. Twilight couldn’t see their faces under their cloaks, other than each one sporting an angular pair of yellow, glowing eyes. A few of the figures sported weaponry that looked vaguely like blasters, which gave Twilight pause, but none of them moved to fire. Instead, one of the group who was unarmed stepped forward and spoke.

“ikees Huist Juwir Reve?”

Twilight understood from the tone that it must have been a question, but understood nothing else. Luckily Rarity apparently understood, as she stepped forward and said;

“Ibana, Nyeta M'tuske.”

“Mob un loo?”

Twilight approached Rarity and caught her attention.

“What are they saying?” Twilight asked.

“They want to buy the ship.” Rarity said. “Probably to scrap it.”

Twilight looked over to Rainbow, who was now nervously stirring the gravel beneath her hooves. Somehow, it didn’t seem right to sell the ship so soon after they had crashed; maybe it was better to leave Rainbow some time to mourn.

“Let me talk to them.” Rarity said, sensing Rainbow’s hesitance. “We may be able to get some help if we offer something else.”

Rarity approached the tiny figures further, speaking a string of foreign words Twilight couldn’t quite follow. The small creatures seemed to welcome her, however, and soon she was in a small ring with them around a small campfire built before their crawler. They were talking like that for some time, leaving Twilight and the others in silence for a while.

“I’m sorry.” Twilight said to Rainbow after a few minutes.

“Yeah, I know.” Rainbow said; “You said that already.”

“I know that, but… I guess this is part of why I didn’t want to get anypony else involved in the first place. This is a Jedi’s problem.”

Rainbow gave a cocky grin, only somewhat tempered by her grief.

“And how far do you think you’d have gotten without us, huh?”

Twilight gave a small excuse for a chuckle. “Not far, I’ll admit. I just wish it didn't cost you all so much.”

Applejack spoke up, laying a hoof across Twilight’s shoulders. “Now, don’t you worry yourself about that none. That’s just what friends do.”

Twilight fought the urge to squirm out of Applejack’s grasp. She still wasn’t sure if she could call herself a friend to any of these ponies, especially if she wanted to retain her standing as a Jedi. It was all too confusing to think about. Luckily, in the very next moment everypony was distracted by a cheer erupting from the creatures Rarity had been negotiating with. Rarity gave a brief bow before returning to her companions.

“So… did you get anything?” Twilight asked warily.

Rarity nodded. “I asked them about a jedi temple; they said that it’s nearby and they’d be willing to take us there..”

“For what price?” Twilight asked. She hadn’t known these creatures for long, but they didn’t seem to be the sort to do much for free.

“Oh, nothing you’ll need to worry about.” Rarity said dismissively; “I’ve already taken care of it.”

Twilight chewed her lip a bit before saying. “How much did you give them?”

“Oh, not much,” Rarity said; “Just a fifty-percent cut of one of the many mining operations I’ve invested in.”

Twilight’s jaw dropped.

“A fifty-percent cut? For how long?”

Rarity gave Twilight a deadpan look. “Oh really, Twilight, it’s not that big of a deal; it’s just one cycle, anyway.”

A cycle; one entire Canterscaunt year of profits. As a Jedi, Twilight didn’t have much use for republic credits, but even she felt keenly the gaping hole this would put in Rarity’s pocketbook.

“I- I’ll pay you back. Somehow…” Twilight said, racking her brain for if the Jedi had some sort of budget she could commission credits from.

“Oh, nonsense!” Rarity said. “It’s my money and I’ll do with it what I wish, thank you very much!”

Twilight stammered for a reply. “Yeah, but- but-”

“But nothing.” Rarity said. “We’ve come too far just to stop now. Now come on! They’re waiting for us!”